Pope, from rags to ecclesiastical riches

It’s amazing how adversity can shape the upbringing and attitudes of people, who rise from difficult circumstances to become shining stars in their fields. It is amazing how poor people who just cannot pay for their education in reputable educational institutions ultimately not only get themselves educated but also take up well-paying jobs.

Pope Francis has hailed fellow Argentine Diego Maradona as a “poet” on the football pitch.

In a wide-ranging interview with Italian sports daily La Gazzettadello Sport published on Saturday, Francis recalled his own days playing soccer as a child with a ball made of rags.

Francis said he himself had no talent for the sport and was forced by his companions to play — as a goalkeeper.

“But being a goalkeeper was a great school of life for me. The goalkeeper must be ready to respond to dangers that can come from all sides,” he said.

Being poor, he recalled how he and his friends could not afford a proper ball, so had to improvise: “All we needed was a ball made of rags to have fun and perform.”

The same person who played with rags turned out to occupy the Papal palace — years later. Maradona lacked a formal education, but was very intelligent. He had the intelligence of a survivor. The neighbourhood he grew up in was very difficult and the people were poor, so it’s very easy to sink. There was a lot of poverty and violence on the streets. But out of this grew a legend who got his first football as a gift at the age of three.

When he became successful, he would willingly give away expensive presents, including watches worth thousands of dollars. He was very generous.

Pope Francis is a big soccer fan and met Maradona, who died in November, several times after becoming pope in 2013.

Maradona played for Napoli from 1984 to 1991 winning two Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup. In 1986, he captained the Argentine team to victory in the World Cup.

India too has some interesting models of grit and endurance, who had a lot of courage to conquer heavy odds and emerge victorious. In a remarkable story of grit and determination, a girl who has studied under a cowshed all her life, emerged as a topper in her Bachelors and Master of law and will soon become a judge as she cracked the state Judicial Service Examination.

Udaipur’s Sonal Sharma (26), daughter of a milkman, who studied in a cowshed on a table made of empty oil cans, will now be posted as a first-class magistrate in a sessions court in Rajasthan.

The routine of this brilliant girl, since she was 10, has been the same — waking up at 4am, helping her father in milking cows, cleaning the cowsheds, collecting dung and distributing milk in the neighbourhood in Udaipur.

She could not afford the fees for coaching for her judicial services exams, so would cycle to school and then to college where she visited the library and made copious notes.

She is not the only exemplary model. A mathematician from India, Anand Kumar, and a former state police chief, Abhayanand, started the Super 30 programme, to enable poor, underprivileged students, who could not afford expensive coaching, to get into well-known prestigious institutions. Children of farmers and manual labourers have been able to realise their dreams.

The programme was also the subject of a Bollywood film. The above cases go a long way to prove that there is always light at the end of the tunnel provided you are willing to look for it. The quest is tough, but not impossible.