Remaining in bad company took its toll and one day I found myself in police custody for being on the wrong side of law. I was barely 14 years of age then and I spent the next five months and 18 days of my life there.

Finally, when I was released, I returned home to find myself a stranger no one wanted to be acquainted or identified with.

With no school or friends, life seemed like hell and my future felt like a dark tunnel. I was a mental wreck. Many times, I felt that my prison life was better - at least I had people to talk to and mingle with.

My father re-enrolled me in school. I was taunted, sneered and jeered at which worsened my psychological state and I found myself regularly getting into fights in school.

One day, in anger, I hit a boy on the head with a stick. Blood gushed forth from the wound. I ran home and never went back to school.

After a few days, I started feeling socially isolated as I had no one to share my agony and anxiety with. My family had given up on me. Whenever I went to play, I was sent away.

My social exclusion was complete.

One day, when I was 15 years old, I was loitering aimlessly in a stupor when fortune smiled upon me. I saw a group of children along with their coach playing football. Their whoops of joy were so infectious that I decided to stop and watch the game for a while. It turned out that it was one of Slum Soccer’s Community Centre Programmes.

The coach, finding me standing aloof and not knowing my background, offered to teach me how to play. That was the first time I kicked a football in my life.

I started attending the football sessions regularly. After every few days the coach, along with tips on football, would slip in life lessons regarding importance of hygiene, ill-effects of addiction to tobacco and alcohol, and the importance of education.

I was amazed at how receptive I was to those life lessons and words of advice once they were conveyed to me while playing football.

From being a sport, football became my teacher and guide, an instrument to help me shape a bright future.

By 2017, football had turned into a passion and not a single day passed without practicing, come rain or sunshine.

My hard work paid off when I was selected to represent my district and then my state in the National Inclusion Cup 2018 in Mumbai, India. I was ecstatic because no one from my family and relatives had ever achieved something like this nor ever been to Mumbai. 

My performance in the Mumbai tournament got noticed and I was selected to represent my country at the Homeless World Cup 2018 held in Mexico. My joy and pride knew no bounds when I wore the T-shirt with India emblazoned on it. That is when I realized that I was representing something bigger than me. 

When I returned from Mexico, I found that my status in my community had changed and people, who had earlier written me off, started treating me with a new found respect.

I was championed in my community as a role model and requested to coach community children.

Soon, I started engaging children in my community, especially attempting to transform those who had strayed from the right path, just like the Slum Soccer coach had done for me.

I returned to formal education and completed the tenth grade in 2018. This gave me the courage and confidence to study further. Thanks to the learning environment of Slum Soccer, I continued my studies and have recently passed my high school exams.