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Appointed RJD party president in the Assembly, Annapurna Devi, 36, is suave and soft spoken. Not exactly qualities politicians are known for! So when she smiles and says: “I always wanted to be a teacher,” it sounds absolutely convincing. But once drawn into politics after her husband Ramesh Prasad Yadav died in 1998, she put her heart into it. And that’s what led to her success in the 1998 by-elections in Koderma, a success she repeated during the next two Assembly elections in 2000 and 2005. Annapurna, who was a minister of state in the Rabri Devi ministry in 2000, was also sworn in as a cabinet minister in the Shibu Soren ministry. While Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari makes it a point to appoint her the presiding officer during every House session. High on success, this mother of three children, has sure got her priorities right when she says: “Since the creation of Jharkhand, it has been rumoured that RJD was splitting. My first task is to end that rumour.”
When Sudhir Kumar started his website www.bhojpuria.com, about a year and half ago, little did he know that his efforts would not only reach out to Bhojpuri-speaking people in the steel city, but also recognised by the prestigious Manthan- American Foundation of India award in
the e-culture category. “It was indeed a prestigious moment as with this recognition we have been nominated for the UN World Summit award to be held in Geneva next year,” says a proud Sudhir. That’s something to really look forward to.
All set to don Team India colours
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Shahbaz Nadeem, as part of the Indian under-19 team, revelled in the English conditions and had hogged the limelight by snaring 17 wickets. Known for his accuracy, the left-arm spinner, who is the son of a police inspector and a regular in the junior Indian teams, is already being spoken of as the second cricketer from Jharkhand who will go on to don the colours of Team India — after Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
And for good reasons, too. This promising Bokaro-based cricketer has the knack of picking up wickets when it matters. He is also no bunny with the bat while wielding the
willow down the order. A key component of the Jharkhand Ranji team’s spin department, Nadeem has been winning accolades from every quarter, including his coach Venkatesh Prasad.
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A few days from now, Antra, a former student of Sakchi High School, Jamshedpur, will be delivering a lecture at the third International Symposium of Isotopomers (ISI 2006) at the university of California, San Diego. At present, a research scholar at Planetary and Geoscience division, Ahmedabad, she would be joining scholars from around the globe at the international symposium. And going by her past record and enthusiasm, she’s sure not going to be daunted by the task at hand and will shine her way through it, for this is definitely not her first tryst with success. An all-time topper, Antra went to be the topper at her final-year examination at IIT, Roorkie, too. If that sounds really impressive, there’s more to her. Antra has also recently published a paper on chemical physics.
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Ranchi’s Binod Patra took to weights to develop his thigh and calf muscles so that he could shoot football goals with more force, but went on to make quite a success story out of it. It didn’t take him long to realise that he had a better future in powerlifting than in football, perhaps. Patra, while participating in the National Powerlifting Competition, at Nainital, clinched gold by breaking his own record of lifting 145 kg in the benchpress category. A consistent performer, Patra has also secured a berth in the national squad to represent the country in the coming World Championship to be held in Norway in November later this year.
When Dr Tripura Jha says: “I got married when I was in Class VIII,” one does blink for a brief second. After such an early marriage, Jha went on to enjoy a family life revolving around her daughters. Recently she’s picked up her Ph.D on case studies of management in public undertaking at Central Coalfields Limited, from RU. At present teaching at Motilal Nehru Public School, she has also translated an Urdu novel and hopes to start work on her own book soon.
