At long last, e-book on Indian hockey

GLory restored digitally

On 28th May, Col. (Retd) Balbir Singh Kular released his autobiographical based on Indian Hockey, Sansarpur to London Olympics. The book was launched by the outgoing Army chief Gen V.K. Singh, who marked his presence at the ceremony to congratulate Col. Singh on his work.

While introducing the book, Col. Singh mentioned that he was “born in Sansarpur, a village which has produced 14 Olympians. Since childhood I have grown up listening to stories about hockey and have personally mainta­i­n­ed a scrapbook which has numerous newspaper clippings on hockey.

“As a coach I have seen all good and bad things about Indian hockey and I wanted to reveal all that has been going on inside Indian hockey. So the thought of writing a book struck me,” added Balbir, a 1968 Mexico Olympic med­allist himself.

Sansarpur is one of the few villages in India which has given the country maximum number of Olympians and hen­ce has earned for itself the title as the ‘Mecca of Indian Hockey’. The book is aimed at hockey aficionados and lists various landmarks of Indian hockey, in past six decades.

The Army chief, a great lover of hockey himself, said that, “the book is all about the game that was India’s national sport. We can now relive the glory of Indian hockey thro­ugh this book. Col. Singh has written this book in a conversational tone.”

The book has been co-authored by sports filmmaker Sunil Yash Kalra who described this effort as one “straight from the heart and that is what keeps the momentum going, unlike many other biographies which are usually deceptive.”

The book also highlights lack of infrastructural facilities in Sansarpur and other villages, which is one of the major reasons of the downfall of our national sport.
Sansarpur to London Olympics also takes you through the journey of hockey from spectator’s viewpoint, and celebrates a nation which has won the Gold eight times in Olympics. Col. Singh’s work also covers six decades of Indian hockey, his life in the Army and the surge towards the Olympic medal.

Sansarpur to London... is the first e-book of the country. Though the concept of e-books is still new in India, the format has already begun catching the attention of books lovers in many other parts of the world as they are more interactive and easy to use.
The event also saw the presence of former Indian skipper of the women’s cricket team and famous sports anchor Anjum Chopra.