Running for more than just gold

The blockbuster movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag starring Farhan Akhtar has brought the inspirational story behind arguably India’s greatest sportsperson to a younger and wider audience. To sports fans, of course Milkha Singh’s story is well known as it has been narrated in various print and TV interviews, magazine features and books over the decades. There is a warm family touch to The Race of My Life: An Autobiography as Milkha’s story is told by his youngest daughter. It also means that more than an autobiography or biography, this book (perhaps understandably) reads like a hagiography. However, for those who were introduced to the remarkable Milkha story through the movie (some of which was myth), it is good that this book sets the record straight on various aspects and is also recorded in the correct chronological order. Despite what the movie depicts, Milkha (through his daughter, of course) takes pains to repeatedly emphasise his resistance to feminine charms during his many trips abroad. He does briefly mention the Australian sprint queen “Betty’s” infatuation with him at Melbourne in 1956 — one can safely assume he is referring to the legendary Betty Cuthbert who won three gold medals for her nation on home soil as a teenager. At 150 pages and with no index or records section, the book is lightweight. The many typos are also galling. The private family photos are fascinating though and it is when bringing out the human aspect that the narrative soars, particularly in the passages dealing with the courtship of his future wife, Nirmal (Nimmi). It is the descriptions of his famous races that tend to disappoint and this is where the book could have done with inputs from seasoned athletics writers or some of Milkha’s contemporaries who could have brought out greater technical and dramatic details of his famous races around the world. Well-known as it is, the story of the youngster’s Partition tragedy, his early struggles in his new home in Delhi, his brief brush with the law, the Indian Army saving his life — in a manner of speaking — and his rise to world sporting fame through sweat and toil remains a stirring and powerful saga. For those of us who did not live through the ’50s and ’60s, it is heartening that Milkha was not only one of India’s most feted sportspersons, he was also in the eyes of the rest of the world a symbol of the struggle and triumph of the newly Independent Indian nation. It is to Milkha’s eternal credit that decades later he is still remembered with fondness abroad as when a veteran Australian athlete on hearing I was Indian asked me during the 2000 Sydney Olympics: “How is (Milkha) Singh these days ” The race at the 1960 Rome Olympics that both made and broke Milkha is long considered the greatest 400 metres of all time. Though some of his contemporary colleagues continue to deny it, he was undoubtedly a pre-race medal favourite. It was the gap of a day between the semis and the final that is credited with the fantastic times recorded by all the runners. But Milkha feels this break was a disadvantage for him as it meant he had more time in which to grapple with his customary pre-race nerves. The semis were on September 5 and the final the next day, though Milkha’s memory has obviously let him down when he claims there was a two-day gap. Just to set the record straight, the first two finishers, Otis Davis and Carl Kaufmann both broke the existing world record while Malcolm Spence (45.5) in third place equaled the Olympic record set by Davis in the Rome semifinals. Milkha (45.6) in fourth broke the pre-Rome Olympic mark of 45.9 while the fifth and sixth placed runners equaled it. Fortunately, there are only a couple of places in the book where Milkha lapses into referring to himself by his own name, something that grates during his interviews. There are some points that rankle. His famous and oft-repeated diatribe against sports coaches and the system (“Why have we not produced 100 Milkha Singhs and P.T. Ushas ”) while ringing true also begs the question as to why he failed to produce any famous athletes during his long tenure in sports administration in Punjab. On pages 105-106, Milkha writes: “Soon after retiring I announced I would give a reward of two lakh rupees to any (Indian) athlete who breaks my record of 45.6 seconds in the Olympics. So far this has not happened ” As a matter of fact, K.M. Binu broke the mark with a time of 45.48 seconds in the first round of the 2004 Athens Olympics, but is still waiting for the promised reward. Being a multi-gold medal winner at the both the Asian and Commonwealth Games and one of a handful of Indian Olympic track finalists means Milkha’s pride of place in the sports Hall of Fame is assured. The book, though, falls somewhat short of expectations.

Gulu Ezekiel is a freelance journalist and author of over a dozen sports books