Last week, 17-year old Aditya Joshi, the shuttler from Madhya Pradesh, became the first male junior badminton player from India to be ranked #1 in the world in the January rankings of the World Badminton Federation (WBF).
The B.Com first year student started playing badminton in 2001, when he was just 5 years old, in Dehradun. For the last 9 years, he has been training in Dhar, with his father Atul Kumar Joshi, a badminton coach at the Sports Authority of India. Since 2010 he has also been training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore .
Btw, before you wonder, his mother did not want him to get addicted to cartoons as a child and did not install cable TV at home. Wonder how many of us would look at the bigger picture and sacrifice cartoons as kids. But the impact shows, doesn’t it?
And what an accomplishment! His journey of sincere hard-work and determination, is an inspiration for teenagers, youngsters and even parents, not only in the sphere of sports but in every walk of life. Whatever field we belong to, we need to see this as a motivation and strive for success!
As we sit thinking about his achievements this Monday morning, we hope you are able to remember this while turning to soap-opera and junk TV today. “Be miserable or motivate yourself, the choice is always yours!” as they say.
Achievements need effort, time and practice. How about we start today?