BENGALURU: Getting inspired and motivated for an early morning exercise can be a challenge on a lazy day but a visit to Cubbon Park on a Sunday may help you get inspired to do just this. A blindfolded Kharga Chhetri, and a retired army officer and father of footballer, Sunil Chhetri took part in a run with a group of 55 visually-impaired runners, yesterday at 6 am.
Organised by Pinkathon, that has been conducting such programmes for two years, their aim is to promote fitness among all groups of people. It first started with sessions involving underprivileged women and then subsequently visually- impaired people.
A frequent visitor to Cubbon park whenever he visits Bengaluru, Kharga says his experience with the runners was a “special time.”
Partially blindfolded on the first lap of 200 meters and fully blinded for the second lap, Kharga says he found it challenging during the second lap as he could barely walk and was guided with the help of event
organisers.
“This was the first time I received an opportunity like this and it was a one-of-a-kind experience as I realised the everyday situation of the visually-impaired people. It helped me understand the kind of support system that they require on a daily basis,” says Kharga
“This experience was huge and no amount of words can express how inspired I am. Just two hours with them and experiencing a little of what they are going through moved me,” he further adds.
Happy to have completed the laps successfully, Kharga says he wouldn’t want to miss another opportunity as whenever he travels down to the city from Delhi where he is presently based.
Bhaskar Samarthanam, a visually-impaired participant in the run and a national-level Paralympics athlete is preparing for 1500m and 10,000m races for the past three months. Bhaskar says, “We were surprised and very happy to know he was training with Kharaga joining us.” Bhaskar has won several medals in 100m and 200m Paralympic runs.
Bhumika Patel, a fitness trainer and head coach for the day’s session, says, “Inviting Kharga Chhetri was a huge motivation for the group. As someone who has achieved laurels in sports, it has greatly inspired the group. Training the visually impaired is not as easy. They endure other challenges such as proper nutrition, diet and struggle with taking care of themselves on a day-to-day basis.”
Pinkathon has earlier invited renowned people every two weeks, sharing their fitness techniques with the differently-abled people. Sagar Baheti, India’s first visually-impaired marathoner was one among them.