Visit to Holland
Rembrandt, the world-famous painter, was born and lived here, and his paintings adorn the National Gallery. Amsterdam is also famous for cutting diamonds – Koh-i-Noor and Cullinan were cut here.
By Olympic Gold Medallist M. N. Masood
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Visit to Holland | Amsterdam, the capital of the
kingdom of the Netherlands, derives its name from a dam built on the
river Amstel. Originally a small fishing village, it has now become one
of the leading cities of Europe.
Rembrandt, the world-famous painter, was born and lived here, and his paintings adorn the National Gallery. Amsterdam is also famous for cutting diamonds – Koh-i-Noor and Cullinan were cut here. |
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arrived in Amsterdam on September 5th at 11:28 am, and taxied to the Hotel
Central.
India 8 – Holland 1
India played her eleventh match of the tour against Holland on 6th September at 3 pm in the Stadium where she played and won her first series of international games in the 1928 Olympics.
This stadium contrasts very poorly with the Olympic Stadium at Berlin, and can accommodate only 40,000 persons. But it has a hockey ground which is the best in Europe, the possession of which may be a thing of pride even to India.
The Dutch play a very clean type of hockey similar to that of the Germans, but are not as strong a team as their neighbours. India won the game comfortably 8-1, thus showing a marked improvement on her first meeting against Holland in 1928 when she won 3-0.
After five goals were scored in the first half, her forwards began to be spectacular and allowed a goal to be scored against them.
In the second half, the Dutch regained some of their confidence due to their only goal, and allowed only three scoring chances to our forwards, who utilised them fully by converting them into three well-earned goals.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Cullen and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Peter Fernandes.
After the game we had tea with the Dutch players and officials, who gave the team a miniature silver windmill and a tie each to Messrs. Jagannath and Gupta.
The next day it rained and a very cold wind blew all the time, cancelling our sight-seeing trip. Later in the evening, the rain stopped and the wind calmed down, giving us a sporting chance to see a little of the capital of the kingdom of the Netherlands.
Amsterdam derives its name from a dam built on the river Amstel. Originally a small fishing village, it has now become one of the leading cities of Europe.
Rembrandt, the world-famous painter, was born and lived here, and his paintings adorn the National Gallery. Amsterdam is also famous for cutting diamonds – Koh-i-Noor and Cullinan were cut here.
It would have been better if we had seen Amsterdam before we saw Berlin. After seeing and residing in the latter city, Amsterdam, ‘the city on piles’, presented a poor contrast.
We could hardly see a piece of paper in the streets of Berlin, or for that matter in any city of Germany. Here, we saw the city littered with scraps of paper and burnt matches.
Poverty was in evidence here in the form of beggars. They would stand and ask for alms by means of signs or in a low voice, but would not stop or intrude on a passerby, practices which are very common with beggars in India.
One remarkable thing about Amsterdam was the astounding number of push-bikes. In no other city did we see so many.
Taking all things into consideration, it was difficult to believe that we were moving about in a country so near in blood, language and geographical situation to Germany.
Dhyan Chand