This Sultanpur Lodhi gatka chakkar queen is an inspiration for budding sportspersons

Avneet Kaur

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Sultanpur Lodhi, September 11

Gurwinder Kaur, a resident of Sultanpur Lodhi, is an inspiration for many budding women sport players. She recently got two of her records registered in the India Book of Records for spinning Gatka Chakkar 118 times in one minute on little fingers of her right and left hands and by performing rope jumping 63 times in one minute while spinning the Chakkar. The 38-year-old is now gearing up to make a few new records.

Having done a post-graduate diploma in Gatka (a traditional martial art form of Sikhs), she claims to be the only woman in the region who has won many competitions and registered a record at her age.

She said Gatka, which is historically associated with the Sikh gurus and is popular among the masses, was now being recognised as a sport nationwide. “The form which was earlier confined to gurudwaras, nagar kirtans and akharas, finds presence in the sports category and is being taught in many schools and colleges across the state and is played by trained Gatka players at the national level,” Gurwinder said.

She further claimed that she had been performing this art since she was in Class VIII and had learnt Gatka skills from her grandfather Sohan Singh who was an expert in Shastra Vidya.

“Gatka is mostly performed by boys, and in my childhood I saw my grandfather giving training to boys. It was then that I thought, if they can do it, why cannot I,” she said beaming with joy while telling this correspondent about how gatka, as a national sport, got her a college admission under the sports quota.

“I had three sisters and one brother. My brother died in 2009 and by that time I was the only daughter left who was unmarried. As the sole earner of my family died, I was shattered thinking who would take care of my old parents and two nieces (her brother’s daughters),” Gurwinder said, adding that she then decided to not get married and take care of her family till his last.

She said she then turned her passion of Gatka into a source of employment and started organising camps to teach this martial art to students.

Currently appointed as a Gatka coach at Sant Avtar Singh Yaadgari Senior Secondary School, Seechewal, Gurwinder said for the last 16 years, she had been working under environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and is giving Gatka coaching free of cost to many students in schools and over 2,000 young boys and girls have been trained by her.

Giving credit to her parents, Joginder Singh and Surinder Kaur, for all the success she has attained so far. Gurwinder said many times her neighbours asked her father to not let her play Gatka as it has no scope and shift to other sport, but the firm motivation of her parents made her see this day.