Para-karate champ is a vegetable seller now

Ludhiana: The struggle of earning a livelihood amid the crisis triggered by Covid-19 pandemic has forced an international para-karate player to give up his dream of running karate coaching classes for young players in Khanna to take to selling vegetables on the roadside.
From performing at various international karate tournaments for the disabled to selling vegetables at a roadside stall, the career of Tarun Sharma (27) has taken a huge dip. Following the imposition of lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic spread, Sharma was forced to shut down his coaching academy owing to the poor financial condition of his family and start selling vegetables.
Sharma had first shot into limelight when he won two medals — one Gold and a Bronze — in Hungarian International Karate Championship 2020 held in Budapest, Hungary. Apart from that, he also clinched a Gold and a Bronze in Karate Global World Cup 2019 in Dublin, Ireland.
The local para-karate player had also sought support from the state government to continue his sports activities to fulfil his dream of becoming the world’s best handicapped karate player, but to no avail.
Speaking to TOI at his vegetable stall, Sharma said, “It’s been six days that I started selling vegetables on the roadside. I felt this is the only way I can survive the current crisis. I shut down my coaching academy for budding players, as I was unable to earn anything from there for the past four months.”
He comes from a humble background, with his father being a daily-wage worker and the mother a housewife. “In the last three-four months, we have lost all our savings in meeting the household expenses and paying back the loans taken to join international sports tournaments.”
He said he had not imagined even in his dreams that one day he would be selling vegetables to eke out a living. “I won seven to eight international karate championships in the past few years to make my country proud, but due to the lackadaisical attitude of the state government towards sportspersons, I had to leave sports and stand on the road with vegetables.”
He further said, “The state government had promised me a government job after I grabbed medals in international championships, but they have failed to keep their promise.”