Each shot at a shooting range comprises two sounds: the thud of the shot fired and the whizz of the flying bullet. They are so close in time that only expert shooters like Malathy David can tell them apart.

“It is advisable to wear ear plugs, but I grew up going hunting in the forest with my father and uncles. We shooters are used to the rhythm in the shots and our focus on the target helps to cancel out the noise,” says the 69 year-old, Chennai-based shooter, who recently took the Chennai Rifle Club by storm when she won the .22 pistol veteran’s category.

“I had returned to the sport after two years and hadn’t practised much but I was able to score very well, even compared to the youngsters,” smiles Malathy, who enjoyed a 10-year stint as one of India’s top 10 players in the sport. She participated and won medals at five National Games and brought back her first gold in the .22 Open Sight Rifle event in the 1985 National Championships.

Malathy grew up in Madurai, where her father, a police superintendent, wanted her to join the force, while her mother wanted her to become a doctor. “I didn’t become either,” she chuckles. “Those were times when every family around Madurai and Tirunelveli had a hunting gun. I would follow my father to the shooting range even as a child, although my mother didn’t approve! I also insisted on accompanying the family on hunting expeditions and my father finally handed me a Diana air rifle when I was just eight.”

Marriage in 1963 put shooting on hold as her husband had a transferable job. Biding her time, Malathy took various courses in knitting, drawing and the like—these have come in handy at the playschool she has been running in Anna Nagar since 2000.

Malathy returned to the sport in 1981, when her father expressed regret at her “wasting” her skill. By then, she had settled down in Chennai and her father called up his contacts in the Chennai Rifle Club, asking for an opportunity for his daughter to show off her shooting skills. It was a nerve-wracking moment for the then 40 year-old mother of three, who had not held a rifle in about 20 years. “There were very few women in the club at that time. I would wear a sari and completely cover myself at the range. At times I would borrow my daughter’s salwars.”

Malathy resumed her career as a shooter. And at the 1985 National Games, she proudly marched behind track-and-field champion P T Usha during the march-past. Her three-member team brought home the silver in the .22 Open Sight Rifle (Women) category, and after that, Malathy was unstoppable at the State and National levels, with Open Sight and Peep Sight weapons in the rifle category as well as in pistol.

After a dream run of 20 years, Malathy opted out of the professional circuit in 2005, and pursued her passion for the sport at the club level, through the Chennai Rifle Club. “You travel together for events and encourage each other. We’re one big happy family.”

This champ’s achievements are even more remarkable as she has maintained her edge even though she developed cataract in both eyes two years ago. “My last major tournament was in 2014, where I was blinking away and shooting at the state meet. Even so, I won the .22 open sight rifle competition,” recalls Malathy, who took a break from the sport for two years after cataract surgery.

Then, she drops another bombshell. “I developed rheumatoid arthritis in my 50s, but I never let that bother me. I was advised to sit still at home. But I didn’t.” Indeed.

—Jayanthi Somasundaram

Photograph by Chennai Pix
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
November 2016