In Gurdaspur, 3 hockey legends go all out to rescue marooned villagers

As the floodwaters recede, stories of bravery in the face of adversity are slowly tumbling out of the closet.

These floods will not only be remembered for the mayhem they created, but also for the fact that three international hockey players, including two best drag-flickers the hockey world has ever seen, and a versatile forward, gave it all they had to rescue hundreds of marooned people.

Two-time Olympian Rupinder Pal Singh has donned India colours 223 times. He is posted as Assistant Commissioner (Under-Training) and is also designated as the Chief Minister’s field officer. He was assigned the arduous duty of rescuing people living in a cluster of seven villages located across the raging Ravi. This was apart from supervising rescue operations in other parts of Dinanagar subdivision. Officially, Dinanagar was the worst hit in Gurdaspur district.

He led a team of officials that made Makoran Pattan hamlet their base. He knew that water had encircled it from all four sides, still he went ahead. He managed to take to safety at least 1,500 people from several villages. He was helped by the IAF, Army choppers and the NDRF. Gurdaspur DC Dalwinderjit Singh stood by him to guide him. Once finished with the daunting task given to him, he felt like a man who had triumphed against all odds. The moment he savoured the most in his life was when he converted the crucial penalty stroke in the bronze medal match against Germany in the Tokyo Olympics. Now, he admits, this effort of rescuing villagers, who had nothing to eat or drink for days even as their houses were submerged in 6-8 feet of water, gave him even more satisfaction than the penalty stroke. In Tokyo, he had put India on the pedestal. Here, in Dinanagar, the villagers put him on a pedestal.

London Olympian DSP Gurwinder Singh Chandi, was in-charge of saving and rehabilitating the historical town of Kalanaur. He and his team gave a boat ride to a bride and her family from Shalle Chak village to a marriage palace in Kalanaur. On the way back, Chandi noticed a man writhing in pain following a snake bite near Kotla Mughlan village. He was immediately shifted to the nearest relief camp. “Champions become champions only by enduring setbacks,” he said.

Then there was the irresistible, sturdily built Jugraj Singh. Like Rupinder Pal, he too was a drag-flicker par-excellence. He did duty in villages where there was an increased danger to human lives and livestock. He also ensured that starving villagers did not fight over ration packets. The former full-back is posted as an SP. His effervescent hockey career was cut short following a car accident in 2003.

These hockey warriors have turned out to be true sons of the soil. They put their own lives on the line to save the lives of hundreds of others.