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The Joysticks
This Kaur & Singh from Shahabad Markanda are pride of Sikh community
Sach Kanwal Singh 

SHAHABAD MARKANDA: Anyone who has watched Shahrukh Khan’s character visiting his mohalla, his house after winning the championship in Chak De India will notice how closely can real life mirror reel life. Just a few years ago, a young Surinder Kaur’s father could not afford a good quality hockey stick for her. Today, as she climbs atop his tractor, and circles around his own piece of land, Surinder Kaur knows she has done it. She has done her parents proud, she has done her community proud and she has restored the faith of all Punjabis in the game they have always loved. Surinder Kaur led the Indian women hockey team to glory, winning the Champions Challenge-II tournament in Kazan, Russia, recently. She has been keeping more than her pace with Sandeep Singh, the captain of the men’s hockey team.  

Both hail from Shahbad Markanda, both are practising Sikhs, and both have coached under the same man, Baldev Singh, again a Sikh. In a town that does not have a great reputation for respecting young girls — Shahabad’s child sex ratio is around 750 girls to 1000 boys — Surinder Kaur has made parents look at girls with a new perspective. She has done more for gender equality than umpteen speeches of politicians. 

The community is proud of Surinder Kaur and Sandeep Singh, just as it is proud of all the young boys and girls in this sleepy Haryana town whom Baldev Singh coaches untiringly. But unfortunately, while the Haryana government has done well by appointing Sandeep Singh as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Surinder Kaur has been left wondering whether her achievements have even registered. Kaur was also adjudged the Player of the Tournament, and has so much hockey still left in her that the community is looking forward to many more accolades that she is set to bring it. She has got Asian Games silver and bronze medal, Commonwealth Games silver, Afro -Asian Games gold, Asia Cup gold and many other medals in her kitty. 

Surinder is an ideal for fellow player Rani, whose father is a cartpuller. Her family finds it difficult to make ends meet but Rani knew that if she could bend it like Surinder, there would be no stopping her. She is now the deadliest striker in the national women’s team. Rani is great in studies too.  

Hindustan Times’ reporter Saurabh Duggal, who has consistently done brilliant reporting tracking the lives and hockey of Shahabad’s players, in an interesting eries of reports wrote how when Surinder first played for India in 1998, her father was a contract labourer and the family’s monthly income Rs 4,000. Today, Surinder’s father and brother have 13 acres of farmland on lease for which they pay Rs 3 lakh annually.  

In cricket crazy India, there is not much glitter being showered on coach Baldev Singh, or “Baldev Sir!” as the young ones call him, but perhaps the respect that he gets from his wards and the gratefulness of the community help to make up for it in some small measure.

8 July  2009
 

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