Tathastu Buddy
Monika Padhi: a girl who went out of the society’s comfort zone to live her passion. 5th of September, 1994 the day when Monika Padhi stepped into this world to conquer her unborn dreams. Born and brought up in Rajnandgaon Chhattisgarh, she has always been a bubbly, cheerful child of the family.
As Monika says, she was always the favourite kid of her parents, out of the two. Belonging to a huge family but her upbringings in a nucleur family has had a lot of developments in her as an individual, which was majorly due to her father’s job. Monika adds on, telling about her on grown interest in Karate, when once his Brother had asked her to join the sport. She straightaway refused, making
excuses of it being a dangerous sport. But, on continuous insisting by her brother, she decided to have a peek at what Karate actually is. She was at once fascinated by the White uniform the kids have to wear for Karate, and rest is history thereon.
An international medal, and a number of national and state level medals under her belt already; Monika admires Mr. Amber Singh Bhardwaj, an international athlete himself, and also her Karate Trainer as her only idol in the sport. Out of all the other achievements in her life, she puts her Bronze Medal triumph in the Commonwealth Karate Championship 2015, at the top. She has also represented India in the 5th Asian Beach games 2016, and has an eye on the spot for Asian games 2018, working hard to emerge as the Asian Champion.
Monika has left no stone unturned in her journey of being a Karate professional. 
She is an inspiration, not only to girls in Chhattisgarh, but from all over the country. She concludes by advising youngsters from any field, to follow their dreams and work hard for achieving it at its earliest. No matter what the society says, in the end what matters is just you and your success. We wish all the luck to Monika’s hardwork, and pray for her success in life as well as the sport of Karate.
By Story Teller – Sourabh Acharya
