‘I returned from fighting for decimal points at CWG to a senior measuring formatting space on a routine form’

Ashish Kumar (Asian Games and Commonwealth medall in gymnastics)
I’m lucky I was a high-achieving international gymnast who landed a great job at North-Central Railway (NCR) at age 16, and promotions, increments and perks like 330 days’ leave for training, medal benefits, travel and medical care are available. The workload in my stores department at a ‘ba railway’ division like NCR is less and I’m grateful for the support of department heads.But life sure gets difficult. Just because things clicked for me doesn’t mean I ignore others less fortunate who don’t get leave to train. There’s a half-day special leave provision till you get your first national medal, so you work from 9.30 am to 1 pm, instead of 6 pm. Half-duty mein insaan thak jaata hai (one gets tired).
If someone is in Commercial or Engineering departments, the workload is great and aadhi himmat nikal jaati hai (half your energy is gone).Some ‘normal’ (non-sports quota) employees resent athletes getting jobs at a young age.
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They even say, ‘hum ghis-ghis ke aaye hai, inko easy mein mil jaata sab kuchh. (We have to work hard and they get it easily)’ They don’t see our 5 am training and don’t consider our gym training as ‘hard work’.I had an Office Superintendent, who’s expired now. He was jealous of me, then a junior clerk. When he travelled on work, his TA/DA would be Rs 800+taxi, totalling Rs 2,000-3,000. We would go to national camps and get Rs 12,000-13,000. It’s such a small issue, but the difference made him miserable. He would point out random errors in spacing of words in form-filling and make me re-do them 5-6 times when I returned to office. I returned from fighting for decimal points for a Floor Exercise medal at the Commonwealth Games, and came to this person measuring formatting space between lines on a routine form, because “kaaydaa kaanoon”.
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My two out-of-turn promotions after the Asiad bronze also brought fresh resentment. I was told to my face ‘itne promotions itnese insaan ko milne nahi chahiye. (So many promotions shouldn’t go to such a person)” And frankly, for the only Indian with CWG and Asiad medals, the promotions weren’t even commensurate. But it was taken for granted that success would ‘create durbance’. I largely never suffered the worst from officers, who tended to be supportive. Story continues below this ad
But hierarchies can be very sensitive in office set-ups for sports quota athletes, and you have to make an effort to keep the atmosphere “lively and pleasant”. Vyavahaar karna padega (have to be on friendly terms), wish ‘Sir’ everytime you cross.If I have to think from their point of view, if a particular department has only 15 people and they need 30, they can’t spare athletes. I have also been putting off exams for Assant Materials Manager because I know I don’t have the knowledge and will be out of my depth. But athletes in big zones can get completely lost, and face humiliation if they aren’t the best in their sport.I got an earful for not having triple spacing in a letter, imagine! (Laughs).
(As told to Shivani Naik)
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd

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