Nikhat Zareen run a few laps of the indoor track at SportCampus Saar in Saarbrucken, a sports and training oasis in southwest Germany, just a stone’s throw from Paris. With coach Pranamika Borah behind – as invisible but always-there minders – he is cooling down after intense hours and half-long gym sessions; probably his last training engagement here before the Indian boxing squad departed via TGV — once a 1980s high school quiz question about the world’s fastest train — for the Olympics on Saturday.
For a variety of medley from his portable speakers, he has sprinted, skipped, stretched, had an intense padwork session with coach Dmitry Dmitruk, who seems to enjoy the training. Ask him if he does, and the former Russian holding an Irish passport shakes his head. “Hate, Hate. Ninety-nine out of a hundred, hate, just once, I love…”
Then as he walked back to the training area, his oversized pads making him look like a walrus on a diet, the 47-year-old looked back and said, “No, no, I’m kidding. Training is fun, good training. It’s great. ” Often Dmitruk himself dances to house music – a strange mix of Irish and Cossack – between breaks to break the monotony of the office. “You want to dance, uh, you want to dance? Come on, come on,” he goads us.
For Nikhat, there was no rest. Often stopping between reps to bend over and open the sleeves of his training jacket to let the sweat drip onto the floor of Saarbrucken, seeking refuge on a spartan bench for himself while breathing, hand towels and thoughts, he looks like. in some other places, its own sanctuary in this forest-covered campus. It’s a strange mixture of bound energy and intermittent fatigue, it’s almost like, one now, here and far, muscle memory and shadow of lonely longing.
So, afterwards, in the reflective silences that walking often brings, when he offers to walk, we walk.
Nikhat is just a reality. It didn’t matter to him that the person he was asked to amble was of the sun-blocking variety. He is far from pointing to his obvious out-of-shape form. The natural step clip of the sportsman forces you to keep doubling but he seems far away. Bigger things occupy his mind, faster and more pressing, as he says, “weight giraana.” At 50kg less, it automatically becomes more difficult for a boxer to maintain his weight compared to higher weight categories and this is a lifelong battle for Nikhat.
When he talks to you, he doesn’t look at you. There is a minimum of smiles, hardly hiding grumaces. However, the distant look in his eyes is not uncharted. “Until I touch the ground of Paris,” he said in an easy mix of Urdu and Hindi, in a slightly bored lilt that reminds you of Hyderabadi actor Tabu saying, if one is not looking, “My mind is only in training. My mind is just working session after session, just busy with what to do in the session.
“I…” he began, only to pause, as if choosing better words, and continued, “I know… I know, I’ve become more patient. I’ve become wiser.” You are somewhat amused by the lack of uncertainty in your thought process and delivery; but maybe this is how he’s wired because well, you don’t feel like he’s rehearsing or something is lost in translation when he says this from self-realization.
“I have become wiser,” he repeated, nodding to his own observation, not so much a question.
Perhaps in “wiser,” Nikhat means philosophical.
“I have worked for many coaches now, I also have to vibrate on a personal level with them. It is natural to want to be at this level now. So many coaches, so many inputs, it is also important for me ‘ I do not forget what determines me, my skill and identity are important boxers, “he said, “Even with Dimi now, he often chooses some techniques that still surprise Ki. ab yeh bhi ek point hai, jo ignore kar rahi thi, but also I must not forget what I know and that’s what makes me.
A monster of training, in Nikhat has been scored by many coaches since he entered the SAI center in Vizag as a gawky kid last year, did he return to his old coach for ancient, time-tested input?
“Woh jo just the first coach hain naa…” he began, referring to the octogenarian, Mohammad Shamsuddin in his birthplace, Nizamabad in Telangana, “I still call him sometimes.”
Mohammad Shamsuddin is the father of the new Arjuna Awardee, Mohd Hussamuddin, and was the one who first took Nikhat under his wing on the dusty ground of Nizamabad.
“He is very old,” he said, “Umar ho gayi hai, toh kaafi cheezein repeat carte hain. Kai baar same baatein boltein hain…
“But I always remember one thing he said to me, ‘Only you can make your own destiny.’ Somehow, with all the coaches, all the years of training, everything I learned from them, I always remember this one line: ‘Only you can make your own destiny.’
At the age of 27, he is the undisputed boss of this Olympic squad, despite the Tokyo medal winners, Lovlina Borgohain in the mix. A natural leader, bigger ideas are always in mind. “Sir, wow fist hall mein Nishant ka sparring chal raha, wahana jaa key photo kheecho. Thank you…” he said.
Despite his continued presence as a rising sports celebrity today, double world champion Nikhat is perhaps best known for his struggle “mera haq,” as he has said. The public’s desire to correct what he considered to be a sports injustice was carried out in 2019, when the young man challenged boxing officials and legends. Mary Kom to take fair in the Tokyo Olympic trials.
It’s all part of the learning curve, but a thin, spunky boxer, not afraid of a black eye or a cut lip since childhood, made his place in the new consciousness of Indian sports developing with one act. His recent rise as a brand, the much sought after face of the Olympic season with Indian companies flocking to him, the regular social media, all came after that.
However, on what could prove to be not only an important episode in Indian sports, but everywhere else, a very cathartic moment — the idea of ​​being so close to the real thing, and yet so far away — can be disturbing. for people who have wanted so much that they can get sick. But Nikhat reminds him that he is more patient and wise now.
“Dekho, so kismat mein hai, toh Paris hoga, wahan medal hoga. Kismat mein nahin hai, toh nahi sahi,” he grinned for the first time, but quickly steeled himself up again.
“But I have to do everything I know, what I’ve learned to fully prepare. Woh kami nahin rehni chahiye. This is what I’m doing here, preparing for my own destiny. Baaki, kismat…”
The silence that followed was broken by the sound of rain in Saarbrucken. Coach Pranamika had just received a call from the women’s hostel that the clothes she was hanging out to dry were wet. Bewildered, he apologized and ran to save her, Nikhat just nodded and after a while, he also prepared to leave you to accompany him. But in a steady clip of the sportsman, he didn’t last long in the rain. You suddenly realize that the walk is over.
