Days after videos of Jashika Khan,11, and Mohammad Azajuddin,12, from Kolkata performing cartwheels and somersaults on their way to school went viral, the Union sports minister – Kiren Rijiju called them as ‘Raw talents’ and assured them of help.
Minister of State for sports in West Bengal government, Laxmi Ratan Shukla also acknowledged these hidden talents and they were trying to give the children the right platform to showcase their talent.
These kids are raw talents. Will get them connected to a gymnastic academy if someone brings them to me. https://t.co/Nj5CWuT1KG
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) August 26, 2019
In the video, two kids in school uniform are seen walking on a street. Within a few seconds, they perform strenuous cartwheel and somersault with near perfection while carrying their backpacks.
One of the first people to appreciate these kids effort was Nadia Comaneci – retired Romanian gymnast who won five gold medal in Olympics. She on Twitter shared the video with a simple caption – “This is awesome”.
This is awesome pic.twitter.com/G3MxCo0TzG
— Nadia Comaneci (@nadiacomaneci10) August 29, 2019
Surprisingly, both the kids have no training in gymnastics but are learning hip hop and B-Boying (types of dance form) for the past four years. The video that impressed the world was shot to impress their dance teacher – Sekhar Rao, who was teaching them for free.
“We improvised some of it on the spot…. Sir gets scared when we do some moves on the road. That day also we were doing it only in play but he made a video and it went viral. We had not thought that a world-famous gymnast would post our video,” The Telegraph quoted Jashika.
“I have already introduced them to Tumpa Debnath, a national-level athlete. I have asked her coach too to see how these kids can be trained so that they do something big,” Shukla was quoted by The Indian Express.
The parents of these kids feel that if they are given opportunity and trained properly, they can bring laurels.
Jashika Khan’s father told the national daily that he feels that he has already won a gold medal after his
