New Delhi:
Had she played a more popular game, Manisha Devi would have been endorsing products in slick television ads.
Only 21, she was a brilliant Kabaddi player and had represented India in several international events. Beginning this weekend, she would have been playing at the National Games in Ranchi.
But that was not to be.
Manisha had not told anyone about a CRPF jawan who was stalking her. The jawan, Jaswant Singh, who was posted at the stadium in Patna where Manisha practiced, accosted her on Thursday morning and shot her dead. Because she refused to share her mobile phone number.
India lost a sportsperson. Manisha's family, it's breadwinner.
The eldest sibling in a family from a small village near Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Manisha worked as a clerk at the Danapur divisional office of the Eastern Central railway. She played Kabaddi on the Railways team and had represented both Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.