New Delhi: Indian Army Chief General V K Singh, on Monday launched the autobiography of 1968 Mexico Olympic medallist, Col. (Retd) Balbir Singh Kular in the city. Christened as ‘Sansarpur to London Olympics’, by 1968 Mexico Olympic medallist and current national selector Col. (Retd) Balbir Singh Kular becomes, first book to be available for both computer and mobile downloads.
Published by Indian Sports Books and by using the technological brilliance of handygo Techcnologies, this book attempts to reach out to Indian hockey fans world across through online and digital formats as well.
“Sansarpur to London Olympics”, co-authored by sports film maker Sunil Yash Kalra, is a unique book of personal memoir, with interesting compilation of stories, funny anecdotes, sensational revelations and heart-warming vignettes of his life in the Army and as a hockey player and coach. The book is a treasure-trove of rare photographs, some of which date back to the days of the ‘Wizard of Hockey’, Maj Dhyan Chand. In places it reads like a thriller, at others like an intimate autobiography. All in all a thunderously good read, almost unputdownable!
1968 Olympic medalist, Col Balbir Singh Kular hails from Sansarpur, a village in Punjab that has produced 14 Olympic medallists since 1932 US Olympics. Right from an early age, Col Balbir Singh was obviously marked for greatness; his upbringing at Sansarpur – the matrix of Indian hockey in the halcyon days of global supremacy – aided by his inimitable genes, burning desire to emulate his forefathers, and his induction into the Indian Army all combined to catapult him to stardom.
Col Balbir Singh’s life in the Army and as a player in the Indian hockey team and as a national coach and selector later gave him a number of memories that needed an outlet to share with the ardent fans of our national game and sport lovers in general.
At the launch Col. Singh said, “My autobiography, From Sansarpur to London Olympics, is a sincere attempt to chronicle my life, on and off the field. Aided by newspaper clips, official letters and formal exchanges for over half a century, this humble effort is aimed at hockey aficionados on various landmarks of Indian hockey, in past six decades”. He further adds “I have been fortunate to have been continuously a part of various historic events in the past six decades of Indian hockey and now the time is right to share it in exact entirety”.
Launched in a digital format, the e-version is priced at Rs 95 and available exclusively on handygo technologies RockASAP.com,‘Sansarpur to London Olympics’ will be the first ever sports book in the country to be launched as an E-Book which will not only be available on all Smartphones and Tablets but also on all GPRS enabled mobile handsets, thus reaching out to a large section of mobile phone users.
Dipanker Mukherjee, COO, handygo Technologies said, “We are really happy to launch Col. Balbir’s masterpiece, India’s first sports book on e-book platform on India’s first M-Commerce application RockASAP.com. We will be promoting ‘Sansarpur to London Olympics’ on our website for our existing and prospective customers. This book is a must read for all age groups and now with the advent of mobile telephony everything has become on the go. This Generation on the go’, reads, writes, and reacts, networks…..on the Go!! and would be our key target customers for this book.”
He further added, “Our application is not only an application unlike many available in the market. Along with its basic functionalities it also works as ‘an e-book reader’, a Library where you keep your digital books and magazines ready and use it as and when you feel like, and most importantly it helps the ‘publishing Industry’ reduce piracy as the application comes with inbuilt DRM, specially developed by handygo Technologies, which allows a user only to download a Book and Read it. You just can’t transfer it; take a printout or share with others.”
RockASAP.com is India’s first M-Commerce application. RockASAP.com’s ‘E-Book’ search engine will empower users to search for their favorite books, authors & products from the wide collection of digital books available at RockASAP.com. Handygo has tied-up with more than 40 publishers as well as various National & International authors in various categories for its ‘E-Books’ section to bring in the best reading experience to its users within a click. Users can download more than 500 books, priced 40% - 50% less than the paperback editions. Adopted and accepted worldwide, handygo Technologies have brought this ‘E-book’ concept to India, available with the RockASAP.com.
The book is launched by Chief of the army staff Gen. V.K. Singh in a ceremony attended by Anjum Chopra, Women Test Cricketer and cricket commentator, Zaffar Iqbal, Olympic Hockey gold medallist and Chef - de - Mission of London Olympics 2012 and Olympic medalist - Ajit Pal Singh and Harbinder Singh, Hockey Olympic medallist.
This ceremony of E-book launch was followed by a round table discussion involving the key dignitaries discussing anecdotes of the book, the journey of hockey over the years in the country and experiences of these veterans during their sporting years.
Justin Alva, Business Head, Indian Sports Book, a publishing house said, “We are extremely proud of this hockey project. With this unique and historical partnership with Handygo Technologies, we expect to reach the netizens in entirety. Largely the Indian Diaspora would be pleased about this unique offering that transcends time zones and global landscapes.
