EXCLUSIVE | 'Bahut dubli ho gayi ho...': What father Ram Kishan told Manu Bhaker after historic bronze

You may think they had felt what most parents would feel while watching their child compete at the Olympics the sense that you hope she wonrsquot falter that she will not lose her focus that she will bring a medalBut the truth is Ram Kishan Bhaker and Sumedha Bhaker would not have known about Manursquos historic feat had the media not come knocking at their door minutes after their daughter chronicled history at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in ParisldquoWe were not aware of it We came to know only after journalists told us that she missed her silver by 01 points What to do we donrsquot have Jio TV at home so we could not watch it liverdquo Ram Kishan told MidDay in an exclusive interviewHis joy owed to more than just parental prideThe Bhakers knew exactly how much effort it took for Manu to get to the top of a worldclass sport though neither of them will ever know what it feels like to reach the Olympic podium Perhaps after Sunday they hold a slight understandingThey have after all devoted hours of their time and more often than not nearly emptied their pockets to help Manu have the moment every athlete lives for those two or three minutes when she stood high above everyone else elusive medal around her neck as the crowd cheered onWhen Manu phoned Ram Kishan hours after earning India its first medal in Paris all he told her was to monitor the dietldquoShe spoke about missing out on the silver medal by a decimal point She said she wants to do even better in her next events and that she is only gunning for gold She was overjoyed to win a medal for the country after 12 years I said lsquoBahut dubli ho gayi ho ache se khaana kha lohrsquo you look very skinny please eat well as any other parent would say laughsrdquo he addedAlso ReadManu Bhaker rescues India from medal oblivionhellipat lastIf her historic bronzemedal feat wasnrsquot enough a poised Manu on Monday positioned herself for a second Olympic medal as she joined forces with Sarabjot Singh to secure a place in the bronze playoff of the 10m air pistol mixed team event on Tuesday Apart from this she has another shot at a medal in the womenrsquos 25m pistol if she advances past the qualification roundldquoWe are still tense about the other events The first two series were fine but she was not at her usual best in the third set today Otherwise we are very happy with the way she buckled under pressure and gave her absolute best in the 10 metres air pistol There has been a joyful atmosphere in the country ever since she wonrdquo he saidIf the weight of history was a burden it didnrsquot show on SundayBhakerrsquos initial five shots a stellar 522 was followed by a score of 501 in Series 2 bringing her total to 1003 Gradually she chipped away at the lead of Korearsquos Ye Jin Oh staying put in second place before Kim Yeji managed to close the gap by the end of the fiveshot series relegating Bhaker to third place She eventually finished with 22 shots accumulating a score of 2217 but narrowly missed out on the silverware by just 01 points in the penultimate seriesIt was the Olympian moment but with a difference It is a familiar sight to witness an Olympian overcome with tears of joy while on the podiumThis especially is true when the journey is long and arduous the pursuit of glory is fiercely ambitious and the destination remains shrouded in uncertainty rendering the entire enterprise profoundly isolatingThis is precisely why Manu stood out Her story goes above and beyond sportsAlso ReadHattrick of medals will be tough for SindhuAs the bronze medal was conferred upon her she stood composed breaking into a wide grin now and then but calmer than ever before It was apparent that she meant what she said in her later comments ldquoI thought lsquodo your thing and let it all berdquoldquoI read a lot of Gita What was going through my mind was just do what you are meant to do You cant control the outcome of your destiny In Gita Lord Krishna says to Arjun lsquoFocus on karma not on the outcome of the karmarsquordquo she told reporters Unlike Arjuna Manu on Sunday didnt have a charioteer in the form of Lord Krishna to guide her But her equanimity led her to the bulls eyeThe heartbreaking image of a distraught Manu from three years ago in Tokyo is still fresh in onersquos memory with the then coach Ronak Pandit assuming the role of solace as she wept with the disillusionment of someone who could not believe life had such a capacity for cruelty She cried at losing at bad luck at injustice at the exhaustion of effortA technical issue with her firearm had cost her six precious minutes intensifying the pressure she faced in the event Any grown individual would tear up under such circumstances and Manu was only 19 thenldquoJaspal Rana Manursquos coach has helped her immensely They both have worked hard to get here and I could sense they are up to something big in Paris in the first few months of training They synchronise perfectly just as coachathletes should As for Manu this bronze has lifted her morale and there is a lot of confidence in her right now We saw a glimpse of how she didnrsquot let Sarabjot falter when he was struggling in the mixedteam event today Manursquos medal has injected energy into the entire shooting teamrdquo he saidAfter Tokyo she had been a wreck utterly inconsolable and devastatedBut the way she dug in and became even better is the stuff of legend And here she is still pursuing perfection