JASWANT SINGH GANDAM / RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: Expressing grave concern over youths getting hooked on to drugs, the Arjuna awardee international wrestling r Babita Kumari Phogat exhorted youths to instead get hooked on to sports.
Addressing a large number of students and their parents on the occasion of the tenth annual function of local Cambridge International School as a special guest on November 24, Babita, on whom and her sister Geeta’s story the Bollywood blockbuster “Dangal” was made, sports was a kind of everlasting addiction.
”I can leave food but I cannot leave my game,” the winner of gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games said, “These days I am pained to hear about youths getting addicted to drugs. I hear this about Punjab too. Youths should rather get addicted to games, not addictions,” she said.
Referring to girls outnumbering boys in winning awards as meritorious students, Babita Phogat regaled the audience by delivering dialogue from “Dangal” in typical Haryanvi accent: ”Abhi choriyan Choron se kam nahin (Now girls are not behind boys).” She expressed her happiness that girls were now outclassing boys not only in the field of sports but in different other fields, including education.
Sounding philosophical, she, however, maintained that victory and defeat are parts of life). “Neither carry on the baggage of defeat nor take victory to your head),” she advised. Giving a bit of advice to parents, the wrestler told them not to hand over video games to their children but to engage them in games on the ground.
“Games of the ground and outdoor activities will provide positive energy to children,” she further told the parents.
Recalling her visit to Phagwara ten years, she claimed that she had two very close friends in Gursharanpreet Kaur and Navjot Kaur here “who will definitely be angry with me as I have come here without informing them”.
Expressing her gratitude to K.S. Bassi, chairman of Cambridge International School and a Dubai-based motoring magnate, she said that whenever she will rise further in her wrestling career, she would always remember the great honor given to her at the school. Babita had unsuccessfully contested the recently held assembly polls from Dadri in Haryana as a BJP candidate.
Babita, who turned 30 on November 20, was wished by of her fans. Earlier, she unveiled a statue of Lord Buddha that was sculpted by a school artist. Later, she, along with chief guest Jalandhar ADC Daljit Kaur, gave away prizes to meritorious students.
The school management gave Rs 15 lakh in cash prizes to scholars.
Those students who had scored over 95 per cent marks were each given Rs 1 lakh in cash. The school’s vice- chairperson and Dubai-based entrepreneur Jassi Bassi, managing director Kulwant Singh Bains, director Komal Bassi, Amrit Bassi, Ivy League Education Management stalwarts Sanjeev Vasal and Raghav Vasal were present among those present at the event.
Hundreds of school students took part in a cultural program, ‘Virtuosity: A saga of life’.
