Gandhinagar: For Manipur’s Ranju Chingangbam, a stay at luxury accommodation in posh Ahmedabad during the 36th National Games was a dream. And a gold medal in a skateboarding competition at the Games was the icing on the cake for the 17-year-old, but he is still sceptical of the infrastructural and financial challenges that his sport faces in the country, more so in the Northeastern part.
In the absence of any stable financial income, Ranju, who took up the sport five years ago, decided to take up odd whitewashing jobs to pursue his skateboarding dreams. Born to Manglem Singh, who works as a daily wage labourer and Ranjita, a momo seller, Ranju knew he had to battle the hard way to make it count as he maintains, “There’s a lot of struggle for dreaming big in sports.”
A national-level medalist in street skateboarding, Ranju is a hope for a small skating community in Manipur to dream big. “The culture of skateboarding in Manipur started in 1999. There’s a huge presence of skateboarders pursuing it as a recreational sport,” he told EastMojo in a candid conversation.
It was in 2017 when Ranju first developed an interest in the sport. But he had to wait for another year to gather funds for buying his own equipment.
“It was one evening when I visited the sports complex with my friend, I saw some local kids skateboarding. The style and tricks fascinated me,” he said.
“I wanted to know more about the sport and after speaking to the skateboarders found that the price of the kit would cost around Rs 15,000. Asking for that money from my parents wasn’t a choice, so I decided to get it myself,” he continued.
“I did part-time jobs like whitewashing and wall paintings to fund my own skateboarding kit and continue with my training. I started participating professionally in 2020,” he said.
“As I need money to repair or buy a new part of the skateboard, the whitewash job helps me earn Rs 350-400 per day. I’ll practice in the early hours and then attend my school. After coming back, I’ll do these odd jobs till late in the evening,” he further stated.
A student of class X11 at the Lamlong higher secondary school, Ranju said skateboarding has become a part of urban culture and kids are fascinated by the tricks. “It’s relatively a new sport, but if I am able to make a mark at national-level, definitely it would gain prominence in my state. Many kids are picking up the sport in Manipur.”
The teenage star is hoping that the infrastructure of the sport takes a leap in the country, as he doesn’t want others to practise on the streets as he did.
“There’s no proper infrastructure in place for skateboarding in Manipur, so I would train in the early hours or late evenings on the streets to avoid getting hit by a truck or car. Learning a new trick on a skateboard is not easy, at times I get injured,” he said while adding that his love for the sport keeps him motivated despite all the financial challenges.
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