This is the story of S Mani – a story of love, betrayal and pain. The story of a jhuggi boy who went on to become a much sought-after jockey. A rags-to-riches story of a man who fell in love with a girl he had grown up with in the same locality. The fairy tale of a famous rider who married the woman he loved against his parents’ wishes and hoped to live happily ever after.
Samikshan Dutta Choudhury of Indian Sports News tracks the rider.
At first glance, it seems the perfect masala mix for a Bollywood potboiler. But after spending a couple of hours with this man, one can’t help but ponder how far human values have degenerated, when your loved ones leave you in the lurch to fend for yourself in an unknown world just when you need them most.
But alas, some dreams are short-lived. Destiny had something else in store for this Delhi rider. The very art he had mastered over the years became the villain. The very horse that sped on his command threw him off its back, leaving him with head injuries. The injuries caused partial memory loss, made him less tolerant and, over time, distanced the jockey from his loved ones.
And so a new story unfolded. The woman he had married to spend his whole life with disappeared with their two sons (Deepak and Suraj) and the cash (approximately Rs 20 lakh) she had received from selling Mani’s Vasant Kunj flat, which the rider had bought with his hard-earned money.
“Gairo se kya shikayat kare jab apno ne hi hame loot liya,” said Mani. “As long as you have fame and money, people run around you. The day it’s gone, nobody recognises you. Why talk about the people around you? I have been betrayed by my own wife, whom I loved so much. All my relatives have distanced themselves from me. Had it not been for the goodwill I earned earlier in my career, I would have been left stranded on the streets.”
“He gets a pension of Rs 1,000 from the Bombay Race Club, and he gets Rs 100 a week for working on the tracks,” said Deepak Mishra, a commentator at the Delhi Race Club. “He was associated with the Delhi Race Club for so long, but he still doesn’t get any sort of help from them,” he added.
Recalling the former jockey’s glory days, K Ali Khan, one of the trainers at the course, said everything about the rider was true. “I have seen him grow into a jockey. He was a fantastic rider and won many races. But that accident changed his life. The head injury caused memory loss, and after that everything – professional and personal – changed for him.”
Saleem, a syce (a groom who has looked after horses at the course for the last 35 years), agrees. “He was an excellent rider. Mani earned a lot of fame and money. But destiny had something else in store for him,” he said.
And Mani himself has an explanation for the S in his name: “Earlier it was so much money, and now it’s short of money.”
As he tells his story, Mani’s face brims with joy and pride. “My father was a small-time trainer, and my two brothers and I lived in the jhuggis here. I started riding in 1975 and by 1980 I was a champion jockey. I won a number of races in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi. With fame came money, and I bought a flat in Mayur Vihar and later moved to Vasant Kunj. I married Nirmala, the girl I loved. My parents were against it but relented later,” recalls Mani.
Remembering those days, the 53-year-old gets lost in thought. “Those were the days. I was a star. I used to earn a lot of money. I had an Amitabh Bachchan haircut, and people used to call me Danny (Denzongpa). I used to take my wife to different places, always by air. But see what she did to me. Just because I lost my fame and money, I was treated like this,” said the rider, who lost control of his horse and fell in 1994.
For the next seven years, he somehow managed to live with his family, but always in distress and irritation. “The head injury made me intolerant of certain things. We lived in an upmarket locality, and the way my wife (who had been brought up like me) conducted herself was quite insulting. That used to agitate me at times. Then one day one of my brothers-in-law and his two sons, who had come to my house, tied me up and broke my teeth. I got scared, thinking that next time it could be my hands or feet. I left home in fear,” said the luckless jockey.
Mani said he went straight to his brother, M Mani, at Palam. “I stayed there for a year or so and then moved to my cousin’s house. But again I had to leave for certain reasons. I even worked in Meerut for some time. In between, I went to my Vasant Kunj flat and found out that my wife had sold it for Rs 20 lakh and disappeared with my children. I asked my brothers-in-law, but they always said they did not know where she was. For the past few years I have been living here at the Delhi Race Club,” said Mani.
The former champion may have lost everything professionally and personally, but he hasn’t lost his zest for life. “So what if I am not riding any more? I am still involved with racing in some way or other. I still look after the horses at the club and give the jockeys tips about the races. I was born and raised here, and I will carry on serving the sport and this place for as long as I can. But yes, one day I would like to meet my wife and my children. I want to know why this happened to me. Did I really deserve this?” he asked.
