How one man and volleyball saved these Mumbai kids from drugs

Here's a sunshine story that will bring a smile on your faces. It's about how a former volleyball champion weaned 40 Mumbai boys away from drug addiction to substances with a ball, net and a dream

Players at Vallabhbhai Suri Ground in Mulund. Pics/ Sneha Kharabe

For Mohammad Ismail Khan, ‘Sir’ is the linchpin who holds his life together. He and volleyball. The 18-year-old has been to hell and back — he got addicted to inhaling whiteners, smoking cigarettes, rampantly downing cough syrup and chewing gutka while still in school years ago. Life slipped through the young child’s fingers; his addiction forced him to even drop out of school in Std VIII. At a time when everybody seemed to have given up on him, Jamshed Farooqui ‘Sir’ found him in 2014. Farooqui, a former state-level volleyball player, offered him a way out: Immerse yourself in a sport and you’d never look back. Today, Khan wears that advice as a badge of honour and makes sure other children are kept out of harm’s way. That Farooqui got through to Khan was no surprise.

Farooqui (46), the coach, has come a long way from being Farooqui, the celebrated captain of the U-19 Mumbai volleyball team that won the state championship in Kolhapur in 1988. He has helped around 30 children associated with drugs turn their lives around with the help of volleyball over the years.

Efforts pay off
Today, his ragtag team is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with around 35,000 young sportspersons from all walks of life at SFA (Sports for All) Mumbai 2016, the second edition of a multi-sport platform that helps bring talented players, sports academies and talent scouts under one roof, from November 28-December 19. This year, 4,500 schools will participate in the competition.

Jamshed Farooqui

Farooqui, a resident of Sonapur slum in Bhandup, began taking underprivileged children who were already drug addicts or faced peer pressure to take to a life of drugs under his wing after his triumphant return home in 1988. His career was cut short the next year with his father’s death.

Volleyball took a backseat, but not his passion. He turned his focus on the bigger tragedy unfolding before his eyes: boys, aged 10-18, in the bylanes of nearby slums sniffing turpentine and consuming psychotropic drugs. “I decided to do something about it,” recalls Farooqui.

He began coaching them in volleyball in 1995 to help beat their addiction or the pressure to cave in.

Getting through
But it was only two years ago that he could form a volleyball team of his own. Today, the children, from different slums of Bhandup, smash the ball at Vallabhbhai Suri Ground in Mulund. Farooqui spends out of his own pocket for the equipment needed.

Mohammad Khan, Khursheed Khan and Rashid Ansari say their lives are now anew

Getting the parents on board wasn’t a cakewalk. “It isn’t easy to convince parents in these pockets where the minority community resides that sports can be a viable career option. They fail to understand that it can bring in positive changes in a person,” says Farooqui.

Proof of change
Khan, who helps Farooqui train children, is proof of these changes. “My health deteriorated during my addiction. I started staying alone. Sir counselled me. Now, I am helping him make sure that these children don’t follow in my footsteps,” he says.

Khursheed Khan, a Std IX student and player in Farooqui’s team, says volleyball helped him beat the pressure to join his drug-addled friends. “They used to rob and steal just to get their daily dose of kick. I escaped, thanks to Farooqui Sir who reached out to me six months ago.”

For Rashid Ansari (14), volleyball is helping him battle tuberculosis. “My parents panicked when I was diagnosed with it. Sir convinced them that the disease shouldn’t stop me from playing. I began training under him three months ago. Today, I feel much fitter and lighter,” he says.

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