our decades of sports writing has taught me to treat the reader as special, day in and day out. From penning match reports to writing a column, the transition is easy if you keep the reader in mind. Nobody will read if there is clutter or bombast. During this journey of mine, there are some athletes who became very dear to me. The word 'friend' itself acquired multiple dimensions. As long as it was day-to-day life, we took things for granted, Jaspal Rana and me. Now, the lamp has been blown out, and there is blindness. This is a darkness that a fresh matchstick cannot make the wick glow again. This is a darkness which will never see light again. I never wanted to see this day, to be writing in the past tense about a wonderful human being, Jaspal Rana. June 12, 2026, will be a dark day forever. Here I was, thinking, on June 10, that Jaspal would be out of hospital soon and recover to normalcy. The boy-turned-man who became a shooting star and then an illustrious coach would have been blowing out 50 candles on June 28, celebrating with family and friends. Sadly, the end was sudden, just as if his weapon had suffered a malfunction. This book is all about capturing the life story of Jaspal Rana, who as a young boy was so gifted he could win medals any day, even in darkness. Such was his forceful impact on shooting, Jaspal became a champion as popular as a cricketer. His sport was not televised like cricket and tennis; yet, from 1994 to 2006, when Jaspal won medals across the world, fans looked at him in awe. An Olympic medal, however, was missing from his drawing room cabinet. Once he turned to coaching and guided protégé Manu Bhaker to glory at the Paris Olympics in 2024, that dream too was realised. Jaspal told me in Paris that he wanted to take Manu's two bronze medals and show them to his mother, Shyama Devi Rana, a lady he worshipped. He did that, as well as seek her blessings, after emerging as the biggest coach in India's Olympic history.Even as I was recovering from one shock, came a second. Mrs Rana passed away on June 28, 2026, which would have been her son's 50th birthday. I had hoped, once I had started writing this book on Jaspal with my co-author G. Rajaraman, that I would be able to present copies of it to the entire Rana family, father N S Rana, mother Shyama Devi, brother Subhash and sister Sushma. Life serves you shocks-some so hard, they cripple you. What we have written is a tribute to a wonderful human being who was much misunderstood by many. All I will say is judge Jaspal but do not malign or curse him.
S. Kannan comes from a family of journalists. He is a prolific sports writer, and in four decades, has covered multiple Olympics, Asian Games, and every possible sporting event. Kannan is a Consulting Editor with Millennium Post
G. Rajaraman has held leadership positions across several media platforms in his 43-year career as a sports journalist and sports communication professional.
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