Students of Ranchi Women’s College display karate skills in Ranchi on Friday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, June 6: The summer vacation is about to end soon but for city girls it was far from boring.

The summer camp organised by the students’ union of Ranchi Women’s College promised a lot of fun and activities. And it delivered, too.

The camp was conducted between May 20 and June 5 and saw 200 girls taking lessons in spoken English and personality development.

Odissi classes attracted around 40 girls while 60 agile participants opted for karate.

The closing ceremony, which concluded today, began with a Kurukh song, a nature song popular among the Oraon tribe, followed by a solo dance performance and karate demonstration.

The vice-chancellor of Ranchi University (RU), A.A. Khan, was the chief guest on the occasion. He was all praises for the girls. “Today, girls need to learn karate for self-defence. It not only ensures safety but also helps in personality development to make them fearless.”

Seeing their skills in karate, he announced that all the girls would be given karate uniforms so that their lessons are not hampered.

Manju Sinha, the principal of the college, was very happy with the announcement.

“Our girls proved that given a chance they can be innovative. They have not wasted the students’ union funds for entertainment and tours. They really deserved this,” she said.

Karate coach Vimal Anand Nag, the technical director of Indian School of Martial Arts (ISMA), was also satisfied with their performance.

“These girls are very talented and some of them really have the potential of making it to the National Games if they are trained,” said the proud trainer.

Four of Nag’s students from ISMA, who also trained the girls in the summer camp, have qualified for the 34th National Games.

Towards the end of the ceremony, Khan distributed prizes to the winners of various competitions organised during the summer camp.

Maumita Banerjee, who had brushed up her English skills in the camp, bagged the first prize for debate, Radha Kumari for essay competition and Lokriti Gupta for extempore, which was organised on June 4.

Kanchan Kumari got the first prize for painting, Nikki for solo dance and Nisha for the mehendi competition. Quiz competitions and antakshari were also organised.

Seeing a massive response to the camp, the college is already thinking of organising a camp every year and continuing with the legacy.