Chatterjee and (right) Seal with their participation medals. (Sudeshna Banerjee)

Calcutta, June 27: A month from now, on July 27, when Queen Elizabeth declares the London Olympics open, two men from north Calcutta, living a 15 minute-drive from each other, will be reliving memories of their participation in the last Olympic Games held in the English capital.

Gora Chand Seal, 89, and Suhas Chatterjee, 87, are teammates who played waterpolo for India in the 1948 Olympics. The two octogenarians keep in touch over telephone but when Metro made them sit together, the decades rewinded in a flash.

India’s 2012 Olympic contingent is unlikely to leave home more than a week before the inauguration but the 1948 squad had left almost a month ago. “It took us 21 days to reach English shores,” recalls Seal, the more active of the two, both physically and mentally.

In the 16-member team, 11 were from Calcutta, so popular was waterpolo in the city then. “Our tournament final tickets used to get sold out weeks in advance,” says Seal. He and Chatterjee belonged to Central Swimming Club of Hedua.

The ship bearing the Tricolour — christened the Empire Brent, a World War II veteran — had set sail carrying members of all sports except hockey.

“And such a reception we were given! When the ship docked at Aden, gunshots were fired. We sailed through the Suez Canal and eventually reached Liverpool,” recalls Chatterjee. It was a maiden voyage for almost all the lads and seasickness spared few.

The venue for the Games was the Wembley Stadium. “We were put up in tents at Richmond Park in south-west London.” It was a battle-scarred country hosting the Olympics, and all corners were cut to spare the hosts expenses.

In fact, the post-World War II edition of 1948 came to be known as the Austerity Games in Olympic history. “There was no Olympic village as such. I remember India took rice along to feed its own team,” says Seal.

But there was no dearth of warmth from the hosts. “We were given a tour of London in Ford cars — Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussaud’s museum...” Chatterjee’s eyes light up.

The first match, on July 30, went well, India defeating Chile 7-4. A paragraph quoting Reuters appeared in the next day’s Anandabazar Patrika.

But the cold got to the boys. Captain Sachin Nag, despite netting four goals, caught mumps. It didn’t help that the next match was against the strong Holland, which eventually bagged bronze.

Neither represented India after the London Olympics.

Chatterjee took up medicine as profession. Though Seal kept playing at the local level for some time, his father’s death in early 1952 put paid to his dreams.