Young Dhyan Singh simply loved hockey. As a boy, he and his friends used to cut branches off date palm trees and use them as hockey sticks.

Not many know that he actually played for the Army long before he joined the Army. At 14, he accompanied his father to a match between two Army teams. When one team fell behind in the game, Dhyan told his father loudly that if he only had a hockey stick, he would take them to victory.

A British army officer sitting nearby scolded Dhyan for boasting, but then gave him a chance to play. True to his word, Dhyan scored four goals. So impressed was the officer that he inducted Dhyan into the ‘Bachaa Paltan’ or the ‘Children’s Platoon’.

The story goes that Dhyan liked to practise the game after his daily soldierly duties were done. But of course, it was usually dark then, and this was many years before the coming of floodlights. So Dhyan used to wait to practice till the moon had risen.

On full moon nights, when dogs everywhere howl and the trees are bathed in a silvery glow, you might have seen this slim young man with his flashing hockey stick, propelling a ball rapidly across a playing field before slamming it into the goal.