Women Boxers In India: With This Ring
<cite>With This Ring</cite> is an independent documentary film by Ameesha Joshi and Anna Sarkissian. Since 2006, they’ve been tracking the Indian Women’s National Boxing Team, who are some of the best boxers in the world.
Archive of August, 2008
You could fry an egg outside right now. But on the positive side our our laundry dries super fast in the scorching sun. Its our last day in Hisar, Haryana. Tomorrow we head to the booming metropolis of Delhi.
It was only in our last few days in Hisar that we managed to get interviews that were crucial for our film. With the teams militant training regime, it leaves very little ‘off’ time in which to interview them. They train three times a day and in between their training sessions they eat, sleep and wash their clothes. Their only day off is Sunday, so we try our best to schedule an interview with them during their one day of rest.
One of our main challenges is not speaking Hindi, making it impossible to talk in depth with the boxers. So we have no choice but to try to track down an interpreter who is qualified and willing to work for free. During our last week in Hisar, we managed to find Shweta, a young woman studing Media Communication at one of the local Universities and conducted an interview with Chottu, the bronze medal world champion and Mary Kom the three time gold medal world champion.
During the interview, it’s required we turn off the fan (our only relief from the heat) and have everything quiet in order to get a clean sound recording. This definitely puts a time restraint on how long the interview can be because everyone in the room is visibly melting after 10 minutes. During the day, the temperature is often over 40 degrees Celcius. At one point we had to ask our poor interpreter to stop fanning herself with a piece of paper because of the noise it created.
But to be honest, working in conditions that are not always the easiest do end up teaching you the most. So forget about that slogan in that old deodorant commercial and I say let them see you sweat!
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anna
August 14, 2008
We left south India bright and early with the team and headed by train up to Delhi. From there, we drove five hours west into the state of Haryana. The next boxing camp was scheduled to begin in 15 days. In the meantime we were planning to visit a few boxers in their villages and get to know them as people. For the first few days, we will be staying with the head coach and his family.
The view from our berth on the Sumata Express.
A bold fashion statement by Ameesha.
Kavita is a national champion in her weight category. As soon as you become a national champion, you are pretty well guaranteed a lifelong government job as a reward. She has applied for a job with the Indian Railways.
Ameesha and I trying to get some sleep during the 34-hour train journey.
Preeti (left) is from Haryana so she was looking forward to seeing her family. She and Emily are sharing the newspaper on our bunk.
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anna
August 5, 2008
Our time in Vizag came to an end and we hopped on the train with the team. We’re now in Hisar, a small city five hours outside of Delhi in north India. But before telling you about that, we have a few photos left over from our time in Vizag.
Our passes for Port Stadium, given to us by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). We’ve been dubbed “Elec. Media.”
We went to the beach to film the boxers shadowboxing on the sand. Afterward, they played in the water. It’s a little too rough for swimming; the current is supposed to be very strong. The beach is a short minute walk from the five star Taj Hotel, which is a great place to stop off for an A/C break, not that we’ve ever done that.
More pictures…
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anna
August 4, 2008
The Hindu, a national daily, caught wind of our film shoot in Vizag and wrote a little story about our project. I love the part we say in unison. We practiced a lot.
Fierce fighters, yet so sweet
by G. Narasimha Rao
Ameesha Joshi, daughter of Indian parents who have migrated to Canada, covers a boxing championship.
Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
International boxer N. Usha and other boxers talking to Canadian team.
VISAKHAPATNAM: When she saw photographs of Indian women boxers at a World press photo expo in Montreal in 2005, Ameesha Joshi felt that the boxers and their game was the subject for a documentary she and her classmates have to produce.
Ameesha, daughter of Indian parents who have migrated to Canada, Anna Sarkissian and Emily Gan, who have all done Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Concordia University in Montreal, landed in Delhi one month ago to cover a boxing championship and then followed the top Indian woman boxer M.C. Merry Kom to her native place in Manipur, visited Mumbai and are following the senior Indian women’s boxing camp being held here for the last one month.
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anna
August 2, 2008
The Senior National Training Camp for women’s boxing took place at Port Stadium in Visakhapatnam, A.P., which is in south India, on the east coast. It’s a beach town and Port Stadium is a lush oasis. It’s full of idyllic paths lined with palms and other tropical plants. Beautiful. There were 35 athletes at the camp, which lasted about 25 days. After a two-week break, the next camp will convene in Hisar, Haryana, which is five hours from Delhi in northern India.
The boxers trained two to three times a day, six days a week. The midday sessions were indoors to beat the heat. The indoor stadium was a steambath of its own.
Dozens more photos below:
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