Nishad has sound credentials to answer this question. Holding a master's degree in political science from Allahabad, he was a swimming champion representing the university in aquatic events for five years at a stretch. He is the father and coach of two daughters -- Taruna and Kirti -- who have performed swimming feats even as babies.Taruna swam across the one-km width of the Yamuna in 38 minutes on May 30, 1992 (at the age of less than three and a half) in the presence of a large cheering crowd. Less than six months later (on November 11, 1992), before a vast gathering on the occasion of Ganga Mahotsava, she crossed the whole width of the Ganga in just 31 minutes and won an entry in the Limca Book of Records as the `Youngest Swimmer of the World'. On August 11, 1996, she set another record: a non-stopswim covering 6,050 metres in six hours and 19 minutes securing a second mention in the same book of records.

Asked how the idea of bringing his girls up as swimmers had struck him, Nishad recalled an incident from Taruna's infancy. When only nine months and unable to stand on her feet, she had toddled up to a plastic tub full of water and was splashing her hands in it. He seated her in the tub to see how she took it. For 15 days he kept doing the same. She started moving her arms and legs in water fearlessly and, by the time she was two years, began to swim in the Ganga-Yamuna river for half an hour without any support. Now she is able to float on the water up to four hours at a stretch. She has, accordingly, earned the title of Jalpari.

Four weeks short of three years, Kirti has already proved a worthy second to Taruna. On June 1, 1997, she swam 1,500 meters in 29 minutes, beating the earlier record of Sofia from Peru who had crossed 1,000 metres on March 27 at the age of three years.

One doesnot know if these wonder kids owe it to the gene of their father, or his training as a champion-swimmer and the atmosphere created by Nishad's Navjeevan Swimming Club, Sindhu Sagar Ghai, Allahabad, through which he trains up 20 to 25 children between eight and 15 for a year. The nation, however, has yet to take note. The local Press has, of course, been raving about the feats of the Nishad kids, but is that enough?

I have admired the Chinese and European divers who dominate swimming events. I have kept dreaming about the chance of the country securing top international honours in this sport. Then the subject made a forceful comeback in my mind one fine morning not long ago.

Some of us had gone on a visit to the Sangam recently. While getting off the Hovercraft there, I casually asked the driver for his name. It was Nishad! There was another shock in store: he was working for the Allahabad Development Autho-rity on a daily wage of Rs. 46 per day and sells glasses in spare time in order to make both endsmeet.

To my proposal for a demonstration of their aquatic feats by the two baby girls, his reply was one of calm acceptance. It was later that he talked of his dream of some international recognition for them in addition to scholarships and awards.

I have been wondering if we really have such a surfeit of skills as to ignore someone holding a real promise of hitting the world headlines for the country. Can we afford to treat our Nishads with supreme unconcern? To let their family subsist on a daily pittance of Rs. 46?

And, quiet flows the Sangam, unmindful of the wizard of the waters eking out a bare living on its bosom.