Sagarika: Pool blazer

Sabang, Nov. 28: Sagarika Hazra, a 19-year-old from a remote West Midnapore village, finds it difficult to walk with her multiple disabilities.

But she is a mermaid in the pool and has achieved for her country what others with none of her so-called handicaps have — a gold.

The girl from Srirampur also won silvers at the Special Olympics in Shanghai.

People from faraway villages troop down to her two-room, mud-walled house for a look at her — the disbelief about her achievement all too apparent, but a box of sweets or a bunch of flowers in their hands.

The games were held between October 2 and 11.

“There were 11 physically challenged contestants from Bengal. Sagarika’s performance was the best,” said Lila Bardhan, the Bengal area director of Special Olympics.

Sagarika’s father Rabin- dranath sells maadur (mats) in Orissa. “I earn about Rs 2,000 a month. I manage to send only about half the money home. I’m proud of my daughter,” Rabindranath started weeping as he spoke.

Sagarika’s mother Durgarani earns Rs 300 a month as a maid. “What can I say, she is a gift of God,” the mother said.

When Sagarika was one-and-a-half years old, she was afflicted with typhoid and bronchitis at the same time.

“Our daughter learnt to fight in life early. The doctors cured her, but we realised later that she had lost the power to hear or speak. As she grew up, we found that she had also become mentally challenged,” said Rabindranath.

He came to know about a school for the deaf and mute five years ago. Sagarika learnt to swim in a pond attached to Ramkrishnayan Association in East Midnapore’s Moyna.

“We neither have a pool nor a games teacher. We saw Sagarika swimming in the school pond and thought she swims well. We gave her whatever training we could and sent her to the 2005 state meet in Calcutta,” said Ritesh Mitra, a crafts teacher.

The state sports authorities were attracted by her swimming abilities and included her in the team that went to the nationals in Mumbai. “There she came under the guidance of professional coaches and mastered the freestyle and backstroke,” Mitra added.

The state sports authority paid for her trip to Shanghai.

Durgarani still hopes that her daughter will someday be able to hear the adulation heaped on her and say thank you. “A doctor once told me that a machine could make that possible,” she said, referring to a hearing aid.

“If she can hear, she can also learn to speak. But the doctor told me the machine costs Rs 10,000. Where will I get so much money?”

Sagarika goes to sleep with her gold and silvers under her pillow.