Agartala, Aug. 30: Another Dipa is in the making in Tripura with 15-year-old Ashmita creating waves with her gymnastics skills.

So far, life has been a long struggle for little Ashmita who comes from a poor family which is unable to take care of her training and nutritional requirements. Her father Arun Chandra Paul is a labourer while her mother Shilpi works as a domestic help.

Yet Ashmita is steadily turning crucial pages of her life, overcoming the hardships and hurdles in her path, quite unaware that she lives in a country whose Prime Minister himself used to sell tea while his mother worked as a domestic help.

Little Ashmita had an inspiration in her elder sister Arpita, a second year student at Bir Bikram Memorial College, who used to practise gymnastics.

Ashmita was guided to the ragtag gymnasium of Vivekananda Vyamagar, located in the heart of Agartala, by her sister in 2008 when she was just seven and a student of Class II. "Didi was planning to give up gymnastics for familial reasons and to concentrate on studies, so she put me here under the care of Soma Nandi and her husband Bishweshwar Nandi," she said. Soma, a SAI coach in gymnastics, was also Olympian Dipa Karmakar's first coach.

It is still difficult for Ashmita, now a student of Class X at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Higher Secondary School, to reach the Vyamagar or the Dasharath Deb sports complex at Badharghat, both a distance of nearly 5km from her home at Jagaharimura in the southeastern corner of the town. But she never misses a practice session.

"I practise here when Bishweshwar Sir is away but when he is in town I go daily, except on holidays, to SAI coaching centre near Dasharath Deb sports complex at Badharghat," she said. Her diligence is reflected in her series of successful competitions.

She won three gold and a silver medal in the sub-junior national championship in Punjab in 2013, two bronze and a silver in the women's section of national gymnastics in Ranchi in 2014, a bronze at the National School Games in Calcutta in 2015 despite being sick, and two silver medals each in the women's national gymnastics in Hyderabad and sub-junior national championship held consecutively this year, said Banasri Debnath, a reputed gymnast of Tripura who is now a state coach and physical instructor. She was substituting for Soma at the gymnasium today.

Ashmita, who got selected as a member of the Indian team for world school gymnastics held in Turkey last year, said, "The competition was extremely tough and I stood ninth each in vaulting table, floor exercise and uneven bar."

She, however, does not plan to take part in the risky Produnova vault like Dipa, who is her idol. "I do not think I can do what Dipa di has done. Produnova is too risky but I shall try to perform better and win medals in international events," Ashmita said.

The problem is that while the gymnastics apparatus in the SAI sports complex at Badharghat is of national standards, better apparatus is required for success at the international level.

But if you dare to dream, it often comes true.

Help has come from the state-run Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), which has sanctioned Rs 2 lakh and a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 for Ashmita for the next two years.

"How this happened and who impressed GAIL to take this step we do not know but Ashmita will definitely benefit from this, specially in the matter of nutrition and continuing both gymnastic and studies. With a little bit of luck, we may see another Dipa emerging in Tripura in a short while," said Debnath.