Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Paresh Nath Mukherjee is a high profile man in a low profile sport. The recent success notwithstanding,archery is yet to become a popular sport and perhaps never will be. That,however,doesn’t stop Mukherjee,the secretary general of the Archery Association of India (AAI),working tirelessly to nurture future champions.
The harder you work,the harder it is to surrender, he says and tries to instill the mantra among the youngsters who dream big. Mukherjee is a towering personality in his grin-grimace,his shouting epigrams in that big steel drum of a voice. But he has a heart that carers.
As a sports administrator,Mukherjee believes in the tangle of relationships and the cycle of work that is a form of mutual giving. Maybe this is the reason why he is so popular among the players.
Mukherjee played football and hockey as a youngster. He became an archery fan on his mentor Asit Biswas’s influence. The Calcutta Archery Club was established in 1969 at Sinthee near Baranagar in north Kolkata. That was the beginning. Archery as a sport has evolved immensely in the next 41 years. Indian archery is now in the elite league. For Mukherjee,it’s like a dream come true.
The AAI was founded in 1973 and Mukherjee joined it as a senior vice-president. Bengal,or rather Baranagar was the hub of Indian archery that time. Naturally Bengal dominated the scene in the first few years. In the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi,India had a six-member archery contingent out of which five were from Bengal. We have come a long way since, says Mukherjee.
Things started to improve after the late Rajiv Gandhi introduced the Special Area Games Project in 1985. Sports Authority of India (SAI) was established and the youngsters got a platform to nurture their talent. Rajiv Gandhi had a vision. He was not like most of the modern-day politicians who think India lives in Delhi and its outskirts. I also,as an administrator,tried to scout talents from every part of the country. My India starts from Nagaland and ends at Cape Comorin, he added.
Archers like Limba Ram,Lalrem Sanga broke on the scene in the late 1980s and India started to earn international success. Of late there’s a talent pool,thanks to the initiative taken by Tata Sports Academy,Mittal Sports Foundation and the Army Sports Institute in Pune. It’s a collective effort, Mukherjee explains.
Asked about his own contribution,he said: I am just doing my duty. Ask any archer and you will know Mukherjee is being very modest. Indian archery is incomplete without Mukherjee, says Rahul Banerjee. The 23-year-old archer,who won gold in the men’s recurve section in the Commonwealth Games,gives full credit to the veteran administrator for shaping up his career. Archery is an expensive sport. The full kit costs around Rs 1 lakh. Initially,both we and Dola (Rahul’s sister) didn’t have the money to afford a bow or a set of arrows. Pareshda helped a lot, he said.
Mukherjee,however,is not a satisfied man. We are yet to win an Olympic medal. Also,in the Commonwealth Games,we should have won at least four gold medals. We won two instead. At the moment the Guangzhou Asiad in November is our target. China and Korea will be there. That will be the real test for our players, said the 64-year-old.
Medals or not,Indian archery is in a very healthy state at the moment. But Mukherjee feels he has just reached the halfway and has miles to go before he sleeps.
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
