Tanwar my Dunga
Anil Tanwar the craziest and most passionate footballer I ever met a Full of never say die spirit boy
Always intoxicated with overdose of overconfidence,
Blessed with purity of heart,
Lover of illogically innocent ideas,
Full of optimism in thinking
And full of lovable element of madness.
Wish you lots and lots of joyful returns of the day Dear TANWAR. Stay blessed with same passion and craze which is your USP.
In initial days of college I found a lean and thin but too passionate boy in football specialization group whose calves were appearing to be heavier than his thighs. I found him bit awkward, but he was so crazy and outgoing with full of guts that he was like an iron rod wrapped in a disguising thin paper sheet.
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| Elegant Tanwar |
His kicks loaded with tremendous explosive power like a bullet was a perfect introduction to all the boys on the ground. Elements of craziness used to rule his game. He used to get extra bold, passionate and sometimes mindless also while playing football match.
Though he was appearing to be a boy of single frame but inside himself he was fitted with double engines which used to convert him into a gladiator inside the ground.
His versatility on the ground was of unique quality as playing in deep defense, sometimes he would do a adventurous overlapping and would move into attacking mode and soon he would return to his original defending position and he would do it several times in a single match. For doing so one needs to be a superfit athlete. Tanwar was a man of tremendous fitness. But in doing so he was always supported by the dependable defenders like Prince, Mohanpal or Nobo Sir.
Being adventurous on the ground was his USP. Even in absence of dependable defenders he never left his versatility. He was versatile like the legendry DUNGA. We witnessed the true nature of his versatility in 1993 in Shivaji University Kolhapur where we were playing in the West Zone Interuniversity Football.
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Jiwa Ji Uni. Football Team 1993-94
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Our team was a depleted team as just before the departure of the team for tournament four of our main backbone players (Prince, Sakre, Samip Rajguru Sir and Nobo Sir) got themselves dropped from the team on some health issues. Now the team was appearing to be a handicapped team and at one moment idea of dropping out of the tournament itself also came for consideration as our start players had left.
But somehow with bleak hopes team departed for the tournament under the guidance of Sarkar Sir. Lot of improvisation were made. Tanwar along with Mohanpal were placed as central defenders. Myself and Nitin were deployed as wingbacks. I had never played as a wingback before. More than attack our main focus was on defending as college team was there without its best defenders.
But in the tournament the principle of 'desperate situation demands desperate measures' started working well as a depleted looking team was playing reasonably good and one by one we registered three wins. Those victories were against some weaker opponents but playing those easy games had given us great match practice and players got well settled with their new roles on the ground and now we were looking like a strong team as confidence of the players was restored.
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winning KK Verma Memorial Trophy@LNCPE1993
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Then came a difficult game against Bhopal University which was one of the best team of the region and was being led by Danny, the younger brother of Prince. As Bhopal's players were well aware of our strength and weaknesses so they were fully prepared to deal with us. Their confidence was at cloud nine as two of our best defenders Prince and Sakre come from Bhopal only and that day both of them were not playing.
But we surprised them by knocking them out by 1-0. Courtesy to the most priced goal from Lamlun Bhuril Sir and versatility of Tanwar and Mohanpal in defense and heroics of Dubey in goal. This unlikely monumental victory filled us with super confidence and now we were in quarter and now our opponent was Goa, one of the best football playing University in India.
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| Tanwar still serving Football |
A pathetic looking team, in beginning, could smell a berth in All India Interuniversity competition as the winner of the game was bound to progress into All India Interuniversity.
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| Tanwar still serving Football |
Riding on the wave of super confidence we banged up the goal of Goa within first 5 minutes. We led the game till the 85th minutes but Goa being a team full of professional players started playing willful professional tactics and game went bit ugly as they started provoking us. Playing desperately they were getting frustrated as clock was ticking away.
Finally they succeeded in their tactics and their provocation made some of our players to lose their temper and a full fledge fight broke out on the ground itself. Even players from the benches also joined the fight. It was a war like situation on the ground and I was surprised to see our Tanwar was leading the fight from front as he jumped and stamped his boot on the chest of an opponent player as a severe state of pandemonium had been reached. Tanwar was the warrior of the moment and he was fighting like a gladiator as he was intensively busy in kicking, boxing and abusing the opponents.
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| the Gang of Tanwar |
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| The Reunion after 25 Years at LNCPE 2018 |
After cautions to many players of both teams, game resumed but the damage what was intended by Goa had taken place as we had lost our cool and rhythm and we conceded the equalising goal hardly 2 minutes before the final whistle.
Game went into extra time then to tiebreaker then finally we lost in the sudden death and a almost certain berth in All India Interuniversity competition was missed by a whisker. Perhaps we had got carried away with the artificially raised fit of anger by professional Goan players. |
| The Reunion after 25 Years at LNCPE 2018 |
Tanwar and me stayed together in Gwalior and Indore, travelled many places as friends and team mates.
On or off the ground he is always same, same passion and same stupidity rules him.
I often get worried for him when he smokes. With a cigarette between his dried lips make me to think that whether Tanwar is smoking cigarette or cigarette is smoking to Tanwar.
Dear Tanwar you are a super athlete please stay away from smoking.Hope now you are not smoking anymore
Me Prince and Tanwar have a strange story to live with as player, we three together played for and against our Alma Mater LNCPE and we were the winner in both situations.We played against LNCPE while we came there as a team of DAVV Indore in West Zone competition and we registered an emphatic win by 3-0 over our former team. |
| Raw Boys 1991 |
The face of smiling Tanwar would never go away from my memories, when during lunch, after looking at my lavishly full plate he would comment, "Dear Pahadi please have some Mercy on food and eat less otherwise how you are going to play in match practice," But I was always a food lover but now I realise that Tanwar was right as having full heavy meal used to bring a heavy round of sleep for me. And my love of eating made me slow at some crucial times.
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| Tanwar & King Prince 2020 |
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| He is still connected to Football |
Tanwar was so passionate to enjoy a free and thrill-filled life when we left Gwalior, first thing he did in Indore he bought an old LML Vespa scooter then he and Brar became like a free birds in the roads of Indore
May God keep Tanwar always blessed with same passion, craze and element of lovable madness which is his USP.
Once again a very happy wala birthday to our crazy bird the Tanwar. |
Live & Love, Luck is a Bonus
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Stay Blessed and Loved
Thanks for staying in my heart and mind,
You are my one of my most precious find.
Unforgettably yours,
I'm your buddy of bit different kind
: Vijay Bisht
Wow Vijay
ReplyDeleteYou wrote very well
Once again
Happy birthday dear friend
Anil
Thanks for your encouragement, keep reading and keep giving the feedback
Deleteभाई विजय मस्त लिखा है।
ReplyDeleteThanks for going through the text. Tanwar is really an awesome person ��
DeleteBist you concluded so well Tanvar's story.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written Vijay Sir
ReplyDeleteNice story
ReplyDelete