Jyoti, a young Odisha hockey player, battles to save her home

Following India’s game against the United States on Sunday night at the city’s Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium, Jyoti Chhetri looked around the packed house to see whether her parents were there. She grinned once she had seen them. The Chhetri narrative is, on some level, just too romantic. She was born in Panposh, the city’s primary sports hostel.

The meat and drink of the hostel is making sure youngsters who pick up a hockey stick graduate with honors (Amit Rohidas, lately, Prabodh Tirkey, Lazarus Birla, and Dipi Tirkey, to mention a few). She developed feelings for the game. The 20-year-old is now showing off at the Stadium, which is just ten minutes away on foot. Last month, she won the silver medal in the first Hockey 5s tournament, which helped her qualify for the World Cup.

Chhetri’s grin, meanwhile, belies a serious issue her family will soon have to deal with: the real possibility of receiving a request to leave their house from the authorities. Jyoti’s father, Bhim Singh, moved out of the tiny hostel where he was working as a watchman shortly after his daughter was born in 2003 and onto an empty plot of land just outside the hostel.

He constructed a modest home on the property for himself, his wife, and their three kids. Their door was knocked on a few years ago by local officials informing them of an impending road-widening project as part of a new bridge. Hours before his daughter was ready to play the US, on Sunday morning, Bhim told a few media about his predicament. The family has no trouble selling their home, but despite informing many authorities of the present circumstances, they have also not received a guarantee of finding another place to live.

Jyoti was also close to the narrative after India’s 2-1 shootout victory against the US in the match. “The government promised to take action, but as of right now, nothing has been done,” the woman said. Jyoti’s father, on his part, has already prayed to God in hopes of being saved. “We are in God’s hands; we will see what transpires. Whenever he leads us, there