Source : Garhwal Post
Mumbai, 25 Sept: Noted Bollywood actor and Ambassador of Indian Hockey, Suniel Shetty launched ‘From Gloom to Glory’, the autobiography of eminent Indian hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, in Mumbai on Wednesday evening.
Published by ‘Crossword’ – India’s leading lifestyle bookstore and ‘Popular Prakashan’, it is the account of Mir Ranjan Negi’s fall from grace in the field of hockey on national television in the finals against Pakistan in the Delhi Asiad and his fight for redemption from the pain and humiliation to his determined triumph. The Bollywood actor showed keen interest in the book and exchanged his views with the author.
The function turned out to be a gathering of friends. Many persons associated with hockey and the girls connected with the film based on Negi’s story, ‘Chak De India’, attended to make the occasion a memorable one.
Mir Ranjan Negi hails from Uttarakhand. Negi is a native of village Majkhali in district Almora. He is all set to visit his home state for shooting of a Garhwal musical VCD next month. Negi is likely to shoot for ‘Mayaku Mundaru’, an album by renowned folk singer Narender Singh Negi.
About the Book
Hockey threw him into ignominy and then suddenly made him famous. This is the dramatic life of goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi who was the much-lauded coach of the cast of the film ‘Chak De India’ made by Yash Raj Films. His account of his fall from grace on national television in front of a whole nation in the finals against Pakistan in the Delhi Asiad, is as moving as his fight for his redemption. Negi's story is told more from a sense of wanting to do something about the great odds that he and his contemporaries battled against than from any sense of bitterness or vendetta. It documents the era of one of the most bizarre periods of Indian Hockey when players were mere pawns in the hands of officials and were selected and dropped at will. There are many inside stories that will shock and amuse—like a player in the national side substituted by another before the plane takes off or a captain reading in the newspapers that he is ill and will be unable to play. A national side once actually had two captains and two coaches! While the book deals with what ails our hockey fraternity, it is also a gripping story of one man who used the pain and humiliation of defeat to fuel his determination to succeed. The book holds out some hope that hockey can regain the glory it once enjoyed in the world arena. A truly inspiring book about sportsmanship and the doughty wielders of the hockey stick which one hopes will shake a one-game obsessed nation into sitting up and noticing the unsung heroes the national sport.
