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| Satyajit Pal, 16, Bongaon, Dream: To be a footballer; reality: Poor Indian |
Durga Puja, 2012. The city of Kolkata was flooded with lights,
love, and laughter… true to its name, The City of Joy. The four days of Puja are
of pure festivity…of dressing up in your best, spending time with family and
friends, and eating and making merry.
Especially for the young people, these are
the days of freedom and of dreams…the time to be cozy with your partner and, if
you don’t have one, to find a pretty face to complete the festive dream.
Amidst this festive high, we spotted Satyajit, carrying his
heavy, modern day sandwich board…advertising for a mobile service provider. He
is just 16, stays near Bongaon, West Bengal, and is a ninth standard student in
a local school.
The boy was out earning money while the entire city was
having a ball. For sacrificing each evening’s merry making, he earned Rs. 350.
In four days, he would make about Rs. 1400.
On asking why he was
carrying this extremely heavy board around when he could have easily taken his
girlfriend around, he gave a shy smile and said that he plays soccer and wants
to make it to the district selections. For this, he desperately needs a pair of
soccer boots and the only way he could buy them was with the money he’d get by
carrying this board around. He did not have any of the other required soccer gear;
neither did he know how to get them.
His family supports him as much as they can and had asked
him to go out and enjoy like the other boys. However, for Satyajit, puja meant
soccer and his dream was that of a pair of boots.
We don’t know his current whereabouts, neither do we have
any more details. Our only wish is that unlike the thousands of other promising
sportsmen, who get lost among the multitude of helpless Indian mango people,
the dream of this boy should not be shattered and he should at least get a fair
and good shot at realizing his dream of playing for the country.
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