Bet you don't know what India's national sport is | #65
Also, the magic behind 'Matilda'
A big reveal first up - India does not have a national sport.
You might have learnt in school that India’s national sport is hockey, but in response to a 2012 RTI query - the ministry of Youth Affairs and sports responded that we don’t have an official national sport.
But hockey is something we were good at even before our existence as an independent country and this week our men and women have made us fall in love with the sport again.
This week’s newsletter is dedicated to our hockey heroes.
Things we learnt this week:
Udita Duhan has shown her versatility at the Tokyo Olympics. She has seemingly been everywhere on the pitch and if not for an unprofessional coach, she might have been lost to Handball. She looked up to her father, a handball player, but for 3 continuous days the handball coach at her school didn’t turn up. But the hockey coach did. Voila! Handball’s loss is hockey’s gain.
Sreejesh doesn’t need any PR to say he was probably India’s key player at the Olympics. But how did a Malayalee choose hockey, something not even in the top 5 sports in Kerala? Because that was the only sport where everyone was a beginner at his school. Sreejesh quickly moved up the ranks and landed in the junior national camp with a lungi. He initially only spoke Malayalam, figured communication, devoured books and became a giant wall for India.
Savita Punia was India’s other wall or shall we save Save-ita. She took up hockey on her grandfather’s insistence. But she did not like it. After being made a goalkeeper, her attitude towards the sport changed, when she learnt that her father had spent 18,000 buying the goalkeeper's outfit and said he would go to any lengths to make his daughter successful. Salute to such parents and a salute to Savita.
From IWTK, with love:
When India last won a hockey medal, the world was very different. Some things didn’t even exist like the internet. More such info here
It's been 25 years since the release of Matilda. And here is our team bringing to you how they managed the special effects.
Only in India
Films play a major role in India.. Nothing illustrates that better than a man saying the legendary dialogue from Sunny Deol in court.
Quiz Announcement
The Great India quiz is back. The 6th edition will be hosted on August 15th. A quiz about India and its great history, culture, tradition, movies, and more.
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❤️ IWTK