Making room for squash in a sleepy village

Hindustan Times

a day ago

The blaze from the unforgiving afternoon sun bounces off the slick glass squash court, where a bunch of children are walking barefoot, their shoes in their hands. A low, thin wall sits between the modern court — the kind erected in a posh Mumbai club for an international tournament — and a row of concrete houses only recently upgraded from their kutcha status. A group of girls stands under the shade for a mid-day catch up.
Bijali Darwada joins them. The 25-year-old has spent a large part of her teenage years across that little wall, hoping to become a national level squash player. Last year, she flew to Sri Lanka for an international tournament. The day after her return, as former squash pro Ritwik Bhattacharya vividly remembers, she sat by the lake, washing clothes. This is not usual for a squash player. Then again, nothing about this squash academy is usual.
Nestled in a tiny corner of Maharashtra ringed by the Western Ghats, this countryside is now being swept by a largely urban sport. Kalote Mokashi, a village in Raigad district about two hours from suburban Mumbai, has waterfalls, camps by the lake and getaway farmhouses. It also has a sporting ecosystem that provides local children access to basic infrastructure, means to play sport, and a development path through a game they didn't know existed until 2017.
That's when the Squash Temple and Rhythm Training (Start) academy sprung to life in this sleepy village, with Bhattacharya, India's former top-ranked pro and holder of nine Professional Squash Association (PSA) world tour titles, making Kalote Mokashi his home.
Calling this academy their home are around 80 kids from this village of less than 500 people. From here, 46 alumni are ranked nationally and eight flaunt a PSA ranking. No one has won a championship yet, but pursuing a life that pulls them away from the norm of picking up odd jobs to make a living is transformative. 'Out of 100 kids, even if 10 go on to excel in squash, the other 90 have been upgraded with exposure,' Bhattacharya said, cutting through the sound of squash balls hitting the wall. 'It has required patience, but there's a social change element that has come out of this journey.'
Start of the journey
Over the past two decades, India has made steady strides in squash, with stars such as Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal, Joshna Chinappa, and Bhattacharya breaking into the global elite levels in the sport. In the 2023 Asian Games, the Indian contingent won five medals.
But squash has usually been a game for the privileged.
The idea of Start started germinating soon after Bhattacharya retired in 2010. Having turned to coaching and running a few programmes in Mumbai, Bhattacharya was at the mercy of kids' free time and clubs' court availability. 'I'd train them for one hour in the morning and evening. In the city, I felt like I was just sitting and waiting. Plus, I was a little tired of coaching just one segment of society,' he said.
Squash is a sport brimming with players of affluent backgrounds, with scholarships in American colleges a lucrative bypass. Why, then, think of taking it rural? 'Because the talent is here,' Bhattacharya said. 'We have to take the institution to their doorstep and bridge this urban-rural divide, by not expecting them to go to Mumbai or Pune for training.'
On one of his weekend trips, Bhattacharya found himself in Kalote Mokashi, where his friend and eventual co-founder of the academy Munish Makhija lived. Makhija showed Bhattacharya the vacant two-acre plot of land, which the squash star acquired in 2011.
For a few years thereafter, Bhattacharya would visit Kalote Mokashi frequently to spend days playing football and weekends trekking with the village kids. It helped break the ice. In 2015, the thought of building a squash court was planted, which bore fruit two years later with an all-black indoor court. 'We built all the infrastructure employing people from the village,' Bhattacharya said.
The academy was up and running, so was the kids' enthusiasm to learn something new. It was was set up with the help of co-founders Munish Makhija and Sridhar Gorthi. In the years since, much of their funding came from private companies' CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). It helped them add a glass court in 2023.
'Before this, we would spend our days just attending school and roaming around the forest,' said Krushna Darwada, 21. Luxman Pokale, 23, faced a common demand from his family after finishing school: 'Ab bade ho gaye ho, kuch kama lo (now that you're old enough, start earning)'. He'd pick up odd jobs to bring home some money. 'Ritwik sir told me to come and play here. Whatever you're earning there I will pay you',' he said.
Live, breathe squash
None of these kids had even heard of squash. Bhattacharya began by showing videos and then teaching them to hold a racquet. 'Then he taught us how to serve, how points are won, and so on,' said Bijali. 'I enjoyed it so much that I would be here the whole day after school.'
That's essentially what Bhattacharya yearned for — a place where kids can live, breathe and eat squash and sports. The 45-year-old resides in the village. So does Karan Sharma, a fitness trainer. The kids have a fitness session in the morning and two squash sessions a day, the second largely involving matches. The glass court came up in 2023, and both courts are open 24x7. Sharma has seen kids ghosting (practicing court movement without a ball) even past midnight at times.
Eight are now ranked on the PSA tour, and 74 have participated in junior and senior nationals over the years. From being confined to Kalote Mokashi, they've gone to Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Ajmer, Chennai, Delhi to compete. Add Sri Lanka to Bijali's travel diaries, at an age when most girls in her village are married. 'It was such a different experience,' Bijali, ranked 352 in the PSA charts, said.
They also get to interact with players from other backgrounds who often visit.
Akanksha Salunkhe, the world No.72 who Bhattacharya coaches, often stays at the academy. Current India women's No.1 and fast-rising Anahat Singh has also been here. Young talents Nirupama Dubey and Gurveer Singh, as well as former Italian pro turned coach Stephane Galifi, are frequent occupiers of the four rooms at the academy reserved for visitors.
Brush with pros
The Delhi-based Gurveer was in Kalote Mokashi for a two-week training block in April. The 17-year-old has made periodic visits since 2021, when he felt his game style needed reinvention. His training under Bhattacharya is a lot more specific, which the village kids get to see. They've also realised what squash's inclusion for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics means, with the LA 2028 logo painted on the tin of the glass court.
'They get the excitement around it,' Bhattacharya said. ' Akanksha is training here for that, so are the likes of Gurveer and Nirupama. They're seeing and understanding how much I'm pushing them.'
Village kids are assigned to take the city trainees for treks; a physical test they are inbuilt to ace (Bhattacharya said they can climb a nearby mountain in 20 minutes). In turn, from the pros, they pick up squash's technical nuances. 'I observe how they train, their technique, how they keep their mind relaxed between games,' said Sadashiv Shingwa, 23.
Village upliftment
All of the academy's employees are from the village. 'Out of the 80 families here, at least 40 are directly involved with us,' Bhattacharya said.
The academy has Wifi and washrooms that villagers have access to. Trainees can have meals at the academy, and eggs await any village kid at 5pm. 'There's still some malnutrition. But they're stronger, taller, fitter now,' Bhattacharya said.
Bijali, richer for the taste of outside life, also sees the change. 'The village is a lot cleaner. Anyone who throws plastic now, we pick it up,' she said.
'With squash,' 21-year-old Raju Shingwa added, 'people in our village are getting a glimpse of how life is outside.'
Inside this little ecosystem, the chain reaction is already in motion. The academy's first batch players have started to teach the younger children, who come in as early as six. Most trainees also bring their brothers and sisters along. 'I've also gone to nearby villages asking them to come here,' Bijali said.
Beyond their personal growth and the village's development, Bhattacharya reckons it's a matter of time that someone from Kalote Mokashi takes the step up in elite squash.
'Our goal is to scout four guys and girls to join the PSA tour,' he said. 'I really believe that in 2-3 years, we'll have eight players ranked in the top 100 from this village.'