Jonathan SelvarajESPN
When he died following a cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning, Praveen Kumar Sobti was remembered by most for his iconic position as Bheem within the epic TV collection Mahabharata. Yet Sobti, 74, had first made his title as that uncommon breed of Indian athletes: medals in numerous disciplines – hammer and discus throws – within the Asian and Commonwealth Games, and the one one but to medal in two disciplines at one Games.
Sobti received medals in three Asian Games (1966, 1970, 1974) and one Commonwealth Games (1966) and took half in two Olympics, 1968 and 1972, the place he recorded his greatest throws: 60.84m in hammer throw (1968) and 53.12m in discus throw (1972).
His staff-mate at a few of these occasions, Mohinder Singh Gill, remembered him immediately as a big, actually given his measurement – six foot six and 100 kilos – and figuratively, given his expertise. “I grew to be six foot myself but he was easily head and shoulders above me and everyone else,” he remembers.
“We grew up about 50km away from each other in Punjab,” Gill advised ESPN. “Back in 1962 we were both part of a school sports camp in Simla [as it was known then] and that’s when I first met Praveen. After that we’d train, compete and even share rooms with each other in Madras, Delhi and Bhilai for many years.”
But Sobti was additionally a usually easy farm boy from Punjab. “On our first day together, one coach asked Praveen how tall he was. Praveen didn’t understand units of measurement like centimeters or feet or inches, so he just said that in his village there was a strong man who played tug of war and he was half an arm taller than him,” Gill says.
“We grew up together, training together and competing together across India. Sometimes it would seem he didn’t even know how big and strong he was. One time we were traveling by train to Madras [now Chennai] for a competition and Praveen was doing arm curls with the fold out bunk bed. He ended up breaking the hinges for that. Sometime later when we had been booked into a hotel, Praveen saw the bathroom sink and decided to wash his feet in it. He was flexible enough to get his foot into the sink but he ended up breaking that as well and ultimately had to pay a big fine for it,” Gill says.
Mohinder Singh Gill (left) and Praveen Kumar Sobti. Mohinder Singh Gill
Gill, a triple jumper, had in 1968 turn out to be the primary Indian to earn an NCAA scholarship to a school within the USA and wished Sobti to affix him. He remembers the second nicely. It was in July, precisely day after the Apollo XI moon mission that he had spoken to Sobti about a prospect which may have been vital for Indian sport as nicely. “After I’d joined California Polytechnic State University, there was a lot of interest in the coaches in signing another Indian. At that time Praveen was very early in his career but had already won a gold medal at the Asian Games (discus throw in 1966). I asked him if he wanted to join a university here,” Gill remembers.
It was a whole lot, Gill remembers pondering. Sobti’s coaching would get a increase. His bills could be paid for and the services in California assured to be far superior to the patchy tracks, dodgy gear and unhelpful officers he confronted in India at the moment. “Unfortunately he was interested in a girl from Jalandhar back then. So he wanted to go back to India. Additionally even back then he wanted to get into movies. I don’t think that he had the kind of hunger for athletics. So that was the end of that,” he remembers.
“In those days in Punjab, sports was something that many people knew about. If you won something at the Asian Games perhaps your name and picture would come in the newspaper but not many people read newspapers. But around that time Dharmendra was a really big film star and a lot of people in Punjab wanted to be like him,” says Gill.
Sobti was no totally different. “Because of his size he already stood out and he enjoyed the attention. When we would travel by train for competition, he’d step out of the compartment at a stop and immediately a sea of people would surround him. He was this giant 250 pound man looking like an island in the middle of it. He told me ‘Mohinder I’m already so popular, just think how many more people will know me if I get into films,” Gill remembers.
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Though he turned down Gill’s provide, Sobti continued to be a excessive degree athlete. A yr later he received his second gold medal – within the discus throw on the Bangkok Asian Games after which in 1972 competed for the second time on the Olympics. However following the 1974 Asian Games the place he received a silver medal within the discus throw, Sobti’s profession started to say no and he ultimately started his film profession in 1980.
Gill did not observe a lot of Sobti’s profession on the display though he is aware of he loved a lot extra fame there. “I eventually settled in the USA. We obviously didn’t get to see the Mahabharata TV series over here but I’m sure he was perfectly built for the role of Bheem,” he says.
The two would meet one another as soon as once more solely many years later with Gill got here to India for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. By then Sobti was a shadow of himself. “He was already suffering from arthritis and wasn’t moving well. Later I also learned he was having trouble with cholesterol. But back then it was as if we had gone back to being ninth standard schoolkids when we met for the first time,” he says.
While Sobti would turn out to be a part of Indian pop historical past along with his roles in movie and TV within the 1980s and 1990s, Gill too in the meantime would go on to make his personal mark on the collegiate degree. He’d turn out to be a 5 time NCAA champion within the triple bounce and setting a nationwide document that stood for 42 years. But he all the time wonders what would have occurred if Sobti had taken up his provide and are available to the USA. “Praveen was a star in India on TV. But I genuinely think he could have become a track and field star in the USA. He had the natural talent to be exceptional,” says Gill.
