Suresh Raina, who bid adieu to international cricket earlier this month, recently recalled the time when his father was not making enough money to enroll him into a cricket academy.
Raina revealed that his father was in the Army and used to make bombs in an ordnance factory, earning him a measly salary of Rs 10,000/month. At that time, the fees in sports academies in Delhi would range from Rs 5000 to Rs 8000 a month.
And the Raina family, comprising eight members, found itself in a tricky situation till it came to know of the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College in Lucknow.
"Papa was in the Army, my elder brother is also in the Army. Papa used to make bombs in an ordnance factory. He was a master at that," Raina said of his father on The Slow Interview by Neelesh Misra.
"He looked after the families of soldiers who had died. His was a very emotional work. This was tough, making sure that the money orders went and they received all the government benefits that they were eligible for," he added.
In order to provide a safe environment for his family, Raina’s father Trilokchand Raina had left everything in Rainawari in Jammu and Kashmir following the Kashmir Pandit exodus in the 1990s.
However, life was full of struggles for the Raina family after settling in Uttar Pradesh’s Muradnagar.
"It always felt that his principle in life was if you live - live for others. If you only live for yourself -- that's no living."
"I used to play and there was no money then. Papa earned ten thousand rupees. We were five brothers and one sister."
"Then I came for trial in the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College in Lucknow in 1998. We could not manage 10000 at that time," he said.
"The fee was Rs 5000 for a year so papa said this he could afford. I did not want anything, I said let me play and study."
Raina said he never brings the topic of Kashmir tragedy in discussion at home as his father doesn’t want to remember that torrid period.
"There are certain things that my father doesn't want to remember... So papa thought it better to take his family to a safe environment, that was one of the toughest decisions that papa made."
"He had a house there and his brothers. It was a wise decision, he had four sons and then I was born."
And even though he had been to Kashmir in recent years, the southpaw did not reveal it to his family.
"I have been two to three times to the LOC. I went with Mahi bhai, we have quite a few friends who are commandos."
"So, whenever there were shows I wouldn't tell him. I was afraid. Afraid that he might relive it in his mind."
(With PTI inputs)
