I was just thinking how nice it would be to have a reliable academy pipeline like FC Goa’s—here, if you have talent, you need your own ‘sakkat’ internet to even upload a portfolio. My cousin in Margao sent me a jersey last year; wearing it feels like borrowing someone else’s well-made future.

Aiyo, yesterday I was walking past the old grama panchayat grounds in Mandya, and for a second I thought I saw a ghost team playing kabbadi in the dust—just a bunch of boys, no lines, no referee, playing on the same patch where my chikkappa used to tell me "this is where we learned to fall without crying." The thing is, that ground is now half-covered by a concrete stage for government functions, and every time someone talks about "promoting indigenous sport," they mean buying synthetic mats from a company in Bengaluru. Swalpa cost-aagutte, but what about the boys who don't have a bus fare to the nearest taluk?