Live India, Love Football

I just returned to India after the annual GISB-Premier League study trip to the United Kingdom, and I’m filled with immense gratitude, inspiration, and excitement for the future of the sports industry. In 2018, Gaurav Modwel and I set out to create a world-class sports education institute with a vision to bridge the gap between the east and west in the world of sports. Our aim was simple yet ambitious: to provide aspiring sports professionals with unparalleled access to industry leaders, best practices, and hands-on learning opportunities that go beyond classrooms—immersing them in engaging real-world situations where students can explore platforms, products, concepts and strategies that further the industry and connect the world. Seven years later, the institute has grown into something far greater than we had imagined. This past week’s trip showcased exactly why GISB exists. Thanks to The Premier League, its clubs, and its partners, our students had the opportunity to: Deepen their u...

Fifteen years. I recently celebrated my fifteenth year living in India. It’s a milestone that feels… tricky to define. Is it an achievement? A feat of endurance? A happy accident? Or simply what happens when you keep waking up, showing up, and living your life? I suppose it depends on who you ask—and perhaps how much coffee you’ve had before answering. For me, these 15 years represent clarity, courage, resilience, and alignment. But weirdly, it doesn’t feel like something I’ve “accomplished.” I didn’t arrive here with a master plan, definitive timeline or India bucket list. I moved because it felt right—like a calling to shift my life to this country and contribute to the growth of sport. The plan was… well, there wasn’t one. Just a vague hope that I’d survive, make some friends, have some unique experiences and maybe—just maybe—leave a positive mark. When I arrived in late October 2009, everything felt new. Every day was a first. The streets were loud, the possibilities endless, and t...

It was March 2020 when I started writing a book about my eventful career journey and the philosophy I chose to apply as I made decisions along my professional pathway. It was the early days of the pandemic, and my wife and I were staying at a friend’s beautiful farmhouse in Lonavala – a quaint hill station two hours’ drive from Mumbai. During those days, I would wake up early, exercise, chant while walking in nature, make a cup of coffee, sit in one of the comfy chairs facing a nearby mountain, pull out my laptop, put on my headphones, turn on my favourite tunes and start typing.  I relished the process of taking the memories, beliefs, insights and lived wisdom that resided in my head and heart and excitedly placing them onto the Microsoft Word document. It was therapeutic, exhilarating and addicting – creating something that did not exist before. Thanks to the online Masterclass course on how to write non-fiction led by renown author Malcolm Gladwell that my wife purchased for me ...

I love writing. It is my meditation. It is my escape from the external world and path into my internal one. It is the medium by which I process my thoughts, experiences, aspirations and dreams. It is how I can authentically express my appreciation, gratitude and love for others exactly as it is written on my heart. The lined paper in a fresh journal and the blank Microsoft Word page serve as my canvas, and when my hand moves the pen to the paper or my fingers begin typing, I honestly do not know what will happen next. What words will flow through my head, heart and soul and onto the paper or screen? It is a beautiful experience, a ‘creative act’, as Rick Rubin calls it.  I never thought that, in my lifetime, the majestic art of writing would come under attack. I accepted that SMS and WhatsApp have made the art of letter and long-form email writing somewhat archaic. It has been difficult to witness as I feel the essence of communication is challenging to connect with when delivered ...

One of my favorite quotes is, “There is no such thing as original thought, there is only original action.”  I have expressed this statement several times over the past two decades and still do not have any idea who originally said this. Even after multiple online searches, the closest thing I could find was this quote from Mark Twain,  “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”  While I subscribe to Mr. Twain’s sentiment, I also understand that it differs from the quote mentioned at the top.   It is only now, while writing this piece, that I have become aware of the irony of this situation: I am struggling to find the original owner of a quote that co...

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 ...