The Day I Became a Runner : A Women's History of India through the Lens of Sport

This is an extraordinary book - complex, sensitive, observant, deeply-researched, engagingly written, even funny. I'm primarily a fiction reader and the laziest, least sporty person ever, but this book swept me straight into its bloodstream - I could scarcely put it down.

"This is what the Olympic spirit is about, no? To see what excellence is, to learn from seeing it. If it were about winning, there would be only three to four countries -- America, Russia, Germany and Britain. What an Olympics that would be!" says Mary D'Souza, track and field and hockey Olympian, who took part in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. It was the first time India sent women athletes to the games.​@Sohini C's book 'The Day I Became a Runner' portrays a history of India through the lens of sportswomen. And there isn't a better time to read it than while soaking in the Paris Olympics."Women are expected to be supporting actors in the public sphere -- quiet, unobtrusive, retiring," Sohini writes.From PT Usha to Pinki Pramanik, Kamaljit Sandhu, Santhi Soundarajan, Dutee Chand and more, Sohini's book offers a glimpse into the lives and struggles of these women who won us more than a clutch of medals.They won us a new set of beliefs about women. They raised the bar. They taught us how to guard our dreams fiercely and walk like we belong.When Sohini visits Calicut, P.T Usha's home turf, and goes for a run on the beach, she has a moment of reckoning."...this is her true mark in the city -- that no one turns to look when a women runs because Usha had made it so natural".The book will leave you moved. Order your copy today!

When I started reading this book, I didn’t know what I was getting into, I thought this book would be a preachy collection of inspiring women runners of India. But Sohini Chattopadhyay delivers so much more than mere inspiration, this collection is insightful and retrospective.Split into eleven chapters, it details the journeys of nine athletes highlighting the difficulties to claim space in sports, pervasive gender bias, safety issues and various other atrocities, which a male athlete would not come across.Chattopadhyay’s compilation is comprehensive and verbose. It requires patient reading and is extraordinary for its intent. Give it a read if you are looking to discover and dive deep into the struggles of women in sports and the social norms that yet need to be worked upon.Thought-provoking and a reflection of reality.

“Athletes speak with their bodies, in kinesis.” The Day I Became A Runner binds together a personal history, the lives of key women runners from India’s storied athletic history, and a perspective on India’s women and their perceived role in the nation. It’s an astonishing range but the books wears it lightly. Almost every page has something that will give you pause. My favourite is a few lines in the Santhi Sounderajan chapter where the writer evokes watching a band of athletes pounding down on a track…

Sohini Chattopadhyay’s book The Day I became a Runner is positioned both as a sports book and a feminist document. This twin positioning itself is ambitious and a bit tricky. The book achieves a bit of both: scoring points for women’s sport and also definitely for feminism both of which will help take the book to a good distance in good time.The problem I have with this book is also two-fold. Though well written and well reported and researched, in its basic notions and theory the book flounders. Firstly the writer chooses 10 sportspersons as symbols of women sports achievers in India who led the race, so to say. But barring P.T. Usha none of them were great sports achievers. They began well, went a certain distance and fell by the wayside. Three have been included because they made it to the Olympics and the rest have been included because they did not make it to the Olympics. So what standard was used? Is missing the team to Olympics also an achievement? In India, yes. India is a mediocre sporting nation, so just making it to the Olympics itself is a big achievement and such athletes have dined out on that Olympian label for the rest of their lives.Not counting Usha, all of the profiled athletes gave up easily. Just not the quality required to become top athletes. Three of them have been profiled in this book because they failed the sex test and did not make it. Chattopadhyaya raves and rants against the global sex test used for athletes and how it has deprived these athletes of some glory. The hormone test used in many sporting events are universally accepted and it makes no sense to rave and rant without having scientific proof to counter it. Well to allow women with more than accepted average of male hormone testosterone in their bodies is unfair to other women athletes themselves most of whom have complained vociferously against such athletes with male characteristics (those born with or introduced male hormones into their bodies.) It puts women who have the accepted levels at a fair disadvantage. So where does feminism come in here?Can a cricket writer rave and rant against the ICC rule that disallows bending of the arm beyond 15 degrees while bowling? Can that writer rave and rant against the law saying that a particular bowler was born with a deformity and more than 15 degrees should be allowed only for him? How should sports rules be framed then?Secondly, most of the athletes profiled here as champions of feminism were hardly world class athletes. None of them qualified for the finals, One did not even start. None had any intention or desire to make themselves into world class athletes. Kamaljit Sandhu retired soon her only Olympics (did not qualify for finals) with no regrets. They were at best accidental athletes who were dragged to the Olympics. One of them had to go dancing with men one week before departure, to raise money for her trip.Nevertheless one hopes that the book inspires many women to take to some form of athletics. India has come a long way since the time of the most of the athletes profiled in the book. Chattopadhyay would have done well to study the lives of female athletes who were world class, their suffering, their burning desire before trying to adorn such mediocre athletes with the garlands of immortality and greatness.ends

When Ramachandra Guha, Nilanjana Roy and Mukul Kesavan all say that this is the best book about Indian women that you are likely to read this year, what more can anyone say about it other than, I concur.Prem Panicker wrote about the book on his blog. He rarely does this. Need I say more? Guaranteed to both provoke you into thinking deeply about india and the lives of women who are accomplished athletes but have been long forgotten. But it’s not a book only about women athletes and their struggles on the field. Beautifully woven into it is the story of almost every woman, including that of the author. There’s really no good reason not to read it.

Nicely researched and written book.