Cuddalore: A group of girls from Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district, many of them representing the Thiruvalluvar University and whose families were destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, are football champions today. And they have S Mariappan a retired headmaster, to thank for that.
A decade ago, these 33 girls studied at the government school in Cuddalore Mr Mariappan taught in. He often saw them kneeling down as punishment for not bringing stationery or notebooks they could hardly afford. So he decided to adopt them.
"I know only football and through football I wanted to show them good world. So I started with them 10 years back and now the dream has come true," said Mr Mariappan, who himself is a trained coach and former member of the Indian football team.
Nine of the girls are members of the national teams for seniors, Under-18 and Under-16. The girls, all students of the St Joseph's College in Cuddalore, are also three-time all India inter-university football champions.
It costs around Rs 60,000 per month to look after the girls who stay in two houses Mr Mariappan has rented out for them. He spends his Rs 35,000 pension on them; the rest is arranged by the college and locals.
"Without this opportunity many of us may have got married or become daily wage labourers. But now we are national and state champions. Thanks to our coach who takes care of us like a father," said K Sumitra, one of the tsunami survivors and a member of the Under-16 national team.
Every morning the girls and their coach practice for two hours on the Anna stadium grounds.
"My dream is to make it to the Olympics and Asian Games," said Indhumathi, a post-graduate student who is already in the national team.
Though they are able to meet their day-to-day demands, the girls still look forward towards a proposed soccer league which they hope will improve their lives. "Boys are lucky. Like IPL, they have ISL. We need such opportunities and more matches for girls too," said Radhika, a member of the under 16 team.
The girls won Rs 1 lakh each when they won the Chief Minister's trophy. "The money was deposited in each one's name. It's for their future. We will not touch it," said a proud Mr Mariappan.