Meet quintessential Mumbai girl Dinkle Shah. She’s 29, loves numbers, graduated from a college in the suburbs, lives with a loving family, did an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj, works at Deloitte India in the Consulting wing, plays basketball as a defender and has won a gold medal in the sport. All good? Impressive, you might say. Definitely far above average.

Now what if I tell you she has been paralysed from the chest down since 2001, and has achieved all this in a wheelchair!

What if I tell you that she is a player with the Maharashtra Wheelchair Basketball women’s team, but when she started out in 2015, she was part of a mixed team!

Subscribe to The Teenager Today print / digital editions to read the full article.

The post Being Dinkle appeared first on The Teenager Today.

There are various institutes and academies under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) (http://sportsauthorityofindia.nic.in) that impart training to young talents to transform them into talented sportspersons. Other than SAI, there are many state level and private organizations that support sports enthusiasts. Basketball Federation of India (BFI) (basketballfederationindia.org) is the governing and controlling body of basketball in India, and is responsible for the development and promotion of this sport at all levels. Check their Facebook page for current happenings (facebook.com/indiabasketball).

Remember, breaking into the sports profession is not an easy task. Just because you’re good, does not give you a free pass to a professional career. The fact of the matter is that in order to get there, you need to put in plenty of hard work, more than you may anticipate. Also, most sportspeople compete as amateurs (unpaid) until they reach a sufficiently high standard to be offered payment for their performance. Professional sportspeople are usually paid on individual contracts.

The post I want to be a basketball player appeared first on The Teenager Today.