Triumph and Trauma of a Coach
M. K. Kaushik with K. Arumugam
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Seeking Divine Blessings | For the regular visitor, it would
take a wait of 5-6 hours in the queue. However, we were straightaway
taken to the sanctum sanctorum, and had darshan of the Almighty.
The devotees assembled there greeted us. A small press meet was also arranged. Jesudanam announced his personal gift of a gold coin with the imprint of Lord Balaji to each of us if we won the gold at the Asiad. It was an emotionally fulfilling visit for us. |
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a believer in God. During the camp, a player put forward the idea that we as a
team should visit Tirupati and have the darshan of Balaji. I jumped at
this idea and told of our desire to Ganesh.
He contacted Mr. T. J. Jesudanam, a senior IAS officer in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. He is a hockey enthusiast, and was holding a post in the IHF too.
We left Bangalore by bus and reached the temple town located at the top of the Tirupati hills after a six-hour drive. Mr. Jesudanam and Mr. Niranjan Reddy received us.
Since Jesudanam was also holding a senior post in the temple board, he arranged a cordial reception for us and made our visit comfortable and memorable. In fact, the team was accorded VIP treatment.
For the regular visitor, it would take a wait of 5-6 hours in the queue to access the sanctum sanctorum. However, we were straightaway taken there without any waiting, and had a satisfying darshan of the Almighty. A special prayer was also arranged. We all prayed for success in the Asian Games.
The devotees assembled there greeted us. A small press meet was also arranged. Besides Jesudanam, Dhanraj and I spoke, and assured those assembled that we would do our best to make our country proud. Jesudanam announced his personal gift of a gold coin with the imprint of Lord Balaji to each of us if we won the gold at the Asiad. It was an emotionally fulfilling visit for us.
Even in this activity, we had to face some flak. Jyothi did not like us visiting Tirupati. Perhaps he also wanted to accompany us, or he felt we should have taken the IHF's permission. Even God was not spared from the clutch of the IHF.
Later on, I came to know that Jesudanam was not in the good books of Gill and Jyothi. He had opposed Gill and his group in the IHF elections. Therefore, it was not our visit to Tirupati that was behind Jyothi's anger, but the involvement of Jesudanam in this visit.
When I trained the national women's team, I used to visit the church, gurudwara and temple with the team. Had there been a single player belong to the Islamic faith, I would have taken the whole team to the mosque also. Such a gesture would have been ideal with the men's team too. Somehow only the visit to Tirupati materialised this time.
Olympic Gold Medallist Maharaj Krishan Kaushik