PUNE, July 14: At the crack of dawn everyday, a 74-year-old woman drags herself out of her bed. She steps out of a tin-covered structure, her home in one of the myriad lanes of Kirkee and heads for the houses nearby to clean utensils. Her bones ache as she sits and scrubs dirty plates.Life wasn't always like this for Mary Philips. For she had married Joe Philips, one of the eleven in the Indian hockey team which had the nerve to snatch the gold for India while Hitler himself watched at the Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Joe Philips and Baburao Nimal had been much feted after they returned to this city. The Great Indian Wall. That was how the German media had described Joe and his mates. While Joe worked at the Dehu Road Ordnance Depot, Baburao had a job with the Ammunition Factory at Kirkee.
Mary, who married Joe five years after Berlin, enjoyed her husband's glory and all that came with it. But it didn't last long. Joe lost his job at the ordnance depot, took to alcohol and the player in him died. All ofa sudden life became insecure. Joe even pawned his Olympic medal. But that too was of little help. In 1986, he died a heartbroken man. Unsung. Ever since Mary has died a thousand deaths.
And today when she gets time to rest her aching frame, she stares vacantly at a photograph of Joe returning home from the Olympics. That picture and a few cups are all that remain of the good times.
It has been 12 years since Joe died. As wife of an Olympian, Mary expected a pension from the State and the Centre. But nothing has come her way. ``I did write to the people concerned but never received any money. Recently, I received a letter from the State Government, the first in so many years.
They have asked me to furnish my details. I don't know whether this will help. Four-five years ago, a State minister visited me and offered some money. He promised help ...I heard nothing till this letter yesterday,'' says Mary, resigned to her fate.Joe's friend Baburao was more fortunate. He was remembered six decades afterBerlin. The Sports Authority of India gave him a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 till he died this year.
``Joe never played serious hockey after Berlin. But is this how you treat a man who wins the gold for his country? I don't think I have many days left to live. Can't they give me something even now?'' Mary wants to know.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
