The psyche of the 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh - an inspiration for youngsters

Milkha Singh

I recently watched the much-awaited movie ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ and it left me on a high!

Kudos to Mehra’s team for the way they have portrayed the character of Milkha Singh. Not only did Farhan Akhtar do justice to the athlete, but the message of the movie goes much beyond sport!

I watched the movie while wondering about the major tenets of psychology that need to be embedded into the psyche of every athlete. Not just sports but every arena of life requires motivation, dedication, passion and goals to accomplish; without those, we just go on living like we have an eternity to pursue our dreams.

Milkha Singh is one of the most outstanding players India has ever produced in athletics. He represented India in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Thereafter, he won gold medals at the 1958 Asian Games. He progressed to win a gold medal in the 400m competition at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games, making him the first gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India.

At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Milkha finished second in all of his 400m races prior to the final, improving his time on each occasion. In the final, he went racing off the blocks and took an early lead. But he slowed a bit mid-way through the race, and the others overtook him there. He increased his pace and gave his best in the last lap but finished fourth by just 0.1 second in the heartbreaking final.

However, his effort did not go in vain as Milkha’s agonisingly close finish brought his countrymen the belief of ‘we can’ and the gold, nearly half a century later, through Abhinav Bindra.

It all started when Milkha Singh – a fresh recruit at EME Centre, Secunderabad, heard an announcement one night in 1951: “Tomorrow, there will be a cross-country race”. He recalls after making it to the elite top 10 in the race, “I was moved to tears by the thought that from being nobody the night before, I had become somebody”.

“Havaldar Gurdev Singh charted my climb to the top,” he says about the mentor who was quick to spot his protege’s potential.

Determined to be the best and realising his talent as a sprinter, the jawan took to training five hours every day. He says, “Discipline. You have to be disciplined if you want to be world class.”

Guided and motivated by his coach Havaldar Gurdev Singh, he left it to the elements to hone his craft – running on the hills, the sands of the Yamuna river, and against the speed of a metre gauge train. “I’d race against the metre-gauge trains that criss-crossed Secunderabad localities such as Bolarum and Cavalry Barracks.”

Legend has it that so intense was his training that very often he would vomit blood and collapse out of exhaustion.

Forty years on, that failure in Rome still haunts him. After clocking a world record 45.8 seconds in one of the 400 metres preliminaries in France, Milkha Singh finished fourth in a photo-finish in the Olympics final. The favourite for gold had missed the bronze by a fraction.

“Since it was a photo-finish, the announcements were held up. The suspense was excruciating. I knew what my fatal error was: After running perilously fast in lane five, I slowed down at 250 metres. I could not cover the lost ground after that – and that cost me the race.

“After the death of my parents, that is my worst memory,” says Singh. “I kept crying for days.”

Dejected by his defeat, he made his mind up to give up the sport. It was after much persuasion that he took to athletics again. Two years later, Milkha Singh won two medals at the 1962 Asian Games.

Milkha Singh

Subsequently, he earned the title of the “Flying Sikh” from General Ayub Khan after defeating Abdul Khaliq, Asia’s celebrated runner, in the year 1962 at Lahore’s Indo-Pak meet. The whole stadium was packed to see the key contest between two of Asia’s finest runners. Milkha Singh comprehensively outran Abdul Khaliq of Pakistan in the 200 metres race.

It was said that Milkha did not run the race, but he flew, and hence the title. The movie has captured that very well with the General shown to be applauding him with the words, “tum bhaage nahi the, ud rahe the‘.

The movie convincingly depicts the story of Milkha, an orphaned Sikh refugee from Pakistan who grew up to join the Army and became India’s prized track and field possession. It also tells the story of Milkha Singh who, at the 1960 Rome Olympics, looked back for a split-second and heartbreakingly lost the bronze medal and the chance to earn Olympic glory.

Yet, he did what no other Indian had done before – instilling hope in Indians – and he rightly became a legend. More interestingly, the movie uses Milkha Singh as a metaphor to tell another story – the story of India. This intent is embedded in Joshi’s dialogue. He gets Farhan Akhtar to scream for all to hear: “Milkha Singh ban gaya India” (Milkha Singh has become India). The message I took from this was ‘nothing is impossible if you set your heart and soul to it’.

Akhtar trained almost exactly like a professional athlete in preparation for the movie, and the physical rigours gave him insights into the ‘mind of the athlete’.

In an interview, he remarked: “When you look at an athlete entering a stadium in any sport, they look like they own the place. This state of mind, this swagger, can only come from your self belief as an athlete, and the self belief comes from hard training. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as energetic and strong and optimistic as I felt during the making of this film.”

Farhan rightly acknowledged the importance of hard work, but not everyone who works hard has the same kind of ‘self-belief’, and if that essential ingredient is missing, all the hard work goes down the drain.

Akhtar further adds, “When you come into the final 100m or so, your brain begins to feel like it’s going to blow up. Every part of your mind and body is telling you to just stop; your legs have packed up. I have no idea how athletes speed through that final section.”

I guess that’s where professional athletes know they have to push themselves beyond everything in the final lap, as that is what they’ve worked for; the trick is to train your mind much in advance along with undergoing physical training.

The movie doesn’t simply tell the story of one of India’s finest athletes but also addresses some of the challenges in Indian sports. The high point for me was when Akhtar walks up to the coach in the flight and asks for the world record for 400 metres, just after failing to qualify at the Melbourne Olympics.

Milkha Singh at the 1960 Rome Olympics

I recall reading in ‘The Winning Way’ by Anitha and Harsha Bhogle how we need to learn lessons from failure and not let them define us. We all berate ourselves upon failing in a particular task/challenge, but we’re doomed if we choose to brood on it, instead of moving on. Icons in any field make it big by rising from failure every time. I tell the athletes who seek my consultation to see the wonderful lessons failure teaches us, especially in practice and smaller competitions – so that it is not repeated at major competitions.

I remember hearing and reading that Milkha Singh lost the medal because he ‘turned’ to see how far others were, and ended up losing the race. After researching on every aspect about Milkha Singh, I did not see any explanation given by the former athlete himself. The movie has dealt with a metaphysical aspect where Farhan makes peace with his past and ‘flies’ in the race, beating Pakistan’s favourite in Pakistan.

We’re not sure whether it was the nerves of competing at the highest level, or the anxiousness to see where his opponents were, or the ghosts of his past, or something else that made Milkha commit that fatal error. We are but human after all. Yet as I was watching the movie, I couldn’t help but think, ‘only if the buried memory had been dealt with earlier, history would have been made that day!’

This just goes to show the ‘power of the mind’ which every athlete needs to train – be it thoughts about their past or a particular opponent.

Also, it’s amazing how Milkha Singh is at first extrinsically motivated and that pushes him to excel in the race, while later it’s a more internal struggle. In fact, he manage to finish the first Army race despite a stomach catch just by focusing on the milk on offer – and chanting ‘dudh’ till the fag end.

Next, he realized that the ‘India Blazer’ got more respect, and he wanted one. Beating all odds, even after getting beaten up by insecure ‘senior Indian players’, he went on to break the national record with bruised, bleeding legs! His failure at Melbourne Olympics made him a much more disciplined and hungry athlete – this is where his motivation was internalised.

In fact, his eyes were never off his goal – so immersed was he in it. He used to run at night to ensure he didn’t miss on training – his determination was the key for his success. One cannot hope for success to just fall at our feet. This raw passion, dedication and hard work is what takes an ordinary person to the pinnacle of success.

If we falter at the drop of a hat, there is no way things will just happen. No one ever said it is easy to reach the top but when you do, it conveys everything you’ve done to reach it.

In the movie, the girl in Australia distracts Milkha Singh, but he learns from his mistake, and sets his sights on breaking the world record. Thereafter, the only thought running in his mind is to break the record. Interestingly, he even declines the ‘top swimmer’s’ interest and says, “yeh meri khudh se ladayi hai” (this is my personal battle).

Milkha Singh

A pressing issue today is how young athletes get distracted and lose focus from their goal; sometimes, it gets too late for them to make a way back. I agree that an athlete gives up a socially enjoyable life, and it’s difficult to do so while others of his or her age are having fun. But in the end, athletes also get a lot more respect and adulation for their achievements.

One question which I feel everyone ought to ask is ‘what do I want?’ and ‘why am I training so hard?’ Definitely not to kill time, right? Eyes on the goal and the desire to earn the feeling of accomplishment are what drive an athlete.

The support network of the athlete is also extremely important - this is portrayed in the movie by the coaches, his sister and the supposed lover (whose role was dampened I feel!). I love the beautiful way in which the mentors groom the young athlete, clearly depicting how important a coach is to an athlete.

The chamaat (slap) he gets from his first coach when he tries on the senior Indian blazer might have physically hurt but what he says is truly inspiring: “you’ll have to beat the likes of this guy to represent India and only then can you get the blazer.”

I recall a former basketball player who was struggling due to missing the first conditioning camp, saying how the ‘Indian jersey’ was very important. We got her to keep that in mind when she did challenging practices, pushing herself when her teammates were much ahead. The ‘Indian jersey’ not only ensured her a place in the Indian team, but she went on to have a great tournament too. That ‘junoon‘ – raw passion – is a must to achieve anything, but even before that, what is most important is having a clear goal.

Milkha Singh

Also, goals need to be modified and upgraded, else staleness and mediocrity will creep in. If an athlete is already a national champion, he/she ought to be aiming higher than that. Unfortunately, as Mr. Michael Nobbs – the recently sacked hockey coach said, “some [players] are just happy being an Olympian”.

I have seen top athletes aiming only to qualify for the Olympics or other international meets, but then what? We have to get ourselves out of this mediocrity trap to really make it at the world level. Why have we stopped dreaming big and setting challenging goals for ourselves?

What we aspire will determine the effort and motivation required to reach the goal; without clear aspirations, we’ll end up as a story of lost potential or, worse, simply mediocre.

The finale of the movie shows Milkha Singh’s rebirth in Pakistan after visiting his home-town which resulted in the integration with his scarred inner child, thereby helping him deal with his traumatic past.

To attain the highest glory despite such a tragic past is a magnificent feat in itself. The mindset and clarity just before the race, where they show him visualising how he covers the entire track in a millisecond (in the mind), are similar to the methods used by most Olympic medallists to clear things first in the mind – a very powerful technique to convince your mind and self. It aids in developing an ‘I can’ attitude within the athlete.

I salute the fighting spirit of Milkha Singh, and hope his dream of India winning a gold medal in athletics at the Olympics is realised very soon.

The need of the hour for India and Indian sports is to recognise the making of champions like Milkha Singh – it takes time, humongous effort, passion, sweat, blood, discipline, self-belief, dedication and much, much more to become a legend.

‘Bhaag Milkha bhaag’, the retelling of Milkha Singh’s story, is a wonderful way to inspire today’s youth who believe in quick fixes and short-cuts. I salute Milkha Singh for what he’s done and wish that his story instils hope in many more champions.