Book: The Race of My Life
Author: Milkha Singh
Genre: Autobiography; Sports
Year Published: 2013
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Review: "The track to me was like an open book, in which I could read the meaning and purpose of life". By the quote the author touches a very rare depth of pursuit of oneself in the walk of life. A friend of mine and I began this book-for-book tradition on each other’s birthday a couple of years back. We would deliberately choose books depending on whatever phase the other was going through. Last year, however, on my birthday, he just made a promise to gift one soon. I didn’t mind it; neither did I contemplate. Months later I had this book in my hand, and everything made sense, the delay as well as the choice.
There are conventionally two ways to know a sportsperson’s life: to be a part of it, or to watch a biopic. This autobiography plays both roles, making you very much a part of it with the ebb and flow narrated so meticulously well. You will either find yourself sitting on the audience seat, hands firmly gripped to handles, feats grounded as though glued due to pressure, eyes forgotten how to blink and heart beating twice as fast, or, definitely on the tracks probably running alongside the author, witnessing each expression, moves, lifts, falls and feeling each breath and sighs so close.
The book starts with the author narrating his early childhood amidst the partitioning of the country, befittingly narrating a kid’s emotions while trying to understand what is happening to his home. Gradually, moving to how he rebuilds a life from scratch in a new place, a new boundary, and no foundation. A series of how he ends up in jail, then joins the army, and finally notices and addresses the gift of running. What really stands out in the entire journey from being a refugee to becoming an icon is that even though life chose when and where he landed, he never complained and embraced what lay ahead.
“You can achieve anything in life. It just depends on how desperate you are to achieve it,” quoted by his son, aptly describes how “The Flying Sikh” built not just the athlete but the discipline, perseverance, austerity and resilience it takes to reach those heights, yet staying humble and grounded. The author walks us through his failures, achievements, self-doubts, apprehensions, decisions, overconfidence, and even his errors of judgment on the tracks and in his life. What is by far the most relatable belief he had, as I do, is that the relationship between a coach and a trainee has to be based on extreme trust.
After having finished the book, when I reflect to his story, I feel that his life somehow sowed the seed of running into him ever since childhood, running to school, running for life, running for a glass of milk and running for basic survival. Precisely reminding us, our survival builds skills and then those skills build life. There cannot be a better way to conclude the review than to put down my favourite quote from the book, “Running had thus become my God, my religion, and my beloved,” something that I wish one day every individual can replace with running and proudly iterate to this whole world about.
