Nikhat Zareen, Women’s World Boxing Champion in the Flyweight class (52kg) has learnt many a life lesson in her dozen years in the sport and, in her own inimitable way, she has shared some of these with anyone who is prepared to overcome temptation of looking for narrow narratives and seek the bandwith to go beyond.
To begin with, the 25-year-old has not let baggage from the past weigh her down from being on her chosen journey. Fall seven times; Stand up eight. In fact, she has walked the tight rope of life with the dexterity of an acrobat juggling many porcelain cups as well and keep them intact.
In a sport which has 12 weight categories but only five of which feature in the Olympic Games and three in the Asian Games, there is an understandable scramble by the women boxers to alter their bodyweights to qualify for these prestigious multi-discipline events. She missed out on the 2018 Asian Games and the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.
She did not get the chance to present her credentials in Jakarta or in Tokyo, but she has been a wonderful ambassador for combat sport. She nursed her dreams and made one of them come alive in Istanbul with an approach that would do a chess grandmaster proud. There was no sign of destructive anger; instead, she offered plenty of evidence of aggressive intensity.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned,” The Buddha has been widely quoted as saying. With a near-Zen approach, Nikhat Zareen wisely used the fire raging in her to become a more technically sound boxer who brooked no challenge on her way to becoming World Champion.
Only four other Indians – MC Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, RL Jenny and KC Lekha – have been Women’s World Boxing Champion in their weight classes in the past. Significantly, Nikhat Zareen became only the second Indian after Mary Kom to claim a World Championship hosted outside India.
Make no mistake about it, Nikhat Zareen wanted the World crown bad. But that did not overwhelm her into making mistakes. She went about the task of securing five straight unanimous verdicts with letting patience and mindfulness to back her ability to think on her feet and express with her gloved fists.
It is not the first time that she has shown that she can train her mind to focus on the moment at hand. Back in 2019, she won a bronze in the Asian Championship in Bangkok. And last year in Istanbul, she beat World Champions Paltceva Ekaterina (Russia) and Nazym Kyzaibay (Kazakhstan) on her way to winning a bronze medal in the Bosphorus Boxing Tournament.
It was an object lesson in channeling her emotions to showcase her ringcraft. Then again, the journeys to Bangkok and Istanbul taught her that she could not afford a let up in her intensity at any stage in a tournament. After all, a bronze medal reflects a defeat in the semifinals, without being able to take a crack at the title. She learnt from the gift of ‘failure’ to persevere.
The way she asked media persons if she was trending on Twitter after the conquest of the World Championships on Thursday reveals a bright side to her personality. Despite the maturity that comes with having to deal with various challenges in the ring and outside, she has retained a child-like innocence.
Above all, she has shown a discipline that has given her the freedom to express herself. That she has returned to training within days of winning international titles at the beginning of the season is testimony to her hunger. Just as her return from shoulder injuries has been crafted with care.
The boxer who born in Nizamabad, which has no great legacy in boxing, has been a credit to all her coaches from her father Mohammed Jameel to I Venkateswara Rao and from E Chiranjeevi to Bhaskar Chandra Bhatt. She has learnt to speak up but without offending anyone’s sensibilities.
Nikhat Zareen has been boxing for more than half her life. With grace and dignity. Without being weighed down by the past. India must take pride in her soaring flight. Yes, drawing from her equanimity, fans and other stakeholders must resist the temptation to place her in some tiny pigeon-hole or the other and limit her evolution and her contribution.
Beyond the palest shadows of doubt, she has it in her to stay grounded and not get swept away by euphoria or be drowned by expectations. More than anyone else, she will know that she needs to perform to potential in the Asian Games and the Olympic Games before she can think of resting on the oars.
Indeed, she embraced grace and dignity to avoid responding to barbs from the not-so-distant past when ‘Who is Nikhat Zareen?’ flared up. She did not need to address that back then. Or now. She had a job on hand and focused on doing it. Once it was complete, she let out a celebratory and relieved scream. It was a picture postcard representing the art of letting go.
She can now get on with life, with Paris2024 to aim for. And continue learning.
Photo: Screenshot from Youtube Channel (Women’s World Boxing Championships 2022)
This piece first appeared on May 20, 2022, on FirstPost.Com at https://www.firstpost.com/sports/nikhat-zareens-learnings-continue-as-she-passes-world-championship-milestone-10696671.html