pace panache and precision the ball changing hands thrice rani ponytail flying flitted across the turf before passing to teammate navneet kaur who put the finishing touches at the american goalmouth in the first game of the olympic qualifiersi cried remembering the three years i spent fighting pain in my shoulder rani recalled emotions after scoring indias lone goal in the second essay that helped the team book their tokyo tickets i had told wayne i probably would never be able to hit the ball hard again so many days when the team had a break i would be in the gym working on my fitness in february he had told me i know the routine can get boring but right now we are working for just two matches the olympic qualifiers lets focus on that youll know later why weve gone through this process fight to the finishranis moves on the hockey pitch sometimes dainty often daring creating feinting powering is a throwback to her childhood in a sense where she learnt to innovate just to keep pace she was seven then having just started on her hockey journey she was told the dietary requirement was that trainees drink half a litre of milk following their early morning training sessions there were days when her father earned just rs 5 a day that wasnt enough to feed his family of five yet her mother would save 250 ml of milk for her daughter to which rani would add an equal portion of water after draining routines in the summer months rani would long to drink it cold like her friends who had a fridge in their home let alone a fridge we didnt even have electricity at home she said the sevenyearold wasnt out of ideas however she put the milk in a bottle which she placed in a bucket of water overnight it might not have been chilled but it was cold at leastwe were so poor we didnt even have a mattress all we had were a few mats which we slept on it was bad when it rained and our house was flooded our situation started hitting me harder when i played hockey when i started going to my friends houses and i saw real beds for the first time in my life we couldnt ask my father for anything because he was struggling to put food on the table rani recallson one of those days when a torrential downpour in shahabad markanda had flooded their home and they had no place to rest rani made a promise to her parents one day ill be an achiever and ill build youll a house her mother laughed holding her only daughter close my mother was always a contented person she didnt want me to dream big and end up disappointed she told me we live in a house not on the street says rani who hadnt missed the pointdespite her reticent nature captaincy came easily to rani