Carrom queen at 83: Pune granny goes viral for her A-game | Trending
Vasanti Madhav Utturkar, an 83-year-old homemaker, is internet’s new favourite grandmother for her amazing prowess in carrom. After securing a gold in doubles and a bronze in the singles at the recent All-Magarpatta City Carrom Tournament in Pune, she has garnered a new found respect and love from youngsters across the world. Her video, from the tournament, was tweeted her 27-year-old grandson, Akshay Marathe, and has received more than 30,000 views so far. “Humne toh photo aur video aise hi le liya tha. Maine toh sapne mein nahi socha tha ki logon ko itna pasand ayega,” says Utturkar, who has had a long tryst with the game. She picked up the disc 12 years after her wedding, and often played to give company to her husband, when living in Khopoli, an industrial town in Maharashtra. “Main gents log, ladies log, sabke saath khelti thi. Competition mein jab jaati thi, toh mere husband humare 1.5 saal ke bete ke saath bahar baithke mera wait karte thay,” Utturkar shares, adding that even as a child, her father was quite supportive of her wearing shorts and playing kabaddi and kho kho. “Maine toh nationals bhi khela hai kabaddi aur kho kho mein,” she beams while telling us.
The carrom champ informs that she has also played kabaddi and kho kho, at the national level, during her younger days.
But, life happened, and she stopped playing carrom after 1978, until last year. Encouraged her neighbour, once she decided to take up the game again, everyone around her was left star-struck. “The tournament is organised every year and I found about it just last year. Magar ek match khelke dekha toh pata chala rules change ho gaye hain (itne saal mein) aur main haar gayi,” recalls Utturkar, admitting that she thoughts she had lost her “magical touch”. But her loved ones didn’t give up on her. “My neighbour, Avinash Wani enrolled my name again. And my grandson (Marathe) brought along his friends and asked me to play with them,” she says. Soon Utturkar got her mojo back and saw a smashing victory against the young bunch. “Phir maine practise kiya aur koi tension nahi li,” shares Utturkar, concluding: “Mere against 30-40 saal ke log thay match mein, that is half of my age. Par mujhe toh bas carrom khelna tha aur jeetna tha! Saath mein viral bhi ho gayi main (smiles). Isse badiya kya hoga!”Author tweets @KritiKambiriFor more stories follow Facebook and Twitter
