My mother who won golf competitions in a sari

By Mita Bordoloi

My mother, Meera Phookan was the only woman in Digboi, Assam who played golf in a sari. Her cotton sari often brought home bonguti (chorkanta, spear-grass) that needed to be removed meticulously by hand, by our nanny.

An avid golfer in the 1960s and 1970s along with my father, Jagadish Phookan, the public relations head of Assam Oil Company, both were the first Indian ladies and gents golf secretaries of Digboi Golf Club.

My father was also the first Indian Golf Captain. Many British oil executives who were golfers had traditionally held these responsibilities before them.

Star cast

Some of my mother’s golf buddies were Mrs. Jamuna Chakraborty, captain, Mrs. Romola Sen, Mrs. Sam Weller and Mrs. Jean Beven. They practiced at the tough 18-hole Digboi golf course rain or shine, then went on winning competitions in Digboi, Zaloni and planters’ clubs.

Mrs. Sita Rawley, who later played in the Digboi golf course went on to win the Arjuna Award afterwards.

Sometimes wild elephants lurked around a certain hole in Digboi and at other times the caddy would pluck and drop outenga or elephant fruits into my mother’s golf bag that would manifest into a dish at our dinner table that night.

Winning silver trophies, napkin holders and serving spoons in Digboi and neighbouring clubs, my mother once played the game in Delhi with India’s Vice-President and his wife and my father, as a double-couple. Their son, a tea-planter in Assam, was the common link.

My golfer mother passed away in her sleep in early 2020 at 87. Certainly, the relics of her trophies will remain as passed-down heirlooms, and her teeing-off swings and putterings in cotton saris forever etched in our memories.

(Mita Bordoloi was born in the Brahmaputra Valley but now lives near the Mississippi. She grew up with golfer parents by the Digboi golf course but never played the game. She did attent a golf workshop conducted by a caddy-turned-golfer flown in from Calcutta when her father was the golf secretary. Mita is also the author of several books on the flora, fauna and culture of her native Assam including Bulbuli’s Bamboo, Bumoni’s Banana Trees and the Raiding Wild Elephants, The Tiger Mom, The Queen’s Game, and Phuleswori: The Flower Princess).

Also read: Did you know these few interesting facts about golf?