Despite a meagre income, a city-based auto-rickshaw driver has gifted his 27-year-old daughter, who is a national-level shooter, a German-made rifle worth Rs 5 lakh, a corpus he had kept aside for her marriage.
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Mittal Gohil, daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver from Ahmedabad, has just one dream in life: she wants to represent the country in worldwide shooting competitions. Four years ago, when Mittal had first expressed her desire to learn shooting, considered as an expensive sport, he enrolled his daughter at a club where she practiced shooting with a rented rifle.
Police not only helped the family get the license but were all praise for Manilal’s efforts for his daughter.
“My father and my family has sacrificed a lot just to fulfill my expensive hobby. After getting this rifle, I will work hard to participate in global level and represent our country”, said Mittal, who was inspired to take up shooting after passing by the Ahmedabad Rifle Club once in her childhood. “In that national event, she borrowed Lajja’s high-tech rifle and won bronze, as her own rifle malfunctioned at the last moment”, Gohil said.
She developed interest in the game nearly four years ago and her desire to pursue the game got all support from the family too. That is the stigma attached to sports that would have deterred many enthusiasts to take it up. Until recently, Mittal used to borrow rifles from other shooters. “After getting this rifle I will work hard to participate in global level and represent our country”, says Mittal. She and her teammates, Goswami and Anju Sharma, bagged the bronze medal. It was clear that she had a natural aptitude for the sport when she won a bronze medal at a national championship, soon after her training began. Then the family realized that it was not possible for Mittalbahen to make advancement in her career without having a rifle to her name.
Mittal’s new rifle weighs 8 kg and to participate in any tournament, she needs to buy at least 1000 rounds.
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The only problem, it appears, is that the bullets themselves come at a great cost.
