In the Jharkhand Assembly, when Arjun Munda was claiming majority with his flock of 41 safely in “protective custody”, he literally had an ace up his sleeve. An ace in our national language means an ekka and the one he produced in the presence of the Jharkhand governor and then paraded in Delhi before President Abdul Kalam was none other than Enos Ekka.That brings to my mind our very own ace, Albert Ekka, who proved to be a winner on the hockey field. That was 50 years ago when I was in charge of Arjun division, one of the four training units, the other three being Akbar, Ashok and Angre, in INS Circars — a stone frigate, an establishment in Vizag, to train boy entrants for the navy. They used to be picked up from high schools in the age group of 15-plus and 16-plus and recruited to become sailors after a rigorous training of one year.Essentially, the youthful boys had to be moulded to become physically strong but also learn the ropes, so to speak, in seamanship and boat-work and of course compulsory swimming besides some basic academic studies. Now, that last bit was the difficult part and both Albert Ekka and a Naga boy were having great difficulty in passing examinations. Mathematics was their nemesis and on this account both were put up for discharge from service.Commander Fred Sopher was presiding at the meeting to decide their fate when I was able to defend the Naga boy using a recent speech of Pandit Nehru wherein he had pleaded that as far as possible the tribals from the Northeast deserved protection. Our Naga boy was exceedingly good in outdoor activities and he was allowed to go through to serve the navy and the country.Albert Ekka was a different story. I don’t recall if he was a Jharkhandi from Bihar but he was uniquely talented as a goal-keeper and a pivotal member of Team Arjun. Quite a coincidence isn’t it, both Ekkas under Arjun! I pleaded for Albert successfully, it seemed. The captain of the Circars hockey team, Lieutenant Degama, had already spotted him to play for the Eastern Command in the Naval Championships in Bombay and, lo and behold, the navy selectors chose this young lad for the Indian navy team. The navy eleven, under the Olympian Nandi Singh, went on to finish second in the Inter-Services championships at Jalandhar.Undoubtedly a happy ending; I lost track of Albert after a few years and just wonder if Enos has a link to our Arjun Ekka.
