A girl with a left hand that stops at the elbow. A wheelchair-bound man with crippled legs. Another girl whose legs can hardly bear any weight.
The West Bengal contingent shone brightly at the recent National Para Swimming Championships in Guwahati, thanks to the performances of participants like the above three.
Twenty-six states competed in the tournament, held at the Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex from November 11 to 13.
The Bengal contingent came fourth, winning 16 gold, seven silver and five bronze medals.
Deepika Das, 12, won three gold medals. The girl from Chandernagore, born with a left hand that stopped at the elbow, took to swimming when she was seven years.
“My mother urged me to learn to swim. I never thought I could,” Deepika told The Telegraph.
The swimmers deserve special credit because most of them hail from marginalised families in the districts and they had to fight their way to the top, said an official accompanying them.
“They have faced jibes and taunts at every step. But they have stayed firm,” said Bhaskar Mukherjee, secretary of the Bengal Paralympic Association, who went to Guwahati with the contingent.
