From desert heat to icy rinks: How 3 Jodhpur sisters shattered norms to play ice hockey
Dehradun: From the blazing sands of Rajasthan's Thar desert to the icy rinks of Dehradun, three cousin sisters have carved an unlikely path into the world of ice hockey, a sport as alien to their environment as snow in Jodhpur.
Battling both the heat and entrenched gender stereotypes, Rashmi, 18, Priya, 18, and Lakshmi Bishnoi, 17, are now representing their state at the national ice hockey championship being held in Dehradun from June 8 to 17.
"We faced a lot of discouragement from relatives who believed girls shouldn't play sports, especially something like ice hockey. Some even tried to moral police us, saying girls have to wear shorts to play and so shouldn't be allowed in any sport.
But our families stood by us ever since we showed interest in sports as children," said Rashmi, captain of Rajasthan's women's ice hockey team and a BA student.
The three were previously part of the junior national field hockey team before transitioning to ice hockey just over a year ago.
Priya, who is also pursuing a BA, said, "We also play roller skating, so learning ice skating wasn't too difficult. Since we already had field hockey skills, we just had to work on balancing while skating and playing because this is a much faster game."
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The youngest, Lakshmi, said, "We now want to build our future in ice hockey, with the dream of representing India one day. The Indian women's team winning bronze at the recent Asian championship in Abu Dhabi has inspired us even more."
With no ice rinks in Rajasthan, the sisters train on inline hockey rinks for 10 months and practise on ice for two months in Gurgaon.
Vishnu, secretary of the Rajasthan Ice Hockey Association, who is accompanying the team, said, "Inline hockey players use roller skates and follow rules quite similar to ice hockey, so the transition isn't too hard. Now that Dehradun has the country's only Olympic-standard ice rink, it will be a great asset for training as the sport is slowly gaining traction in Rajasthan. Kids are drawn to it because it's part of the Winter Olympics.
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