ON A REMOTE HILLOCK, STARS ARE BORN

In a lush field nestled among hills, 35

girls practise passing and receiving (right).

Their audience is three cows, a coach and a mentor.

After practice, they will assemble in a three-room house on an adjacent hillock. Two rooms are for meeting and resting; in the third, pork crackles over a fire — a delicious roast for dinner.

This is the Andro Mahila Mandal Association (AMMA) camp, Manipur’s only all-girl football club. It is headed by Bikram Singh Thockchom, who quit as marketing head at a multinational infotech company and moved back home from Delhi to coach here.

“I wanted to return to the sights and sounds of my childhood,” he says. “And, being an amateur footballer who never went pro, I’ve always wanted to coach or mentor.”

AMMA was set up in 1982, as a selfhelp group meant to promote animal husbandry, weaving and crafts among women. In the ’90s, it began encouraging girls to play football in the adjacent ground; in 1999 the club was recognised by the All Manipur Football Association.

This club has produced national-level players like Rina Salam, currently on the Indian women’s team. “We are now registering under the All India Football Federation,” says Thockchom. “It is time for our girls to shine in the world.”