“Born to parents who were into sports themselves, it didn’t come as a surprise when my sister and I showed inclination towards cricket. We were both enrolled for classes right as kids, though our individual journeys, moving forward, panned out a little differently for reasons we couldn’t foresee.

For one, my tryst with diabetes had accompanied me for almost the entire duration as cricket itself. I was around 13, trying to pursue my passion for the sport when my father noticed sudden changes like increased fatigue and dropping energy levels amongst a bunch of other symptoms pulling me down from delivering my best. And as a young girl, with a champion sister for a role model, there were a lot of expectations from me too, to prove my skills at every given match. Luckily though, in a subsequent visit to the doctor, we were finally able to spot a looming genetic-based diabetic condition and undertake the necessary steps at once.

It did mean jabbing injections into my body every single day but that didn’t bother me much. I was more occupied with playing and attending school whilst slowly taking care of my ailing mother, who we lost subsequently to an auto-immune condition, in 2008. What’s worse was losing my step-mom again, when I was around 2013 to stomach cancer. So it’s quite clear that our family has been through a rollercoaster all these years but what’s lesser known is the impact it’s had on us as a sister-duo, growing up way ahead of our times.

In fact, there were instances when dad and I had to lie to my elder sister, who was fully occupied in matches just so that she didn’t get distracted. It was painful for both us and her, especially when she found out eventually that our mother’s condition had deteriorated and she was gonna pass away soon. But regardless of the hurdles that were thrown her way, she stood there solid as a rock, navigating our family through it all with dignity and respect.

And seeing her grow from strength to strength, I directed my vision fully into cricket, proving my talent as a bowler. Some of my proudest moments have been in extremely crucial matches, where I was able to manoeuvre our team to victory at the very last ball. Today, with all those memorable experiences at hand, I provide my expertise as a coach to the state team, under various age groups. As for my sister, she dons the world as a part of the Indian women’s team, whilst being the best sibling one could ask for. Within our small family of three, we and our dad have the best equation and are always looking forward to silly banters. These heartful laughs and little moments are what brings us even closer as a family!”