East Bengal Club has crossed 100 years milestone but how is the most aged club official of the golden 70s of the club? To know that we have to step inside the 100 years old building at Sukhea Street with marble floors, wooden railings, Belgium glass fitted big wooden doors, and inside the room, on a deck chair 90 years old Ajay Srimani sitting with white bears and white hairs and receiving everybody with a pleasant smile. 
The name reminds us of the period 1970 to 1975 were the club became champions in several trophies won CFL six times in a row and many other records with which this man is associated. Sudhir Karmakar, Gautam Sarkar, and Surajit Sengupta all fought in the ground to bring success and their favorite Srimanida fought for them from outside. With tears in his eyes, he told our correspondence, “I cannot say anything against the club because the club is my mother”. At the age of 90, he still remembers every detail.
In 1949 at the age of 16 Ajay Srimani became a member of the East Bengal Club and regularly witnessed the club matches. In 1966 on Bengali New Year’s Day, somebody came to him and told him that Sri J.C Guha wants to meet him. Sri Guha told him to start working for the club taking permission from his mother. That was the beginning when Ajoy Srimani was included in the club committee. In 1968 due to some misunderstanding, Sri Guha removed him from the committee. “I was in tears when Jyotish-da removed me and thought of never going back in club administration,” said Sri Srimani but Jotirmoy Sengupta and S K. Biswas pulled him back into the committee headed by Dr. Nripen Das after they won the election in 1969 defeating Sri J.C. Guha. 
Ajay Srimani was given the responsibility of looking after the football team and he engaged Jiban Chakrabarty and Dipak (Paltu) Das to assist him against a monthly remuneration of Rs 800 which Sri Srimani gave from his own. There were two others to help him, Benu and Dilip who was paid Rs 23.75 weekly. In 1972 he became the football secretary. East Bengal made a dream team that year recruiting Mohan Sing from BNR, Gautam Sarkar from Khidirpore, Akbar and Latifuddin from Md Sporting, and P. K. Banerjee as a coach. East Bengal became the first club in India to win Triple Crown. At the end of the season, Ajoy Srimnai presented all the players with a gold ring in the name of his mother. In 1975 when the club was on the verge of creating a new record of winning CFL six times in a row Habib and Akbar signed for Mohammedan Sporting under influence of Ziauddin, the AIFF president. Dr. Das, presuming that this is the failure of Ajoy Srimani removed him from the Secretary’s post. 
Dhiren Dey, on hearing this, invited Sri Srimani to take charge of the Mohun Bagan team which he denied. IFA president Biswanath Dutta came forward and nominated him as the Governing body member of the IFA and CAB umpire’s panel committee where he served till the late 80s. 
In an exclusive interview with Parallel Sports, he told "Can you tell me what help to the Indian football will be with this current format of ISL? To improve Indian football we need to make the camp of age groups 12, 17, and 23 as was suggested by the late Amal Dutta. Also, we have to start the district football which is the supply line of the players for Bengal. Where is that zeal of the players? Habib rubbed his face with his spit as he played badly. Can anybody show me replacements for Gautam, Sudhir, and Bhombal (Subhash Bhowmick)?”
Widower Ajoy Srimani now lives happily with his two sons, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. He does not even bother to see his favorite club’s games. “Why will I,” said Sri Sriamani. “I have served the club so many years and had to sell three of my houses for the club and in exchange for that they send me a Life Membership card with a receipt of Rs 15000 inside it. Cannot I expect a little honor from them? In 1973 I brought Subhas Bhowmick to the club and paid him Rs 5000 for the year from my pocket. 

We have served the club because we loved it from the core of the heart but now all come to serve the club to earn money." On being asked whether he was invited to the 100 Years club function he said: “Yes I was invited but the way they invited me I did not like so I did not turn up.” Ajoy Srimani now prefers to stay at home with his family members and sweet memories of the glorious past.