Two Indian sporting stars

After 'Change of Heart', your book, Poorvi, gives short bio-sketches of two Indian sporting stars on pages 113 and 114. A bio-sketch is a few short facts about a real person's life.

Deepika Kumari is an archer from Jharkhand. Her father was an auto-rickshaw driver and her mother a nurse. As a child she practised her aim by throwing stones at mangoes on trees. She practised archery with homemade bows and arrows made of bamboo. Later she joined the Tata Archery Academy, and she won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Neeraj Chopra is a young athlete from Khandra village in Haryana. His family mostly works in farming. His sport is the javelin throw. He worked hard for many years and became the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin throw.

He was also the second Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics, when he was 23 years old. At the 2024 Paris Olympics he won a silver medal in javelin throw.

Both of them started with very little and worked hard for many years. That is what makes their stories so inspiring.