NEW DELHI, JULY 03,
At 19, Girish Gowda used to be a delivery boy for a healthcare agent. While returning home with some of his colleagues, he accidentally stepped on a banner and unaware of it, kept walking. Upon realising it, he picked it up and returned it to the guy standing nearby.
The guy, who was drunk, slapped him and Girish froze, not knowing how to react to this utterly unexpected incident.
Girish was desperate for revenge. But when he thought of his weight (108 kilogram) at that time, he realised he was not ready for it. Hence, took to boxing at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
His mother, who was apprehensive of him taking to a “violent sport”, made him promise that he will quit it.
Girish kept his promise, left boxing and joined karate instead.
Two years later, Girish, now a blue belt in karate, was ready to avenge his humiliation.
He tracked the person who slapped him. “I wanted to slap him at least once.” But once Girish saw him, he changed his mind. “Karate had taught me a lot of self-discipline. By slapping him, I felt I was disrespecting my sport.”What started as a revenge mission became a passion project for Girish. In karate, he won the black belt and several State-and-district-level championships. Later, his coach took him to a kickboxing fight. Unlike karate kumites, which are fought on floor, kickboxing bouts happen within a ring.
The elevation of the ring, its ropes and the resultant theatre-like vibes it gives captivated Girish. “I wanted at least one ring fight.”
He participated in a national-level kickboxing tournament in 2012 and fought four bouts. He won all four and a gold medal. Then, he won another national-level gold, and another.
In the 2015 WAKO Asian Championships in Pune, Girish clinched the silver medal in the light heavyweight category. In his first WAKO World Championships that year, he finished in the top-16.
The following year, he won the kickboxing world cup silver medal.
Beating cancer
“As I stood on the podium to receive these medals, they played the national anthem of the gold medallist. I really wanted to hear our national anthem, standing on the podium.”
To realise this wish, Girish was toiling in the gym despite a fever ahead of the Asian kickboxing championship in Kazakhstan in March 2017. A fortnight before the tournament, he blacked out and collapsed during a workout.
Girish’s family doctor recommended a blood test. And his platelet count was less than 6000. Further tests revealed he had acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood-forming tissue. “I googled it and thought nothing much could be done about this. I was not very hopeful.”
But according to his doctor, haemato oncology specialist, Hari Menon, “The condition has high cure rates if it is detected early. Girish was lucky that it was diagnosed soon.” He employed targeted therapy, which, like chemotherapy, uses drugs but instead of killing entire cells, it targets specific genes, proteins (Girish, however, calls the treatment ‘chemotherapy’.)
The treatment was successful, for he was out of hospital within a month. But he had to suffer its after effects. He had lost weight, hair and energy.
“I used to train by lifting a man weighing 106 kilograms and climbing 108 steps. But the day I was discharged from the hospital, I couldn’t even climb the stairs at home. I locked myself in my room and said, ‘I want to fight back.’”
The first day after discharge, he walked 100 meters. The next, 200. Two weeks later, he covered seven kilometers.
In January 2018, he competed in his 10th national level kickboxing championship. “I wanted to see if I could still fight; I was not thinking about victory.” But Girish won the final bout in 43 seconds (his best-ever time). “Give me more chemotherapies, it has made me stronger,” he told his doctor over the phone after the win. With cancer conquered, Girish is back in pursuit of his still unfulfilled dream: hearing our national anthem atop a podium.
