Pleading the Government to honour Ashwini Kumar Barat – Surajit Sengupta’s blog

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Surajit Sengupta Beseeches The Government to Acknowledge Ashwini K. Barat’s Contribution in Indian Football

Ashwini Kumar Barat, our beloved “Bhola da” will always remain alive in our hearts, especially to me for innumerable reasons. The contribution this man has in my life can never be depicted in a single blog. Since my childhood days, I got immense care, love and affection from our coach. The support this man has provided in my career is nothing short of the word priceless.

In his playing days, Bhola da used to play as a skimmer, who used to get happier in assisting goals rather than scoring on his own. The character was vivid in his coaching as well as when he dedicated his life to producing and polishing young footballers for the sake of football in our country.

Bhola da has been a part of many unforgettable memories of my life, my career. Whenever we used to make any mistake, Bhola da used to rectify that with ample care. The most interesting transformation of my career happened because of Bhola da. I used to struggle with taking shots with my left foot. Bhola da worked tirelessly behind that and it eventually earned me a selection in the national team as a left winger. The sweat, punishment and hard work involved in it, was indeed memorable.

My professional career as a footballer too started with the help of Bhola da. He was the man who first sent me to a second division football club named Robert Hudson. Since then, I never had to look back. The practice of going to Bhola da never stopped actually, even when I was playing my professional football. Whenever I would get the opportunity, I used to join his training session. I can still remember the time when I used to play for Khidirpore. Our coach was the famous Achyut Banerjee, but still, I used to go to Bhola da for polishing my skills.
There were times when Bhola da asked me to train the young kids as well. The main intention was to produce quality footballers from the academy. Statistics is showing that the academy produced five players for the Indian national team, which includes me, Tanumoy Basu, Swarup Das, Anit Ghosh and Falguni Dutta.

Unfortunately, there was no one to give recognition to this amazing personality who had devoted his life to the future of Indian football and that too silently. Another fact was that he never felt the need to do his work in Kolkata. He loved to do his work far away from the city.

The problem with Indian Football Association is that they and their range of work are only Kolkata-centric. I have never heard or witnessed the IFA searching footballers from different corners of the state. IFA only recognizes those players who get the establishment after playing in Kolkata. That is why I believe Bhola da is still deprived. There are so many awards these days in our state but somehow Bhola da never gets any of them.

Due to his increasing age, Bhola da had issues with his knees which we tried to help. But apart from that, Bhola da never took any aid from anyone. He never had any financial trouble in his life and never allowed anyone to come forward and financially help him. Bhola da had a couple of sisters and one of them was unmarried, who used to take care of him. But the death of his sister gave him a big shock. He started becoming ill which was followed by losing almost all the memories he had.

The saddest part for me is that I was one of the very few people whom Bhola da could recognize. Even in his illness, he could recognize me which he couldn’t do with the others. But unfortunately, Bhola da cannot even recognize me these days.

Debu Biswas(former footballer) and His dad take care of Bhola da these days. At times I wonder that Anilava(Chatterjee) wrote about Bhola da and various newspapers reported about him as well. It is not that IFA is not aware of the things; but unfortunately, no one came forward to recognize this amazing personality.

Lastly, I heard the West Bengal Government has started awards and recognitions of late. I would request them in my blog to honor this football coach who has indeed done a lot for the game in this country. I am strongly recommending his name. I hope, even in this physical condition, it would give Bhola da some sort of delight and his works, a light of recognition.