Mumbai, July 1 : The phone call that changed everything came when Aanil Mohan was fast asleep. By the time he woke up, his life had changed. U Mumba had just secured his signature for a staggering Rs 78 lakhs ' the highest-ever bid in Category D in PKL history ' but the young man from the small village of Jasui in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district was still processing the magnitude of what just happened.

"At first, I couldn't believe it," Aanil recalled. "When I found out that U Mumba bought me for Rs 78 lakhs, I just couldn't believe it was real."

In the world of kabaddi, where Haryana dominates the headlines and produces the superstars, Aanil Mohan represents something different ' a dream that refused to be confined by geography. His journey began in the most humble of settings: the dusty courts of his village, where he first fell in love with the ancient sport that would change his destiny.

"I used to play kabaddi in my village. It was in 10th grade where his talent first caught the eye of his coach. But even then, success seemed like a distant dream for a boy whose family's biggest supporter had been his brother ' a man who had chosen the army over the mat," Aanil said

"My brother used to play more than me. He joined the army, and then my family supported me," he explained. In those words lies the sacrifice that rural Indian families know so well ' the passing of dreams from one generation to the next.

The real transformation began when Aanil made the brave decision to leave the comfort of his home in the mountains and venture into the kabaddi heartland of Haryana.

Under the guidance of Ashan Kumar, former coach of the Tamil Thalaivas, he spent two to three years honing the craft. "Then I played for the Himachal Pradesh team in the Senior National," he said with quiet pride. But even representing his state couldn't have prepared him for what was to come.

The Pro Kabaddi League Player Auction is where dreams collide with reality. As team owners battled fiercely for his signature, with Jaipur Pink Panthers and U Mumba locked in an intense bidding war, Aanil was blissfully unaware, lost in sleep. "I was sleeping when it happened. By the time I woke up, it was over."

When reality finally hit, his first instinct was beautifully, heartbreakingly human. "I called home first," he said. In that moment, the boy who had traveled from village courts to national teams to record-breaking auctions remembered where it all began ' with a family that believed in him when believing seemed impossible.

Now, as he prepares to don the U Mumba jersey alongside legends like captain Sunil Kumar ' the man fans call 'Captain Cool' ' Aanil carries with him not just the hopes of his family, but the dreams of every small-town athlete who dares to believe in the impossible.

"I will get to learn a lot from him. It's very exciting to play with him," Aanil said about his captain, his voice filled with the reverence of a student ready to absorb every lesson. As an all-rounder who loves raiding, he's ready to make his mark in the most competitive kabaddi league in the world.

"I have never played in such a big league before. I want to learn a lot." But perhaps that's exactly what makes his story so compelling ' the humility of a record-breaker, the hunger of someone who knows that the biggest stage is also the biggest classroom," he concluded.

/IANS