UAE students shine at Kerala school sports meet, marking historic first with girls' participation

Written by Aswin Asok Kumar for The New Indian Express

“Assalamu alaikum,” announced the commentator as students from the UAE entered the track for the march past during the School Olympics inauguration ceremony.

Hailing the Arabic salutation, the crowd of participants cheered for their NRI friends, welcoming them to the meet and their land. Over 35 students from the UAE are taking part in the school sports meet, as Kerala’s 15th district, just like the year before. And for the first time in the meet’s history, girls from the Gulf nations are also among the participants.

Sharing their excitement and pride of being part of history, the five-member girls’ team from the New Indian Model School in Dubai said they have become stars in their families.

“Even for our families, this is the first time – not just the School Olympics part, but also leaving us in Kerala without them,” Class 10 student Ayisha Navab told TNIE. While she said she wants to win in the Under-17 shotput, her friend Shaikha Ali remarked that she will be unaffected by the results. The entire squad commented that the facilities at the meet were of much higher standard than what they expected.

However, the teenagers were a little upset that they didn’t get their non-veg dishes on the first day. And some even started missing their families and friends.

“We also want to explore the food spots here,” one of them commented.

Dressed up in Gen-Z vibe, with oversized tees, baggy jeans and sneakers, the boys’ squad said they were happy to have interacted with Minister V Sivankutty.

“We had a good convo. He really motivated us,” said Nazin Nazar, who had mostly seen the minister on Instagram reels. The football team captain, Zain Mohammed, said though they got very little time to practice together, as they are from different schools, they had complete faith in their abilities.

Class 10 student Mohammed Afeez opined that the facilities in the state are better than those in the UAE. On the other hand, another set of students opined that they experienced cultural differences with people, but not in sports. Though the students were far from the NRI stereotype – ones speaking broken Malayalam – the new gen lingo, including pookie and sigma, never left the conversation.

“For us, the best part is about making good memories and good friends here,” said Hamraz, another football player. The team was also elated to have clicked a selfie with football icon I M Vijayan at the inaugural ceremony.

Expressing concern over the students’ health, team coordinator Jude Antony said some students had cold and related issues due to the sudden change. The female escorting teacher, Hasfath VP, expressed happiness at seeing her students performing in the tracks of their homeland.