the first time I ever held a basketball
was when I joined me Oh College one of
India’s leading boarding schools within
a few months I started dribbling well
everybody got to know me because of
basketball it was an area where I could
go went whenever I felt lonely whenever
I felt like I wanted to go home
basketball means life to me after
finishing my undergrad in psychology I
my area of interest was substance abuse
I was very intrigued with the fact to
see why so many people were getting into
substance abuse and especially the youth
I did my masters in clinical psychology
from Amity University and I interned at
one of Delhi’s top rehabilitation
centers for two years I chose the same
internship place for two years usually
you switch every semester but I was so
intrigued with substance abuse that I
didn’t want to understand anything else
but substance abuse I went to a lot of
rehabilitation centers from different
economic areas some some in really
shabby areas and you know very poor
people in these rehabs clamped down like
five seven people living in the same
room and it just I wanted to do my
further studies in it I was about to
leave for the US I got selected in one
of the top addiction study colleges in
the US and I had this period of about
six to seven months before I was about
to leave basketball still remained a
very important part of my life I would
feel depressed whenever I didn’t get to
play the traffic and daily had just
started and I would sometimes take a
little too long to get back home and I
couldn’t play basketball because I was
stuck in traffic and those days were
really low for me that is when I really
understood that I wanted to do something
with basketball when I went into I
always always wondered that basketball
is a very important or a very popular
sport at the school level in India it’s
something which everybody knows about
it’s played at the school and the
college level across northern and
southern India however we have not been
able to nurture one player now we have
one player but we’ve not been able to
nurture even one player to play at the
next level by next level I meant not at
the national level and sorry at the
professional level
all over the world there are pro leagues
all over the world but we don’t have a
single Indian guy playing it any place
all around the world and after I went
into a deep research on what was being
taught and what was not taught I started
searching and going into district
tournaments state tournament schools
national teams started seeing what was
it that was going wrong my eventual
conclusion was the basketball was not
being taught
the right way it was from the grassroot
level all the way up to the elite level
and and I wanted to bridge that gap
hence I decided to go to the US and get
trained by one of the top trainers of
the world in Florida I spent two months
learning how to work with the
five-year-old as well as how to work
with a pro level player I came back with
immense knowledge I started traveling
across the country working in different
schools colleges boarding schools army
teams almost any place I could reach out
to in the past two years I have worked
with about 3,000 kids across India and
and tried to change the way basketball
is taught but I was not satisfied I was
not satisfied with what I was doing it
was always like I wasn’t putting my
psychology training to good use and that
is when one day my driver I won by yeah
I went to the village to drop him in the
evening and he’s like a fitness up coach
got thing in society about Chocula how
mad about chocolate which CUNY Cathy and
that is where the gage a village project
begins with just two bamboo sticks and a
hoop we started the project and now we
have over 150 kids it’s been a tough
road most of these kids come from
families where they can’t afford a glass
of milk or a banana every day but
they’re out there working hard you know
they inspire me every day to work hard
with torn shoes bleeding toes just every
day every day they’re out there working
out and that is motivation for me
initially it was very tough to get these
girls their parents were of the thought
that you know girls are not supposed to
get out now in a rural village in Noida
we have over 50% of the kids as girls
playing basketball competing with boys
and defeating them sometimes I mean I
mean that is that is for me is bridging
barriers that is for me gaining mutual
respect across different genders and we
have a girl now called Shelley and she’s
secured a five-year hundred percent
scholarship achieved no other school
she’s got she recently represented utter
Pradesh we’ve been playing tournaments
all across the country we recently went
to Mayo girls India’s leading boarding
school and we defeated them we went to
Sylvia Kenya with the Elaine Collier and
we defeated that schools next to us on
the expressway I don’t like to point any
school names but none of them want to
play us none of them want to play
against us because they fear losing I’ve
offered them that I want to come
whenever you say whenever your time I’ll
come play you guys and they just don’t
want to play us so that’s motivation for
me I I consider that motivation because
we we go all across the country but the
neighboring schools we’ve not been able
to play so hopefully after this talk
they say okay I will play you well let’s
play I’m I’m not fearing losing a lot of
times I wondered what is the sport doing
for these kids why is it so important
what is the end result that’s what
corporates ask what is the end result
are these players going to play at the
next level and my point is that how do
you evaluate success for me the
evaluation of success is not that these
kids play at the next level my
evaluation is having 150 kids and having
a zero dropout rate these kids come here
who whose parents are electricians
plumber’s drivers every gardeners
everything and they spend quality time
from 3:00 in the evening till 6 o’clock
in a safe area these kids are at risk of
domestic violence a lot of these kids
sometimes I once I was just finding out
that it’s 8:30 in the evening and this
girl doesn’t want to leave back for home
and I was like it’s already 8:30 you
should go back home and and she likes
her miracle hopper shanty milky here and
a boo lucky few moments about Kaka
negamatter with me she’s like you know
my father is an alcoholic and I see my
mother getting beaten up every single
day that hit me emotionally that made me
feel as if we needed to do more for
these kids we started doing education
initially it was just a basketball
program initially I started this as a
off-peak or part-time job and now to the
disappointment of my trainers and my
staff who feel I should be where the
money is I’m spending three to nine
engage a village I just don’t want to
get out of there I want to work with
kids who are really serious about the
sport and want to get better it is
difficult because these kids come from
families where they can’t afford
anything and they’re working hard
they’re you know it’s I don’t know how
to express it but my perception is that
government organizations and corporates
need to understand that Sports is
equally if not more important than
education and and there are things for
it
sample now in my village you have a
vegetable venders kid and a landowners
kid playing basketball together how many
times would you see that in a village
not often I don’t I don’t think so and
now these kids are playing together
competing with each other these that’s
that’s bridging gaps for me that is
making me feel as if okay there’s
there’s a difference happening out here
across religions across different
economic communities the girls have have
actually achieved a lot in the past two
years from education we’ve got kids who
are topping in schools and making
student athletes student athlete as a
term is an American term but it
basically means that you need to perform
in the classroom to be on the basketball
court so all my kids have to get above a
55% to get on to the classroom on the
court and to your surprise it’s fifty
five percent I don’t mean it by the
bookish knowledge but I just mean it
that they just need to work hard and be
to their best of their abilities and
kids have gotten better if you come over
there an American trainer came down last
week and he was surprised to know that
all of them understood English he didn’t
need to translate he didn’t need a
translator he was just going at one
drill after the other and they were
picking up so so that’s what we are
doing in a small village in Noida and
eventually my aim is to be able to do
this across India in different villages
it doesn’t cost a lot it’s not a lot of
money majorly what we require is in-kind
so that’s something which keeps
everything very transparent on what we
do but it doesn’t satisfy me still of
course I mean I’m always wanting to know
what else could I do so I recently
visited Kashmir a place which is
problematic and I’m not being political
about it but I reached out to 1,500 kids
in a span of 10 days I went to places
like Pulwama and taught basketball two
days right after an attack and that made
me value what what I’m doing with these
kids because these kids come from famine
or areas where there’s been curfew for
over three three months these kids have
not got an opportunity to play so that
brings the empathy where I come back
together and I tell these kids how your
life is actually way better than kids
all across the world and they value and
they get to know about it
what is also happened in the past two
years when we started this program is
that we started with a broken half-court
we had just a couple of basketball
I had to go on Facebook and ask people I
still do that by the way I still go out
and ask people for whatever they can
donate all my groups have that
crowdfunding campaign always on it a
leading construction company owner came
down one day recently and sauce working
at a half court and he felt that you
know we weren’t it was unmanageable so
he donated us a full-size basketball
court and now that’s become a center of
activity all across the village
everybody I mean we have not lost a home
game in 20 in two years now we’ve got
teams coming and playing us but we’ve not lost a home game but yeah thank you