The boy failed in the Plus 2 exam. The house, just as the nation after missing the Olympic bus in hockey was in a state of sorrow calling it one of the worst days of life. The boy started his life well getting almost 90% in the LKG and UKG levels before successfully failing at the intermediate level. While in the early school days there was hardly any competition and education was fun just as the way the Indian hockey team used to smash goals by the dozen and win medals in gold in the early days playing purely for fun.

As years passed grew the competition and with that the ambition. The mother had the ambition to out beat the neighbours and relatives with the pride of possessing a great son who is ahead of others. Thus education like the school bag slowly became a burden and less of a fun. Every failure (less than 90%) was made accountable and even punishable with the punishment ranging from beatings to stopping games and entertainment and forced allocation of more time for studies. Slowly the boy became mediocre in studies with 60% becoming an achievement and escaping a “Fail” the prime target, with his behaviour displaying marked signs of loss of self esteem. But for the mother her pride of having a son who shines mattered than the healthy growth of the child both bodily and emotionally. The father was a silent and indifferent spectator.

The IHF or the Olympic association displayed similar attitude. The pride and ego of individuals mattered so much that an Indian team was sent for Olympics with two captains in 1968 and the nation mourned the failure of the team to reach the finals for the first time in its history. Early bad symptoms like these bloated egos could have been nipped in the bud. The team like the boy who failed displayed adequate symptoms of failure syndrome with sudden losses to un-fancied teams, missed chances of penalty corners, eleventh hour conceding of goals etc. But the ambition of some of the officials completing silver jubilee as office bearer was more a priority for the powers that be than gold medals.

The boy one day came crying home. He had failed in a maths test. As one went through the answer sheet, one could find that the sums that went wrong were all a product of lack of concentration or carelessness than lack of knowledge like 45 written as 54. The voice of a ‘wise counsel’ of a relative was to help the boy improve concentration by helping him enjoy more time with play and fun so that he concentrates while in ‘studies’. “Enjoy play” roared the mother who was infuriated by counting number of mothers whose sons did not fail and the margin of difference in marks between her son and others. “Whatever little time I allowed for play and TV are also now stopped till you again get 90%” was the verdict of the mother.

For the child the solution was to help him concentrate and recapture the self esteem but it ran counter to the ego of the mother who was blind to the emotional and psychological aspect of the issue as she was clouded by her failure to beat other mothers in displaying her child as the ‘better than thou’ product. To add to the confusion were blood relatives out to defend the mother than to see reason. The hockey management is no better. It is busy proving who is big in running the game and hence is busy in the blame game after the defeat. Just as all relatives pounced on the parents when the boy failed with an “I told you so” comment, many ex players now point finger at the organisation. Many ex players are on a signature campaign to oust the head, and the head gets the support of other heads with statements like ‘nothing wrong with selection policy’ or ‘he has done his best’ etc.

Now coming to the solution, the boy did go to the hostel for stay while on further education and staying away from unhelpful yet demanding parents solved the problem for him. But for the national game the people who played the game of hockey with and for money power need to be the ‘refuse’ of the game and not the players.

No doubt the defeat has not aroused national reaction like the euphoria of the cricket victories by the senior and junior teams. Yet as some of the TV channels proclaimed it is a national shame. But it is also not the end of the road for Indian hockey. Our erstwhile rulers, the British had a similar fate in soccer and came back into the reckoning. We Indians being fighters who beat the British will not only be in the reckoning but also in the summit in the days to come.


                                                                               ******************************