Rajkumar Tiwari was tired but happy on Tuesday evening. Earlier in the day, he had just made the two-hour journey from his home in Sadar Bazar to the Iskate ice skating rink in Gurgaon. There he had trained another three hours on the ice, practicing his jumps and spins before making the two-hour journey back home. Tiwari had been looking forward to the training. The only Indian ice skater to have ever won a medal in international competition - he won a figure skating gold at the 2013 Special Winter Olympics - Tiwari has been dogged by financial constraints throughout his career. His father is a street hawker, selling costume jewelery off a plastic sheet on the side of the road in Sadar Bazar. It costs him about Rs 35,000 a month to train at the ice skating rink. On Tuesday though, Tiwari found a particularly generous benefactor. Justice Mukul Mudgal, directed that his payment for supervising IPL 2016 matches at the DDCA be passed on to the skater. "I have directed the court to pay my professional fees of rupees two lakh to Rajkumar Tiwari. This two lakhs is payment for my two visits to the DDCA during the IPL which I supervised. I hope others also help needy sportspersons this way," Mudgal said. Mudgal said he first came to know of Rajkumar's plight from an article he read in an English daily. Tiwari for his part is grateful for the windfall. "Two lakh is the biggest amount of money that has ever been given to me. In the past people would contribute money but that would usually be a few thousands," he said. That's far more money than Tiwari's family can afford. "My father sells earrings for ten rupees each. Whenever I'm not training, I help out my father. My brother works at a shop and my mother stitches clothes. All of them contribute to help me achieve my dream," says the 23-year-old Tiwari who was diagnosed with a hyperactivity disorder and mild mental retardation as a child. As such, Tiwari’s training coincides whenever a individual, on hearing his story, makes a financial contribution. "It's not the most ideal way to train. I can't improve unless I train for a continuous period, but regularly I train depends on whether I have money to pay for my sessions at the ice skating rink," he says. The funding has given Tiwari renewed hope that he can fulfill a dream. He has already transcended his handicap by winning a silver medal in the senior Ice skating nationals in the open category. He now wants to take that achievement one level further. "I want to take part in the world championships next year. As far as I know, no Indian, abled or otherwise has participated in And maybe one day qualify for the Olympics. It’s a great honour that such a reknowned person such as justice Mudgal is helping me out. I hope to justify his faith in me," he says.
