Rio 2016: Tripura ready to welcome Dipa

AGARTALA: Over the last few days, the

Karmakar

family had got used to receiving calls late at night or in the wee hours of dawn. Saturday was no exception. Only, the location of the caller was different. Daylight was yet to break at Abhaynagar here, when Dulal Karmakar and his wife

Gouri Devi

woke up to answer the call. "Reached Delhi safely, baba. But I'm too tired and badly need some sleep," said daughter Dipa, keeping the conversation short.

Dipa Karmakar's momentous journey from tiny Agartala to the biggest sporting stage in

Rio de Janeiro

may not have ended in an Olympic medal. But her highly-creditable fourth-place finish calls for a memorable homecoming. If her father is planning to give her "a secret gift," her mother will welcome her with some special dishes. "She told me how she missed homemade food for the past couple of months because of diet restrictions in preparation of the Olympics. I'll greet Tina (Dipa's nickname) with some special dishes of ilish (hilsa) and prawns," Gouri Devi told TOI on Saturday.

Dipa has another nickname -dad calls her 'Guddu'."We have got accustomed to Guddu living away from home - either training in national camps in New Delhi or taking part in international tournaments - ever since she won a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As a father, her homecoming always fills me with joy. But this one is very special because she's returning home as an Olympian. There's a secret gift awaiting her from my side which I don't want to reveal now," said Dulal, himself a weightlifting coach at the Sports Authority of India.

Life for this former weightlifter, who represented Tripura in various national meets in the 1980s, has changed since Dipa's 'Produnova' vault in Rio created ripples around the world even as she missed bronze by a whisker.

"My cell phone keeps ringing almost non-stop. Everyone wants to know about Dipa's journey in gymnastics," Dulal remarked.

Dipa and her coach

Bishweshwar Nandi

are scheduled to fly in from Delhi on Monday morning, and the whole of Tripura is gearing up to give her a grand reception. They will be received by a number of ministers and senior state officials at the Agartala airport. They will be driven on an open-top jeep, escorted by a cavalcade of motorcycles and cars, to the Astabal ground, where chief minister Manik Sarkar will accord them a state-level reception.

BANGLADESH INVITES 'PRIDE OF BENGALIS'

A Bangladesh delegation, led by a former

Mukti Bahini

soldier, came calling at the Karmakar household here on Saturday to invite "pride of all Bengalis" Dipa Karmakar for a felicitation function across the border. The five-member team, led by Md Sayuddulah Mia, came from Bhairab in Kishoreganj area, Bangladesh, which is about 70 km from the capital of Tripura. TNN

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