From farm to football field

Risin' up straight to the top

Had the guts, got the glory

Went the distance

Now I'm not gonna stop

Just a man and his will to survive

This song Eye of the Tiger by the band Survivor may not be 27-year-old Anju Turambekar's favourite, but if one ignores the reference to a 'man', these lines are apt to define what she has been through.

Born in a farming village of Bekanal in Kolhapur, Anju has come a long way from working on a farm, playing football barefoot — that too against her family's wishes — to become the grassroots development manager and instructor for the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

She conducts training programmes for children between the age group of 6-12. But her major role is to conduct training camps for coaches who in turn train the children.

“I feel like I'm living in a dream. As a young village girl working in the fields, never in my wildest dreams did I think that some day I will hold such an important position,” she says on the sidelines of the FIFA Live your Goals programme at the Cooperage Stadium in Churchgate on Friday.

Till she was in standard nine, Anju knew nothing about football. Her village had a ground, but she wasn't allowed to stand there and watch the guys play because according to her family, it was 'a boys game'. The only activity she was allowed was dancing. “I loved dancing. I used to attend dance classes regularly and had built up a good reputation in my village as that of a dancer. Any function and I would be called to dance,” she said.

When she was in the 10th standard however, something happened that would change her life forever. A football club in Gadhinglaj, near Kolhapur, called the Masters Sports Club organised a football camp for girls. When Anju heard of it she was excited, but then she thought of her family and their reaction, “I was in a dilemma”.

“Should I continue being the 'good girl' and not play a sport that was dominated my men, or should I go and try to break the barriers? I chose the latter,” she says. And there was no looking back.

However, there was a problem. “I didn't dare tell my parents that I was attending a football camp. Since I was due to appear for my SSC exam, I told my parents that I had extra classes and so I would be home late every day. I didn't even have shoes to play, like most of the girls at the camp. We played barefoot and it was so much fun,” she says.

PLAYING WITH BOYS

Once the camp was over, Anju wasn't interested in studies anymore. “Football was like a life-line to my otherwise mundane life. The life of waking up at 5 am every day, taking the cattle to the field, then going to school, then attending dance classes. On the football field, I felt free. Somehow, I felt happy kicking the ball.”

But the only issue was that after the camp, the girls didn't play any more. But Anju wanted nothing else than to play football. So what did she do? Well, she started playing with the boys.

“What else was I supposed to do? I was a pretty rough player, and the guys didn't mind me playing with them.”

Her father did mind though. When he got to know that his daughter was playing football, that too with boys, he rushed to the ground and dragged her home.

“He beat me black and blue. He asked me what would the people in the village think about me. What would be my status in society. He called me a rotten apple and stuff like that. I was so embarrassed, hurt, but I knew one thing —I wasn't going to stop playing football.”

But her father wasn't going to make her footballing dream a bed of roses. “He went to the club told every one there never to allow me to set foot on that ground again.” But Anju was wasn't going to allow that to hamper her dreams.

“I got the beatings every day, but I went back the next day. I used to take a half-day from school and go to the ground and watch the guys play. People at the club told me I was a good player and that I should take football seriously. But how could I? You need your family's backing when choosing a career, or so I thought,” she says.

Then an opportunity came knocking. Someone from the club told Anju that the AIFF had selections for the girls U-19 national tournament. The tricky part was this selection was in Mumbai. Anju had not been out of Kolhapur before, let alone travel alone. “Imagine my dad's reaction when I told him I want to go to Mumbai,” she laughs as the recalls the conversation. “He warned me and said that there was no way he was sending me. However, after a lot of pleading and me acting stubborn, he relented.”

THE START

She came to Mumbai on her own and owned the trials. She was selected, and in subsequent years, captained the side. Her struggle began to bear fruit. Current Royal Wahindoh manager Santosh Kashyap was her coach and she says he had a huge impact on how her life would change for the better.

“He told me that I had talent but was rough around the edges. He guided me and taught me simple ways to train and play better,” Anju says.

After the tournament, she returned to her village. But this time, her father had different plans for her. “He wanted me to join the police. He made me study and write exams for the same. I wanted to play football. I used to keep going to play the junior nationals for Maharashtra, but I wasn't growing as a player. How would I grow as a player when I couldn't train with any good players in my village? I wanted to leave my village. But first, I had to give the last theory exam to join the police.”

THAT ONE STEP

That exam was in the morning when every one in her family were working in the fields. “While I was walking towards the exam hall, it struck me that I don't want to join the police.”

So what did she do? “I went home, packed my bags and left for Pune where I knew some footballers who wanted me to play for their club. I didn't tell any one in my family.”

When she reached Pune, he got offers from many clubs, but chose to play for the Pune University. “They gave me a place to stay. Food was also taken care of. I enrolled in Modern College (Pune) to study my BA. I played football without fearing that my dad was going to come to the ground and drag me home.

“Life was good.”

GOING HOME

After six months of being away, Anju decided to visit her family. “When I reached, it was the same. They didn't talk to me. I thought they didn't know where I had been, but they had read in the newspapers that I was doing well in football. Actually, they were happy of my achievements, but they weren't going to tell me that they were. I had become a star in my village though,” she says.

She left her village and went back to Pune to continue studying and playing football, though it was the latter that kept her going.

THE BREAK

In 2007, while attending coaching camp for the senior national championship, Anju was spotted by an employee of Magic Bus —an NGO for children. “He asked me if I was interested in coaching children. I jumped at the opportunity. Because not only was the finances getting tough for me, but I wanted to do some football-related work. At Magic Bus, I was coaching children, and after a year, I was training coaches on how to train children.
She was getting better and better at her job and was rewarded for it. “I was chosen to go to the Netherlands to attend an international coaching course by Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB).

The BIG STEP

While attending the FIFA Grassroots leaders coach in Kolkata in 2013, an AIFF official, whose name she doesn't want to disclose was so impressed with her work that he offered her a post of an AIFF grassroots instructor. “I was almost in tears. It was like all of my hard work had finally paid off. The banner under which I wanted to play was offering me job. It was a no-brainer. I took it up and haven't looked back ever since.

WAY FORWARD

While working with the national body doesn't allow her much free time, she says that she doesn't feel like it's work. “I want to help people. I want people to know that football can be a lifeline. I want boys and girls to take up the sport when they are very young. You cannot become a very great player if you start playing in the 10th standard like me. Moreover, I want the programme to reach villages and rural areas because I don't want any one to suffer the way I did.

Anju, having worked in many rural areas as part of her job, says that people nowadays are more forthcoming to their children taking up sports as a career. "With all these sports leagues that have come up in this decade, people in rural India don't mind sending their children for coaching camps. They want to see their child on the television. I've seen sportspersons become heroes in their village," she says.
And she has been one of the catalysts of this change.