Tour Diary: When a Rourkela ‘maestro’ revived British journalist’s Hockey World Cup | Hockey Information – Instances of India

BHUBANESWAR: British journalist Rod Gilmour was on the identical flight with me from Delhi once we launched into our journey to report from the Males’s Hockey World Cup in Odisha. The primary cease was Jharsuguda, a city round 125 km from the metal metropolis of Rourkela, the co-host of the match apart from Bhubaneswar. However little did Gilmour know a nightmarish begin awaited him.
Whereas we dropped in to cool down in our lodge rooms in Rourkela, Gilmour dropped his mobile phone. The display cracked and appeared like spokes rising from a hub. The worst half was the show vanished. The 43-year-old Gilmour, who has been in journalism for over 20 years and runs ‘The Hockey Paper’ from Sussex, had his head in his arms. All his essential information, together with pictures and phone particulars, have been no longer accessible.
Gilmour had one other system, however that was only a backup. The treasure trove was the telephone that was now lifeless.
For a few days he managed, borrowed and produced. In between that, you may usually see Gilmour taking a look at his lifeless, damaged telephone with some hope, once I launched him to native man Susanta Behra, an entrepreneur who doubles up as a journalist due to his ardour for hockey.
“Ah, I don’t know how to say it. He’s been a God-sent for me. A maestro, yeah. That’s what he is, the maestro,” mentioned Rod, who acquired his telephone again and alive, sporting a brand new display, in lower than 24 hours.
What added to Rod’s delight was the truth that his information wasn’t misplaced. His World Cup marketing campaign had been “resuscitated” at a value of Rs 5000.
“I was worried about the data getting lost,” Gilmour mentioned, with Susanta standing beside him. “At one point he (the repair guy) said, the data will be lost. I was like, ‘do I have a choice?’ I just wanted my phone to come back to life and resuscitate my trip.
“It was magic when Susanta introduced again the repaired telephone. It had all the information, nothing was misplaced. My journey was alive once more,” said Gilmour.
That was when Gilmour named Susanta ‘the maestro’ and the story spread like wildfire among the media covering the tournament.
“Maine to bas assist ki, achha laga ke woh khush ho gaye (I simply helped, felt good to see he was blissful once more),” mentioned Susanta.
The media entourage moved to Bhubaneswar per week later. Rod was protecting England and Wales, and each have been in the identical pool as India’s — Pool D. So his itinerary mirrored the one of many Indian media.
However all hell broke unfastened for Gilmour after three days in Bhubaneswar.
He left his telephone, the identical one, on a chair and went to seize a chew throughout a break. To his shock upon his return, the display was damaged once more with the show gone once more. Presumably, any person sat on it unawares.
Subsequent morning, Gilmour was out once more, this time in Bhubaneswar, to get his telephone repaired and seek for a everlasting repair to his seemingly cursed marketing campaign.