Lockdown diaries: Sardar Singh returns to roots to seek comfort

During his years with the national team, Sardar Singh was considered one of the most stylish hockey players. The ongoing lockdown has seen the Namdhari sikh return to his roots in search of the spiritual anchor he admits he had been missing for some time.

“What I have learnt in the last 10-15 days is what our Guruji (the spiritual head of Namdhari sect) has always said – only the man who remembers God regularly and prays to him – not to ask for something but simply to be thankful and seek blessings – will be able to stay strong and survive any crisis. The last few years I had lost touch with my roots. Now I am slowly trying to get back to our spiritual base, starting and ending the day with a prayer,” Sardar told Sportstar from his ancestral village in Sant Nagar, near Sirsa.

The former India captain has never been a great talker but has never shied away from enjoying the good things in life either. At his peak, he had the biggest car and the best brands but even back then, he put relationships above everything. “Sath kya jayega” was his usual refrain. Now, the 33-year old has come a full circle – back to where he started, loaded with the experience of 15-odd years.

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“It feels great to be back here. This is the first time I am spending so much time with my parents and the entire family since I first picked up the hockey stick 20 years ago. The narrow lanes where we used to run and play, every memory is back. This exact place where I am standing, in our home now, we had a small, half-built one-room house which accommodated us all.

“I remember we used to grow vegetables in a small patch and sell it, milk cows for the dairies, prepare their feed and then go for training and school everyday. That attachment will always be there and all those memories are rushing back now. You see old photographs and medals and they didn’t register back then but now you have time to think, you realise how lucky you have been over the years to go from there to here as the crow flies,” Sardar reminiscences.

He feels safe as there have only been four to five cases so far, he said, and those in the city 30km away. The presence of approximately 8,000 Namdharis in the village and the gurdwara nearby is comforting.

“The Namdhari Hockey Academy started in 1997-98, I made the national team in 2005 and since then, I have not been with my family for more than a week at any given time. Those were days of struggle – break in national camp meant training in Chandigarh. The village is around five hours away, more if you take public buses, after changing several along with your kit. There is time to think – it all started from here only and then I saw the entire world only because of hockey, it has given me everything – and I feel hard work is most important for success,” he says.

The sudden jump from one topic to another is something one gets used to while talking to Sardar.

“Even reaching the top is sometimes easy but staying there is not possible without hard work. Then again, the blessings of your parents and, most importantly, those of our Guruji, are equally important. The 15-odd years that I played at the highest level, all the awards I have received, the injuries I have avoided – all credit goes to him, I would even say that I was able to put in all the hard work because of his blessings,” he continues.

Sardar Singh trains with his kids at his ancestral home.

And then, just as suddenly, he is back to God. “There have been many challenges, pressures, expectations – many people, circumstances try to pull you down but if your focus is right and you have faith in that Supreme Being, you manage to find a way out of everything,” he says.

Sardar has lately been quite active on social media with videos of his training sessions and said that it was mainly to encourage people for fitness. “That’s what I used to do on field also but not on social media. Here, when a player puts up something, he keeps thinking of that only all day and focus goes for a toss. That’s why I kept off it earlier. But now I have time.

"Once this is over, I plan to complete my police training (with Haryana Police) and may think of getting into coaching also (he is already a selector with Hockey India). Let’s see,” he says.

There is silence for a few seconds.

“Do you know, this is where the Namdharis from across the border first settled when they came during partition. This is home,” he says, and there is stillness in his voice.