Ritu Phogat: The woman who has inspired me like no one ever

Every day, the sun rises and sets in the same way it has been doing so for a billion years, but each day, some of us are just able to show the rest of the world that there is something different about each sunset. Ritu is one such person who has made me realize the elegance of dreaming.

I learned about Ritu after watching the movie ‘Dangal’, which featured the stories of her two elder sisters: Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat. Both her sisters performed exceptionally at the 2010 Commonwealth Games: Geeta went up to win a gold medal and Babita a silver medal for India.

This moved me enormously, so I started learning more about the Phogat sisters. And then I came across the magical Ritu, who, with her endurance, has inspired me like no one has ever done before.

Ritu, like her five other sisters, started with a career in wrestling. In 2016, she won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games; became the most expensive female wrestler in the ‘Pro Wrestling League’ in the same year; and won the silver medal in the world U-23 Wrestling championship in 2017: India’s first-ever silver in the championship.

In 2019, she switched to mixed martial arts (MMA) and is displaying her talent on the world stage, and of course, representing her country wherever she goes.

But what uplifted me the most was her story: one which features the fiercest of the struggles in life.

I have realized that nothing is ever too big to dream. I mean I just knew about that phrase but was never actually sure if it even meant anything to me. Ritu has now turned it into something alive, something more achievable, and now I feel the deep flow of energy inside of me each time I take a new breath.

She was just an ordinary girl who started working hard with her father at only 7 years of age; training for more than six hours per day; with the dream to represent her country and make everyone proud, which she inevitably did.

We all seem to have had ‘big’ dreams when we were young but that slowly faded into memories of the distant past and as something that was just ‘foolish’ to think of in the first place. But not for Ritu; she was focused at each step of her life: through light and darkness; through laughter and cries; and through win and defeat.

She never lost focus or gave up hope, ever. And with that, she has reignited my hopes of achieving what I have dreamt of for a very long time.

Even while battling with herself, she still chose to pursue what she always dreamt of.

She is a warrior, her heart bleeds with fire, and her mind is filled with a hunger for new challenges, for which she is always prepared to face.

I do not know much about the world but what I know for sure is that I’m feeling truly alive right now. I can feel every breath; I can write without the fear of not being appreciated; I can dream again. Ritu, you have made all of this possible for me!

The fire inside me has started burning again and I want to do something with this ‘little’ life that we are gifted with. I want to find meaning; I want to feel happiness; I want to be inspired as much as I can.

After all, I think the universe had worked in its own ways to lead me to my light, to you Ritu.

-Yogesh Chandra