MUMBAI: Kailash Mishra couldn't hold back his tears after daughter Aishwarya Mishra took to the podium to collect her 4x400m relay silver at the Asian Games in Hangzhou a few days back.
"I cried for almost 15 minutes," says Mishra before pausing as memories of the sacrifices the family made flashed by. The 56-year-old vegetable vendor had to go through a lot of hardships to support his daughter's dream of eking out a career in athletics.
"Over the years we have sold off a small piece of land back in UP. I sold my room in Mira Road, also mortgaged my wife's mangalsutra, took loans from friends to make sure Aishwarya's training or studies of my other two kids didn't suffer. She has made India and Maharashtra proud. I am happy about it," says Mishra, who lives in a 10x10 room in a chawl in Dahisar in the western suburbs since the day he landed in Mumbai as a 16-year-old from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, in 1985 and did odd jobs before selling vegetables on the streets.
Aishwarya's journey in athletics started when she was in fifth grade and pocketed Rs1100 for winning a five-kilometre marathon organised by her school St Mary's, Dahisar.
"I was a district level kabaddi player and pushed Aishwarya into athletics when she showed an interest in sport," says Mishra, whose eldest son has completed BSC (Computer Science) while the youngest daughter is preparing for her NEET exam in Kota.
Aishwarya started participating in mini marathons regularly across the city, won cash prizes which would fund her training and support the family as well.
At one such marathon, she was spotted by Sumit Singh-who has been her coach since and who convinced her father that she has the potential to be a top athlete.
Mishra had a decision to make-whether to make his daughter run marathons which would continue to support the family's finances or get her to switch to track running. He chose the latter. Aishwarya was in 12th grade around that time, used to run barefoot and running with spikes was a struggle.
"If it was any other girl, she would have quit," says Aishwarya of the initial struggles. "But I battled, that's what our father taught us," she adds. Aishwarya is the second child in the family and has done her B.Com from Thakur College, Kandivli.
"It took her four months to run with spikes. She started as a middle-distance runner and used to mostly compete in 800m and 1500m. We decided to give a shot at 400m, she did immensely well and since then hasn't looked back," says Sumit, 36, who trains athletes at SAI Centre in Kandivli.
It's a risk to make an athlete switch to synthetic track, especially one who has never seen it before. Aishwarya was already 17, which is late compared to other competitors, who start at 10-11 years of age. But Sumit was willing to take the risk. Deep inside he knew that if Aishwarya fulfils her potential, she can go a long way and she didn't disappoint.
In 2018 she ran a sub-53 second race during an inter-state meet in Mumbai which caught the attention of local officials, who sent her videos to Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwalla. Impressed, he drafted her into the national camp.
Aishwarya's breakthrough moment at the national level came at the 2022 Federation Cup in Kozhikode when she clocked 51.18s-third-fastest by an Indian woman-to win the 400m. Earlier this year, she won a 400m bronze at Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok and was part of the quartet that clinched the bronze in 4x400m relay.
Aishwarya hopes that her medal in Hangzhou will land her a decent government job in Maharashtra. "I don't like seeing my dad selling vegetables till midnight at this age to fund my training. Mom also does odd jobs to support us which I don't like. Now that I have reached this stage and won a medal for the country, I hope I will be eligible for a decent job. I want to take on my family's responsibilities, contribute to my sister's studies. Clear the family debt," says Aishwarya, who also finished fourth in the 400m in Hangzhou.
At the moment, she doesn't know what the future holds and is only looking forward to meeting her family "after 32 months," as her father says.
