Last week I visited Bhubaneswar, capital of culturally rich Orissa. It was a tour I was looking for, as I had two important things to do there. On Thursday, the 9th February my 11th book on hockey, Olympic captain Dilip Tirkey, was released. It is for the first time a book of mine got released in a place other than New Delhi, where I live. I always wanted my books are released in different places, as it would bring more and more sections alive to the fact that in hockey too books are written and published. This way releasing my book at distant Bhubaneswar was a dream come true for me.
In fact, for the last three years I stopped releasing books ceremoniously, last one to have the honour was 2002 Castrol Hockey Year Book. After that three of my books – Hockey Year Book 2003, Nation’s pride Dhanraj Pillay, Top Hockey Stars 2003—have straight away gone to the stands, without having to undergo any function and the resultant publicity. We will see the reasons for this in some other occasion.
Dilip Tirkey, who married his fiancée Meera at his home district Sundargarh — which has replaced Sansarpur’s lone status of a single locality to throw so many acclaimed hockey players — on 6th February took personal interest in organizing the book releasing event. That the hero, on whom the book is written, did this was some sort of recognition I was longing for for some time. Thus, the gesture from a great player won my heart and gave enormous boost to my sagging morale. I needed a tonic such as this to continue writing books, as I somehow started nurturing a feeling that I am ploughing a lone furrow, without having a clear picture whether my works have any taker or not.
Very unfortunately, I could not make it to the ceremony on time as I was left stranded in Kolkata having missed a connecting flight. It did not bother me beyond a point — though I felt very bad momentarily as I was letting down Dilip’s enthusiasm — because the programme went off as scheduled at Bhubaneswar.
On landing Bhubaneswar next day afternoon, where my 1998 Hockey Year Book’s Player of the Year Lajurs Barla received me, an Indian Express story on the book release captioned ‘Arumugam’s rare wedding gift to Dilip Tikrey’ greeted me. But what stuck me subsequently was series of large hoardings of Dilip Tirkey that are put up on important road junctions on the express way that led us to main city. I saw with joy many more such hoardings, Dilip as a brand for Ortel products, in the city too. It was a great sight, great to see a player, that too a hockey variety, is such a hit at home State.
If this was no less to gauge Dilip’s popularity, I got a fair idea later in the night when his wedding reception was held in The Crown, a top spot for city’s elite. Not just coaches and players – wide array from school to his village – assembled there to wish the celebrity couple, but also the State’s who is who of top bureaucracy. Secretaries of many departments such as Sports, Education, Culture, Finance were there to greet the greatest sporting hero the State has produced.
At political level too the response was stupendous. Chief Minister of the State, Naveen Patnaik, was among the first to greet the couple, and fittingly bridegroom Dilip cut the cake in his and presented a slice to the visiting dignitary. Dilip also made use of the occasion diligently, by presenting his book to him, generating some photo ops. Print and visual media personnel were large present in large numbers to preserve the moments for posterity, taking bytes or notes, as the case many be. Sports Minister of the State, Debasish Nayak, was there for about two hours, receiving and engaging guests as if it was his home occasion. Great, great indeed.
While on one hand the occasion for me to present the book to wide audience in the company of Chief Minister and the State Sports Minister happened to be Dilip’s gift to my work, on the other, I was wondering what should be my gift to the couple?
Luckily, I have thought about this much in advance. I carried with me a 40 X 30 inches size photo print of Dilip Tirkey. It was undoubtedly one of the best shots to come from my Nikon camera, Dilip Tirkey kissing the PHL crystal trophy that he had won for Hyderabad Sultans last year. Sporting blue jersey, background blacked out due to zooming, the glittering crystal trophy held atop and shining due to flood light refraction, Dilip’s face brimming with a sense of satisfaction, the setting and the scene was perfectly etched in that rare photo.
Though I got the gigantic photo framed in Bhubneswar, taking help from Lajrus and Sunil, I saw to it that Dilip did not come to know of it. When it was opened and presented to him just after Chief Minister had left the hall, he and his gorgeous wife were taken in for a pleasant surprise from me, not known for photographs at least. Dilip’s instant words that he would display this at a main place in