Sports organisers were father figures: Lahkar

Guwahati, Jan 1: Jack of all trades—perhaps it is the best way to describe him. Shankar Dutta Lahkar, who played Ranji Trophy for Assam and also represented the State Table Tennis team in various national-level championships, was equally good in football and athletics. He was the record holder in the 100-metre race in the Inter University Athletic Competition and also represented Gauhati Town Club in the Bordoloi Trophy. Soft-spoken by nature Lahkar, a retired engineer in the State Irrigation Department who turned 77 in 2023, recently spoke to krirangn.com where he unfolded the sports scenario of Guwahati in the 1960s and 1970s along with his career. Here is the excerpt.(Concluding Part)
[CLICK INTERVIEW TAB AT HOME PAGE TO READ 1ST PART.]
Q, In your time, you were also a good athlete!
Lahkar: Yes. Actually, on those days, we played multiple games throughout the year. I played cricket and table tennis regularly, but whenever I had the time, I participated in athletic competitions. In 1965, I set a 100-metre record at the GU Inter College Athletics competition clocking 11.7 seconds. I was also good at high jump and made the podium on several occasions.
Q, It was not easy to continue multiple games along with studies. How did you manage it?
Lahkar: It’s not difficult if you make it a habit and follow a regular schedule. When I was studying engineering, I stayed at the Assam Engineering College campus in Jalukbari. My class started at 7 a.m. and came to an end around 2 p.m. I finished lunch very quickly and caught a city bus to reach Judges Field for cricket practice. After that, I went to the stadium for table tennis training before returning to the hostel in the evening. It was my regular routine, and I didn’t face any problem maintaining it. There was one advantage at that time, as traffic was less on the road and we could reach Judges Field from Jalukbari within half an hour.
Q, Tell us your story with table tennis.
Lahkar: Table tennis was the game that I played in most of my career. I was selected for the Assam team from 1960–1972, although I had failed to join the State team on every occasion due to study. Table tennis was very popular in Guwahati in those days, and local organisers, including Pulin Das, worked very hard for its promotion. I got international exposure when Yogoslovakia’s national team visited Guwahati to play an exhibition match held at the indoor stadium in 1964. Legendary sports organiser RG Baruah was then the president of the Guwahati Sports Association, and he was one of the men behind this exhibition match. The Yugoslav team played four singles and one doubles against us. In the singles, I gave a good fight, and it was nice to see that a few lines were written in the next day’s newspaper praising my performance in the match. I was a state champion in both senior and junior categories and also led the Gauhati University team in the East Zone Inter University Table Tennis Championship in 1965, finishing runners-up, losing the final to Jadavpur University.
Q, During your illustrious career, you came in touch with several top players in the state in various sports. Can you still remember them?
Lahkar: Oh, yes. In football, I played with Tulsi Dey, Abdul Jalil, Amanullah, Indrajit Namsung, several others. In cricket, Prabir Hazarika, the well-known singer Dwipen Barua (popularly known as Bhoju), Bimal Bharali, Kanai Bezbaruah and Anup Ghatak were all my teammates. Badal Thakur, Ashwini Rajbongshi, Girin Barua, Nilimoy Choudhury, Manik Choudhury, M P Barooah, R P Kapoor, Abani Hazarika and Madhab Talukdar were our senior batch, and all had great skill in this game. There were several cricketers at that time who had Test cricket materials and Ashwini Rajbongshi should stay at the top of the list. On the field, Ashwinida was an interesting character and didn’t care who was facing him. Once Pankaj Roy, batting against him, was badly hurt. Rajbongshi went straight to Roy and asked, “How was the delivery?”
In table tennis, Bijoy Hazarika, Pranab Barua, Amar Hazarika, Pranab Changkakati and Amal Choudhury were some of my contemporaries. Among us, Amar had the potential to represent India in this game.
Q, You came in touch with many sports organisers during your long career...
Lahkar: In those days, sports organisers were like father figures to the players. Animesh Ganguly, Sashi Sarma, Gauri Himmatsingka, Pulin Das, Nripen Bhatta, Jibananda Choudhury, Phani Sarma, Kironmoy Lahiri, KD Hazarika, Golap Choudhury-all the organizers were very good and dedicated to the sports. You may have noticed that I have left one name, and it is none other than RG Baruah. His organising skills were great, and you can say he was the leader of all those sports organisers whose names I mentioned earlier. There was very good bonding among them, and it helped to develop the sports scenario in Guwahati.
Q, Assam Table Tennis was in its golden era in the 1970s, and you were one of the witnesses...
Lahkar: Initial work to develop the game in the State was done by Pulin Das, and later Phani Sarma took it to new levels. During the 1970s, Assam produced an array of table tennis players who later became national and international celebrities.
In the junior category, we had a good number of boys and girls players but at a certain age, girls quit competing, making it difficult for the TT organisers to select senior women teams for the Inter District and the National Championship. In the early part of the 1970s, we faced a similar problem and one day I had a call from Pulinda (Pulin Das) instructing me to look for a few new female players so that we had a team ready for the forthcoming Inter district Table Tennis competition. As I visited the indoor Stadium one evening, I observed a left hander girl skilfully troubling her opponent . I approached her right away and asked about her name and also about her interest to join the district team squad. She didn’t give a direct reply and requested us to take permission from her father. I was a little relieved by discovering his father’s name since I knew him well. We were finally given approval for selecting her for the team. The girl was none other than the second Arjuna Awardee from Assam, Monalisa Barua Mehta.
Phani Sarma, who was the father figure of State Table Tennis, worked a lot to develop the game in the State. Arunjyoti Barua, Rahul Dutta and even Monalisa received huge support from him to become national and international stars. He was a very innovative person and always tried to inject new ideas. I can still remember that he sent several players to Mumbai for higher training and also arranged the entire expenditure of that trip. It was not an easy task on those days. Sharma also worked to bring more female players into the game. I really missed those sports organisers.
Author: Swarupa Goswami