Every time Sailen Tudu makes the trip back to his village in the troubled forests of south Bankura, he carries a few rugby balls with him a most unlikely gift from someone who grew up hunting and kicking a football around with playmates. But then, that is if you didn’t know he is the only representative from the state among India’s rugby probables for the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
This is Arun playing at the India National U20s – where he has been selected to go into the U20 India squad. Arun recently had to leave the charitable home he was living in, Rugby Uncle has found him a place to stay, a part-time job with Terra Indica (our very good friends in Kolkata) and enrolled him in Class 11 in a local school
Khelo Rugby takes tag rugby into the slums and community centres of the city where any sort of organised sport is absent.