Fund manager, investor, investment banker, start up enthusiast, board member, policy advisor, agriculturist, podcaster
Kapil Khandelwal KK
QuoteUnquote with KK and Kevin T Carter, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, EMQQ Global, An Emerging Markets and Indian Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on NYSE
What is ETFs?
The Future of Indian Consumertech
BCG + Matrix Partners - Future of Indian Consumer Tech
Democratising Digital Commerce in India
My Presentation at CFO Summit 2019
The lockdown is over!
Over the lockdown, I was only doing my regular walks and diet control. This helped me reduce my weight and kept me fit physically and mentally. The result was that I reduced over 15 kilos in weight. However, I needed a full body workout and had to pick up a sport. I am not a gym person and needed to add some workouts for my upper body and endurance. Hence some racket sport would be a great addition. In the past, I had played table tennis in school and college at competitive level. Later, in college I played tennis till I gave up in 2011.
After 10 years, I wanted to take up a racket sport that is easy on my age and is all weather. The choice zeroed down to squash.
According to Forbes Magazine, squash was rated as the healthiest sports in the World. Forbes consulted with personal trainers, coaches and exercise physiologists, 10 sports were listed as being the ‘healthiest’ in terms of cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, calories burned in 30 minutes, injury risk. Squash took first place!
According to Forbes, 30 minutes spent on the squash court gives you ‘an impressive cardio respiratory workout.’ Constant running and rallies build endurance and muscular strength in your lower body, and squash can even improve flexibility in your core and back, thanks to the twists, lunges and turns necessary to keep the ball on the go.
If you’re wondering what makes squash so healthy, here are the results from the Forbes survey:
Here is more, Recently the British Journal of Sports Medicine underwent a study which examined information on more than 80,000 adults across England and Scotland who took part in national health surveys between 1994 and 2008. The study found that risk of death from any cause was 47% lower among those who played racket sports. The study suggested that regularly playing squash could help stave off death the longest.
Scientists have narrowed down the sports and types of exercise that are linked to significantly lower odds of dying before those who do not do those activities. The research concluded that racket sports, swimming, aerobics and cycling seem to be the best for prolonging life, in that order.
Meanwhile, those who partake in racket sports such as squash, also have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases such as strokes. After taking into account influential factors, the authors of the paper identified which sport or exercise seemed to be the most beneficial.
Compared with the participants who said they had not done a given sport, they found that risk of death from any cause was 47% lower among those who played racket sports; 28% lower among swimmers; 27% lower among those who took part in aerobics classes; and 15% lower among cyclists. No such associations were seen for runners or joggers and those who played football or rugby. When the researchers looked at the risk of death from heart disease and stroke, they found that playing racket sports was associated with a 56% lower risk, swimmers had a 41% lower risk and aerobics participants had a 36% lower risk compared with those who did not participate in these sports.
The researchers did find a 43% reduced risk of death from all causes and a 45% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease among runners and joggers when compared with those who did not run or jog, but this advantage was not deemed significant when influential factors were taken into account. They cautioned that the impact of running and jogging might have been underestimated.
The study suggests that squash is ultimately the best sport to play to ensure a long life.
Squash is played in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. It is played between two i.e, singles and four i.e, doubles players. The game was first played in 1930 at Harrow School in London, England. The game is an excellent cardiovascular exercise and mostly played in the gyms. It’s not an Olympic sport yet but it features in Commonwealth games and Asian games since 1998.
Gregory Gaultier, Mohamed El Shorbagy, Ali Farag, Nour El Sherbini, Raneem El Weleily are leading the point table at the moment. Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Saurav Ghoshal and Ritwik Bhattacharya have made India proud in the sport.
Getting started on squash costs as low as ₹5,000. Please use the basic gear available on Decathlon, India website or visit their store. Search | Squash (decathlon.in)
| # | Gear | Make | Remarks |
| 1 | Squash Racket | Prince Thunder Sub Zero 200 – 175 grams | Poor packing, bent while shipment and play, do not buy |
| 2 | Squash Racket | Perfly SR 135 | Latest product. Pro range. Loved it. |
| 3 | Squash Ball | Prince Rebel | High quality Pro |
| 4 | Shoes | Plaeto Unisex Squash Sneakers | Loved it. Made in India and endorsed by Rahul Dravid |
| 5 | Short and T-Shirt | Sweat Free from Reliance Trends and Decathlon | Good fit |
| 6 | Bag | Aurion Squash Zipper Kit Bag | Great price and value |
I made the mistake of ordering Prince rackets on Amazon. The product is bad as the grip needs to be replaced. Also the Amazon packing and handling is poor. The rackets arrived damaged.
Squash as a game is age-friendly. At 50+, I was able to pick up the game in the first session. The rest is YouTube videos to brush up the 101 and techniques.
As I played tennis, squash was really easy to pick up and lean. I can play solo and brush up on my strokes and on court movement alone with a coach to guide me.
As per my watch, my peak cardiovascular activity at the end of 45 minutes of constant play was 175 bpm. This was 30-35 bpm higher than my usual walk after 45 minutes.
One of the concerns that I had was, Will I be able to see the squash ball which is coming to me at high speed? Need less to say, I was able to affirm that I had not lost my hand-eye co-ordination even after taking up a racket sport after 12 years. I was able to hit the ball from the first shot.
I am able to play the game solo and do not need a team to be accumulated to play the game unlike in racket sport, you need a duo. Just start hitting the ball against the wall!
After a couple of days of playing squash, I see my upper body strength improving
Sitting in front of your laptop, leads to a couching posture. After a few days of playing squash, I could feel my shoulders and back straightening up to a better posture
If you can run backwards, your brain is still sharp and focussed. Squash gets you moving forward and backward on court to hit the ball hard enough. So its like a brain tonic for me!
Most of the outdoor sports become seasonal in nature and cannot be played all round the year. Not in the case of squash. All you need is a wall to hit the ball against!
While here are some of the other health benefits of playing squash. Stress reduction, strengthening muscles and joints, with proper elbow and knee guards it is not injury prone, improves mental strength, determination and routine
And lastly, I am having fun!
Many don’t know the miracles and health benefits of keeping your fingers in good shape. Here are seven key facts that you need on your fingertip about your fingertips.
Like your feet, the fingers have millions of nerve endings that connect to the brain providing it with six different type of sensations as heat, tactile pressure, vibrations, texture, pain, and the position of the body in relation to its surroundings. This direct connection to brain of the fingers leads to stimulating and improving the neural functions of the brain.
The touch receptors in the finger tips are so concentrated that even a thinnest of a pin of 0.2 mm can be felt. The fingertips are even more sensitive to dynamic (or in-motion) touch that you’ll find you have a whole new level of intuitive, precise control.
Our fingertips can decipher tiny vibrations that are created when any surface meets them. Different structures create different vibrations based on the amount of friction and wrinkle width (which is how scientists gauge non-smooth textures) present on its surface. Fingertips interpret motion vibrations in order to assist touch.
Our fingers have tiny arrector pili muscles, which can make the hair on the fingers stand up straight. The brain communicates directly to the fingers for movement
Because of this complex network of muscle, tendon, and bone, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to move one finger by itself. There are 29 major and minor bones, 29 major joints, at least 123 named ligaments, 34 muscles, and 48 named nerves in the hand—and they all work in conjunction with one another to make the fingers functional.
The fingers’ dexterity also supplies a vast well with possibilities for non-spoken language. Gestures and hand motions can also increase understanding among non-signing people
It’s common knowledge at this point that no two fingerprints are alike, and because of this they’ve been used as personal identifiers for millennia—even our unique identification number (UID) uses our fingerprints.
As I am getting older, I am seeing some of my friends and acquaintances parents suffer from Alzheimer’s, A type of brain disorder that causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. This is a gradually progressive condition. Some other mental degradation conditions include:
Over 1 million new cases of Alzheimer’s in India are appearing every year. This is a huge issue not only for the person suffering but also for the family members and care takers. I was wondering if the onset can be delayed or avoided. During the pandemic, I was witnessing many people falling prey to mental illnesses and that could further degenerate to Alzheimer’s if not properly diagnosed and treated. I wondered on the need for some solution to combat this during the lockdown and pandemic. I looked towards music.
From my childhood I have been musically inclined. Apart from singing I was exposed to various musical instruments. As I grew up I started playing the guitar and learnt strumming and composing as a hobby. Somewhere in between my busy work life I gave up. However, I encouraged my kids to take up playing a musical instrument. As they grew up, I realised that playing a musical instrument was therapeutic and help them focus better. During pandemic I took up to walking to remain fit and during my walks I would listen to rock music. This did help me in reducing my weight and remain calm and sharp while working alone in my office during the lockdown.
Another issue that I realised is that I am typing more and writing less. This is another reason that my finger tips were not being adequately used. To balance all this, I acquired a Yamaha acoustic guitar to connect back to music. How does this help?
There are several research papers on internet that tells how using the fingertips while strumming the guitar helps. Here are a few that I have felt:
So it’s upto you. What strings you would like to pick up? Towards mental degradation or mental upgradation?
The destiny is in your fingertips.
Perfect human sight is the greatest gift that a man can get. Years ago, I remember on one of my Rotary Eye Camps in a village near Bangalore, an old lady came to the Eye Camp with the help of her assistant holding her and guiding her to take the steps due to poor vision. The doctors checked her eyes and gave her a pair of spectacles. On wearing the spectacles the lady was overjoyed and filled with tears. She could see perfectly which she had not for years. Her dependency on others and quality of life improved immediately. This incident bought emotional tears to all the people around her. Like the old lady, there are millions of Indians who have poor quality of life due to lack of proper sight as they cannot afford proper spectacles to correct their sight. I seem to be amongst the more fortunate ones who can afford the luxury of sight correction.
As far as I am concerned, I have always tried to maintain my eyes inspite of long-distance sight (hypermetropia) correction from my teenage years. As I aged (presbyopia), the complexity of near-distance (myopia) reading and long-distance sight have emerged. My lenses that Essilor fitted to combine both of these into one lens in a spectacle resulted in near catastrophe while driving on the highway. As a result I preferred to maintain two sets of spectacle for hypermetropia and myopia. With presbyopia, I have to fit new lenses as the vision for hypermetropia and myopia keep changing. This means a new set of spectacles every year or so to maintain proper vision.
Every year, I visit the optometrist around the festive season to get my vision tested and procure new set of spectacles and lenses as per the advise of the optometrist. Given the lock down situation, I thought of procuring the spectacles through the digital online platforms like Myntra, LensKart, Titan Eye and Amazon, etc rather than shopping for at the physical optician stores. I wanted to try out Lenskart as my daughter had bought two pairs of spectacle recently and was a very loyal customer of them. While all the catalogues of Myntra, Titan Eye and Amazon offered just the spectacles, Lenskart offer the spectacles and a zero-powered bluecut and anti-glare computer lenses fitted along with it. Similar spectacle designs on platforms other than Lenskart turned out to be cheaper as Lenskart was loading the price to the lenses additional. I needed powered lenses to be fitted at an additional cost and throw away the lenses already fitted with Lenskart spectacles.
Pissed off with the experience, I WhatsApp Amit Chaudhary, Founder of Lenskart. That’s when I realized the business model of Lenskart versus other digital and brick and mortar opticians out there. Here are some of the excerpts of my telephonic conversation with him
There is a stand out quotes that while talking with Amit that summarized their business model
“We are the Maruti of the eye wear business. Customers like you form the top 10% who are the Ferrari’s who would like spectacles not only for functional, but for esteem value”
I like the lazer sharp vision of Amit. As entrepreneurs like him who raise lot of VC and PE capital at some time want to dominate and move away from their core business model and value proposition in the pressure for growth, profitability and valuations.
Although Amit offered to service me as an exception, but that is not core to their way of working. Consumers sometimes miss out on this and crib and bad mouth the start ups on social media, missing out how these start ups are making the world better by offering sight to millions by being cheaper, better and faster. Remined me of the old lady in tears who could see properly and so did I on Amit’s perspective.
Kudos to such start ups which are bringing in technology and production techniques to reach scale!
