Modi praises Noida DM for bringing home the silver
NOIDA: It was a dream come true for 38-year-old bureaucrat Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj on Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi admired him and said he had broken the myth of ‘ padhoge likhoge banoge nawab, kheloge koodoge hoge kharab (If you study you will become a king, if you play you won’t)’.
Modi hosted a breakfast at his residence in New Delhi on Thursday for the 19 paralympians who scripted history in Tokyo by bringing the largest tranche of medals in the country’s Paralympics history. Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate (DM) Suhas won silver in badminton.
Modi said their achievement will significantly boost the morale of the entire sporting community in the country and encourage people to take up sports.
“It was his (Modi’s) mantra to focus on the game instead of the rival’s persona that took me to the final. Keeping his mantra in mind, I defeated the Indonesian rival in the semi-finals who had earlier shattered my dreams to get a medal at para-asian Games in 2018 in the quarterfinal. When the Prime Minister calls you by name, it multiplies your morale thousand times,” Suhas said.
The DM said that the athletes presented the PM with a white stole signed by all medal winners. “To boost our morale, the PM wore that stole around his neck throughout breakfast. Several players also gifted him their signed sporting equipment with which they won their medals. The PM, who had an informal interaction with the entire contingent that also included coaches, told us that those sporting equipment will be auctioned,” he said.
Suhas, who suffered deformity to his leg in his childhood, said the Tokyo Paralympics was his first such Games since he took up badminton in 2016.
“Since my childhood, I used to play for two hours. Sports are part of my life along with studies. There is a misconception that sports, and studies can’t go together. I would like to tell parents and society to forget that old adage, your child can excel in both studies and sports,” the district magistrate said.