Hima Das or Dhing Express rarely succumbs to emotions, but she broke down whilst standing on the winner’s deck at Tampere, Finland, when millions of eyes were on her, and the Indian national anthem played in the background. She had earned that emotion, as a grateful India saluted her led by the Hon’ble Prime Minister tweeting, “India is delighted and proud….”
Hima’s journey from the agricultural fields to triumphing over immeasurable odds by sheer dint of her own efforts to bring glory to India is an interchangeable story if only one changes the names of places and individuals from Dhing in Assam to Balali village in Bhiwani, or Mokhra village in Rohtak. As Hima said, “Both my parents were rice farmers. I could not afford shoes, but they asked me to make the best of what I have”. And she sure did make the best of what anybody could!
Besides the very illustrious athlete Neeraj Chopra, Hima Das is the only other Indian athlete to have won a Gold in the World Athletics championship. Even Neeraj Chopra had painted the reality of conditions that champions like him had to endure in the villages of India, “My village still does not have a playground. Whenever I stay there, I need to practice on a road”.