A 19-year-old whose mother sold her harmonium to buy his first table tennis kit has been the state champion in the game for two years in a row.
Anirban Ghosh spends more than four hours travelling from his Naihati home to a Cossipore club for practice everyday. The journey home in a crowded local train is particularly taxing after a long day’s practice.
The teenager’s father played para cricket to run the family before setting up a mini-recharge shop near Naihati station five years ago. The financial worries of Abhijit, 54, and wife Kakali, 46, have somewhat abated because of a sports stipend of Rs 18,000 that their son has been getting from the Airports Authority of India since last year.
Anirban won the state championships in both the youth (U-21) and men’s categories in 2016 and did an encore this year.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mitra / December 21st, 2017
A mountaineer from Kolkata completed the rare feat of scaling nine peaks, including the Seven Summits (the highest peaks of each of the seven continents), on Saturday. Software engineer Satyarup Siddhanta, 34, climbed Mt Vinson in Antarctica shortly after 9am (local time) – his ninth summit since 2012.
An asthma patient who has never had any formal training in mountaineering, Siddhanta climbed the Everest in 2016. He has also scaled Mt Albrus, Mt Aconcagua, Mt Kilimanjaro, Puncak Jaya and Mt Denali. These apart, Siddhanta has also climbed Mont Blanc and Carsten’s Pyramid in Pappua New Guinea – the highest point in the Australian continent.
A resident of Kalitala Housing in Thakurpukur, Siddhanta is now based in Bangalore. According to his fellow climber Rudraprasad Haldar, Siddhanta once went to the Everest Base Camp and was inspired to begin his mountaineering journey, though he had no training. “It changed him forever and he decided to climb the Seven Summits,” said Haldar. Siddhanta’s website, however, mentions that he is a certified mountaineer from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling.
He overcame asthma which could have been a major barrier. “I realized I needed to reduce my dependency on inhalers when I was in college. I was also allergic to food items which triggered asthma. I struggled for years, continuously challenging myself by avoiding inhalers and consuming the food I was allergic to, without taking anti-allergic medicines,” Siddhanta wrote on his website.
But he didn’t give up. “I wanted to push limits to see how far I could go. Finally, with exercises, discipline, diet and some considerable will power and determination, I got rid of asthma,” he wrote.
His mother Gayatri, a homemaker, stayed up all night on Friday, following his march to the peak of Vinson.
“I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was more relieved than happy when he finally reached the summit,” she said. Siddhanta’s father Subhamoy is a doctor.
Gayatri said Siddhanta received funds from a few corporates for the climb. “He also auctioned some of his belongings and took a loan of Rs 30 lakh,” she added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.inditimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Monotosh Chakraborty / TNN / December 17th, 2017
Neighbours and friends still cannot get over the sudden death of veteran cricketer Srirupa Bose. She was found lying in a pool of blood after collapsing in her GC Block house on November 30.
According to sources, a journalist had come to take her interview and she asked her to wait downstairs as she went up to her first floor bathroom. When a long time passed, the journalist got anxious and asked the domestic help to look for her.
“We were alerted by cries for help of the domestic help. Boys from a nearby chemist shop as well as a local doctor rushed. We took her to AMRI,” recalls Saktidhara Saha, a former volleyball player who lives just a house away and knew her since 1972.
She was 66, and is survived by husband Pareshnath Mukherjee, a former Bengal Olympic Association president, and daughter, Amrita Mukherjee, a tennis player.
“Her life revolved around her daughter for the last 15 years. She travelled with her all around the country and abroad,” recalled Sujoy Kumar Ghosh, chief operating officer of neighbouring Bengal Tennis Association where Amrita plays her tennis. “In fact, they had just come back from Indore and were supposed to travel to Sholapur for a tournament that evening.”
Ghosh, who knew Bose since 2003 when BTA came into being and Amrita enrolled there, also recalled the wide contacts she had in the sporting world. “She brought (1987 Wimbledon champion) Pat Cash to hold a four-day workshop here at BTA. Even this year, mother and daughter went to Wimbledon to watch the tournament.”
She was full of life. “Once we held a carnival at BTA and two of us were supposed to sing Jamaica farewell on stage. She joined us.”
Srirupa had told The Telegraph Salt Lake in an interview in 2005 how she had started with hockey and basketball at Calcutta Rangers Club in 1971 and then shifted to cricket.
“She was the first captain of the Bengal women’s cricket team,” says Gargi Banerji who played under her from 1976 to 1984. “Bengal was the national champion for seven years during that time,” she says.
Banerji recalled Bose being a shrewd captain who always knew how to bring out the best from the players without being demanding. “She was very disciplined and like a mother to us.” Bose later became India captain, the chairperson of the national selection commitee and team manager— all when women’s cricket was run by Women’s Cricket Association of India. She took charge as assistant director at Sports Authority of India after she quit railways.
Her sradh ceremony will be held on Sunday and a memorial service on Monday.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / December 08th, 2017
(From left) Md Rahmat Ali and Sanglap Bose practise in Rabindra Sarobar. (Sanat Kr Sinha)
Rabindra Sarobar:
Two teenage rowers from Calcutta have ended a seven-year wait for Bengal by winning bronze in the junior national championships.
Sanglap Bose, 16, and Md Rahmat Ali, 15, finished third, missing out on silver by two seconds and gold by six.
The 38th edition of the event was held in Odisha’s Jagatpur between November 14 and 19.
The last time any male rower from Bengal made it to the podium in the junior nationals was in 2010 when Kapil Pincha won bronze in single sculls in Hyderabad in 2010.
“We finished first in the heats but couldn’t hold on to our nerves in the finals,” Bose, a Class XI student of Julien Day School, Bhowanipore, said.
The team completed the race in 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Telangana came first, followed by Madhya Pradesh.
Bose and Ali , a Class X student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballygunge, practise at the Bengal Rowing Club.
“Junior nationals are more competitive than the sub-juniors. The 1km watercourse is a big challenge for our rowers because all watercourses in Calcutta are smaller,” Rajesh Agarwal, rowing captain, Bengal Rowing Club, said.
The teens had been preparing for the tournament since July. They practised early morning and in the evening.
In the pairs, two rowers have an oar each, compared to double sculls where each rower has two oars. “You need a certain level of physical strength to do well in pairs. The hours at the gym are as important as the practice sessions on water,” Agarwal said.
A low carbohydrate protein rich diet and a complete bar on junk food was also part of the preparations.
Ali stands at 5 feet 7 inches and weighs 52kg. Bose is 5’5″ and weighs 63kg.
“The immediate reaction after the race was that of disappointment. But we badly wanted a medal. We had aerated drinks after six months to celebrate the podium finish,” Ali said. His rowing career started at the club in 2014, a year after Bose had joined the club.
The two rowed together for the first time in 2016 and won gold in the state championships held at the club in January. They followed it up with gold in double sculls in the national sub-juniors in Chennai in June. “They keep pulling each other’s leg but on a boat they complement each other perfectly,” Agarwal said.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mirta / December 02nd, 2017
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for successfully organising the matches at various stages and the final of the Under-17 World Cup last month.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino. (Getty Images)
Kolkata:
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for successfully organising the matches at various stages and the final of the Under-17 World Cup last month.
In a letter from FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Infantino also praised Banerjee for the way the tournament was hosted at the Salt Lake Stadium including the final.
“I would like to congratulate your government on its role in your country’s successful hosting of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. I would also like to thank you on behalf of the entire FIFA delegation for affording us such a cordial welcome and warm hospitality,” he wrote to Banerjee.
The FIFA president also praised Banerjee’s vision about the game in breaking down the cultural and social barriers and making the game accessible to all.
He also thanked the West Bengal government for the development of football and promoting the values of the game in India.
Promising all assistance from FIFA in developing the game in the region, Infantino lauded Banerjee for deciding on providing 15-acre of land to the AIFF for the National Centre of Excellence for Football near here.
The Salt Lake Stadium here had hosted 11 matches of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, including the final. Kolkata co-hosted the mega event along with New Delhi, Guwahati, Navi Mumbai, Kochi and Margao.
source: http://www.news18.com / News18.com / Home> Football / PTI / November 04th, 2017
A record crowd at the Salt Lake stadium witnessed a record number of goals on Saturday. India took over as the most attended Fifa Under-17 World Cup venue ever, even as it witnessed 183 goals in the tournament, seven of which came in the final match between England and Spain, the highest ever in the history of a final in the tournament.
The stadium was packed to capacity on Saturday.
The stadium clocked an attendance of 66,684, just three short of the most that could be accommodated by the stadium. The players too acknowledged the support that the crowd showed. The tournament’s highest goal scorer, Rhian Brewster, wrapped the English flag around him and bowed to the spectators with folded hands after the end of the match.
As the final ended, the total number of spectators who turned up at the six host venues across the country stood at 13,47,143, beating the previous best of 12,31,000 recorded in the very first edition of the tournament in China in 1985. With two goals in the Brazil-Mali match and seven goals in the final, the tally of the tournament stood at 183 — 11 more than what was scored in the 2013 edition of the tournament in UAE. The final match tally of seven goals was also the highest, beating the previous record of five goals between Brazil and Ghana in 1997.
“This was like a dream come true. What a match and what an ambiance at the stadium. I am so glad that we could manage to get tickets to the game,” said Priyanka Agarwal, a banker who came for the match with her husband and son.
So enthralled was the crowd that almost none left even after England won the match 5-2. They stayed back for the next 30 minutes for the presentation ceremony where awards of Golden Boot, Golden Ball, Golden Gloves and the all important cup was handed over to the winners in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and India captain Sunil Chhetri.
While 56,432 spectators had come in for the first match between Brazil and Mali, the count shot up immediately at the start of the second and final match. Among the several noted expats, director of Mali Football Association Cheickna Demba was the toast of the crowd as he ran about along the stands, shouting “Mali! Mali!” to drum up support for the African players. The spectators, though largely Brazil supporters, were soon chanting in tune with Demba. Though the team lost 2-0 to Brazil, the Mali fan club won the hearts of Kolkatans in the stands.
Saturday had a different mix of spectators compared to other days — there were a lot of first-timers. Many were not even football fans, but were at the stadium to enjoy the essence of witnessing a mega sporting event . “We have never been to a stadium before. The atmosphere out here is just crazy. The stadium has made me a fan of the game and I will come back again,” said Army Hospital oncologist Shweta Sharma.
While Brazil garnered more support from the fans in the first match, the crowd support was evenly distributed between England and Spain in the final match. But as England ultimately won the game 5-2, the entire stadium started cheering for the team. “England are the new home team for Kolkata. This was their sixth match in Kolkata and I have seen them win all of them from difficult situations. Today they were at their best,” said Debabrata Mukherjee, a Spain fan who swears by Barcelona, but admitted to have ended up cheering for the English team on Saturday.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Dwaipayan Ghosh and Tamaghna Banerjee / TNN / October 29th, 2017
Team Chingrihata I with the winner’s trophy on Sunday. Picture by Arnab Mondal
At 23, Kripa Oraon is a trailblazer. A rugby player herself, she has helped reach the sport to more and more girls in and around Saraswatipur, a small village in New Jalpaiguri.
Maidan: Kripa is one of the 30 girl community young leaders of Jungle Crows Foundation who eat, drink and sleep rugby and defy all odds to rewrite their own life stories and others’.
On Sunday morning, the girl gang proved they are not only good players but also good organisers as they held an under-14 Tag Rugby Festival to celebrate the UN’s International Day of the Girl Child (October 11) at Crow Field on the Maidan.
“From planning to execution, the girls did it all. This is the first time the tournament has been organised entirely by them,” said Nidhi Ghelani, project manager, Khelo Rugby – a sports-for-development project by Jungle Crows.
“We have proved that given the opportunity girls can do everything. I have organised tournaments in Saraswatipur before. So I was confident that I would be able to do it,” said Kripa, who has been playing rugby since 2013 when Khelo Rugby first reached her village. She was responsible for officiating all big matches, including the final.
Twenty teams comprising 280 girls from locations where Khelo Rugby has a presence took part in the competition. Two teams from Chingrihata – Chingrihata I and Chingrihata II – reached the final and Chingrihata I won 6-4 after a tough clash.
“I joined Khelo Rugby just eight months ago and I never imagined I would be a part of the champion side in such a short time. It was great fun,” said Ruma Mondal, a Class VI student of Sukantanagar Vidyaniketan, who dreams of playing rugby professionally and making her father, a rickshaw puller, proud.
Bikash Paswan, the Jungle Crows coach who trains the Chingrihata girls, sees “great potential” in Ruma. “She is a fast learner,” he said.
Paul Walsh, the founder of Jungle Crows, was excited to see “so many girls playing rugby and having fun”. “The Chingrihata girls were absolutely fantastic. It shows how much hard work they have put in,” he said.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Ayan Paul / Monday – October 23rd, 2017
Koustav Chatterjee with Dibyendu Barua. (Debraj Mitra)
Tollygunge:
A 14-year-old boy from Regent Estate, who loves watching superhero films, has won silver in the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship.
Koustav Chatterjee, a student of Garden High School, was leading the table for most of the U-15 tournament, held between October 1 and 9 at Ahmedabad. His score was tied with Sankalp Gupta of Maharashtra, who went on to win the championship because of a better tie-break score.
This is the second consecutive year that Koustav missed out on gold in the sub-junior nationals. “Last year he lost by a narrow margin, too,” his father Kalyan Chatterjee said.
Kalyan, 52, introduced Koustav to chess in 2010. “He had a great memory. He could remember all 52 cards in a pack at the age of 5,” the private tutor said. Koustav’s mother Babita is a state government employee posted at Bikash Bhavan.
The boy started training at a Dhakuria institute at the age of seven and joined Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy in 2015. The same year he won gold at the 2015 Commonwealth championships in Delhi in the U-12 category.
“Koustav has a great temperament. He is one of the best young players in the state,” said Atanu Lahiri, the general secretary of the Bengal Chess Association, who has seen Koustav from close quarters over the years.
“He tends to get overconfident at times. Otherwise, he is grandmaster material.”
Koustav’s favourite player is Anatoly Karpov, the Russian grandmaster and former world champion. “From the current lot, I like Magnus Carlsen, who practises three to four hours a day. I love studying openings of Karpov and Carlsen on my computer,” said the teenager whose favourite subjects are math and chemistry.
When Koustav is not playing chess, he loves watching superhero films and TV series. From the Star Wars to Marvel’s The Defenders, his list is quite exhaustive. Luke Skywalker and Wolverine are his favourite characters.
Koustav also loves collecting coins. The most valuable item in his collection is the Uruguayan Peso, which he collected in Montevideo when he went there to participate in the World Youth Chess Championship in September. “I could not win a medal but playing against international players was a great learning experience,” he told Metro.
By virtue of finishing second in the sub-junior nationals, Kosutav has secured a berth in two international tournaments in 2018, the World Youth Chess Championship in Georgia and the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Thailand. “I don’t want to lose focus in the big stage,” said Koustav.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mitra / Thursday – October 19th, 2017
The stage is set for the 66,000-capacity Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake to host 10 matches of the Fifa Under 17 World Cup in the city. The event kicks off in Kolkata with two matches on Sunday— the first between England and Chile and the second between Iraq and Mexico.
DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha visited the stadium on Saturday afternoon along with senior officials to take a stock of the security, parking and other arrangements to ensure a hassle-free experience for spectators, including the foreigners who will turn up to witness the matches. Tickets for the matches on Sunday have already been sold out.
“The security inside and outside the stadium is perfectly in place and everything has been done in close coordination with Kolkata Police. There will be directional signs and a good number of police assistance booths for the spectators. All the departments under the state government have worked hand in hand to ensure the best of facilities inside and outside the stadium for the spectators,” Kar Purkayastha said.
Commissioner of Bidhannagar City Police Gyanwant Singh had said a few days back that the police have chalked out a detailed evacuation plan through which the entire stadium full to its capacity can be evacuated in eight minutes in case of any emergency. “We don’t want to take any risk in view of the global situation. So we have prepared for all crisis situations. The emergency evacuation plan we have formulated will ensure there is no stampede.”
Spectators would not be allowed to carry anything apart from their mobile phones while women could additionally carry a purse, but after it is checked.Water bottles, newspapers, bags, helmets or containers of any kind, including aerosol cans and spray, will not be allowed.
A total of 3,000 cops — including 35 officers of SP and ASP rank and 60 lower ranked officers — would be on duty. No goods vehicles will be allowed to ply from 7 am to 11.30 pm in the roads, lanes and areas under Kolkata airport, Baguihati, Lake Town, New Town, Rajarhat and the entire Bidhannagar area.
The doors of the stadium would be opened two hours prior to the start of the day’s first match and all spectators will be frisked. Tickets would also be scanned. There will be 110 door frame metal detectors as checking points, with 260 closed circuit TVs deployed at all nook and corner of the stadium to keep vigil.
There will be adequate parking arrangements and everybody is requested to park at the designated parking area. Bidhannagar City Police has provided a link in its website putting the details of the parking & traffic circulation plan along with do’s and don’t’s for facilitating the spectators.
source: http://www.millenniumpost.in / Millennium Post / Home> Kolkata / by Soumitra Nandi / October 07th, 2017
Arpita Mukherjee, who won gold in the under-20 Commonwealth Chess Championships in Delhi this month. Picture by Mayukh Sengupta @Byline: Debraj Mitra
A 16-year-old Dum Dum girl has made a career gambit out of a “distraction” once employed by her parents to get her to swallow her medicine.
Arpita Mukherjee won gold in the under-20 Commonwealth Chess Championships in Delhi this month, an achievement pieced together after several years of dominating performances in state and national championships across age groups. A Class X student at Shahid Rameshwar Balika Vidyamandir in Dum Dum, she sees her first international victory as the turning point in her career.
“I had been losing crucial matches from favourable positions. Not being able to hold my nerves is a failing that I seem to have finally overcome,” said Arpita, whose father Partha gives chess lessons to children for a living.
The teenager looks up to chess stalwarts Magnus Carlsen and Judit Polgar for inspiration and trains at the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy. Her top goal is to become a Grandmaster.
“There was never any doubt about Arpita’s talent. But she had a confidence problem. Winning the Commonwealth gold will settle her nerves,” Barua told Metro.
For Arpita, this competition had been all about not crumbling under the weight of expectations. A few months before the Commonwealth Games, she had started meditating to get into the right frame of mind. She finished the tournament undefeated, winning five games and drawing two.
“I won at least a couple of close matches that could have gone either way. My concentration did not slip,” Arpita recounted.
Arpita’s first big year in chess was 2008, when she was just seven years old but skilled enough to defeat several higher-seeded players at the Telegraph School Chess competition. The same year, she won the state championship in the under-8 category.
In 2009, Arpita won silver at the Asian Youth Championships in Delhi. A bronze in the under-9 section of the national championships in Chennai followed. Since then, she has consistently earned medals in successive state and national tournaments, including bronze in both the under-17 and under-19 categories of the 2016 nationals.
Arpita, much more confident after her Commonwealth success, aims to become a Women International Master (WIM) soon. “I have one WIM norm. I need two more to get the rank,” she said.
Arpita attributes her success to her father, with whom she plays “mind chess” after dinner every day. Having Grandmaster Barua as a mentor has also been a big advantage. But getting sponsors is proving to be difficult.
The teenager had been selected to represent India in the under-20 Asian Championships in Tehran in May but could not go. “I needed to arrange more than Rs 1 lakh, which I could not do. Arpita had to cancel her trip,” Partha said.
A relative gifted her a laptop last year. “It has helped me a lot – playing with the computer regularly,” she said.
What message do you have for Arpita? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / Friday – July 28th, 2017
