Hockey Legend Dhyan Chand’s Evening Walks & His Love for Rabri!

August 29 is the birth anniversary of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand celebrated across the country as National Sports Day. We all grew up hearing anecdotes about how this Indian hockey’s biggest legend used to make the hockey world sit up and take notice of his prowess on the hockey maidaan (unlike a turf these days).

There is no denying the fact that this Allahabad-born hockey great did not receive the desired recognition befitting his international hockey exploits (he played a massive part in the Indian men hockey team’s three back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932, and 1936, scoring 40 goals across 3 Olympics). At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, he scored in every match.

A lot has been said about Dhyan Chand’s lack of recognition but not many know about his liking for Rabri. “I vividly remember Pitaji would go for his evening stroll every day. He would walk carrying his stick for one-and-a-half kilometres to two kilometres and on his return, he would always bring sumptuous Rabri for all of us,” recalls Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar, who himself is a four-time World-Cupper and 1972 Munich Olympian – the man who scored India’s match-winning goal against Pakistan in the 1975 World Cup final at Kuala Lumpur.

The 74-year-old former India centre-forward shared memories of how his father was doing fine health-wise in the months leading to his demise on December 3, 1979. “Pitaji was absolutely fine during the months of September and October 1979 – he used to do his daily evening walks without any issue. But his health condition deteriorated in mid-November as he was down with memory loss and was first admitted in Germany hospital, Jhansi before being subsequently shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was admitted in the general ward where doctors detected lung cancer. We tried for all possible help but all in vain. I still remember a journalist wrote a touching story on how a hockey legend was kept in the general ward and that article had an impact as Pitaji was shifted to a private ward,” Kumar recounts.

Ironically, the hockey legend who was rushed to AIIMS by train in the general compartment from Jhansi (his family members had to manage a cab from the Nizamabad railway station) but was brought home on a helicopter after his demise.