PUNE, July 10: At the crack of dawn everyday, a 74-year-old woman drags herself out of bed to start another dreary day. She steps out of a tin-covered structure, her home in one of the myriad lanes in Khadki, and heads straight to the houses nearby to clean utensils. Her bones ache as she sits and scrubs dirty plates. But she knows she has to do that to keep herself alive.For Mary Philips lives in a hard world. She does not even recognise herself. A far cry from the cushy times she had when she married Joe Philips, one of the XI who had the nerve to snatch the hockey gold for India while the Fuhrer himself watched the games in Berlin.Joe Philips and Baburao Nimal had returned to Poona as living legends from the Berlin Olympics of 1936. The Great Indian Wall. That was how the German media had described Joe and his mates. Joe and Baburao became celebrities overnight, heroes inside and outside their places of work. While Joe worked at the Dehu Road Ordnance Depot, Baburao had a job with the Ammunition Factory, Khadki.For quite sometime, Mary, who married Joe five years after Berlin, enjoyed the status of a celebrity wife. Life seemed so complete. Or, so she thought. She was wrong. Joe lost his job at the ordnance depot, took to alcohol and the player in him died. All of a sudden life became insecure. Joe even pawned his Olympic medal. But that too was of little help. In 1986, Joe died a heartbroken man. Unsung. Ever since Mary has died a thousand deaths.And today when she gets time to rest her aching frame, she stares vacantly at a picture of Joe returning home from the Olympics. That picture and a few cups are her only passport to the past, the times when life seemed so good.Mary says she now has to fend for herself. So what if she has to clean utensils in the neighbourhood. ``As long as I can, I shall. That is the only way for me to survive.''It has been 12 years since Joe died. Sixtytwo years when he did India proud at the Games where Hitler's dream of Aryan Supremacy was dashed by Jesse Owens. As wife of an Olympian, Mary expected a pension from the State and Centre. But nothing came her way.``I did write to the people concerned but never received any money. Only yesterday I received a letter from the State Government, the first in so many years. They have asked me to furnish my full particulars. I don't know whether all this will be of any help. Four-five years ago, a Maharashtra minister visited my house and gave me some money. He promised to help me . I heard nothing till this letter arrived yesterday,'' says Mary, resigned to her fate.Joe's mate Baburao was a little fortunate. He was remembered six decades after Berlin. The Sports Authority of India handed him a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 till he died this year. The State sports directorate too had extended him some financial help.``Joe never played serious hockey after Berlin. But is this how you treat a man who wins gold for his country. I don't think I have many days left to live. Can't they give me something even now?,'' Mary wants to know. Perhaps someone somewhere can answer that. May be the letter she received yesterday can bring her small consolation someday.
