KOCHI: There’s nothing more beautiful than a smile that appears after years of struggle and tears. The annual get together of DH Ground Friends Circle, comprising 100-odd men in their late 60s and early 70s who used to play various sports on the ground during the 1970s, asserts the fact. The group got together to celebrate the good old days, at Rama Varma Club on Sunday.
“This may probably be the only group to have formed under the name of a ground,” said Vasanth Shenoy, a member of the group who is a former hockey state captain and later umpire.“Cricket pitches, football grounds and hockey turfs, all overlapped here on this ground. There would be moments when a football would accidentally roll over a cricket pitch and vice-versa. The small fights that ensued over the silliest of matters such as this remain the best memories for us,” said Vasanth.
Mohan, a member of the group, shared a fond memory of a time when the very name of Durbar Hall Ground gave an adrenaline rush. “Back in those days, we had no mobile phones or even TVs. Hence, we had no rush to get back home. After hours of sweating it out on the ground, players would gather around a flag post and talk until 8pm. Anything and everything was a topic for us and we used to have an amazing time. Guess that explains the kind of connection we have even after all these years,” said Mohan, rather proudly.
The friends’ circle stopped playing on the ground towards the early 1980s. “It was decades later, when a few of us met at the wedding of a friend’s daughter, that the idea to form this group took birth. The excited bunch called up everyone we knew and the ones we contacted called up the ones they knew to form the group that you see today,” said Vasanth. “With our wrinkled skin and arthritic joints, we may not look like sportsmen today, but our spirits are as high as they ever were,” added Mohan.
Football prodigy felicitated
The group felicitated 16-year-old Rishikesh, who was coached under Bundesliga team Borussia Dortmund for two weeks in Germany in May.The only son of Saraswati and Hari Namboodiri, Rishikesh is a Plus 1 student of Bhavan’s Munshi Vidyashram, Thiruvankulam, and trains at German Football Academy at Kadavanthra. “During my stint in Germany, I trained with various professionals and kids of my age. Their skills were unbelievable. However, I too managed to impress the coaches there. I got to play under various local clubs as well,” said Rishikesh. The teenager has been invited to train in Norway for the next three years, an offer he is most excitedly looking forward to. “I will continue my education along with training and playing promotional matches,” added Rishikesh.