Born to win, these Rourkelites dazzle the world and how!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 4:

Winners focus on winning and they were born to win. Rourkela Shines, a Facebook community, published a very interesting story on their page recently. Titled Chak de Rourkela, this has been making rounds in the social media. It showcases the stars who are from the Steel City of Rourkela and have dazzled in different categories on the national and international level. The picture collage of the stars who belong to Rourkela steel township, showcases the achievements of these people:

1.Amish Tripathy : 

He is the best selling Indian author famous for ShivaTrilogy, Vayuputras, The immortals of Meluha. His books have had gross retails in millions.

2. Bibhu Mohapatra :

This international fashion designer made Odisha proud when he dressed up Michelle Obama and other Hollywood A-listers. Bibhu has been featured in international magazines like Forbes, Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue, etc. and  is a much sought after fashion designer globally.

3. Deepti Mahapatra: 

She was among the top six contestants in Miss India Worldwide, New Zealand. She is also a successful model, singer, guitarist,dancer and model.

4. Biswapati Sarkar:

He is the creative director of the web comic content creators, the TVF and is an icon for youngistan. He is the infamous Arnub in the web world and who has recently made a comeback due to popular demand.

5. Dilip Ray: 

He is the business tycoon who has changed the face of hotel industry in the state by starting the Mayfair groups of hotels. A veteran politician, he was the Union minister in the Vajpayee government. Currently he is the MLA of Rourkela and much loved by all.

6. Ignace Tirkey: 

A gifted hockey player, he has captained the Indian hockey team and is now a lieutenant in the Indian army.

7. Jyoti Prakash Mishra: 

The first Odia to be helming the top-selling singles chart in the UK which is based on physical sale, being paid for downloads and streaming.

8. Lazarus Barla:   

Even though his hockey career was short, it was nothing short of memorable. This hockey defender who has represented India in the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney made his international debut in 1997 in the Junior World Cup tournament. He has played in the World Cup and was the captain in the Junior Asia cup.

9. Mira Nair: 

She has numerous awards under her belt and is one of the very talented filmmakers. Her movies have gone on to win the Cannes Film Festival and Golden Camera awards. She was nominated for the Academy Awards and also bagged the BAFTA and the Golden Globe.

10. Natraj Behera:

He is the Ranji team captain and a right-handed batsman. He was the second costliest player of the Orissa Premier League (OPL) T20 Tournament when he was bought by Western Samurai Rourkela for Rs 2.9 lakhs on May 13, 2011.

11. Sarada Nayak: 

Known as the Chanakya of politics, he was ex -Urban Minister in the BJD government and has been a pioneer for a developed Rourkela.

12. Ojas Mahapatra: 

A topper throughout his career, he is now the CEO of Photonic Innovations and has been listed as Top 3 New Zealanders by the Prime Minister of New Zealand and is a well-known and successful business leader there.

13. Piyush Roy: 

Journalist, writer and film critic Piyush has also penned a book Alexander-An epic love story. An alumnus of IIMC-Dhenkanal he received the National Film Award from President Pranab Mukherjee at the 60th National Film Awards function.

14. Rachita Mistry: 

She is known as the queen of the tracks. An Olympian and winner of the prestigious Arjuna Award she has clinched the national record in 100 m and 200 m, represented India in 4×100 m relay with P.T.Usha, E.b.Shyla and Saraswati Saha in the 1998 Asian Championships in athletics.

15. Rajasmita Kar:

The dancing queen has charmed the country with her dance moves and winning the covetous crown in in the third edition of a reality show Dance India Dance. She made Odisha proud by winning hearts of judges and audience. Mithun Chakraborty, the famous Bollywood actor who was one of the judges had named her “Dark Horse”.

16. Rituparna Bose: 

She is a doctoral student in the Department of Geological Sciences in Indiana University Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, through a new technique named Geometric Morphometrics, she identified fossils that may be as old as 400 million years through a technique that can benefit other researchers. Bose is currently an adjunct faculty in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Biological Sciences and Geology at the City University of New York.

17. Saanya Verma:

Eleven years old,  Saanya, a student of year 7 in a London school scored a perfect 162 in the Mensa IQ Test. That is exactly two points higher than the genius Albert Einstein,who is thought to have an IQ of 160. Saanya loves to play the piano, read and write poetry as well as stories.

18. Dilip Tirkey: 

He is the proud winner of the coveted Padma Shree, Arjuna Award and the Ekalavya Award. He is the only member of the Scheduled Tribe to have represented India in Olympics thrice (1996 at Atlanta, 2000 at Sydney, 2004 at Athens) and was the captain of the Indian Men’s Hockey Team. Currently a Rajya Sabha MP, he is also the mentor of Odisha based Hockey India League team, ‘Kalinga Lancers’.

19. Arpita Chakraborty: 

She is a textile designer from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She lent her melodious voice in the Bollywood movie Raagini MMS-2 and Satyagraha. Recently she sung the title track Na jaane mein na jaanu woh for the film ‘Bezubaan Ishq,’ which is a duet number with Javed Ali.