India's failure to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after the dismal qualifying tournament in Santiago put a seed of thought into K. Arumugam's mind.
A bitter critic of Indian Hockey Federation and its President K.P.S. Gill, Arumugam decided to take matters into his own hands instead of attacking the IHF ad nauseum in his columns. “Santiago was the last straw. Instead of getting bitter I thought let's do something constructive.” Thus began the ‘One Thousand legs'.
Enjoy hockey
‘One Thousand Hockey Legs', a program envisaged by the Hockey Citizen Group, is aimed at providing school children with an opportunity to understand, play and enjoy hockey. Started in December 2008 in Puducherry, the project is making gradual progress. The fourth leg in Chennai—the others were held in Puducherry, Kolkata and Kanpur---rolled off at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in the city recently three schools Don Bosco (Egmore), St. Bede's and St. Anthony's playing a match with each other on the astro-turf. “Our objective is to get 500 students in the age group of 11 to 14 years from 25 schools in each city to play the sport,” said Arumugam, who is the Managing Trustee of the Group. “We are keen to promote hockey in Chennai. We require more volunteers to help us,” he added.
A science graduate from the Presidency College (Chennai) and a post-graduate from prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) in Geology and Hydrology, Arumugam has been professionally a water expert.
He took voluntary retirement from a lucrative government job and is devoting full time for hockey. He has professionally covered hockey for various magazines and newspapers, besides running a website (stick2hockey.com). He has covered many prestigious events such as World Cups and Champions Trophies.
Special Correspondent
