Battling cancer, shooter Ritika Karmakar hopes to take aim again

KOLKATA: Last December, after going through several medical and blood reports, doctors of the Tata Medical Centre informed his patient that she was suffering from a “rare disease.” Her parents in shock, the teenage patient responded calmly: “Don’t worry, doctor. I’m also a rare quality.”Thus began an extraordinary battle for 16-year-old Ritika Karmakar, away from her beloved shooting range and confined to a hospital bed.A month earlier, she was preparing for the National Shooting Championships. Having honed her skills at the Joydeep Karmakar Shooting Academy (JKSA), Ritika was primed to gun for glory at the national stage.Then came a few early signs, slowly but steadily hinting that something wasn’t right. “She was getting tired after practice sessions. Then her body temperature started shooting up. The city was battling with a dengue wave at that time. So we took her to a clinic for a blood test and things took an unexpected turn,” Sumana, Ritika’s mother, told TOI on Sunday.Ritika was subsequently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. The extent of over-production of her white blood cells made it look like a losing battle. Chemotherapy had to be started immediately.“India went into a pandemic lockdown from March 24. But my lockdown began in December itself,” quipped Ritika, now back home and under strict medical observation.It was during this time that Joydeep and a group of fellow sportspersons stepped in to turn things around her.Joydeep, who finished fourth in the London Olympic Games, gave an insight of his pupil’s battle against the odds. “She could see my shooting range from her hospital bed. And whenever I called her up, she used to inquire when I would allow her to resume training. So when we organised an online shooting competition in April, I made her a ‘guest’ participant. Several shooters encouraged her to keep fighting and win this battle,” Joydeep recalled.There were others too, who stood by her side. Dibyendu Barua gifted Ritika Viswanathan Anand’s autobiography (‘Mind Master — Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life’) when the Grandmaster visited her. Eminent sports psychologist and mental conditioning coach Mreenal Chakraborty also arrived on her horizon, motivating the shooter to embrace the new challenge.