With the village visit knocking on the door, with the trek presentation, with the Drama rehearsals and with so many other things taking place simultaneously, the last thing that i wanted was an Escort Officer duty. And as Professor Murphy had said, whatever bad can happen, will happen. And so came the order. I was to be the escort officer for the Chief Guest of the Athletics meet scheduled this weekend and he was to arrive a day before so that he could conduct an Archery workshop. Sh Sanjeeva Kr. Singh is currently serving as a VP in the Tata group but the country better knows him for his contribution to Indian Archery. He was the national Archery champion for quite some time in the 1980s winning 44 medals in various national competitions. Then he went on to become the captain of the Indian Archery team and later won the Arjuna Award. Thereafter he became the coach of the Indian Archery team for more than a decade. The grand performance of the team under him resulted in the prestigious Dronacharya award. He was subsequently awarded the Birsa Munda Award and the Jharkhand Ratna.
As I waited outside the Kalindi guest house to receive him, I was feeling this exuberance of getting a chance to meet an Olympian, I had read about him during the prep years and hence the curiosity was even more. The car slowly approached the porch almost as if in slow motion to give that dramatic impact. As he came out, you could actually feel by the body language that a real sportsman is in town. We exchanged greetings and whereabouts after which he retired into his room for lunch. But before that he specifically asked that he wishes to see the preparations for the Archery Workshop. I told him that the admin would probably handle it and he can take rest till the stipulated time but he insisted. A sure sign of a perfectionist.
Soon we were off to the field where Chandru Sir was doing the arrangements all alone. The target was fixed but he was perhaps having a hard time assembling the bows. As our Chief Guest inspected the bows and the arrows, he was a little disappointed. The various accessories which he needed so that he could teach the Officer Trainees some basics, were either missing or broken. And of course there was no option of getting a new apparatus as this was Mussoorie where the only thing freely and easily available was cold. He thought for a while then asked the support staff present there to get some elementary things like a thread, a matchstick, some glue etc. And he started doing some corrections for the bow-ruins to be resurrected. He spent nearly two hours fixing those bows. And I stood amazed at the dedication.
As Officer trainees started to tickle in, he greeted each and everyone. I need to say this out loud again, each and everyone. And dot on time he was ready to start his workshop. As he explained the basics of Archery, his passion and love for the same was more than evident. He was so proud of what he had chosen. He was so proud that he was sharing his skill with others. There was no arrogance, there was no artificiality. Then he one by one made everyone shoot some arrows and within no time i could see improvement in all the participants. The ones who did not know how to hold a bow at the first place where shooting bulls-eye in a time which seemed ephemeral to me. In between he would often tease me that everyone is shooting but his escort officer. I told him that I would be the showstopper. And I was. Bulls-eye for me too.
People kept on coming. And the older ones just wouldn't go. They were too spellbound by the dedication and skill of this man who kept on teaching the same thing to so many people, again and again. There was no ounce of doubt that he had given himself to Archery. And perhaps that is the way to achieve that brilliance in anything. You just need to give yourself entirely to it. It was dark and pretty cold now. I was concerned that he might be tired as the session had stretched really long. But he told me that he would continue as long as even a single OT is there willing to learn and shoot. And after that response, I did not bother him at all. I just couldn't. It was just a brilliant and inspiring sight to look at.
In between, he narrated a story we all are familiar with, that of Eklavya and Guru Dronacharya. Most people know it up till the point where Dronacharya asks Eklavya to cut his thumb and give it to him as his guru-dakshina. Now one way to look at it was that perhaps he was telling him that if he shoots with only three fingers without using the thumb, he would be even better. Today all the bows which are made and used everywhere in international shooting tournaments, they only require the three fingers. And that has proved to be more accurate and efficient. I never thought about this possibility and I was amazed to the core.
When the session finally ended, he mentioned his desire to dine with the OTs in the mess so that he would get to meet some more. And so we went. There on the table all sports enthusiasts circled him and bombarded him with questions especially pertaining to the poor state of affairs of sports in India. And the way he dealt with those questions was sheer brilliance. He went on to narrate various stories of his interactions with various civil servants who helped him in setting up academies for sports, for scouting talents in the tribal belts and to ensure economic compensations for them. The kind of creative ideas he implemented and some of which he had for future were exceptionally visionary and very much relevant to the future.
He insisted that we as civil servants can do a lot about the state of affairs of sports in the country and that how for nations their sporting prowess means a lot. That was really a very inspiring rendezvous with a sporting legend who had made the greatest contribution to Indian Archery. I hope, in the coming years, we all would participate and ensure the best things to be done in the sports sector. The following day he delivered a brilliant address to all the OTs in the Athletics Meet precisely sensitizing them how they could bring change in this field. I think those few words will transform into many actions that would eventually go on to become the big push.
Ladies and Gentlemen, take a bow for Sanjeeva Kr. Singh!
As I waited outside the Kalindi guest house to receive him, I was feeling this exuberance of getting a chance to meet an Olympian, I had read about him during the prep years and hence the curiosity was even more. The car slowly approached the porch almost as if in slow motion to give that dramatic impact. As he came out, you could actually feel by the body language that a real sportsman is in town. We exchanged greetings and whereabouts after which he retired into his room for lunch. But before that he specifically asked that he wishes to see the preparations for the Archery Workshop. I told him that the admin would probably handle it and he can take rest till the stipulated time but he insisted. A sure sign of a perfectionist.
Soon we were off to the field where Chandru Sir was doing the arrangements all alone. The target was fixed but he was perhaps having a hard time assembling the bows. As our Chief Guest inspected the bows and the arrows, he was a little disappointed. The various accessories which he needed so that he could teach the Officer Trainees some basics, were either missing or broken. And of course there was no option of getting a new apparatus as this was Mussoorie where the only thing freely and easily available was cold. He thought for a while then asked the support staff present there to get some elementary things like a thread, a matchstick, some glue etc. And he started doing some corrections for the bow-ruins to be resurrected. He spent nearly two hours fixing those bows. And I stood amazed at the dedication.
As Officer trainees started to tickle in, he greeted each and everyone. I need to say this out loud again, each and everyone. And dot on time he was ready to start his workshop. As he explained the basics of Archery, his passion and love for the same was more than evident. He was so proud of what he had chosen. He was so proud that he was sharing his skill with others. There was no arrogance, there was no artificiality. Then he one by one made everyone shoot some arrows and within no time i could see improvement in all the participants. The ones who did not know how to hold a bow at the first place where shooting bulls-eye in a time which seemed ephemeral to me. In between he would often tease me that everyone is shooting but his escort officer. I told him that I would be the showstopper. And I was. Bulls-eye for me too.
In between, he narrated a story we all are familiar with, that of Eklavya and Guru Dronacharya. Most people know it up till the point where Dronacharya asks Eklavya to cut his thumb and give it to him as his guru-dakshina. Now one way to look at it was that perhaps he was telling him that if he shoots with only three fingers without using the thumb, he would be even better. Today all the bows which are made and used everywhere in international shooting tournaments, they only require the three fingers. And that has proved to be more accurate and efficient. I never thought about this possibility and I was amazed to the core.
When the session finally ended, he mentioned his desire to dine with the OTs in the mess so that he would get to meet some more. And so we went. There on the table all sports enthusiasts circled him and bombarded him with questions especially pertaining to the poor state of affairs of sports in India. And the way he dealt with those questions was sheer brilliance. He went on to narrate various stories of his interactions with various civil servants who helped him in setting up academies for sports, for scouting talents in the tribal belts and to ensure economic compensations for them. The kind of creative ideas he implemented and some of which he had for future were exceptionally visionary and very much relevant to the future.
He insisted that we as civil servants can do a lot about the state of affairs of sports in the country and that how for nations their sporting prowess means a lot. That was really a very inspiring rendezvous with a sporting legend who had made the greatest contribution to Indian Archery. I hope, in the coming years, we all would participate and ensure the best things to be done in the sports sector. The following day he delivered a brilliant address to all the OTs in the Athletics Meet precisely sensitizing them how they could bring change in this field. I think those few words will transform into many actions that would eventually go on to become the big push.
Ladies and Gentlemen, take a bow for Sanjeeva Kr. Singh!
1 comment:
Truly inspiring and an enviable learning experience. Thanks for sharing Swapnil. (Sachin Arora)
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