“Mummy, match dekhde ho? Balli ohni jit gaye” (Mother, are you watching the match? Baljeet and her team have won the gold), former Indian hockey captain and the Indian men’s field hockey team’s most-capped player Manpreet Singh called his mother, Manjit Kaur, following the Indian women’s hockey team’s Asian Games victory this year.At Mithapur this year, many, including the families of the boys’ team players, are happier about the women’s team winning.“Mundeyan naalon sannu kudiyan da zyada chaa aunda” (We are more excited for the girls this year), says Manjit Kaur, former hockey captain Manpreet’s mother. “The boys have won medals several times, but it’s more important that the girls win too. Sadiyan bachiyan, dhiyan gold medal lai ke ghar aiyan — sadi chaati chaudhi ho joogi (Our daughters have brought home the medal; we’ll swell with pride),” she adds.Udita Duhan, hockey Olympian and wife of Mandeep Singh, also echoes the sentiment. “It’s a double century and double celebrations for us. Mandeep hit 300 caps and Manpreet bhaji became the most capped. Now I’m also a Mithapur-ian. We have so much to celebrate, especially the women’s team’s Asian gold win after 44 years. I’m obviously happier about the girls; it was a long-time dream. Now, men and women have both got a ticket to the 2028 LA Olympics.”At the Asian Games 2026, the stars conspired and the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams brought their respective gold medals home together in a historic victory.The double Asian Games win took place for the first time. The women’s hockey team won Asian Games gold after 44 years, while both the men’s and women’s teams qualified for the Olympics.For the people of Mithapur, this isn’t a mere coincidence but a success story long in the making. Another little revolution is afoot at Mithapur. Udita Duhan, Mandeep’s wife and a conscientious women’s hockey player, has taken to coaching batches of Mithapur students in her passion to introduce them to the nuances of international hockey.Batchmates from the men’s and women’s hockey teams winning gold together, and a hockey player’s wife stepping out to coach children in a village where hitherto only men were seen on the ground, are happy coincidences that have electrified the village.People fight over goals during matches, bang tables, pick up happy feuds over the next goal, and the girls’ matches are watched as closely as the women’s. Manjit Kaur and Devinderjit Kaur, Mandeep’s mother, watched the women’s matches as nail-bitingly as they did those of their boys.Manpreet and Baljeet Kaur, lovingly called Balli, are good friends and batchmates who worked and played together for decades, back when the men’s junior team won the Junior World Cup at Lucknow in 2016, at a time when Congress leader Pargat Singh was Director, Sports, Punjab.It’s the same 2016 junior hockey batch that locals say laid the foundation for this generation of hockey greats, including Manpreet and Mandeep, at Mithapur. Other Mithapur contemporaries include Olympian Varun Kumar, Talwinder Singh and Prabhdeep, who played junior hockey.Manjit Kaur further added, “Girls aren’t yet on Mithapur fields, but it’s necessary. The boys must say, ‘Bachiyon chalo tusi vi aao maidaan vich’ (Girls, you also come to the fields). Manpreet and Mandeep must do this and I believe they will.”Coach Balwinder Singh credits Mithapur’s hockey legacy Balwinder Singh, an FIH Level 3 coach and a technical official with Hockey India who has coached students at Mithapur for years, said, “Pargat Singh inspired Manpreet and Mandeep and others. Now Manpreet and Mandeep inspire a host of others. It was under Pargat Singh’s tenure as Sports Director and under his hockey models in the 2000s that an entire current generation of players was readied – Manpreet, Mandeep and Baljit are all products of that era. Now Manpreet and Mandeep, in turn, inspire future generations.“While hard work paid dividends for men’s hockey, we were awaiting a breakthrough for women’s hockey for years. It has come this year, hence we are happier about the girls. Presently, 11 players from Mithapur are in different academies – a very high percentage of Mithapur’s students are becoming skilled hockey players.“Udita Duhan has been a phenomenal presence on the grounds. She coaches students morning and evening, and now the Mithapur village, under Hockey Club president Amrik Powar, is planning greater forays for the Mithapur girls. We are hence truly celebrating the twin hockey wins this year.”