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Time of India
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
ET Women's Forum: Her rifle is an ode to her determination
Very few women say 'a rifle is an extension of who I am' and Avani Lekhara is one of them. A girl who picked up the rifle for the first time in 2015 as a teenager after a spinal cord injury in 2012 and went on to win two paralympic gold medals in Tokyo and Paris. In a candid chat at The Economic Times Women's Forum , Lekhara said she felt that connection with the sport when she first started competing. She received her first gold medal in a regional shooting match at Kendriya Vidyalaya. "Only after I started competing with other able-bodied athletes and para-athletes did I feel more connected to it. I felt like, okay, this is something that is really a part of me and that I want to continue," Lekhara said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Handmade Painted 3D Book Mug Designed By A Famous Engineer is Sweeping New York SOLYMALL Shop Now Undo At the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, Lekhara won a gold in women's 10m air rifle and became the first Indian woman athlete to win three paralympic medals. The Paris games were different from Tokyo for the then 23-year-old athlete. "I was the underdog in Tokyo. I came seventh in the qualifiers, and while going into the finals, I thought how could it be worse whether I am seventh or eighth." Only the top eight athletes get to compete in the finals. Live Events But the expectations of not only herself and her family, but the entire nation were on her when she went to compete in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. "There is pressure to maintain your position, and that takes a lot of courage," the champion said with the quiet confidence that comes only after one has achieved mastery in their space. Now she is a 24-year-old law graduate but is insistent that she doesn't want to be glorified for her path despite her injury - "a person is putting in a lot of hard work to compete and win medals, not to have a glorified story", Avani said. She dreamed of being a judge in a wheelchair even before she dreamed of being an athlete, she said. The aspiring judge wants everyone, especially persons with disabilities, to know not only their rights but also how to use their rights. She strives to include disabled persons in sports and society and provide accessibility in public spaces. She appreciates the fact that young girls with disabilities can look up to her before starting a sport and that she can represent them. "It's the impact because when I was a little kid, I didn't have anyone to look up to," she said. Winning the Khel Ratna and Padma Shree awards made her feel visible and connected to other athletes, especially para-athletes. "I feel that connection when people come and say that because of you, we started and didn't want to give up, it makes people feel more visible and more seen", and for Avani, that is the real success. Before wheeling herself down the dais, Avani Lekhara, sitting tall in a wheelchair wearing a purple jumpsuit said, "Every person with disabilities should know how to use their rights and how to implement these rights in their lives to make it better."
Time of India
6 days ago
- Time of India
ChatGPT global outage sparks meme storm: "Am I supposed to use my brain now at work?" users joke
OpenAI's popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT , experienced a significant worldwide service disruption today, halting user activities for several hours. Reports of the outage rapidly increased across numerous countries, effectively bringing many tasks dependent on the AI to a standstill. Social media reacts The disruption quickly became a trending topic on social media, with frustrated users finding humour in the situation. X (formerly Twitter) was flooded with memes and witty remarks, like one user who quipped, "Is ChatGPT down? My productivity just dropped to zero!" Adding to the online banter, one user wryly asked, "Is ChatGPT down? Am I supposed to use my brain now at work?" while another joked, "ChatGPT is down? Guess I'll start talking to real people again." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Handmade Painted 3D Book Mug Designed By A Famous Engineer is Sweeping Florida SOLYMALL Shop Now Undo Continuing the humorous thread, one user quipped, "ChatGPT is down, how will I answer if someone asks me my name?" ChatGPT down Outage tracking site Down Detector showed a significant surge in reported problems, with India alone reporting over 600 complaints, nearly 500 from the United States, and more than 1,000 users in the United Kingdom experiencing issues. Most users reported either complete inability to access the platform or persistent network errors. Live Events During the downtime, users attempting to access ChatGPT were met with a message stating: "A network error occurred. Please check your connection and try again. If this issue persists please contact us through our help center at ." OpenAI confirms the issue OpenAI officially acknowledged the disruption on its system status page, stating: "Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across listed services. We are investigating."
