Such a long journey: From Kolkata basti to rugby club in Dallas

Balmiki is the first player from a basti in India to be invited by an American rugby club to play. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Dallas Harlequins is a part of the organised Rugby League in the US, where the sport is big in colleges. Balmiki was selected after the club watched videos of his games, where his position is as a fly-half or one of the main attacking players who links the forwards (made up of the bigger and stronger players who chase and claim the ball) and backs (the smaller and swifter players). He will be with the club for three months.

On the first weekend of the new year, Balmiki celebrated on the dry Maidan field, under the winter sun, throwing, running and passing with boys and girls of various ages — all of them from marginalised areas of Kolkata or brought from small villages surrounding the tea gardens of Saraswatipur in north Bengal.

“It was always my dream to play in a club in another country. It will be a great exposure for me and I will bring that experience here to share with the youngsters and give them an opportunity to learn more about the game,” he says.

Social Games

Balmiki’s success turns the floodlights on sports intervention in marginalised areas. He was born in a workers’ community in Kolkata’s Bhawanipur, where he still stays with his parents and brothers. His father used to work as a sweeper and his mother is a homemaker. Balmiki had his first experience of harsh reality when a close family member turned alcoholic and plunged the house into turmoil.

“Many of the older people (from his community) were alcoholic and, when I was 10, a lot of my friends had started drinking. My mother and father were scared to send me out,” he says.

Balmiki is the first player from a basti in India to be invited by an American rugby club to play. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Balmiki attended Hindi Vidyalaya High School but was more interested in sports than studies. In 2007, his friend came home with a rugby ball and told him about an initiative, which did not have a name yet but was teaching rugby to underprivileged children for free.

“In a basti, you can run anywhere. I was lucky to have a field near my house, so I was already fit,” he says.

He began to skip school to attend morning practice, and his parents didn’t know this for two years.

Let’s Play

Khelo Rugby had begun as a crazy idea after Paul Walsh arrived from Wales, a place where the game is popular, to Kolkata as the Deputy Head of Mission at the British High Commission, in 2002 and saw some underprivileged children enthusiastically practising rugby at an NGO, called Future Hope. “It really inspired me because they were from very different and difficult backgrounds, and playing rugby,” he said.

Paul Walsh, the brain behind Khelo Rugby, arrived from Wales to Kolkata as the Deputy Head of Mission at the British High Commission, in 2002. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

His initiative began in 2004, though it was named Khelo Rugby six years later. Walsh believed in his idea of “taking a rugby ball into an underserved community” enough to take a sabbatical from his job. He hasn’t gone back to being a diplomat. Walsh spends his time with rugby and communities, getting children admitted to schools, paying their tuition fees, listening to them and encouraging them to play sports, besides raising funds.

In 2017 and 2019, Khelo Rugby was awarded the official Spirit of Rugby partner, the only one in Asia, by World Rugby, the international governing body of rugby.

Rugby has been played in India since the British arrived here, and survived in old and elite clubs such as Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (CCFC) in Kolkata and the Bombay Gymkhana in Mumbai, before Rugby India, also known as Indian Rugby Football Union, began to spread it across the country. Though the game is far from the mainstream in India – and less so in football-crazy Kolkata — rugby clubs are present in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai, as well as the tribal belts of Odisha and Bihar.

Initially, Walsh was a part of a club he had formed with his friends in Kolkata, called Jungle Crows, to play rugby. “I was a big fan of watching rugby and was a supporter, but I was rubbish as a player,” he says.

At present, Khelo Rugby works with 30 communities. “The magic of the rugby ball then takes over, with children mesmerised by the odd shape and funny bounce. With a commitment of regular fun rugby sessions we begin to build the trust of the children and their communities. Then we can begin to explore other areas, led by the children when our coaches discuss their lives and ambitions,” says Walsh.

Seniors like Balmiki coach Khelo Rugby children to hone their skills at camps. Though the initiative began in 2004, it was named Khelo Rugby six years later. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Khelo Rugby children are coached by seniors like Balmiki, who have honed their skills at camps. Balmiki’s family still eats meat only twice a week and he invests his earnings in buying bananas and other fruit. “I try to stay in good shape,” he says. He is good at kicking and passing, and has worked on “being mentally tough” and confident.

“I have become better at not overthinking,” he says.

At 19, he played the first tournament for India against Pakistan at the junior level. The team beat Afghanistan, then Iran and lost by a small margin to Pakistan in 2013.

“After a year, I played at a senior level and, again, we went to Pakistan, and this time we beat the country to win,” he says. “A greater victory was that a lot of children in my community are interested in rugby. I also don’t see so many people drinking. It makes me happy to see the young players, it is like I see myself,” he says.