The CONTRIBUTION that Indian DEFENCE FORCE does to a GREAT Nation :: We NEED a lot of “ ARJUN ” ,The “ HANDS-OF-GOD ”

Pic :: Mr Barrack Obama and Air Chief Marshal Arjun Singh

The CONTRIBUTION that Indian DEFENCE FORCE does to a GREAT Nation :: We NEED a lot of “ ARJUN ” ,The “ HANDS-OF-GOD ”

 " NAA MILTAA YEH BAIRAN AANKHIYAN

CHAEIN NAA JAATA , DIL BHI NAA ROTAH

KAASH KISI SAY KABHIE PYAAR NA HOTAH "

 This was way back on  the  fag end phase of the year of 1979, November 1979 to be exact and to be precisely on the dot.

The Royal English Air Force  was touring India and it was playing a series of three games of ONE-DAY-CTICKET against India and the ONE that was played at Nagpur where I had the opportunity to meet Mr R . K .Ohri a GREAT cricketer of Services who excelled playing for Services in the ranji Trophy and for North Zone in the Duleep  and against the other visiting International team, was the one who got me introduced to Mr Arjan Singh who needs  NO introduction.

It was  the announcer who announced that the former Chief of Air Marshal had arrived at the stadium.Actually he was about a hour late in arriving at the stadium as he as busy with some other job abd once he arrived the match which was by then 15 overs old was stopped, the players of both the team were introduced to him and the match started again. Ajay Jha a former Ranji Trophy from Bikar who had joined the Indian Air Force was leading the Indian side.

I was very young then and I had read a LOT about this man .Obviously like any other teenager and as he was ONE of my NATIONAL-IDOL , I requested the protocol of the day at the V C A Stadiu then , and he took me to  Mr R.K.Ohri and a request was held by Ohri Sahab and he took me to this GREAT man and that was the FIRST occasion that I met him.

He asked me the reason to meet him and when I just said- YOU HAVE BEEN ONE OF MY CHILDHOOD IDOL AND JUST THAT I GOT A CHANCE TO MEET YOU I TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY. BESIDE THAT I’M A GREAT ARDENT LOVER OF SPORTS.

Listenning it he ORDERED Ohri- JANAB KAY LYE CHAI KA INTAZAAM KIYA JAYE  and soon there were  THREE cup of tea at the spot and the THREE who were sipping it were Ohri Sahab, GREAT MAN on whom I have written one articles before on my web page this being the SECOND and myself.

The talks started taking place and I started it saying- “ TOOFAN BABU , JARA UNNEES SAU SATTAR KA BEETA HUA KAL KAY VISHAY MAI KHEL SAY JOODA BAAT BATAIEAY ”

 He was perplexed to hear that word TOOFAN. He just asked me – what is TOOFAAN to which I replied-:

 AAPKA TOH HAR “ SHOHAR ” TOOFANI HOTA HAI. It means every VALOUR of you is as good as a TORNADO.

No sooner that I spelt those words there was a LOUD LAUGH as both Mr Ohri and This GREAT MAN burst into laughter.I then requested him to fall back to his days of being the CHEF-DE-MISSION of the Indian contingent of the 1970 Asian Games which were held at Bangkok.

 This also is SOMETHING which I would like to SHARE it with all those who REALLY adorn and ADORE the INDIAN SPORTS and OFCOURSE SHYAMAL BHATTACHARJEE DOES that with PANACHE and ELAN.

It was 1970 . The Indian contingent for the 6th Asaian Games was to be announced that was to be held at Bangkok, Thailand Thailand its capital , ie Bangkok had previously held that Games in 1966 and India did not do anything well in that games. Naturally the Indian Government with Madam Indira Gandhi holding the Department of Sports as an additional charge was very perturbed about whom to bestow the honour so that he/she raises the MORAL of the Indian sports contingent for the games and at the games.

Mr Arvind Netam during that time was incharge of the Department of Games and Sports in the Indian Government but on a AD-HOC basis He met Mr Vajapayee then, and spoke on this matter and Mr Vajapayee then advised him to approach Madam Gandhi to contact Mr Arjun Singh, and request or  remind Mrs Indira Gandhi to pick Mr Arjun Singh as he felt that with the kind of the MOTIVATIONAL and FIGHTING qualities that Mr Singh had he would be able to inspire to raise the bar of the Indian contingent to a very GREAT level

Mrs Gandhi  listening to Mr Netam and verifying the facts with Mr Vajapayee, called upon Mr Singh and asked him- SAHAB KYA YEH JIMMEDARI NIBHAENGAY AAP which means will you shoulder the responsibility ,   and his reply was- SIPAHI HOON JIMMEDARI LENA ADIKAR HAI BOLIYE KYA KARNA HAI which means I’m a SOLDIER and expediting the RESPONSIBILTY is my DUTY and HONOUR. Tell me what should I do.

After some talks it was decided that this man may be made the CHIEF- DE - MISSION of the Asian Games 1970 contingent .

Mr Arjun Singh :: “ SPONDALITY ” AND “ MODALITY ” WERE THE THINGS HE BROUGHT

He did what a SOLDIER was supposed to do He saw to it that the Indian contingent was given the BEST of the treatment was taken care admirably well was TREATED judiciously before and after their event and were always made to feel at ease at the games village.

Some of the PERFORMANCE displayed by the Indian team was MIRACULOUS ::

The way he charged the Indian contingent was like charging the  battery after it was down. He rejoined the incidents and the acts like the TWO wires through which runs the electricity are joined after they are separated or broken. I shall cite some of the examples which I heard it from his mouth.

Kamaljit Singh Sandhu  :: Made A “ QUEEN ” Of The Woman Athlete Of India .

He came to know about Kamaljit Sandhu whose family members were serving the Indian Army and Indian Air-Force He called her and infused some inspirational words. RESULT-                        Madam KAMALJIT SINGH SANDHU WON THE 400 METRES GOLD IN THE EVES' EVENT AND BECAME THE FIRST WOMEN FROM INDIA TO WIN A GOLD IN ANY INTERNATIONAL EVENT

He went a LONG way afterwards to help Madam Sandhu receive all the best training which enabled her to compete at the Munich Olympics thereafter.  After the Munich Olympics he met the family of Ms Sandhu and appraised them to get her married and it did not end here He got a very good Punjabi family the BRAR family, one he knew ,  and one of them was married to Kamaljit Sandhu.He thus helped her to settle in life

The GOLD MEDAL which Hawa Singh won in the boxing in the Super Heavy Weight category also was in a way his inspiration to Hawa Singh in terms of the words which helped Hawa Singh to erase his mental problem that he was facing to win that bout. Hawa Singh's brother was brutally killed in the 1965 war by the Pakistani at Akhnoor and the story of the brutal killing always played in his mind.  Hewas suppossed to face a Pakistani soldier and Hawa Singh had the bent to kill that Pakistani boxer in the ring .His brother’s slain by the IMMORAL Pakistani Army was such that it played on Hawa Singh’s mind.Hawa Singh wanted to either NOT step into the ring and if he did that his BENT-OF-MIND was such that he wanted to KILL the Pakistani Boxer .Looking into his state of affair the Indian Boxing Coach took Hawa Singh to Mr Arjun Singh.  Explanation and the state of affairs were then spoken in length about Hawa Singh and his state of mind to Mr Arjun Singh.

Knowing to get the mental state of the mind of Hawa Singh he approached Hawa Singh and with his TACT of TALKS and NEUTRALISING TACTICS to put the brain in right perspective he made Hawa Singh very normal and that helped Hawa Singh to do what no other Indian boxer did in their career .Hawa Singh won that bout and went all the way to win the GOLD for India in that weight category.

HAWA SINGH IS THE ONLY INDIAN BOXER TO WIN TWO BACK TO BACK GOLD MEDAL IN ANY INTERNATIONAL BOXING EVENT

The next was the Water-Polo event. It had four players from the Indian Air Force participating and representing India  .Knowing these he invited the entire Water Polo contingent to his suite at the GAMES VILLAGE and spoke to them INDIVIDUALLY and COLLECTIVELY He then took them for a dinner  and his own wallet getting light in the context .

His “ DEFENSE ”TACTICAL MAGIC worked wonder with the water-polo team and they ended winning the BRONZE

“ THAT WASAND THAT IS  THE ONLY OCCASSION IN THE ANNALS OF THE INDIAN SPORTS THAT AN INDIAN WATER POLO TEAM WON THE MEDAL IN ANY INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION ”.

The QUATRET of the AIR-FORCE player’s represaenting the Water Polo team in that games ,  all Bengalis really put a kind of a display that the organiser were left biting their teeth in anxiety to watch the Indian water polo contingent displaying that kind of a show It was really UNEXPECTED and when the tournament ie the water polo event was over the contingent of the IOA  ( Indian Olympic Assosciation ) who were there to watch the event went to Mr Arjan Singh saying that they did not know that the Indian are so very good in the water games .

The Biggest Crux : Football Team Put Under Their “ MENTAL-FIGHT-ATTITUDE ”

The BIGGEST crux that he held to put the entire games in its own place was the FOOTBALL event We know that 1970 ASIAN GAMES AT BANGKOK WAS THE LAST WHEN INDIA DID WIN AN INTERNATIONAL MEDAL A BRONZE FOR THE LAST

This event was held in a manner that India had to play TWO games in TWO days.In other words,  180 MINUTES OF FOOTBALL IN TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS,ie, 90 minutes a day, IS SOMETHINMG WHICH ONE WILL NEVER BELIEVE BUT YES THAT WAS THE FIXTURE

the Indian team was TOTALLY against this and in one of the moment they literally wrote the organiser that they would pull out of the tourney if the scheduling was not reorganized and worked on to make the things better for them.

This was something which totally was upsetting the applecart of the organiser  .Extending the fixture by two days- one for extending the date for India to play her match after at least a rest day that they would enjoy and then extending the day of the final match - it would have added so many a dollars to the existing expense of the organiser

The Chief of the Organiser of the Games then came to Mr Arjan Singh and put his view point He was a OFFICER FROM THE THAI ARMY and he was given this additional charge to conduct the games by the Thai authorities . He spoke all about his difficulties to Mr Arjan Singh and requested him to somehow make the Indian football team to play two games consecutively in two days

Mr Singh rose to the occasion , spoke each words to each players separately and collectively and just told them- “ PROVE THAT YOU ALL ARE SO STRONG AN INDIAN THAT YOU CAN OVERCOME THE WEIGHT OF PLAYING CONSECUTIVELY FOR TWO DAYS ”

You might lose well- that is in the game but if you win TWO MATCHES PLAYING FOR TWO DAYS THE WORLD WILL FEAR YOU WITH ALL RESPECT AND THAT WILL BE YOUR GREATEST " GIFT " TO INDIAN FOOTBALL This is an occasion for you to stand up and SHOW- HOW STRONG THE INDANS ARE INSPITE OF BEING A VERY POOR COUNTRY

WON'T YOU LIKE TO TAKE THIS SITUATION TO PROVE A POINT FOR INDIA, INDIAN FOOTBALL AND YOURSELF

Mr P K Banerjee the coach then in his presence put this question to the Indian team and no sooner he put that Mohammed Habib got up and said- KHELENGAY BHI AUR JITENGAY BHI CHALO TAIYYAR HOH JAO  which means WE WILL PLAY AND WE CAN WIN AS WELL,and the entire Indian team got onto the feet to say- KHELENGAY YES WE WILL PLAY.

Well India had to play two matches in two days.  In the first,it being ther last group encounter of India against Japan,  they lost to Japan by 1-2 in the group encounter to finish second to Japan to qualify from the group for the semis,  and they then took on Burma in the semis which they lost by 0-2

The Indian team did not loose to Burma just because the Burmese were too good It was because the Indian were playing with too TIRED LEGS which after the 65th minutes of the games was LIFELESS and STRENGTHLESS for the Indian team to feel and walk,  even to walk leave apart the question of running. However the Indian team put up a valiant resistance in the last 30 minutes of the match where the Burmese bombarded them relentlessly and Sudhir Karmakar played a game of his life to somehow keep the score board still at 2-0

After a day of rest when India gain took Japan for the Bronze Medal match it was a TALE OF A DIFFERENT KIND

 In that Bronze Medal play-off match, the Indian defener, Sudhir Kormokar did not allow the Tall Japanese striker Jan Kammamotto even to take a free turn in the game and did not allow him to move at all Kammamotta ten was the BEST player of Asia and was playing in the top flight European soccer and was scoring goals at his own will

Pele in his very FIRST AUTOBIOGRAPHY- MY BEST 50 FOOTBALLER had one chapter- THE ONLY ONE FROM ASIA and that was on  Kammamoto with  Pele - all praise for his footballing skill and when he was totally neutralized By Sudhir Kormokar,  which helped India to win that match by 1-0 to win the Bronze, the PRESIDENT of FIFA Mr Alf Ramsay then went to Mr Arjan Singh and said- ACTUALLY INDIA SHOULD HAVE WON THE GOLD AND IF IT WAS NOT THAT KIND OF AN HAPHAZARD FIXTURE THAT INDIA WERE TO ACCEPT AND PLAY YOUR TEAM SHOULD HAVE WON THE GOLD

He later added that HE DID NOT SEE ANY INDIAN TEAM PLAYING THAT KIND OF UNIMAGINABLE FOOTBALL BESIDE THANKING HIM TO HELP THE FOOTBALL EVENT TO FINISH AND THAT TOO WITHOUT ANY ABBERATION & ABRUPTION .

Pic :: Sudhir Kormokar :: 

There again he was FULL of praise for Sudhir Karmakar saying that if he was to choose three best defenders in the world amongst all the defenders that he saw playing football, he would always pick Sudhir Kormokar as one of them He was shocked to see Sudhirda playing that kind of a intelligent , wily , FOXY, HARD and  and tough football inspite of his very short height and a lean structure body .

It was THIS man who DID EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to see to it that the events at the 6th Asian Games went on without being uninterrupted

When the contingent came back- a special tea party for the contingent was held and the Indian Premier then, Mrs Indira Gandhi presented every member of the team/contingent with a KASHMIRI SHAWL

Mr Arjan Singh got jobs for all the members who were willing to join the Government jobs courtesy Madam Indira Gandhi and the four members of the water-polo squad who were from the indian Air-Force were given an out of the consideration kind of a PROMOTION in their job

He later went onto to BECOME a " GREAT " friend of Mohammed Habib the PELE of Indian football as he was called. More about it later.

Pics :: Mohammed Habib

After all his narration about that job of being the Chief , of the entire Indian contingent for that Asian Games, I just sked him- IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE AND ONLY ONE OF THAT ENTURE CONTINGENT AS THE STAR OF INDIAN ASIAN CONTINGENT WHOM WOULD YOU CHOOSE – HIS ANSWER WAS  “ MOHAMMED HABIB” .

In short and to SUMMARISE – in  whatever field that this man put his HAND- IT TURNED TO BE THE -

" HANDS OF GOD "

HELLO Mr MARADONA ARE YOU READING THIS PIECE That is HOW THE HAND OF GOD WORKS AND NOT LIKE YOUR HAND THAT WORKED AGAINST ENGLAND IN THE 1986 WORLD CUP

 As the cricket match was on he just asked me- well according to you what would be the GREATEST EVER INDIAN CRICKET TEAM and I put it as under-:

Team-:

1) Sunil Gavaskar 2) Vijay Merchant 3).Polly Umrigar/Vijay Manjerekar 4). Vijay Hazare 5). Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (Captain),6). Vinoo Mankad 7). Buddhi Kunderan/Farokh Engineer 8). Kapil Dev Nikhanj 9). Mohammed Nissar 10). L.Amar Singh and 11). Subash Gupte 12th man-: Salim Durrani Reserve-:Eknath Solkar & E . Prasanna

He did not utter a single word about the GREATEST INDIAN ONE DAY CRICKET  TEAM but I put it here as under -:

1). Syed Mustaq Ali 2). Virendra Sehwag 3). Mohinder Amarnath 4). Mohammed Azharuddin 5). Salim Duranni 6). Buddhi Kunderan7). Kapil Dev(Captain) 8). Roger Binny 9). Bapu Nadkarni 10). Anil Kumble and 11). B S Bedi 12th Man- : Ramakant Desai

Before signing off -there is a PIECE of ADVISE that I would like to put to Mr narendra Modi and Mr Kiren Rijiju ::

Hand over the ARCHERY, BOXING, ROWING, SWIMMING, YACHTING, EQUESTRIAN and some of the EVENT like the LONG-DISTANCE and the GYMNASTICS to the Indian Army Sports Board Control for imparting the TRAINING to the Indian sportsmen and women in these categories and see the RESULTS for yourself

 YOU WILL BE ASTONISHED that the HANDS OF THE GODS ie the hands of the Indian army would produce. 

I BET- THEY WILL AND THEY WILL 

Regards

Pics

 

Shyamal Bhattacharjee

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing

 

Signature  of Shyamal Bhattacharjee