THE YOUNG ACHIEVER - Real story inspiration for children

Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. We can at least think of two youngsters who have achieved greatness. One is Sachin Tendulkar. He made his debut for India in test cricket when he was sixteen. He is hailed as the boy wonder of Mumbai.

The other is Kutraleeswaran, the child prodigy from Chennai who created waves as a swimmer. He was born in the year 1981.Kutraleeswaran took to swimming when he was in Standard II. He was drawn towards Marina. He started practising in the sea. He used to swim for hours together. The first event he participated was known as the “Rippon Meet”. He won his first medal and moved to higher levels of competition. Soon he started participating in various long distance swimming competitions across the world.

Kutraleeswaran swam across the English Channel. That was his first cross country swimming. He swam the Palk Straits at a very young age in record time. He reached the pinnacle when he swam six water ways in the same calendar year. That was a record of sorts.That was how his name and picture got into the Guinness Book of World records. He instantly became popular. He was invited by many countries. He visited England, Australia, Turkey and Italy.

He owes his success to two things, namely, practice and perseverance. Here is an interesting incident. When Kutraleeswaran went to Italy in 1994, they were impressed by his performance. They offered Kutraleeswaran all training facilities, provided he represented their country. He declined the offer politely because he was an Indian to the core.