The alchemist and a crazy diamond: Decoding the Manu Bhaker-Jaspal Rana bond

New Delhi: She calls him a father figure, and he perceives himself as her protector.

Manu Bhaker and Jaspal Rana are chalk and cheese when it comes to their individual personalities but together at the shooting range, they can plot Olympic medals with mere eye contact.

The strict disciplinarian coach and his effervescent protege were at PTI headquarters to interact with its editors and talk about a journey which had its fair share of rough and tumble but eventually yielded India two bronze medals at the recent Paris Olympics, making Bhaker the first athlete in post-independence India to achieve such a feat.

"I would say he's like a father to me and it's a matter of trust that you put in a person," said the 22-year-old Bhaker flashing a radiant smile and content look.

"He gives me a lot of courage whenever I feel whether I can do it or not," she went on even as Rana kept his head down.

"He will probably slap me and he'll be like 'you can do it, you trained for it'." It was at this point that Rana joined the conversation, a tad surprised by what Bhaker had just uttered.

"You have a controversy right here," he interjected.

Bhaker was quick to clarify though, "I mean it's not like a slap (literally) but like, I'm just using a slang. It's like he'll push my limits. He'll be like 'you've been training for this and obviously you will be able to deliver."

The two shared a laugh soon after, aware that their stormy parting of ways before the Tokyo Olympics is still one of the most talked about controversies of Indian shooting.

Tokyo was a disaster in every sense of the word for Bhaker, her weapon malfunctioned before the 10m air pistol qualifications, and she never really got going after that setback in any of her events.

Rana could only watch in frustration on TV in faraway India.

They got back together little over a year back, determined to erase that painful episode and available evidence suggests that the mission has been accomplished.

"When we started 14 months back, there was only one request from my side to her: that we will not discuss the past. We'll start from here and we'll move forward. So, we kept that thing throughout," Rana said, keeping the details of their patch-up close to his chest.

"My work is to protect her. It is not only coaching. At this level, we cannot teach them how to see or how to pull the trigger. We just need to give that protection even from their own self," he explained.

"Sometimes it (performances, attention) goes to your head and you're all over the place. So, to keep them grounded and keep them protected, that's our job, the coach's job," he asserted as Bhaker nodded in agreement.

None to blame for Tokyo debacle

Bhaker's clarity of thought belies her age. The youngster from Haryana's Jhajjar had no qualms admitting once again that the Tokyo heartbreak nearly drove her away from shooting, and that she hung in there by the thinnest of threads.

"I would like to say about Tokyo that there was nobody to blame...it's in the past already. Tokyo taught me a lot of things to be prepared in a better manner, more aware of everything, my equipment, my mental health, physical health," she said.

"I would say, it really made me sad at times. I was on the verge of giving up shooting at times, but then I was, ok, 'what else would you do'," she remembered.

Enter Rana once again to clear the cobwebs of her mind, in a way protecting her from herself.

"When we (Jaspal and I) started to work together again, that was the time when I was like 'you know what, shooting is going to be it for me'," she said.

"We were like 'let's go all in it'. The journey was not easy, but I think everything happens for a reason and as he (Jaspal) says 'you get what you deserve, not what you want'." She nearly managed to have it all in Paris but for a fourth-place finish in 25m pistol event.

Education is important. Next course in Nalanda?

Her shooting aside, Bhaker is also quite proud of her academic achievements. She scored upwards of 90 per cent in most of her subjects in 12th standard and also qualified for Tokyo Olympics around the same time.

For this balance too, she gives some credit to Rana, who, along with her brother, persuaded her to pick the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University for her graduation, outrightly rejecting her plan of going for an online course.

"...He (Rana) and my brother, both were so persistent that 'you must have your degree from his college even if you do not get the kind of time that you require to study and pass the exams (with high marks). We will try to help you with the assignments'," Bhaker said.

And having managed to log good scores both with her pistol and her books, Bhaker said she would advise every budding athlete to do the same.

"It should go hand in hand because, personally, for me I think it has played a major role." The importance of education was one thing on which Rana and Bhaker were on the same page wholeheartedly.

Rana even went to the extent of saying that he refuses to train youngsters who drop out of school to pursue only shooting.

"...you won't last forever, so whenever you give up (sports), then you have to have something (to fall back upon). I make sure they (my wards) are studying. I don't take any kids who have left school or those who don't want to study further. I don't even train with them," he said.

Bhaker chimed in to reveal that Rana has been pushing her to do a course of her choice from the recently-inaugurated Nalanda University, a great centre of learning in the fifth century before being destroyed by invaders 700 years later.

Asked what would be her subject of choice, the former political science student said,"...I am open to anything. You give me a subject, in probably 2-3 months I'll get used to it. I will make my peace with it." But it would certainly not be maths. She admitted to being bad at it and Rana took the opportunity to tease her for it.

"She doesn't even remember the points she is winning or losing (in a match), so that's the best thing," he quipped, evoking a laugh from her too, doing his other job of keeping her grounded to perfection.