Meet Kajal Dey, Tripura’s only table tennis coach without hands

Kajal feels sports talents are not given the proper importance that they deserve in Tripura. (Express Photo)

Recounting his horror and painful experience, Kajal said his friends rushed him to a local hospital, where they got busy managing infection and blood loss. A few weeks later, Kajal was able to interact with everyone. But it was never the same. The absence of his hands made him realize the asset he had lost. Dey visited many prosthetics centres he had heard of and travelled to Kolkata (then Calcutta) in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chandigarh but with no luck.

Nearly a year later, someone suggested him to check out Artificial Limb Centre (ALC) at Pune. The ALC is a unit under the Armed Forces Medical College. “I went there and was treated for 5 months and 17 days. God! Nobody can imagine the kind of discipline they practice. I was literally made to work out things for myself,” Kajal recounted.

For the last 25 years, Kajal Dey has been playing table tennis with a bat tied between his bones. (Express Photo)

An expert there suggested him to undertake a special operation by separating radius and ulna, the two arm bones which were still attached to his arms sans the wrist. Gradually, muscle grew around the two bones, building two big fingers of sorts, which have enabled Kajal to manage all works since then starting from using spoon and fork on the dining table, using a mobile phone and even playing table tennis.

“Table tennis was literally my turnaround since the accident. I was barely 21 at the time and found it very tough to see all my friends play with cricket bat and ball while I was grounded home”, he said.

Since those days, Pole Star Club – a local social organization in Agartala, used to offer free sports coaching to children who would come to the club premises near Astabal Maidan (now Swami Vivekananda Ground) to practice.

Table tennis got Kajal’s attention and after consulting with a few local coaches, he got his first TT bats.

“There are so many different qualities of table tennis bats. It all depends on the kind of wood and the quality of rubber you use. I started fixing the bats between the two bones of my hand and played. Later on, I found it worked better if I tied the bat to my hand using a rubber sheath”, he said.

For the last 25 years, Kajal Dey has been playing table tennis with a bat tied between his bones. The bat has become an extension of the man and he has coached nearly 45 children in this way since 2003.

“I am also working as a Group D employee in Public Works Department (PWD) under state government. So, I participated in the inter office tournaments and won three silver medals in a row. I also joined the national para table tennis competition but didn’t find much luck there. May be there are some issues with the authorities there”, Kajal told this correspondent.

However, his students have achieved what he could not.

Dwaipayan Dutta, one of his students was a champion at North East Table Table Tournament in 2017. Others like Omkar Debnath won a series of medals till 5 years back when he started his college. There are others like Moumita Saha, Aritra Patari, Shreyashi Chakraborty, who have won medals in national and regional tournaments.

Kajal groomed his own daughter Kalyani Dey who went on to contest in 19 national tournaments and won 4 silver and bronze medals there. She also won many medals in state tournaments.

However, Kajal feels sports talents are not given the proper importance that they deserve in Tripura.

“Most parents feel traditional education is a sure shot to success. Many talented players get lost in the process, as soon as they complete school. My daughter has played till her college days but after she got admitted in her post graduation, she has stopped playing too”, he told.

However, the table tennis coach prefers to stay among little children. They are my psychological tonic, Kajal says.

Till today, Dey offers free coaching to interested students from 6:30 AM to 8 AM and from 3 PM till 5 in the evening every day.

Since BJP-IPFT government assumed office on March 03 this year, they have laid heavy stress on developing the ecology of sports in Tripura.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who is a fitness enthusiast himself, cranked down 45 push-ups without breaking a sweat at an event in Kolkata earlier this month. In June this year, Deb said at an event in Agartala that all youths should give push-ups and become fit. He also said that he had accepted ‘Fitness Challenge of Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

“I have accepted the challenge and tweeted myself giving 20 push-ups. I could have given 20 more. Youths will feel good and fresh if they give 20, 30, 40 push-ups every morning. It will become a habit for them. If all youths give push-ups, automatically, Tripura will develop 56-inch chest and follow direction of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ for development”, Deb told at the event in June.

Referring to the Chief Minister’s call to take up sports, Kajal Dey said he is hopeful more children will take up games as a serious career option.

He also appealed depressed people to choose sports over suicide. “If anyone is disturbed, please take up sports. If you want, get in touch with me. Table tennis is better than suicide, any time”, he said with a wink.

Table tennis players from Tripura have earlier won medals in inter-state and national tournaments, in a row in the early 2000s. Players from the state also emerged victorious in events at Panchayat Yuba Krira o Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) run by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs till it was shut down two years back.