Voices in Time

• Single page /
• Email

I felt sure that the introduction of games would give the boys that sense of fair play and sportsmanship which they so much needed. The first obstacle to be overcome was the objection of the Brahman youths to touching leather. As the cricket ball has a leather cover, it had to be handled in such a manner that their hands did not come in contact with the unholy leather.

Fortunately, the boys in those days wore pherons, a long garment like a nightgown, with sleeves five feet in length, so that by keeping their hands up their sleeves they had the cloth of their garment between their hand and the untouchable cricket ball. When they had to stop or catch a ball, they spread out their garment over their knees or between their legs and thus stopped or caught the ball. So a game of cricket as played by the Christian Missionary Society schoolboys was a well-conducted comic opera from start to finish.

It took quite two years to persuade the Brahman teachers and boys that the gods would not be angry if they permitted the leather ball to touch their skins.

When I brought my bride to Kashmir in November, I brought also a leather soccer ball. When I held it up before the assembled school they asked, what is that?

T.-B.: It is a football.

Boys: What is the use of it?

T.-B.: For playing a game.

Boys: Shall we receive any money if we play that game?

T.-B.: No!

Boys: Then we will not play that game.

Boys: What is it made of?

T.-B.: Leather.

Boys: Take it away! Take it away!

T.-B.: Why should I take it away?

Boys: Because it is jutha [unholy]; we may not touch it, it is leather.

T.-B.: I do not wish you to handle it. I want you to kick it (it was a soccer ball) and today you are going to learn how to kick it, boys.

Boys: We will not play that jutha game.

So instead of the usual English lesson with the top class, where many of the boys had whiskers and beards and some were married and had children, I then described the game and, with the help of the blackboard, drew a map of a football ground, showing the position of the players, etc.

I then called the teachers, who were all Brahmans, and ordered them to go ahead to picket certain streets to prevent the boys running away before they reached the public common. When all was ready, I gave the orders to proceed to this common and shooed them on like sheep or cattle to market. It was a great sight never to be forgotten. All these so-called boys shuffling along the street wearing their wooden clogs, carrying their fire pots under their flowing pherons on their way to play football. Some were wearing huge gold earrings; some had nose rings, and all of them wore their caste marks.

I soon had the goalposts up and the teams in their proper places, as I had shown on the blackboard.

There was a crowd of townsfolk which was growing every minute, all eager to see what new mischief this foolish young sahib was up to now. When everyone was in his proper place, I put the football in the center of the ground and ordered the center forward, a boy with a nice black beard, to kick off.

1. 1
2. 2
3. Next »

• Single page /
• Email