{"id":10971,"date":"2012-02-03T05:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T05:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/another-invasion-into-male-bastion\/"},"modified":"2018-06-04T17:07:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:07:30","slug":"another-invasion-into-male-bastion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/another-invasion-into-male-bastion\/","title":{"rendered":"Another invasion into the male bastion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nNilanjan Datta<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Trends — they are meant to be broken. The chauvinistic male has always dreamt of wearing black. They still can, but the monopoly no more stays. <\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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Chimchim Serto, presently on duty in the AIFF U-14 Football Fest in Kalyani, stays one among the 23 Women Referees in India at the moment. And as per Chimchim, \u201cthe gang is increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Col. (Retd). Gautam Kar, Head of Referees Department, AIFF, smiles. \u201cThey are most welcome. If they pass the Fitness Test, they are even entitled to supervise Men\u2019s matches,\u201d Kar, who stayed the Match Commissioner for Asia\u2019s biggest Club-match in 2011, the AFC Champions League, maintains. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a Women\u2019s Referee, it\u2019s bound to draw more attention. But to me, the gender stays immaterial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI dream of becoming a FIFA Referee soon,\u201d 23-year old Chimchim, who hails from Manipur, quips. At present, Maria Rebello stays the sole Women\u2019s FIFA Referee in India. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have represented Manipur as a striker in Women\u2019s Nationals and have played at the University Level,\u201d Chimchim, in her squeaky voice, informs. <\/p>\n

On the field, nevertheless, the squeak is almost a roar. The supervision impresses her colleagues, Tamnay Dhar, Subroto Burman and Kunal Sarkar. \u201cShe is as good as any male referee,\u201d stays the compliment. Chimchim blushes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs referees, we ought to have confidence in our colleagues all the time. And with Chimchim, we stay assured,\u201d they say unanimously. <\/p>\n

We turn to Chimchim. Do you have trouble with the players? \u201cNo.\u201d
\nDo they try to look down on you being a Woman Referee? \u201cNever.\u201d
\nDo they listen to you? \u201cNo.\u201d
\nDo they stay happy with your decisions? \u201cAlways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referees and players being the best of pals \u2013 unheard off, but only till now. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sporting Culture in Manipur helps one to groom as a sportsperson,\u201d Chimchim, who recently got a job with Manipur Police, maintains. \u201cMy fitness regime begins early morning. There are various levels of sprinting. At first, I am supposed to sprint 150metres in 35 seconds. And it goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConcentration is also an quintessential part of a referee\u2019s lifespan. The discipline in life is always reflected on the field,\u201d a philosophical Chimchim, playing with the ball in her hand, reflects. \u201cA referee has to be a born leader,\u201d she goes on. \u201cI have some special exercises to improve concentration. You can call it a part of meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her whistle blows and the match kicks-off — you watch from a distance. Footballs being a body-contact sport, even at the U-14 level, tempers do run high. Chimchim rushes to the spot and her \u2018roar\u2019 takes over the rein. <\/p>\n

The whistle blows again and the ball moves to the other part of the field. Chimchim sprints, and sprints fast. I check my earlier scribbles \u2013 \u2018150 metres in 35 seconds.\u2019 <\/p>\n

You overhear someone from the crowd speaking in the local dialect. \u201cMohila referee ta kintu bhalo khelachhen.\u201d (The Women Referee is supervising in the right manner.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nilanjan Datta Trends — they are meant to be broken. The chauvinistic male has always dreamt of wearing black. They still can, but the monopoly no more stays. Chimchim Serto, presently on duty in the AIFF U-14 Football Fest in Kalyani, stays one among the 23 Women Referees in India at the moment. And as per Chimchim, \u201cthe gang is increasing.\u201d Col. (Retd). Gautam Kar, Head of Referees Department, AIFF, smiles. \u201cThey are most welcome. If they pass the Fitness Test, they are even entitled to supervise Men\u2019s matches,\u201d Kar, who stayed the Match Commissioner for Asia\u2019s biggest Club-match in <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,169,166],"class_list":["post-10971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-update","tag-aiff","tag-football","tag-sports","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43485,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions\/43485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}