First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"You have to stand there against people who are probably not supporting women's football and tell them you need more money. That, in itself, takes a lot of guts. At that point, it wasn't easy to win people over."
"Expectations and perceptions have changed around women's football, but they will know that they'll have to play their part in increasing the popularity of the game."
"How that will inspire so many young girls and boys to talk about women's football and make it the norm."
"It's looking positive, but it's probably a similar thing with both the men and women's team, they need to have a stronger mentality of knowing they have to win."
"For players of my generation – and before – there wasn’t money in the game. You were doing it because of your passion."
"I think every female footballer can relate to a woman working in a male-dominated area and championing it. We need to make sure that we support each other."
"I’ve been trying to encourage both boys and girls to get involved in football. There are so many life skills you can learn from football… I want kids to understand the game is for everybody."
"There are many things you can get out of football that you can take into the world of work."
"I don’t think we give kids enough respect for what they understand."
"When you let children lead, you see their minds work in a way that’s different to ours because we’re moulded to think a certain way as we get older."
"I hope people will look at women’s football as the norm."
"Confidence is key for any footballer."
"To be honest, everybody thought that I was a boy."
"We all have fears. And it takes a lot to be brave, be confident, and talk about it. And you never know what it may lead to."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.