Loan repaid with World Cup cash, farmer's son targets govt job with Asian Games gold
NAGPUR: This is a tale of how an arrow landed on barren ground and fortune spouted forth. This is also the story of middle India, where sport offers sustenance, an opportunity to a better life, and where compound archery bested compound interest. Here's how.
A day after winning his maiden gold medal on his Asian Games debut, compound archer Prathamesh Jawkar, son of a farmer in Maharashtra's Buldhana, was seeing those dreams coming true. "This Asian Games gold was my main target, and this means a lot to me. Now I am eligible for a Class-1 job under the government sports quota, and will be able to help my father," said the 20-year-old about his eight-year journey as an archer and his aim of getting a government job.
In the men's compound team final at Hangzhou, Prathamesh combined with Nagpur's Ojas Deotale and experienced Abhishek Verma of Delhi to help India secure its 21st gold medal when the trio outplayed archery powerhouse South Korea 235-230. Not far, if you traversed the light years of ambition, but a thousand physical miles away if you actually stopped to measure the vast distance, in Alampur, a small village in Nandura tehsil 67-km from Buldhana district headquarters, a family was finally beginning to see a new dawn.
Prathamesh Jawkar (third from right) during a session with at Budhana
At 12, Prathamesh had accompanied his father Samadhan Jawkar to a multisport event in Buldhana. "After trying various activities at the event, I picked up the bow and arrow, and my first-ever attempt was a perfect 10. This is how I got hooked to archery," Prathsmesh said.
That was the sign, Samadhan somehow knew he had read right. To secure a future for his son, Samadhan - who tills a two-acre land and works as a daily wager in the off-season - sent Prathamesh and his mother off to Buldhana, where they lived in a one-room house.
In 2015, Prathamesh, then a Std VI student, joined archery classes under Chandrakant Ilag, a retired army and police officer, who teaches the sport on any open land in Buldhana and has produced 13 international archers till now.
"Prathamesh is from a very poor background," remembers Ilag, "His father is a small farmer who sometimes works as a labourer. Seeing his potential after he won his first national tournament at Vijayawada in 2016, I told his father to buy the required archery equipment. With a wish to see their son settled, Samadhan took a Rs two-lakh loan and bought the bow and arrows for his son."
"With the loan my father took, we were able to buy second-hand equipment," Prathamesh told TOI. "Next year, my uncle, aunty and maternal grandparents contributed to help me purchase advanced equipment. With that, I became a three-time national champion before I made my India debut."
The rest is a blur, like the arrows flying from Prathamesh's quiver. But the prize money and cash rewards are helping pay off the loan Samadhan incurred for his son, including the ballooning interest.
During a 2019 Khelo India tournament, top archers were sent to Bangladesh for a world ranking tournament at the senior Asia level. Prathamesh and other Indian juniors made their mark in Bangladesh and won team gold and mixed silver. Since then, Prathamesh started getting a scholarship of Rs 10,000 per month from the sports programme.
Prathamesh soon made his international debut and he never looked back, going on to win the World Cup silver. Earlier this year, he captured the gold at the World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai, China, and was richer by Rs 5 lakh. This enabled the Jawkar family to pay off the Rs two-lakh loan, which had swelled to Rs five lakh due to interest.
"Baba got emotional when I handed him the Rs five lakh prize money I won in Shanghai, telling him to use it to pay off the loan. He wouldn't accept it. 'We should live a burden-free life,' I told him," says Prathamesh.
Now, with the Hangzhou gold, the sky is the limit for Prathamesh, but his feet are firmly planted on the ground. It's time to build a family house now.
