The Queen Of The Ring

M.C. Mary Kom has already joined the haloed halls of India’s sporting legends, but the fire for another bout, another milestone burns as bright as it ever did. Now, all she needs is a plan.

- Vaibhav Raghunandan

THE FIRST TIME I met M.C. Mary Kom was at the Karnail Singh stadium in Paharganj, New Delhi. I was acting as a facilitator for a British journalist, who had come to India to write about ‘the greatest woman boxer in the world.’ With the Olympics in London, and women’s boxing the newest discipline in it—and the fact that the British offered a new hope—it seemed like the correct time to tell the first of many stories about Mary.

Mary met us at training, and spent her post-training stretch as the muse for the photographer. An hour later we were ready to leave for her hotel, a short walk away. A few metres into the walk, Mary stopped and walked into a kirana store. “Just got my hair coloured. Need to shampoo it out,” she smiled. She walked in, smiled, bought the shampoo and walked out.

This was 2010. Large pockets of India didn’t know that we housed the greatest woman boxer in the world. There were hardly any videos of Mary boxing available then, much less a movie on Netflix. It was a different time, but pretty much the same Mary.

Then, as now, she was a doting mother, missing her children. Then, as now, she would be happy to walk into a small shop to buy shampoo. Now, unlike then, she would be recognised. We can but hope.