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Fauja Singh is Coming to Town ...
And I'm Buying Me A New Pair of Runners!

MANPREET KAUR SINGH

Melbourne, Australia

It took me over two hours and a string of phone calls to finally get to speak to Sardar Fauja Singh yesterday.

When I first called, he was in Hong Kong, talking about his incredible marathoning career and his “retirement” -- but only from competitive races, he emphasizes -- at the age of 101, to virtually every major media outlet in the world. BBC was interviewing him, then it was CNN, then a television channel from the subcontinent … and on and on it went.

Finally, when I did get through, I first spoke to Fauja Singh ji’s coach, S. Harmander Singh and asked him about the Hong Kong run, and especially about Fauja’s emotions on completing his final race.

Harmander was candid about why Fauja needed to stop competing now –- it was for his own good, he said! But he also said that Fauja had a great fear that people will stop loving him during his retirement – because he won’t be doing the very thing that has earned him worldwide adulation and respect.

Apparently, it took a great deal of discussion to finally convince Fauja to embrace his stardom only, not as a competitor anymore, but as a celebrity instead. After all, Fauja has inspired untold millions around the world, just by being himself, and is now a popular poster-boy at most doctors’ clinics and surgeries in the United Kingdom – the ideal that all others must aspire to follow!

Even Harmander had mixed feelings about the retirement, having looked upon Fauja as his “surrogate father” over the last 15 odd years – but along with the tinge of sadness, there was a great sense of privilege that he “was the lucky one” to guide Fauja through his amazing running career.

So when I asked Harmander, “What makes him tick?” he was quick to say it is Fauja’s positivity and optimism, and his complete inability to see any boundaries or barriers. He talked about when Fauja was picked as the face of Adidas and ”they were filming the ad, it took 36 takes for Fauja to say the slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing’.

For one thing, there’s no true translation of the word ‘impossible’ in Punjabi, and secondly, Fauja simply doesn’t know what it means – for him, ‘Nothing is impossible!” says Harmander.

And that, simply, is the essence of Fauja Singh.

So, after this, when the legend finally took the phone to finally speak to ‘the kurrhi from Australia,” as he calls me, I didn’t know where to begin. When I heard the familiar crackle of impish laughter on the other side of the line I said, “Babaji, tussi phir kamaal kar ditti,” (“You have performed wonders once again!“), and he simply said, ”jadd tu kamal kar sakdi eh, kurrhiye, te main kyon nahi” (“If you can perform wonders, young lady, then why can‘t I?”).

No exaggerated sense of self-importance, no stench of egoistic bragging, just a good natured soul, happy to be himself, happy to talk to yet another media person after a day of back to back interviews, without any pretensions at all!

He then told me that he had a nasty fall during the Hong Kong run.

Not only did he fall, but his knees started to bleed and he was in a lot of pain during the run. But somehow he called upon all his reserves of energy and determination.

He explains: “I got up, I suddenly felt happy and ran again.”

He reached the finish line in just over an hour and a half, which is faster than the time he took at the same race last year. But he rued the fact that “Never before in my life have I fallen while running. Not even during training. But then, even this had to happen once in my lifetime – Waheguru ne meri izzat rakh layee (The good Lord has saved my honour!), and I finished my final race.”

We had a good humoured laugh about it, that only those soldiers who mount a horse ever fall from it, because those who go crawling into a battlefield, never can -- drawing upon an Urdu shair / poem -- and he said immediately, “Yes, I am a horse-rider. Therefore it was only a matter of time before I fell off one!”

Then he shared his excitement about coming to Australia and promised to tell me many more stories when he gets here.

I told him that all Australians, especially my family, were eagerly waiting for him because he’ll be our house guest during the visit; to which he responded, “Mela laa-un waaleyan nu vi khushi hundi hai, te mele ‘ch jaa-un waaleyan nu hor vi khushi hundi hai” (‘Those who throw a party get great joy from it, but even greater is the fun had by those who get to attend!“)

He marvelled at how he’ll have to change the time on his watch after coming here. “It will be magic,” he said, with his typical innocence. “The time will magically change, the weather will be different. It’s so cold in London, but it will be so hot in Australia.”

In all of these conversations, we didn’t once bring up the issue of the Guinness Book of World Records and its reticence in acknowledging Fauja Singh as the world’s oldest marathon runner. It seemed superfluous! A mention in some record book won’t add anything more to the fame and glory of Fauja Singh – he is already much larger than that!

But yes, the book of records is always remain incomplete, defective, erroneous, without documenting the feats of a legend as inimitable and iconic as Fauja Singh.

Meanwhile, all Aussies are waiting for the Turbaned Tornado to strike the land Down Under – the only continent that Fauja is yet to lay foot on.

As we prepare to celebrate his 102nd birthday here on April 1, Harmander Singh’s words ring in my ears: “It’s not enough to say that Fauja is an inspiration. We have to translate that into action, lead a full and healthy life and reward him that way for all his efforts.”

I guess I’m buying me a new pair of runners …

For my interview of S. Fauja Singh, please CLICK here.

And for my interview of S. Harmander Singh, please CLICK here.

February 26, 2013

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