Did you again get asked by that one teacher why you bother coming to school? That has been happening a lot, hasn’t it?
You’re not a particularly studious kid. But those words rankle, don’t they?
I know you are upset. Seething. But trust me, fate has something bigger in store for you. You are a misfit in school, but many decades from now there will be a chapter on you in school textbooks. And you will get there because of hockey. That’s right, hockey!
Let me tell you how.
In the fishbowl that is Khadki, where you were born, you will have only two options: you either go to the ammunition factory where your father works or leave to seek employment elsewhere. Evenings in the sleepy town are to be spent playing carrom or trying to avoid trouble. But often in Khadki, trouble finds you.
Your elder brother, Ramesh, understands this. That is why he will make you come and stay with him in Mumbai in a couple of years. Ramesh has played hockey for India and is proof that even kids from Khadki can make it big.
At first, it won’t seem like you will be able to follow in his footsteps. There will be a day when you will be laughed off by the state’s hockey officials when you ask if you can make it to the national team.
‘Now kids coming from Pune have started dreaming of playing for India!’ they will sneer.
But you will not be one to care for what anyone else says. You will put your head down and keep working hard. You know you will make it one day.
And you do!
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At twenty-one, you will make your debut for India against China in the Allwyn Asia Cup.
Yes, you! The boy who grew up playing hockey on a dusty patch of ground in Pune.
And while you will not be particularly satisfied with playing for just a couple of minutes as a substitute in your debut match, have patience. Your time will come.
In a couple of months you will be playing in the BMW tournament. India will play Pakistan and you will be in the starting XI. This will be it. Your turning point.
You will not be the biggest star on the pitch that night. But you will be good. How good? Ask Pakistan’s coach Islahuddin Siddique. He will have spent the whole match bellowing at his defenders to catch you. Forget catching you, they will barely get within touching distance. You will end up scoring two goals that day.
And before you know it, you will be on the plane to Barcelona for the 1992 Olympics.
That’s right! I said Olympics.
Surreal is not the right word to describe it, but it is the first word that comes to mind.
In Barcelona, you will be amid greatness. There will be the US basketball Dream Team strutting around in the Games Village. There will be Carl Lewis limbering up. Looking at them will make you expect more from yourself.
You will still be a wide-eyed and shy youngster; this world alien to you. You will feel horribly out of place. A square peg staring at a round hole. You speak only Hindi and Marathi. So your teammates will speak for you when you are asked questions by foreign journalists.
But you will find your place on the hockey pitch. You will not just fit in, you will belong. You will not be afraid to express yourself there. With the ball at your stick, you are an artist.
The Indian team will not go too far at Barcelona, but you will catch everyone’s attention. Soon, offers will start coming in from foreign clubs, asking you to play for them.
One offer in particular will change your life for good. A French hockey team, Lyon, will want you to play for them. The money will be good. So you will go to play there for three months.
At Lyon, in Tony Fernandes you will find the teacher you never had. Tony Sir will not just be your coach, he will also be your mentor. In your time at Lyon over the next few seasons, your stamina and fitness levels will go up. It is here that you will hone the biggest weapon in your arsenal: a sudden burst of pace with the ball. But more importantly, your shyness will evaporate. You will find yourself talking for hours at a stretch with Tony Sir about everything. He will not just make you a better player, he will groom you for a life under the spotlight.
Your stint at Lyon will leave you a changed man—more confident, faster, fitter and hungrier.
And it will show. At the 1994 World Cup, even though India will finish fifth, you will be the only Indian to be picked for the World XI.
But it is one year later, at the South Asian Games in Chennai, when you will actually become a household name. This is how it will happen: India will be playing against Pakistan. It will be a grudge match—one that cannot be lost. India will win 5-2 with you scoring a hat-trick. You will never forget that moment.
But remember, Dhan, the bright spotlight of fame can often blind. So don’t get carried away in the flow. When you are older, you will see players who are incredibly talented. You will feel that they can even replace you one day. But they don’t. They let the attention get to their heads. And they lose their way.
You may be the poster boy for Indian hockey, but don’t forget to stay grounded. There is one thing that Ramesh once said that I have always kept in mind: making it to the Indian team is difficult, but staying there takes a lot of commitment, dedication and sacrifices.
In the coming years, you will see exhilarating highs and experience dreadful lows. There will be an eighth-place finish at the 1996 Olympics and a ninth-place finish at the 1998 World Cup. But a few months later, at the Asian Games, you will taste victory as the captain.
You return and will be gifted a swanky house by Balasaheb Thackeray—a dream come true for a poor boy from Khadki.
You should be overjoyed, instead you will be left seething. You will learn this soon enough, Dhan, but often in India, you have to go to war for your own rights. You may be a world-class player, but the authorities will still stick six of you in one cramped room during the national camps. You will be made to sleep on mattresses laid out on the floor.
And when you dare to ask for match fees after leading the country to an Asian Games gold, you will be dropped. Just like that.
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Many years later, you will often wonder whether it was prudent to have taken on the officials. But if not you, then who? Since you were a child, barely taller than a hockey stick, you were never one to take injustice lying down. You will not start now.
This excerpt from Dear Me: Inspiring Letters by Sports Stars To Their Younger Selves by HT Sports has been published with permission from Penguin Random House India.