One Life, One Change: In Gheja village, basketball helps girls dunk a few myths

From two-three girls in 2014, academy now trains 70 girls, 90 boys. Express Photo by Praveen Khanna

KHUSHBOO RATHORE learnt to rebel rather early in life. She was 10 when she walked out of her house at Gheja village in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, in a pair of shorts — her first. Two years later, she remembers being taunted by her mother and grandmother about “showing too much leg”, and becoming the topic of colony gossip.

Things worsened when neighbours and relatives realised she was learning to play basketball at school. But today, Rathore’s mother, a cook who works at homes, has finally stopped objecting.

“I had never played a sport because I was always told that it was just for my two brothers. I didn’t understand this but I believed it. But when girls in my class began playing the game, I wanted to see what I was missing out on. I am the school team’s point guard now,” says Rathore, sporting her basketball jersey.

A student of National Education Mission (NEM) public school in Gheja, which falls inside the National Capital Region (NCR), Rathore’s life changed when a court was built inside school by Dribble Academy — a basketball training programme run by 27-year-old Pradyut Voleti. Since October 2014, Voleti has been coaching students of the school free of cost and has created its first basketball team.

The funds for building the court, jerseys and shoes comes from friends, family and strangers when Voleti posts about the requirements on Facebook. “When I first started here, there were two-three girls, now there are about 70 girls, and 90 boys. I also hold an English class, and one on life skills where we show them videos on current topics and debates. The last one they saw was on Triple Talaq,” he says.

At the court last week, handling the scorecard were 12-year-olds Mohini Chaudhary and Priya Sharma. “We play mixed matches, where every team has both boys and girls. This tells me I am no different from them and teaches the boys that I can easily play even better than them,” says Chaudhary. Sharma, on the other hand, aspires to be a basketball coach when she grows up, “just like Pradyut bhaiya”.

Voleti’s journey began at a boarding school in Ajmer in the mid-2000s, followed by a stint in Delhi, before heading to Mumbai for college, where he was a part of the Bandra YMCA team.

“I was practicing every day but something was wrong, I wasn’t doing my best. I had become a clinical psychologist, and would follow basketball matches and teams on TV. I realised countries that were nowhere a decade ago, like Iran and Syria, were now at the top of their game. I picked up techniques from the matches I watched and began teaching in my colony in 2013. Within a month, I had 30 kids and I quit my job,” says Voleti, whose life now revolves around the academy. In 2014, to hone his skills further, he went to the US to train under Ganon Baker, a skill development trainer, who has worked with NBA players.

“We are 50 years behind other countries, the only way forward is preparing the future generation, and that’s why I coach, to be the person I never had while playing basketball,” says Voleti,who found out about an empty ground at NEM when he returned from the US.

With the help of friends, basketball lovers, and followers of Dribble Academy, things began looking up for a school that never had a team for any sport before Voleti stepped in. Last year, Shaily Upadhyay, 12 — one of Voleti’s first students at NEM — won a five-year, 100 per cent scholarship at Shiv Nadar School in Noida.

Everyone aspires to be Shaily now, says Rathore. The girls’ team has just lost the finals of Noida Basketball League but look forward to possibly playing at Welham Girls’ School in Dehradun. “I have been to Ajmer, Mumbai, Lonavala and Gwalior with the team, the only times I have ever left Gheja essentially,” says Rathore. These trips, like everything else, are funded by patrons of the academy.

Apart from basketball, Voleti insists the students perform well academically, which is why he has on board an English teacher. He has also made it compulsory for children to carry sprouts for lunch daily. “I want them to eat together, help each other and understand team spirit. It’s not just a game, it’s a way of life. I want to adopt another 20 schools and train 3,000-4,000 children in the next 10 years,” says Voleti.