Under lockdown, NRI boxing promoter turns to social work

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 26

On any given day, conversations with Parmjit Singh Goraya — Parm Goraya in the boxing circles — eventually lead to his interactions with some of the biggest names in boxing and mixed martial arts, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bob Arum and Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship.

However, these days his focus is more on the rates of vegetables and essential commodities in the local mandi and the cost of bajri, reta and other material needed in construction. The former London banker — he left his last job with Metro Bank five years ago to pursue a career in boxing — is busy these days in helping out the needy in his ancestral village, Haripur, which falls in Adampur tehsil in Jalandhar.

Goraya and a friend from the UK — who did not wish to be named — have been instrumental in feeding over 50 people daily, providing tuition to at least 12 homeless children for the last six months. On top of that, they are overseeing the renovation of two mosques.

Kids of migrants

“They are primarily children of migrant labours from Bihar. They needed help so we stepped in. The children get private tuition twice a day, from 9am to 11am, and then from 3pm to 5pm. They are being taught English, Hindi and Punjabi and they are given tests every Friday to see how they are progressing,” Goraya told The Tribune over the phone.

“I and my friend are from the Sikh background, and we just saw the mosques as God’s house… We know the Muslim community is a minority in our area and we wanted to help them as much as possible. Both renovation projects are coming up well. They will be completed in four to six weeks,” he added.

Goraya’s work in Haripur is a natural progression of his time during the lockdown in Gurugram.

Lockdown

Goraya, an accredited professional boxing manager with the Nevada State Athletics Commission, until last year was the Chief Operations Officer (North America and Mexico) with the Super Boxing League. He landed in India in February to work on his own project to start a professional league for Indian boxers.

Then, out of the blue, the country went into a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and he was stuck alone in a Gurugram apartment. It was then the idea of helping the needy struck him.

“I was surprised there was no one on the road, not even a dog was out on the Gurgaon streets. I would cook for around 30 people, pack it and walk around 3 kilometres in Gurgaon, looking predominantly for kids but invariably found their parents with them. So I started to feed them regularly,” Goraya explained.

“Then I shifted to Punjab and started looking to carry on the same work. A friend of mine from the UK saw my social media posts and asked me: ‘You went to India for boxing, what are you up to?’ I replied that these are bad times and we need to chip in. He said we could help 30-50 people per day, and it’s just gone on from there,” he said.

Masjid renovations

The two friends are renovating two mosques, one in Haripur and the other in Talwandi. It started with a chance meeting with the family of the local maulvi, Nek Mohammad.

“I saw this old masjid in my pind, supposedly built before 1947. I do not remember seeing a masjid in my village so I walked in. The maulvi was out but I spoke with his family,” Goraya said.

Goraya realised the mosque needed repairs. “I was told that until about three years ago, villagers used to tie their cattle there. A local woman fakir, called Buaji by everybody, got the animals removed. It needed repairs, and now another masjid is also being renovated,” he added.

He does not want to disclose the amount of money he has spent on social work in the last seven months. “I am a firm believer in God’s will, I am doing what I can to help out,” he said. “We are just doing seva and I do not want to put a number on anything. Hope we can do more.”

CSK first team to be eliminated from IPL 13

Dubai: Three-time champions Chennai Super Kings have been knocked out of the race to secure an IPL playoffs’ berth for the first time in 13 years after Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians by eight wickets in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side had made it to the playoffs in each of the 10 IPL seasons that it participated since the league started in 2008. PTI