A request made to the US Ambassador in India Nancy Powell.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: Mark Twain once said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition.” But if the legendary poet and self-proclaimed vagabond – who was in India for three months in 1896 and which formed the basis of his jottings Following the Equator – see what Indians face today on a daily basis, he would weep.
Now for example, many of us know that a birth certificate is a critical document required to be furnished to obtain a visa to travel abroad. What happens when you don’t have one? What happens when you are not born in a hospital but had been delivered at home maybe by a mid-wife as it still happens in tribal societies? This is what happens in India, that is if you dare to ask for a birth certificate: you are either slapped or made to sweep the floor of the visa office, give a hefty bribe and many times all of them together.
Worse still, the above incident occurred to nine girls (aged 12-14), part of squad members of a football team, belonging to the poor tribal belts of Jharkhand when they approached the village office seeking birth certificates for visa to go to San Sebastian in Spain recently. The employee at the office slapped the girls and made them scrub the floor and demanded bribes for the piece of paper which is called birth certificate.
It is a different story that they finally went and played at the Donosti Cup and thrashed some of the best European teams in the fray.
It is another matter that these frail petite girls, with little training, played the game that Europeans always excelled in and came out victorious. And it is also another matter that their achievements barely caught the attention of the media here, always preoccupied with India’s favorite past time – cricket.
It does not matter to cricket crazy India that these girls were fondly nicknamed as ‘Super Goats’ by the local press in Spain and had become a media rage in TV and print alike.
Now these girls may get a chance to visit America too, show their prowess there.
The girls belong to the football team run by an US NGO, Yuva, headed by Frank Gastler. Coached by Gastler himself, the girls did the unachievable, of reaching the final round of the Donosti Cup. They also made history by bagging a bronze in the Gasteiz Cup.
Now, Nancy Powell, the first woman US Ambassador to India, who visited these girls in their village Hutup in Jharkhand on Monday, and lauded their stupendous achievement, may invite the girls to play a soccer tournament in America. The girls made a request to her to be allowed to play a tournament in America.
It’s not known if the US Embassy has granted their request, but for the girls, who did almost the impossible in Spain, there is strong hope that they can emulate their efforts in America too.