JOIN USRajasthan village first to have astro-turf
It may look no different from other villages in Rajasthan, but Garh Himmat Singh—located 150 km from Jaipur on Agra road—could proudly claim as the first village with an astro-turf. Thanks to the efforts of a German woman, children of the village are also learning to play India’s national game.
When former German hockey league player Andrea Thurmshirn first came to Rajasthan as a tour operator in 2010, she was surprised to see village kids doing little else but to baby-sit younger ones.
On closer interaction though, she discovered their interest in sport. She bought them hockey sticks and started training them.
The afternoon recreation, however, shaped into a serious business since July 2010 as 38-year-old Andrea started training children between eight and sixteen on the rocky terrains of Garh Himmat Singh, the home village of her business partner.
Now the village boasts of one under-14 junior teams each for boys and girls.
After holding matches between the village teams and teams from nearby public schools, Andrea realised that the home squad has been beset by lack of good and proper grounds. That set her off to put up the astro-turf.
The Bremer Hockey Club in Germany, which Andrea approached, promised to donate their old turf to the village once they have their new one installed. She also had a sponsor in Gulf Agency Co for footing the transport bill of $3,000. But Andrea had obstacle in the form of customs authorities who demanded Rs 65,000 duty.
They changed their stand of allowing it duty-free as the turf is for promotion of sport.
With another sponsor writing the cheque for the duty, the truck carrying the turf finally arrived home last Friday, much to the delight of the children.
But the troubles of laying the turf was far from over. Andrea’s initial plan was to lay it in Government Girls’ School in the neighbouring village of Mandawar, but residents of that village started to oppose even part of the ground being converted to hockey facility as they use it for multiple purposes.