Project Tiranga

One of the greatest novelists of India who gave the 'people the sacred 'mantra'- Vande Mataram.' The Bengali Novel practically began with him. He also wrote philosophical works, which stimulated independent thinking. There is hardly an Indian who is not familiar with this National Song. Possibly, most of us do not know who composed this song.

In Jhansi they had a fueral, not in the ghat, but on the ground he played on. Players came, but it seemed a little too late. It made him hard to forget the first few words of his autobiography `Goal': "You are doubtless aware that I am a common man." He wasn't but he died like one.

"Early next morning we boarded a train for Paris. We travelled third class. There was a restaurant car in the train, but our funds did not permit us to indulge in anything more than a meagre breakfast.

On the field he was named the "Wizard of Hockey" for he exerted complete control on the ball. It appeared that the ball used to stick to his hockey stick while playing. So great was the magic of Dhyan Chand that the Tokyo officials broke his hockey stick to search for a magnet inside, and tried to console themselves saying he had added some sort of glue.

"I had an embarrassing incident at Prague. A young and good-looking hockey enthusiast, a Czechoslovakian girl, insisted after the match on kissing me. "Oh, you are an angel!" she declared. She almost succeeded in her intention, but I resisted, repeating all the time that I was a married man. It was all in good fun."

"Tokyo is a truly modern city. The Hotel Manpi where we stayed was clean and comfortable. The hotel attendants were all pretty Japanese girls. Naturally the members of the team were all excited, and Pankaj Gupta had great difficulty in restraining his wards to keep within bounds"