EUGENESON LYNGDOH: An engineering dropout, Shillong lad Eugeneson Lyngdoh established that there is career in sports beyond cricket in India. The former Shillong Lajong midfielder has become a crorepati in football, thanks to the cash-rich Indian Super League. Son of S.K. Sunn, the president of former I-League outfit Rangdajied United FC, Shillong, Eugeneson, popularly known as Eugene, has become one of the most expensive Indian footballers of ISL Season 2 after he was picked up by FC Pune City for a whopping Rs 1.05 crore. Eugene dons Bengaluru FC colours in the I-League, the country’s apex tournament.
NAHID AFRIN: At 13, she was a sensation in her own right, a girl who came from small town Kalyanpur in central Assam’s Biswanath Chariali, to make it big in Indian Idol Junior Season II, a reality show, in Mumbai. Her smooth yet mature-for-her-age voice was taken note of by the jury who termed it “tailormade for playback singing”. Nahid was judged runner-up in the grand finale in September. The icing on the cake was an offer to playback for Bollywood actress and jury member Sonakshi Sinha in Akira. Back home, her talent impressed Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi who had voted for her in the run-up to the finale.
PRONEETA SWARGIARY: Proneeta Swargiary, 23, from Bartari village in Baksa district of lower Assam hogged the limelight in October by winning the fifth season of the reality show Dance India Dance. Now a resident of New Delhi, Proneeta was crowned “Sunheri Taqdeer Ki Topi” by veteran actor and grandmaster Mithun Chakraborty after getting the better off Nepal’s Nirmal Tamang and Sahil Adaniya of Jodhpur. It was, she said, the best moment of her life and a dream come true. Now having done both her state and village proud with her dance and earned national limelight, she can only raise the bar higher.
MANIK PAUL: The 23-year-old boy from Barpeta Road in lower Assam battled the odds of losing his father in a militant attack when he was a child and the hardships that followed thereafter to win a TV reality show, India’s Got Talent, in June. When he was studying in Class VII, Manik was sent to his maternal uncle’s house at Cooch Behar in West Bengal from where he finished school. The boy, whose says his mother is his idol and that he wants become a choreographer, is currently working with dancer-choreographer Terence Lewis in Mumbai where he has some projects lined up. He also wishes to run an aerial dance academy.
RUPSHIKHA SAIKIA BORAH: She made headlines when the Public Enterprise Selection Board selected her for post of chairman and managing director, the top post of Oil India Limited, in February. However, the Prime Minister’s Office is yet to clear Borah’s appointment and she remains one of the 12 candidates interviewed thrice for the top post. The Centre’s contention that she lacks exploration background drew concern and flak in her state with Dispur inferring that the Modi government could be discriminating against Assam. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi sought Modi’s intervention to remove hurdles in the appointment.
