1 am , 12 March 2008. Santiago to Mumbai via Sao Pavlo and Johannesburg, 34 hrs of agonizing journey. A mentally and physically exhausted Indian hockey team lands up at the Mumbai International Airport. Lambs for slaughter. Ecstatic TV crews were there in full strength. Cameras clicking, flash lights blinding, with microphone shoved into their mouth, the players were asked to sing to the tunes of the reporters. Some of them even had the audacity to ask the players to smile for the camera. Even Vultures show more respect to Carcasses. One of the players asked me, “Doctor Sahib, do you think these people would have come in such numbers to welcome us had we qualified for the Olympics”? Celebrating defeat, the Indian past time, the TV channels had to share it with the public. The same TV crews care a damn to shoot the players in action and show it to the public, when they play and sweat it out on the ground for their clubs and states.
2 am. Mumbai domestic airport. Jet Airways departure lounge. The players troop in. There is not even one empty chair to sit. Half sleepy, legs wavering, players stand crowded around their baggage. One player comments, “let us get into the toilets and sit on the commode till boarding”. Frustrated with their plight, I approach counter No. 67 “Supervisor”. Introducing myself as the team doctor, I request the officer for some place for he players to relax till their fights at 7 am. I showed him the players wearing the national colours and also told him that they deserve to rest as they had a long tedious journey for two days without proper food and sleep. His reply was curt, “Sorry doctor, we are helpless, if they cannot find any vacant chair, they have to find some other way out”. Mercifully he did not suggest the commodes as a resting place as proposed earlier by the player. Then a “Gora Sahib” walks in. The eyes of the Supervisor glows, he checks him in, calls out one of his pretty staff and ask her to take the sahib to the Jet VIP lounge and ensure that he is made comfortable. I protest. The Supervisor had an explanation. “He is a business class ticket holder, a VIP”. I could find the lust of money in the glowing eyes of that man. A few currency notes can buy a VIP status but a national player in his own Country is not a VIP, but only a pariah!
3 a.m. A dozen members of the team had return tickets Mumbai- Bangalore. At the time of booking the tickets for the trip, they were told that on return, they could reroute the tickets from Mumbai to their respective home towns. They approach the Jet Airways counter. The response of the Airline was straight. No rerouting is possible. The tickets were paid by the government and they were booked by Balmier and Lawrie, the travel agents through South African Airways. Dejected, the players check in for Bangalore. Probably one day from Bangalore they will get back to their respective homes in Hyderabad, Chennai, Ranchi or Chandigarh!
Flash back: Balmier & Lawrie. The Travel agents gets the privilege to send the National Hockey team of India for the Olympic qualifier at Santiago (Chile). They book the route, Bangalore- Mumbai- Johannesburg (South Africa) - Sao Pavlo (Brazil) and Santiago. Four flights, four countries, two domestic airports & three international airports, 44 hrs of journey including flights and transits. The team reaches the venue just two days before their first match in a crucial world cup qualifier. Another airline, Lufthansa flies from Bangalore to Santiago through Frankfurt with only one change of aircraft at Frankfurt. Probably the travel agents might have found it more profitable for them to send the national team through a strenuous route and in a less comfortable airline. But then who cares!
Now don’t blame the Indian Hockey Federation, the Indian Olympic Association or the Government for this fiasco. It is the man sitting behind the desk in an airline or a travel agency who matters here. He has no feeling of patriotism or pride for national flag when he sees it on the t-shirt or on the blazer of a player who stands in front of him. On the other hand , he is ready to hoist the national flag at half mast in the name of commercialism and lust for profits. Why should our national teams sweat it out in rain and shine, torturing and abusing their bodies without rest and food to bring joy or even sorrow to such patriotically retarded countrymen sitting in front of the TV sets? Do you need a Navin Jindal to teach the value of national flag to our countrymen?
But everything is not lost. There is a silver lining in any cloud. The same sky, where vultures and devils habitat, angels also appear there. Our hockey team found one such angel in Santiago, our Ambassador to Chile, Mrs. Sushmita Thomas. She along with her Embassy staff and other Indians were at the grounds to cheer our players proudly waving Indian flags and beating drums. When we lost the final, though disappointed, she came to the players to console them and reassure them, asking them to bury the defeat and look ahead for positive gains in future. She had a parting advice to me too, “Doctor, motivate them, help them to keep their morale high”. Golden words. It was also she, who went out of her way to host the team for a dinner at the embassy and ensure that one Indian meal every day is cooked by the families of the embassy staff and herself and sent to the hotel for the players to enjoy their favorite poories, dal and subji.
Strange that we Indians have to travel abroad to experience patriotism. Ask the Americans or the Japanese what patriotism means to them. They will say that for them their countrymen come first and at all times. These are the untold stories of our hockey debacle at Santiago.
(Dr. Chandran was with the Indian team hockey at Santiago, Chile. You can e-mail him at: drpsmchandran@gmail.com
