RETURNING SERVE

When squash coach Satinder Bajwa returned to Chandigarh from the US in 2010, he didn’t want to “give back” by nurturing Indian champions. Formerly director of Harvard University’s squash programme from 1999 to 2010, over his career he’d mentored eight-time world number one Pakistani squash player, Jansher Khan, and a host of others. But when he came home, he wanted to use sports to help the underprivileged. So he built a world-class squash facility in Attawa village near Chandigarh, with Rs 2 crore from his own savings.

“Sport is a great equaliser. It gives you the push to move forward in life,” says Bajwa, whose centre has more than 60 trainees. Named Khelshala, the programme charges Rs 100 per month, compared with Rs 130 to buy a squash ball at a regular sports shop. His wards include children of rickshaw pullers, hawkers and domestic help. More than 10 of his trainees are playing at the national level, and 25 at the state level. Khelshala’s Priya Gupta (20) won the Women’s Open division of the National Squash Circuit in 2016 and 2017 and has been invited to apply for the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University.

Bajwa feels the most important contribution of the centre is towards the academic life of the trainees, who also study on their own at the premises.

Currently in talks with the Chandigarh education secretary to offer squash as a physical education subject in schools, he hopes to take the model statewide.

“In the West, sports are prioritised not to make top players, but to get children to make it to college,” says Bajwa, who holds a degree in Avionics engineering from England’s Southall Technological College. “You cannot be a champ for life, academics is what will take you far.”