|
|
Jalad's fodder fields being turned into the sports ground school
children at work |
The Sports Ground was Jalad's fodder field for
the cows at his Dairy. The Ashram did not have a
football ground. Some young people had gone there
for an outing and they thought this could be a nice
ground for football. They told Mother about it and
She gave Her consent. Thus the Sports Ground came
into existence.
- Lilou - |
Students and adults working at the sports ground construction |
Jalad and Kameshwar had spent several years looking for suitable land to grow fodder for the Ashram dairy. This piece of land measuring 4 acres was bought for Rs. 4,000.
One evening Mother asked Jalad during groundnut distribution, "Jalad, children are asking me for
more place to play. Can you spare the fodder land?"
He replied spontaneously, "Mother it is all yours. Why are you asking me?" Mother was pleased and
gave him an extra helping of groundnuts.
- Gopal D. -
|
The Mother opening the sports ground 1st July 1951 Udar,
Pranab, Abhay singh |
He (Udar) laid the cinder track and produced our football
ground with a beautiful lawn from the fodder land of our
dairy. Even the plan for our swimming pool complex
was made by him.
- Pranab -
(/ Remember p. 292)
The groups were made according to individual
capacity; so that made the timetable very complicated
and a lot of work was involved in it. All this was
done at night after the group activities with the help
of some students.
- Lilou - |
Timing the race - Aug. 1951 |
Page - 55
|
Timing the races - Aug. 1951 |
measuring the throws - 1951 |
March past - 1st July 1951 |
|
Udar in a relay race - 1951 |
The Mother with the little ones |
Page - 56
|
March past - Group D - 7th June 1952 |
Udar worked out the whole layout and made the cinder
running tracks, long jump and high jump runs, shot put and
Hammer rings etc. according to the Olympic specifications
after obtaining the same from the International Olympic
Committee. The swimming pool was built by Louis Alien with
Udar's help.
- Lilou - |
|
An exciting race - 1952 - Looking this way... |
... and that! Watching the end of the race - 1952 |
Page - 57
|
Checking results - Aug. 1951 - Sutapa, pavitra, Narendra, Udar |
The mother receiving the day's programme |
|
The mother inauguration the Football Field - 1952 |
Starting the match between the Adults and the Youth |
Page - 58
|
The Mother arriving at the Sports Ground - 9th July 1952 |
The Mother arriving at the Sports Ground - 9th July 1952 |
|
Little one's races and results |
The Mother arriving at the Sports Ground - 1952 |
|
When the Mother began to give much attention to physical education in the Ashram, it was Udar who manufactured the table
tennis tables; the dumb-bells, barbells and other apparatus for
body-building, weight lifting and gymnastics; the discus, javelin, shots, hammer and even the spiked running shoes required
for athletics - all in the all-purpose Harpagon Workshop! Even
the running tracks and the Swimming pool in the Sports Ground
were constructed under his direct supervision. During the athletics season in the early fifties, the entire organisational work was
carried out in his office in Harpagon. It was a most familiar sight
in the athletics season to see Udar in the Sports Ground, always
hovering near the Mother, maintaining a meticulous record of
the performance of each participant (and there used to be some six hundred of
them!) - and this after his eight-hour stint of supervising the work in each and every department under his care.
- Aniruddha - |
Page - 59
|
Timing the race
The Mother with the sports' results - 1952 |
Little one's races and results
Whenever there were competitions of athletics or
gymnastics, Udar used to record the results and he had
his team of workers who used to calculate the marks
(records) and the average and the same evening the
results were displayed on the notice board. We used
to do this at night.
- Lata -` |
measuring the throws - 1952
Throwing the hammer - 1952 |
Page - 60
|
Showing the mother the running race results
Children's Rabbit race |
|
The Mother watching the pole vault |
March past |
The children wanted to do their best because Mother was watching them. One girl broke the all India record in the 200 metres race. I told Mother about it Mother, she broke the 200 metres record, should we announce it?"
-Udar-
Measuring the throws |
Page - 61
|
This work, programming of the Sports,
was stopped when Mother asked Udar to
help Laljibhai for the Sugar Factory. Udar
said he could not manage both, that and
the Sports programming. Mother told him
that now he had organised the Sports, the
younger ones could continue doing it and
he could now fully help with the Sugar
Factory.
- Lilou - |
Guard of Honour |
|
The
Evening's programme - 1st July 1958 |
The Mother
after the Salute |
Page - 62 |
