Ajeeta the Invincible

Now twelve years old as the story opens, the feisty Ajeeta escapes from a sixth reformatory, this one in Surat, and heads for the renowned Sasaram Football Academy near Kolkata, to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a pro football player.

But Ajeeta is captured and taken to the infamous Fort Pitt - a maximum security reformatory on an island - where Miss Qassab is the sadistic Headmistress. Ajeeta escapes Pitt by hiding in a trash dumpster, but a junkyard dog gives her away and it's back to Pitt, where Qassab tosses Ajeeta into "The Hole."

Ajeeta convinces Boppy, a nearly-blind janitor at Pitt, to help her escape so she can take him to Kolkata, where a team of American and Indian eye doctors will perform free cataract operations for ten days. Ajeeta and Boppy make a midnight getaway in a rowboat.

Nobody has ever escaped from Fort Pitt and the incensed Headmistress Qassab won't let the first escape happen on her watch. She gins up police interest by reporting Boppy kidnapped the pretty Ajeeta and she's in grave danger. The cops jump on the case.

With the police always closing in, the clever and street-smart Ajeeta stays a step ahead on the grueling trek from New Delhi to Kolkata. She and Boppy face many dangers, including quicksand and an attack by a group of five young men with their eyes on Ajeeta; a scorpion stings Boppy, a cobra strikes Ajeeta.

All along, Ajeeta had planned to get off the train in Sasaram and let Boppy get to Kolkata on his own. But now, as the train stops in Sasaram, Ajeeta reflects on how Boppy risked his life to protect her from the five attackers. She knows Boppy won't be able to get to the eye clinic in time on his own.

On the last day for her football try-outs, Ajeeta sacrifices her football dream by staying on the train past Sasaram. She gets Boppy to the eye clinic in Kolkata just in time. Boppy gets his sight back.

They return to Sasaram and Ajeeta finagles a try-out after all. Despite Ajeeta's being weak from the cobra bite, all the coaches recognize her talent and enthusiasm. But the strict Head of the Academy rejects Ajeeta - a lot of players have talent and enthusiasm - because she has nobody to pay for her, and nobody to sign the Admission form releasing the Academy from liability in case of injury. The Head will not relent.

At a routine gathering of the entire Academy, the Head finishes with the routine business. She then discusses Ajeeta and her inability to find someone to sign the Admission form. Looks of disappointment all over. The Head emphasizes the importance of sticking to the rules. More looks of disappointment. But the Head goes on to tell the Academy she's just learned Ajeeta was late getting to Sasaram because she stayed on a train to help an almost-blind man get to Kolkata for an eye operation. The Head explains, sometimes it's necessary to make an exception to the rules. Because of Ajeeta's "Do Unto Others" character, the Head offers Ajeeta a full scholarship and the crowd erupts.