An Experiment With Football # 13

An Experiment With Football # 12

Do you see the goal post? I didn't ask them to put it up there. They did it on their own !!

We got a match day after tomorrow, on Sunday. Raghunath Pura fiercely practicing to win their debut match at IIM U ground !!

Never had I thought, the girls would play the game in rain. They are excited. They have something to prove on Sunday noon. I don't know, but tell you this has been the most exciting month. Every evening has been full of smiles, watching them kick the ball between the post !! Do join us at IIM U ground - Sunday, 14th July @ 4pm !!

An Experiment With Football # 11

Watch them play !!

An Experiment With Football # 10

Talking of schools, biddi, shoes, mangoes, thorns

Directing the play !!

From the left - Kalpana, Meena, Rajkumari, Usha, Nirmala (cannot see her face), Nirmala (another, but taller one), Basanti, Hema, Phulwanti and Abhisek Kumar. 

An Experiment With Football # 9

Understanding player positions -- Who is a forward? What does a mid-field do? What are right and left wings? When does the defense come into play? With a twig and few pebbles, Abhisek explains what formation they should play for the day. 

The girls at Raghunath Pura came in the initial days and left back to home. We took help of a localite, Vijay Tarawadi to understand why was it so? We realized that they didn't want to play in front/with the boys. Interesting insight for us. Here we make another attempt to motivate them to play every evening through showing few videos, documentaries. It certainly had an impact, but would it last? We are clueless, but really hope it does and they come out in numbers. They want to play separately from the boys, thats for sure. 

Meanwhile, Harish Kotagiri (coaches the girls)  is having a great time at Kali Magri. Pradeep Meena (missing from the photo) has taken the responsibility to train the boys. 

Dribble through !!

Get the ball from me !!

We are making real progress at both the villages. There has been a considerable improvement, in the way the kids have been playing the game. We really see big things coming up from the set of individuals playing and associated with the cause even. Keep reading and following !! We at Kranti need your support and involvement. 

An Experiment With Football # 8

We tried raising some funds to sponsor the match planned on 14th July, 2013. We are really thankful to the entire IIM U community as we collected Rs.1180 and brought ourselves 3 brand new Nivea footballs. The boys at the villages went bonkers looking at the new footballs. We felt the spark again. 

They are the thorn-plants -- Babool. If pricked by them, the pain is immense. Imaginne Lokesh, Kailash playing bare-footed every evening and at times limping because of it. Here they are, volunteering to clean the mess up and have a nice ground for us to play. We already have punctured 2 footballs in past 10 days and cannot afford to lose more. 

Lots of work to do in the sun !!

They call it as 'white-white' and they form our boundaries. They are slowly working together, realizing they are a team, now they offer water to the other first and drink later, get on the ground in time waiting for us to arrive and are even ready to jog around the ground. Earlier it seemed them to be as a punishment, now they realize its essential. 

Form a straight-line and pour on the 'white-white'

Abhisek, the new addition to the team jogs around the team. It is great to watch them play. Would soon post a video of them playing. The revolution begins at our own backyard. Kranti Ayegi, Hum Layenge. Cheers. 

An Experiment With Football # 7

Are you surprised to see a basket-ball court ? We were also surprised to find such a beautiful court in the outskirts of Udaipur town. Well its part of 'Khelgaon', a government project to encourage sports in Rajasthan and still is under construction.
It has got no football grounds. The nearby villagers play cricket inside the basketball court and at times the security guard does come running behind them, but who listens. We took permission from the sarpanch and began our 1st day at the new village 'Kaali Magri'. Kranti Football had its first volunteer ---- Harish Kotagiri (https://www.facebook.com/kotagiri.harish) on court today. Harish Kotagiri is going to train 'Kaali Magri' kids to play football. 

Amazing girls I must say. They had played football earlier. Raghunath Pura is just 2km far away from Kaali Magri, but the difference in the infrastructure available, the exposure these kids earlier had is quite visible to us on the very first day. Few even challenged me to snatch the ball away from them and were successful. I am mighty impressed, a lot of confidence, I must say. 

On the left hand-side, Harish Kotagiri watches the guys play. Harish had played football earlier at college and university level. He is left-footed has been trained by professionals, hence Kranti Football brought him in to help the kids understand the football nuances. He is now responsible for the teams that come up from Kaali Magri. The idea is similar that to create a lot of masti, fun and thrill while playing. It doesn't begin with lot of running, sprints, exercises and tiring stuff. 

Harish mentions he sees a lot of potential in them. On the first day, all of us kicked the ball around. It is complete chaos, when a crowd of 25-30 people kick around the ball. If you observe, they are playing with a new Nivea ball. We slowly find the need to get few more footballs and basic things essential to play the game, probably a whistle, marker etc.
It's always great, when you begin, we need to make it sustainable and keep the energy-level always at a high. 

Most of the girls study in the nearby government school. They are not well versed with English, but unlike girls from Raghunath Pura, they are not forced into household work. I see such a stark difference in their lives and as I said a mere 2km of distance separates these 2 villages. It's also surprising to learn that many of them dn't know where the nearest village is. Hence we see football providing them with a platform where they get exposed to the outer-world, play the beautiful game and gain confidence, achieve and be proud of themselves. 

I love this snap !!

Now back to Raghunath Pura. The space where we played once is now ploughed. The tractor has done it's work. We search for a new space to play and finally found one with the help of sarpanch's son. They tell me that the ground now we use is unoccupied and won't be ploughed. I am not sure, if we loose this space where shall we go to play? But today we play and we play good on this plain ground. Yes the new ground is plain. It has thorns, but its manageable. Imagine at Raghunath Pura --- a unoccupied field full of thorns and at Kaali Magri ------ a beautiful basketball court. It's so unfair, wish I could take these kids out there. We need to talk to their parents. 

Basanti (L) and Hema (R) have become regulars. They come down at time and help me in organizing other little girls. Settling into a routine, here the captains take their turns in attacking, defending and organizing their team. To be very honest, they do not have that control over the ball. But come on, it's been just a week, what do we expect them to do? I love the smile, when a pass goes right, when I give them a pat on their back. But I even take them out of the game, if they are giggling, throwing stones at each other. 

Few of the them have started picking up the game real fast !!

To keep it interesting, we have this dribbling game. They find it real amusing to spell out the word 'dribbling'. It's a long way to go from here. But we shall keep trying and train these kids to play better football everyday and enjoy their beautiful evenings !! Adios !!