PK Banerjee, guru of Indian football, remembered by his wards

Kolkata: An assembly of some of the biggest names of Indian football from the past - from Shyam Thapa, Subhas Bhowmick to Bhaskar Ganguly and Baichung Bhutia - were at hand to recall fond memories of their 'guru' PK Banerjee at the launch of an anthology of essays on him on Sunday. A two-time Olympian and member of India's Asian Games gold medallist team of 1962, the iconic figure passed away in March last year after a prolonged illness.

A legendary coach who enjoyed phenomenal success rate with the Kolkata clubs from 1970s to '90s which dominated the country's football, Pradip Kumar Banerjee - famous as PK - had also been at the helm of the national team. Bhutia, arguably the biggest brand of Indian football in recent years and also a protege of PK, flew into the city from Gangtok to release the book in Bengali - aptly titled 'Guru' (The Master).

A collection of A-listers from the Bengali film industry like Abir Chatterjee (who conducted the proceedings), Rituparna Sengupta and Koushik Sen were also present at the well attended ceremony. The volume comprises of 17 episodes of the man speaking about his own journey which was published before, along with contribution from noted members of the city's sport, literary and academic fraternity.