With dreams in his eyes...

This is truly a heart warming story, which has a happy ending, errr, happy beginning.

Rajib Roy, a Kolkatta boy, all of 16 years of age has been chosen to train with Manchester United. He is not just any other rich boy, trying to become a footballer. He lives in the red light district of Kolkatt and his mother used to   ‘work’ there. An avid football player, he honed his skills in the squalid streets of a red light district. He often spent the little money his mother gives him to buy lunch on watching football tournaments elsewhere in the city. During a school football match in Goa last month, along with 11other talented young players who had come from all over India, Rajib was selected to play at Old Trafford, the Premier League club. He was spotted by a talent scot there at Goa and now, like the story of Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire, Rajib just started his 15-day training camp.

Today, his mother toils in a handbag factory as a factory worker but is surely proud of her son! At his previous school, Rajib was relentlessly bullied because of his mother's profession and now attends Rahul Vidya Niketan in Sealdah, a special school for the children of sex workers, where he is part of the school's football team. Rajib was part of the West Bengal team to win the National Slum Soccer Tournament in Nagpur earlier this year. Last month, he and 30 others were selected to take part in the championship in Goa where  the Manchester United scouts  spotted him.  Rajob now dreams of earning money, playing football amongst the best and more importantly, to provide money for his 9-year old younger brother to study well and become a graduate.

Yes, Rajib is like a lotus, blooming in the filth but remaining pure and beautiful itself. Also more power to people like Dr.Samarjit Jana, who first set up this football training initiative, which helped spot a prodigy like Rajib and took him to be rightful place – right amongst the stars!