Three days after his 23-year-old daughter Sakshi Malik created history and ended India’s medal drought at the Rio Olympics, Sukhbir Malik was making his usual route between Rohtak and Nangloi aboard a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus.
Mr. Malik, a conductor, said he has religiously followed the same routine day in and day out for over a decade in his 23-year-long employment with the public transporter. His only other engagement: taking care of Ms. Sakshi’s training and nutritional needs ever since she started training at 12.
‘No compromise’
“There is and can be no compromise with duty (timings) but I always made it a point to be physically available to take over from my wife when it came to Sakshi’s training and nutrition,” Mr. Malik said, almost shrieking to be heard over the phone as a loud horn blared in the background.
“One of us was always there for her in addition to her coach Ishwar Dahiya and Sakshi has rewarded us in more ways than one... she has brought glory not just to her parents and her coach but out entire village in one stroke... it’s surreal and much more than we had prayed for,” Mr. Malik said, adding that the trio’s combined efforts had always been aimed at ensuring that Ms. Sakshi’s gender never got in the way of her ambition.
Mr. Malik said Ms. Sakshi got the inspiration to enter the domain of freestyle wrestling from her wrestler grandfather Badlu Ram Malik. For years, Mr. Malik has been waking up as early as 4.30 a.m. to ensure that Ms. Sakshi reaches the local akhara by 5.30 a.m. From there he goes straight to work, boards the bus and spends his day on it. By 5.30 p.m. he is back at the akhara to take his daughter home.
As fate would have it, around 4.30 a.m. on August 18, Mr. Malik was struggling to fight back tears of joy as he saw his only child ascend the podium and become the first woman wrestler from India to win an Olympic medal.
“Our entire village was watching TV at our house and congratulations and complements started going around as soon as she was declared the winner, but I couldn’t utter a word till I heard her voice,” Mr. Malik recalled.
‘Broke into a dance’
“Sure as I was of it happening, Sakshi told the Indian officials that she needed to talk to me immediately and called me over the phone... I was so overwhelmed with joy that I still couldn’t bring myself to talk. As soon as she said “Papa...” I broke into a dance and kept dancing to the dhol. They (his family) had to pull me away and struggle to sit still,” Mr. Malik said.
An asthmatic, Mr. Malik said he had been mulling retirement from the DTC for sometime on health grounds, but her daughter’s success has now helped bring about a better professional opportunity for him.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who visited Mr. Malik at his residence on Saturday, announced he was being promoted in addition to a cash reward of Rs. 1 crore for Sakshi from the Delhi government.
“There were rumours that I had resigned after she won, but that’s not true. Mr. Sisodia came to my house this morning (Saturday) and announced I had been promoted to an inspector in the DTC. I will continue to serve (the DTC) till the best of my ability for as long as I possibly can,” Mr. Malik said.
