By Shalini Venugopal Bhagat in the NYT
The 89-year-old woman stood in the courtyard of her home in northern India and picked up an air pistol. She tucked her pink head scarf securely into the waist of her long skirt and steadied her arm, looking through the sights at her target, a bottle about 12 feet away. She fired, and the bottle came tumbling down.
She fired again. And again. And again, hitting the target each time.
“You need to focus only on the target — forget about other distractions,” she said, breaking into a smile.
Chandro Tomar may look like a typical Indian grandmother, but she’s anything but: She’s believed to be the oldest professional sharpshooter in the world, and she has dozens of medals to show for it.
She’s also a feminist icon in India, having mentored and coached dozens of young women in her village and beyond for more than 20 years. There’s even a Bollywood movie, “Saandh Ki Ankh” (“Bull’s-Eye”), based on her life and that of her sister-in-law, Prakashi Tomar, a fellow competitor.
Ms. Tomar was over 65 when she first picked up a gun, and the arrival of a diminutive older woman from the rural heartland — dressed in her traditional long skirt and head scarf — initially provoked derision and laughter among participants and spectators at professional competitions. Since then, she has won over 25 medals at state and larger contests, usually competing against men who’ve been shooting professionally for decades.
Yet more than her fame and her shooting skills, she takes pride in having paved the way for countless women, including many in her own family, to take part in an activity that can be a ticket to a better life through sports scholarships and job opportunities.
“I wanted to encourage young girls everywhere to get into the sport and expand their horizons,” she said.