Jaspal Rana was not just a shooter and coach, his lasting legacy lies in his generosity and unwavering commitment to the welfare of Indian shooting. (Photo/Agency)
New Delhi: Have you ever visited the Instagram profile of late photography legend Jaspal Rana? If you do, the first thing that catches your eye is the line on his bio. Written in Devanagari, as follows: “Jab mrityu nishchit ho, swayam ko acche kaaran ke liye samarpit karna sarvottam hai.
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Translating it into English reveals its basic philosophy. “When death is inevitable, devoting oneself to a noble cause is the highest course of action.”
In the early hours of Friday, Rana, a multiple gold medalist at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Championships, breathed his last just two weeks before his 50th birthday, leaving behind a world where one less person truly lived by this faith.Rana became an Arjuna Awardee at the age of 18, and soon went on to coach and mold world-class putters like Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, and Anish Bhanwala, among others. In recognition of his actions, he was honored with the Dronacharya Award in 2020, much before one of his disciples, V Bhaker, created history by winning two medals in one edition of the Olympics.Last year, he took over as the high-performance coach of the Indian shooting team.
As a result, he traveled to Munich to participate in the FIFA World Cup earlier this summer.Among the women’s 10m air pistol squad was 22-year-old Muskaan from Bhiwani, Haryana. Surrounded by established names like Manu Bhasker, Suruchi Singh and Isha Singh, the rookie shooter could have easily felt overwhelmed. But under Jaspal Rana’s supervision, that was never the case.“Recently, when our children went to Germany, my daughter Muskan went, and Suruchi went too.” Suresh Singh, who runs the Guru Dronacharya Shooting Academy in Haryana and works as Suruchi’s personal trainer, told the Times Of India.
com. “So I casually mentioned to my daughter: “Sir, I don’t have this.” There were some items she needed, I can’t quite remember what they were. Mr. Jaspal immediately said, “What do you need, Beta?” I’ll get it now.
He himself went to a stall, bought it, and handed it to her. When I asked about the money, he said: “No, beta, no money.” I brought it to you, take it. He was a very open-hearted person.”Despite his legendary status, Rana has routinely gone out of his way to validate and encourage grassroots coaches operating outside the national framework.“Compared to him, I’m a very young coach. Coming from the army, I never achieved anything close to what he did,” Suresh said. “But whenever we met somewhere, he would say: “Brother, you are a good coach.” You are raising good children. You are producing talent for India. We will take these kids forward, don’t worry at all. He was always very helpful. “If you need to ask any kid anything, you can always ask me,” he would say.
‘”For him, technical insight was not private information reserved only for his personal disciples. If a young shooter from a different academy asked for technical adjustments or quick advice, he would stand behind him in the lane, patiently breaking down the shooting mechanics.When the team arrived in India, Suresh was at the airport at 2:00 am to receive the students returning from the World Cup in Munich. There he noticed that Rana was suffering from physical distress.“He was already having some problems since Germany itself,” Remembers Suresh. “When he got off the plane, he was sweating a lot. He looked uncomfortable. It was two in the morning, but as soon as he left the airport, he headed straight to the hospital.”When news of his sudden death rocked the shooting community, the national team gathered at a camp in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, the hilly state where Rana was born.
The entire ecosystem he helped shape was in his hometown, but nowhere to be seen.Few have felt the emptiness more acutely than Manu Bhaker.“Manu is in a lot of pain today because he was her personal trainer.” Suresh added. “The whole team is here. As soon as Manu received the news, she immediately left for Delhi.”Beyond winning medals for the country and coaching some of its best talent, perhaps his greatest legacy lies in acts of generosity that made a young athlete feel seen, a fellow coach feel valued, and one of his students left the national camp to express her final appreciation. We may never see Jaspal Rana walking the shooting ranges again, but will he really leave?By devoting his life entirely to “Reach Karan” (For Good Reason), Rana brought to life the concluding lines of Rabindranath Tagore’s famous poem, “Mrityunjay” (Conqueror of death):“No matter how great you become, you are not greater than death. I’m leaving, leaving behind these last words: I am greater than death.”