A metaphor in the story of hockey
S. THYAGARAJAN
FORGIVE ME AMMA — The Life and Times of Dhanraj Pillay: Sundeep Misra; Wisdom Tree, 4779/23, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002.
Rs. 395.
To showcase the persona of Dhanraj Pillay in a biography is a daunting exercise. Few hockey players have enjoyed the privilege of gobbling so much space and time in the media as Dhanraj. Complex, controversial, on and off the field, and impetuous with words, Dhanraj has been an amalgam of emotions that always evoked mixed responses; from unalloyed adulation down to outright condemnation. Simply put, Dhanraj epitomises the essence of an enigma.
Highs and lows
Sundeep Misra has endeavoured to evaluate the class, calibre and the convulsive ebb and flow of the hockey’s icon in this well- researched and documented book. Placing himself in a position of advantage, thanks to his role as a hockey writer, commentator, web-master and TV anchor, Misra has succeeded in assimilating an enviable mass of material to generate interest to the reader right through. It will not be wrong to say that the book is focussed more on the history, a panorama of the highs and lows of Indian hockey from the time Dhanraj came to limelight in the 1989 Asia Cup.
It is a challenge to balance the extraordinary traits of Dhanraj as a player, respected, feared and admired, one who defied a measured definition. Dhanraj’s presence on the national and international scene is inexorably linked to the most turbulent phase of Indian hockey.
The author is compelled to tread with care and pragmatism while narrating the eventful happenings, which had a tremendous impact on the rise and fall of a master craftsman with the stick.
Misra succeeds in capturing the mood of the reader from the start, portraying the pastoral elegance of a village/town, Khadki, near Pune and then goes on to craft a very readable account of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of arguably one of the colourful hockey stars of this era. Dhanraj’s career spans more than a decade and half during which he was capped over 400 times, and figured in four Olympics and an equal number of World Cups and Asian Games. It is a pity that Dhanraj is not fortunate to pick up a medal of any hue, either in the World Cup or in the Olympics.
Tribute
“Sadly, however, his life is a metaphor in the story of Indian hockey which always threatens to bloom, has brilliant moments, yet is unable to sustain the quality of performance. And Dhanraj’s career has been intimately interwoven with India’s victories and defeats in the last two decades. His failures were India’s failures and his triumphs were India’s triumphs,” writes the renowned Aussie stalwart and critic, Ric Charlesworth, in the foreword. This succinctly sums up the fact that Dhanraj and Indian hockey were synonymous at any given point of time since 1990.
The book is not an unbridled tribute to Dhanraj Pillay. And Sundeep Misra does not want it to be either. It projects Dhanraj as the charismatic sportsman with all human foibles and failings.
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