From the Fishing Nets to Professional Volleyball: Manikandan's Story

Manikandan is not your typical sporting hero. He wakes before dawn — at 3:30 in the morning — to fish at his pond, earning the nickname Kurava in his village for his rare ability to catch one of the most elusive fish in the region. He rears chickens, tends to his family, and by most external measures, leads a quiet, modest life. Yet within him burns a competitive fire that volleyball alone can fully express.

His love for the game began in his school days in 2012. But the moment that truly ignited his ambition came in 2016, when he watched a group of senior players from his village win at Isha Gramotsavam and receive a trophy from the hands of cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar. "Something sparked within me," Manikandan recalls. "I felt that I should also play, participate, and win a trophy from Sadhguru." That vision would carry him through years of sacrifice, heartbreak, and ultimately, triumph.

By 2018, when a prize of ₹5 lakhs was announced for the tournament, Manikandan had dedicated himself fully to the game. His team won at the divisional level and kept advancing all the way to the finals.

he says, describing the awe of seeing enormous crowds and prominent figures come to watch village teams compete. Manikandan’s team won the finals. Then, after a pause due to COVID-19, they won again in 2023.

But 2024 brought a devastating blow. A quarter-final defeat to a Karnataka team, combined with a new marriage and growing family responsibilities, shattered his resolve. "That loss really discouraged me," he admits. "By then, I had also gotten married, so I thought — that's enough, I don't want to play anymore." The man who had once left his grandfather's funeral to play in a tournament had, for the first time in his life, stopped going to the court altogether.

What turned things around was the people around him. His teammates called repeatedly. His wife — herself a kabaddi player who had eloped with him against their families' wishes — pushed him back onto the court. "Go and play," she told him. "This time, you will win." Slowly, the fire returned.

When Manikandan came back for the 2025 season, he came back differently. The team adopted a structured regimen: daily fitness training, hill climbs, weight sessions, skipping, and a controlled diet. They studied opponents' footage on YouTube and prepared with the discipline of professional athletes. "Who would have thought that a village team would actually prepare like this?" remarked one of those who witnessed their journey.

The preparation showed. In the 2025 Isha Gramotsavam finals, Manikandan was unmistakable — transformed, focused, and dominant. When the final whistle blew and his team was crowned champions, there was one more announcement: the Best Player award. They called his name — Manikandan Manickam.

"I couldn't contain my joy," he says. "My teammates and everyone present clapped and shouted 'Mani! Mani!' After receiving the award and coming down, about 100 to 150 people shook my hand. I felt like we were just ordinary people from a small village, yet here we were, recognised in front of India's Sports Minister, legends of the sports world, and Sadhguru."

The recognition did not stop there. Manikandan was invited as a special guest to the Prime Volleyball League (PVL), where he and fellow Gramotsavam MVP Rekha were honored with signed volleyballs and celebrated on the stadium's big screen.

In a letter signed by the team's CEO, Chennai Blitz wrote: "This invitation is both a recognition of Manikandan's exceptional talent and a celebration of the potential represented by thousands of rural players emerging through Isha Gramotsavam." 

Sadhguru also took to social media to congratulate Manikandan:

For Manikandan, it was almost too much to take in. "I couldn't even tell my family immediately," he says. "Even Sadhguru tweeted about me. People kept calling to ask what had happened." 

The fisherman who woke at 3:30 AM to cast his nets was about to board a flight for the first time in his life.

His village celebrated his return with garlands and drums. And through it all, Manikandan has remained clear-eyed about the source of his journey.

"Isha Gramotsavam is more than just a tournament; it is a festival," he says. "Its goal is to uplift the youth living in rural areas. If not for this platform, I wouldn't even have known about such opportunities. It has completely changed my life, and I hope it continues to inspire and uplift rural youth like me."

Launched by Sadhguru in 2004 as part of Isha's Action for Rural Rejuvenation, Isha Gramotsavam has grown into India's biggest rural sports festival — a movement that has brought together over 263,000 players from more than 35,000 villages, using sport as a powerful tool to uplift individuals and communities. In 2025 alone, the initiative reached 63,220 players across 183 locations, including 12,227 women and 377 women above the age of 50.

Manikandan's story is one of thousands — but it captures something essential about what this initiative dares to believe: that the next champion may be waking up before sunrise in a small village, doing work that the world will never see, waiting only for a stage worthy of their spirit.