Vedajyoti Ozah of Houston, Texas, has embarked upon the - Posoowa

international player. He belongs to
Jorhat but based in Delhi with his family.
His coaching improved her techniques
immensely. After her training was over,
she accompanied Mr. Saikia to Kerala
where she took part in the Junior
National Championship. Though she
could not bag any medal in this event,
she was lauded for her good
performance as a beginner. Post that,
Mr. Saikia invited her to Delhi for a
month, where he further helped her
perfect her fighting skills. In that one
month she progressed from being a
juvenile onto being a terrific fighter. He
helped her change her style of fighting
and transformed her into a player fit to
compete in nationals level
competitions.
After her return to Assam, she
participated in the National
Championship, held in Manipur, and
bagged the Bronze medal. She was then
selected for the India Camp, which
defined the happiest moment in her life,
as she was the only one to get into the
India Camp from her team. At the camp
she trained with international players
and learnt many new techniques in
Taekwondo including new fighting
styles, better tactics, importance of selfdiscipline,
etc. Post her time spent at
the India Camp, winning medals at
national events became a matter of
routine, such was the level of her
training and skill.
However, she was not happy due to one
weak point in her career– though she
had had the opportunity to participate
in the India Camp four times, she had
25
never been selected for the
International Championship. When she
didn’t get selected even after her last
India Camp, held in Bhopal, she felt
really down. After all those years of hard
work and dedication she couldn’t bear
failure any longer and considered
leaving Taekwondo. However, her old
mentor Mr. Praban Saikia helped her
and encouraged her to pursue her
promising career. He told her, “Don’t
waste your time. Do something else and
make your life.” She felt that he was
right. She accepted that she couldn’t
become a world-level player, but felt
that she could be something else.
Therefore she headed to South Korea,
to obtain higher education in the field
of Martial Arts. Now she is pursuing a
diploma course in the country, from
where Taekwondo originates. “South
Korea is a really beautiful place,” she
says. “It is a hilly area next to the sea.
Korean people are very kind and
friendly. But they have one big problem
– they only use their mother-tongue
and cannot speak other languages, not
even English!” This posed a great
problem to her at first, but now it’s no
longer a problem as she has become
fluent in Korean. She finds that Koreans
are keen on learning English too.
Another problem that she faced initially
was Korean food. She was not
accustomed to eating meat, fish and
other seafood, all boiled, without any
oil! During her first week in Korea, she
had only bread and juice, but now, she
has adjusted herself to their food
habits. “The best thing about Koreans
is that they are very punctual,” she says,
“My Korean classmates are very good
to me and very helpful too.” Her daily
class routine commences at 9 am and
ends at 3 pm, after which she and her
classmates engage in sparring (fighting)
amongst themselves from 5 pm to
7pm. Saturdays and Sundays are off and
they usually go out shopping with
friends, or sometimes they spend time
discussing with their professors. She
finds that her professors are very
kindhearted and friendly too. The head
of their Taekwondo department is Mr.
Park Jeong-Wook and the sparring
coach is Mr. Park Jae-Joon. They are
also taught English Taekwondo by Mr.
Jarom Corabte, a Canadian.
Darshanajita is not the lone Indian;
there. There are 5 other fellow students
from India and they are Rahul Sharma
from Rajasthan, and four others, Vishal
Singh, Neeraj Kumar, Zuber Beg and
Jatin Choudhary are from Delhi. She
is, however, the only girl in their group.
There’s a great deal of camaraderie
amongst the Indians too and they are
good friends and helpful to each other.
Their course would finish next year and
then they would obtain their diplomas.
Talking about her future plans, she says
“My future goal is to become part of an
institution which is strong, forwardthinking
and progressive, and where I
can fully utilize my knowledge and
experience as a coach.”
Manoj Das & Barnali Das, New Delhi
(with part editing help from Ms
Priyanka Das)
POSOOWA May 2009