By Olympic Gold Medallist M. N. Masood
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Visit to England | London gave us the longed-for
opportunity for taking Indian meals. No sooner had we reached the hotel
than we walked briskly towards the nearest Indian restaurant.
When korma, pulav and dal had been served, we fell on them, putting aside the knives and forks, and ate so much that we could not walk back to the hotel and had to convey ourselves in a bus. This process was repeated daily during our short stay in London. |
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left Amsterdam on 7th September at 9:38 pm for London, and arrived in Hoek at
11:00 pm, which we left immediately by the boat bound for Harwich.
The sea was very rough on the evening of 7th September, and our small vessel rolled and rocked terribly. All of us got sick and passed a very miserable night. The next day we read in a London newspaper that we had crossed the channel in a gale of 69 miles an hour.
On account of the storm, our boat was late by two hours and we therefore arrived in Harwich at 8 am. From here we entrained for Liverpool Street Station, London, arriving there on 8th September at 11:30 am.
Mr. Sondhi and a few Indian gentlemen met us at the station, and we taxied to Hotel Royal, Russel Square. At last, we were in London.
Sir Firoze Khan Noon, the High Commissioner for India, received us on the evening of our arrival at India House. He was wearing a large turban in the typical Punjabi fashion.
A large number of Indian gentlemen and ladies with saris and a few Englishmen were also invited to meet us. The Nawab of Pataudi and Mr. Douglas R. Jardine were there too.
Sir Firoze Khan was a hockey player himself in his college days. While congratulating us on our success in the Olympic Games, Sir Firoze Khan remarked that not only India, but the British Empire was proud of our achievement in Germany, and expressed the hope that someday our cricketers would beat England and show India's superiority in this branch of sport also.
We spent about two very pleasant hours in India House, which has been recently redecorated after the Indian style. Before we left it and proceeded to the Cenotaph, we were photographed with Sir Firoze.
At the Cenotaph, Dhyan Chand laid a wreath on behalf of the team. Already there was a large number of wreaths laid there, and our wreath with our card attached to it formed a token of the homage of the hockey players of India to the memory of the dead.
We returned to the hotel and proceeded to make plans individually in regard to seeing London in about 3 days. The manager left us to our own resources instead of arranging the sightseeing trips in a party, which would have saved much of our time and money. We need them both at that time.
The visit to London was undertaken by us on our own. The German Hockey Association, which arranged the European tour, had nothing to do with this visit. We wanted to see London and we found that it had not been included in our itinerary.
Sir Jagdish Pershad, the president of the Indian Hockey Federation, was therefore approached by the manager and obtained. A sum of 100 pounds was sanctioned for the expenses, which we gratefully accepted.
Why we did not play any match in London is a question which would be asked by all. We also did not know why, but the following short story may perhaps explain England’s attitude towards hockey since 1928, when India competed for the first time in hockey in Amsterdam.
A teacher taught the kids all kinds of games. By and by, the kids grew in age and improved in sport, but then the teacher stopped joining the games, so the boys had to carry on without him. Sometimes he watched and smiled, sometimes he criticsed, but he never joined the games. The youngest considered this rather unsporting, as they had lost their chance of a revanche for all past defeats. But the old teacher remained unbeaten.
London gave us the longed-for opportunity for taking Indian meals. No sooner had we reached the hotel than we walked briskly towards the nearest Indian restaurant. Even Mr. Gupta joined in the walking competition.
When korma, pulav and dal had been served, we fell on them, putting aside the knives and forks, and ate so much that we could not walk back to the hotel and had to convey ourselves in a bus. This process was repeated daily during our short stay in London.
On September 11, at 8:30 pm, we left London for Stuttgart, the last place to be visited in the German territory. The channel was calm this time, and we slept soundly all night. All through the next day, we sped through Holland and Germany, along the beautiful banks of the Rhine.
At the India House, London, with Sir Feroze Khan Noon