It wasn’t the only time that Lazarus fled the camp. “He had left a second time when I was in Bhubaneshwar,” said Kalu Sir with a chuckle. “He had one trouser, and during the monsoons, it hadn’t dried in time after a wash. He left for his village because he did not have anything else to wear. For me, it was a lesson. While teaching them hockey, it was also important we kept an eye on what these talented but underprivileged kids needed. I got him back again, and took him to the government store and bought him some T-shirts and pants.
“He was one of the best I have seen. He had the height and the talent to play in any position. Between Dilip and Lazurus, the defence was well covered.”
The Lazarus story reminded me of what happened with the legendary Dhyan Chand in London in 1928. Remembering his first encounter with Dhyan Chand, Jaipal Singh Munda, India’s captain at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, has written, “He was humble. He had only one pair of trousers. I took him to Austin Reed on Regent Street. We went downstairs. Trousers galore were shown. ‘Can I take them upstairs and see them in the sun?’ That finished me. I told Shaukat the story. ‘What else do you expect of a Lance Naik?’ he laughed.”
OVEP: Olympic Values Education Programme!
IOC in association with the Odisha administration and Abhinav Bindra Foundation developed this model to inculcate Olympic values in students to ensure holistic development, through academics, life skills and sports.
Started as a pilot… pic.twitter.com/Gfh70GJfII
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The very same man was the greatest ever when he stepped on to the hockey pitch, and he eventually scored 14 of India’s 29 goals in Amsterdam.
If it was Lazarus and Dilip in the 1990s, it is Amit Rohidas now. “He is the fastest off the blocks during a short corner,” says Chowdhury. “See him and you will know he is an all-round player.” A lot of the kids now model themselves on Amit and it is no surprise that a number of them consider him their hero. From the district of Sundergarh to becoming vice-captain of the Indian team, he is a symbol of what Panposh can help a talented youngster achieve in world hockey.
Panposh got its first turf pitch in 1994, and it was exclusively set aside for the boys. There weren’t too many girls then and it was manageable with one pitch, argued Chowdhury. With time, however, things changed. More and more girls started to come to the hostel and hockey turned into a real opportunity for social mobility. Playing well would guarantee a job and making it to the Indian team meant a good life. While there wasn’t much money in the sport, it did lead to respectability for these kids and was a much better existence than one where a square meal a day is considered luxury.
“It was finally in 2012 that we had a second turf,” said Kalu Sir. “Now the girls could also play and my aim was to produce the maximum number of players for the state and the country. These kids mostly come from poor backgrounds and it is important you get them interested in the game. They aren’t too keen on theory so if you try telling them more about sports science and nutrition, they will lose interest. All they want to do is play. It is upon us to make the most of the talent available and at the same time mould their minds using the latest technology available.”
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Panposh, in that sense, is the perfect harmony between the traditional and the modern. While on the one hand, we have the brand new turfs, installed just ahead of the Hockey World Cup in January 2023, on the other, the kids still come from backgrounds where they have little or no exposure. For them, it is all about skill and dribbling past a few players to show off how good they are. “Modern hockey is very different,” says David John, Head of the Hockey HPC in Odisha. “You can’t hold the ball for too long. It is not the game anymore.
“We can’t tell the kids about Sports Science and technology and GPS,” said Kalu Sir. “They won’t understand. They haven’t ever heard of these things. You have to understand where they are from. Most of these kids are from tribal backgrounds where hockey is a means to a better life. All they know is the hockey stick is a magic wand. The better they manage to use it, the better it is for them. The first struggle is to get two meals a day. Take care of the family. Then get a job. Their needs are very basic and you have to go down to their level to get the best out of them. Once they graduate from the hostel to the state and then the national camp, you can introduce sports science and a lot more.”
Now Panposh has everything it needs. It has two ultra-modern turfs, a very well managed sports hostel with proper food and nutrition available to the students, and excellent coaches in Cariappa, Lazarus and Edgar Mascarenhas. Last year, in November, two teams, one boys and one girls, even travelled to Malaysia for an exposure trip.
“Things have changed dramatically in the last few years with the Government making sports a huge priority,” said one of the senior administrators of the hostel. “The two new turfs, which have been installed ahead of the World Cup means the students don’t need to adjust when they move from here to Bhubaneshwar or to the national camp. They already have the exposure and are ready.”
“It was a conscious plan,” said Vineel Krishna, Secretary Sports and one who has played a key role in transforming Odisha into the go-to state for sport in India. “We needed to ensure that our boys and girls don’t need to make the shift from grass to turf pitches. Once your basic grooming is done, this shift is difficult and we have lost a lot of talented players in the process. The endeavour of the government has been to ensure we have the same turf pitches all across the state so that our players get the best exposure from the very start of their careers.”
But in all this, there is one constant. And that is Kalu Charan Chowdhury. Between 1987 and 2014, he was stationed in Panposh and helped stars like Tirkey, Lazarus, Ignace Tirkey and, now, Rohidas come through the ranks. He has seen 75 India internationals emerge from Panposh and find their feet in international hockey. Now a further 200 kids, 125 boys and 75 girls, are awaiting their tryst with hockey as they get ready in this cradle of talent.
“Covid meant we were not able to go out and scout,” said Kalu Sir. “For two years, the supply line had dried up. We weren’t able to meet the kids and get the best of them to Panposh. Now we have resumed doing so and we are seeing more and more girls coming through the ranks.”
After serving for eight years in Bhubaneshwar between 2014 and 2022, he has been sent back to Panposh with an extension. And it is the right call, for that’s where he belongs. A man of the soil, he has huge reserves of energy and will continue to serve and enrich Indian hockey for as long as he lives. Just as the boys and girls come out of the dressing room and greet him with a degree of reverence and respect, it is evident that he is as much a part of the Panposh story as the stars who have made it big. And may I say, he is also what sport in Odisha stands for. Empowering talent irrespective of who you are, and in doing so, creating a new narrative for Indian sport. Kalu Charan Chowdhury is the story of Sport in Odisha and, in a sense, the story of a new India that Odisha is trying to create and nurture.
This is an extract from Odisha and Sports: A Story of Hope and Glory, written by Boria Majumdar and R Vineel Krishna and published by Simon and Schuster in 2024. You can buy the book here.
Also Read: How Odisha Became the Nerve Centre of Indian Sport