How watching Ramayana fuelled Aanya's archery ambitions

Bengaluru: Dreamers are different, quietly fierce and eight-year-old Aanya Verma is no exception. 

When most kids her age are learning arithmetic, she is busy calculating angles and plotting arcs in her mind while shooting an arrow to hit the bull’s-eye. 

Aanya recently took home two medals (gold and silver) at the U-10 National Archery Championships held in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh on March 23 and 24. 

She was also felicitated with Rs 10,000 each by the Karnataka Amateur Archery Association and the Karnataka Olympic Association for her marvellous feat. Overall, she has managed to bag 12 medals in the last two years after taking to the bow-and-arrow game at the age of six. 

Kids are usually not advised to watch a lot of television these days, but for Aanya, a dream was starting to take shape while watching the screen. 

“I grew up watching Ramayana and I liked how Lord Rama kept hitting the middle. I like hitting the target and I feel very happy when I do it,” Aanya told DH. 

The confidence Aanya oozes belies her age and fear holds no meaning to her. 

“I want to represent India and win an Olympic gold,” she said.  There was another side to the dreaming kid, a taste for music and dance. 

“Apart from archery, I also like dancing,” she added.

The Olympic gold statement shows that while Aanya would continue to dream, she’s also matured enough to believe that a gold for India is no easy task, and requires hard work and dedication. 

“The day starts at around 7.00 am. Aanya attends school from 8.00 am to 3.00 pm and trains in the evening. On weekends, she practices at the archery club,” Aanya’s father Ajeet, who is an engineer, said. 

All athletes – junior, senior – have a working relationship with pressure, failure and the team surrounding Aanya understands that. 

Training under the guidance of Subash and Rajesh at the Bangalore Archery Club, her team does not let fear or failure get to her. 

“We keep it very simple. We create an atmosphere just to make competition feel like playing with friends. From there, we tune her technique,” her coach, Subhash said. 

Here’s the thing with talent. The initial excitement opens doors for unreasonable expectations. However, potential only turns into performance when it is helped to spread its wings, and that’s just what Aanya’s parents.  “A lot of credit should go to her parents. Every weekend, her dad never misses to bring her to training. Aanya’s mother also supports her with daily exercise and also takes care of her usual routine and diet,” the coach added. 

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