Game interrupted

Three years in Kashmir and Marcos is slowly beginning to realise that he cant insulate himself from the larger story of Kashmir,however hard he tried. I know my boys are here to play football and not pelt stones or take up guns. Their sole aim is to become professional players. They are working hard but sadly,thats not enough. How can one change his familys past?

Ever since he arrived in Kashmir,the 33-year-old Marcos has immersed himself in training the boys at his football academy,the International Sports Academy Trust,singularly focusing on the rigorous training that he puts the boys through. The Academy,registered with the J&K Football Association,has 360 students from all over Kashmir,like Ganderbal and Bandipore.

A month after Marcos arrived in Srinagar in 2006,he was beaten up by soldiers outside the Central Telegraph Office,a five-minute walk from the playfield. They took me for a local Kashmiri and suspected I was pretending to be a foreigner. They apologised later and the matter ended there. I did feel scared but then I also realised that I have to accept these incidents if I want to live and work in Kashmir. So Marcos stayed put even when frequent curfews,protests and strikes shut the Valley last summer,spending all his time with his players. They are my only family in Kashmir. They are like my own children, he says.

The past catches up

Marcos shouts for Basharat. When we went through the selection process and chose our three best players for international training,Basharat was at the top of our list. We applied for his passport in January last year, says Marcos. The coach waited for a few months,thinking it was a regular bureaucratic delay that was holding up Basharats papers. One day,we were told Basharat cannot get the travel documents because his father was a militant. Nobody among us knew about it.

Basharat Bashir Babas story begins from Panthachowk on the citys outskirts. He is a school dropout and belongs to a lower middle class business family. My grandfather supplied stoneshe worked in a quarry. I am the first in my family to play professional football, he says.

And then,Basharat speaks of his father and of his past that is now catching up with him. I have always seen father home. I didnt know much about his past, he says. After I was denied my passport,I asked my mother. She told me that my father was arrested when I was a year-and-a-half old and later released. He had become a militant even before my birth. He says that almost every household in his neighbourhood had a militant in the early 1990s. Perhaps it was difficult for my parents to talk to me about it, he says.

Marcoss little daughters (the oldest is 10 years old) pull Basharat away. They love him as if he is their older brother, says Marcos,before introducing the other two boys. This is Hanan,our midfielder,and here is Musadiq,he is a defender. They are both lucky, he says,before lowering his voice to a whisper. I dont want Basharat to feel hurt.

Both Abdul Hanan Mir,17,and Musadiq Mehraj,16,are from similar business backgrounds and both have recently passed out of the Army school in Badamibagh Cantonment. Their papers are ready and Marcoss wife Priscila has gone to New Delhi to apply for their Spanish visas.

We knew nothing more than kicking the ball when we joined this academy, says Musadiq. Now we know professional football is the only goal of our lives. He says his parents initially werent supportive of his passion for the game. But once they heard that I had been selected to go to Spain,everything changed. They are excited, he says.

Hanan is the quiet sorts and Basharat speaks for him. We are childhood friends, says Basharat. Hanan is a gifted playera born midfielder.

A few hours later,as Basharat lies on the grass,he opens up further. Whenever I think of my friends leaving for Spain,I feel like crying. I am unable to speak to my father about this. I dont know whom to blame. I am confused, he says. I am angry with the government. What is my fault if my father was a militant even before my birth? But then,at times,I start blaming my father as well.

Basharat says he tried to approach top police officers himself and even contacted Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. I went to the CID office a dozen times. They told me it is a policy. The passport officer said he cannot issue it without a police clearance, he says.

As per policy,the government denies travel documents and other security clearances to militants,former militants,suspected militants,separatist sympathisers and even counter-insurgents. The index or the blacklist with the J&K Polices intelligence wing has swelled to 60,000 such cases and the government had recently promised a review of each case to limit it to active militants and their families. On ground,however,nothing has changed.

Coach Marcos says he has not lost hope. We will try again and explain Basharats position. Lets hope this issue is resolved soon, he says. Basharat,meanwhile,has approached the J&K High Court where the case is yet to come up for hearing. This (approaching court) is my last option. If I dont get a passport,I may even stop playing.

Even if Basharat fails,this setback does not seem to halt the journey of dozens of other young players who continue to flock around Marcos,seeking registration in his football academy. I dont see football only as a sport. It is a vibrant tool to bring social change as well and I am witnessing that here, Marcos says.

Looking back

Marcoss own journey starts from his native country Argentina,where he played for a local club. He started coaching when he was 22,first in Argentina and later in Brazil. In 1997,Marcos came on a tourist visa to India and met his future wife Priscila,a Brazilian who worked at the Brazilian embassy in New Delhi. He then went to Brazil,where he is affiliated with the Syndicate of Professional Coaches. In October 1998,the couple moved to India. And when Marcos shifted to Srinagar,Priscila joined him. She now takes Spanish and Portugese classes for the boys to prepare them for the European and Brazilian clubs.

I thought I would coach children in Delhi but there wasnt much enthusiasm as they only wanted to play football as a hobby, says Marcos of his decision to move to Kashmir.

So in 2006,when he decided to shift to Kashmirhe had heard of Kashmirs football traditionand start an academy,everyone he knew tried to dissuade him. They all told me its a dangerous place. Some of my friends told me to watch Mission Kashmir (the Bollywood film). I sat with Priscila,watched it six to seven times and was scared. But I decided to come anyway and see for myself. It wasnt that scary here.

He says he has seen things change in the couple of years that he has been in Kashmir. I realised that despite so much trouble,Kashmir is safer in many respects. No one will stop you at gunpoint to steal your wallet. That happens in my country.

Marcos says the boys and their passion for the game keep him going. They are extremely focused. Once we were playing in Eidgah grounds (in downtown Srinagar) and suddenly there was trouble. Tear gas shells started landing on the field but the boys didnt stop, he recalls. How can I?

Football and Kashmir

Football in Kashmir goes back more than hundred years and the love for the game has triggered many a political agitation. Before the emergence of the separatist movement in 1990,there were around 20 teams representing various government departments. The Valley has produced several top soccer players for the country. In fact,one of them,Abdul Majeed Kakroo,represented India from 1981 to 1989 and also captained the national team in the mid 80s. Currently,there are two Kashmiri players in Indias national team,Ishfaq Ahmed Rather and Mehraj-ud-Din Wadoo.

The conflict,however,has had its fallout on professional football and today,the number of government-sponsored clubs has dropped to four.

Football was introduced in Kashmir by C.E. Tyndale Biscoe,a British missionary who founded Srinagars historic Biscoe School in 1891. It was Young Hardow,proprietor of the Hardow Carpet Factory,who set up a British football team in Kashmir. In 1941,as political unrest was at its peak,Kashmirs soccer team defeated Jalandhar and Sri Pratap College,the only boys college in Srinagar then,celebrated by not holding classes for three days.

The deep-rooted connection between soccer and politics in Kashmir began with the political career of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. During the Dogra rule,Friends Club,a team formed by Kashmiris,defeated the royal police team. Unable to take the defeat,the members of the royal team beat up the local tonga drivers who had taken them to the cantonment. This led to a violent retaliation by a group of youngsters,that included Abdullah,against the Dogra soldiers. This insignificant revolt after a soccer match,however,gave birth to a full-fledged rebellion against the Dogra rule.

The Documentary

Filmmaker Ashvin Kumar of Little Terrorist fame has joined actor Javed Jaffrey to produce a documentary on the journey of Basharat,Hanan and Musadiq,the three boys from Marcoss academy,starting from their homes to the professional soccer clubs in Spain and Brazil. Titled Kashmir on Foot,the documentary that is currently being shot in the Valley follows the life of Marcos and his family,while weaving in the larger story of Kashmir,along with the story of the three boys,their families and their love for soccer. The documentary has hired an international crew and is the first such major non-fiction project on Kashmir.