Kolkata, Apr 4 (PTI) ‘Na kha payegi, na chal payegi… isse toh bhala isko zeher de do.” Those were the cruel words neighbours and relatives hurled at Payal Nag’s family in Balangir in Odisha after she lost all four limbs to electrocution as a child in 2015.
On Saturday evening in Bangkok, the same girl, now 18, stood ”tall’ on the global stage, winning double gold at the World Archery Para Series in a journey that has turned pain into purpose and silence into a statement.
Payal stunned India’s most decorated para archer the world No 1, Sheetal Devi, 139-136 in the compound women’s final and also combined with her for the team gold, as India topped the medal standings with 16 medals (seven gold, five silver, four bronze).
The turning point in her life came on a morning in 2015.
A class 3 student then, Payal was playing with her younger brother on the fifth floor newly constructed terrace of an under-construction building in Raipur, where her father worked as a mason after migrating from Odisha in search of livelihood.
There was water on the terrace and a live wire had come in contact with it.
In a split second, everything changed.
The electric shock left her critically injured, and doctors had no option but to amputate all four limbs to save her life.
“I don’t want to talk about the accident today,” Payal said quietly in a mixed emotion of pain and joy. “Not today please… I can talk about it some other time.” The tragedy pushed the already struggling family of six members into deep despair.
With no means to care for her, her parents — Bijay Kumar Nag and Janata –who hailed from a village Jamunabahal about 70kms from Balangir eventually put her in Parbati Giri Bal Niketan, an orphanage near Balangir.
It was during those days that the harshest words came.
“Na kha payegi, na chal payegi isse toh bhala isko jaher de do… (She won’t be able to eat, she won’t be able to walk… it would be better to poison her,” Kuldeep Vedwan, who spotted her, recalled.
“The parents were helpless and they put her in the orphanage run by the district adminstration.” ABCD in archery ============== Her life-changing turning point came in 2023 when coach Kuldeep Vedwan spotted her on social media.
“I saw her photo on Twitter… she didn’t have any arms or legs. I was determined to bring her to my academy (hri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board),” Vedwan told PTI.
“I made Sheetal Devi a champion and I always believed Payal could also become one. She was exactly the kind I was looking for.” But getting her out of the orphanage and to convince everyone about something (archery) alien to them required effort.
“I had to write to the district collector to get permission,” he added.
When Payal first reached the academy in Katra and saw others including Sheetal Devi training, she broke down.
“Mui kenta chaleibi, mor toh haath per nai (How will I manage without limbs),” she said in Balangir dialect, her eyes filled with tears.
Vedwan reassured her: “Leave everything to me, you just work hard.” She followed that advice with discipline, training nearly eight hours a day.
The device ========= Getting her to shoot, however, required innovation and patience.
“For Sheetal, the releaser which was developed by me was enough. But for Payal, the challenge was bigger — how would she lift the bow without legs?” he added.
Vedwan designed customised equipment, including a steel device fitted to her prosthetic leg to lift the bow, and spent months perfecting it.
First there were two devices fitted to her prosthetic legs.
“It took me three months to tune her to the equipment. Only when she started scoring 350-355 out of 36 arrows did I know she was ready,” he said.
But it was with the twin devices which was not permissible in International compeition so after Payal was confident with that Vedwan went a step ahead to make the single device fitted to her right prosthetic leg.
Her international debut came at the Dubai 2025 Asian Youth Para Games after World Archery approved her customised equipment, making her the world’s first quadruple amputee archer to compete internationally.
Sister support ============= Her rise since then has been remarkable.
Making her debut at the 2025 Jaipur Nationals, she defeated Sheetal in to win double gold (ranking and Olympic rounds).
She followed it up with a silver at the Khelo India Para Games and another at the Nationals in Patiala earlier this year — both times losing to Sheetal.
And in Bangkok, she delivered her biggest moment yet.
“She has it in her to win multiple gold medals for India at the Asian Para Games and even the LA Paralympics,” Vedwan said.
“Sheetal has proved it, and Payal will carry that legacy forward.” Through all the struggles, one constant has been her elder sister Barsha.
“I’m really thankful to my sister. She has been with me like my shadow,” Payal said. “All my success is because of her.” Barsha, who even assists her during competitions, summed it up best.
“People would say many things… maybe because of that she became so strong,” her sister Barsha told PTI from Bangkok.
“Today her success is a response to all those talks. I just want to thank those people.” PTI TAP KHS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.