It was initially difficult for her parents to accept that she has grown larger than they ever imagined. They always wanted her to do something unique so that her name would feature in the newspapers and her pictures would appear everywhere. But a chance in the Olympics? Needless to mention that very news would set anyone’s head spinning. In her growing up phase, former world number one Deepika Kumari witnessed her parents struggle to make ends meet. She saw her father work as an auto-rickshaw driver. But things started to change for the better when she was able to enroll in a state-run archery institution that gave poor athletes free access to training facilities and gear. It is very astounding to witness someone who used bamboo equipment to practice archery, achieve the highest level in the sport. It's exactly what Deepika Kumari has done. The tale of the champion archer from a town named Ratu Chatti in Ranchi, Jharkhand, is quite amazing. She has made it to the Olympics thrice and has won several medals in World Cups, Asian Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games. As Franklin D. Roosevelt put it, ‘The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today’. Self-doubt is a dangerous thing. It impedes one’s progress. Only when one starts believing in oneself, she or he can move forward. In a far-off village, young Jyotsna unexpectedly stumbles upon archery! With her mother's mistrust of the game on one hand, and her father's unwavering confidence on the other, Jyotsna fell in love with the game in no time. She started to hope that she would play this game and one day would represent her nation internationally. Jyotsna believes that ‘you lose, when you give up the fight.’ Archery is an expensive sport. Where can she find the best training? A novel set against the backdrop of a game, Kaushik Pal's Tirandaj becomes the tale of an unbreakable spirit. Will she be able to make it ultimately? To access the best books of Ananda publishers do log in to www.anandapub.in and and buy all Bengali books online.
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