Aneeshya Sreejesh can’t quite make sense of her emotions right now.
The wife in her is happy that her husband will have more time at home but the “die-hard fan” in her is sad that PR Sreejesh’s galvanising presence in front of the goalpost would no longer be a constant in Indian hockey.
The Indian men’s hockey team clinched a second successive bronze medal at the Olympic Games for the first time in 52 years, rallying to beat Spain 2-1 in third place playoff, giving veteran goalkeeper Sreejesh a fitting farewell on Thursday. He was also a part of the squad that won the bronze in the Tokyo Games.
“I am not only his wife, but also a die-hard fan. Being a fan I will definitely miss him on the field and being his wife, I will get more of his time. So I am happy and sad at the same time. Both the emotions are there,” Aneeshya, who is a former long-jumper and an Ayurveda doctor, told ‘PTI Bhasha’.
She is waiting for him to come home so that she can serve him some traditional Kerala meals that he is very fond of.
“I will cook traditional Kerala food for him, vegetarian and non-vegetarian both. He loves it so much and I know he must be craving it,” she said.
“We haven’t planned celebrations yet but there will be a lot of people to welcome him. His brother came here from Canada with his family. The whole family has gathered here. It’s a big moment for us,” she added.
“There were around 50 people here. Everyone congratulated us and it is a moment of immense pride that we won two consecutive medals in the Olympics. He has retired after winning a medal for India, it is a reward for his passion and dedication for the game,” she said.
“I was about to cry but controlled myself,” added the proud wife.
Not many know that Sreejesh had used three special sticks in the Paris Olympics with his kids and wife’s name written on it. In the quarterfinal match against Britain, he used the stick with Aneeshya’s name on it.
“He has three sticks for the Paris games…One for penalty shootout and two for regular games. For regular matches, he used the sticks with our kids’ names Anushree and Sriyansh written on them.
“For the shootout, he used the stick with my name written on it and it also has my favourite colour,” she said.
When asked about the future plans for Sreejesh, she said that he will take a call soon.
“His focus was only on the Paris Olympics only till now but now the Games are over. He will tell about future plans in due course of time,” she said.
Sreejesh has been a role model for the young brigade of Indian hockey. Asked if there was anything that she has learnt from the wall of Indian Hockey, Aneeshya said, “I have learnt positivity from Sreejesh.”
“He always tells me that ups and downs will be there in life…He says that don’t think about the past and always look forward. Whatever happened has happened and the best way is to look ahead,” she said.
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