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.