Alathur (Palakkad): When COVID outbreak affected the games and events, a group of national and state-level Kho Kho players here initiated farming and celebrated this Onam with the produce harvested from their farm.
Aneesh, Ajith, Arjun, Shyam Kumar and Gireesh are the sports stars who harvested vegetables from their farm during Onam. They also prepared the traditional feast on Uthradam day using the vegetables they cultivated.
They started with tapioca farming on 20-cent land owned by Aneesh in Parakkalparambil. Later, they took a 50-cent barren land for lease near Pazhambalakode school ground and cultivated wild turmeric (Kasthuri Manjal) and planted vegetables and banana as intercrops.
All five of the friends are Kho Kho players and alumni of Pazhambalakode SMMHS School. They have participated in state and national-level Kho Kho competitions as part of school, college and university teams. Along with winning medals and honours through their sports skills, they are also contributing to the food security of their place.
The Kho Kho events were cancelled due to the COVID outbreak. The camps to be held in Malappuram, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi were cancelled. Following this, they started dedicating their time for agriculture.
Aneesh is a BPEd student at University of Calicut. Ajith completed graduation from Victoria College this year. Arjun and Shyam Kumar graduated from Ottapalam NSS College. Among them Gireesh is 8 years older than others and is working as a sports trainer in a private school.
