Standing tall in a Punjab village,with NBA dreams

Wahan doodh patlaa hota hai. Taste achchha nahi hai.

The day after his 15-year-old son Satnam came home in Ballo Ke village near Barnala from the US,Balbir Singh Bhamara doubled the daily supply of milk to the household. The 7-foot-2 lad,on the first break of a year-long stint at Floridas high-profile basketball academy,hasnt been able to come to terms with the low-fat tetra pack he gets for breakfast in the US and Balbir was pained by the fact.

Wahan doodh patlaa hota hai. Taste achchha nahi hai. Here,I have been drinking four litres of milk every day, says Satnam happily.

But thats about the only complaint that Satnam has of his new life which began three months ago. His freakishly long limbs and prodigious ball-handling skills were noticed by a US National Basketball Association (NBA) talent scout earlier this year.

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After Yao Mings move from Shanghai to Houston snatched Chinas attention,the NBA has been hoping for an encore in India and its savvy marketers reckoned Satnams could be the face to draw a billion Indian sports fans to TV sets to watch the worlds most competitive basketball league.

Local basketball administrators feel the game could leap in India should Satnam get a big break. He is a great prospect. I am sure he will do what Yao Ming did for China. Indian basketball will change in case one of our boys makes it to the NBA, BFI secretary general Harish Sharma said.

But Satnam isnt thinking that far. I cant say what will happen in the future. If I dont make it big,I have a life here in the village. I have to complete my studies,and I can help my father in the fields. I have improved a lot in the last three months. I am faster,have more power,and I am jumping much higher, he says.

Satnam is getting exposed a world vastly different from the one he has always known. He is on Facebook,travels with a laptop,even throws in a few English words in his rustic Punjabi but confesses the sight of a laundromat still leaves him baffled.

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Learning English is the toughest. I have attend additional classes,besides I have an interpreter to help me while on court, he says. His favourite NBA star is Kobe Bryant,he says,but adds there are others whose names he cant pronounce. Bahut oukhe naam hain ji unke.

Life at the academy is tough. They are very strict. We cannot practice if we miss our lectures. Only if you are sick and have a doctors prescription to prove it,can you be spared, says Satnam.

But father Balbir,himself a 7-feet-plus who always dreamt of playing top-level basketball,thinks its all going to pay off. I didnt get the opportunity… But look at our destiny,my son is getting the best training in the world. I am sure he will be in the NBA one day, says Balbir.