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A chance visit to the shooting range in Ranchi looking for her brother thrust Arzoo Rani into lawn bowls, a sport that she, till then, had never heard about. When she first saw the sport being played, she thought it was a giant version of marbles played with coloured balls, but now, the 19-year-old happens to be among the youngest in the Indian national squad.
Arzoo, whose one constant feature is a wide grin, doesn't believe in planning her life. "I used to play in school, but that was just for a lark. Then I was selected for the national team probables. I worked hard from there without expecting much from the sport but ended up winning international medals. That encouraged me to keep playing," she says.
She is also the least experienced among the six girls in the Indian squad. "This is my first major international tournament, the others have not only participated but also won medals abroad. I am overwhelmed by the entire atmosphere at an international event," she says.
Arzoo's younger brother, Zahid Hassan, is a budding shooter who has represented Jharkhand in the National Games but continues to struggle for want of a rifle he makes do with one from the NCC camp in Ranchi. Her father is a para-teacher a kind of government employee who isn't on the rolls and is paid a monthly stipend of around Rs 3000 instead and mother an anganwadi worker. Arzoo herself first heard of lawn bowls in 2007. But the financial constraints haven't stopped her from pursuing the game.
"I had gone to the shooting range to look for my brother. There, I heard about Farzana Khan, who is also from Jharkhand and won gold in the 2007 Guwahati National Games. Lawn bowls was then a new game. When I first saw the bowling green, I thought it was like playing marbles. I have played them all my life, so I thought it would be very easy!" she laughs.
She's changed her mind about that assessment, though. "Our month-long stint in Malaysia before this tournament was an eye-opener. We saw the best facilities and the whole planning that goes into any game. We figured there's still a lot of work we have to do," she says.
Arzoo admits the affluence of other players and teams does get intimidating at times. "But then, we think about the hard work we put in and figure that since our input is nothing less than them, we might as well do our best. We can beat them, but only need more experience. For them, it is more of a recreation at clubs, for us it is a career. We need to win more, and that helps us do that extra bit against them," she says.
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