Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Crazy About Rugby

I've been taking some time off and helping spread sports and particularly rugby in the rural areas around Pune. This is a project started by two of the rugby organizations in Pune - RFS Pune and KFANDRA .

Here are some pictures from Nanegaon which is about 40 km westwards of Pune. A friend farms here and its through him that we have started this initiative:

That's me looking very fit, surrounded by rugby crazy kids.


All Hands in groups of three:


The Pop-Up pass routine:


 Keen eyes and hands- what a picturesque setting to a sports scene not very common in rural India:


 All this action takes place against the backdrop of the vast layered Deccan Basalts. The village is quite attractive and has some of the classic elements and atmosphere of rural India like this temple square:


The countryside around is lush and there are some pretty picnic spots for the tired and weary - a basalt stream bed:


The idea is to encourage children to learn discipline, team work and good work ethics through sports. So far the children love taking part in this activity and we plan to keep this program running for the foreseeable future.

8 comments:

  1. Impressive stuff! But isn't the ground rather hard? My memory of English school rugby is that a rain-soaked pitch was nicer to get tackled onto. Without really thinking about it, I'd assumed harder surfaces was the reason cricket took off in India but not rugby.
    Then again, my least favourite rugby memory involved freezing rain, which is a problem you won't have!

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  2. metageologist- yeah..the grounds are hard..its basalt rock with very little soil cover. we don't let children tackle and fall down during most of the year...but in the monsoons and the slush its tackling season!

    interesting thought about cricket...though we do have games like Kabaddi that involves tackling and falling down..

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  3. Pretty neat! ... I hope the program has a long life. Also, thanks for the comment on my Ladakh post, have you been there?

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  4. Hollis- thanks.. and yes I visited Ladakh a few years ago..

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  5. Do you have photos of your Ladakh trip? a post maybe?

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  6. Hollis- i took photos with a film camera so will have to hunt for the pictures! will try to find and post a few. :)

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