Olympian Neha to tie knot today
After winning the gold medal in the Women’s Asian Hockey Championship, Olympian Neha Goyal, a midfielder of Indian women hockey team, will tie the knot on Sunday with national hockey player Sunil of Karnal district.
The rituals for their love-cum-arranged marriage started with the writing of ‘lagan patrika’, ‘haldi’ and other rituals after she arrived home after winning the trophy on Friday.
On Saturday, the ‘mehndi’ rituals and ladies ‘sangeet’ were performed in the evening at her primary coach and former captain of hockey team Pritam Siwach's home.
Excited over winning the Asian’s Hockey Championship the second time, Neha said this win has doubled the happiness of marriage for her. Neha, while talking to mediapersons, said that she came in contact with Sunil around eight years ago during a national-level tournament.
She said, “I told Siwach about Sunil but she motivated me to focus on the game. With the passage of time, Siwach pacified not only my parents but Sunil’s parents also. Now with the consent of both families, it has turned into a love-cum-arranged marriage.”
She said that the chief coach of the team, senior coaches and foreign coach, along with other team members, would attend the marriage.
Neha started playing at the age of nine years. Her mother Savitri Devi was working in a foam factory and they were living in a rented accommodation in the industrial area. Siwach, who runs a hockey academy in the industrial area, spotted Neha and gave her sports shoes, uniform and hockey stick.
