I had kept his trophies safely wrapped in half-torn saree: CWG weightlifting gold medalist Achinta Sheuli's mother

On Monday morning she arranged them on a small stool when Achinta Sheuli returned home after bagging gold in the 73kg weightlifting event at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. A seemingly happy Purnima Sheuli has requested her younger son to purchase a cupboard to showcase the medals and trophies he has won so far. "I knew that reporters and photographers would be coming to our house when Achinta came back.

So, I kept the medals and trophies on a stool so that they could understand how talented Achinta is. I never dreamt that he would win gold for the country,” Purnima Sheuli told PTI. She remembers how tough it was for her to bring up her sons -- Alok and Achinta -- following the death of her husband Jagat Sheuli.

He died of sunstroke in 2013. "Today, I believe God has started showering blessings on us. The number of people who gathered in front of our house shows that times have changed.

Nobody will be able to realise how tough it was for me to bring up my two sons. “I could not even provide them with their meals every day. There were days when they fell asleep without eating.

I don't know how to express myself and what to say," she said. Both Achinta and his elder brother Alok, also a weightlifter, had to load and unload goods besides doing zari work on sarees at a local manufacturing unit, she recalled. "I had no other option than sending my sons to work.

Or it would have been difficult for us to survive," she said remembering how both Alok and Achinta continued weightlifting against all odds. Recollecting the abject poverty and the hardship during his childhood, the 20-year-old weightlifter gave the credit for his achievement to his mother and coach Astam Das. "It feels great returning home