Debashish Roy : A SORBID and a CANDID example of TIGER beating it’s DEATH by the scruff of everything

There are some who are simply bestowed with undue problems to haunt them and they always beat those by their determination and courage Ofcourse the GOD also are with them in those momemt .

Football is a game for the poor played by the impoverish . This game makes the man a SOUL and not a man for ALL SEASON It is said that whatever game you play if you have not played the game of football you have not and never been a sportsman at all Football is a game which sparks everything in terms of a sports that a man could have or even a women and that they exhibit in the game and in their human life everyday One such man is Debashish Roy who NEVER got a chance to play for India but he played for the Junior India team in 1976 and played for all the big three clubs at Bengal

His initial days and forays in football , his family background

He was born at Karimnagar at assam to a family which had three sisters besie him The eldest of the sister was a School teacher Since she was educated and doing a honourable job the family wanted him to do his education in the best possible manner . His father use to run a small petty shop to maintain his family The business was OK for him to maintain his family but it was not that good to provide extravaganza Hence his father would always peg him to study well and further take up the business This coot was NOT interested in business. He told his father that he wanted to become a footballer and that ws his only choice and the goal of his life“ SPORTSMANSHIP AND FOOTBALL WILL GIVE YOU PITTANCE ” was the reply the father always would tell him

His meteoric rise in Assam’s Football

From Karimnagar at Assam to Gauhati, from there to the All Assam School Boys’ for the National School football championship then, from there to the state junior team in football and from there to the Junior India Football tournament at Pyong yang at North Korea along with Bhaskar Ganguly, Manoranjan Bhattacharjee, Compton Dutta, Parminder Singh , Brahmanana Salwankar and some more who later went on to play for India with pride  HE WAS CHOSEN AS THE VICE CAPTAIN OF THAT FOOTBALL SQUAD Thus began his rise in football

Back home he was there in the Ist year of his College for his studies He went onto captain the Gauhati University in the Ashutosh Memorial University football championship and in the finals they defeated Kolkatta Univeristy by 5-0 That was the time when he started cornering all the hogs and the limelight

TRAGIC : THE FIRST OF IT’S KIND

The family was growing in dimension and it’s perimeter was not flexed to being spending a little on anything The childrens started stepping into the College and some started getting the orders from the family that BE PREPARED The marriage time also has come All these would require expenditure and the Father beside running his shop to maintain his family also started to add some extra income to his kitty and one such was supplying the LABOURERS to the builders and making some extra buck out of the same

The mother of that family would everyday carry the tiffin of the Father to the sites where he would be with the labourers She would handle the tiffin carrier and then would walk all the way back home to fend the house One fine day when the mother ook the tiffin and stood under the building where the Father was taking a stock of the job and the labourer all of a sudden that entire building collapsed and the mother went into the debris and from there to the world where one goes not to come back at any moment thereafter

Many were admitted to the hospital for recuperation as the father also ws. He could come back to his home but when he heard that his wife has passed away he could not bear that  SHOCK and LOSS He struggled for many a days to live heartedly but at last the grief of losing his wife in that manner gave it and that was that THE FAMILY WAS UNDER THE SHACKLES OF UNCERTAINITY ABOUT THEIR FUTURE

First Move as a Professional footballer

Finding it very HARD to bear the loss somehow Debashish came back to sense. Now the entire charge of the family fell upon the sister who was a School teacher but was drawing a very meagre salary and Debashish who was unemployed He had to give his studies He by then had passed the ist year of his BA studies but had to give the studies away

A Club from Gauhati approached him and they registered him a footballer of the club with the only benefit that the club would give him to eat a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner everyday with a roof over the head That was in 1977 and he remained with them until April 1978 . In April 1978 one of his coach who coached him said him- MOVE TO KOLKATTA YOU WILL BE A BETTER HUMAN BEING AND A BETTER FOOTBALLER PLAYING FOR INDIA AND THOSE REPUTED CLUB

OK- he replied but how do I go there I have no money to go there and place my feet over there. Some Samaritan gave him some money to move to Kolkatta with the assurance that he would pay them the LOAN received when his state of affair would be fine and good He made all arrangement to move to Kolkatta While leaving he took some of his certificates and a picture of that 1976 Junior India football team of which he was the Vice captain of that team

DISASTER AWAITED HIM : HE WAS IN THE JAIL FOR TWO NIGHTS

Boarding the train for Kolkatta in 1978 in a unreserved compartment he met disaster The back pocket which hld his booty and the ticket was picked off beautifully by some EXPERT in this field and when the TT asked him for his ticket he was POINT BLANK He was put under the railway Police first and from there to the City Police in between Kolkatta and New jalpaiguri. His only luck was that he was in Bengal by that time where FOOTBALL is a RELIGION and FOOTBALLERS are the GOD for everything

His encounter with the POLICE saw him being psushed to the jail for not having the tickets then but then ARRIVED LUCK in a way The Local Police Station Officer himself was a Policeman who had played Football for the Kolkatta City Police team in the early sixties and was appointed as a Policeman He got that job in the Sports Quota then and now he was a Poloiceman in this area Because of football that Policeman took a pity on him and asked him to prove his worth as a footballer if he could He took out that pictures and some certificates that he was conferred with in football That picture with Bhaskar Ganguly and Manoranjan Bhatacharjee with him being the Vice captain of the indian Football team for that Pyangyang Junior Asia Football tourney put him out of the jail and into the bar of some consideration

Some money from the individual purse of that Samaritan Policeman made his way forward to Kolkatta and he was at Kolkatta in 1978 at the peak hour of heat ie the summer season as well as the peak hour of Inter Club Transfer at Kolkatta

At Kolkatta he went to his sister place who was married That sister was a far off relation to him He stayed there for two days and moved around Kolkatta to see if those certificates and his valour for the Junior India team that played football in Pyongyang could help him but those did not help him at all Hunger, bad times, the scene of his head of the family completely shattered and the stomach which was burning like a pyre completely took it’s toll and his body became weak So much so that in his last effort to get something out of Kolkatta he moved to the Aryans Football club tent. However by that time when he reached the tent his body gave away He fell unconscious in front of the club tent and his mouth was full of froth He lay there in the unconscious manner for about a day when a club official noticed that there was somebody lying in an unconscious manner in the club premises

Shifted to a private clinic : He gained sense and Football of Kolkatta armed him

At the clinic he was given all the treatment to come back to the sense . He came back to the sense and when the Aryans club authorities took him back to the club they got to know about this man who had played for india in the Junior Asian Football tourney that was held at Pyongyang Immediately he was signed by the club for a annual fee of Rs 750=00 per annum plus the food which would be limited to the afternoon only as after the practice the lunch would be the only help that the club would offer him HE AGREED to that offer

1978: Aryans make it to the semis of DCM trophy , Debashish takes them to the last four

It was the Kolkatta football season that brought him to the forefront of Indian football . He made a mark in the very first season. His main forte was the SPEED and the ability to strike at the right moment There were Shyam Thapa, Mohammed Akbar , Mihir Bose and by then Shabbir Ali too had switched to Bengal joining East Bengal in the process That was a REAL tough time for him to make his presence felt but a goal against East Bengal in the 1978 Kolkatta IFA League and thereafter taking to Aryans in the semis of the DCM Trophy was the real coloyrs to his added repertoire for the club and the game In the DCM trophy in the semis his team lost by 4-0 against a very vast and a superiror USSR team from Ukraine but Debashish stood out against this club interms of the harrowing time that he gace it to those USSR footballers from that club

1979: East Bengal stretched too far and Kazma of Kuwait defeated Debashish strikes the Gold for Aryans

1979 was the season and the reason for everything that this man could earn for himself First in the IFA League against East Bengal his goal saw East Bengal trailing by 1-0 at the breather It was late that in that match David Williams pulled two shockers and too ballistic bomber that helped East Bengal to beat Aryan by 4-1 In that match he really showed what a NATURAL speed could do and harass the East Bengal team

In the next scenario was Kazma of Kuwait. Kazma , the present generation coots would not know what it was It was East Bengal or Mohun Bagan of India to its football, it was Real Madrid or F C Barcelona to the Spanish football or it was Bayern Munich to the German football

Kuwait had introduced professionalism in it’s football and there were a few European who were assisting that side Notwithstanding was their reputation that they had come over here to play that tournament here in the IFA Shield However in the pre-quarters Kazma got a SHOCK of their life when it lost to Aryans by 1-0 with Debashish Roy being the scorer Debashish Roy ultimately had come to stay in Indian football

1980 : Mohammedan Wins the DCM Soccer , Debashish Roy awarded a watch worth Rs 14,000=00

1980 was the year when Kolkatta had wriiten a new epilog and a new page in the chapter of Indian football . There was a mass exodus of players Most of the East bengalian stars had switched over to Mohammedan Sporting and to make it far more stronger Debashish Roy was added to the list of the players of Mohammedan. The club won the DCM trophy against a virtual selected South Koream national team which played the finals that day

Mohammedan scored that goal through Debashish Roy After swallowing that goal the Korean plundered the Mohammedan territory with  the speed of light The only reply that they always got it back was the speed by which Debashish and Surojit Sengupta would retaliate to counter them This retaliation somehow saved Mohammedan and some acrobatic saves that Bhaskar Ganguly could pull for his team on that day

So happy was Mir Mohammed Mollah the General Secretary of the club that he immediately announced a prize of Rs 1200=00 to each of the players who played for Mohammedan Sporting that day beside taing away his watch which was worth around Rs 14,000=00 and presenting it to Debashish Roy there itself at the ground Victor Amalraj was the Captain of that Mohammedan team

1980 : Santosh Trophy, a WORST of INJURY hit him and he was out

It was the scene at Cuttack at Orissa the national football championship was under process at Cuttack Debashish was playing for Bengal as it was Bengal were moving ahead in the tourney and they reached the quarters where they were ousted in the quarters

In that tournamemt in the quarter-finals against Goa he received such a terrific injury in terms of the fracturte that his shin bones was broken into two A Goan defender tackled him in such a manner that it broke into two One portion of the bone from the leg pierced and came out of the leg skin He could see that a small portion of the bone had lsot it’s chip There was nobody and no one to attend him after that fateful injury

He looked for help and support but none came to him either during the game when he was injured or anytime out of it He some how reached Kolkatta and made his way to the clinic He was taken care of by the cilinic and to some extemt by some of his well wishers that was all.

His fractured leg was plastered and it became OK after some treatment .However the Doctors told him very FRANKLY- YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO PLAY FOOTBALL AGAIN

NO LIFE WITHOUT FOOTBALL :  HE DEFIES THE LAW OF NATURE & COMES BACK TO FOOTBALL

Life without football for a player like him is like a LIFE without the LIGHT falling in the eyes or a pair of eyes without any light in it The situation for him was such that he would have had to beg for everything without football He was living his life till then by the pittance that the club was paying him and ofcourse the one time food that were served to the players during those days

There was’nt any job that he was doing Some assurances were given to him by the institutios that he would be given a job by the bank but he had no degree to show for those jobs Where would he go without football The leg that suffered that injury was such that if pressure and stress falls on the same he would not be able to walk More pressure on it would lead to amputation The question was WHAT TO DO His period of SPORTS REHABILITATION started from there

He went in for the sand running first. Then he started the skipping ie the rope skipping That added the strength on his calf muscles and the thigh Thereafter it was short burst of speed While he would do all these he would experience a HELLUVA pain. But he would stop for  some times and then again he would start the exercise Slowly the legs were in the shape to play the game but not the speed that once possessed to run  on the ground He would limp a bit and that limping would pain the body but he could run fast even then to play

It is with this kind of a PAIN that Debashish Roy played the game from 1981 to 1989 when he finally bid good bye to the game

1981: Debashish Roy is the JOINT TOP SCORER of Kolkatta IFA League and Mohs Sporting wins League

It was again in 1981 when he came back to Mohammedan Sportig club Initiually there was no contract given to him. Everybody at Sporting were very skeptical about him being able to survive in that kind of a HRASH and ROUGH inclement weather of Kolkatta football On persistent insistence from the various quarter he was finally registered as the player of Mohammedan in the upfront His 13 goals helped Mohammedan to win the IFA League title in 1981

HE WAS THE JOINT TOP SCORER OF THE 1981 IFA LEAGUE WITH JAMSHID NASSISRI

He was asked to join East Bengal which he did in 1982 and from 1982 to the end of the season till 1985 he remained with East Bengal

He helped East Bengal to win the 1982 IFA League It was after a gap of six years that East Bengal had won that League He scored the all important goal against Mohammedan Sporting in the Durand Semis where East Bengal had shared the Durand Cup with Mohun Bagan later in that season

Losing out the IFA League to Mohun bagan in 1983 he was in a large manner responsible for winning the DCM Trophy for East Bengal However the Rovers Cup incident was the place where his dream of representing India in the Senior International came to an end abruptly .In that match against Mohammedan Sporting in the semis that SLAP incident to that referee by a East Bengal player in which he along with Manoranjan Bhattacharjee, Bhaskar Ganguly, Mihir Bose and Debashsish were summoned by the AIFF committee to clarify their stand, the ultimate ban served to these players debarring them to represent India in any International football tournament saw his dream of representing the Senior Indian team go off with the wind however he rendered his services to the three clubs of Kolkatta . In 1985 he was the one who helped East Bengal to win the Federation Cup as and on the basisof individuality for the first time and he went along in a big way to help East Bengal to win the Kolkatta IFA League as well as the matches to help East Bengal qualify for the AC Cup which ws held at Doha. He top scored in the Qualifying matches for East Bengal by scoring 10 goals and he scored the only goal for East Bengal in that A C Cup proper match at Doha The three matches then that East Bengal plyed they lost the three matches by the score of 0-1, 1-2 and 0-3 in the three games that they played against their opponent  The only goal in that tourney was scored by Debashish Roy for East Bengal

1986 : Debashish Roy moves to Mohun Bagan

After the Santosh Trophy football which was held at Jabalpur in 1986  where Punjab won that championship defeating Bengal by the tie breaker Debashish Roy was given an offer of Rs 1.50 lakhs per season for two season to play for Mohun Bagan He was ther HIGHEST paid footballer on that occasion in the Kolkatta football This offer was which he could not turn down in any case

His life till then had seen the PLIGHT of PAINS and INHUMAN tolerance that was metted out to the game of football and to the sportsman The injury and the death of his parents were too much for him to swallow Over it he had to getr his sisters at Assam at karimganj married and settled down in their life He badly needed the money to build his own house .All these days he was living and staying in a way or the other at Kolkatta  on the mercy of some Samaritans who gave him some leverages as a footballer to live. He knew then that no sooner that he leaves football it would be all over for him

In between the performance of him playing football and playing against some top class team and scoring goals against some very top class teams of Asia especially the goal he scored against Port Authority XI of Bangkok and that goal against that famed club in the A C Cup helped him to get a job at the FCI He was earning but that was not enough

Taking his future into consideration and his future in the game with that kind of a leg which was not capable to play football but he was risking his life to play football he was playing the game, he accepted the offer That offer helped him to buy a plot at the Thakorepukur area of Kolkatta to build his house, a small one but enough to live a peaceful life and he one by one got his two sisters married to good family He thus fulfilled his duty as a son to the family that his father had left and deserted this world

He later got married to the sister of another footballer Tapan das who played for Mohun Bagan and East Bengal from 1977 to 1986 Tapan das in his lasy year in Indian football had played for Behala Youth in 1985-86 and he was employed with the Bank of India.

 Debashish Roy and his contribution to the clubs he played from 1984

In 1984 he was the top scorer for East Bengal in the Kolkatt IFA League . He won the IFA Sheild for East Bengal where they defeated Mohun Bagan by 1-0 in the finals East Bengal could not win the Fed Cup in 1984 despite making it to the finals. In 1985 he won the Fed Cup for East Bengal He was responsible for East Bengal with his two goals to beat Punjab State electricity Board by 2-1 in the two legged semis. Thereafter it was the A C Cup that I mentioned here

In 1986 his lone goal enabled Mohun Bagan to beat East Bengal by 1-0 to win the Durand . Again in the Rovers Cup it was his goal which enabled Mohun Bagan to beat East Bengal in the semis by 2-0 A very strong East Bengal ws beaten by Mohun Bagan. In the Durand again in 1987  a goal each by Debashish Roy, Shishir Ghosh and Victor Amalraj had helped Mohun Bagan to beat East Bengal by 3=0 in the semis but Mohun Bagan had lost to JCT Mills by 1-2 in the finals The only goal of the finals for Mohun Bagan came through Debashish Roy

In between he captained the Bengal state football team at Jabalpur for the 1986 finals where they lost to Punjab in the tie breaker It was the seson 1988-89 where again he top scored in the Kolkkatta Football league for Mohun Bagan though they could not win the league

Debashish Roy : Only Player in annals of Kolkatta League to top score for three different club

He is the ONLY player in the annals of the Kolkatta League to play for three different club and top score in the Kolkatta IFA League in the annals of Kolkatta IFA League

After the 1989 season and in that year he decided to give away playing football for ever That leg which was NOT fit enough for him to run and play football and that decision where he defied the dictums and the orders of the doctors to continue playing this game finally had send a message to him- STOP PLAYING FINALLY OR THE LEGS WOULD BE AMPUTED That signals of the world of medics saw him taking a decision of NOT playing FOOTBALLat all and for ever since then

It is so INTRIGUING and so very HARD  to believe that he played football inspite of his legs not at all fit enough to play this game at all. He took a HELLUVA risk to play this game from that fracture which hit him at 1980 to play this game till the end of the 1989 season He had to defy the order of the nature to play this game and get something for his life. Without it he would have been a BEGGAR else on the road for begging

It is for this VALOUR in 1983 when he had to appear before the AIFF committee to give his stand on SLAPPING the referee that he POINT BLANK told to the CEO of AIFF Mr Dutta that-  EVEN IF I HAVE TO DIE AND LIVE WITHOUT ANYTHING, I’M NOT GOING TO BEG FOR ANY MERCY OR PLEAD FOR ANY MERCY FROM THE AIFF TO PARDON ME PLAYING THIS GAME

 “ I have played this game for my LIVING without any ALMS from anybody and I do not have to request by asking the AIFF to pardon me to play football Any sort and any kind of BEGGING in terms of MERCY is out of my imagination That is it ” 

That pains and that painful legs which would cause IMENSE pain also could not STOP this man from playing this game for that many a years Imagine the pains that he would be in but then he continued because HE HAD TO LIVE AND SURVIVE FOR THE NEXT DAY

Job: Promotion, Tansfer and the charges levelled against him

He was promoted by the FCI as a Supervisor and as transferred to Burdwan He initially DID not like to accept either the promotion or the transfer However he had to comply with the decision When he took up the posting the job responsibility,  he found that the Burdwan depot of FCI was a place which was meant for the looters as  the FCI employee at Burdwan were hands in gloves with the traders and the black marketers and would loot the commodities that would be stored at the godowns

Like a TRUE soldier and a PATRIOT and one who was a WARRIOR of football in the field he reported the matter to the highest authorities. But the hands in gloves led by Somnath Chatterjee who was in team mate at the Mohun Bagan framed a charge against him and fixed him for all the undoings at that godown at Burdwan

He was discharged from the duties but the WARRIOR that he was he single handedly fought against them and turned the odds in his favour. Once completely cleared by the FCI and once completely getting a CLEAN CHIT by the FCI he was asked to continue in his job. He had about 12 years of service left BUT HE RESIGNED saying that HE WAS NOT A MAN WHO WOULD WORK AMONGST THE “ SHIT “

He left his job and went back to Karim Nagar. He sold his piece of plot and the house that he had constructed on it and with his PF and the gratuity he went back to his root at Karim Nagar His source of income is Rs 96,000=00/annum that he receives it from the Assam Government for representing India in football That is it His another source of income is whenever he is called to coach the teams from assam, he goes over there to coach those teams That is his only source of income

ANOTHER CRUEL TEST OF HIS LIFE : HIS SON CAME BACK TO LIFE

His marriage produced him a son. Destiny had a CRUEL fate written for him. The only son that was born to him, had NEUROLOGICAL problems for him and his family to face The son could not SENCE and SENSE anything in life normally though he was alive He DID NOT GIVE UP. Constant application of head massaging, and with all the medicnies that the world of medicine from the arurveda and the herbs that he could provide to his son, his son after many many and many a days regained the composure

He is now studying in the Shantiniketan at Bolpur District at West Bengal and is doing his studies in Arts. When the days you start is very late it is the age that puts you far away in that age However  the son is doing his studies well despite of the fact that he is overaged Because he started very late after totally being healed from the disease that he was carrying, his everything is late says Debashish but then- WITHOUT A PROPER EDUCATION YOU CANNOT LEAD YOUR LIFE That is the reason he is making his son to atleast be a graduate

This is the LIFE of a SPORTSMAN especially if he is NOT a cricketer and if he comes from a very humble and a POOR background

Life goes on says Debashish I’m HAPPY with whatever GOD and LIFE has given me I have NEVER gone to anybody, any club for any help and I would NOT do that Again if the club feels that they are INDEBTED to me and those who have won TROPHIES and TROPHIES for them they should think about us We played football in those days when there was NO MONEY and we gave whatever BEST that we could have given to them

In our days we did not have the money and we did not play at all for the money We LOVED the game and played for the game The game has given what it had to give and that is what we have it with us

Thanks to FOOTBALL which gave me something to survive and live if NOT everything that I wanted out of my life That was that he told before we signed off

That is Debashish Roy for you That is INDIAN football for you That is the INDIAN FOOTBALL star for you  That is it

Rgds

Shyamal Bhattacharjee