Renni Abraham & Anant Nalavade
Differently well and able, Anuradha Pandhari Solanki, secured bronze for Maharashtra at the National fencing competition held in Chennai last Sunday.

At other times this post graduate (MA in political science from Buldhana) serves at a modest job at Maharashtra’s state secretariat (read ‘Mantralaya’) canteen making around 150 to 200 ‘chapatis’ daily. This gives her a consolidated take home salary of Rs 17,000 which is not much to go by.

Maharashtra bagged the overall bronze medal in team performance by Anuradha, Anita Chavan, Rama Jagtap and Vaishali Thool as well as their male colleagues Vinay Sable, Eknath Panche, Sunil Wankhede and Aman Tailari all of whom secured bronze medals in the individual ‘Sabre’ and ‘Foil’ categories of fencing adding up to the team’s tally.

Anuradha also participated in the 8th Senior Men & Women Sitting Para-Volleyball National Championship – 2019 and competed with 15 other states for top honors at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai between July 28 and 28. Sadly Solanki’s team lost out to Karnataka in the knockout stage in the first round itself.

Solanki also notched up sporting glory in cricket as a member of the victorious cricket team that bagged top honors in March 2019 whey they lifted the Inter-State Cricket Tournament trophy for Women with Disabilities (read differently able women).

Anuradha had bagged the bronze medal (helping her team to lift the Mayor’s trophy) in April 2019 in the wheelchair fencing (read individual swords(wo)manship) tournament held in Mumbai.

Now she has defended her bronze rating once again at the national level at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. Anuradha credits her coach Santosh Shezwal for her fencing successes as also her mother and father.

Anuradha says, “While I have trained in the fencing and cricket sporting disciplines, volleyball was an altogether ‘different ball game’ for me. I was fortunate have found Mr Nicholas Gomes who coached me for the para-volleyball tournament as well as the Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) that allowed me use of their tennis court facility to practice volleyball without cost.” Anuradha has a completely immobile left hand due to polio as a daily physical challenge to live with.

Gomes says, “I am a football coach. This was a unique challenge. My own mentor and senior coach (who trains for volleyball) Satyavan Jadhav took time out and explained everything to Anuradha and me. I merely helped her to practice diligently. She picked up the game fast.”

Anuradha says, “I am also studying for the MPSC entrance examinations. I am obliged to the canteen administration that is considerate and allows me two-and-a-half hours daily for studying for the MPSC exams.”

Anuradha scored 88 per cent in the written exam held to select 13 candidates required at the state secretariat canteen and joined services from January 5, 2019. The minimum required qualification for the job was being fourth standard passed.

An official attached to the ‘Chau Ras Bhojan’ (Square Meal canteen) said,”We do not ask these women employees to wash vessels nor to become food servers like the existing 11 women staffers who work in the four canteens. The graduate ‘Chapati’ makers are given time to study for their UPSC exams apart from a reduced quantum of dough for making chapatis.”

The Square Meal service has the maximum outage of food since it services 150 consumers in one go.