Odds fail to deter her from achieving goals

City para-badminton player among best to qualify for Tokyo Paralympic Games

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Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 2

Believing ‘attitude of acceptance’ as her life’s mantra to achieve her goals, city-based Palak Kohli has undoubtedly become a renowned name in the world of badminton. Keeping her medals tally growing, Palak, an ace para-badminton player from the country, has become the youngest player in the world, who is in the top race from any country to qualify for Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020. Despite having a left under-grown arm, she focuses only on strengthening her game so that she could carve out a niche for herself.

Palak, who is a student of Class XII at Police DAV School, said: “Initially it was tough for me to prove my calibre among my peer group and inferiority complex, social negligence and lack of opportunities further added to my woes. I used to struggle with my own mental state with people’s attitude towards me as a helpless child. However, everything changed when I opted to play badminton. My coach Gaurav Khanna introduced me to the world of para-games and my hard work and dedication added feathers to my cap”.

Besides becoming the national champion by wining a national para-badminton championship in 2019, she holds the sixth spot in women’s doubles ranking and 11th spot in the women’s singles world para- badminton players ranking. She recently clinchéd a gold medal at the Paralympic 2020 test event in Tokyo.

A resident of Islamganj, Palak, who started taking coaching while she was in Class IX, said she had to work quite hard before convincing her parents and teachers that she was interested in pursuing a career in the game. At present, she is the only para-sportsperson of the game in the city. Also having battled with the negligence attitude of her peers to include her in games played at the school, she feels proud that she is the ‘sports captain’ of her school.

She along with another city-based visually challenged music teacher Ajay Singh will be awarded with the State Disability Award on World Disability Day.

Ajay, a resident of Rama Mandi, who has been teaching at Kendriya Vidyalaya, No. 4 since 2011, said:” Kami jo payi apne khulus main payi, warna duniya main hume koi bewafa na mila.”

Following his father’s teaching, he said he never wanted to be dependent on others for economic and social support. Hence, he sharpened his skills to become self-dependent. He has also sung various songs in regional movies and channels. Motivating other physically challenged persons, he said one should always surround himself in an optimistic and positive atmosphere for their growth.