Just yesterday I was searching for something and suddenly I landed on a page that showed all the mixed doubles results of Badwan challenge cup
As I scrolled down..I suddenly spotted a familiar name Sanat Mishra
Sanat Mishra made orissa proud with his badminton skills. He went to represent India in Seoul Asiad and won several championships in his careen spanning over 18 years.
Growing up I remember watching Sanat Mishra practice badminton at YMCA cuttack. Later in 1996 I had a rare chance meeting Sanat Mishra at a community function in Los Angeles. When the organizer of the function announced on the mic that Arjuna Award Winner Sanat Mishra from Orissa was in the crowd, all the attendees got up from their chairs and greeted him.
I quickly walked up to him, introduced myself and told him about Cuttack YMCA and also reminded him on how he used to drive his light green/yellow VESPA scooter to YMCA. When he heard that he was like..”Wow you remember my scotter..you brought back so many old memories”.
Then I met Sanat’s elder brother, his wife and other extended family at the function.
To find out what Sanat was up to these days, I did a quick google seach and found two links about him. Both were defunct.
Both of them said..”Former shuttler Sanat Mishra passes away” June 17, 2006.
The minute I read that, it was as if the ground broke beneath my feet. How come a man of so many virtues can pass away so quickly. I remember Sanat telling me about his plans on setting up a badminton coaching center to train young and aspiring players. Not sure if his wish ever came true.
The news clip said: Sanat was working for Railways at the time of his passing away. He was 44 years old.
Here is the link to the news page on Google cache
Just in case google drops this from its cache.. here is the entire news clip.
As Sanat Mishra deserves a better and broader tribute online, I wrote this small post about him. His contributions to the game of Badminton are too many. He was a true son of Orissa. May his soul rest in peace.
4 thoughts on “In Search Of Sanat Mishra”
Very saddened by the untimely passing away of Sanat Mishra. I am quite shocked actually by this because I was just talking about him to my collegue at work while we were discussing CWG 2010. I was 2 or so years his junior at Stewart School, Cuttack. And I fondly remember what a superb athelete he was! His skills were just amazing at any sport he took up. Even now, I can visualize his wicket-keeping magic behind the stumps. A born talent! He will be dearly missed…
-Sudhakar
Hi Sudhakar,
So glad to see your comment on Sanat. I have met his brothers and all of them posses rare sporting skills.
He is missed for sure
Srini
hey sudhakar,i dont know you but i being an alumni of SCB Medical college CTC and a badminton player i remember Sanat well. I too looked for sanat after a random thought came to my mind today . If i recollect Sudhir was his elder brother. it is sad that he had a fatal accident. YmCA was just opp. my house in ctc.
Rita
Hi Saripalli
I stumbled across this post accidentally today and salute you for your opinion about Sanat.
Sanat was my classmate from childhood all through schooldays, and so were his dad and mine.
Sanat started playing badminton in my backyard in Cantonment Road and later we shifted to Cuttack Club. He was my doubles partner all through Cuttack Club days, but I was just an ordinary player.
I too was crestfallen when he died. I had met him only 2 years prior at his place in Cuttack and memories were still fresh. I later visited his parents in 2008 to convey my anguish.
What pains me more is that his dad also passed away 2 months ago, and I got the news only yesterday. It was in that context that I came across this thread.