I won my first race to get a box of toffees! I was a child, returning after working in the paddy fields in my village when I met a friend carrying a box of toffees. It was the prize for winning a race at a local sports event. The next day, I too turned up at the sports meet and won a couple of events—and some of those prizewinning toffees. That was the day I decided where my future lay.

Pursuing a career in sports is especially difficult when you come from a poor farmer’s family in Assam. Worse, my father, a local-level sportsman, suddenly died when I was in Class 8 and the burden of looking after my family fell on me because I was more outgoing than my elder sister. So, while in Class 9, I took up a PT teacher’s job at the ONGC Model School in Sivasagar. The teachers in Dhai Ali Girls’ School, where I studied, were kind enough to let me adjust my job with my classes.

I used to wake up at 4 am, work in the paddy fields, take a quick bath and head for the tuition classes I took before arriving at school. After school, I’d rush to the fields to play, and then visit three homes as a private tutor, before reaching home at 9 pm.

Then, at the inter-district school meet in Dibrugarh, I discovered there were more events than just running. The same year, S N Singh, a Guwahati-based coach who came for a month to Sivasagar, introduced me to the discus throw. In 1972, I found a place in the Assam contingent of the 9th National Junior Athletics Meet in Ahmedabad—and I won a bronze, my first major medal!

Not long after that, I broke a 12-year national record at the 12th Inter-State Athletics Meet in Jaipur. My feat featured prominently in the newspapers the next morning and the discus throw became my identity as a sportsperson. My record also fetched me a job at Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway headquarters in Guwahati, but not before an officer fought with the general manager who preferred to appoint a man. I became the first woman to get an NF Railway job through the sports quota.

Those were times when the coaching and training facilities in Guwahati were abysmal and I used to cycle 10 km to and from Nehru Stadium to practise. Soon, I began winning medals at various national-level meets. However, my crowning moment came when I found a place in the Indian contingent for the 9th Asian Games in New Delhi, in 1982. Although I finished sixth, donning the Indian blazer at a major international event was a dream come true.

Over the years, I found a place in the Indian veterans’ team and started participating in the World Veterans Athletic Championships overseas. In 1988, I was appointed assistant manager of the Indian contingent at the 13th Asian Games, in Bangkok.

While my achievements fetched me several promotions until I retired as chief staff welfare inspector of NF Railway in 2013, Allah also guided me in fulfilling my responsibilities towards my siblings. While two of them have passed away, the others are well-settled. My husband, also a sportsman who played cricket for NF Railway, has given me his unstinting support throughout my sporting career, as have my in-laws.

I also run two gyms—Maligaon Fitness and Yoga School, which opened in 1995, and Nisha’s Gym and Yoga Centre, which opened in 2013 in Guwahati. At these facilities, I charge only a nominal fee because I know what it is like to be born into poverty.

Today, at 63, I know I have inspired many women to play professionally in my region, and I am proud of that. The urge for prayer and a passion for sports were instilled in me by my father. He continues to guide me even today.

—Tayabun Nisha, Guwahati

Photo: Tapati Baruah Kashyap
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
March 2017