Beauty Dungdung has faced obstacles to joining the senior Indian hockey team, despite coming from a hockey-playing family.
Beauty Dungdung paused while crying. After taking a few big breaths, she smiled brightly once more and talked about the challenges her family had encountered over the years.
The 19-year-old hockey player hails from a hockey family; both her father Ambrose and grandpa Gulm Dungdung competed at the national level. She is from the village of Karangaguri in the Simdega region of Jharkhand.
Ambrose was unable to fulfill his aim of using sports to get a career in the government. Beauty was the youngest and only female of the couple’s four children after they were married to Nilima.
Hockey was taken up by the Dungdung kids at a young age. The second son, Shakti, utilized hockey to land a post in the Indian Army whereas Juwel, the oldest son, stopped playing after getting married and concentrated on his family. The third child, Sachin, plays hockey for the junior men’s team.
The Dungdung family’s youngest member, however, is the one who has advanced the furthest in the current state of affairs. As a member of the team selected to represent India at the FIH Women’s Nations Cup in Spain in December, Beauty is prepared to make her senior debut.
In my school, I first took up hockey when I was between the ages of five and six. My entire hockey-playing family supported me. My father, grandfather, and brothers were all hockey players. At first, my dadu (grandfather) taught me how to play hockey. After being selected for the team by head coach Janneke Schopman, Beauty recalled how her father always dropped her off at hockey practice on his bicycle and supported her throughout her career.
Beauty’s Humble Beginnings
Ambrose had to go to Mumbai every year in search of seasonal work because the family’s little plot of land only produced crops for one season. Even though the Dungdungs barely made ends meet, Beauty claimed that Nilima had a paralysis that made their poor financial situation even worse.
Ambrose and Nilima made sure that each of their 4 kids could pursue a hockey career in spite of their difficulties.
Beauty served as India’s vice-captain in April during the U23 5 Nations Tournament in Ireland, where she was the team’s co-leading scorer with four goals and a key contributor to the team’s second-place result. She was also honored as the competition’s top player thanks to her performances.
She has endured a lot in life, but she hasn’t buckled under the strain of supporting her family and competing for her country. She decides to embrace the pressure and grin instead.
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