Shloka Joshi (13) has just completed her class VII at Delhi’s Modern School and is taking a breather from the hectic regimen that she has been following everyday for the past five years. The only child of Capt. S.C. Joshi of the Indian Navy and services golf champion and Sangeeta, a former maths professor, the achievements of this swimming prodigy are already quite impressive. She has won a bronze medal in two National Swimming Championships and is the only girl in her age group to have won 64 gold medals in Delhi’s school swimming meets. Shloka has also bagged the individual championship trophy (Delhi) for the years 2001, 2002, and 2003 and has won the IPSC (Inter-Public School meet) three times already, winning 40 more trophies in all.

Ever since she won her first bronze medal at the age of eight-and-a-half in the National Swimming Championship 2001, Shloka has gone from medals to more medals. “There aren’t that many girl swimmers in India,” she says explaining why the competition hasn’t been too strenuous to handle and why her rise to what she calls “the pinnacle of success” has been swift and smooth. “There are only two other students in Delhi that I have to compete with” one is from Sanskriti School and the other from Delhi Public School. At the national level, the best swimmers are from Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the competition is more intense.”

Shloka’s favourite events are the 200m, 100m, and 50m butterfly, and the 1500m and 800m freestyle. But success has been bought by a strict training regimen. She’s up at 4 a.m daily to practice in Delhi’s olympic-size Talkatora Swimming Pool Complex for 90 minutes, and then returns to the pool after school for another 120 minutes of practice. “There’s always room for improvement. I believe in following the 3Ds: dedication, devotion, and determination. Achievement is history, success is the future,” she states with a maturity beyond her years.

Right now Shloka’s sights are set on the 2004 nationals. “I certainly add to my medals tally,” she says optimistically. “But my real objective is to qualify for the Asian Games team two years from now,” she says, while readily admitting that maintaining this cracking pace requires home and parental support.

But burning up the swimming pool is only one facet of Delhi’s young mermaid. Simultaneously Shloka has been a student of Bharat Natyam at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra for the past six years, is well-versed in Hindustani vocal music, plays the piano, paints, and is a stage actress. And despite these distractions she has been averaging 85-90 percent in academics.

Some curriculum vitae!

Meenakshi Venkat (New Delhi)