Jamshedpur, May 9: Forget going on trips or family vacations, 16-year-old Nisha Kumari has perhaps never stepped beyond her little-known hometown at Kulupatanga in Adityapur, Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
But now that same girl will be going as far as Japan, exploring various sites and locations in the foreign country.
Nisha, who passed matriculation from Kulupatanga High School in Adityapur this year with 71 per cent, is the only one from the state to be selected for the SAKURA exchange programme in science, which facilitates exchange of high-school students between Japan and Asia to promote studies in science and technology. This year, 60 students (30 in each batch) will be travelling to Japan.
Daughter of a petty shopkeeper Akhilesh Prasad, Nisha was selected for the tour after winning the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) award - a national-level programme started by the Union ministry of science and technology for high school students to encourage them to gave a career in science and research.
She won the first position in the entire east zone and also the state, thanks to her innovative model that showed how wind energy could be used for electrical energy during power cuts.
"We will be taken to Japan on May 15 and stay there till May 23. We will be visiting science museums, laboratories and science institutions besides interacting with science professors and researchers. We will return to Delhi on May 24," said an excited Nisha.
However, Nisha's dreams could have been crushed if RJD leader Purendra Narayan Yadav had not chipped in with money so that her father can also travel with her to Delhi.
"The Union ministry of science and technology will only bear my travel expenses from Jamshedpur to Delhi. But I cannot go alone and needed help for my father to accompany me to Delhi and stay there till I return from Japan. I was very nervous but finally, Purendra Narayan Yadavji agreed to give us Rs 20,000," said Nisha after receiving the aid from the RJD leader in Jamshedpur today.
