It was in Pune at the ’72 or ’73 Nationals, when I saw Abbasi (Abbas Moontasir) — one of my heroes: the person who made me aware of basketball in Bombay. Later, Babu — Abdul Hamid — became a great friend, still is, and I have actually played on the famous Nagpada court. It’s amazing.

Basketball in Nagpada and Madanpura was the game — the only game. In the ’80s when I played, every young boy wanted to be Abbasi or Babu. It was a tough, rough game, but full of life.

I’d begun playing earlier at Mussoorie’s Woodstock school where it was a passion. Captaining the senior team first, I later played for Dehra Dun in the UP state championships of ’67 in Roorkee, where we lost to eventual winners, UP Police, in the semis.

I came to Bombay in 1974, and used to hear basketballs being bounced about at the YMCA International House court all the time. But I was too much into struggling, to think of playing. Looking back, I wish I had.

Finally, in about ’83, I entered the court — was met with some resistance at first — but soon, Ismail and Raja and Rashid and the others of the ‘YMCA Road Team’ became friends for life. I played with them for 10 years, and our greatest moment was at the ’88 Javed Khan tournament where we made it into the second round and lost to a team from Nagpur in the final seconds. Ismail was called for ‘charging’ when a Nagpur player ran right into him, that’s the way the ball bounces.

I quit in ’94, when our team was disbanded, the joy had begun to go out of the game. It is now coming back and I’m so happy the Ramu Memorial is on again. I played in it twice in the ’80s, the first game against Bachoo Bhai and his Nagpada team. Talk about legends.

My favourite game was an ‘International’ between India and the Russian Railway team in mid-’80s at Matunga. Babu was captain and Sajjan Singh, the star. We beat them and I did an article for Sportsweek on Sajjan — eight pages in colour in ’85 when basketball players were unknown. They still are, of course. But I’ve watched (Sunil) Panda ponder, and Ajmer Singh, Hanuman — all greats. Sajjan was a favourite because he was so cool and sensitive of the game — like Larry Bird, Babu because he was Babu — a fighter and Abbasi because he improvised.

I took the YMCA Road team to Woodstock in ’87, lost by two points. It was a classic game: our Madanpura boys tried all their tricks, including pulling down shorts, but Woodstock was too good!

Basketball at the national level has its niche audience, for sure, but until we win something big abroad, it will not move beyond that. I feel that the passion of the ’70s and ’80s — even the ’60s is down. But it is true of all sports — even cricket. In schools, where passion grows, study and social life have taken over — sad, but true.

Nagpada is — and was — Bombay basketball in simpler, tougher times, when choices were few. But now, with so many social and sporting and business choices, basketball has lost its energy. But that rings true around the world. It’s a fact of life — basketball was the only way for a young man from Nagpada to prove himself. Not any more.