Barefoot in Jia

Jia, north of Nagrota in Kangra district, is one of the prettiest locations in Himachal Pradesh. Here, at the edge of a promontory, the stat...

Jia, north of Nagrota in Kangra district, is one of the prettiest locations in Himachal Pradesh. Here, at the edge of a promontory, the state electricity board has constructed a rest house. As one stands in its lawn, towards the north can be seen the snowcapped Dhauladhar range. Far to the south, one sees the shimmering waters of Pong Lake. Down below, a sheer drop of over 300 feet, flows the snow-fed Baner stream. On its opposite bank, too, the mountain rises vertically from the stream-bed. Directly across, at almost the same level as the rest house, is a cluster of village huts.

Standing one morning, eight years ago, in the rest house lawn, I saw a group of children in blue and white uniform scamper down the hillside, on way to the school in Jia on our side of the gorge. Just as they reached the stream at the bottom of the valley, one girl suddenly turned away from the group and started racing back uphill. She ran up the hill at a trot. The climb was almost vertical, but she raced the entire distance without pausing for breath. That effort would strain the sinews of hardened athletes.

She kept going till she reached her home. She darted in and re-emerged with whatever she had come to get. Then she ran down to the stream, crossed it, and up again on our side of the hill, a similar climb, till she caught up with her companions. She seemed none the worse for her exertions.

Story continues below this ad

As I watched her, I was reminded of the story of Abebe Bikila. This Ethiopian runner won the Olympic marathon twice in the 1960s, and would have won it again had he not been incapacitated in a car accident. He ran barefoot and had, for most of his life, not received the benefit of any professional coaching or special diet. The secret of his success lay in his early life in the hills around his native village. As a child, his favourite pastime was to chase birds on foot. He kept running after them till one of them was too tired to fly any more. Then he caught it with his bare hands.

He did this in the comparatively rarefied altitude of 7000 feet above sea level, so he acquired phenomenal stamina, and could manage the long distance of the marathon without gasping for oxygen. Watching that little girl in Jia, the thought occurred to me that maybe, unknown to our talent scouts, we have in villages in our hills our own Abebe Bikilas.

Ethiopia never hosted expensive and wasteful extravaganzas of the scale of an Asiad or the Commonwealth Games. But even in that poverty stricken, war-ravaged country there exists a system which spots promising sportsmen and nurtures them till they can top the Olympic victory stand, and hear their country’s national anthem play. They do it time and again.

Somewhere in the Ethiopian success story, there’s a lesson for India.

Among dead in Vijay rally stampede, young mother, couple set to marry

Cities1 hr ago

A rally by actor-politician Vijay in Velusamypuram ended tragically with 40 deaths in a stampede. Non-political workers gathered to see the superstar, but exhaustion, heat, and poor planning caused chaos. People collapsed, ambulances couldn't reach, and police presence was inadequate. Vijay's team ignored instructions, and the narrow roads and insufficient crowd control added to the tragedy.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS