Even among the team of 85 from their school that was selected to demonstrate silambattam for a sports day, sisters N Nagabhavani (16 and N Lakshmi Sounjanya (12) clearly stood out. From there on, there has been no looking back and the duo has also displayed such level of talent in weilding the silambam that the ancient sport has even been included in their school’s curriculum. “Bhaktavatsalam Vidyashram is the first school to have introduced silambattam as a sport and art form in Tamil Nadu. Nagabhavani and Lakshmi Sounjanya were part of a 25-member team that was trained under head coach S Ramachandran,” says a proud N Babu, physical education instructor at the school.
With a real passion for silambattam and rigorous training, the duo went on to represent Tamil Nadu and grabbed medals at the two national silambam championships at Rajapalayam and Pune and at two world championships at Nagercoil and Malaysia.
One would imagine that the long hours spent in practising silambam would get in the way of their academics. On the contrary, the sisters say that it has in fact helped them in many ways. “Practising and performing silambam has helped us manage our time better, develop clarity in thinking, concentrate on our priorities and has also instilled a great amount of confidence,” says Nagabhavani. “This has helped us perform better in school.”
But not everything has been rosy for the ambitious teenagers. “We had to spend Rs 1.2 lakh for them to represent India at the world silambam championships in Malaysia. Even though there is an All India Silambam Federation and India ended up placing second in the championships, not much assistance is given at the State level,” says N Mookambika, mother of the duo. With the early demise of her husband, Mookambika is the lone bread winner of the family. “All I wish is that they follow their passion and make it big.”