I WAS IN a queue for booking rail tickets. And I did what millions of Indians do for time pass - strike a conversation with the one ahead of me. He was a well-built man holding a reservation slip in a blue identity card. I couldn’t help but notice the national emblem - the three lions with ‘Satyameva Jayate’ written under them on his card. He was none other than the Arjuna award winner, Padamshree Premchand Degra, the only world champion in bodybuilding from our country, eight-times Asian champion and nine-times National champion.

 

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I was happy to chance upon a personality but surprised as well to find him in a queue for lesser mortals like me. “Who else will do it for me?” he asked with a smile. I assumed that it was early for the government to provide him with a secretary. I kept talking about the dismal scenario in the country and how the finance minister had remorselessly announced a cut in the sports budget this year. He was reticent all through. I thought it was ok for him to do so as he shares the honour of being Mr World with the likes of Arnold.

 

It was his turn to hand over the slip and the identity card to the clerk on the other side of the glass. I waited patiently. To my surprise, the clerk almost threw the blue identity card back at him. He was told that he wasn’t entitled to a free travel in Rajdhani Express or Shatabdi Express and that if he wished to avail the privilege, he will have to get the card stamped from the head office. I expected him to answer back but all he said was, “If not the Shatabdi, give me a ticket for some other train.” He got his ticket booked and left the counter in silence.

 

I was the next in queue, booking tickets for my entire family on the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani. The tickets came at a high price but was it more than what he had to pay in his run for the medals? While the Railways entitle every Arjuna award winner, the highest honour in sports, to free travel, why are they not allowed to travel on a Shatabdi or a Rajdhani when thousands of us can do so without ever having done the country proud even once in our lifetime. I caught up with him in the parking and invited him over for tea. He agreed. “Which department are you with?” was my next question. He had grey eyes that looked through me in a flash. “Department? I don’t have a job,” he replied. It was my turn to keep quiet now.

 

At the end, we exchanged niceties and parted ways. He left but what could not leave me was what he had said while sipping his tea, “It is a thankless sport and I will make sure that my kids or for that matter anyone who happens to know me in any which way, does not take it up ever.” I clutched the tickets in my pocket and headed home thinking whether this Arnold of India will ever be able to get his Arjuna Award card stamped without having to pay some dakshina to another clerk in the Railways.