Once Bombay Gymkhana parking boy,33-yr-old inspires rugby win

Shaikh has had hardly any schooling,and lived as a squatter around Mumbai’s Azad Maidan,taking up and leaving 50 odd jobs. However,the love for rugby remained a constant.

“The game has been everything in my life since Bombay Gymkhana started training street children in it. I never went to school,but I can talk in English and run in English,” he jokes. Even the jobs he quit were mainly after being denied permission to train.

His small frame has been to his advange,including in the recent final,says the ‘hooker’. “Rivals think they can push me around,so they take it easy.” “My team-mates also say I’m the best thrower in the country. On good days I believe them,” says Shaikh.

Days such as those have been rare. He lives with his wife and two kids in a one-room home in Kurla,and still doesn’t have a permanent job. “I go to sites where films are shot and help technicians with tool-boxes,” he says.

His Bombay Gymkhana team-mates have tried to get him a permanent job. “My wife is usually supportive,but on the days when the kids go hungry,she blames rugby,” he says. The team also chipped in when,three months ago,she met with an accident.

He wants elder son Ghous to study,Shaikh says,something he misses despite the English he has picked up hanging around Gymkhana — which he counts as a blessing. However,shrugs Shaikh,“He too can’t take his eyes off the rugby ball.”