Hima Das- The Dhing Express!

From local shoes to a world brand... the astounding progress of a committed athlete.

- Rahul Karmakar

The only pair of shoes among some 120 pairs of slippers — a few with the straps stitched — had signs of wear. But they appeared cared for.

They were not the ubiquitous white canvas shoes most schools in Assam ask their students to wear for periodic sports events. They were a tad pricier and colourful, probably-gifted during the springtime Rongali Bihu or the autumnal Durga Puja.

Good enough for the races this winter, Md. Shamsul Hoque thought.

The girl with the colourful canvas shoes set the pace, leaving the other 12­ year ­olds behind in the 50m, 100m and 200m sprints.

“She made all the difference in the pacesetting activities. No girl or boy had dominated the sprints like her before, none has since,” Hoque, 45, says.

Hoque is a physical education teacher at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Morigaon, about 80 km east of Assam’s principal city Guwahati. Pace­setting activities are regular Navodaya Vidyalaya events envisaged to let children of neighbouring rural schools use its facilities for physical and psychological growth.

In 2013, Hoque taught physical education at the Navodaya Vidyalaya on the outskirts of Dhing in the adjoining Nagaon district. Of the 120 boys and girls who participated in the pace­setting activities that year, the girl with the canvas shoes caught his eye.

It wasn’t only the shoes. She was the only one wearing track pants. And always the first to report — for the yoga classes in the morning and the athletics training in the evening — cycling from Dhing Public School 3 km away or from her home at Kandhulimari village 6 km away.