CHENNAI: As he bids farewell, Sidhartha Babu pauses and comes out with a request. “It would be great if you did not talk about my disability. That’s what I am trying to tell the world here. That if you really make up your mind to do something, then nothing else matters.” It’s hard to tell Sidhartha’s story without talking about what happened to him fifteen years ago (a motorcycle accident left him a paraplegic).
But whatever Sidhartha has done since has ensured that seven words in a bracket is all that it will get. That journey started when, after his accident, Sidhartha decided to turn his passion for shooting into a profession. Now it has paused in Chennai where he is champion in the 50 metres rifle prone category at the 9th South Zone Shooting Championships here, no doubt primed to move on to bigger and better things. “I always had an interest in guns,” Sidhartha recollects. “I think I started with an air-rifle when I was in class seven. But I was more into martial arts. Then after the accident, I started taking it more seriously.”
The story goes that Sidhartha drove all the way from his native T’puram to Idukki (a good 250km), which at that time had the state’s best shooting range. The officials there did not let him use it, refusing to believe that someone in his condition could shoot. Much back and forth later, they gave Siddhartha five shots and asked him to hit the target with at least one. Siddhartha went four better. In no time, Sidhartha was winning things, but in parashooting competitions. Then came the 2014 National Games. Sidhartha was supposed to shoot for Kerala, but at the last minute, authorities told him that they wouldn’t be able to permit use of his wheelchair due to regulations. It was then that Sidhartha decided to do away with that as well.
“Till then, I was shooting from my wheelchair, but after the National Games incident, I decided to switch to prone,” he says. “It made no sense at all. Top shooters don’t usually change even a small gun part for a year leading up to an event. And here I was, completely changing the way I shot.” What has happened in the three years since is nothing short of incredible. In 2016, Sidhartha became state champ in 50m rifle prone. Months later, he finished seventh in trials for the national team. Recognising his achievements, the Kerala government spent Rs 9 lakhs, funding a training stint for him in Russia.
And now this, champion at the South Zone meet, with a score of 592, just two short of the meet record. “Now, I want to be national champ,” Sidhartha says. “Unfortunately, going to the Olympics is out of question now that they have removed the rifle prone event. But I can still make it to the Paralympics. There is the 2018 World Cup coming up which is the qualifying event for the Paralympics and I have qualified for that by finishing eighth in US Nationals (a competition he had to participate in, because India did not offer him the same).” But first comes the national championships in December. After that, the rest of the world may well be sitting up and taking notice.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com