{"id":420,"date":"2016-04-10T17:20:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T17:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=420"},"modified":"2016-04-10T17:20:25","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T17:20:25","slug":"chennai-india-rio-brazil-olympics-international-day-for-street-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Street Child O\u2019 Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>t is an eighties Bollywood shot we are all familiar with. The impoverished child with spindly legs and tiny shorts is fleeing from tragedy, the passage of time is communicated through running feet, and by the time the camera pans upward, the child has transformed into the hero. The movie title whirls on to the screen and the audience knows they\u2019re in for a hell of a story.\n\nIf a movie were ever made on R Hepsibah\u2019s life, this vintage shot would be a fitting opening sequence. Sakshi Malik and P V Sindhu stole the show at the Rio Olympics, but very few people know that young Hepsibah was the one who got there first. The 17-year-old homeless teenager from Chennai bagged three medals for the country \u2013 including a gold \u2013 at the World Street Child Games held at the Brazilian capital in 2016.\n\nThere were no coaches or camps for this child prodigy. Instead, she got her start running away from cops. The youngest of four children, Hepsibah was born on the streets \u2013 specifically, a pavement outside Chennai zoo. Her father passed away when she was three and her mother Arrayi, who sells flowers on Chennai\u2019s Link Road, had to often press her young children into work.\n\nThe cops were not kind to these young entrepreneurs and very soon, Hepsibah knew that her only shot at making a living was to not get caught. Every time she caught a whiff of authority, she would run like the wind, her basket of flowers placed precariously on her hip. And when Hepsibah ran, she flew.\n\nThe young street child had no idea that one day she would fly all the way to Rio.\n<\/p>

***<\/p>\nAn initiative by the Chennai municipality that helped enrol street children in local schools, is what got young Hepsibah to the starting line. She was 11 when she ran her first official race. It started with candle races and sack races. In a few years, she was representing her school at zonal competitions and winning again. By now, everyone could see it. Hepsibah had wings.\n\nI met her on a hot Monday afternoon at the offices of Karunalaya, a non-profit that cares for street and working children. In a room full of laughter, the wiry, dusky Hepsibah with bright eyes, held forth. She was here with two other members of the \u201cfamous five\u201d, the team from Chennai that represented India at the Rio event. I found them sipping tea and waiting for me: Hepsibah, Ashok (19), and Usha (17). I expected a timid young girl but Hepsibah is not shy \u2013 not after the scores of interviews she\u2019s had post-Rio.\n

When she finally got her passport, it was a moment of intense pride for both the rising star and her mother. For the first time, their names were next to each other on an official document.<\/blockquote>\nThe first Street Child Games were held at the foot of the world-famous Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro in March 2016. Kids from nine countries, including from India and Pakistan, took part in the competition. Hepsibah was the outstanding performer of the Indian contingent. She took part in six races, and won gold in the 100-metre sprint, silver in 400-metre, and bronze in 110-metre hurdles.\n\n\u201cJanuary 3 was the day when I was selected as one of the team members to represent India,\u201d she says in Tamil, smattered with English. \u201cI was overjoyed. I had refused to sit for my 10th public exams, choosing instead to train hard for the selections. Prabhakar Suresh, our coach, told us we wouldn’t have enough time to practice.\u201d With just two months to go for the Games, the kids were coached on speed and sprint for two-and-a-half hours every day. \u201cIt was very gruelling. I was dead tired every evening,\u201d says the 17-year-old.\n\nBut sitting inside her, egging her on, was the desire to go to Rio. The very idea of an plane ride would make her giddy with excitement. \u201cAs a child I used to wave at the aeroplane in the sky, wishing one day I could fly in it,\u201d she says. She remembers every detail of that first flight, the drop in her stomach as the plane took off, the food, the clothes worn by the crew, and her fellow passengers. \u201cInitially, I was really scared but after some time it was like being in a moving bus,\u201d she tells me.\n\nThe ease with which Hepsibah talks about her journey from the streets of Chennai into an international sporting competition, belies the troubles she and her coaches have had to endure. It was a trial, from getting the passport at the last minute to the visa approval. Hepsibah didn\u2019t even have the required residence proof to apply for a passport. After all, she\u2019s lived all her life shuttling between shelters and makeshift shanties.\n\nWhen she finally got her passport, it was a moment of intense pride for both the rising star and her mother. For the first time, their names were next to each other on an official document.\n\n