Live India, Love Football

I will speak much more on this in a future post, but for now, I am thrilled to share that I have written a book on football in India, and Om Books International has published it! The book, Awakening the Blue Tigers , is available on Amazon and in bookstores across India.   It was a year-long journey to develop the concept, structure the content, secure the publishing contract, conduct research, write the book and go through the editing process. Thankfully, my co-author Gaurav Gala and I successfully made it through the entire experience, while becoming stronger writers and better friends along the way.     It is a proud moment in my life as I have always dreamed about writing a book, and now this dream has manifested into a reality.  I am sharing an image of the cover and back of the book. 

I am blessed. It is truly a privilege to have the opportunity to work in a field that is an extension of my core self. That is exactly what sports management education is for me. An extension of who I am and how I want to contribute to the world.  Creating programs, platforms and partnerships that allow people to reflect upon themselves and connect with their professional aspirations makes waking up each morning exciting and worthwhile.  It makes me feel that I am living my purpose and doing my small part to add value to people’s lives.  The wild part about this is how much fun one can have while living their purpose. I experienced this a few weeks back when I was with my GISB students in London for the annual GISB-Premier League study trip to the United Kingdom. Thanks to GISB’s long-standing partnership with the Premier League, our students (and administrators) get the extraordinary opportunity to spend a week in London learning how the Premier League and Premier League...

To my loyal readers: let me express my sincere apologies for disappearing for a while. My last post was in December of 2021, which makes this, I believe, the longest gap between posts since I started this blog in early 2010. Since December 2021, I have experienced several positive shifts in my personal and professional life; however, I will use this opportunity to share one of my proudest achievements.   I have become a certified Professional Coach!  In 2002, when I started working with Major League Soccer, I planned to get an introductory-level coaching badge so I could effectively coach youth soccer players during the weekend. Then I got busy with work, completing my MBA, social life, girlfriends, exploring New York City, etc., and never took any action aligned with this plan.  In 2009, when I moved to India, again, I thought I would get an AIFF D-license and start coaching Indian youth in my free time.  Never happened.   Deep down inside, I always w...

At the moment, the Indian sports industry does not require more sports management education institutes to be established or short courses and executive programs to be launched.  This trend has taken India by storm over the last few years.  While I am thrilled that the birth of these institutes and courses reflect the growing demand for sports management as a career option, I cannot confidently say that they are all serving the industry or the student.  This statement is not meant to be derogatory towards the universities, organizations and individuals that have launched these courses. Most offer the requisite amount of teaching hours, industry exposure and internship opportunities to pass students through the course and attempt to launch them into the sporting ecosystem. However, what is missing in many of the sports management programs I have researched is a robust and customized mentorship program.       The Indian sports industry is still a developi...

I have been working in the sports industry for the past twenty years. Like many other sectors, there are certain sports industry words that are just tossed around over and over again. Words like ‘ecosystem,’ or ‘authentic,’ or ‘engagement.’ One word commonly used but rarely understood is the word ‘grassroots.’ The dictionary definition of grassroots is the most basic level of an activity or organization.  Grassroots sports can be defined as community-driven sports activity at a local level that is mainly recreational, rather than being about achieving high levels of performance or commercial success. Investing in grassroots sports is regularly posited as the answer to the challenges facing the development of sport within a country or region. I heard this commonly held belief during my years working at MLS as it related to supporting the growth of soccer in North America. Here in India, football stakeholders who are desperate to grow the beautiful game in the country sound like bro...

I am a self-development junkie. I have been for the past fifteen years.  I remember registering for my first Landmark Education course in New York City in 2006.  It was an intense three and a half day journey where we were guided to look into our past to identify why we are the way we are. Essentially, to discover what makes our monkey mind say what it says to us so that we no longer have to be controlled by it or, possibly, even transform its narrative. During the course, I endured many emotionally jarring self-reflection exercises, forced paired sharing, and multiple assignments over eleven hour days, and I soaked it all up.  I guess it is just how I am wired. I love exploring areas in my life that are working and those that are not, and tapping into principles, exercises, and tools to further develop myself.  This initial Landmark Education forum kickstarted a self-work obsession that has lasted for a decade and a half, leading me to enroll in retreats, courses, w...

There are some achievements that, for us regular people, just feel so good to share with the world. These are feats that have been unequivocally agreed upon by the general public to be considered impressive. I am a sucker for regularly being considered impressive. Finding ways to ‘innocently’ slip into a dinner party conversation that, “I ran the New York and Mumbai full marathons,” or “I did Vipassana in 2020,” or “I have delivered two TEDx talks.” I know…it is sad that I care so much for external validation that I would run forty-two kilometers across a city, or meditate in silence for ten straight days, or spend months preparing for an eighteen-minute talk. But that is just how I am wired. Slight joking aside, though, these were some of the most remarkable experiences of my life – each of which I have described in detail in earlier blog posts.   But I digress. The message that I am trying to communicate is that many humans use the power of achievement to stand apart from, o...