I fondly remember my maiden trip to India back in 2006. I arrived in Delhi from New York City and spent three weeks backpacking – partly alone and partly with my best friend Phil, who joined me from Sydney halfway through my ‘holiday.’ I ventured through Delhi, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Mt. Abu, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur on that trip. For most of it, I was a grimy backpacker dressed in torn jeans, faded t-shirts and worn-out Converse All-Star sneakers. We travelled by train, bus, taxi, scooter, auto, bike rickshaw and foot, walking alongside the wall to avoid getting hit by the several vehicles and animals zooming through the crowded lanes. It was exhilarating, nerve-racking and scary all at once. I loved every second of the experience as travelling through India made me feel alive – it pushed me well beyond my fairly wide comfort zone.
During that three-week adventure, I scheduled meetings with representatives of the Indian sports industry so that I could learn more about the landscape. Top brass individuals like the general secretary of the All India Football Federation and sports marketing heads of adidas and Nike, and so on. While it was a personal trip, I did not want to miss the opportunity to build my network and knowledge of the Indian sports industry. And although I was young and agile at the time, it was still incredibly challenging to transform from backpacker to professional – turning up to meetings in the only pair of formal clothes I was carrying in my bag after having spent the night in a grimy 1 or 2-star guest house. Shaving nicely, putting on more after-shave than required and finding some way to iron my wrinkled clothes so that no one could tell that I woke up in a mosquito-infested, windowless, AC-less glorified youth hostel. I pulled it off and thoroughly enjoyed living the best of both worlds – sports management professional and low-budget traveller (or adventurer as I like to say).
Fast forward seventeen years. It is now 2023. I have lived in India since 2009, am happily married and typically travel like a financially secure 40-something-year-old. However, while reflecting towards the end of 2022, I started reconnecting with my old self. The part of me that feels alive when I push my limits and venture beyond my comfort zone. This led me to book an eleven-hour solo bus ride to the town of Hampi in south India. This is an ancient town that I have desired to travel to as it is known for its spiritual potency, historical structures and beautiful landscape. I was nervously excited while getting on the bus and finding my seat, knowing that this would be my bumpy, noisy, cramped, bathroom-less home for almost half a day.
I made it to Hampi in one piece arriving at the odd hour of 4:30 am. It was not a relaxing ride, but the driver ensured that all us passengers safely reached our desired destination, which is all that matters. Also, there is something thrilling about working so hard to get to a somewhat remote place, as it feels like passing the endurance test unlocks a door to another world that only the brave (or foolish) get to experience. I spent the next few days roaming around Hampi, catching every sunrise & sunset from different vantage points, praying to each deity I saw and walking nearly 40 kilometres up, down and around the town. And, yes, I stayed in a mosquito-infested, windowless, AC-less glorified youth hostel, and I LOVED the experience. Hampi is truly a special place to visit.
I woke up on the last day of my mini-adventure, pulled out my one set of professional clothes, shaved my multi-day stubble, took a long-cold bucket bath, dabbed myself with cologne, hopped into a taxi and headed to Vijayanagar to visit JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS). I felt the rush of my 26-year-old self, mixing low-budget travel through new environs with professional meetings. I arrived at IIS and immediately took a tour of the facility, which an administrative team member led. IIS is a cutting-edge environment founded to craft champions in India with an eye on success at the Olympic Games. The institute’s mission is to create a world-class inter-disciplinary training environment that allows athletes to maximize their potential and turn it into medal-winning performances at the Olympics. It includes state-of-the-art facilities and sports science and has some of the finest coaching minds from across the world to guide India’s top athletes towards the Indian Olympic dream.
I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the facilities, which provide housing and best-in-class training for hundreds of elite-level athletes year-round. In addition to the facilities, the administrative and technical staff were not only experienced professionals but were also completely aligned with the institute’s mission. After the tour, I spent time with the COO of IIS and my former Libero Sports colleague Tathagata Mukherjee. He took me through some of the highlights of IIS as well as the opportunities and challenges. We also talked about the resource requirements of the institute to see if GISB would be able to support with providing qualified candidates to join their team. What continued running through my mind while I was at the institute was this wish that more private organisations in India chose to invest CSR funding into sports development. What JSW has accomplished by establishing IIS not only transforms the lives of hundreds of athletes each year, it has the potential to inspire hundreds of millions of Indians to make sport a part of their lives and feel proud of their nation.
After spending half the day at the institute, I grabbed my bag from the administrative office and took a short drive to the minuscule Vidyanagar airport. After checking in, I changed from my professional outfit to my traveller’s garb to get comfortable as I was flying to Bangalore and then to Mumbai. Once the flight took off, I looked out the window at the expansive green fields of rural Karnataka and smiled, knowing that I had successfully reconnected with that dormant part of myself that yearned to expand my edges and venture beyond my comfort zone. Because when I expand my edges, I know that I am nourishing my soul and accessing a new source of energy that has been waiting to be unleashed into the world.
Sharing some images from both places…
