Muskan Sethi on becoming first Indian Poker player: 'Wanted to pave way for other females' - Republic World
A National Award Winner Poker player Muskan Sethi continues to shine in her home country of India. Fighting all odds in the society, the poker player became the first professional female poker player from India. In an exclusive interview with the Republicworld, Muskan narrates her journey and revealed that her life was full of hurdles and complications until she achieved her goals and brought fame to her own country. She even threw light on some of the taboos and stereotype mentality that came through her way while crafting one for herself to achieve her dreams.
Muskan Sethi recalls her journey of being the first female Poker player in India
The sport poker was usually associated with men until a few women played their cards right and debunked that myth and Muskan Sethi was one of them. Beginning to learn the game at 11, Muskan said that it took her quite a long time to establish herself in the society and won International acclaim as well. Talking about the same, she said,
When I found about poker, that’s all I knew and I was honestly in love with the game. I realized it much later that I will be the first woman to make this into a career in India. You know when men can do these things like MS Dhoni who was the brand ambassador of Poker stars, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, so men are creating games, industries, I feel why do women lack behind. Why can a woman be a part of something that men are already doing? Why does she when enters the picture, it becomes a matter of right or wrong.”
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Adding she said, “ I know a lot of women poker players abroad and we all are connected to each other socially. So when they come to India, I make sure to show them my country and it happens vice versa. And all they tell me is ‘there are so many women in India and still they are outnumbered.’ There are certain sports where women cannot compete with men and the reason is not that a woman cannot compete in that sport, its just that they are not given a chance to. And one such is poker where women can give a stiff and tough competition to men on all grounds if given that chance to prove.”
Having said that Muskan elucidated upon the challenges that she faced in her career while achieving her goals. With the changing tides of inclusivity and increasing participation of women in sports among other activities, Muskan says that it was a tough time for her to fight all obstacles and create a mark. Speaking about the same, she said,
I feel like I have been through a lot and the reason being when I had just started my career in poker, I lost my mother. It was a sudden thing and I was very close to my mother. So this was one of the reasons why I was so much engrossed in the game because there were so many promises to be fulfilled that I made to my mother. People from society had started raising a lot of questions about my decision. They started doubting whether I would be able to accomplish myself. I was making high-pressure decisions that were very much drained. Also breaking the stereotype was seamless and it just happened. I wanted to pave way for other females to come up and follow their dreams.”
Continuing, Muskan said that her coach helped her come out of all the emotional trauma that she was going through and trained to do better in the sport, “He separated my thoughts from the actions which are important for the game. My coach was like a savior for me who helped me when I needed help badly. He improved my calculations, strength.”
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