My kids love football and because of that I too love the game. Varun is just beginning to enjoy playing football with his colony friends! Vikram wants to be a footballer and has been playing for his school and at the nearby village training centre for a few years now. And the best part for me has been the role I get to play – of driver and supporter/fan at any tournament that he along with his friends participate. And driving the jeep packed with kids has become such an enjoyable routine, of bumpy rides, chattering kids and impromptu pit stops for small bites!
Recently a friend, Roy, shared the news that a Futsal U-13 championship was going to be organised and parents, friends and kids were asked to put together a team to participate. So Vikram’s friends from school got together with their regular football gang and were ready for the challenge. A couple of my friends and social workers, Arnaldo Carmo Lobo and Vishal Rawlley, had been working with the children of Camrabhat-St Inez for the last few years cleaning the St Inez Creek, installing floating gardens, planting trees and had recently supported a few of them to undergo a football training camp in the summer holidays by FC Goa. On remembering this I quickly informed Arnaldo to check with the kids from Camrabhat and request them to organise their team. I also requested my son to check with our colony kids to see if they too wanted to participate. As usual, I thought, here is an opportunity for kids to showcase their skill.
The Championship Day arrived. Unfortunately both my friends, Arnaldo and Vishal were out of town and so I volunteered to escort the Camrabhat kids to the venue! Arnaldo had sent me a list of the kids, their contact numbers and team composition. I was in a fix as I had to ferry Vikram and some of his friends as well as the kids from Camrabhat to the venue. Being a Sunday, we first went for Mass at 6 am and then to pick up his teammate from school. I had sent a message to one of the kid’s parents from Camrabhat that I would come to pick them up at 7.15 am. They were ready well in advance! When we arrived there, we were received with so much warmth, the kids were so happy that they had this opportunity to play their favourite game. There were more kids who wanted to join in as supporters and fans!
We squeezed into the jeep and when we reached the venue, it was so pleasant to see teams representing different schools. I stumbled into Mark Seagraves of Football Faktory in Goa (Surat and New Delhi) and on exchanging greetings learnt that he was the organiser of the Championship! Mark is a former professional footballer having represented Liverpool, Manchester City, etc. I was thrilled as the training programme conducted by Mark is of high quality. And in organising a tournament like this, it was so good to give children an opportunity to showcase their skills.
The Football Factory had 3 teams ready to play. The other teams were Sunshine Worldwide School, Dr K B Hedgewar High School and CB Strikers (the team from Camrabhat). Mark suggested that if there were more kids from Camrabhat we could enroll a second team. Now when the extra kids heard this they made an appeal to rush immediately and get a few more friends who played football to make another team. Some requested me to get fevikwik as their shoes needed fixing. Some wanted to get their FC Goa jersey. Nonetheless we rushed and came back with a couple of more kids. But the tournament had already begun as 6 teams had already been registered.
And since I was escorting the Camrabhat kids, their team was unofficially rechristened ‘Tallulah’s team’. I overheard one of Vikram’s friends from school explaining to their coach, David Pongade, an extremely thorough taskmaster and motivator, with a hint of worry ‘If we win and top our Group, we will have to play Tallulah’s team!’
All the teams played really well. Each team had to play 5 matches. Sunshine Worldwide School topped their group. CB Strikers (see pic) topped their Group as well. And then it was time for the final match! Both teams were super. But the one that really pulled it off were the CB Strikers because SWS conceded an own goal and CB Strikers won the final.
Now while SWS were very good, what is it that got the Camrabhat kids to become winners? Why did everybody get intimidated by these ordinary kids from Camrabhat? I say ordinary because they were simple kids who didn’t have the best of jerseys or the best of shoes, they didn’t even have enough jerseys of FC Goa. They were exchanging jerseys between substitutions, some juggling between passing the ball and quickly pulling it over their head. One kid lost the sole of his shoes but continued playing with absolute focus. Their communication was impeccable. Their support to each other as team members, unbreakable. And above all they were very quick.
At one point, during the penultimate match, one of their friends and supporters who had accompanied us asked me, “Tallulah Ma’am, what should we do? How can we help our friends who are playing?” I responded, ‘Pray, just pray!’ And you know what, all the others, including this boy Sachin, just closed their eyes and prayed. They won the match! And all the matches after that.
When we finally came home after dropping off everybody, Vikram asked me voicing the grouse of all the other kids who lost that day, ‘Mama why did you bring the Camrabhat children for the match? If not for them, we would have won the match.’ At first I stalled, ‘But you guys scored an own goal’ I also added, ‘We cannot be prejudiced about who deserves to get such an opportunity. You cannot decide who your opponent can or cannot be.’ But then I simply explained to him about Sachin’s predicament and how I had asked him to just pray. And then I asked Vikram, ‘Did you’ll pray?’ He finally shrugged his shoulders and nodded saying, ‘No’. And then he smiled. He understood.
(Tallulah D’Silva is a practising architect in Goa and has recently taught at the Goa College of Architecture as adjunct professor)
