Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha & Bankimchandra Chatterjee

Poet Sports Writer

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha & Bankimchandra Chatterjee

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha

Born: 27 June 1964

She is a retired Indian track and field athlete.
She has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979.
She is often called the “queen of Indian track and field”.
On 27 June 1964, the Kerala State Government started a Sports School for women and she was chosen to represent her district.
She went on to win multiple medals at the 1979 National Games and 1980 National inter-state meet setting many meet records.
She made an unimpressive Olympic debut at the 1980 Moscow Games at 16 and was eliminated in the heats of the 100 m finishing fifth. Prior to taking to the 1987 Singapore Asian Championships, she spent a month training in London under Alford.
She began the Championships with a silver in the 100 m after falling behind de Vega by 0.31 seconds.
She dropped out of the 200-meter race as the 400 m hurdles final was scheduled in 70 minutes from the former.
She went on to win gold in 400 m hurdles clocking 56.48 s and another gold in 400 m with a timing of 52.31 s.
She won two more medals in the competition — silver in 4 x 100 m relay and gold in 4 x 400 m relay.
She has won 101 international medals.
She is employed as an officer in the Southern Railways. In 1984, she has conferred the Padma Shri and the Arjuna Award.
Currently, she coaches young athletes at her training academy in Kerala, including Tintu Lukka, who qualified for the women’s semi-final 800m at the London 2012 Olympics.
Currently, she is committee head of Indian Talent organization which conducts the National Level Indian Talent Olympiad examinations in schools across India.

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Bankimchandra Chatterjee

Born: 27 June 1838

Died: 8 April 1894

He was an Indian writer, poet, and journalist.
He was the composer of Vande Mataram, originally in Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring activists during the Indian Independence Movement.
He wrote thirteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treaties in Bengali.
His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India as well as in English.
His earliest publications were in Ishwar Chandra Gupta’s weekly newspaper Sangbad Prabhakar.
Following the model of Ishwar Chandra Gupta, he began his literary career as a writer of verse.
His talents showed him other directions and turned to fiction. His first attempt was a novel in Bengali submitted for a declared prize.
He did not win the prize, and the novelette was never published.
His first fiction to appear in print was Rajmohan’s Wife.
It was written in English and is regarded as the first Indian novel to be written in English.
Durgeshnondini, his first Bengali romance and the first ever novel in Bengali, was published in 1865.
He was one of the first intellectuals who wrote in a British colony, accepting and rejecting the status at the same time.