Injuries robbed us of being able to witness Rajiv Mishra’s long-term success.
“Once you grow, you’ll understand that this twisted world doesn’t run so smoothly. To beat the injustice, one must either apply the harshest methods sometimes or get squashed under the boots of the strong forces. It is the wild law of the world, unfortunately,” ~ Tamuna Tsertsvadze, Gift of the Fox.
Dear professionals and aficionados of life and sport, allow me to put you through this rationale significance. In field hockey, they say, even an error of microscopic proportions leads to anemia of confidence and paves rise to rich health of pride and confidence in our oppositions.
At that moment, in the very process of scoring a goal, a life-ruining injury despite all the hard work and talent will end you up in spells of unanswerable disquietude. But our question here is: Can the sore-throated social animal ever feel their meal sumptuously nutritious and delicious, should they find a dearth of a rare talent seeing its prognosticated light? Hands-on hearts. Will we dare to forget an individual’s indulgence of any mistakes on the field, when a dish of sublime culinary art is put before us, whetting our appetite? No? Yes?
Well, they say, emotion, love, and adoration are not gifted overnight. It takes a lifetime of sacrificing oneself in whatever they could offer, be it art, sport, science, or literature–to invocate the respect and love of a follower. More often than not, as individuals and human beings, we might even brush off mellifluous scrutiny in every move of us, in every walk of life.
Field Hockey lovers and Indian hockey fans, in particular across the globe, will continue to ponder over the unlived and unfulfilled potential of a boy who rose to legendary ranks – all in a short time. We, the game’s very fans, will mourn the loss of talent which could have changed the way in many ways, field hockey would have been looked at, today.
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire 1997 – Let Me Entertain You, He Said.
Courtesy bharatiyahockey.org
An attractive emotion in the ‘D,’ a cheetah on the field who ran through defenses like butter on bread, Rajiv Mishra was the tournament player in the Junior World Cup in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire–a tournament in which India failed to qualify for 12 years. Against Germany in the semifinals, he scored the golden goal and ensured that India reached the finals of a junior hockey world cup for the very first in its glorious history.
Back home in his native country, he played for the Northern Railways (NR). He was touted as the “next big thing” in Indian hockey. A few even rated him a bigger talent than Dhanraj Pillay. He was always surrounded by two to three defenders. He was quick and fast in his knack, and guile with the hockey stick. He had everything in him to become one of India’s finest and hockey’s finest.
But, you know what? Everything was fine until a devilish injury put an end to his international dreams and reputation. It might be a bit tough to say that I’m not going to talk about his speed, craft in passing the ball, picturesque skills with the stick, and his quest for consistency. I am sorry. I apologize. I fail as ever to remain unwept at the mere mention of his name.
National Camp, Patiala, Punjab, India.
India’s national field hockey team prepared for the Hockey World Cup in Utrecht, 1998. A star-studded team with Jude Menezes, Dilip Tirkey, Dhanraj Pillay, Mohammad Riaz, Mukesh Kumar, Baljit Singh Saini, Ramandeep Singh, etc. were expected to represent India in its national game. In one training game before the tournament, Rajiv Mishra in his natural journey towards the goal was hit by a challenge from goalie Anjaparavanda Bopaiah Subbaiah, which resulted in a brutal injury to his knees. After a few minutes of rest on the sidelines and playing through the pain, he must have realized that he could not play to his full potential without going under the knife.
Maybe, we’ll never know.
Indeed, little did anyone know that knee injury would be curtains on a great hockey career, criminally and murderously soon. Surgery and rehabilitation followed. But another injury on Delhi’s Shivaji Stadium just before the World Cup ended all his international dreams.
As days and months passed into years, Rajiv Mishra found life outside his precarious silence and timorous tears–from Kuala Lumpur to Athens and Sydney, Doha to Monchengladbach and Santiago, Hague and Ipoh to London and Rio, and Tokyo towards Paris, Indian hockey moved on. It moved on from its shabby tours and ignominious writhing on and off the media to a very emotional Tokyo podium.
We might never ever know if time and space will pause and halt eternally in the picturesque vacuum of our universe. But one question surely remains the most painstakingly unanswered. Has India lost Mishra? Did field hockey and its emporium fail to protect Rajiv’s talent and Mishra’s genius? Uncontroversially, whose loss and mistake and error, is it? I will always fail despite my hardest in fathoming the dignity and legion of one of India’s finest talents in field hockey.
Long story short … Rajiv Mishra is Indian sport’s Rajinder Goel. He remains the Palwankar Baloo we fail to celebrate. He was and is the Subash Gupte of Indian Hockey. Sadly, and regretfully forever, Rajiv Mishra remains field hockey’s most dangerous center-forward that we lost.
If today my heart stops, albeit to beat in heavens
Let me embark on a tranquil journey in empyreans
As I try to unearth the true nectar of myself
Let my physical remains, beneath the grave by thyself,
For my casket be smeared, mudded and unhonored.
Weep not thou, for my love for hockey’s undaunted,
Weep not thou for shalt always be revered.
Yours Hockeyly Ever,
Ravi Mandapaka.
