During a recent ceremony to honor top athletes from Himachal Pradesh, the state government presented high jumper Nishad Kumar with a check for 
7.8 crore ($920,000). The windfall will allow Kumar, who won silver medals at the Tokyo and Paris Paralympics and a gold medal in the Asian Para Games, to reward his underprivileged parents for supporting his sports career.
“A few years ago, when I was training to become a world class high jumper, I had called up my mother to send me Rs. 5,000,” he told The Tribune. “It was a big amount as our financial condition wasn’t good. At that moment, I promised my mother that one day I would earn so much money that you wouldn’t have space to keep it. I think I’ve fulfilled that promise today.”
Kumar lost his right hand in a grasscutting machine when he was 7, but with encouragement from his parents, kept participating in sports. “We have gone through very difficult times,” his father said. “I was a farmer, worked as a mason, sold vegetables on cycle, but I am glad my hard work has paid off. My son has changed our life.”
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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