KOCHI: Inside a white circle, at the Calicut Medical College Stadium—venue for the 40th National Masters Athletics Championship—stands 77-year-old Gaurav Maa Snehlata Gulia Hooda. She is in a blue T-shirt, with the number 7507 marked in striking red and white contrast. Sunglasses and a white cap shade her from the scorching heat.
She juggles the shot in her hand, eventually stepping forward and throwing it swiftly. Unlike most athletes, she does not place the shot under her chin or do a half-turn. But she wins the gold easily. As the competitions end, Snehlatahas bagged golds in the javelin, discus throw and 400m race. Six months ago, she underwent an angioplasty. “The cardiologist did not tell me if it was alright to restart my athletic career. But I decided to go ahead,” she says.
This is not her first time in Kerala. As a Class VIII students, she visited Thiruvananthapuram to take part in the national kho-kho competition as the Punjab team captain. “I still remember the small stadium with its roof made of thatched coconut leaves,” she says.
Of course, she likes Kerala a lot. “I like the cleanliness. People are well-mannered, nature at its best. But these days it has become unbearably hot. Unlike Delhi, where I stay, Kerala has no winter,” she says.
Snehlata’s athletics career, however, is blessed with perennial summer. She has managed to fetch medals at all the competitions she has participated across India. She has also taken part in international competitions at Auckland (NZ) and Jakarta (Indonesia). “In Jakarta, I won three golds and a silver,” she says.
Snehlatha worked for 40 years as a trained graduate teacher in Delhi. Post her retirement in August 2003, she started a school called Gaurav Niketan for children of domestic workers and daily wage earners on a footpath in Gurugram. “I have 150 students aged between four and 15,” she says.
“I started with 300 students, but demonetisation sent many kids and their families back to their villages, as the city couldn’t offer them livelihoods anymore.” The children call her ‘Gaurav Ki Maa’.
This spirited athlete is also the mother of seven children — five daughters and two sons. Unfortunately, she lost her son when he was 28, and her husband passed a few years back. “There is sorrow in life, but helping the poor keeps me going,” she says.