Chandan’s CWG medal can’t melt his dad's heart

For the last 10 days since landing in India as a Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver medallist in lawn bowls, Chandan Kumar Singh has soaked in the newfound adulation and recognition of his deeds in Birmingham.

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While the 37-year-old talks with pride about the President mentioning him in tweets or clicking a photograph with the Prime Minister, there is deafening silence from the one man whose pat on the back he yearns for: his father.

Chandan returned home to Munger, Bihar on Friday to be showered with accolades. While his family—and the entire neighbourhood—ran out of words congratulating him, his father Krishna Mohan Singh merely glanced at the medal.

It’s been over a decade since Singh, a retired policeman, has had a proper conversation with his eldest son, deeply unhappy over his choice of sport. Like most Indians before the Birmingham Games, Singh didn’t relate to lawn bowls as a sport. “Yeh kaisa khel khel raha hai tu (what kind of sport is this that you play)?” Chandan recalled the rare yet oft-repeated sentence from his father.

Chandan has little doubt that the men’s fours team silver, and the historic gold in women’s fours, will go a long way in changing the perception of lawn bowls in India. In his own house, he is yet to feel that warmth.

“The President tweeted about me, the media landed at my home, I have been felicitated every day since I landed back. But my father is yet to say a word to me,” Chandan said.

Chandan’s choice is rather glaringly in the Singh family. His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a freedom fighter in Sangrampur who was awarded during India’s 25th Independence Day celebrations. Chandan’s younger brother is in the Indian Reserve Battalion, posted in Jharkhand. Chandan was more interested in academics and sports. He played kabaddi in college but only got as far as playing in inter-college tournaments.

Having moved to Ranchi for graduation, he was introduced to lawn bowls in 2007 when the sport attracted novices, courtesy the approaching 2010 Delhi CWG. Chandan was upbeat and silver in his maiden nationals the next year added to that belief. He won a medal, but lost his father’s acceptance.

“He wanted me to become a doctor or engineer. He didn’t mind me doing sports, but didn’t understand that lawn bowls is a sport too. Even after I won my first nationals, he did not talk to me. My entire village celebrated the medal but nothing moved my father.”

That would continue for years, even after Chandan pocketed gold at the Asian Championships in 2016 and 2017 and represented India at the 2014 and 2018 CWG. “He never cared where I travelled to compete or what medals I won. Other families celebrate their child going to even one CWG. I went to three and the only reaction I got was ‘kya khelta hai yeh ladka?’” Chandan said.

It didn’t deter Chandan in his quest to win a medal in the sport at its most traditional stage. “Desh ki seva aise kare ya waise, jhanda hi leherana hai (doesn’t matter how one serves the country, the flag should keep flying). It’s about lifting the status of India… I did that by standing on the podium at the CWG.”

“When I called my mother from Birmingham, she kept crying. The only words she uttered was, ‘aaj mera beta khiladi ban gaya (today my son has become a sportsman)’.”

The challenges of sticking to a non-mainstream sport remain. There’s little or no money to be made. And while Chandan has a government job as a physical education teacher in a Munger school, it is on contract basis. He hopes the CWG medal transforms things on that front for those in the sport.

As for popularity, he can feel the winds of change blowing.

Chandan shared hotel room with Sharath Kamal during the felicitation functions for medallists in Delhi. After breakfast with the champion table tennis player, a person sought a picture with Chandan. “I would keep telling Sharath ‘you are a star’. After that moment, Sharath told me, ‘Abhi aap bhi star ban gaye (now you’ve also become a star)’.”

“For me, people recognising lawn bowls and its players now is the biggest achievement.”

His father’s approval though may not come that easily.

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