Maharashtra Home Minister on Saturday paid a surprise visit to Pune's 'Warrior Granny' - Shantabai Balu Pawar. While Minister Deshmukh greeted her with folded hands, complimented her on her talents and offered her Rs 100,000 plus a set of clothes.
Shantabai was happy at the encounter with the minister near her modest home and even performed a few martial arts tricks, leaving Deshmukh visibly impressed, while a large crowd including MLA Chetan V. Tupe and others applauded her impromptu performance.
Shantabai - a 85-year-old woman, became popular on social media for displaying stunning martial arts skills and unbelievable stunts with sticks and rods on Pune's streets to earn a living. Her video which went viral was first shot by a Pune based artist Aishwarya Kale.
Kale shared Shantabai's contact and bank details appealing to people to help 'Warrior Granny' with money, grocery, education materials, professional assignments, etc. to ensure the well-being of her extended family.
Later, the video was also shared by Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh and Sonu Sood.
Later, enquiries revealed that Shantabai had learnt her 'lathi-kathi' skills at the age of eight and continues to be an expert even after eight decades, displaying them with practised perfection on roads to earn a living, and touching scenes of her saga were recorded on social media.
Sood has offered to open a small training school where Shantabai can train and impart her skills to the youth, and others have appealed to schools to invite her to conduct workshops for students.
Many more have rushed financial and material support as the woman, who has even worked with the late actress Sridevi as a background artiste, is known to support several orphan kids as her own family members.
(With inputs from IANS)
