1. The achievements of Dr Talimeren not only as a talented sportsman, but also as a
bright student
prove that academics and co-curricular activities can go hand in hand
during student life. Justify this with a few more examples of famous people that you
have read or heard about
Answers
Explanation:
For a very long time, he has only been a quiz question - name the first captain of the Indian football team. Quiz geeks and football nerds ace the answer, remembering and pronouncing it differently. T Ao. Tay Ao. Dr Tay. Te Ao. From Nagaland.
And there, more often that not, would end the short story of a short name.
The story of Dr Talimeren Ao, captain of Mohun Bagan and India, flag bearer of the Indian Olympic contingent at the 1948 London Games, and still perhaps the most famous Naga. A phantom figure who hovers over the football history of free India, his footprints have faded but the name is resonant and powerful in the collective memory of his people.
They stage two football tournaments in his name. In Assam, where Talimeren grew up, there are two sporting venues named after him - an indoor stadium in Cotton College, Guwahati, where he studied, and an outdoor venue in Kaliabor, east of the Kaziranga National Park.
At a time when the ISL, India's high-profile football league, has a team called NorthEast United near the top of the points table, it's worth re-telling the story of the region's first footballing hero.
Talimeren (sitting in the centre) with the Indian team at the 1948 London Olympics ESPN
At the beginning, there will always be Talimeren. The name means the all-glorious or all-mighty in the Ao language and, at 5ft 10in, he had the physique to back it up. Talimeren was a dominating presence in midfield and defence for nine seasons at Mohun Bagan (1943 to 1952), and a team-mate of Sailen Manna and Taj Mohammed at the London Olympics.
Talimeren was to give up competitive football to pursue his medical career during the early years of independent India, returning home to Kohima as an assistant civil surgeon at the Civil Hospital in 1953. He retired as Nagaland's Director of Health Services in 1978, and died in 1998 at the age of 80.
That is merely biography. It is not the life a man lives.
In black and white photographs, Talimeren is distinctive. Sitting with his 1948 team-mates, he is tall, angular, with high cheekbones and a steady gaze, arms crossed; all the players are shoeless, wearing socks or tape in the style that made much news.
Around him and about him though, the information is on the whole scrappy; this 2015 article from Scroll is the most detailed account of his life. Given that more than one-third of India's professional footballers at the highest level come from the NorthEast, the story of their spiritual father remains mostly unknown