P Gururaja matched his personal best of 249kg. (Source: PTI)
Struggling with his attempts at the weightlifting hall in NIS, Patiala, last month during the camp, P Gururaja playfully rattled out a popular Rajnikanth dialogue: “Late aa vanthalum, latest aa varuven (even if I come late, I’ll come fashionably late).” After hiccups in his first two attempts, he arrived fashionably late in Gold Coast, too, claiming silver, thus symbolising his life and career in its entirety.
His first two attempts in clean and jerk went awry, and were declared invalid. His medal hopes were on the brink. Perhaps sensing his nerves, coach Vijay Sharma went beside him and reminded him how much his career and life hinged on a medal. Not that he needed any reminders. The son of a truck-driver-turned-auto-driver in Kundapura, a coastal town in southern Karnataka, who grew up with seven siblings, tried his hand at several sports, didn’t have money to even buy supplements in his college days, Gururaja knew the relevance of a medal and how it could dramatically change his life. “I remembered my family and country,” he said. And also that at 28, he knew there wouldn’t too many opportunities coming his way if he messed up in the Gold Coast.
He regained his focus and channelised all his pent-up nervous energy to produce a superlative effort, that would eventually fetch him a silver medal, made special by that it was the country’s first. Even before leaving for the Games, he knew he could start India’s gold rush. “Someone told me that I had a great chance to win the first medal for the country. Suddenly, I felt a little nervous,” he admitted.
But then he thought of the travails his family and himself had endured to help him reach this level. “I should give something back to them, something that would change their lives. That’s my only dream. So I shouldn’t let pressure come in the way of my dream. I’ll be thinking of my family and not medals,” he had said before leaving for Australia.
Since Gururaja shot into the national fray, life has already changed for his family. An Indian Air Force air-craftsman, he is able to sustain his large family. He can fund supplements on his own. But a silver medal would bring more shine to their lives. “My father used to scold me for pursuing sports, but whenever I went back to the college hostel, he used to push a few 100 rupee notes into my shirt pocket. If I win a medal, I’ll wrap it around his neck,” he said.
The reunion with his father, though, can wait. For the former wrestler might want to watch his idol Sushil Kumar in action.