mumbai on a friday evening a few weeks ago 12yearold ketaki jadhav equipped with a lethallooking bow and a quiver full of arrows with neongreen tips was striding purposefully towards three targets at the far end of lower parels kamgar maidan even when she took aim and began shooting at a target no one in the garden seemed the least perturbed after all students learning archery are a common sight in this maidan which once served as a meeting place for mill workers jadhav began learning archery three years ago after she came across a young girl practicing the sport near shivaji park her parents were initially hesitant to let her learn but relented once she promised it wouldnt affect her schoolwork her teacher swapnil parab started savarkar archery academy in 2009 at the time he had ten students today he has over a hundred parab who won a silver medal in the 20032004 national championship estimates he has taught over 250 students in mumbai many of whom are women not that he finds that surprising after all he learned archery from rashmi gandhi a national champion from rajasthan who started mumbais first archery academy in 1997 girls do better because their centre of gravity is lower boys are stronger but less stable explained parab citing indian athlete deepika kumari currently ranked second in the world as an example its not just kids who are learning this sport archery which is inextricably linked to indian epics like the mahabharata also has a number of adult enthusiasts cartoonist hemant morparia 51 took up the sport three years ago and then invested in a compound bow which has gears and a trigger and cost about rs 60000 once his technique improved he says archery facilitates a double regression it takes him back to a primitive hunter state and also helps him recall his childhood when he fashioned his own crossbow from wood and metal regnal kharat who won a silver medal in indores mayors cup became fascinated with the sport after watching archers compete in the olympics and asian games in fact the games rise in popularity can in part be attributed to kumars medal in the commonwealth games and archery being regularly televised during international sporting events according to parab there are about 50 teachers in mumbai and one other archery academy in goregaon in the last three years his students have won 250 district medals 65 state medals and 10 national medals however he insists that the true value inlearning the sport lies in attaining greater strength flexibility and patience most students begin with an indian wooden bow which along with arrows and safety guards costs only rs 4000 before graduating to an olympic recurve or compound bow just a few months ago jadhav managed to convince her parents to invest in a rs 1 lakh recurve bow named because its limbs curve it arrived on akshaya tritiya i know you might not