K. ARUMUGAM

His was an interesting arrival to Kolkata. When he landed in the City of Joy, the football season was just over and that of hockey was about to begin. But Bir Bahadur Chetri’s interest was football. He travelled from distant Kalimpong in Darjeeling district to pursue the Beautiful Game. West Bengal Police talent hunters visited his hometown and had picked him with ‘just at one glance’.

Mr Handsome, Bir Bahadur Chetri

Chetri reflects on how he probably caught the eye. “Nepalis are usually short, I was tall,” the 6-footer quipped. Whatever the reasons, he landed in Kolkata alright!

As the sporting season changed, Chetri attended a hockey match only to be told that his Police hockey team was short of a player on the day. He was politely asked to pad up. It did not matter that he neither had pads nor gloves! A senior team member declared, “you are daring, that’s enough.”

Chetri stood under the cage and found it was just a little bit taller than him! That was a moment in destiny. A quirk, someone’s freakish thought, an emergency call… it all changed his career once and for all. And, for the better.

“I am tall. An unlikely Nepali,” the jovial Chetri opines. “That was perhaps the sole reason the West Bengal Police talent scouts picked me without even a trial”. “It must be the same reason why was I thrust into goal cage for a hockey match. So, I owe everything to my height.”

Bengal Hockey honours its hero Bir Bahadur Chetri

His father Devilal Chetri, a businessman, was a perennial sports fan and seldom missed football matches. Chetri’s mother, Bidu May, a homemaker, like her  husband, had no qualms in sending their dear son to Kolkata.

His height may have played a pivotal role in his hockey career too. Chetri played in two Olympics and his achievements recently brought him the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Government of West Bengal. The award took time coming. Chetri won Olympic gold in 1980 but the state award came 31 years later. “Probably they were left with no other gold medallist in Bengal to award. I was the last left,” jokes Chetri in his inimitable style on asked why he got the award so late in his career.

Humble beginning for a great career 

He was, though, quick to add very sincerely his gratitude to all who worked hard to help him get the award, something that really heartens him. “I am 70 years old, you know. I respected the invitation, that’s why I came all the way from Siliguri to Kolkata to receive the award”.

It seems to have come a full circle. The trip Chetri made in 1972 after being picked up for football and the one now, half a century later, to be conferred a top honour, portrays a hockey hero’s journey from an unlikely region to emerge a champion goalkeeper around whose neck hangs the most envious of medals anybody who takes up sports cherishes – the Olympic gold.

“It came as a surprise to me that I could do well in my first ever hockey match. Then there was another surprise. I was selected to play in the Calcutta Hockey League, a prestigious event. There were more surprises shortly later — I was in the Bengal state team for the National Championship!

“Hockey embraced me very quickly and yes, I told myself ‘Yes, I am here to stay.’ It’s the crowd that made the difference. Crowd support can be an addiction for a sportsperson and I was no different. But the difference was the frantic, club loyalists, a Kolkata feature. I played for Bengal Club against East Bengal Club in the State selection trials. All the crazy fans of Mohun Bagan, their rivals, would support me vociferously, say, whenever I stopped a goal or made a block in the air. Whenever I played against Mohun Bagan, rival fans would give me full-throated support. I benefitted from the support I got for every match. That’s why perhaps the best came out in me. I was selected for the Bengal team for the Bhopal Nationals all in the course of a month”.

Chetri (r) with wrestler Satpal and Zafar Iqbal (second from left) at Moscow Olympic village

“What took me further was the kind of coaches I was fortunate to have in those times. They were all great achievers, national icons, senior players of repute like Leslie Claudius (four-time Olympian with three Olympic gold and a silver in his showcase), Gurbux Singh (Olympic and Asian Games gold medallist) et al. They were unimaginable simpletons, kind-hearted and always helpful. They knew how to groom an exuberant like me.”

Chetri’s take on his mentors was an accurate take. He unfailingly gives credit to all his coaches and the senior teammates for his rise to fame. Never once did it seem he was patting his own back.

Another striking feature of him that the writer spotted during the entire discussion with the Olympic gold medalist, was his sense of humour that preceded every factoid he related. It just enhanced Chetri’s image of being a true sportsman and a delightful human being.

Still going strong on the veteran’s circuit (l-r): Hans Kumar Tiwari, Manmeet Singh Goindi, Bir Bahadur Chetri, Asim Ganguli, Numazar (Noomi) Mehta and Olympian Gurbux Singh

At the Bhopal National Championship, the first of his 13 campaigns, the match between Bengal and the mighty Indian Railways laid the foundation for his illustrious career.

Chetri, daring and effervescent, did not respect reputation. He dashed, charged, showed all kinds of acrobatics to deny the opposition goals. One such instance was against the legendary Surjit Singh. The young lad, thankfully unaware of Surjit’s image, rendered the awe-evoking defender, who had built up a huge global reputation at converting penalty corners into goal, ineffective. A veteran was made to look like a forlorn figure, that too by a novice!

Lifetime award by Bengal Hockey

“My trump card you can say was rushing toward the hitter in sync with the ball pushed in for hit from the basline. I would kick the ball away even before Surjit’s stick touched it. The kick, the moment, that spontaneity is very important. If you are late even by a fraction of a second, you would be dead… you know how hard Surjit’s hits were and you know how lethal it could be!”

At present too, the penalty corner specialists’ shots are blocked, but by a new genre of players called ‘chargers’. But Chetri was then doing it on his own leaving the goal unguarded. His spurt, reflex, the sprint were so precise and innovative that helped him carve a niche for himself. He was noticed.

Noted commentator Jasdev Singh called him a ‘Bengal Tiger’. Some writers referred to him as the China Wall. “From being likened to an animal I went to be termed something inanimate like a wall!,” he said with a bout of laughter.

In the stands was the all-towering MAM Ramasamy, the then president of the Indian Hockey Federation. He came down, engaged in discussion with the coach. Eager and alert Chetri indulged in a bit of eavesdropping. Ramaswamy seemingly said, “That boy is doing well but is a little inexperienced.” To which the legend Leslie, habitually blunt, responded to without batting an eyelid: “What more experience do you need? He has outperformed others in the Nationals.”

“When Claudius Sir said this to MAM, I was sure I will be in the frame. So it was a week later. I was in Patiala for the India camp”.

The novice loved the camp life in the National Institute of Patiala, a sporting hub where raw talents were polished in those days. “I was mostly sitting alone. I was reclusive initially. However, seniors moulded me well. My seniors saw to it that I was looked after well. Everyone took care of me. They were affectionate, and gave me sound advice.”

Greeting East Bengal Hockey team during the Kolkata Hockey League 2021

Leslie Claudius was also in the camp. He would call Chetri early mornings before the normal camp practice time to impart special training. “He trained me in the Nationals too. He asked me to come at five in the morning. I turned up at 5.30 only to find he was waiting for me for about 30 mins. I was ashamed. He did not scold me or admonish me. His promptness was more than enough for me not to be late thereafter.

“A four-time Olympian waited for me and then, when I turned up, did not throw any tantrum. He was polite as always. People like him made me what I am today. “He used to stock snacks and cakes for us and took care of us like his own children.” His advice to me on goalkeeping: “Don’t fall while defending.”

Chetri flashed back to his days at the camp, saying: “I will tell you one thing. I could have easily been psyched out in the camp. But that did not happen. All my seniors treated me like their sibling. For me, all my seniors are my elder brothers. That’s why I have lived a happy, positive life.”

But life in the camps, a regularity for him, was tough, demanding and entailed extreme toil. “However, my seniors kept non-playing hours for fun,” Chetri fondly recounts.

During the matches, Michael Kindo, who passed away recently, used to say, ‘Kabarao mat, hum hai (don’t be scared, we are here)’. “Such words coming from an experienced defender gives you enormous confidence and composure. He also would advise me to be cool, don’t try to dodge many”.

Chetri recollects colleague Michael Kindo for his wit, humour and encouraging him.          Photo Ashok Vahie

“Kindo is confidence personified in the field and full of zest for life in the camps. One evening in the camp, he disguised himself as an old man, begging for alms. We were fooled by his disguise. We all thought some old man had strayed into our place. But he harassed each one of us and it took some time to see through his disguise!”

About the game, particularly the role of defender, Kindo used to say: ‘See what an elephant does. Deekane ka ekdanth, kaane ka ek. (You should also play a double knack in the match – your hands and legs should do something different from your face reveals).”

“The players in those days were outstanding. Each one was a master of their position. I used to marvel at Ajit Pal Singh’s games. Hum lok dekhte rahagayen, pyara game tha unka (We were caught in a spell watching him, what a lovely game he had).”

With the giant of Indian hockey Gurbux Singh (r)

Chetri was first inducted into the national side that toured New Zealand and then the Afghanistan in  the mid 1970s. Thereafter, he was almost a fixture in the national side.

He recalls a tour of Pakistan. “Aslam Sher Khan led the side. Once we landed we were treated like kings, they gave us so much izat (respect). There was no customs check too. When they treat us so well, why do we have to think about them differently,” Chetri asks, his face bearing some pain.

About the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he nurtures no bad feeling and does not accuse anybody for the debacle of not reaching the semifinals for the first time in history.

“You see, we first saw (artificial) turf only in Montreal. We were thrilled to touch the turf and wonder what it is all about. But our inexperience on turf did not stop us from playing well; we stretched Australia, losing only in the tie-breaker (in the playoff for a semi-final spot).

Chetri’s positivity helped him continue and play in his second Olympics at Moscow and attain crowning glory. He was almost there for the 1984 Olympics but could not attend camps as his mother expired around the time.

He married Shoba, a schoolteacher after winning the Olympic gold medal. Did Olympic success bring him another piece of gold? His reply was prompt. “It was an arranged one,” he reveals even before further queries on the subject. “I remember that I reached home for the wedding just two days earlier as I was in Kuala Lumpur for a tournament. My family was relieved when I ultimately landed”.

Bir Bahadur Chetri: family perfect – Picture perfect

“Perhaps, she (Shoba) would have been relieved if I had not turned up!”, another joke thoroughly enjoyed by the couple over the years and one which draws a nod from Chetri’s beautiful companion of the last four decades.

“She has not seen me playing but may have watched me on TV. And she’s seldom seen my goalkeeping kit which would always be at the office and not at home,” Chetri says light-heartedly.

He is presently settled in Siliguri with his lovely wife Shobha and two children, son and daughter.

Chetri came to hockey from an unlikely province, embraced the sport eventually and became an embodiment of goalkeeping. He gave his best all the time, had sometimes missed the bus like the World Cup (1975 and 1978) but kept his cool to become an Olympic champion. His life is a lesson for GenNext insofar as patience and persistence are concerned.

Beyond this, Chetri’s life message sums up his persona.

“People need to be simple. I am a gold medallist but I never show off. If you are simple, you can learn and improve. If you are proud or a show-off, you can’t learn and improve. Nowadays, people nurse a grouse even on petty matters and it affects socializing and friendship. An inflated ego comes in the way of leading a happy life. I have been a happy man and an achiever because I wish to remain a simple human being, respecting every other, especially my seniors who protected, promoted me and enabled me to prosper.

Display Picture: Ashok Vahie. Others: Chetri family and Bharat Malik  

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