It’s difficult to split between personal and professional life, says Heena Sidhu

Heena won the Commonwealth gold in the 10m air pistol event last year. She was also the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation (she achieved this feat on April 7, 2014). However, the 29-year-old has a hard time splitting up her professional and personal life that she shares with her husband, Ronak. 

“It’s difficult sometimes. Professionally, everything is great but sometimes the personal life gets affected because we bring work home. We are at the range for so long that we keep talking about the same things. So, when we come back home, it’s difficult to let go. Ronak’s dad is also a shooter so when he is there, we don’t know what else to talk about. So, personal life does get affected, I’d say,” Heena told TNN, reported TOI.

However, the couple has devised a mechanism by which they can keep their partnership at home going. 

“Honestly, for that to happen, Ronak and I have to get away from each other briefly. With other couples, they go to work and then look forward to coming home to each other. But we spend the days together, too. So, in order to look forward to spending time with each other, we have to go our own ways every once in a while. Maybe I’ll go to the jungle while he goes somewhere with his friends. Eventually, we start missing each other and then when we get back, we don’t talk about shooting,” she said.

In her time off from her husband Ronak, who is also a Commonwealth champion himself, Heena takes to the woods to unwind. However, with several trips to the forest, she has now developed a small-time hobby. 

“When I’m tired, I find that the best way to relax is to get away from the hustle-bustle of the city, take a break from social media and head to the forests. You don’t get anything there, not even the newspaper. I was not into wildlife photography, honestly. I used to simply like going to the jungles. But then when you see such beautiful animals and landscapes, you always wish you had a camera. So, because of my travels, I started taking an interest in photography,” Heena added.

These days, in a break from everything related to shooting, she is visiting a shooting range in a private university in Faridabad. However, she wasn’t practising nor did she want any talk about shooting. Instead her thoughts are about Super 30, which she recently saw with her husband.

“Finally, I got time to go for a movie. Before that, the last movie I had seen was Avengers: Infinity War last year. I don’t get a lot of time but I do watch a lot of TV series because you have time at home. But you don’t want to get ready and go out,” Heena added.