Two feats that drew the attention of denizens of Vijayawada had one thing in common – they were meant to meet the challenge head on regardless of the outcome.
The first one was attempted by a kid, 35-month-old archer Dolly Shivani Cherukuri and the other by a 32-year-old musician, guitarist Raghu Malleti. Both made their way into record books by meeting their respective challenges successfully.
In fact both the achievers have ignited hope in several upcoming players, artists, painters, dancers and others pursuing their passion in the new State of Andhra Pradesh which is gearing up to create its own identity.
“Such success stories are the need of the hour for the new State. They send positive vibes to the younger generation, which is hooked to gadgets and gizmos,” opines G. Phani, a historian, who chronicles city’s history.
Senior Rotarian and sports administrator S. M. Sultan feels the twin acts exemplify the basic human purpose of bettering one’s faculties. “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once a person stops doing this, he’s as good as dead. Greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it”. Dolly Shivani, the youngest trainee at Volga Archery Academy punched 388 points in the seven and five meters segments – 188 points more than the required points (200) set by the publishers of India Book of Records- to create a new record in recurve archery.
A day after, music teacher Raghu Malleti, keen to prove a point, turned upside down and sang songs for 40 minutes playing guitar to create a new mark in the category.
The pursuit by Raghu was a risky one as it involved hanging in midair. “The rush of blood to head continuously for more than 30 minutes could create severe impact on health. There is a possibility of one turning blank. Your back may suffer damage,” says Raghu, who underwent a thorough medical check-up before his attempt. He says it was all about mind. “You need to give a different set of instructions to the mind and control it”.
Raghu is happy that he pulled it off successfully and feels that the milestone will help him make headway in his chosen world of music. “There are a couple of Telugu films in the pipeline”, he says with a smile. A native of Vijayawada, Raghu has been going around places like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai for education and music. He learnt western classical from Thanraj Samuel. He is also in talking to the Limca Book of Records and Guinness Book of World Record after sharing the videos and other technical details of his feat.
Raghu knew what he was doing but the kid archer Dolly Shivani hardly realised what she was doing in the archery field. She just did what she was best at – releasing the arrows from the bow towards the target and created a new record. Her achievement is the most-talked about story these days as several newspapers, radio stations and TV channels are going bonkers over her triumph at an early age. Shivani was brought to this world for a purpose by her parents Cherukuri Satyanarayana and Krishna Kumari, who opted for surrogacy. The couple wanted to impart training to the child in archery and groom her into a champion archer. “Gradually we will increase the distance and train her with bows different weights,” says Satyanarayana.