Sir,

In an extremely depressing political atmosphere in Karnataka when our Chief Minister Kumaraswamy sheds copious tears unable to withstand the buffeting pressure from all sides, in a stark contrast is the case of a young 18-year-old athlete Hima Das from Assam, who had no less a pressure to perform at world stage, showed extraordinary courage, determination and guts to win gold in the prestigious 400m run that make us all shed tears of joy.

KBG has rightly chosen the topic for his Abracadabra under the title ‘An appreciation: Who is she? (SOM dated July 16). Hima says: “I will try to give my best at the Asian Games. I don’t run after medals, I run after time.”

She had also inspired one admirer to come up with a moving piece in Kannada which had been promptly reproduced by KBG in his column.

Hima will be a role model for all youngsters. Another important attribute about her is in the beginning of the run she greeted the huge assemblage with our traditional greetings of Namaskara and she also did not forget to exhibit the same gesture after winning. These are the gracious gestures that make India proud. This graciousness was also exhibited by P.V. Sindhu during Olympic badminton championship final towards the winner when she was down on the court by picking her racquet and handing it over to her and putting arms around her that attracted cheers.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Camp: Bengaluru, 17.7.2018

You can also mail us your views, opinions, and stories to [email protected]