It’s 7:45 am on a Saturday when I drive up the barely-used road leading up to former athlete PT Usha’s Usha ScHool of Athletics (USHA). An open field converted into a 400m athletics track lies right under a hillock next to a small waterfall. It has been raining all night. The air is damp. There are puddles on the track.
Sixteen girls, nearly all in their teens, are warming up. Near the finish line of the muddy track is PT Usha in track pants and T-shirt, her stony face almost exactly the same as it was in her days as an active athlete. Usha blows a shrill whistle. Four girls who look no older than 15 begin a 200m sprint. The girls pant and gasp visibly as they reach the home stretch 100 metres away. Usha looks at her stopwatch and shouts “17, 18, 19…” [seconds].
The four girls rush past the finish line, stagger to a halt, pick up water bottles, and slowly walk along. Usha strides up to say, “Seven minutes recovery before the next 200m run.” Usha’s husband Srinivasan silently scribbles the girls’ timings on a notepad. More...
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