There’s still an Rs 2 Lakh prize out there for any Indian who breaks the 45.6 second barrier for running the 400m. It’s a record that has stood _ ever since Milkha Singhran the race of his life in the 1960 Rome Olympics. He came in fourth in the 400m finals; 36 years later, as the world heads for Atlanta, it’s still the best time for an Indian. “It may not be surpassed in my time,” says Singh who, at 65, regularly jogs and packs in golf in home town Chandigarh. ““So l has asked my son to keep the offer alive after my death.”
To some, that is a classic Milkha Singh line: overconfident and arrogant, traits he picked up after fame came to him as a one shot wonder. To his admirers, Singh is a mix of pride and humility; a celebrity who finds time to go jogging with children at the local athletics club every evening and offers the prize money as motivation. And to Singh—the son of a poor Sikh Rajput family from Gobind pura village in Pakistan who saw his parents butchered as he hid behind bushes—life is a race he ran to survive, He joined the army as a junior commissioned officer, training obsessively, sometimes to the point of vomiting or a blackout. He won 77 out of 80 major races at home, the Asian and Commonwealth games. And finally made a mark, and a future, at Rome.
As far as Milkha Singh is concerned, he ran a good race in Rome. Two years ago, he retired as director of sports in Punjab’s Education Department. After Rome Olympics, Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon appointed him as deputy director. The smooth-talking, party loving “Flying Sikh” is still a draw at functions but gradually, he finds himself more localized as a hero. When he travels abroad with his son for tournaments, it’s as the competitor’s father, not as the country’s onetime icon of Third World achievement for having broken a world record. Rome.” This is a man who will recount Milkha jokes for anybody who cares to listen. A sampler: soon after Rome, as he lay near the track, an Englishwoman asked him: “Are you relaxing? “No,” he replied, “I’m Milkha Singh.” Another time, confident of his sprinting prowess, he let a thief get away, ran after him, passed him, kept going and later boasted about it. But when the laughter fades, all roads still lead to Rome.
For a man who has never looked back in life, looking back just once was once too many. “I had the habit of looking back while leading a race,” says Singh. “I was leading till 250 m but suddenly I wondered whether at this pace I’d be able to complete the race.” So he broke his rhythm, slowed down, looked back, but could not pick up the pace to beat the other three who meanwhile surged ahead. Ina photo finish. He came in fourth “I wept,” he recalls. Few rebuked him. His country “worshipped him, and fleeting fame transformed him into an earthy hero. He still wants to win, and his obsessive personality will not even spare his son. Does he want to achieve through Chiranjeey what he could not on his own? “Yes,” Says Singh, “I want him to become a first class international golfer. A No. 1.” Singh still doesn’t want to count higher than that.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1996
