Jigme Palden Pazo
Loved, hated, worshipped, condemned, idolised, chastised, Sania Mirza has already been through a lot more in two decades than her fellow countrymen much less her countrywomen, could hope for in a lifetime. As she turns all of 20, she presents an enigmatic picture of conflicting emotions within her country as well as in the world.
She exploded into the limelight just a few years ago as a precocious teenager sporting her trademark nose ring and T-shirts with saucy messages, so typical of youngsters of her age. From the moment she hit the headlines for her exploits on the tennis court, which no Indian woman or even a Muslim woman had come anywhere close to achieving, she was hailed as the great new hope for a country of a billion people.
Initially it was accolades all the way as she stormed from strength to strength forging new horizons in Indian women’s tennis. Among her early credits was a fourth round appearance in the Australian Open when she went down to eventual champion the then-invincible Serena Williams. But not without proving to the world what her country was desperately hoping to believe, that she was a force to reckon with and that it was only to be the beginning of an extraordinary career.
However as she progressed in her quest for unprecedented success for an Indian woman, it didn’t take long to discover that fame wasn’t a bed of roses. There were thorns aplenty and not just the usual kind of detractors and cynics expressing doubts about her true potential. Far greater criticism was unleashed from unexpected quarters when her fellow Muslims in her country raised a hue and cry about her un-Islamic appearances in the glare of the national and international media.
Religious fanatics in India made it crystal clear that the WTA-prescribed outfits for tournaments was nothing less than an affront to the basic tenets of the religion she was born into. The Koran clearly stated that no woman should expose parts of her body in public the way a female tennis player is required to by the rules of the game. The hapless teenager was caught between the devil and the deep-sea as she went to great lengths asserting her religious beliefs. However to the immense relief of a nation deprived of sporting talent of international standards, particularly among its women, she didn’t give in to the calls for covering up, which would essentially have meant putting an end to her promising career already scaling the dizzy heights of international stardom.
Barely had the controversy over her un-Islamic outfits subsided than another appeared in its place. This time round it was the South Indian community which was up in arms against her. Her crime? Allegedly having voiced support for a leading South Indian film actress who had been quoted as saying that there was nothing wrong with couples living together before marriage. An affront to India’s age old traditions, screamed protestors who went on to stage morchas across Indian cities burning effigies of the tennis starlet for apparently conforming to the anti-traditional views of a film star who until recently was being worshipped with temples built for her in the very same country.
Amid all the deafening protests, it didn’t matter in the least that the teenager unwittingly dragged into the controversy was repeatedly denying having sided with the actress being targeted. Apparently her fate had been sealed long ago when she conveniently presented an opportunity to attention-grabbers to drag an international name into their cause.
Even as all the hoopla was unfolding around the nation, India’s tennis prodigy continued making her mark where it mattered most, on the tennis courts around the world. One by one she started defeating the best names in the discipline the likes of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Martina Hingis and many of them in grand slams too. She picked up her first WTA title right here in India. Her arrival in the international tennis arena was cemented when the WTA conferred its prestigious title of Newcomer of the Year on her last year.
Through the accolades and controversies, the young girl has shown maturity far beyond her tender years. Currently her year-end ranking is at No.66, over which critics are divided in their perceptions. Having seen her rise to the top 40 in the world barely months earlier, there are those who insist she is well in her descent despite her youth. But from the perspective of an Indian tennis player or even an Indian sportsman or woman, it is undoubtedly a feat worth making more noise about than supposed blasphemous behaviour and non-traditional views. So happy birthday Sania, the best is clearly yet to come.
