Book review - The Day I Became a Runner

I bumped into the author on the dance floor, at the Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF) in February 2024. Between sips of our drinks, our best dance moves and a live band thumping out the raucous Goan masala, we briefly discussed lit fests, lit agents, publishers, and book publicity. We were following each other on Insta, but this was our first meeting IRL. Since then, we exchange the required likes and hearts on our social media posts.

In early April 2024, the author DMed me with a strange request: was I interested in reading her book? If I was, send her my address and she would courier it to me. She was curious about what I thought of it. I was intimidated and a little flattered. I had seen the recommendations from India’s literary giants, Ram Guha, Anjum Hasan, Jairam Ramesh, Sonia Faleiro and Mukul Kesavan.

The book arrived a few days later. I ripped the envelope, wondered about the embossed red cover and read Guha’s praise. “One of the finest works of nonfiction I have read in years.” Opening the book, I glanced at the colour photo of the author’s running shoes and got stuck in the first chapter, “The Bengali Woman’s Running Diary.” Sohini begins with raw honesty, about how and when she started running, how it had helped her cope with grief, the finality of death, the guilt of living away from family when the end came for a beloved grandmother and how running helps with mental health. It resonated. Her writing was honest, authentic, feminist. Sohini contrasted her family history, the opportunities and choices her mother and grandmother had with other historic events across the country and the world that placed them on a timeline over the last 100 years.

First I met Mary D’Souza, an East Indian from Bandra. The scenes were familiar; having lived in Bandra at different times in my life, I was transported to another Bandra, a time with large families, only a father’s income and stretched budgets. I marvelled at Mary’s sheer talent and grit that propelled her to such heights. In the absence of modern-day technology and training, she represented India not just in running but also hockey. I had seen her mural in Panjim, and done some research to understand who she was and why she deserved such a stunning piece of street art in the state’s capital. I mention her in my book Becoming Goan - a contemporary coming home story, “Mary D’Souza Sequeira, the first Indian to represent the country in two sports at the Olympics—hockey and track and field.” But Sohini brought Mary alive in 3D with her research, interviews and writing, through her book Mary has got her rightful place in history.

PT Usha, as the book mentions, is the only Indian woman runner everyone knows. Reading this chapter, we meet a different side to Usha: a woman working for her sport and community. Sohini got past the obvious, under Usha’s skin and mine.

Santhi, Pinki and Dutee’s stories challenged popular beliefs of gender binaries, definitions of gender and inclusion that we are grappling with today. Sports is cutthroat, competition hard fought, here gender issues are sensitive and political, exaggerated by our sensationalist mainstream media.

I cried for Santhi Soundarajan as Sohini says “Santhi was found not to possess the characteristics of a woman, and stripped of her medal.” It made me go back and question my own reactions and biases to this event in history. I never thought of her as a real person, just a picture on TV. Sohini brought her struggles to life.

In the chapter on Pinki Pramanik, Sohini is brutally honest about her own questions, her struggles with her own appearance and sexuality. In that chapter she says, “At the heart of the Pinki Pramanik story, and our ravening interest in it, was her sexual anatomy. Between the police and the media, her story unfolded like a ceaseless freak show, where the curtains were never drawn.”

Same with Dutee Chand, “In the news this was bluntly and incorrectly described as failing the ‘gender test’ Several athletes in the Global South have been charged with high testosterone counts, the South African Olympic medalist Caster Semaya being the most prominent.“

I was in agony with Lalita Babar and also cheering her sheer determination not to crash out of the race but to carry on running through Sohini’s writing. “When Lalita touched ground after the water jump, her right leg combusted with white hot pain.”

The Sunrise project chapter gives readers insight into rural Maharashtra, to the village of Sagroli, the taboos for women and around HIV. Here I differed with the author on her choice of the word Marathi, she referred to the people of Maharashtra as Marathi and Shivaji as a Marathi King on page 263. For me, calling the people Maharastrian and Shivaji a Maratha King would have worked better. But these may be my own biases.

Reading each of these stories I had a knot in my stomach. Sohini built the tension these women faced. Running opened up another world and gave them hope. I felt the tears falling with every story I read. Each of them had tasted success and failure and had now slid into oblivion. I was inspired by every woman and the battles they fought on and off the field. The worst was the last Ila Mitra, a feminist, a freedom fighter, an athlete. A hero who fought for the rights of women, minorities and farmers. She was thrown in jail, raped, broken and discarded, but she never gave up. This book has brought her story to the English speaking world and demonstrated Sohini’s commitment to finding the story. The author learnt to read Bengali and was able to record this fearless woman for the history books.

The Day I Became a Runner questions opportunities for women athletes in Indian society beyond marriage, family responsibilities and stable government jobs. I felt their vulnerability, as poor Indian women with no voice. No agency. You can read this award-winning journalist’s skills as she asks tough questions, does detailed research and uses engaging storytelling. Sohini deals sensitively with the many issues we are confronted today on gender, religion, and identity. I hope Sohini will write many more books about women in India, not just the popular ones that the mainstream media and social media keep in the news.

Smiling that I found both our books placed close together at Bargain Hut bookstore in Mall De Goa