BIR BAHADUR OF EME SECUNDERABAD , INDIAN ARMY APATHY- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE,  CALICUT CORPORATION STADIUM , HOST TO SAIT NAGJEE SOCCER TROPHY-  CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

A couple of days ago, I saw a National Games Taekwondo Championship recording on TV, which was held in the Calicut Indoor stadium.

That sent me down memory lane.

When I went to the swimming pool in Calicut I saw the gym coach and the pool coach about to ride off into the sunset on a bike.  

So I asked them , what is the tearing fu#ckin' hurry?

Well they just received the news that the UNOFFICIAL championship has just started.  

After the results are announced , and if the silver medalist or the bronze medalist feels short changed , due to partial judges ( which happens every single time ) then after the trophy ceremony, they settle it out again—this time for real , where real blood flows, and nobody stops a fight , till one man is down .  

And sometimes this changes into an all-out FREE FOR ALL brawl . They coaches said that they had witnessed it , the previous two years – as they rode off .

The Calicut indoor stadium is attached to the main Calicut Corporation Soccer stadium.

Two decades back I was a regular at the tennis clay court with my elder son, who was just 6 years old. He used to play well and then he lost interest.  I guess I pushed him too hard, as a father-coach . This is what happens when play becomes work , and the joy of playing a game is lost.

The tennis coach was my good friend and he used to introduce me to the National SAI coaches who stayed with their family in the Calicut Indoor stadium complex.  And I used to give them fancy baseball caps, which I bought from USA.  

So one day , the national Table Tennis coach allowed me to play with the National men’s champion. Rather he ordered the champion to play with me , and I got beaten 21-4.  Just one single game.

Then after a couple of days , I wrangled a TT match with the National women’s champion.  She won the first game 21-8.  

In the second game ,the score was 15-15 , when my tennis coach friend shouted from the side lines “ Ajit , what is the score?” – and then she reeled off 6 points in a row and I lost 21-15.

After the match the tennis coach conveyed to me over a drink , that he has been categorically told by the National TT coach Mr Agarwal, that I can never ever play with his students.  Apparently my game is weird , having no smash, only ball control and googly spin , and I had totally demoralized the women’s champion.

Twice her bat missed the ball totally, while making  top spin full blooded smashes --  which can be very embarrassing, even for a novice.

It seems she used to beat the men’s champion sometimes , and there was NO reason for her to be 15-15 with me.  

She and her coach never heard of the MAGNUS EFFECT.

But then this is what coaching is all about . You have to play to the weaknesses of the opponent.

The Tennis coach ( we called him Siddettan ) is now dead.  May his soul rests in peace . He was an educated man, and spoke very good English , with a good accent , unlike the typical Malayali English accent.  

I could have a good intelligent conversation with him. He had hundreds of National Geographic magazines, to which he subscribed .  

He died a bachelor .  A few weeks before he passed away, we met over a couple of drinks . He told me that he never had sex with a woman, and he often wondered how it would be.  Poor guy was the eldest  and he has three younger sisters to marry off , and it did NOT happen . A sort of domino effect . His 3 sisters were  spinsters too.  I never asked him why?  

One day he confessed that the only time of the day he really enjoys,  is when he takes out out his bottle of whisky from his cupboard and he pours the liquid into his glass.  And he used to pour it slow in silence so that he can hear the gurgle and splash of the liquid. And then he used to go to sleep thinking about this sweet noise which would happen again the next day.

Just to show how life dishes out a raw deal to good people.

As I said, the main soccer stadium is attached to the Indoor stadium or rather vice versa.  As a young boy while studying in school , our most exciting period was when the football season started.  Our Calicut stadium hosted the Sait Nagjee Football Tournament.  

The stadium was walking distance from my  home. We had a big neighborhood gang of more than 20 young boys. The galleries those days were made of bamboo.  Initially our main interest was to go under the stadium bamboo galleries while the match is in progress and forage for empty cigarette packets . 

People used to drop the empty packets down.  We used to flatten the packet covers of Scissors, Passing Show, Charminar , Wills brands and take it home.  

These were our playing chips during outdoor games and gambling chips during the rains , when we were confined indoors. 

The Indoor game when it rained was pretty simple and straight forward.  A ten paise coin would be flipped and the question would come “head or tails?” . I remember in vernacular it used to be “Guru or Chapa?” ( or was it bhuru? ) . 

And then we used to place our bets .

The outdoor game was quite exciting. A circle would be drawn on the ground and we placed our bets, like cards .  A pile would be made and kept in the circle. Then we used to go about 30 feet away and fling a flat piece of tile , about 3 inch square and half inch thick towards the circle.  The child whose tile was closest to the circle would be allowed the first chance of knocking the pile of flattened cigarette packets, and put it out of the circle. And then all these packet chips outside the circle would be his.  

What a game! We spend hundreds of happy hours playing this game. And then we used to run home at sunset , count our chips stash it away in our kijoris and feel very proud , if we had a positive flow .  Often when a neighbor friend came to visit , his first request would be “ Can you show me your packs!”.

And then on seeing a good heap, he would say WOW!--  and my little chest would swell with pride!

Then as we got older, we started enjoying the soccer tournaments.  We used to be so excited that we used to hop and skip all the way to the stadium. The atmosphere there would be electrifying , especially on Sundays and Saturdays. The best games were reserved for those days.  

One day I saw my uncle , who stayed 25 kilometers away . And when I told my father , he remarked “He has a season ticket and he never misses a match “. There were people from neighboring districts , who used to travel upto 80 miles to see a soccer club game. 

Such was the soccer craze in Calicut. Recently Maradona had come to Kannur , my wife's place. Good players were hero worshiped.

Today all this fades to insignificance. 

My elder son will be soon travelling all the way from USA to Manchester UK with his computer nerd friends to watch a single soccer match at Old Trafford, the home stadium of Manchester United.  You have to book the tickets by internet , 4 months in advance, or you dont get one even for the small games.

By the way, my elder son is a Manchester United nut, my wife supports Chelsea and “yours truly”  supports Manchester City.  

The Chelsea –Man City game got over just one hour back on ESPN and Manchester City won 2-0, and since then my wife has been moping around a bit.   I know her body language, when she gets deflated .  

I am a Carlos Tevez fan, and he scored the second goal , with a thundering right footer into the corner of the net.  You will note that the Chelsea defender is afraid of this powerful shot.

Check out the video below:

That pushed me back in time and set me thinking of the thundering right foot of Bir Bahadur of EME Secunderabad .  

In 1965 EME Secunderabad beat MRC Wellington and in 1966 they beat Leaders Club Jullundur to lift the trophy.  Even today , my body responds to the the amazing electrifying atmosphere of Calicut Corporation stadium in the sixties. Those days, the sound of full throated cheering from the stadium after a goal, could be heard in my home.  

Each of my friends had their own soccer heroes.   Peter Thangaraj , the East Bengal Goal keeper, Jarnail Singh , the defender of Mohun Bagan,  Ranjit Thapa or Gurkha Brigade, Mohd Yusuf Khan of Hyderabad City Police, Chuni Goswami of Mohun Bagan, Inder Singh of Leaders Club Jullunder, Chattunni of EME Secunderabad  –the lot.  

Those were happy , carefree days.

Today the Calicut stadium can seat 35,000.  Cricket has taken over – thanks to renovation work which took more than 8 years . 

Once Roger Binny hit a resounding six which landed among the devotees at the neighboring Sri Kanteshwaram temple of Calicut.  Now people are just happy to watch EPL on satellite TV.

Above : The Calicut Corporation soccer stadium which arouses nostalgia, where bitter-sweet childhood memories are embedded.

We used to compare the thundering right foot of Bir Bahadur ( number 9 jersey of EME ) with the left foot of Ferenc Puskas, the Hungarian soccer hero.. Those days the football was hard and nobody would dare to form a human wall in front of Bir Bahadur , when he took a free kick .

I have put a post about the UNSUNG Hungarian Puskas.

Punch into Google search PUSKAS , THE SOCCER LEGEND VADAKAYIL

I represented my Training ship at Mumbai, with 250 cadets in both junior and senior years.  And my Top the “Starboard Fore Top”  were the soccer Champions in both years.  

Recently I was quite distressed to know that Bir Bahadur , is in utter poverty and sells Pani Puri ( chat ) near St Anne’s School, Secunderabad ( Lakdawala cantonment area ) from a mobile kiosk.  Apparently his army pension is NOT good enough.

Just see, fate –nay- apathy, has given him a greater kick on his head, than his thundering right footer bolt.

Forgotten and unsung Naik Bir Bahadur was the star centre-forward of the Indian football team at the Asian Games in 1966, where India finished fourth at Bangkok. 

Cricket is played by nine and a half countries. It is no big deal if Sachin Tendulkar is No 1.  Any way can you imagine Sachin selling Pani Puri on the streets to make ends meet?

Bir Bahadur served the army for 22 years playing football  for his unit , at top tourneys like Durand Cup, Santosh Trophy , Sait Nagjee trophy, and Rovers Cup. . 

At his peak, he was offered big money by rich private clubs like Tata, Mafatlal, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal etc  and he preferred to stay in the army,  doing justice to the loyal Gurkha blood in his veins.  

I can tell you today, that he was a TOP striker in those days.  His own father, Sukhlal Bahadur, was a centre-back for Services.

Bir Bahadur had joined the Army in 1963 and was transferred from Dehradun to Secunderabad EME. Pretty soon he proved his mettle . His thunderbolt right footer and fast feet was noticed.  He was on board the plane as part of the national side for the Asian Games at Bangkok.

Those days the Indian soccer team ( unlike today ) was a strong team.  India won the gold in the 1962 Asian Games where they beat South Korea 2–1 in the final, though some of our players played barefooted.  In the AFC Asian Cup India finished with silver medal.

Bir Bahadur retired as a Naik in 1985. Finding himself in a terrible financial crisis, he took up a job as a private security guard for peanuts. After he married off his daughter he fell into debt, and then he had an accident which made things worse. Today he is a psychological wreck. 

People who recognize him as a past champion who wore the Indian Soccer Jersey , tell him to keep the change , which cuts him up. 

He even went and met YSR the CM of Andhra Pradesh with his wife Devaki.  It was no use and YSR would care for him only if he converted to Christianity. Imagine a proud Gorkha having to face this choice and changing his name from Bir Bahadur ( bravest of the brave ) to some Tom, Dick or Prick..

You must know that when the media highlighted Bahadur's plight, relief came from Sunil Gavaskar's CHAMPS Foundation.  After I heard of this, my opinion of Sunil Gavaskar changed and my respect for him has gone up. I had never respected him as a selfish cricketer.

Sometimes Bir Bahadur enjoys pride of place in VIP enclosures at major football events. Then he goes back to cleaning dirty dishes soon after.

This loyal Gorkha Bir Bahadur , who donned Indian colors , is a victim of army apathy.  

Let my post get published, the EME Secunderabad brand will take a hit.  

Let people know how loyalty is rewarded by the Indian Army and Indian Government.  

Is it worth being proud of wearing Indian colours? 

Today they are loyal to the likes of Robert Vadra who is exempt from frisking in any airport or security area in India.

Grace and peace!

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

..