It was the stuff fairy tales are made of. It was a fairy tale that every sports person playing a sport other than cricket in India dream about, a Cinderella story in which you were picked by foreign team to play in a professional league abroad. But most Cinderella stories have their own evil witch who makes it difficult for our heroine. Geethu Anna Jose is one such Cinderella and the evil witch in her case, is the world’s largest employer, the Indian Railways (link via Curdriceaurora).

Geethu Anna Jose was a gawky teen athlete specializing in events like the long jump, high jump and high hurdles when her height caught the eye of coach Venugopal who convinced the reluctant Geethu to try out for basketball, a sport that would allow her to utilize what he thought was her USP – her height.

And within two years, Geethu was playing basketball for her state – Kerala and soon for her country. Riding on Geethu’s coat tails, topped the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship’s Second Division in Incheon and made history by qualifying for the six-team elite group for the first time. Geethu averaged almost 33 points a game (and finished on top of the rebounds table) as India finished fifth overall.

But her break had actually come a year earlier in the Commonwealth Games when during a 100 point loss to Australia, Geethu caught the eye of several of the opposing players and soon reps from Australia came calling and soon Geethu found herself playing for the Ringwood Hawks in the Big Victoria league and excelled.

“Geethu became the first Indian woman to play for a foreign club. She made such an impact while playing for Ringwood Hawks in Australia that she was named the Big Victoria League’s `Player of the Month’ in August. “I was also the first Second Division player to be selected for the First Division’s All Stars team,” said Geethu.”

And playing in the Australian WNBL seemed like a natural progression for someone who’s been a two time MVP in the second division Big Victoria league and has been the top scorer and rebounder in ’07. So n August last year, Geethu was signed by the Dandenong Rangers to play in the WNBL season that runs from October ’08 to February ’09.

And then as she waited for the season to begin, her employer in India stepped in with a request/order for her to come back to India to play in a pair of local tournaments.

“Geethu, who is employed with the Southern Railway in Chennai, will make a short visit to India early next week to play in the Tamil Nadu State championship and in the inter-Railway meet in Guwahati.”

And at the end of these tournaments, Geethu sent in her leave letter to her employer.

“It’s my dream to play in the WNBL,” said Geethu, a bit anxiously from Chennai, on Monday evening.

“Everybody wants me to play there. I’ve sent my leave letter through Mr. Harish Sharma (the Basketball Federation of India secretary). I hope everything comes off well.”

But what followed is one instance where this author would have gladly advised her to chuck India rather than say Chak De India. Southern Railways, where Geethu works as a senior Train Ticket Examiner, refused to grant her leave. And so just like that, Geethu had to forego a chance to play in the WNBL this year.

But that does not seem to be the last we are going to hear about this talented girl. While Australian teams are said to be reluctant possibly to give her another chance, now that she had to let go of the one she was handed, seeing her play elsewhere in the world professionally is certainly not out of the question.

Basketball Federation of India officials are said to be in talks with the WNBA in the hopes of getting one of the American teams to sign Geethu. She has said before that playing in the WNBA is her ultimate dream and here at UberDesi, we shall watching her progress toward that dream with great interest.

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