Who is this elderly couple playing hockey in their house?
That's the photo from Rohtak. The parents of captain of Indian hockey team Mamta Kharab--Haripal and Kamla.
The 25-year-old Mamta, on whom Chak De India's main character Komal is based.
But it has not been an easy journey for the girl and her family. She is one amongst seven siblings. Her father had to often ride up to 25 km on his bicycle along with his wife to work on fields.
Later he left the village in Sonepat and took a teacher's job in Rohtak. The family has now their own house with hockey sticks scrawled on the house.
In traditional Haryana society, it was not easy to let girls play hockey at school and college level. And when relatives and neighbours would ask Harpal to marry off his daughters, he brushed the objection aside. Harpal says, 'unko apni zindagi banaani thi'.
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