Way to go, hockey girls: Mary D’Souza’s message from America

Itrsquos Thursday night in Atlanta and 90year old Mary DrsquoSouza should have been in bed But the Indian womenrsquos hockey team are playing their Tokyo Olympics bronze medal match against Great Britain DrsquoSouza is glued to her screen sitting besides her daughter MarissaThe Indians lose 34 Rani Rampalrsquos team are in tears and DrsquoSouza can empathise with them albeit from afar Marissa can sense the emotion in the exhockey player sitting right next to her Correction Former hockey player and athlete her mum is Indiarsquos first female double internationalMary DrsquoSouzaldquoMum was cheering and coaching She said that the game has changed so much No offsides she was surprised She said that she would have scored even more and the rules are so different from when she played more pushing of the ball less hittingldquoThe game now resembles ice hockey more than the field hockey she played which had rules similar to footballrdquo Marissa tells middaycom and continues ldquowe were very disappointed that India lost India stood fourth in the 1980 Moscow Olympics as well There were two cousins in that team Lorraine Fernandes and Margaret ToscanordquoMary DrsquoSouzalsquos daughter Marissa SequieraDrsquoSouza was part of the 100m and 200m sprints at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 She was a certainty for Melbourne 1956 but missed out with the athletic authorities deciding to send only one female athlete who happened to be the daughter of a highranking athletics officialInteresting let DrsquoSouza was in Melbourne earlier that year to represent India in a hockey tournament The sporting Australian public looked forward to seeing her compete in the Olympics as a track and field India squad member but it was not to beDSouza won a 200m bronze and a silver in the 4x100m relay at the 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi She held national records in track and field in three events 100m 200m and 80m hurdles from 1951 to 1957Back to Fridayrsquos hockey game Thursday night for the Atlanta residents Marissa says ldquoMum loved Indiarsquos comeback in the second quarter She hopes that even though they did not get a medal this experience will open other doors and the experience and confidence will carry them forward to greater success They played hard and fought hardldquoThe own goal the yellow card and green card affected them reckoned mum She thought Great Britain played a more attacking game In the first quarter India were not effective They shone in the second With this experience they will do way better in the futureThese players only watched a semi final on TV and never played at a bronzelevel match before Yet they were calm and patient Their confidence will improve with more wins under their belt mum assuredrdquoTokyo Japan rang a bell for DrsquoSouza She remembered a Japanese group of men and women coming to India in 1964 before the Tokyo Olympics and playing against the Indian team Marissa relays a message from her mother It goes like this ldquoWe Indian women have always been the backbone of the Indian family and society Our Indian womenrsquos field hockey team are great ambassadors for our country and have risen to the occasion putting their heart in every pass stroke and hitldquoIn 1953 16 of us made history when we represented India for the first time at the International Field hockey tournament in EnglandIFWHA Field hockey only became an Olympic sport in 1980 at MoscowldquoIn 1961 I was asked to start the Central Railway team There were four Railway teams that competed for the Inter Railways Nationals Most of the women in the Railway team had never played a sport in their life They were sari or salwarwearing employees But they had the right spirit My friend Stephie DrsquoSouza and I were the only ones who knew how to play hockey It is wonderful to be alive to see the Indian hockey team made up of 13 Indian Railways team membersrdquoDrsquoSouza is confident that there is only one way Indian womenrsquos hockey is heading UP Her optimism is as genuine as her wishes which include big rewards for Rani amp CoHas DrsquoSouza been aptly rewarded for her exploits on the sprint tracks and hockey fields for her country A complete answer to that question will stay in the negative unless she is awarded the Padma ShriMaybe the positive impact the Indian womenrsquos hockey team positive show is a reminder that Mary DrsquoSouza Indiarsquos first womenrsquos double international hasnrsquot been rewarded completelyAlso Read Keep all those promises