Urjaswati Roy Chowdhury, a 13 year old singer, writer and President’s Prize winner lost her battle against Adenovirus at a Kolkata hospital, on 22 February 2023. Hailing from Kharagpur, Urjaswati has caught the public eye with her vast ocean of achievements despite her physical disabilties. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 2, a progressive degenerative disease, at a very young age, she had been admitted to the hospital a week ago with adenovius symptoms and was undergoing treatment.
Gone too soon, the student of Class 8 of DAV Model School, IIT Campus, Kharagpur had accomplished a lot in her short life. Despite her physical disabilities, she fought against the odds, to make a name for herself both in academics and music. Urjaswati went on to win a ‘Gold Medal’ in the IMO 9th International Mathematics Olympiad 2015-16 and was also awarded an Excellence Performance Certificate. She ranked 2nd in her school, 5th in her city and 20th in the State.
Music was of course the area where Urjaswati truly shined. Having started her journey of performing in 2019, she had been awarded with the title of “Little Champ” for her outstanding performance as an artist in Vocal music. Her first written story was also published in the same year in a Kolkata magazine titled Nichak. Another story, “Antartadanta”, was selected as the best short story submitted for a writing competition in the magazine Sukhi Grihokone.
Taking a look back at some of her other achievements, Urjaswati received the National Award for Outstanding Performance as a Creative Child with Disabilities in 2018, awarded by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Government of India. The Department of Child Development and Women Development & Social Welfare, Government Of West Bengal gave her the State Award for Outstanding Creative Child with Disability in the year 2016. She was also awarded the Chairman position in the All India Semi Classical Singing Competition organised by Bharat Sanskriti Utsab, in affiliation to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
For her exceptional writing skills, she was felicitated at the Kolkata Book Fair for her story “Bat Gaachhta”, published in the anthology Kumudir Jonno and “Portrait”, published in the anthology, Bhut-Adbhut-Kimbhut. In addition to this, she was honoured with the President’s Prize in 2019 for her noteworthy musical accomplishments. Despite having respiratory issues, Urjaswati had dreams of becoming a classical singer one day.
Urjaswati Roy Chowdhury, for someone so young, has undoubtedly left her footprints in the sands of time, with her grit and perseverance, especially in the face of the many adversities life threw her way. She was one of top 50 finalists of The Telegraph Online Edugraph 18 under 18 Awards and it was truly an honour for Team Edugraph to have got a chance to know her. Urjaswati will always be remembered as an epitome of courage who proved that nothing is unachievable if you have the passion for it.
