The SREI Infrastructure Club, in collaboration with the Sports Club and Net Impact Club, facilitated a speaker session with Mr. Satinder Bajwa.
Mentor to eight-time world number one squash player and Director of Harvard University’s squash programme, Mr. Bajwa has now moved back to India to foster an academic and sports-based education model for the underserved, that he runs via his organization – Khelshala.
The session started off with topics such as the importance of sports in daily lives. Mr. Bajwa gave brilliant references from his time at Harvard and while coaching the world’s bests and how he used those experiences to leverage his entrepreneurial journey with Khelshala. He went on to discuss the setting up of Khelshala and the obstacles that he faced. Currently, Khelshala helps its students with a very diverse daily routine that includes academics, squash, tennis, yoga, music, and art of living courses. He was accompanied by 3 other young squash players, an Indian and two American, who have trained under him and have found a spot an in national rankings.
He also gave the ISB students an insight on how sports and business have a strong link in terms of how to manage various crisis situations.
One interesting point Mr. Bajwa made was how teaching children who had never picked a racquet before was way more complicated more difficult than mentoring world champions. The attendees planned various synergy activities between ISB and Khelshala, which can be implemented during the remaining year and beyond. A pro bono consultancy project has already been rolled out.
The strongest takeaway was that it is not necessary to be competitive or result-oriented every time one enters any situation. After all, one does not play to necessarily earn a living or trophies out of it but to make his/her more productive and meaningful.