A group of girls, all clad in shorts and T-shirts, running on the main road before dawn was a sight the rustic Mundur was not prepared for. And there was this young man running just behind them.
One of the villagers stopped him and asked what exactly he and the bunch of girls were up to. N.S. Sijin had a tough time explaining. It wasn’t easy making the villagers understand that the girls were practising for competitions that would determine the fastest runners. That was the situation a decade-and-a-half ago. Today Sijin would not have to give a lecture to the residents of Mundur on athletics.
Many of them are sending their own children to him. They know he would turn the little kids into champion athletes of tomorrow. Moreover, the medals from the track would help them get government jobs.
It is not just Mundur Higher Secondary School - where Sijin works as the physical education teacher - that is churning out athletics stars with amazing regularity in Palakkad. Parli High School and Kalladi Higher Secondary School have done much better in fact.
Together, these three government-aided schools have turned Palakkad into the champion district at the State school athletics. They have played a significant role in Kerala’s astonishing run at the National School Athletics Championship: the State has won the overall title for 19 years in a row.
Many of those athletes have gone on to win medals at international meets as well. What these three schools, all of them based in rural areas, have achieved is remarkable. What is even more remarkable is the fact that it is the sheer determination and vision of three dedicated, selfless men that made it all happen.
Take a closer look at them and find out how, together, they have transformed so many lives and turned a backward region into one of the most significant nurseries of Kerala athletics.
