Time, as the cliché goes, really flies away.
1997. Slowly I was adjusting myself. Having left the city known for its never-ending football madness, I was transported to a city where I came across football clubs. But they just couldn’t match Kolkata. It was only during the Durand Cup’s which brought some relief. Durand Cup showcased stars like IM Vijayan, Chima Okorie, Carlton Chapman, Joe Paul Anchery, Basudev Mondol and others. It was the perfect opportunity to know and understand them, I wondered.
But Syed Nayeemuddin’s presence overshadowed everybody. If I can recall, it was definitely not my first meeting with him. In 1995 in Calcutta when he was East Bengal coach I had managed to speak to him. But he was and still is monosyllabic. Hence, the interaction didn’t happen at all.
With the early winter chill in October, Nayeem sahab walked in at the Ambedkar Stadium entrance. The crowd (mostly from Old Delhi) joslted for space. They wanted to talk to him. Share some inputs about the Indian team for which he was chosen as national coach. He wore his trademark spotless white full-sleeve shirt and blue denim jeans. And yes, he sported a Ray Ban sunglass.
Surprisingly, despite his stature as the national coach, he didn’t leave his one-room accommodation in Hotel Bombay Orient which interestingly is located in the heart of Old Dilli – Jama Masjid and opposite Karim’s. Even much later, he never missed Karim’s food and Old Delhi’s ambience.
Interestingly, most of my initial interactions with him happened at this food joint. He would often call from a PCO (mobile phones still was not in vogue) or from his hotel and would invite me at Karim’s. I discovered his love for food and he would explain why good food is necessary for footballers who mostly came from lower middle-class families. At his age (he was in early fifties then), his breakfast was sumptuous. It included bheja curry, mutton & chiken burra, naharis at times and roomali rotis. I would often stare at him with open-mouthed wonder. “Footballer needs good diet. It is essential to built a good physique,” he would often remind me.
Whether you were a journalist fascinated by Indian football, a rookie footballer who just made it to the national team, Nayeem sahab made everyone eat. Khalid Jamil had to finish off a glass of milk before he could say Khuda hafeez to his coach.
Our conversations would often revolve around football. But if you had waited for him to say something, Nayeem sahab would only lift his face and give a blank look because his fingers got busy to tear a delicious burra!
