Author: Vasudha Venugopal
Publication:  The Hindu
Date: March 11, 2012
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-sports/article2982735.ece?homepage=true

She has been an inspiration to many customers who never thought a woman could deliver pizzas. She has evoked admiration from many petrol bunk owners because she would insist on working night shifts.

 And, she has been a sight to watch as she whizzed by on busy roads on a Pulsar. But all of these are all part of a day's work for 25-year-old E. Thulasi and indeed, pale in comparison when she starts talking about her passion - boxing.

 “Timing is the key,” she declares as she talks about both, dodging vicious jabs in the ring and aggressive drivers on Chennai's often treacherous roads. “In one case you wade through 30 minutes of traffic and in the other, it is two-and-half minutes in the ring,” says the boxer, who recently won a bronze medal at the Senior Women National Boxing Championship, after several State awards.

 Born to parents who were barely able to make ends meet, Thulasi recollects how her father, a tailor who suffers from physical disability, ensured both his daughters were actually brought up like boys. “I learnt to box from Akka, who is also a karate player. She got into the police and is a constable now. I fell short of height,” she says.

 Video cassettes of Laila Ali's boxing form an integral part of her training, she says. “In my first match, the opponent punched my nose and I bled. I cried so much and decided never to fight again,” she recalls. Then something unexpected happened. “The judges thought my strategies were very different as I was a moving boxer, not a still one, and selected me.”

 Thulasi lives in Avadi and sets out every day at 3 a.m. to reach Pulse gym in Adyar where she now works as an instructor after quitting job as a pizza delivery woman with Domino's recently. “I quit every job that interfered with my boxing training. Everyday workout is extremely important for boxers to maintain their weight,” says Thulasi, who falls under the 46-48, light fly category of boxers. “It is no use to start preparing only a month before any tournament.

 She was barely 12 when she was sent to New Delhi to compete with older women, and as she was trying to come to terms with such unfamiliar surroundings, “One opponent came up to me and said, ‘Don't be scared, there are many who might be scared of you.' Minutes later I boxing her down in the ring,” says Thulasi. “Boxers are not aggressive people but when you have a coach screaming, ‘I will break your hands if you don't win,' we all somehow become very ruthless,” she says.

 Thulasi, who has studied up to class X, aspires to start a boxing school for poor girls someday. “There is little encouragement given to sportsmen in the State, and for women in a sport like boxing, it is even less. ”