Sports

Kolkata: No takers for Blind champions

In a world where sportspersons like cricketers are more than felicitated for the honors they bring to their state and country, sportspersons with disabilities are treated like also-rans… unrecognised and left to fend for themselves

…He lost his sight when he was four and both his parents before he could reach age 15.

His daily-wager elder brother was his sole source of support, but that did not deter him from honing his talent in chess.

However, a keen sense of self-respect drove 25-year-old Dibakar Pal, a champion in s series of state and national level tournament in chess, out of his brother’s house in Haldia, where he was “feeling neglected”.

A sepoy recognized him while he was loitering near Alipore Bodyguard Lines a couple of days ago and brought him to his barracks. “I first saw him at a district-level tournament in Hooghly two years ago, where he caught everyone’s attention. I am trying to do something for him,’ said Samaritan cop Debasish Banerjee.

Dibakar stood third for three consecutive years, from 1999, in the National Visually Handicapped Chess Tournament and was twice champion in the Eastern Region Visually-Handicapped Chess Tournament. He stood first five times in the state-level Visually-Handicapped Chess Tournament. In February 2007, he could not go to Mumbai to participate in a national-level meet because he could not raise Rs 2,500.

Recalling his tragic tale, Dibakar said: “I lost my sight when I was four and my mother when I was in Class II. My father died before I was 15”.

After passing Madhyamik with 75 per cent marks, he took admission in Scottish Church College but could not afford to continue his studies. “I went to the college for a day and realised it would not be possible for me to stay in the city and keep attending classes.

He returned to his brother’s family, but in a few years, found himself ‘unwanted” in the household.

He also knocked on the doors of Writers’ Buildings, where an official snubbed him. “Amar karo bhater byabostha kori na (we don’t arrange for anyone’s livelihood).”

And thereby hangs a tale…

Source: Blind chess whiz has no study funds. The Telegraph, Daily, Kolkata, 2 March 2007.