{"id":497,"date":"2013-08-17T12:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/?p=497"},"modified":"2021-08-11T18:07:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T00:07:47","slug":"the-squash-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/2013\/08\/17\/the-squash-factory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Squash Factory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hira Bahadur Thapa has been defeated. The single person dominance in squash, for two decades, has ended. Depending upon whether you like the sport or not, you could take it negatively or positively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And his nemesis this time, taking away the title of national champion, was his own son, his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Amrit Thapa. Amrit won the NSRA National Squash Championship beating his father 3-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-7. The coach \u2013 the bronze medalist from 9th South Asian Games \u2013 fell to the power of his student, his understudy. Hira might have lost a bit of shine himself, but title remains in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title may have changed hands, but one thing you can\u2019t challenge is this man\u2019s endurance. It was for the first time in National championship, in 19 years, that this five-foot something man tasted defeat. Only twice in past 18 years, he had lost a set \u2013 in 1994 and 2012 \u2013 in the national championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When yours truly asked him what it feels to be beaten, he said, \u201cI am happy that my own student had defeated me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to focus on the word. He does not use the term \u2018son\u2019, but the term \u2018student\u2019. Modesty, maybe yes. Honesty, definitely\u2026 One thing you cannot doubt about this man is his honesty and integrity. Many who visit the Squash Academy in the capital valley, might have seen him mopping the floor himself. Yes, Hira Bahadur Thapa \u2013 the national squash champion for 18 years and Assistant coach at National Sports Council \u2013 mopping the floor. If you haven\u2019t seen him do that, watch out next time you visit the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You might have seen longevity in sports \u2013 though very few match a streak this long \u2013 but dominance in the field that he has shown is rare. And now he has produced national champions (his daughter Krishna Thapa also took the ladies\u2019 title).
Reigning a particular sport is one thing. Producing next generation of champions is another. So what makes Thapa household a squash factory? Ask senior Thapa, he says, \u201cDespite being students, they spend extra time playing squash. They work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple enough. Great players will tell you, success comes when you keep things simple. And perhaps, despite all modesty you see in his behavior, Hira Bahadur Thapa has learnt it well. In an age where you see more and more players taking the route of sophistication, Thapa household wants to maintain simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask him how does he coach his children, and he reminds you that he is coaching some 15-16 youngster. He tells you, \u201cI try not to coach them. I guide them. In fact, I spend less time with them than other students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does he see potential in others? He tells you, \u201cI have seen some great potential in some U-13 and U-14 players. They can be champion one day. In fact I want more of my students to become like my son.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, after he won the national title for the 18th time, yours truly had asked him, if he felt good about being an unchallenged champion for so long. The answer: \u201cI feel sad. There should be competition which makes us work hard. Sometimes, I feel as if the sport is not developing as much as it should.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was when he had predicted that his son might beat him to the national title. And he did, his son, his prot\u00e9g\u00e9. Yet, he tells you that he is not ready to hang up his boots. Not quite yet. \u201cDespite defeat, I\u2019ve not thought of retiring yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might think that this person is lying. But you\u2019d think so, only if you haven\u2019t seen him in action. For you could have seen him, all these years, without fail, hitting the ball in the court, with regularity unseen in Nepali sports scene. As if he was a slot machine, or an assembly line production device, which churns out products one after other, with amazing regularity. Work ethic? Definitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now the man from Bakrang VDC in Gorkha has given us two new champions, to take the squash dynasty forward. If that is not squash factory, what is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS: This write-up appeared in yours truly\u2019s weekly column at The Kathmandu Post \u2013 OFFSIDE, on 17th August 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hira Bahadur Thapa has been defeated. The single person dominance in squash, for two decades, has ended. Depending upon whether you like the sport or not, you could take it negatively or positively. And his nemesis this time, taking away the title of national champion, was his own son, his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Amrit Thapa. Amrit won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}