GUWAHATI: From the archery range to NH-31 and back to the range again, life has come full circle for Buli Basumatary . The SAI-trained national women's archery champion was forced by injury and poverty to put her glory days behind her, selling oranges for a living for four years. On Wednesday, she was invited by the state's sports minister Naba Kumar Doley to his office at Dispur, where he offered her the job of official coach for the Assam archery squad."I am feeling very happy to be back to what I love the most. The minister has offered me the coach's job. I don't have to sell oranges anymore," an elated Buli, travelling by bus to her home at Samtheibari in Chirang district, told TOI. She now hopes to pick up from where she left off."I have given her the word and her appointment letter will be with her next week," Doley said.The 28-year-old mother of two ruled the national archery arena from the sub-junior to the senior levels for six years. She was picked up by talent scouts as a Class VII student from her school at Samtheibari in 2003. She returned without any medals in her first district-level championship, she recalled.Things picked up fast, though. In 2005, she played her first national championship in the sub-junior category at Ajmer. She won two golds and a silver. In the following year, she won a gold and a silver at the nationals at Amaravati, followed by yet another gold and a silver at the national junior archery championship at Aurangabad. In 2007, she won a gold in the senior level in Jharkhand. "My performance was improving every day while I was with SAI," she said.Things took a drastic turn in 2010. "Something terrible happened to my health and I had to return home. Being from a poor family in a remote village meant there was not much my father could do. I recovered. And I was married off by the end of 2010. Very soon, I became a mother of two and could not leave them to go back to the archery range. We were also miserably poor and could not afford the equipment. A bow alone would cost about Rs 2.5 lakh," she said.Buli's husband is a daily wage earner and money was always short. "About four years ago, I decided to put together a small amount and started selling oranges on the roadside at NH-31. I would make Rs 150 to Rs 200 daily and it was helpful, but never quite enough," she said.But her love for the game brought her out of home soon after her daughters grew up. "I did not participate anywhere, but I kept my practice going at the Samtheibari higher secondary school field with whatever hand-made gear I could manage," Buli said.She feels her new life can help her fulfil her most precious dream to train her daughters to step into her shoes as a good archer. "I would definitely want both my daughters, Foustina and Hanna, to take up this sport and I am going to train them," she said.

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