Jyoti Kumari starts cycling trial training
KUMARI CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF CFI CHAIRMAN ONKAR SINGH, WHO EXTENDED AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN TRIAL NEXT MONTH AS A PRECONDITION TO CLEAR HER SELECTION AS A TRAINEE UNDER THE AEGIS OF THE NATIONAL CYCLING ACADEMY, NEW DELHI
A 15-year-old girl, who cycled 1,200 km from Gurugram to Darbhanga in Bihar with her ailing father during the ongoing national lockdown, has started training at the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) .
Jyoti Kumar hit the national headlines after Ivanka Trump tweeted about her.
Kumari caught the attention of CFI chairman Onkar Singh, who extended an invitation to participate in trial next month as a precondition to clear her selection as a trainee under the aegis of the National Cycling Academy, New Delhi.
A native of Sirhulli village in Darbhanga, Kumari said on Tuesday that she started practising since Monday. Kumari, who had earlier expressed hesitation about accepting the offer, asserted that she had no second thoughts about accepting the CFI offer anymore.
“I will participate in trial when they (CFI) call me and fix a date for the trial next month”, she said. Kumari claimed she rode a racing cycle (to practice for trial) gifted to her recently.meanwhile, state food and consumer protection department minister and Janta Dal United (JD-U) leader Madan Sahni paid a visit to Sirhulli village on Monday. He felicitated Kumari while promising her help on behalf of the state government. However, he was criticised for violating the lockdown. Earlier, BJP MLA Sanjay Sarawai also presented her with gifts and a bicycle. Kumari’s 14-day home quarantine period is not over as she had arrived in the village in the night of May 16.
Cheetah Camp is home to nearly 15,000 dwelling units spread across one kilometersquare in Mumbai’s M-east ward that was once ranked the lowest among all city wards in the Mumbai Human Development Report brought out by the United Nations Development Programme. A decade later, the ward — spread across Govandi, Shivaji Nagar and Mankhurd — is still majorly populated by slums, and is witness to some of the highest incidences of coronavirus infection.
While things may not have changed in terms of the human development indices, Cheetah Camp’s residents know how to bail each other out in tough times. In the past two months of the national lockdown, as employment opportunities have dried up for the slum’s migrant worker and labourer residents, 35-year-old autorickshaw driver Salim Shaikh set up a community kitchen that prepared meals for at least 250 to 300 residents every day.
Putting together the kitchen was the least of the problems, he said. We got funds from some people, some gave us ration and we got utensils from those in the catering business to set up this kitchen,” he said.
The trouble was that Shaikh had never tried his hand at cooking before. The lockdown made him into one: he learnt to cut vegetables and plan meals and assist his friend Abdullah, who would do the most of the cooking. Another friend Shakir Shaikh, who owns a small shop in the area, would also offer help. Set up in the chota maidan of sector D — a small field in the Camp where tents would come up during weddings or festivals — the kitchen begins operations at 2 pm. At least 20 residents of the Camp are involved: some like Shaikh chop vegetables; others sift out the ration available for that day; still others plan the meal. By 5.30 pm, the stoves are fired up, and everything from pulao to khichdi to egg curry is prepared. By 8 pm, the food is ready for packaging in plastic bags, which are then distributed among the residents by volunteers.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has also supplied at least 300 food packets daily since March. As a result, Shaikh decided to keep the kitchen for evening meals. He has been an auto-driver for six years and lives in Cheetah Camp with his wife, parents, grand-parents and sister in the Camp. “People don’t know how long the lockdown will continue. They have suffered losses in their businesses also,” Shaikh said.