Always on front lines, be it penalty corners or saving lives
CHENNAI: How does one tackle the Jugraj Singh story? It has so many strands it’s difficult to separate one from the other. Do you describe it through his exploits at the 2001 Junior World Cup which India won? Do you write about it through the nasty car accident he suffered? Or do you talk about how he dealt with those cards and picked up the pieces as a terror-fighting Punjab police officer who was one of the first responders during the attack in Dina Nagar, Gurdaspur, in July 2015?
He readily says ‘we are here because of hockey and we would be nothing without it’. But it’s difficult to divorce that part of his life because it’s so entwined with what happened on the night of September 2, 2003. The 33-year-old remembers the accident like it happened yesterday. “I was resting at home after the Champions Trophy when a couple of my school friends and I went out for a dinner to a restaurant called Haveli,” he says to Express, his expression slightly changing all the time. “While driving, a rickshaw came out of nowhere and in order to save him, I swerved and hit an electric pole. There were eight of us friends in two cars.”
Eight surgeries to treat major injuries — a broken pelvic ring, right thigh smashed into two and an elbow rearranged to such an extent reconstructing it was the only option — and extensive rehabilitation in the US followed. But a feeling of deep regret, understandably, persists. “I lost my personal as well as my hockey career. I lost other opportunities as well. I was 20 and the youngest player in the team. I was nominated for the Arjuna Award and because of the injury I was not able to get it.” Crucially, though, he has found his inner peace. At one point, he even reminisces about his rehab like it was a college trip with his future wife. Thanks to coaching and a job as a police officer.
“I did try and come back to the national side before the 2006 World Cup but it didn’t happen. After that, I took to coaching, especially penalty corners. It was during one such exercise that I met a young Rupinderpal Singh. Both of us progressed and I started coaching the seniors. During the 2011 Sultan Azlan Shah, we got nine penalty corners and he converted seven. So coaching the seniors is not new to me.”
The former drag-flicker, a Snapchat generation star who played when Yahoo Mail was a thing, has to divide his time equally between coaching India and the Punjab police. For Jugraj, the call of duty extends beyond telling players how best to transfer weight before striking a moving hockey ball from a penalty corner. That’s why he was part of the Gurdaspur operation. He has no qualms about putting his life on the line and admits he will continue to do so for the country.
In the short term though, his main focus will be on helping India winning the latest edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah, a competition they haven’t won since 2010.
swaroop@newindianxpress.com