KOZHIKODE: The gold medal is hers. The dream of a safe home is still distant. For G Akshaya, who stormed to victory in the senior girls 3,000-metre race at the 68th Kerala State School Sports Meet, the triumph on the track has brought pride to her family and school, but little change to the harsh reality awaiting her in Palakkad.
Last year, when Akshaya won silver in the same event, the achievement raised hopes that her family would finally have a decent house to live in. The promise of a home brought a ray of hope to a family struggling to make ends meet in a dilapidated hut. Twelve months later, she returned to the state meet in Kozhikode, ran past her rivals and upgraded her silver to gold. Yet, the home she had hoped to return to remains elusive.
“Winning gold was a big happiness for me. I had hoped that our situation would change after last year’s medal. My teacher also encouraged me to keep working hard and told me to believe that things would get better. That gave me the motivation to push myself further,” Akshaya said.
Her family lives on a 6.5-cent plot at Kosakkuzhi, Panangattiri, in Elavancherry panchayat in a fragile, single-room hut with a thatched roof and no electricity. With barely enough room to accommodate everyone, the family often sleeps outside on cots. The space that offers little protection from the elements is also where Akshaya’s journey as a runner began, between the cots and the narrow spaces around her home.
Today, the teenager has become the family’s strongest source of hope. Her father, mother, elder sister and younger brother are all battling health problems, leaving Akshaya to shoulder the expectations of a family that has little else to depend on.
Her elder sister, Archana, once shared Akshaya’s enthusiasm for running and sport. But at 18, she was diagnosed with fluid accumulation around her heart.
Doctors at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram advised surgery. Unable to meet the expenses, the family returned home without proceeding with the treatment. Archana’s education too came to a halt as the family could not afford the daily travel expenses to school.
Their father works as a driver in Kozhikode and visits home only about once a month, trying to save enough money for his daughter’s treatment. Their mother, Soumya, 38, works on a vegetable farm to support the family. Akshaya’s younger brother, Akhil, a Class IX student, suffers from chronic asthma. Despite these difficulties, Akshaya continues to attend school and pursue athletics, determined not to let the circumstances at home dictate the limits of her future.
The price of that determination begins to show before dawn. A Plus-II student at RPMHSS, Panangattiri, she boards a bus at 4 am every morning to travel nearly 35 km to Palakkad town for training. Long journeys, financial hardship and family worries have become part of a routine that many young athletes would find difficult to sustain.
Since Akshaya lacked proper athletic shoes, she had to borrow the running spikes from a male friend to participate in the race. Her path to gold has not been without setbacks. Injuries affected her performances at the previous two state school sports meets.
This time, however, she arrived in Kozhikode in strong form and delivered the performance she had been working towards.
“She has to deal with difficulties that go far beyond athletics, but she continues to turn up for training and work towards her goal. Her determination is what stands out. This gold medal is the result of her hard work, and she deserves every bit of recognition for it,” coach Biju Vasudevan said.
