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By Paritosh Pramanik
ASHUTOSH Sharma, a digital artist, a visualiser and a photographer from Nagpur, has once again made the city proud after his photograph got selected for the United Nations’ Exhibition to be held on April 6 at Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Every year, United Nations Office of Sports for Development and Peace celebrates International Day of Sports for Development and Peace (IDSDP).
This year the UN organisation launched a campaign ‘We play together’ and invited participants to share a picture on social media that represents for them the power of sport to promote peace, unity and inclusion.
This year, Sharma clicked a photograph of hijab wearing girls from Municipal Urdu Girls School, Kamptee playing football while learning through Slum Soccer’s EduKick initiative.
Sharma sent his entry for the campaign with detailed description of the photograph which got selected for the exhibition.
Sharma’s photograph will now be displayed at the UN’s exhibition on April 6, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
This will be third straight year when Sharma’s work will be appreciated by the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace.
Earlier in 2015, a photograph clicked by Sharma won second best prize in which photographers from all over the world participated.
Last year, Sharma’s photo got selected for the UNESCO’s Poster Competition which had fetched him the second prize.
“I applied for the competition after I came to know about it through UN’s twitter account. I mailed my photograph along with the description. I also mentioned the objective and initiative taken by Slum Soccer,” Sharma told ‘The Hitavada’.
“Slum Soccer’s EduKick focuses on promotion of primary education for children from underprivileged section of the society. The organisation has designed football games in such a way which teaches Mathematical topics such as number system, tables, even and odd numbers, BODMAS and profit and loss,” explained Sharma about the topic of his photograph.
Sharma received a mail from United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace on April 4 stating that his photograph has been selected. “We would like to congratulate you and your great initiative and to let you know that your photo has been selected to be displayed in the photo exhibition on the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on April 6,” the mail read.
Sharma, who is also Proprietor of Ms Mindwings, a creative agency, has also created exclusive portraits of Bollywood stars and also got chance to present the same to them in person.
“I have made portraits of Bollywood legends Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Priety Zinta, Lucky Ali, Rajkumar Hirani and Nita Ambani. I was lucky to hand them those in person,” said an elated Sharma.
Athletics legend Bhau Kane transforms the fragile city hoopster into tough fighter
By Paritosh Pramanik
A PLAYER’S hard work helps him/her to achieve greater heights. But behind that hard work is always a dedicated ‘Guru’ who spots the talent and becomes the guiding force for success in life.
City hoopster Shreya Dandekar, who has been included in the Indian team’s probables list for the Asian School Basketball Championship, too, was spotted by a Guru who made her psychologically and mentally strong which helped her climb the ladder in a very short time.
Shreya, daughter of Harish and Nisha Dandekar, was good in her basketball skills but somehow kept lagging behind in match fitness. Concerned with this, her coaches Dheeraj Kadao and Amit Sampat told her to do running and fitness exercise at University track.
This ‘order’ has changed Shreya’s life.
Shreya and friend Mugdha Amraotkar (another international basketball player from Nagpur) were diligently going through their daily exercises and fitness routine at University ground. One fine day they were spotted by renowned coach Dadoji Konddeo award winner Bhau Kane.
For the first few days, Bhau observed the two girls’ routine and then approached them offering his expertise. The girls were more than happy to become the legendary Guru’s ‘shishya’.
And thus began the unforgettable journey.
Bhau’s training changed city hoopsters’ lives, specially Shreya. The student of Dr Ambedkar College, after training under Bhau for a year, grew in confidence which has now fetched her a place in the India probables list.
“It was last year in 2016 when Shreya and Mugdha started going to University ground for fitness training. Both used to work hard on their fitness, running almost 5-6 kms daily. Bhau first started counselling them. Then he gradually started giving them fitness training,” Nisha, the proud mother of Shreya, told ‘The Hitavada’.
“Actually I think Shreya was too late to meet Bhau Kane.... As it is said a Guru knows his/her Shishya much better than anyone else...in the same way Bhau spotted the talent in Shreya and trained her to this level.”
Looking at the frail structure of Shreya, Bhau stressed on her fitness and muscle building.
“Bhau put stress on Shreya’s fitness. He guided Shreya how she should condition her body and what exercise she should perform which would help her while playing basketball,” said Nisha, herself a kabaddi player during her school days.
“Bhau motivated Shreya psychologically which helped her during her matches. He taught her how to concentrate on achieving goals and how to avoid negativity,” explained Nisha about the training.
There was no particular training session.
“It’s like learn while you play. Bhau has a simple concept....build a player’s psychology. He did the same with Shreya. He gave examples of players like (PV) Sindhu, how she presents herself and how she approaches her game and how psychologically strong she is,” said Nisha.
In one year, Shreya’s confidence level has grown to a surprising level. “After training under Bhau, the major change that I have seen in Shreya is the boost in her confidence level. It has grown tremendously.
“Earlier, she used to miss easy baskets and commit simple mistakes. All those have now gone. She has grown into a much better player and does not repeat the same mistakes,” said Nisha.
Nisha owed her daughter’s success to Bhau and termed the athletics coach as a God for her daughter.
“It’s our luck that we have Bhau as a coach for my daughter. I owe her selection to the efforts put in by Bhau Kane. He is like a God for us. Shreya is at a very delicate stage in life as well as in her sport. From that point of view Bhau has come as a God in our lives and helped Shreya,” she concluded.
State Government grants funds for maintenance of air cooling system, fire safety, transformers at indoor complex
By Paritosh Pramanik
IN A classic case of opportunity in adversity the Divisional Sports Complex situated at Mankapur, off Chhindwara Road, has got a big financial boost from the Maharashtra Government. The State Government has sanctioned Rs 2.25 crore for maintenance and renovation works at the Complex.
Though the financial aid is just for one year, the money has come as a huge relief for the complex. The authorities were finding it really hard to generate funds for maintenance of the complex.
Thanks to the tireless efforts put in by Deputy Director (Sports) Subhash Rewatkar the Complex can now have enough funds for proper maintenance.
Rewatkar had been continuously following up with the state finance department after Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister of Finance, Planning, and Forest Departments, assured him of financial aid for the maintenance and repair works.
Mungantiwar’s assurance came in July last year when the minister got furious over a faulty air conditioner and came to know about the lack of funds.
“It was in the month of July 2016 when the cooling system of the indoor sports complex went out of order during one of the meetings of the Forest Department. It was being attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule among others.
“A furious Mungantiwar had then ordered my suspension but when I informed him that there has been no maintenance of the air cooling system and electricity transformers for years, he assured me to provide funds from his department,” Rewatkar told ‘The Hitavada’.
Rewatkar had been following up the matter since then. But despite assurance the funds did not come easily.
“On the last day of the financial year (March 31, 2017), we were told that our proposal has been rejected. My department contacted Mungantiwar and apprised him about it. Mungantiwar immediately passed the order on the last day of the financial year,” Rewatkar said.
“It is only because Mungantiwar Sir we could get funds. We will now carry out maintenance works of various departments,” he said.
First in the maintenance list would be the air cooling system. “For more than five years there has been no maintenance of air cooling system of indoor complex. We will first take out repair work of it. Then we have to change the fire safety equipment. It is quite old now and has to be replaced,” Rewatkar said.
There are also plans to renovate the hostel building of Krida Prabodhini which is in poor condition.
“A meeting with Divisional Commissioner Anoop Kumar is slated on April 6. All these matters will be discussed and renovation and maintenance work would get green signal,” hoped Rewatkar. The Deputy Director said they were paying a fine of around Rs 50,000 per month due to non-functional and broken cut-outs and other parts of the electric transformers.
“We will start the repair work of these cut-outs and other equipment on war-footing. These are unnecessary fines we are paying to the electricity department. Once we replace the cut-outs, we would be able to save Rs 50,000 per month,” Rewatkar said.
RS 3.5 CR GENERATED LAST FINANCIAL YEAR
The Divisional Sports Complex has generated around Rs 3.5-4 crore last year through providing the indoor complex as well as other open space for various programmes.
“We collected membership money through badminton, boxing, gymnastics, judo, karate, yoga, gymnasium, cricket apart from other cultural and educational programmes at the indoor stadium. Last year, we have generated around Rs 3.5 to 4 crore. This money will be used in maintaining the synthetic track and football lawn ground,” said Rewatkar.
SYNTHETIC TRACK WORK TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED
The work on synthetic track has been temporarily suspended as the authorities as first completing the football ground.
“The Bermuda lawn grass on football field has to be heavily watered first. We are using around 200 water tankers daily for watering the grass. Heavy rolling will be done on the grass for a couple of days and then the grass will be trimmed. After that the last layer and track marking will be done and the synthetic track will be completely ready,” informed Rewatkar.
Rewatkar said water harvesting was the only option during summer days.
READY TO GIVE TRACK FOR WZ JUNIOR
ATHLETICS MEET
The Deputy Director of Sports informed said they would be more than happy if Nagpur District Athletics Association (NDAA) uses its synthetic track for the West Zone Junior Athletics meet in September.
NDAA recently got the hosting rights from state association and national federation and they have planned to hold the meet on synthetic track.
“Till now I have not yet received any letter from (Sharad) Surywanshi (Secretary, NDAA) regarding hosting west zone meet on synthetic track. We are ready to provide the track for the national level meet,” assured Rewatkar.
