From the track to tragedy. Former athlete’s life cut short in Kolkata

Not every story is meant to be inspiring; not every athlete overcomes the odds. Some stories end in tragedy.

One such story is that of Ashish Mondal, a promising quarter-miler turned mason, who tragically lost his life to injuries sustained from a fall off the fifth floor of an under-construction building in Kolkata. He was 33.

His tragic death left his former India teammates shell-shocked and plunged his already struggling family into deeper grief.

His wife, Fuli Das Mondal, 28, has now lost all hope and their five-year-old daughter, Arushi, faces an uncertain future.

"I underwent heart surgery in 2013 and cannot do any heavy work. We do not know what lies ahead for us," a dejected Fuli told The Bridge.

"We knew each other since we were young. Ashish was very optimistic about his athletics career, but he never received any support. Later, after our marriage, whenever I asked him about his dreams, he remained silent," she added.

Promise unfulfilled

Ashish, who hailed from Chandipur village in the Baduria block of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, was spotted and enrolled by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Sports School in Habra in 2001.

In 2007, Ashish dazzled the Bengaluru crowd by running the 400m in 48.07 seconds. His performance caught the attention of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), who promptly included him in the men's 4x400m relay team for the World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, scheduled for July that year.

However, just as he was on the brink of his international debut, the relay team was removed from the Indian contingent at the last moment, dashing Ashish's hopes.

Undeterred, Ashish went on to compete at the South Asian Junior Championships in Colombo in 2008, representing India at the international level for the first time. But after that fleeting moment on the global stage, he gradually faded into obscurity, with his childhood dream of becoming a successful athlete slipping away.

By 2009, he had turned his back on the track, accepting the harsh realities of life. He took up work as a mason to support his struggling family, but the pain of leaving the track never left his heart.

"It hurts me to see others run. Poverty derailed my career. Tell me, how long can I run on an empty stomach? My father is a daily laborer and gets no more than 10-12 days of work each month. When it was difficult to even manage the household, how could he afford to support my career? I couldn’t access any outside support either. I was forced to leave the sport," Ashish told Aajkaal, a Bengali daily, in 2015.

"The pain of leaving athletics will be my companion for the rest of my life," he had lamented.

Life of hardships

Antana Khatun, a former Indian heptathlete and a contemporary of Ashish, recalls the ordeal of her 'friend.'

"His styling was really impressive. Despite not being tall, his strides were long, which made him so quick," Antana told The Bridge.

"But with no system in place and nobody to guide him, he lost his way. The dire situation forced him into construction work. He never got a second chance. His life was so cruel. After failing his secondary examination, he struggled to stay active as an athlete. Our school didn’t allow us to stay in the hostel after the secondary exams."

With no place to sleep and no money for food, pursuing athletics became a luxury for Ashish.

"How could he play on empty stomach? Securing a job at that age was not possible. He had no choice but to turn to the unorganized sector. Our system is not athlete-friendly, and since he wasn’t strong academically, the system let him fail in life," Antana lamented.

"Those who had money didn’t help him, and those who sympathised with his condition didn’t have the money to help."

She also highlighted how the lack of support from the state government is making things difficult for athletes like Ashish.

"I was lucky that I could complete my study and got a job. As an athlete, a little help could have changed his life. From school to youth level, he won so many medals, but we don’t have a system. The government does nothing. In other states, medalists receive good amount of prize money to sustain their lives, but in our state, we hardly get anything," said Antana, who is now employed with the Eastern Railways.

Family in shambles

Ashish's family has been living in dire conditions.

"Last week, I visited their house, and I was so disappointed. They do not even have basic living conditions — no washroom, no bedroom to sleep in. Before Ashish's death and his sister's marriage, there were ten members in the family. Now, after his passing, there are eight, all living under one shed. When I went to his house, I saw big buildings nearby, but I felt like crying because the locals did not come forward to help them," said Antana.

"We have been living without a proper home for a long time now. How am I supposed to build a house when I don't have the money?" asked Dev Kumar, Ashish's father.

"There are government schemes to build houses for the poor, but I do not understand why his family did not get a house yet. My friends and I arranged Rs 38,000 and gave it to his family. They need money to build a house," Antana said.

Debashree Majumdar, an Asian Championships relay gold medalist and a contemporary of Ashish, was also deeply saddened by his untimely death, though she had been dismayed by Ashish fading away as an athlete long before.

"He was a really talented athlete. We made our international debut together in Colombo. That year we were only the two athletes who qualified for the event from West Bengal. But after that, we lost touch. Later, I saw in the news that he was working as a mason. He could have done well but never got the support. I tried to contact him a few times, but he never responded. That was alright. But now, he left us forever," Debashree said.