NAGOYA: In the most common usage of analogy, Himanshu Dhillon is a bundle of paradoxes. He pursues a sport that is completely opposite to his nature. He is like an atom made up of all kinds of charges -– positive, negative and even neutral. The yin and yang of Taoism -- aggressiveness and laziness. He was lazy and because of his laziness, he was sent to a gurukul. He fuses wrestling’s never say die attitude in his composed sport -– shooting. Aggression and calmness are a heady mix but for Himanshu, 'it's working'.
A big Virat Kohli fan, he has ambitions of emulating him in shooting. "Like he says when I leave sport, I should be remembered as not just another Himanshu but they should say that ‘we have to be like Himanshu’. I love his aggression," he said.
While in gurukul at Kundri, close to his home, he found a sport that did not need much physical activity -– shooting. Himanshu did not begin the craft with serious intentions until about five years ago after Covid. Since he was sitting idle, his father used to take him to the field to work. He found it tough, so he left that too.
Coming from a wrestling family -– his uncle represented India at the 2016 Olympics –- he was introduced to that. His parents sent him to gurukul to make him active. He found wrestling rough and physically too demanding, so he left it. "It was tough," he said.
The 21-year-old shooter said that's when he realised that farming was very tough and he was also not inclined towards studies. "I thought, well, I have sports, so let’s pursue shooting," he said.
There is the other side to him too. He is aggressive in nature, loves to watch Sunny Deol movies with action sequences; laughs and jokes a lot. Just the opposite of what his vocation shooting demands – calmness and composure.
Perhaps, it's this demeanour that propelled him to silver at the Asian Games here on Monday. This is the 10m air rifle shooter's first senior international medals.
Things were not going his way in the final until the half-way mark. He was trailing but a string of high 10s including 10.9s that lifted him into the third spot. But he was not satisfied with that. Maybe, the wrestler in him woke up. "I did not leave until the last moment," he said smiling. "I gave my all."
On the field he used to work around noon or early afternoon when the sun was bearing down. Shooting was his final refuge to escape physical labour.
On Monday, after the medal, Himanshu realised that he belongs here. "Many times, while lying on the bed, I used to feel, 'Man, what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into!?'. But now, after winning the final, it feels like: yes, it was a correct decision," he said with a hearty laugh.
What made the medal even sweeter was that it's his birthday. It was not easy for his family to support him either. "We come from a farming family and shooting is an expensive sport," he said. The family has shifted to Kaithal just for him to pursue his dream. Then they had to buy the rifle which cost around Rs 3 lakh. His father also had to borrow money from local lenders to help his cause.
Then the most crucial part came. Just like farming, the seeds had been sown but they did not know how the harvest would be. Wait and more wait. Not much of success, which led to trepidation among his parents. Every day Himanshu gets a motivational video from his father. But on Monday, his father was travelling to Dubai for work so he was yet to get the news of him winning the medal.
Himanshu recollected how his journey in shooting began quite succinctly. And he's filled with gratitude on his biggest day of his shooting career so far. "My parents were like 'let's put him into wrestling, he is well-built'," he said. "I did wrestling, but wrestling is too tough and it didn't really work out. There was a shooting range there, so I joined it. From there, step-by-step, through my parents' support and sacrifices... They left our village and moved to Kaithal with me. It feels really good that their sacrifices brought me this far, and my coach's dedication for me has borne fruit today."
If parents were one part of his support system, Himanshu showered credit on to his coach Pooja Ghatkar and sports psychologist Shivam Dwivedi.
Like all Indian shooters, he believes in the process and to keep everything simple. The shooter from Haryana had won the junior Asian Championships title before this one. Despite that, he had many challenges to overcome. He had to control his aggression and channelize it. That is where Dwivedi has made a massive difference for him. "I used to get very aggressive whenever my shots were not landing," he said. "But over time, I developed that (control) within my shooting — analyzing why and how they weren't hitting — and turned it into my strength and also decided to play aggressively rather than react aggressively. My psychologist helped me immensely in maintaining that aggressive approach."
With both the mind and body relaxed after two silver medals on the day, Himanshu will now be looking to wind down before aiming for bigger prizes in the future.
