Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Village of ‘mukkebaazi’ celebrates Satish’s win
LUCKNOW: “Mukkebaazi”, or boxing, was our way of settling scores in the village, said Kiran Pal Singh, only half in jest. On Thursday, the sport, and perhaps this tradition, united Pachauta, a village 10km from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
One of their own, Kiran
Pal Singh’s son Satish
Kumar, was boxing for
India at the Tokyo Olympics.
Much before Kumar became the first Indian in an Olympic superheavyweight bout, his friends and followers gathered in front of his house, many of them after praying at the village’s Baba Devi temple. Singh and his wife also prayed there, and were observing a fast till the bout ended. “I haven’t seen such support for my son before. Seeing almost 600 people outside your house was amazing,” said Singh, after Kumar won 4-1 against Jamaica’s Ricardo Brown to enter the quarter-finals. Kumar said he started cautiously but once he took hold of the situation, “I didn’t stop myself”. He said he was sure of win after two rounds.
Celebrations broke out in the village after the win—there was a dhol, and people including Kumar’s family danced to its beat. Kumar’s wife and two children watched the bout at their home in Noida. “My grandchildren congratulated me,” Singh said. Singh said he is confident that Kumar, 32, will win the next round and get a medal (in boxing, both losing semi-finalists get bronze). “Somebody said that his next rival is a big shot, but for me it makes no difference. I have faith in my son’s ability. Before flying to Tokyo, he promised he would come back with a medal.” Kumar will meet Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov, the reigning Asian and world champion, on Saturday.
Kumar missed the Rio Olympics due to injury, and that, said Singh, spurred him to aim for
Tokyo. Like many Indian athletes in the Games now, Kumar would rarely come home over the past five years. Singh, who is a farmer, said recognition didn’t come Kumar’s way when he won bronze at the 2014 Asian Games. “But things changed when he bagged silver at the 2018 CWG.”
Winner of two Asian Championship bronze medals, Kumar took up boxing on joining the Army. Kumar said he had received “over 500 phone calls” on Thursday. “I took all the calls!” he said.