Champ, A Rags To Riches Story

By Rajesh Rao

This is the story of a young boxer who rises above the circumstances that he is born in and how he makes it to the pinnacle of his career. It also portrays the struggle that not only the poor, but also the exponents of games other than the second religion or the nation's favorite. In India it being cricket. This sports fiction novel draws inspiration from the life and experiences of the author that he has accumulated during his tenure as a member of the boxing fraternity in various capacities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rajesh Rao
• Release date: Mar 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311302816

Rajesh Rao

I have always had a passion for writing. It all started when i was working with the Maharashtra Amateur Boxing Association as the co-ordinator of the association. While writing letters to different organizations for fund raising and for permissions for various tournaments and championships.Later, I started writing essays based on my own experiences of life and around my first experiences. though they were never published, I have been told by many who read them that i had the gift to write. Thus, I started working on my first novel which though started in 2005 was not completed till 2008 and finally has been published here on smashwords only this year.I plan on writing and publishing more novels. I love writing fiction and will also dabble in other genres like horror, crime and romance.

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Champ, A Rags To Riches Story

Rajesh Rao

Copyright 2015 Rajesh Rao

Published by Rajesh Rao at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

BOOK ONE

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

BOOK TWO

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

About Rajesh Rao

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all of my friends who read the initial few chapters and gave me the thumbs up to go ahead and write this novel. I would like to thank also my sister, Sharmila who has been my constant source of inspiration. Thanks for the words of encouragement sister. I also wish to thank my dear departed parents who were a constant source of inspiration. I dedicate this novel to them. Also dedicated to many of my former colleagues, Shakti, Tushar, Rojell and my Facebook friends who have reviewed my book at different stages of its development.

In part, I would like to thank Jay Kowli for being my mentor and on whom I have loosely based a character in this novel. Special thanks to the many friends who also thought I wouldn’t complete this novel since they knew that I seldom took things to their logical end.

And last but not the least, I will never forget the role MY boxers and students of SIES College, Mumbai who have borne the brunt of my emotional outbursts over the last decade. I also give out my thanks to many a student from other colleges and the different teams that I have taken on tours. Thanks also mainly to Mr. Jaywant More, my coach in boxing and the combination of a butterfly and bee for us students of Kirti College. For the ‘music’ that he encouraged us to produce on the punching bag.

BOOK ONE

Chapter One

'You bastard, you have nothing else to do in your life but drink and ask me for money. Why don't you kill me for the last time? I would prefer to die once rather than dying like this piece by little piece every single day.'

'Hey catch that fucker. He has been evading arrest for a long time now. What the fuck does he think of the police that all of us are assholes? And that he can ride his luck to glory every time?'

'There is a contingent of cash going from the bank down the corner that is supposed to be a low profile transfer of some high level amount. What a windfall of a heist that can prove to be.'

These and many other such dialogues of abuse, frustration torture and misadventurous heists are an everyday occurrence in many of the slums that dot the landscape of big cities around the world. And hence they are also known as the breeding ground of many a criminals and losers, nay givers up in life. However, this is a tale, rather a saga of a boy who has seen all this but eventually, struggled and come out of the muck to emerge as a champion. A REAL CHAMPION.

Narendra Ramakant More was born to an in-and-out-of-job Ramakant Hari More, a lowly daily wage helper and a handcart puller. A typical day in this laborer’s life was getting up at the crack of dawn, going to the local liquor joint, get himself a quarter and then after guzzling it voraciously, go hunting for menial jobs.The same ritual would be repeated at the end of the day. Sometimes it would be pulling the handcart for a paltry ten bucks for a small errand to fifty bucks for a longer one. He was just thirty-nine. However, he already looked sixty. This was thanks to his constant and never ending love affair with the bottle and tobacco. He was married when he was of the right age- around 22 years of age. However, without any means to support himself, much less his future family. His family now consisted of his wife, Anandi; three daughters and a son who was born after much desperation. He was named Narendra, meaning king of men.

So before we even get into the nitty-gritty of being Narendra More, let us peek into his tiny one room tenement. In fact, it is nothing short of a hutment. The only thing that separates the structure from a regular hutment is that it is certified legal by the government. That after a harrowing eight years of struggle by the people staying there, illegally initially for seven years. Every now and then, they would be evacuated, their houses razed and then when the bulldozers left, the people would gather the shambles and again begin building their dwellings.

Things had come to such a head that there was a time when the locals started predicting when the municipality trucks would roll in and get to work destroying the colony. And where there is brain involved - albeit for guess work – there is an opportunity for speculation and industry and of course money. Jagtarsingh Chhota and Vardisingh Rathod, two friends saw this industry potential and starting operating a small betting center. They would start a small betting ring, collecting small amounts of money from the men folk and draw a wager. The odds were highest with the best prediction. Of course, the dates were unpredictable and whether any of the bettors made any money or not, the two friends made tons of money. They had grown influential during the years. With the kind of money that was gambled that they masterminded a game plan for their business to flourish more. The plan was simple and many times effective. Get a mole in the municipality office and get the exact date of the raid by the squad for illegal structures. And later raise the minimum bet.

Of course, the ploy would not work all the time, since there were some hard to break officers who were happy with the pay that they got from the government, and who wanted to see themselves without any guilt or remorse in the mirror when they are naked in their bathrooms. And also pass on a legacy that will make their children proud to strut about in the society, even much long after they have themselves gone from the face of the earth.

Narendra or Naru to his mom alias Narya to his friends would watch all this and grow up to be a youth that would be influenced to someday get into this flourishing industry. After all, the two bosses of the gambling den made millions in the years that they had been operating the gambling operation. However, as they say, man proposes and God disposes. Things took a turn for the good one day when he was a kid of ten. The events that followed turned his life upside down. His interpretation of life as he knew it until that point would change forever. Life for him was school, friends, class work and homework (which he and