However, a peek into her past reveals more than an ordinary office-goer's. For Kumkum Mondal, a distinguished athlete of the P T Usha-Shiny Abraham-M Valsamma era, her current job is the culmination of a prematurely terminated dream. Of course, when she was at her peak as an athlete, her ambitions were entirely different.

``I could never beat Usha, but I do have some memorable wins over Valsamma,'' the shy lady says. Her events were the 100 mts hurdles, 400 mts hurdles and the 400 mts. ``My favourite was always the 100 mts hurdles.'' In fact, she was the Bengal state champion in the event from 1984 till 1992, when she wasforced to quit athletics. She was about 25 years old then and experts believed that her best was yet to come. However, a chronic knee injury turned out to be a hurdle she could not overcome. ``I had a recurring knee pain since long and towards the end of my career, it increased.''

Doctors said surgery might not help as jumping and running were the necessities of her events. ``They said that the injury might recur even after an operation.'' Quitting at that age was a painful decision, but she had no options.

Mondal had been keen on athletics right from her childhood. She had been competing in state-level meets from a very early age. However, her talents flourished only under the coaching of Sudhir Pal. The Indian Airlines coach took her under his wings in 1984 and coaxed her into taking up the 100 mts hurdles. Results were immediate as she won state title in the event that very year. Later, she took up the 400 mts hurdles and the 400 mts. She even created the state record in the latter event, broken byJyotirmoyee Sikdar recently. She managed 59 seconds in 400 mts hurdles.

Cupid struck while she was coaching under Pal. She had known Ashish Mondal, another state-level athlete of significance, for long. She came to know Ashish better when both trained under Pal. Later in 1995, when her career was over by three long years, they married. Meanwhile, Kumkum Mondal secured a job with South-eastern Railways under the sports quota in 1987. That, she says, was her only gain from athletics. She does not recollect earning too much during her running days. In fact, she had to compromise on her studies due to her love for the sport. ``I was in the Indian camp while in School final,'' she remembers. ``I also could not appear for my higher secondary examinations as I was required to join the national camp.'' That was the end of her academic career.

Now, with athletics well and truly out of her life, Mondal is concentrating on family and office. ``I never wanted to take up coaching,'' she says. Mondal pleads thatrunning the house, working in office and coaching cannot go together. ``I have to compromise somewhere.'' Moreover, a resident of Mankund, about an hour and a half from Calcutta by train, she says it is quite difficult for her to attend training early in the mornings.