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NEW DELHI: A mysterious early-morning phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi left Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma scrambling for answers. The PM simply asked him, “Have you met Simu?” — a name that Sarma shockingly didn’t recognise.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“I got a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi around 5.30 am. He asked me about Simu. I got nervous and told him, ‘I am Himanta speaking.’ He said, ‘Yes, I’m speaking with you. You meet Simu, she has some problem, you address her problem.’ I got confused — who is Simu? What is the problem?” the CM recalled at a recent public event.
Only after contacting the PMO did he discover the answer. Simu Das, a young woman from a poor family in Assam’s Nagaon district, had become the Player of the Match in India’s historic victory at the first-ever Blind Women’s T20 World Cup. She scored 86 runs and took a crucial wicket in the final against Nepal — a performance so extraordinary that even the Prime Minister personally noticed.Simu, born completely blind, grew up without a permanent home and carries the responsibility of supporting a brother who is both blind and deaf. Yet, her passion for cricket transformed her life. “She told me she loves playing cricket and went to Delhi to play when she was in Class 8,” Sarma recounted.
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Identified and trained by the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) and the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Simu’s journey from Nagaon’s extreme poverty to national glory is a tale of resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.She and the Indian team recently met PM Modi, gifting him an autographed bat. Her State, too, finally recognised her. CM Sarma awarded Simu a Rs 10 lakh cheque and assured government support for her future career. An emotional Simu responded, “There were times I felt my dreams were too big for someone like me. But this honour and a government job have given me a new life and a new identity.”Behind this remarkable athlete stands her mother, Anju Das, a daily wager who raised two differently-abled children single-handedly. Simu credits her success to perseverance and belief: “When one has no one of their own, they have to make everyone theirs.”
