Vikas Krishan (Photo courtesy: Indian Amateur Boxing Federation)
The sepia tint is strong but it does not take much for the image of an up and coming cricketer riding a bicycle to a newspaper office in Secunderabad to give the sports editors a copy of his photograph for use in the next morning’s edition comes through the sub-conscious. The montage that is playing on my mind is from the 70s when scoring a century or taking five wickets in the Hyderabad cricket league could enhance the chances of one’s photograph appearing in the newspaper.
This scene kept replaying in my mind’s eye when four Indian boxers – L Devendro Singh, Manoj Kumar, Jai Bhagwan and Vikas Krishan – won their pre-quarterfinals bouts in the AIBA World Championship in Baku, Azebaijan. And from the comfort of my home in Delhi, I got to hear Devendro and Manoj Kumar share their joy with boxing fans in India. This was thanks to the efforts of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation in sending journalists an audio file.
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The slow motion replay rubbed it in. Problem was, the replay was not on tape that could be erased but in his mind. It was almost as if he was cursed to go through an out-of-body experience each time he thought of the bout that changed his life. And that was nearly each moment. He could see himself look at his coach and mouth the dreaded words.
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