The teachings of my father are always at the back of my mind, he taught me to help other people. This is also what I learned from the Bible, that one should help other people. Its written in one verse, that a person should help one's neighbour. Neighbour here is a metaphor for people. Everyone that I meet is my neighbour and I'll try to help them. This is what I've learned in my life. This mindset was one of the reasons I started Slum Soccer. At its inception it was a very humble project and not at all how big it has become today.

The idea of Slum Soccer came to my mind like an epiphany I'd say. One day in 2001, I was going out of the University I worked in for some work, it started to rain heavily and I quickly took shelter under a tree. I heard some children screaming and when I took a look, I saw kids from the adjoining slum playing football. They were using a plastic bucket as a football. It took me a bit by surprise because before this I had seen the same kinds indulging in activities that they should've been far away from. They'd steal things from people, create a ruckus, smoke and drink. They'd be a menace all the time but this time they were doing something kids actually should do. I thought that this is the time to help them and do something good for the society.

I went up to them and said that I'll get them a football so that they can play a proper match, they were delighted. I invited them to play on the college ground. I also got another team from a different slum. These kids were on time and pretty excited. Then I thought about starting a big tournament with these kids from the slums. This would be a big opportunity for these kids and they could do something really productive rather than doing something bad. I took this up to my journalist friends to publish this idea because then kids from various slums would come to play.