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Kalsindur fairytale’s unfair narrative
DHAKA ﻿FRIDAY﻿ ﻿APRIL﻿ ﻿22﻿, ﻿2022﻿, BAISHAKH 9, 1429 BS
AMINUL ISLAM FROM MYMENSINGH
When the success story of the Kalsindur girls broke out in mainstream media, it had sent massive ripples throughout Bangladesh, in an outside of its sporting sphere. Countless jaws had dropped, happiness escalated off the roof and then diffused and deserving accolades and recognitions kept flowing for the darlings of the country who emerged from the Garo foothills of the Dhobaura upazila in Mymensingh.
Unfortunately, not all fairytales are known to have happy endings. The way things have digressed there, it could be hypothesized that had these budding female footballers not earned their deserving place in a school textbook, this Kalsindur story would end up becoming no more than an urban legend, or a footnote in history.
It’s indeed unfair for Maria Manda and her band of sisters, part of the SAFF 2021 Under-19 title winning team among others, to witness the ongoing development in the place where they created some supernova-esque explosion out of nowhere, starting from 2011.
The story titled ‘The Unbeaten Girls’ in the higher-secondary textbook titled ‘English For Today’ tells the struggle-story of the likes of Maria, Sanjida Akhter and Tahura Khatun. Such a story, the first of its kind to be printed in the country’s textbook, obviously makes the residents of Kalsindur proud knowing that future generations will read about the history they all had the privilege to witness.
From Anwar Hossain, chairman of Gamaritola Union Parishad in Kalsindur, to Abdul Hamid, an English teacher at Kalsindur Govt High School and College, to Mala Rani Sarkar, an assistant professor at Kalsindur Govt Higher Secondary School, to Jewel Mia, the coach of the girls’ at the institution- they all echo the same sentiments of overwhelming pride of witnessing the feats of a indomitable group of teenagers, their own, get cemented in something as prestigious as a textbook.
However, Mala Rani said, “What we received had far exceeded our expectations.”
Expectations can be a tricky thing though. Often, the weight of a monumental reality caused by comparatively little expectation- backfires.
In this case, things don’t add up. Why a place like the Kalsindur Govt Primary School where the football gods have sung since 2011, unearthing an unprecedented pipeline of football talents, has seen all forms of football coaching halted since 2018?
Mofiz Uddin, one of the key architects of the fairytale, if not the most decisive one, sheds light on what went wrong. It was Mofiz, the then assistant teacher of the primary school, who broke the inertial resistance as he started coaching the girls in 2011 with utmost devotion, after which his charges ventured into a mad run, sealing titles one after another and becoming district champions in 2016.
While speaking to this correspondent, Mofiz informed that in 2016, a rift formed between Kalsindur Govt Primary School and Kalsindur Govt School and College over the possession of finances as the senior girls were playing at the national level. The row’s intensity escalated in the same year over the deposition of twenty thousand takas made by a British expatriate in the primary school’s account.
According to Minoti Rani Shil, Kalsindur Primary School’s headmaster, a section of people with vested interests and ulterior motives- kept on criticising their activities and ultimately, the donation could not be utilised as it was intended to be.
“That really hurt us a lot and at one stage, we were forced to terminate coaching,” informed Minoti.
Mofiz lamented recalling how the high school authority went on to appoint a different coaching panel for the girls in 2016 and the fact that coaching had totally stopped at the primary school, the cradle of the mesmerising women’s football in the country.
Minoti urged the high school authority to resume coaching in primary school as they recently had possessed a reasonable fund from administration but it is yet to be channelled properly.
As far as current proceedings are concerned, Mala Rani, also the current manager of the high school team, assured that coaching at primary school would resume soon. Meanwhile, Mohammad Enamul Haque (deputy commissioner of Mymensingh) and Shafiqur Reza Biswas (Mymensingh divisional commissioner) have already visited Kalsindur and they reserved a fund of Tk five lakh for the development of women’s football there, sources said.
Someone like Tahura Khatun, a key member of the national female football team, who has enrolled for Intermediate (higher secondary) class at Kalsindur Govt Higher School this year, said that nothing could possibly bring more happiness than reading their own story of accomplishments.
But deep down, given the prevailing reality, Tahura and company would be longing to see the next generations sprout like they did. Their beloved mentor, Mofiz, had hit the nail on the head when he said:
“The girls must be shaped at the primary level for the future of Kalsindur football, which should remain colourful not only in textbooks but on the field as well.”