The principal who built city’s first in-college shooting range

The idea behind building a shooting range emerged during Sane’s 13-year tenure as principal between 1992 and 2005, coinciding with India emerging as a strong nation in marksmanship internationally. By then the college boasted of a robust cricket culture, with the likes of Ajit Wadekar and Sandip Patil being their stars. But Sane would see this obsessive focus on cricket as a loss of opportunity for athletes from other sports. “He wanted to support other sports. He decided to go for something that would make our college stand out. That’s how he came about picking shooting,” recalls Suhas Pednekar, the incumbent principal, who was once Sane’s deputy.

Finding a location wasn’t very difficult, although according to Chakravarty, Sane spent months studying the game and thinking over a suitable spot. “Eventually he picked what was an extension of the canteen. Students used to play cricket or eat their tiffin in that area,” he says. A basic hall was set up by 1999. A hand-powered pulley system was first placed, while tube-lights and ceiling fans dominated the ambience back then.

By 2004, just a year before Sane retired, the range was complete. Centralised air conditioning and energy-efficient lightbulbs were installed, along with an automatic pulley system that was fitted in each of the nine lanes — an armoury neatly installed in the adjoining room. “He wasn’t one to compromise on quality. Everything had to be top notch,” says Pednekar.

Opposition to the idea did come about nonetheless, given that the college overlooks the immense Dadkar Maidan which hosted the mighty Dadar Union cricket club, and Shivaji Park not far off. “The neighbourhood was very cricket oriented. So they didn’t take it lightly when they realised he was trying to do something in another sport with funds being diverted. But he was determined because he saw the possibilities in the move,” says Wadekar, who still fondly remembers Sane as the chemistry professor who helped him make up for missed classes by conducting extra lessons for the cricketer.

The range was an instant hit. An array of international shooters were produced, the most prominent being 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Ayonika Paul. “It always helps when there is such a facility inside your college campus. I’d practice in between classes, or during free lectures. Sometimes I’d come early, or stay back after classes. It was just so convenient,” she says. “Of course, there was also the show-off factor. I could boast that my college had something others didn’t,” she adds.

For the sport itself, Sane’s foresight provided a lasting legacy.

“The range ensures it isn’t just one generation of shooters that is produced. Having it in college means more students will take interest,” says Olympian Deepali Deshpande, who often visited the facility.

Sane, who died in his sleep, from suspected low sugar levels, the first night of the Children’s Science Congress he’d helped organise, aged 69, will be fondly remembered by a small group of shooters who always found encouragement in the highly niche sport from a feted academician. Yet for those who never met Sane, the meticulously designed and constructed shooting range stands as testimony to his persistent and prescient belief that there was life beyond cricket.

For them, Sane will be the college principal who built Mumbai’s first in-college shooting range.

shahid.judge@expressindia.com