Hockey player Lalit Upadhyay.
The Indian hockey team has created history by winning the bronze medal at the Olympics for the second time in a row after 52 years. Banaras’ Lalit Upadhyay is also a key player in the history-making hockey team. Playing in the left forward position, Lalit’s life has been full of struggles. He was fond of playing hockey since his childhood. The financial condition of the family was not such that they could afford hockey. Here, his father hoped to get a government job for his son through the sports quota.
Amidst all these troubles, Lalit’s fate had decided something else and Parmanand Mishra, the hockey coach of Sai Center of UP College, became a tool for him. If Ramakant Achrekar created Sachin Tendulkar, Parmanand Mishra has the same place for Lalit Upadhyay. If not for Paramananda, the world would not have known Lalit Upadhyaya today. His father Satish Upadhyay even says that when there was no money even to buy a hockey stick, Parmanand helped Lalit in every way.
Started playing hockey at the age of 8
Lalit’s father says that in the year 2001, at the age of eight, Lalit started playing hockey with his brother Amit at the UP College ground in Banaras. Meanwhile, Parmanand Mishra, the hockey coach at Sai Center of the college, recognized the hockey player in Lalit. He then worked day and night to teach Lalit every hockey skill a great player should know. Father says that Lalit also left no stone unturned. Wherever he went, he received public praise for his playing.
Parmanand Mishra reached the peak
Coach Parmanand Mishra is very happy with Lalit’s success. He says that in the year 2008, Indian hockey team coach Joachim Carvalho watched Lalit play and said ‘He plays like Shahbaz Sr.’ Shahbaz Sr. is considered to be Pakistan’s most successful hockey player. He says that after Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, people were surprised when Lalit went to play in the India camp at the age of just 16.
Fathers wanted jobs for sons
Father Satish Upadhyay says he used to send his two children Lalit and Amit to play hockey so that they could get a small job through the sports quota. Today both his sons are in good jobs. Amit Upadhyay is the AAO in Prayagraj’s AG office, while Lalit Upadhyay has become the DSP in the UP government after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. By winning two bronze medals in a row today, Lalit has not only fulfilled his dreams but also made his guru Parmanand Mishra proud.
