At Brigadier (retd) Kuldip Singh Chandpuri’s residence in Chandigarh. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
Brigadier Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, who succumbed to cancer on Saturday, has earned several accolades, including the Maha Vir Chakra. The war veteran’s persona was larger than life, but for his colleagues from the sports fraternity, he was an extremely humble and jovial man. Someone who never put on airs.
Better known as a war veteran, he was also a senior technical official who had decades of experience in officiating several international-level meets. An expert in road races, he mentored and inspired dozens of officials.
Stanley Jones, who has been officiating since 1987, is one among the many with tales of Chandpuri’s genial and jovial attitude. “I have known him for over 20 years and for a long time I didn’t even know that he was war hero and that a movie (Border) was made on him. The day I found out, I had goosebumps. He never mentioned it and he was so humble to us. He is my father’s age but we were like friends,” Jones said.
Mumtaz Khan, who officiated both in 2018 Asian and Commonwealth Games, agrees with Stanley. Khan,52, has attended many clinics organised by Chandpuri. He too wasn’t privy about the “army backstory” for many years. “Hume toh pata hin nahi tha. He was the finest technical official in the country. We used to look up to him and seek his guidance. He was extremely sharp and would explain all the technicalities patiently. A layman would assume race walking is a simple sport, but it’s anything but that. No one knew the technicalities of the discipline better than him,” Khan said.
“I have attended a lot of clinics and there’s one thing he would always say: ‘You people are doing well but you need to excel at the international level. How long will I keep doing everything. I want someone to take over. That was very inspiring for me’,” Khan added.
Chandpuri is an Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai graduate and was part of the the 23rd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment. His role in the Longewala battle of 1971 War earned him the Maha Vir Chakra (the country’s second-highest gallantry award). But it’s not only for his laurels that he will be remembered.
Stanley recalls a touching incident that happened during the 2007 Asian Athletics Championships in Jordan and still leaves him in splits: “I was walking to my hotel room and saw a staff pulling out a huge piece of cloth from one of the rooms. The man just kept pulling the endless piece of cloth. I was curious to know what was going on. I walked closer and heard a voice, ‘Hey, Stanley!’. I just realised that Chandpuri was seeking the staff’s help to fix his turban. I asked him to leave and took over”