After a successful debut season in the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) with Jamshedpur FC, young midfielder Amarjit Singh Kiyam has been helping out on his family’s paddy fields during lockdown. The 19-year-old midfielder recently opened up on how he has enjoyed farming and gained a lot of knowledge over the past few months.

“It’s always nice to have some sort of activity as a hobby – something that helps keep your mind off football for a couple of hours every day. I think farming has done that for me. The amount of knowledge about the land and the crop that you acquire while farming is something that I would never have realised before taking up the activity myself. I’m really enjoying this activity,” Amarjit was quoted saying on the official AIFF website.

The talented and hard-working midfielder has always concentrated on football from a young age, but the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has helped him reconnect with past traditions. “There’s no shame in going back to your roots and helping your family on the paddy fields. My family has been farming for generations. But I have not paid much attention to farming since I was a kid. I was always too much into football. I find peace on the fields,” Amarjit said.

After captaining the Indian U-17 side in the FIFA U-17 World Cup that was hosted in India, Amarjit made his senior debut with the national team in the 2019 King’s Cup. An important member for both club and country, the 19-year-old explained that he doesn’t get much free-time in the off-season as well. “Normally, I don’t get to be home for a long time. Even when the season is over, we have been going on some exposure tour or the other with the junior national teams,” he said. “So, when I do eventually get to come home for a few weeks, it’s generally not the season for cultivation.”

“Now I have got the time on my hands to actually go out there and reconnect with my roots, I feel proud. I’ve learnt the different aspects of farming, and I can tell you it’s quite a draining activity. But I feel quite refreshed after every few hours on the field,” Amarjit added.