I got Rs 1 for milk bill from regiment: Milkha

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I got Rs 1 for milk bill from regiment: Milkha

Sunday, 20 June 2021 | K DATTA

I got Rs 1 for milk bill from regiment: Milkha

It was the same stage where the first Asian Games were held, called Irwin Amphitheatre before it became known as the National Stadium. Taking over the baton as the third runner in the 4 x 400 metres relay of the first Indo-Pak athletic meet, an event which was the idea of India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to get people to forget the bitterness caused by the country’s partition, a young Sikh runner overtook his Pakistani rival, looked back challengingly as he flew past to give India a winning lead before passing on the baton to the fourth and last runner.

A new sprinting star had emerged that day on the iconic track, now an artificial grass hockey pitch named after Dhyan Chand.

A statue of Dhyan Chand stands outside the stadium. But the place also deserves one in honour of Milkha, who died last Friday night aged 91, leaving the track and field sport in a state of shock.

Hurdler Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, one of the Milkha’s contemporaries, who is remembered as a finalist in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, is in a state of disbelief. When last Randhawa spoke with Milkha, the latter had just ended his routine jog at Chandigarh.

“I can’t believe Milkha is dead,” said Gurbachan.

Appointed as deputy director in Punjab Government’s sports department by then Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon, in recognition of his numerous achievements on the track which are history, Milkha is remembered as a simple man, a sparse eater who enjoyed “just a small drink of whiskey” in evening.

“How, of all people, did I get this virus into me?” Milkha is said to have asked Gurbachan. If it was a mystery to Gurbachan, it was one also to the rest of the country.

Posted at Secunderabad after being rejected by Army recruiters on three occasions, Milkha told this writer his instructor there recommended a princely allowance of Rs 1 a day from the regimental funds to meet his milk bill because he would beat all others at cross-country runs. “Ik rupaiya taan bahut hunda si” (One rupee was then a lot of money), Milkha explained.

That he trained hard is known to all who dropped in at the National Stadium in those days.

In fact, he was sometimes taken back, slung on the shoulders of fellow athletes, to his place in the barracks near the National Stadium, so drained of energy he would be. But then there no short cuts for champion athletes.

Training was a religion for Milkha. When the National Stadium was taken up activities other than athletics, Milkha could be seen jogging on the side of the road between India Gate and Tilak Bridge.

Milkha’s rivalry with Pakistani sprinter Abdul Khaliq is the stuff of story books. But it was friendly rivalry. Abdul, a Pakistani POW after the 1971 conflict, expressed a wish to meet Milkha. Did the meeting actually take place? Your guess is as good as mine.

(K Datta is a veteran sports journalist)

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