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sahir

sahir
ali
mallick , west
bengal

Sahir Ali Mallick (28) is inside a huge indoor stadium with metal roof and walls, crisscrossing iron beams painted yellow, and a plain cement floor. He is standing in a volleyball court with white lines clearly marked on the ground. He is leaning forward with one foot on either side of the vertical central line, with both arms outstretched. A blue and yellow volleyball he has just hit with his hands is hovering mid-air. Sahir wears navy blue pants and a white V-necked T-shirt with a navy blue numeral 5 on the chest. Below the number there are wavy horizontal bands of orange and green alternating with the white of the T-shirt.
Sahir, sitting with his back to the camera, is reflected in a tall mirror in front of him. The mirror is part of a wooden dressing table with a single drawer. He is holding up a barbell with metal disc-shaped weights on either end. The back of his T-shirt says INDIA in navy blue capitals with a navy blue number 5 below it.
Sahir, wearing a pale sky blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow, is sitting behind a table, smiling at the camera. He has a light moustache and thin beard running along his jawline. He wears a lanyard on a white ribbon around his neck and the name tag is inside his shirt’s front pocket. His left elbow rests on the tabletop and he holds a paper cup in his raised right hand. The table is fitted with a white umbrella edged with sapphire blue, attached to a vertical metal rod. A building beside him has a yellow distemper outer wall. A long wooden table placed against the wall has empty used plates and bottles on it. A woman in a pink and green sari is clearing the used dishes.
Sahir stands with his right hand resting on a flat silvery metal surface and his left hand in his trousers’ side pocket. He wears a bluish-grey shirt with sleeves rolled up, black pants and brown belt. The name tag of his lanyard is tucked inside his shirt pocket. Near his right hand, fitted to the metal surface, is a small, light grey, vertical, cylindrical object ringed with three broad bands of red, yellow and green. In the background there is a loaded truck with goods covered with blue and orange tarpaulin.
Sahir, wearing a sapphire blue half-sleeved knitted shirt with collar, navy blue trousers, and beige shoes, is cycling towards the camera on a beige muddy ground. In the background there are several trucks loaded with containers painted blue and yellow. The sky is pale blue-grey with a few white puffy clouds.
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“I want to represent India in the Paralympics! I wish para athletes could get permanent jobs”

To get to his place of work from his home in Konnagar, Hooghly, West Bengal, Sahir Ali Mallick (28) takes three hours (one way) to traverse over 100 km to the India-Bangladesh border by cycle, auto, train and ferry! A technician working on contract with the Land Ports Authority of India at Petrapole, Sahir somehow manages to squeeze in time to pursue his obsession: volleyball.
Like father, like son. Sahir remembers how his late father Sarafath Ali Mallick, who was a worker, was passionate about volleyball. Sarafath used to go with his close friend and volleyball coach Aminul Rehman to watch a lot of volleyball games. Although Sahir was born with a locomotor disability (a twisted right ankle and four toes in the foot), his father encouraged him to take up the sport at a young age, for the joy of it and with no other expectations. His mother Sahera Begum (56) with whom he lives now, and his married sister, Shabinara Begum (35), living in Haripal, have also been extremely supportive all through his development.
Aminul Rehman and Subhankar Chakraborthy started coaching Sahir when he was in school and within six months of rigorous practice, he became quite good at the game. He used to go for practice at JYMA (Junior and Young Men’s Association) with his coaches. He recalls how, after the first few months of training, Subhankar seemed to discourage him from training too rigorously by telling him, “You don’t need to train so much”. It took a while for Sahir’s confusion to be dispelled and for him to understand the intention of the coach: he saw the need for Sahir to take care of his body to be able to play along with non-disabled and not only with para-athletes!

 This motivated Sahir hugely. In 2012 he was selected for the regular volleyball mini-nationals in the under-14 category in Champa, Chhattisgarh, and went on to play in the under-18 category in the Junior National Championship, Chapra, Bihar. But in around 2016, Sahir decided to optimise his potential and focus on Para Volleyball tournaments. He represented the Indian contingent for Para Volleyball in Thailand (2018) and fondly recalls how Mr Aditya Mehta himself through his foundation (<https://adityamehtafoundation.org/>) was instrumental in financially helping him to participate in the World Para Beach Volleyball championship in China (2019).
Sahir is now working hard to achieve his dream of representing India in the Paralympics for sitting volleyball, beach volleyball and also for long jump! Juggling work and practice is proving to be quite taxing. His boss Kamalesh Saini (Manager, ICP Petrapole) is very supportive, but the commute and the financial demands of family life make it very hard for Sahir to practise consistently. He wakes up at dawn to do his training, yoga and other exercises. He leaves for work at 7.30 a.m. and works from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. By the time he reaches home it is time for dinner. Fridays are his day off and he spends most of it practising volleyball at the Raja Rajeshwari Yuva Samithi. He does not want to move close to his workplace since he doesn’t want his training schedule disrupted or leave his mother to live on her own at home.
Along with volleyball, Sahir also has a passion for travel. He likes travelling alone, admiring the ancient architecture and monuments, and observing people. In the sphere of para-athletics, he urges stronger support for it and wishes a platform could be provided for finding permanent jobs for para-athletes like him in West Bengal.

Photos:

Vicky Roy

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