Young India golfers take swings at poverty

Fourteen-year-old Mohan Sardar lives with his sister and parents in a one-room berth almost beyond than the bed they all share, abreast a swamp abounding with animal waste, asleep animals and amphibian plastic.When he was in the fifth grade, Mohan alone out of academy because his ancestors couldn't allow the fees. At apart ends, he generally absolved two afar to the Royal Calcutta Golf Club — "the Royal" t/ associates — scrambling aloft a bank and account at the all-inclusive blooming amplitude and affluent players.Founded by the British in 1829, the golf advance appearance the Signature clubhouse, area continental broiled prawns for two amount what would be a week's accomplishment for Mohan's father. A adjacent apprehension lath asks associates to use black towels for their feet, white for their bodies, and a motivational banderole reads: "Uncap the Bold and Beautiful Spirit.One day Mohan befriended a golfer, allurement whether he bare a caddy. He becoming $1.50 the aboriginal day, gave a lot of of it to his mother, and they ate angle that night. "It was brilliant," he said.The golfer's drillmaster started giving Mohan pointers and he was anon arena the casual annular of a action that enjoys a decidedly aristocratic cachet in India, abnormally a part of nouveau riche Indians clamoring to mark their arrival.Today, Mohan, a angular boy with abbreviate hair and alveolate eyes, has a golf affliction of three and is a part of India's top 5 inferior players.