Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 3

Having faced major health issues owing to complications related to lymphatic cancer, Capt IS Dhami (Retd) remains a spirited man and a fighter to the core.

At 59, he is still running the affairs of the Virsa Vihar as its secretary and doubling up as the manager of the 80-bed Youth Hostel at Burlton Park. His day starts at 5 am; jogging in the morning and yoga is next. He follows a healthy diet regimen, which he says has helped him get over his ailments for last few years.

Capt Dhami has had a long spanning, multi-tasking career. Recruited through Short Service Commission (SSC), he was an army man for seven years after which he took up the job in the Youth Services Department of the state government and retired as the Deputy Director of Youth Services in March last year. Staying idle was never his habit; he continues to assist the district administration for various works even after his superannuation.

A ‘jolly good fellow’ as he is known as in his friend circle, Capt Dhami shares, “I have enjoyed my work wherever I have gone. I served in the best of Army stations, including Binnaguri Cantonment along Bhutan border, Leh and Jammu. I served in the Youth Services Department for 28 years. I kept the Jalandhar youth engaged in several activities. During the stint, about 1100 youth clubs were registered in the district, about 500 of which are still actively working. I roped in as many as 40,000 students of schools and colleges in the National Services Scheme and organised their camps and activities.”

It was during his tenure in the Youth Services Department in 2007 that Capt Dhami was detected with cancer. He underwent several cycles of chemotherapy and a three-year treatment for his disease at DMC, Ludhiana, and returned even stronger in the field in 2010. Ever since, he has continued to keep the youth engaged in activities and organised all youth-related events including district-level Independence Day and Republic Day functions. He has been recognised and rewarded for his activities at the district-level functions four times.

As the Secretary of Virsa Vihar, he had set in motion monthly cultural programmes engaging colleges for the same. The ongoing series of programmes, however, had to be shelved off owing to pandemic.

For all the tough phases that he passed through, Capt Dhami says that he sailed through with the blessings of almighty and support of his family. “It was in first week of March that I caught Covid. Being a cancer patient and having had very low immunity, I was quickly prone to it. But thankfully, that difficult time also just went by. My wife, who is a mentor and gives training to caregivers and trains children for etiquettes and table manners, has been my pillar of strength. So have been my son, a city-based dentist, and my daughter, who is a psychologist.”