Indian paddler Tanuj Mukherjee to participate at the Deaflympics 2017

Kolkata, July 15: His name is Tanuj Mukherjee. He is a deaf table tennis player and one of the leading table tennis players in the country's Para-Olympic fraternity.

He has already won bronze medal in the doubles event at the Asian Deaf Table Tennis Championship, held a couple of months ago.

Now he has been selected in the deaf national squad for the forthcoming Deaf Olympics, to be held in Turkey.

But the 22-year old paddler and his family are left in such a financial distress that they have not yet been able to manage their own home in Chandannagar, a place around 50 kilometers far from Kolkata. They live in one of their uncle's home.

The reason behind their poverty is that Tanuj's father Tapan Mukherjee has been ailing from heart disease for a long time.

In addition, he had to undergo bypass surgery very recently. He had accumulated and spent all his savings for the operation.

Tanuj's family is being somehow run by his uncle. Tanuj wears a hearing aid machine in his ears and for that, he needed nearly Rs 25,000.

It was also given by his relatives and some friends. But once the battery of that hearing aid machine gets fully damaged Tanuj will not be able to buy another machine.

He has to wear it while practicing and while playing the match. Otherwise, if he does not hear the sound of the ball it becomes difficult for him to understand the bounce of the shots, being executed by the opponents.

Tanuj's coach Ambarish Mukherjee said: “Tanuj as a player has a lot of potentials. He does not only take part in the Deaf table tennis tournaments but has been taking part in the state championships also, being organized by the West Bengal Table Tennis Association (WBTTA) and representing Chandannagar district in the state meet he performs well also. But Tanuj badly needs a job. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for him to continue playing."

OneIndia News