Impossible is nothing
A 17-year-old visually challenged boy is the first Indian winner of the Duke of
Edinburgh’s International Award for Young People
Jayatri Nag
Kolkata: Prodip Sikdar, a 17-year-old from Kolkata, has become the first
visually-challenged person from India to win the Duke of Edinburgh’s
International
Award for Young People.
Prodip went to the UK to participate in the awards competition on July 9.
Participants from 102 countries including Germany, UK, India, Molta and Spain
participated. Pradip was the first and the only visually-challenged contestant
from India to participate in the programme.
Prodip Sikdar (inset) climbing a tree during the programme
Prodip went with a group of 12 participants from India to Swinton near South
Yorkshire, where all the participants took part in various kinds of adventure
sports and mountaineering activities.
“I started participating in expeditions and adventure sports since I was in
Class VII. But things started changing when I first participated in an
expedition
under the same programme,” an excited Prodip said.
He said it was extremely difficult to climb the steep rocks as it was raining
incessantly in the UK during the monsoon. “The rocks were slippery and the
co-ordinator’s instructions were in accented English," Prodip said with a smile
on his face. “But I managed it somehow."
“It was a different kind of experience for me. For some moments, I never felt
that I was blind. My competitors treated me as an equal. I also participated
in tree-climbing, rope-walking over river, canoeing and all other activities.
There were a lot of group activities as well and the whole group also helped
me get acquainted with the new environment,” he added.
A student of Narendrapur Ramkrishna Mission, Prodip’s father is a carpenter and
he lives in a shelter in Howrah run by another blind mountaineer and teacher
in the R K Mission, Biswajit Ray.
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