Gurdaspur Diary: Beating all odds, young Raghu wins gold medal in judo championship

Raghu Mehra (16) is the latest whiz-kid to come out of the judo stable of coach Amarjit Shastri. The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Judo Federation of India (JFI) coaching centre located within the premises of Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, Dak Khaana Chowk, has produced more than 60 international level judokas and 150 national level. Raghu Mehra, who comes from a family where affording two square meals is a big deal, has made his coach and peers proud by winning a gold medal in the SGFI All India School Games (Judo) which concluded at Ludhiana in the first week of February. He clinched a gold medal in the 45kg category. Earlier, he had won a medal of a similar hue in the sub-junior judo championship held in Chennai last year. Just seven months ago, Raghu lost his father due to kidney failure. Later, he was adopted by his paternal uncle. As ill luck would have it, he lost his uncle too in an accident leaving him grappling with life’s glaring contradictions and problems. His mother is a private school teacher and, as he himself admits, having two meals a day is indeed a luxury for his family. His father was an electrician and would watch his son practice 8 to 10 hours a day. The family did not even have enough money to perform the last rites of his father. Later, some veteran judo players, including international judoka Jatinder Pal, an SHO with the Punjab Police, joined hands to help the family financially. Raghu is now eyeing some international tournaments in his age group. However, the problem is from where will the money come? Shastri says the boy is supremely talented and is sure to make it big in the international arena. “There is a thin line between poverty and success and it is called perseverance. Successful people do not stop until they see the result they desire. Raghu is one of them,” says Shastri. The need of the hour is to see some Good Samaritans join hands to ensure Raghu does not lose out on the financial front. Rest, as they say, is destiny.

Residents want DC to order probe into decay of Circuit House

Residents want the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner (DC) to order a probe into the sequence of events leading to the utterly dilapidated state of the local Circuit House. Their logic is that people whose hard earned money was used to fund the construction in 2003 should get to know how and why their money has gone waste. In 2022, days before the assembly polls, 30 odd CRPF men were lodged in the building. Early next morning, after spending a long night sans water, electricity and sleep, all of them had made good their escape. The soldiers were forced to commit such an act not only because the building was decrepit but also because basic facilities like food, water and power were not available. Snakes and insects enter the rooms almost at will. The structure has now started to crumble. A wag commented that give the Punjab Government a fleet of 10 buses and after five years, just one bus will be left. On the other hand, give a private entrepreneur one bus and five years later, he will have 10 buses. This, in brief, tells you the story of how inept government officials fail to take care of buildings and other such structures. Gist of the story: Hand over the structure to private players and then see how it flourishes. (Ravi Dhaliwal) 

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