JOIN USIndia U-19 star bowler owes it to her brave mother
Rohit Kumar barks a series of high-pitched orders to those around him, quite a raucous crowd by the sound of it. He wants to talk about his younger sister. Instead, he spends most of his time squawking.
“Arrey, chup raho ya niklo idhar se (keep quiet or leave this place).”
Having been deprived of a voice his entire life, Rohit is finally able to throw his around. And, he’s being listened to.
The 21-year-old isn’t entirely coherent in describing the ‘scary’ shift in attitude towards his family over the course of the last few weeks. But when it comes to paying homage to his mother Savitri Devi and ‘chhoti’, words flow with practiced ease.
Probably because if it wasn’t for the mother, neither he nor ‘chhoti’ would be where they are.
Probably because if it wasn’t for ‘chhoti’, he and his mother would still be treated like ‘kachra’ (garbage) by the insular folk of Ratai Purwa, Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
Probably because the three of them have had to only rely on, talk to and talk of for 15 years.
This overnight change in disposition is because ‘chhoti’, aka Archana Shivram Devi, became a World Cup winner for India on Sunday night.
The 18-year-old off-spinner played an integral role in India winning the inaugural edition of the Under-19 Women’s World Cup in Potchefstroom in South Africa.
Only five years ago, a not-so-timid Archana walked alongside Punam Gupta, a school coach, and arrived in Kanpur to meet Kapil Pandey.
“I told Punam I would take care of all her expenses because I saw videos of Archana, and knew this girl had something,” Pandey tells DH. “But I knew people were talking behind my back, saying really dirty things about her and her mother because no one was willing to believe that I was only doing this to promote Archana and her cricket. They believed there was more to it.”
Savitri had heard this, and worse, from the moment she enrolled Archana at an all-girls’ boarding school - Kasturba Gandhi Awasiya Balika Vidyalaya - less than 20 kilometres from home.
Savitri lost her husband - Shivram - to cancer in 2008. She lost her youngest son - Budhiman Singh - to a snakebite in 2017.
In the wake of these episodes, the community turned on her. “They used to tell her that she was responsible for the death of my father and my brother. They used to call her a witch. They would avoid walking in front of my house, and some would even spit in front of her when she would walk…,” says Rohit.
“Look at the noise they’re making at my house now!”
That wasn’t all. Savitri’s decision to send Archana to a boarding school - one made to avoid the youngster from witnessing some of the atrocities the mother had to endure every day - gave the locals more ammo. They, relatives included, were certain Savitri had sold her daughter into flesh trade, in as many words.
Little did they know that a fledging medium pacer was being tuned into becoming one of the most promising off-spinners in age-group cricket out of Uttar Pradesh.
“I asked Archana one thing when she came to the camp, it was simple,” Pandey recalls. “‘What is your ambition? If your ambition is to only play for the club tell me now so I will be easy on you. But if your ambition is to play for India, I will push you till you break.”
Archana’s answer came quickly, and Pandey pushed her as promised.
“She used to never complain about food even though she never ate anything,” says Pandey. “She would live on biscuits and water. I remember one day she fainted during a match, we took her to the hospital and the doctor said that Archana was near starvation at this point.
“Archana’s only question was if she could bowl the next day, and she did even though the doctor advised her against it,” he adds.
Pandey insists that the desire to play cricket is why she is where she is.
Rohit insists that Archana’s desire to change the lives of her family members is why she is where she is.
Either way, she has changed her own life for now. Now on to greater things, beginning with something akin to a building for a home.
“I saw her house the first time a couple of years and I started to cry,” Pandey says. “No one should live in these conditions - rats, animal feaces everywhere, mud walls, a roof with holes… they don’t even have proper mats to sleep on. And then these neighbours and relatives. How could they treat this young girl so badly and her mother like that?”
Looks like one community decimated the dignity of a family, and another - of a cricket variety - helped raise them from the dead. Literally.