KOLKATA’S KIDDERPORE, hitherto known for its docks alone, has suddenly found itself in the limelight, thanks to a tweet by Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. The spotlight is on the Hide Road slum and its neighbouring coal berth basti. For, it is home to Jashika Khan aka Lovely, 12, and Mohammed Azajuddin aka Ali, 13, whose sprightly somersaults and cartwheels in a viral video impressed the Olympic gold medallist into tweeting, “This is awesome.”
The video was shot when Lovely and Ali, clad in school uniforms and toting backpacks, were returning from school. Shekhar Rao, who teaches them dance at his Eternities Dance Academy, had made the video and shared it on social media to popularise his school.
Lovely and Mohammed Azajuddin aka Ali with Shekhar Rao, who runs the Eternities Dance Academy
Lovely and Ali show off their dance moves. The duo has now decided to pursue gymnastics
Ali, whose parents work as daily-wage labourers at a tea godown, near his house in coal berth slum
Lovely and Ali with friends. Many children from the slums are part of the dance academy
The lives of Lovely and Ali have changed since! They are now perpetually posing for photo shoots with their families and dance teacher, giving sound bytes to journalists and visiting television studios, sharing their experiences with the media.
Rao recalls how, initially, he had to beg the slum dwellers to send their children to his dance school. “I actually shed tears when the locals turned me away, refusing to let the boys and girls learn dance. Today, I am so happy that these talented children from my school have got worldwide recognition due to Nadia ma’am. I am grateful to [Union Sports Minister] Kiren Rijiju and [state sports minister] Laxmi Ratan Shukla for supporting the children,” says Rao.
Lovely with her friends. The families in the slum live in apalling conditions
Lovely and Ali will soon become full-time resident trainees at Sports Authority of India Eastern Centre
Lovely with her mother Reshma Khatoon, who works in a tailoring shop
Lovely and Ali have now declared that they wish to pursue gymnastics rather than dance. They will soon become full-time resident trainees at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Eastern Centre. “SAI will accommodate them in its hostel and train them in Kolkata after due procedures,” SAI regional director Manmeet Singh Goindi told THE WEEK.
Both Lovely and Ali live in one-room tenements with their families, in appalling hardship and filth. Lovely’s father, Taj Khan, is a truck driver who earns Rs9,000 a month, while mother, Reshma Khatoon, works in a tailoring shop and makes Rs5000 per month. “We are so poor that we cannot even feed our children properly,” says Khatoon. “We are indebted to Shekhar Sir, and thank Kiren Rijiju Sir and Laxmi Ratan Sir, because of whom Lovely and Ali have now become world famous. I wish my daughter will represent India one day and bring home a medal like Nadia ma’am. I am very happy that my daughter is going to SAI.”
Ali’s parents, daily-wage labourers in a tea godown, are delighted at the news of his acceptance into SAI, too. “We could have never imagined that so many media people would come to our shanty in this narrow lane to speak to my son one day,” says Mohammed Raju, his father.
The area abounds in small, crumbling homes such as those occupied by the families of Lovely and Ali. The entry into the lanes is through rotting and stinking garbage, making the slum a living hell for its residents.
Would this unexpected media glare change the lives of Lovely and Ali and that of their neighbours?