Bharati Ghosh, an eminent table tennis coach based in Siliguri, passed away on Monday. She was 83.

Ghosh, who was popularly known as “Bai” among hundreds of her students, had been suffering from various old-age-related physical ailments.

Last Thursday, she was admitted to a private nursing home at Matigara on the outskirts of Siliguri.

Sources said that Ghosh had been ailing for the past few months and was under treatment at her home in Deshbandhupara of the city.

Last week, Siliguri mayor Gautam Deb took the initiative to admit her to the
nursing home.

“Her demise has left a major vacuum in the field
of sports. She has guided many renowned paddlers, including Mantu Ghosh and Ganesh Kundu, to excel in the national and international arenas of table tennis,” Deb said
on Monday.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee also extended her respects for this eminent coach,” he added.

Condoling her death, state sports minister Arup Biswas said: “Her death is an irreparable loss not only for table tennis but also sports
in Bengal.”

Ghosh had been conferred with the Banga Ratna and the Krira Guru awards of the state government.

Mantu, the first Arjuna awardee of the region and two-time national champion in table tennis, had been trained under Ghosh from a very
early stage.

“I went to get training from her when I was only nine years old. She was like a family member to me. It is an immense loss for me and the entire table tennis fraternity. It is because of her efforts that Siliguri earned its identity as the ‘City of Table Tennis’,” said Mantu.

According to her family members and some veteran players and table tennis coaches, Ghosh started playing table tennis way back in 1968.

In the mid-1970s she became a full-time coach.

Over the years, she trained hundreds of budding paddlers at the Deshbandhu Sporting Union and Sehgal Institute.

Later, Ghosh worked only with physically challenged and underprivileged paddlers, which she had said gave her immense satisfaction.

Amit Sarkar, the secretary of the Players Welfare and Rehabilitation Society, which was formed about six years back with her initiative for the all-round development of underprivileged and physically challenged players, said her demise was a major loss for these paddlers.

“After being trained by her, many physically challenged paddlers of the city had proved themselves in different national events. Some of them even went on to represent India in international table tennis events for physically challenged players,” said Sarkar, who was in contact with Ghosh till the last day of her life.

As the news of her demise spread, sports lovers and people from different walks of life across the city remembered her as a pioneering female sports personality.

Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA of Siliguri, said the table tennis coach had always been an inspiration for promising paddlers and coaches of the city. “Bharati Ghosh showed how to identify talents, especially from underprivileged families who could not afford training,” he said.