CHENNAI: “When I get older, I will be stronger… They’ll call me freedom just like a wavin’ flag.” These lines from K’Naan’s Wavin’ Flag could easily be dedicated to Parthiban Parthasarathi (23), who, in seven days, will be on his way to Amsterdam to play for India in the Homeless World Cup.
However, this isn’t a story of how he hopes to do well in the 13th edition of the alternate Football World Cup. His is a story of staying indefatigable in the face of adversity and trying to lift his family out of not one but two tragedies that struck the Parthasarathis during his teens.
Born and brought up in Chennai’s PM Nagar, close to the Mylapore railway station, Parthiban, who got married just three months ago, was never far away from a football when he was growing up.
He soon started kicking about with his friends from the neighbourhood. The financial problems in the family never bogged him down, as he recounts to Express from Nagpur, the site of India’s final preparatory camp before leaving for the Netherlands, he had no complaints before his life was completely transformed in the span of a year.
“I got into football when I was around 13. A few kids in my locality were playing and I wanted to emulate them. I soon started playing football everywhere... school, streets. It was really good.”
But just as he was beginning to entertain notions of buying a kit and a pair of shoes with studs, one of his sisters, Kanchana, succumbed to leukemia in 2007. They discovered the cancer in the treatable phase but rising costs meant that “Enga akka seekarama poitanga (our elder sister passed away soon).”
This had a knockdown effect on his father, Parthasarathi. “Kanchana meant the world to my father. So after her death he went into a shell and committed suicide the next year.”
While his mother, Kannagi, who makes eatables outside their house, became the breadwinner of the household, the onus fell on Parthiban. So he dropped out of school and took up odd jobs.
That was when Vijaykumar, Parthasarathi’s elder brother, stepped in. “He encouraged me to again play football. He even got me cleats.”
While the midfielder got into a full-time job with an online pharma company, he continued to play football.
Before long, Parthiban was spotted by the Slum Soccer, an organisation that uses football to help underprivileged members of the society.
“It was they (Slum Soccer) who took me to the next level.” The talent had always been there and now he had the stage to prove it. He was asked to go to Nagpur for the final selection camp and he shone through to be one of India’s eight players at the World Cup.
“While I’m looking forward to almost everything... the moment when we sing the National Anthem, I think that will be pretty special,” he expressed.