Calcutta boy’s sport-or-job battle

Calcutta:

Ramit Tandon’s journey from La Martiniere for Boys in Calcutta to the winners’ podium at the 2018 Asian Games hasn’t followed the usual curve of sporting success achieved through sweat and the sacrifice of myriad other ambitions.

The 26-year-old, who also studied at Columbia University, was till a year ago analysing equity and debt markets sitting in the New York office of a hedge fund. Squash remained his passion, but primarily as a leisure activity.

Last Friday, Ramit won an Asian Games bronze in Jakarta along with teammates Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Mahesh Mangaonkar, all three of them regulars in the competition circuit.

Ramit had quit his job in New York to turn pro only last November. His Professional Squash Association (PSA) ranking then was above 600. Over the next few months, he won two PSA titles to break into the top 60, good enough to earn him a spot in the Indian team for the Asian Games.

“I used to badly miss being in competitive squash. The travelling, the pressure (to perform), the adrenaline rush and, of course, the honour of representing the country,” Ramit told Metro at the Saturday Club, where he hits a ball or two whenever he is in town.

At the Asian Games, Ramit won all but one of his matches. He counts his performance against Qatar in a crunch match in the group stage as his personal favourite. He did not play a match in the semifinal against Hong Kong because the two players before him had lost theirs, making the rest of the contest inconsequential.

While the gold medal eluded India, Ramit sees the bronze as a vindication of his decision to become a squash pro.

So, what made him finally choose squash over a shirt-and-tie career? “Hedge funds require balancing risk and return. I thought it was time I did it for myself instead of clients,” he said. “I was earning well. I had to factor in so many things, including the possibility of a comeback to my earlier career if I failed in squash.”

As a student, Ramit had been regarded as a promising player in the junior circuit. Between 2001 and 2011, Ramit had won a string of national championships in successive age groups. He was the captain of the India Under-19 team that won a gold medal in the Asian Junior Championships in Sri Lanka in 2011.

But studies won the competition when it came to choosing a career. “I had had a decent schooling. When I got a chance to study at Columbia University, I did not want to let go of it. After my graduation in statistics, I got an analyst’s job with Birch Grove,” he recalled.

Now that squash has won back what it lost, Ramit intends to be loyal to the sport. And nobody’s complaining.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mitra / September 04th, 2018