New Delhi: Standing in the scorching summer heat at the Indian Oil petrol pump in Chandigarh’s Sector 42, Priyanka Verma often wondered about her purpose in life. Working at the fuel station wasn’t exactly her goal, but with a monthly family income of ₹15,000 earned mostly by her mother who works as a housemaid, she barely had a choice. Then, of course, there was a dream that needed to be funded.
Five months after she first refueled a car, Priyanka stood on the Asian Under-23 podium in Jakarta with a silver in the heavyweight (+81kg) category, having gone down to Uzbekistan’s Sobirakhon Shakhobidinova — a former Asian youth and under-19 champion.
“She was too good. Technically a much better boxer. Despite the loss, I am happy with performance as it was my first international exposure. I had gone to Jakarta with zero expectations. A silver is a bonus,” Priyanka said.
“There were a lot of learnings. I looked at international lightweight boxers and was amazed with their agility. I’d like to get some of that in my game. Also, I punch from a distance, but I think I’d be better served if I am a little brave in coming closer to the opponent,” she added.
Priyanka’s story, however, is not just about that success alone. It’s as much about the leaking roof of the bleak single room where she lives as it is about that silver sheen. With rain pelting down over Chandigarh lately, Priyanka and her family often struggle to find a dry corner to spend the long nights.
“It is what it is. The roof leaks. The walls go damp. The rent stays a constant,” she said.
Growing up overweight, Priyanka’s first brush with sports was a month-long stint in judo at her school. By the time she passed her Class 12, Priyanka weighed 105kg. With the sole aim of shedding weight, she enrolled at a sports complex near her home in 2022.
“It was there that I took up boxing for a few months. The coach taught me basic stance and asked me to throw some punches. Impressed with the power, he asked me to consider taking it up seriously,” she recalled.
A few months later, Priyanka competed in the inter-college competition and won a bronze, her first medal of any sort. That’s where coach Davinder Singh Negi noticed her potential and urged her to join his academy. Negi waived his monthly fee of ₹2000, and the youngster began training under him at Shiv N Success Academy.
Her first break arrived two years later when she won a silver at the REC competition, conducted by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) in the +81kg category. That sent her to the senior national camp in Patiala earlier this year, but she soon lost her place as BFI put a cap of four boxers in her weight class.
“There were selection bouts in the camp to pick two boxers to join the top two finishers from the 2025 Nationals. So, the two REC entrants went up against the third and fourth-place finishers from the Nationals, and I couldn’t get through.”
The 15-day stint in Patiala, however, gave her a decent reality check. Priyanka watched two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen train, awestruck, and was overwhelmed to spar with Nupur Sheoran, a silver medallist at the 2025 World Championships (+80kg).
Back from Patiala, Priyanka trained her sights on the trials to pick the squad for the Asian U-23. Problem was, she barely had any money to afford decent training gear and nutrition. After looking for part-time data entry jobs online, she decided to work at the petrol pump close to her place.
“All those online jobs didn’t fit in my preferred time slots. I didn’t want to compromise on my training,” Priyanka remembered. “I joined that petrol pump to support my training as well as my family. It paid me Rs.10,000 a month, which is decent money for us. But I often stood there thinking what am I even doing. I was supposed to be an athlete, and here I was filling fuel tanks.”
Priyanka began her day at 4am to hit the training centre at 5. Four hours later, she would head to the petrol pump for a nine-hour shift, followed by another three-hour training session.
“It took a lot out of me. I’d often skip meals, had no recovery time, and would be exhausted all the time. I somehow won the trial; I still can’t fathom how.”
She quit her job after a bout of typhoid, but had saved enough to spend on her diet and nutrition. Help also arrived from her college—Dev Samaj College for Women—whose principal gave her a pair of gloves, headgear and some cash.
It’s still early days in her career, but the silver in Jakarta has given Priyanka the courage to dream. Her next target is to get to the national camp again, preferably with a top-two finish at the National Championships. In the long term, she wants to build a house for her parents.
“They’ve had enough. I want to give them a better life,” she concluded.
