09 August,2021 08:36 AM IST | Mumbai | Clayton Murzello
A young Mary D’Souza. Pic/Mary D’Souza Collection
It's Thursday night in Atlanta and 90-year old Mary D'Souza should have been in bed. But the Indian women's hockey team are playing their Tokyo Olympics bronze medal match against Great Britain. D'Souza is glued to her screen, sitting besides her daughter Marissa.
The Indians lose 3-4. Rani Rampal's team are in tears and D'Souza can empathise with them, albeit from afar. Marissa can sense the emotion in the ex-hockey player sitting right next to her. Correction: Former hockey player and athlete; her mum is India's first female double international.
"Mum 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 hitting.
"The game now resembles ice hockey more than the field hockey she played, which had rules similar to football," Marissa tells mid-day.com and continues, "we 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 Toscano."
D'Souza 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 high-ranking athletics official.
Interesting let, D'Souza 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 be.
D'Souza 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 1957.
Back to Friday's hockey game (Thursday night for the Atlanta residents). Marissa says: "Mum loved India's 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 hard.
"The 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 future.
These players only watched a semi final on TV and never played at a bronze-level match before. Yet, they were calm and patient. Their confidence will improve with more wins under their belt, mum assured."
Tokyo, Japan, rang a bell for D'Souza. 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: "We Indian women have always been the backbone of the Indian family and society. Our Indian women's field hockey team are great ambassadors for our country and have risen to the occasion putting their heart in every pass, stroke and hit.
"In 1953, 16 of us made history when we represented India for the first time at the International Field hockey tournament in England.(IFWHA). Field hockey only became an Olympic sport in 1980 at Moscow.
"In 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 salwar-wearing employees. But they had the right spirit. My friend Stephie D'Souza 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 members."
D'Souza is confident that there is only one way Indian women's hockey is heading. UP. Her optimism is as genuine as her wishes, which include big rewards for Rani & Co.
Has D'Souza 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 Shri.
Maybe the positive impact the Indian women's hockey team positive show is a reminder that Mary D'Souza - India's first women's double international- hasn't been rewarded completely.
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