{"id":229,"date":"2016-06-24T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=229"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:47:53","slug":"they-believe-they-can-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"They Believe They Can Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

G<\/span>anesan Moorthi is an energetic, athletic boy of 20. His striking smile lights up his entire face when he speaks about the sport he loves. But when I meet him on a grey, muggy Saturday morning on Juhu Beach, I sense a constant undertone of worry to his demeanour. He\u2019s away from home in Chennai, where he lives with his parents and younger sister in the heart of a slum. Each day away from home, pursuing his dream as a player on the Indian Ultimate frisbee team, is a day of lost pay.<\/p>\n\n

Ganesan works as a dental assistant at a local clinic, to supplement the income his parents bring in: His father works as a municipal corporation worker, while his mum is a fishmonger. Ganesan, barely out of school himself, must pitch in to support his sister who is studying for a B.Com degree at a local college. His only respite from a tough life is watching a plastic disc whizz under an open sky and chasing it. \u201cEarlier, I never liked the life I was leading,\u201d he told me. \u201cI would just loaf around. But if I hadn\u2019t been loafing around, I probably wouldn\u2019t have found frisbee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

On another hot afternoon on another beach, Ganesan was walking along the shoreline, gazing at the endless blue sea. His mind wandered as free as his feet, until something landed on the sand beside him. A bunch of people in the distance beckoned to him to flick their frisbee back at them. And that\u2019s how it all started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ultimate Frisbee is usually played on a football sized field and has two \u2018end zones\u2019 at both ends. One must catch the Frisbee in their team\u2019s designated end zone to be able to score a point.<\/p>\n

Pratik Gupta\/ Arr\u00e9<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n\n

I arrive at Juhu beach at 7 am, not knowing that I am in for a surprise. I\u2019d caught the morning train from Panvel assuming I\u2019d have to share the beach with just a few joggers and stray dogs. Instead, the entire length of the shore \u2013 as far as I can see \u2013 is full of people and activity. It is the season\u2019s first cloudy day, so everyone\u2019s spirits are high. I\u2019m here to meet the Indian Men\u2019s Frisbee team, the existence of which I was alerted to just a few days prior.<\/p>\n\n

The stretch I am facing has at least four different teams running after their respective Frisbees, but one team catches my attention. Their disc flies around; one moment it\u2019s here, another it\u2019s flying past everyone\u2019s legs toward the end of the field, where a little girl catches it. She passes it on to another player and the dance continues. The opposing team tries to intercept it constantly, until the final catch is made by a boy in the end zone, or a kind of goalpost. A point has been scored. Cheers erupt and the whole team pats him on the back.<\/p>\n\n

I walk on, looking for the Indian team. It\u2019s not hard to find them \u2013 they stand out in their bright purple \u201cIndia\u201d jerseys. Two rows of players are charging at each other, tossing the disc back and forth with lightning speed. And it\u2019s not even a match; they\u2019re doing a few drills. I can barely keep up, but I spot Ganesan right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a beautiful amalgamation of different languages and different cultures playing together in the same team.<\/p>\n

Pratik Gupta\/ Arr\u00e9<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n\n

Leading the crew is the 27-year-old coach Matthew Zemel, Matty to this motley crew of students, college dropouts, IT professionals, and consultants. Matty is a professional Ultimate player from Colorado, US, where he has played for national teams such as Seattle Sockeye, the Seattle Rainmakers, and even one named \u201cJohnny Bravo\u201d (no, not named for the cartoon character, who was introduced a year after the team was formed in 1996.) He is assisted by Ashwini Chidambaram, the first female coach in the country to be training a national squad, who helps run a slum school in Chennai. Ash and Matty are united by the singular purpose of keeping the team together. But currently, their attention is directed toward ensuring that they are able to play in London later this month.<\/p>\n\n

The World Ultimate and Guts Championship is an annual tournament in London, roughly the World Cup of frisbee, and begins on June 18. But for the team that is supposed to represent the country, all is not well in the funding department. They need a total of \u20b915 lakh to cover their travel and accommodation expenses, but they have been able to amass only \u20b94 lakh through a crowdfunding campaign<\/a>. Some of the players have taken personal loans.<\/p>\n\n