‘Golden’ moment for Naveen Mahajan on tennis court!
Jaipur: A part from administrative duties and responsibilities, many bureaucrats continue to showcase their talents in extracurricular activities. Their interests and involvement span across book writing, teaching, painting, music and sports.
One such example is senior IAS officer Naveen Mahajan, a 1997 batch officer, who is an exceptional tennis player. For the past 20 years, Mahajan has started his day with an hour of tennis on the court. Recently, on Friday, he won a gold medal in the All India Central Services Tennis Championship held at Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. He won the medal with his partner Jagdish Tanwar, bringing glory to Rajasthan. The competition saw participation from tennis players from across the country. Mahajan (53) is an amateur tennis player. Winning has become a habit for this IAS officer.
The present achievement of Mahajan is significant as he had to battle it out with players employed under sports quota. But with his ‘never- say- die’ spirit, Mahajan has been able to win a gold medal in this tightly contested tournament for the third time. Mahajan has over 35 winner trophies in his kitty at every level including inter-club, state and national level. As collector Jaipur, Mahajan had started ‘Chief Secretary Challenger Cup’ in 2011. It started with 8 teams and last year, there were 18-20 teams. Interestingly, so far, Mahajan has led the IAS team in each tournament. He is an amateur tennis player, who has represented his native place Jalandhar in hockey. According to Mahajan, “There is not much difference for me to play with a hockey stick or with a tennis racket. “ At present, this energetic sports bureaucrat is Chief Electoral Officer, Rajasthan.
