Aaron Walling with his wards at the abandoned warehouse in Lake Gardens that he has turned into Calcutta’s cradle of skateboarding. Picture by Sayantan Ghosh

American couple Aaron Walling and Debora would invite curious and amused glances as they skateboarded through Gariahat or Rabindra Sarobar on weekends for fun.

A year later, a bunch of local kids who hadn’t seen a skateboard until then are merrily goofy-footing with them.

What started as a fun weekend activity for the two NGO workers is now a mission, turning an abandoned warehouse in Lake Gardens with graffiti-lined walls into the cradle of skateboarding in Calcutta.

“I feel so free and happy when I skateboard. The pressure of studies and daily life does not bother me when I am here on Saturdays,” said Shimli Das, 12.

“Even girls can skateboard!” quipped 10-year-old Samikha Tripathi.

For Rahul Misra, 12, and his friends, bumping into Aaron while playing near the warehouse opened a window to a sport they didn’t know existed.

“I would see these kids following us. Some wanted to learn skateboarding and we always obliged,” recalled Aaron.

Seeing the interest their weekend pastime generated, Aaron and Debora decided to teach the kids skateboarding on a regular basis free of cost. “I was scouting for an open space when I spotted this abandoned warehouse. The graffiti on its walls caught my attention,” Aaron said.

The warehouse needed some cleaning and the American found two allies in Valentine Gomes, a second-year BA student, and Remille Bargi, a Class XII student and member of the Big Bong Theory Forum.

“Remille would come here to practise graffiti art and me dance. That is how we met Aaron,” Valentine said.

A group of five cleaned the warehouse and convinced the neighbours to allow Aaron and Debora to teach children skateboarding there.

“Inspired by Skateistan, an NGO that teaches skateboarding as a tool for youth empowerment in Afghanistan, I ordered 12 skateboards and gear from an online store. We now had enough equipment to teach two batches of 12 kids,” recounted Aaron.

The news spread fast and soon kids of the neighbourhood were dropping by every day, wanting to learn skateboarding. Many of them were underprivileged children and several were girls.

Aaron worried about the warehouse being inadequate to become a skateboarding school because it didn’t have fans and the roof leaked during a shower. But the children didn’t mind the heat or the mess. Glad as they were to be learning a new activity, the kids would join in the task of cleaning the warehouse every week.

“Skateboarding is such fun and so is dancing. I have also become fluent in my English,” said 12-year-old Shweta Tripathi.

To keep the group manageable, Aaron introduced a selection process to pick 24 kids split into two batches. When one batch is learning skateboarding, Valentine teaches the other contemporary dance.

“It’s funny that some residents and the police at first suspected us of suspicious activities. Now they are happy that children spend their leisure learning a new skill,” Valentine said.

“We should not underestimate the power of fun. It empowers kids and gives them a lot of confidence,” added Aaron.

His dreams don’t end here. “I am looking for land so that I can build Calcutta’s first skateboard park. That way, even when I return home, the kids can continue to skate and have fun, and without fearing about being turned out,” he said.