Of Mirabai's journey from lifting firewood to CWG gold

Lifting more firewood than her elder brother at a tender age of 12 was normal for Mirabai Chanu during an impoverished childhood.

The wooden material that is normally gathered and used for fuel, probably fuelled her dreams too, to make it big one day.

Stories about the weightlifter being lampooned after a flop show at Rio Olympics have been done to death by now.

That she'd contemplated quitting the sport has also been well chronicled long before she produced a record-smashing performance to win the women's 48kg gold medal at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

What has not been in the public domain is this tiny tale around firewood.

Born to a poor family in Nongpok Kakching village about 20 kilometres from Imphal, the youngest among six siblings, Mirabai would go to collect firewood from a nearby hill with her brother Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, who is four years elder to her.

"One day I could not lift the bundle of firewood but Mira easily lifted it and took it our home, about two kilometres away. She was about 12-year-old then," Sanatomba told PTI amid the noise of firecrackers bursting in celebration of Mirabai's success at her home.

It was the earliest memory of Mirabai that Sanatomba could recall on a day the world champion weightlifter lived up to the reputation and brought laurels to the country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

"I used to play football then and I could see the passion in her to do something. She gradually went on to join weightlifting," Sanatomba, a state level footballer at junior level, said.

"She always has the passion to achieve big. She never put herself under pressure and is always ice-cool, something that was evident in her flawless lift."
"It will be a double celebration, we will make Mira's favourite food -- Kangsoi (a Manipuri stew delicacy). Sweets were being distributed since morning today and you could still hear the firecrackers late into the evening."