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| Everester Tenzing Norga |
The three-day Tenzing Norgay Memorial Open Tennis Championship would have 51 participants from Bhutan, Delhi, Moradabad, Patna, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Agra and different places in north Bengal. The tourney has a cash prize of Rs 1.25 lakh.
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| A match in progress at the tennis championship in Darjeeling on Friday. Picture by Suman Tamang |
Tenzing Norgay’s son Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa said he believed that the country had taken the mountaineer for granted. “The family has come forward to remind the country of the icon. By keeping quiet, the country has taken him for granted,” he said.
“In India, only politics, Bollywood and cricket get importance. We will try and promote sports like tennis and mountaineering. Tenzing Norgay was the first non-political Indian to get recognition across the globe,” said Jamling, an Everester himself.
Residents of Darjeeling have been demanding that Tenzing be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in the country.
Madan Subba, the member-secretary of Darjeeling Gymkhana Club, said: “We were embarrassed when the family proposed to organise an event in memory of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa here (club). We, the people of Darjeeling, should be organising such events and remembering our icon.”
Tenzing, born on May 29, 1914, had summitted the Mt Everest on May 29, 1953, along with Edmund Hillary.
This year is the 100th birth anniversary of Tenzing.
The climber passed away on May, 9, 1986.
The family-run Tenzing Norgay Sherpa Foundation was set up in 2012.
“We are supporting college education of 50 students from across the hills. We are also organising health camps in association with Rotary Club of Darjeeling. Now, we plan to make this tennis tournament an annual event.”
The foundation has sponsored many such programmes but this is the first time that it is holding an event by itself.
Earlier, the foundation had erected a 12-feet bronze statue of Tenzing at Sagarmatha National Park at Namche Bazar in Nepal near the Everest base camp.
The statue was unveiled on October 21.
“We are planning to organise a national-level rock climbing competition next year,” said Jamling.
He added that the main objective of the foundation was to carry on with Tenzing’s good work. “He (Tenzing) never talked about his work but he has helped hundreds of students. We want to carry on with his work, not only in the fields of adventure and sports but also in areas like education and health,” said Jamling.
Source: Telegraph
