An Experiment With Football # 4

It was quite sunny this afternoon. I reached at 4pm and to my surprise, bingo, everyone is on time. The girls show their commitment and are in numbers today. What a pretty sight it was. I think yesterday's talk worked, the energy to play was great. We plan to select a team each of girls and boys. Deepak (centre)  has been an interesting find, he understands the game and I have assigned him the responsibility to help girls play.  

Here is Kailash, his legs are pretty good. Deepak and Kailash make up a good duo. Hence I thought it would be great, if I had assign them responsibility to organize the girls team initially. They are teaching the basics to the girls, I observe from the boundary. I have started getting their names, from left --- Nirmala, Basanti, Kailash, Hema, Kalpana. It's a start for them, they just kick the ball with their toe, crowd around the ball. It's like Lagaan, but they would slowly improve. Feels great to see them on the ground. 

The little guy in yellow is Suresh, he is a rat. He is energetic, hops around the field and even punctured the ball. So the punishment is that they have to regularly attend practice till 25th and if they make good progress in the game, they would be gifted with a Cosco. Same goes with the girls. They need to earn the football and we carried on playing with the punctured football. These fellows are working on the ground, they used the spade to widen it a bit. The field is slowly getting a rectangular shape. 

We taught them formation today. One-side had to attack, trapping and passing the ball, the other had to stop them from coming forward. The boys have picked it up fast, the 'rowdy' game that they had been playing has been put to a stop, they too realize that possession of the ball is important, passing it, moving forward etc. Here we see Kailash and Deepak leading their teams. Before they began, I told the boys that they need to understand that girls too can play the game, they should not mock them,laugh at them. They are from one village, they shall play together as a team and the above  picture inspires me. 

These girls work. They wash the utensils, need to get vegetables and cook dinner, tie the cows at the shed etc. The only demand that they put forward me was asking me to come early and leave them early, so that they could go back to their duties. Phew !! How could I refuse, we fix a time and from tomorrow onwards, the girls train with us at 4pm. 

The day was awesome for us. The body language was positive, there is interest being generated and lot of enthusiasm about the idea of contesting with nearby villages and winning a tournament. We plan to organize a local tournament at IIM U ground in first week of August and am working towards it. Hopefully, Raghunath Pura girls leave their mark at the tournament. Let us bring the change in their lives !! Hum Layenge Kranti !!