Bhubaneswar/Cuttack
When six-year-old Rajesh Hansdak of Modhupur in Malkangiri, Odisha, was fiddling with his makeshift bow and arrows to hunt birds, nobody knew the tribal kid would one day be a name to reckon with in the national and international archery arena.
But, when young Rajesh’s ascent to the zenith was imminent, pain in his right shoulder struck him out. However, this Santhali lad’s love for archery was too lusty to lose its lustre.
He dabbled in archery coaching at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar, keeping his love affair alive and kicking. Here too, he excelled, showing all the traits of a heavyweight coach at national and international realms.
While archer Rajesh bagged the likes of Ekalavya Citation Award and NALCO Sports Award (2000), coach Rajesh walked off with honours including Dakshin Odisha Unnayan Parishad Award (2017).
Of course, covering the distance between the two had him taste the sourness of struggle before he could savour the sweetness of success.
Earlier, life’s whirligigs tossed him about in paucity and poverty. Sometimes he felt dissolving into anonymity, relinquishing everything. But the advent of archery coach RS Sodhi from Delhi Special Area Games under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in 1989 kept stoking the fire in his belly.
“Sodhi Sir fanned my wilting will-to-win to flare up. Earlier, life was tough for me after my father migrated out of the state to earn. Even at the age of 11, I with my mother ploughed our land, leaving my two younger brothers alone back at home,” Rajesh tells The Indian Tribal.
Sodhi pitched a camp in Malkangiri to test and try over 100 budding archers from different parts of Odisha. Rajesh, then a class sixth student, staked his candidature and figured among selected five to track out his trek to SAI Hostel, Delhi.
During the 14-year tenure in Delhi, he flagged off his winning spree at university and national tournaments. His tally of medals comprise 13 Golds, 11 Silvers and three Bronzes. He participated in the 13th Asian Games, Thailand, 1998. He finished sixth in men’s recurve event of Second Asian Grand Prix, China, 2002.
“I used to get Rs. 200 every month from SAI to meet personal expenses. Then SAIL chipped in with a monthly scholarship of Rs 1000 for four years. But it was insufficient for my family’s subsistence. Back home for a while, I sought for district collector GK Dhal’s help. He arranged a monthly scholarship of Rs. 1000 from the Directorate of Sports for six months. He also provided an attendant’s job to my father, who had meanwhile returned home,” he says.
Rajesh moved to Pune from Delhi in 2002 to further refurbish his skills at the Army Sports Institute (ASI). But the strain in his right shoulder that has been perturbing him since 2000 grew acute. So he quit ASI and put on the cap of a coach at KISS with the help of the then Secretary of Odisha Athletics Association.
Since then, he scripted his success story as a coach, grooming over 40 talents, bagging numerous laurels including Krida Sambadika Ashok Patnaik Krida Purashkar in 2011. He represented India at the World Youth Archery Championship in China, at Yog Advance Coaching Camp in Thailand, at World Cup Stage-II in Turkey and at the 29th Summer Universiade Games in Taipei in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 respectively.
“Rajesh Sir’s focus on basics bolsters up a novice’s confidence,” says archer Suryamani from Keonjhar.
Now Rajesh’s 15-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have stepped into his shoes. “Papa not only infused the archery spirit into me, but also propped it into a robust growth,” says his archer daughter Manaswari, who has been holding the junior state championship title.
