From right: Vishal’s wife Sonia, Vishal, sons Rishi and Varun, brother Tanuj and his wife Rinki. From right: Vishal’s wife Sonia, Vishal, sons Rishi and Varun, brother Tanuj and his wife Rinki.

Barely five years old, Vishal Chopra, standing between the seats of his family car with his little sister, saw his eight-months pregnant mother suddenly slump on the steering wheel, a thick stream of blood oozing from her nose. In 1974, on a deserted street in Derry, Ireland, Vishal lost his mother, Asha, and the unborn sibling, to a shot fired by an Irish Republican Army (IRA) sniper.

The bullet, it was later found, had ricocheted off the arm of a policeman on the street and hit Asha on the forehead. Chopras were the only Asian family among the victims of the unrest that lasted till the late 1990s. The IRA officially apologised for Asha’s death.

Asha’s death has found mention in chronicles of Indians in Ireland and is an unfortunate footnote in the Island’s uncomfortable past. Years later, Asha’s grandson and Vishal’s 15-year-old son, Varun, has added an Indian chapter to Ireland’s cricket story. Rising steadily on the junior circuit, Varun is all set to play the under-19 World Cup, making the young leg-spinner the first Asian to do so.

For Vishal, 46 now, the journey back to Ireland as a 17-year-old, after he was packed off to live with his grandparents in Mumbai days after his mother’s death for 12 years, has been worth it.

“My mother’s death changed everyone’s life in the family. My sister and I were flown to India right away while our father joined us after folding up his business. He would remarry. I didn’t let the trauma of my mother’s death make me turn my back on Ireland even though it brought unhappy memories. I did return to the place of my birth,” says Vishal, a diehard weekend club cricketer.

“Now I look forward to the day when my sons Varun and Rishi play for the Ireland senior team. Being part of the Ireland under-19 team is a big honour for the family and the Indian community,” he adds.

Staying in Coleraine, a northern Ireland town of about 40,000, Vishal often passes the Derry road, where his mother breathed her last, on some days to pick or drop his sons for cricket training. “Somehow, I feel her soul is around there. Dad used to tell me how he told mom not to drive as she was pregnant but she insisted. Ironically, it was a funeral that we were returning from. While at the wheel, my mother was talking to the cop who was managing the traffic because of a bomb threat in the area. We later found out, the IRA were aiming at the cop,” says Vishal, who is an importer of jewellery from around the world.

It’s not a trade he pursued as a 17-year-old in late 70s, when he was just another fresh-off-the boat teenager eager to make money. Vishal did exactly what his father, Prahlad, and other Indians before him did when when they landed in Ireland as the Raj was crumbling back home. In Ireland, they made their names as door-to-door salesmen. They were known to work all day, travel to interiors, reliable and, most importantly, give weekly credit. “The villagers loved us. I had a van that would be filled with clothes, trainers, grocery. All the Indian millionaires made their money starting as door-to-door salesman,” he says.

Vishal too climbed the social ladder gradually. Extra cash meant he could afford to return to the sport he loved. “There were a number of overseas players from India — like Kiran More, Shantanu Sugwekar, Milind Gunjal — who would come to play club cricket in our town. There was quality cricket. My sons mostly accompanied me for cricket games and they took the sport seriously,” he says.

Varun opted to be a leg-spinner, a rare species of bowlers in these parts. As luck would have it, Varun got a coach in Bobby Rao, a leg-spinner all-rounder who played for India, now married to a local. Varun learned the flipper, googly and the skidder from Rao and this resulted in his meteoric rise.

When selected to the u-19 team, Ireland’s junior coach Ryan Eagleson spoke about the boy who always seemed much smarter than the others on the field in age-group cricket. “Varun has had an outstanding season at the domestic level helping Coleraine to the Premier title, and bowling superbly for both our European titles-winning U-15 and 17 sides. He’s an exciting prospect who we have high hopes for,” he said.

Vishal describes his son as a “Anil Kumble type of leggie” and is quick to add, “I mean he bowls fastish leg-breaks that skid.” Vishal says that he isn’t looking too far ahead as, like all Asian fathers, he thinks studies are high on the priority of his academically inclined son. “But I am open to him travelling to England play county cricket,” he says.

Before he hangs up, he wants to know when the story will be published in the newspaper. “My father staying in Mumbai will be very happy,” he says.

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