AHMEDABAD: As Haryana gymnasts perform during their rhythmic qualification round, a prominent face watches them closely, nodding occasionally, as the gymnasts follow the beats of the music.
Looks like a routine to many, only till one gets to know that the coach, Anju Dua, cannot hear or speak. At the end of her students' performance, the coach communicates through sign language to share her feedback.
Anju, a former multiple national champion in the late 80s and early 90s and an Arjuna award recipient in 1998, has been coaching the Haryana team for almost a decade now. She can't hear since birth.
"I have seen her since she was an active gymnast. She has contributed a lot towards the sport, first as athlete and then as coach. It is commendable that she has been managing a tough job of coaching just by using sign language," Kaushik Bidiwala, treasurer, Gymnastics Federation of India, said.
"She sets the bar very high for other coaches, as she is working so hard to help her wards qualify for national-level tournaments. The fact that she has made her place as one of the Haryana coaches purely on merit, says how good she must be at her work," said Bidiwala.
India coach Jasbir Kaur, who was Anju's senior during their competition days, said the Haryana coach has never ceased to amaze her in the past four decades.
"She had impressed me during her playing days and now, when she is coaching, I am always in awe of her skills. I don't know how she understands the music her athletes perform at. She follows the beat and also guides her students to perform as per the flow of the music," the India coach said. "As a gymnast, she specialized in vaulting horse event, but now she is producing national level athletes in rhythmic gymnastics," she said.
