The story of toil, passion, hard work and the definitive journey of Dipa Karmakar, from a sporting outpost to emerging as the face of gymnastics in India, Dipa Karmakar: The Small Wonder, was awarded the ‘Biography of the Year’ award at the Ekarma Sports Literature Awards at Aerocity New Delhi on Sunday. The biography has been co-authored by veteran sports journalists Digvijay Singh Deo, Vimal Mohan and Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi.
The book, launched by Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar in January 2019, offers a detailed account of every stage of Karmakar’s life. Starting from childhood, entailing her lows of being ridiculed to reminiscing a journey towards greatness and forging a legacy as the first Indian woman gymnast to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. It also details her successful attempt at the death-defying vault ‘The Produnova’ at Rio 2016, a moment which catapulted her to global fame even as she narrowly missed out on becoming the first Indian gymnast to win a medal at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza.
“I am really happy that my biography has been so well received. I am glad that people loved my story, and all the credit for this goes to the authors who have documented each and everything in such a way which even I couldn’t imagine. I would like to congratulate each and every person who has been involved in this journey and with the book,” said an elated Karmakar.
The biography efficiently accentuates how gymnastics as a sport has been majorly sidelined in our country. It has been published by Fingerprint! Publishing. A Bengali translation of the title has also been launched.
In a nutshell
Apart from detailing Karmakar’s life right from her childhood till she performed the famous vault at Rio Commonwealth Games in 2016, the biography accentuates how gymnastics as a sport has been sidelined in India.