Anjum Chopra's video: Exclusive Interview Part 2 RANI RAMPAL Indian Women s Hockey Team Captain Web Series S1E8

WEB SERIES | Indian Women's Hockey Team Captain Rani Rampal | Part-2 of Exclusive Interview with Anjum Chopra on Different Strokes | Season 1, Episode 8 Meet Rani Rampal, the cart-puller's daughter who's now captaining the Indian Women's Hockey Team. Her rags-to-riches story stands out as an inspiration to millions of Indian women, especially those who aspire for sports glory. The girl who lived in a shanty till last year has gifted her parents a modern house today! A forward player in her team, Rani has played 212 international matches and 134 goals. She is considered to be one of the best women hockey players in the world. She is also well known as a striker who often doubles up as mid-fielder. She has a great fascination with Commonwealth Games (CWG). web series | sports players | indian captain | exclusive interview | indian champions | talk show | web show | chat show Rani grew up desperately poor in the small town of Shahabad, about 120 miles north of Delhi, and lived in a single storey of a house with father – a cart puller – her mother, her two brothers and their wives and children, with her uncle and his family on the floor below. Simple things were a struggle. Waking up on time for Baldev’s 5 am training sessions before school became an ordeal as the family could not afford a clock. “My mum did not sleep very much because she was worried about me being late,” says Rani. “She would get an idea of the time from looking at the sky and judge when it was 4 am to wake me up. “Once I arrived at 5.02 am, two minutes late, and Baldev was so angry that he asked me to pay a 200 rupee [£2.23] fine. My dad only made about 100 rupees per day so I couldn’t pay that. I told my mum the story and asked her for the money. She was only able to give me 100. I gave it to Baldev before training and explained the money situation but he was still angry. At the end of the training session, he gave me the 100 rupees back, and another 100 on top, and said: ‘I don’t want to take money from you, I just want to teach you discipline.’ Since that day I’ve never been late.” It helped that shortly after that episode her school ran a handwriting competition with the winner earning a small alarm clock. “My writing was terrible, but I practised and practised and I won it. So then my mother could get some rest.” There were a number of other issues. Temperatures would sometimes reach over 40 degree Celsius, so training time was limited. Shoes and sticks were too expensive and had to be borrowed from coaches and team-mates. But by then Rani had already overcome her biggest challenge, simply convincing her family to let her play sport. “When I first asked to play hockey my parents immediately refused because I was a girl,” Rani says. “Every day I cried in front of them and told them I would treat my children the same way. For three years they didn’t trust me in case I did something wrong to bring a bad name to the family. India is a male-dominated country and nobody prefers women to play sport or go out from the house. My parents are not educated, they can’t even write their own names, so it’s very difficult for them to understand about sport. I said: ‘You should give me one chance,’ but my neighbours and relatives told my parents it would bring them a bad name because I would be wearing a skirt or shorts. “Now the same people talk to my parents and always say ‘we are so proud of Rani’ and they send their kids to play hockey. My parents now say that if they made one decision in life that was good, it was to allow me to play hockey.” That decision certainly paid off. Her talent was quickly recognised and she was called up to India’s 2010 World Cup squad aged just 15. She finished the tournament as the second-highest scorer with seven goals and was unsurprisingly voted the young player of the tournament. An Arjuna Award winner Rani Rampal is ranked among the top women field hockey players in the world. Rani is one of just two current India players to have World Cup experience after the nation failed to qualify in 2014. She has been pivotal in their recent success: key goals against Italy and Japan helped India qualify for the 2016 Olympics – their first appearance since 1980 – and the Asia Cup victory last year. WATCH HER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!