Adivasi boys selected to spend time with Bayern Munich

Siliguri :

Just when you think that grief, sorrow and hopelessness is what you are destined for, there appears a ray of hope which helps you to fight on in life and believe that fate has a lot more in store.

This seems to be the case with the two adivasi boys Sanjeev and Nishan, who are amongst the six boys from Siliguri selected to go and spend some time with the football club Bayern Munich in Germany.

Born to labourers in the 100-year-old tea garden Kamala Estate, these children have never travelled outside this region. Have played with a club and can't even pronounce the names of top footballers in the world, but they may soon be playing alongside the 2010 FIFA World Cup's Golden Ball winner Thomas Mueller, who plays for the German giants.

This tea garden neighbours Naxalbari, the place where the naxalite movement started in 1967 and the adivasis here are still backward.

"The basic problem is that these people have been brought up in sheer poverty. The only goal one finds here is that after school to go back to tea garden", says social activist Chacko Sebastian who works in the region.

The mother of one of the boys talks about their plight and misery after the father passed away when the boy was still young. But she is happy that she could send her son to school.

Nishant is upbeat and says, "I want to grow up as a professional footballer. I don't want to stay in the garden."

Sanjeev too cannot hide his joy and says, "We are a backward community. This opportunity is rare and so everyone is happy."

With their hardwork having paid off, Sanjeev and Nishan are back to being students for the time being with their board examination just months away.