Kolkata : After the Rio Olympics performance in gymnastics the perception of whole of India has changed thinks Dipa Karmakar. The Olympian and khel Ratna winner Dipa Karmakar was present at KMDA CIVIL CONTRACTOR WELFARE ASSOCIATION as a chief guest with her Dronacharya coach Bisweswar Nandi for a noble cause said, “ I haven’t changed a bit but the country has changed a lot after Rio Olympics 2016, as everybody is talking about gymnastics now, which I think is a great achievement for me.” She came to Kolkata for just two hours to visit this function. The other renowned guests of the program were 1958 Olympian and ex footballer Badru Banerjee, archer Atanu Das , shooter Joydeep Karmakar and others.
The association donated 1000 rupees as a monthly stipend each to 450 poor children and also distributed cloths as well as supplies to 10,000 poor and physically and mentally retarded persons in this grand occasion.
While a question about her Durga puja time spending plans Dipa said,” I have no idea whether I could spend Puja with my family or not, as I am totally dependent on my coach. There is a Challengers tournament ahead in Germany after a few days, if everything goes well I might have to go to Delhi on 4th of October.”
Regarding a question about her favourite food Dipa replied,” As a Bengali she likes Hilsa and all types of sweets a lot but she cannot eat sweets much, as coach Bisweswar Nandi always scolds her because if she eat sweets a lot she would gain her weight, which is harmful for her career.”
Archer Atanu Das shared his memories regarding his pre-quarter final match against Korea’s Seungyan Lee in Rio 2016,he said, “ During the match I never thought that he is better than me. My thought was I would give my level best on that moment but unfortunately it was his day and I will do my level best to make my country proud in Tokyo 2020.”
After the Uri incident shooter Joydeep Karmakar was asked about his reaction about the Indo-Pak war, he replied,” We are sports men and regarding this diplomatic issue you can ask it to any politition. I have a great relation with the Pakistani shooters.”