What we found interesting is that there are parallels between the character of Kabir Khan in Chak De India, the real-life story of coach Mir Ranjan Negi, and Argentinean coach Lionel Scaloni.
Read on👇
Chak De India was released in 2007 and was loosely based on the true story of hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi. In the 1982 Asian Games, Negi was the goalkeeper for the India men’s national field hockey team in the final field hockey match against Pakistan which India lost 1-7!
After the match, Negi was made the target of much humiliation and shame, even being labelled a "traitor".
He returned to hockey, 16 years later as a goalkeeping coach for the men’s hockey team when India won the 1998 Asian Games gold at Bangkok.
16 YEARS LATER!
Negi went on to train the women’s team as a goalkeeping coach, even winning the Commonwealth Games gold in 2002. In Chak De India, Shah Rukh played Kabir Khan, a hockey player who accidentally makes a big mistake in an India-Pakistan match in the World Cup, which led India losing
In the film, Kabir Khan comes back to coach the women’s team and help them win the World Cup.
In 2006, 1 year before the release of Chak De India, Lionel Scaloni was a tremendous player himself. He was playing for West Ham Club on loan from Deportivo Club .
In the 2006 FA Cup final against Liverpool, West Ham was leading 3-2 with 4 min remaining. Scaloni deliberately kicked the ball out so Liverpool's Djibril Cisse could receive treatment for a cramp in his left leg. But Scaloni’s sporting gesture had repercussions.
After the throw-in, within seconds, Gerrard latched onto the loose ball and equalized with a brilliant long-range strike. 3-3. The match went to penalties and Liverpool won 3-1 to become the 2006 FA Cup Champion. And Scaloni was made the villain. And his career never recovered.
In November 2018, Scaloni fully took over the responsibility of Argentina’s coach. In 2019, he took the team to 3rd place in Copa America, and in 2021, the team won the Copa America. And now in 2022 he helped them win the FIFA World Cup 2022.
16 YEARS SINCE THE WEST HAM LOSS! 🤩
Now we understand why Scaloni was so emotional last night.
All 3 men - Negi, Kabir, Scaloni - faced defeat in their individual careers, suffered public humiliation, and then came back from all that to help teams win on the world stage! ❤️
In his will, Independent India's first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, expressed his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered across India "so that they might mingle with the dust and soil of India and become an indistinguishable part of India."
A thread 🧵
On 27 May, 1964 Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru breathed his last while on a break at Dehradun's Circuit House.
📹 @BritishPathe
Nehru wished for a handful of his ashes to be thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad. He didn't want to attach religious significance to this, he said "I have been attached to the Ganga & Jamuna rivers in Allahabad ever since my childhood &, as I have grown older, this attachment has also grown.
Did you know that a dentist from Karnataka became the face of the abortion rights movement in Ireland?
In a landmark case, Savita Halappanavar’s tragic story sparked nationwide protests and played a pivotal role in reshaping Ireland’s abortion laws.
A thread 🧵
Abortion had been illegal in Ireland since the birth of the state. In 1983, an amendment to the law made the status of the unborn child as equal to that of the mother.
It was made following a referendum in which over two-thirds supported it, though on a turnout of 53%.
For years, well-off women in Ireland who needed abortions would travel to England to undergo the procedure.
The phrase "She Got the Boat" became a discreet way of indicating that someone had made the journey across the Irish Sea to obtain an abortion.
On the occasion of @anilkumble1074's 54th birthday - a little known story of how a very much vegetarian Kumble ate 2 bears for lunch.
Setting the stage - 1995, hot and dry summer in the county championships in England. Kumble is playing for Northamptonshire.
They were second in the table going to take on the first placed team Warwickshire.
Warwickshire, though without Brian Lara, were defending champions and were leading the table at that time.
Few years later, Kumble would dismiss Lara looking like this.
22 years later still goosebumps.
Allan Lamb won the toss for Northamptonshire and decided to bat first. They were skittled out for 152 with only David Capel managing to get to a half century.
David Capel then proceeded to take a 7fer to restrict Warwickshire to 224 - 140 of them came from Roger Twose.
Tomorrow India takes on New Zealand in a test match at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. It is an iconic venue - A stadium located in the heart of Bangalore.
It is celebrating its 50th year as an international venue. Here's a thread to celebrate the venue. 👇
The stadium is named after the man who was instrumental in building it. A lawyer by profession, M Chinnaswamy was an altogether atypical cricket administrator. He was utterly devoted to the game of cricket and to the cause of Karnataka cricket in particular.
From the early 1960s, Karnataka, then known as Mysore, began sending a steady stream of cricketers to the Indian team. The state side had no ground it could call its own, playing its home matches in Bangalore’s Central College.
Chinnaswamy, helped by other eminent people, was instrumental in prevailing upon the Government of Karnataka to allot the ground for cricket in the prime MG Road area in 1969. It was taken on lease for 99 years from the Indian Army.
The paperwork for the lease completed, the Association hired an architect and a contractor, who, working under the secretary’s supervision, built the stadium. Because of him, no bribes were given or taken.
Back in 1971 when the nation was formed, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered the leader of the freedom movement, was not in the country - he was in jail in Pakistan.
And it was a former lover of Bhutto who was able to secure his release.
A love story 🧵
In 1971 Pakistan's armed forces laid down their arms at a ceremony in Dhaka before the joint command of the Indian armed forces and Bangladesh's Mukti Bahini.
As the two armed forces were celebrating their victory, Mrs Indira Gandhi had other things to worry about.
1. The enormous cost of the war 2. The cost of dealing with over 10M refugees 3. The un-budgeted responsibility of having to look after the 93,000 Pakistani soldiers taken as POWs.
India wanted to keep the POW's in conditions that went above and beyond Geneva norms.
A school-going kid once visited the Congress party office, where Tamil lyricist Kavirajar Kannadasan asked, "Would you like to work in films, child?" The kid said, "Ask my father."
This child was destined to become one of India's greatest superstars!
A thread on Sridevi! 🧵
It is said that when Sridevi was born, there was a bright red mark on her forehead, and hence people started that a devi had born in the house.
Thus she was named Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan.
Before ruling the box office as a leading star, Sridevi was a phenomenally accomplished child artist.
Here she is, sharing the screen with MG Ramachandran, playing his nephew in a film that also starred J. Jayalalitha!