Raj Kumar Pal: From going hungry post father’s death, to chomping at rival deep defences with artistic dribbling
When the Indian men’s hockey team is in camp at the SAI center in Bengaluru or travelling abroad, Raj Kumar Pal tries to make sure he speaks at least twice every day with his mother Manraji Devi on the phone. They share a special bond. That is why after it was confirmed that he had made the cut for Paris Olympics, an emotional Raj Kumar called his mother immediately, both in tears. That is why after returning home from Paris, he took great pride in making his mother wear the bronze medal around her neck.
“It is the result of your struggles and hard work mother, that I could reach this position, thank you for everything ma,” his post on Instagram read.
Raj Kumar was 12 years old when he lost his father Kalpanath, a truck driver, in an accident near Varanasi. Life instantly changed for Pal’s family in their village of Karampur in Ghazipur, a small town 79 kilometers from Varanasi. And it was down to Devi to bring up three young sons.
India’s Rajkumar Pal scores winning goal in the shoot-out during the men’s quarterfinal field hockey match between Britain and India at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Colombes, France. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
In 2011, Raj Kumar’s elder brothers Raju and Jokhan were also still in their teenage years and both were trying to look for jobs through sports quota while young Raj Kumar didn’t know what lay ahead. “He was too small but me and bhaiya (Jokhan) were trying to figure out what next? When we used to play, he (Rajkumar) used to come with us, he didn’t have a hockey stick, so he used to play with the help of bamboo sticks. We used to get worried ke kahi na kahin lag na jaye but our father had told us to let him play too,” recalled Raju, who is now working as office superintendent in Secunderabad Railways.
Raju himself was part of the Indian team’s junior camp but he never made his way to the senior side. The eldest brother Jokhan too was a hockey player and he got a job in the Army through sports quota but couldn’t get to the highest level.
“The entire family worked hard, especially Raj Kumar, his hard work is now paying off. We saw a lot of struggle and a lot of hard times in between his journey. We all faced it. We didn’t have hockey sticks, shoes to play the game. I dreamed that what I wasn’t able to achieve my youngest brother should achieve. We motivated him and we stood behind him,” he added.
There was a time when the family didn’t have money to do the thirteenth-day ritual of their father, then came in Tej Bahadur Singh, a local businessman, on whose ground Pal brothers used to play and practice. Rajkumar’s father used to drive Singh’s truck.
India’s Rajkumar Pal scores winning goal in the shoot-out during the men’s quarterfinal field hockey match between Britain and India at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Colombes, France. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
“When we lost our father, it looked like the world came to an end. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. It was then, that Teju bhaiya came into our family… from money, and rations, he took care of us. Jitna woh kiya, no one can do this for anyone. Jab peth khali ho, tab koi nahi khilata, aaj dekho, peth bhara hai aur sab khilana chahte hai. (What Teju bhaiya did, no one can do it, he fed us when our stomachs were empty. When we go hungry, no one feeds us. Now look, we are full, and now everyone wants to feed us.) When my father’s 13th day happened, we didn’t have money, Teju bhaiya spent all the money. My mother was shattered, we didn’t know what lies ahead,” Raju said.
Today, the Pal household boasts of an Olympic medallist.
‘Highlight of my career’
Paris wasn’t easy for the 25-year-old midfielder. He was the only addition to India’s squad that won the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, and head coach Craig Fulton wanted someone with the creative spark in midfield to unlock low blocks that teams employ these days frequently (more defensive).
“A little bit, unpredictable,” Fulton had told this daily on selecting Raj Kumar. “He’s very skillful with the stick, and he can finish. He’s a good athlete. What he can bring, how he can unlock defenses. Because a lot of teams are playing low. They’re playing really deep so we need something like that to unlock defences. He is good at 1v1 eliminations, he just has it naturally.”
But on his Olympic Games debut, Raj Kumar took his time to get going, he admitted on the squad’s return to the national capital. “In the first couple of matches, I was even mistrapping simple passes. Then came the yellow card against Belgium with six minutes to go in the match and we were chasing a win. I felt like if I had’t got the card we could have drawn or won that game, so I told sorry to my teammates after the match,” Raj Kumar told The Indian news.
Raj Kumar Pal with his family. (Instagram/Raj Kumar Pal)
But the teammates rallied around the midfielder, he was told not to overthink and just focus on doing what he was good at. And that was imposing his presence in one-vs-one situations, just good old traditional stick skills that Indians are often known for. That is where Raj Kumar’s highlight of Paris 2024 came too, when he scored India’s match-winning goal in the thrilling quarterfinal shootout against Great Britain.
After a stunning rearguard defensive effort from the entire Indian squad, down to 10 on the field after the red card for Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh’s men managed to force a tiebreaker in the end. Raj Kumar, who incidentally scored twice at the World Cup shootout against New Zealand even though India lost that night in Odisha, stepped up to take the fourth one. With Sreejesh having saved one already and another missed by GB, Raj Kumar had the chance to put his side into the semifinal.
All those years of training at Karampur came down to this one moment. A moment of reaffirmation from Harmanpreet helped, the captain told him he believed in Raj Kumar more than perhaps he did in himself. Sreejesh’s save brought the pressure down a bit. And so he dribbled forward in a straight line, not letting the goalkeeper know which way he intended to go. With the 8-second limit ticking down, Raj Kumar dropped his shoulder, shifted the ball to the right, pushed it ever so slightly forward and then calmly lifted it over into the back of the net. Cue crazy celebrations.
‘Ghazipur ka Rajkumar’
How did he get this skill? Raj Kumar’s explanation is simple. “Actually what happens is that when you come to Karampur Academy, in the beginning, there will be five to six kids and just one ball, so whoever gets the ball will have to try and keep it, so simply you have to do the same for fifteen to twenty minutes daily, then it automatically comes in it from the beginning. Hamaari mitthi mein hai (It’s in our soil),” he recalled with a chuckle.
These days local newspapers have termed Raj Kumar as ‘Ghazipur ka Rajkumar’. Time has changed for Pal’s family. There were times when his neighbours convinced Pal’s father to force their son to leave hockey and study. Now, due to them, the village of 3000 people, has witnessed one member of a family playing hockey in a nearby ground.
“Samay change hogaya, when we all three brothers used to play, there was a thinking in our village that we are of no use and our future looked bleak,” Raju said. “We were not studying, none of us were working and everyone was playing hockey. They used to tell my mother, kya time pass ke liye khel rahe hai, ee log kuchao na kaarayein (They will do nothing). We all have heard taunts from the same people, who are now coming and asking us to make their grandchild play hockey.”
