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Indian rallyists win European Rally Championship, ERC 3 category
This is the first time the duo has won the coveted championship
The Indian rallyist team, comprising Amitrrajit Ghosh of Kolkata and Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru, on Sunday won the European Rally Championship, ERC 3 category, at Athens in Greece organised by the Federation of Internationale de l’automobile (FIA).
A release here said it was the first time that the Indian rally duo has won the coveted European Rally Championship. The debutantes Ghosh-Naik drove a Ford Fiesta R2.
The event for the Indian duo was sponsored by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management of Kolkata and Pana, a Mangaluru-based Educational conglomerate.
Quoting Mr. Ghosh and Mr. Naik, the release said it was the first time that any Indian team has made it to the top slot. The European rallyists and the FIA were awed by the victory. The international rally scenario for Indian drivers would not be the same any more as Amit-Ashwin duo have just raised the benchmark, the release said.
Congratulating the duo, Chairman of Pana educational group Prasad Hegde said the Amit-Ashwin team have brought laurels to the country and Pana group is extremely happy with the results.
This was also the first international event that any Mangaluru-based organisation has sponsored.
The Indian duo, who scripted début victory, were leading in their class right from the day one of the three-day rally that passed through some torturous terrain.
Mr. Ghosh, an ace driver was ably co-driven by Mr. Naik and his immense experience left no ambiguity about this victory when they started for the last leg on Sunday.
The release quoted them as saying, “We both drove with safety on top of our mind which gave us confidence right from the word go. We just had to bring the car to the ramp in one piece which we did with great aplomb.”
It quoted Mr. Ghosh as saying, “I and Ashwin knew that we were racing with an older generation of Ford Fiesta R2. Our goal was always to finish the rally with honourable points but we did it by winning the ERC 3 on the top slot which is so fulfilling.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – June 07th, 2018
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Members swing it on Tolly greens
The Tollygunge Club hosted a golf tournament recently that saw around 90 members and guests, including a few industrialists and corporate honchos, swinging it in style on the club’s lush green course.
Dinesh Agarwal, one of the participants, said, “It’s always lovely to play on the beautiful course of the club. We braved this hot weather and put up a healthy competition. It was great fun teaming up and golfing with so many corporate executives.”
Some of the winners of the tournament were Siddharth Bansal, Karan Singh, Sharad Jhawar, Sanjay Goenka and Pratik Lakhotia.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News / by Srishti Dasgupta / TNN / June 01st, 2018
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Federer inspires fangirl’s charity
Visits to Wimbledon every year and foundation to sponsor local talent
Chowringhee:
Roger Federer’s philanthropy spurs Calcuttan Sunita Sigtia as much as the magic of his tennis that takes her to Wimbledon every year to watch him play. Her not-for-profit organisation SiiRF, established 10 months ago, stands for “Some Immensely Inspired Roger (Federer) Fans”.
SiiRF was born on August 8, the champion’s birthday, and has since sponsored two young talents who had been struggling to continue in their chosen sport because of financial reasons.
For Sunita, who has met Federer on many occasions, SiiRF is now a mission only matched by her admiration for the legend. “My charity is inspired by Roger….The lesson I have learnt from him is that you have to give something back to society in whatever way possible. My dream is to associate him, even if in a small way, with my foundation,” she told Metro.
Sunita, who is in her 40s, runs a fabrics business. Tennis, Federer and charity – not necessarily in that order – help maintain the work-life balance that she seeks.
One of the two sportspersons Sunita has set out to help is Amit Rawat, the son of a cobbler and a domestic help. Amit, who grew up in a slum in Beniapukur, learnt to play tennis while working as a ball boy at Calcutta International Club and got so good at it that he caught the eye of a coach.
Sunita’s foundation has arranged a brand new kit for him. She also recently sent him to a tennis academy in Pune for six weeks of training. “Amit has done well on the Calcutta circuit, but the next two years are crucial,” she said.
Bristy Mukherjee, the 14-year-old girl who won a silver medal at the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Thailand last month, has also benefited from Sunita’s sponsorship. The teenager’s mother had mortgaged her jewellery to send her to the event. SiiRF has now pledged financial and other support to Bristy for future tournaments.
Sunita, who has “RF” tattooed on her neck and his signature on her forearm, is the Indian face of Fans4Roger, the official fan club of the legend. She had first seen her idol up close in June 2008, when she was visiting London for a house-warming at New Malden, around 5km from Wimbledon. “The house-warming was the official reason for the trip, but I knew I had to visit the All England Club,” she said.
Wimbledon queues are long. For one of the show-court tickets, thousands of fans camp overnight. People in these queues bring tents, folding chairs and rainwear, among other things. Sunita only had an umbrella and it started raining heavily that night. “I was freezing. Another man offered me shelter in his camp,” she recalled.
Visiting Wimbledon has since been an annual ritual. Before each Grand Slam, Federer is presented with the Red Envelope, a collection of good-luck messages from fans across the world. Delivering the envelope to the legend is considered the highest possible honour for a Federer fan. Sunita did so at Wimbledon 2011, wrapping the envelope in silk fabric with RF inscribed in zardosi. “He simply loved it,” she said, beaming at the thought.
Federer’s charity, the Roger Federer Foundation, is involved in more than a dozen educational projects benefiting lakhs of African children in countries like Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
As one of the privileged fans who get to travel each year to London, Paris, Melbourne and New York to get a glimpse of their idol, Sunita believes the best tribute to “the best tennis player ever” would be to emulate his spirit of giving.
Federer might say: “Roger that.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mitra / May 30th, 2018
Student on pad mission
Calcutta:
Sobhan Mukherjee of Bansdroni has been breaking many stereotypes.
Since last year, the postgraduate student of geography at Asutosh College been spending over Rs 11,000 a month to stock up sanitary napkins at public toilets to promote menstrual hygiene. Till now, he has stocked up 30 toilets with 100 sanitary pads.
“I buy branded pads for Rs 3 and sell them at CMC’s pay-and-use toilets for Rs 2,” said the student who procures fund for his Bandhan Sanitary Napkin Project by running a little magazine. Some of the areas he has covered include Bansdroni, Golpark, Garia and Sonarpur.
On Monday, he was part of a campaign organised by Unicef to mark Menstrual Hygiene Day. #LetsTalkAboutPeriods saw government officials, activists and enthusiasts joining hands to break the culture of silence and promote menstrual hygiene.
The campaign aims to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene through various media. It also plans to engage all sections of society in discussions to break myths and taboos surrounding the menstrual cycle.
“When I found my friend so uncomfortable and distressed to talk about the issue, I realised I needed to do something to break the stereotype,” said Sobhan, who is also pursuing health studies at Indian Institute For Health Training.
He now wants to build a team of young boys and girls who will reach out to villages where menstrual health is a bigger issue. “Let boys and girls of a particular village fund their own Bandhan Sanitary Napkin project. I need to build a self-sustaining model,” he added.
As of now, around 40 per cent of girls in Bengal are using sanitary pads, said Sonali Datta Ray, joint secretary in the panchayat and rural development department. “There are sanitary napkin incinerator in around 12 per cent schools and vending machines in around eight per cent schools in rural areas,” said Datta Ray, who was part of a panel discussion on breaking myths.
Burdwan, Purulia and Nadia are some of the districts that are forerunners in the effort. “Here the schools, panchayats and the health department are working in tandem to promote safe hygiene among students,” she added.
“We need to focus on sensitising men and encourage them to talk about the issue,” added Dibyendu Sarkar, additional secretary in the panchayat and rural development department and another participant in the panel discussion.
Other participants included Ananya Chakraborti, chairperson of West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and Choten Lama, secretary of panchayat and rural development.
“When you pair lack of awareness with cultural barriers, there is a higher risk of girls using unsanitary material, not taking the proper diet, not recognising any irregularity in their menstrual cycle and thus inviting health complications,” added Mohammad Mohiuddin, Unicef chief in Bengal.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Chandreyee Ghose / May 29th, 2018