A Manipuri boy who is Kozhikode's pride

By Arun M

KOZHIKODE: Memories of his native place Manipur, which is ill-famous for insurgent activities, still make nine-year-old Jubair Khan shudder. But when he stands behind the table with the table tennis racket in his hand to fight it out for Kozhikode, he feels nothing but pride as playing for his own place. Jubair is now an inmate of JDT Islam Orphanage in the city. He proved his mettle by clinching his maiden title at the 61st state table tennis championship held at Alappuzha last year and represented Kerala at the national tournament. Besides, he has been maintaining top seed in mini cadet and cadet categories for the last two years.

Recently, he won the mini cadet and cadet categories at the All Kerala JDT Open Prize Money Table Tennis Tournament. It was the Table Tennis Academy at the JDT Islam Centre that noticed the sport skills of the boy and groomed him as a player. Anirban Dutta and Soumajith Ghosh, both hailing from West Bengal, are his coaches. According to the JDT Islam authorities, Jubair’s father died in an insurgency and some charitable organisations in Manipur brought him here along with many orphan children four years ago. Recently, the authorities traced his mother in a rural place in Manipur. Anyway, they don’t want to reveal more about the boy as they think that the unfortunate incidents of his past should not hamper his future. “I have won four tournaments after coming to Kozhikode and I want to play more,” said Jubair, who has no idea regarding why he was brought to this place quiet unfamiliar to him.

However, the fourth standard student enjoys the company of other inmates, majority of them orphans. “We have around 34 children at the Academy and many of them are from other states. Most of the boys are orphans and they belong to states like Manipur, Punjab and Gujarat,” said Sanil Sivadas, one among the trustees of the Academy and a former national player during 1980’s. “For most of the inmates, they will get all facilities till Plus-Two education but after that, nobody would take care of them. Hence they would turn into many other ways for earning a livelihood. Our intention is the promotion of the game and the enhancement of their job prospects, in order to make them stand on their own feet. There are many opportunities for TT players in many Central Government institutions as the Railways and they could grab them,” Sanil, Income Tax Officer with the Office of the Commissioner of Income Tax, Kozhikode, added. Besides Sanil, K K Sriram, N Rajeesh, T Jayaraj, C V Pradeep Kumar, Ramakrishnan and Pramod Unnikrishnan, all former TT players, are the other trustees of the Academy, which was constituted in 2007.