Bharat Singh Chouhan is a Tennis coach at Mayo College Girls School in Ajmer. Earlier he served in the Indian Navy for 15 years and also had a stint of two years at the famous MSLTA Tennis Academy in Mumbai.

Bharat was born in a small village in Marwar District in Rajasthan into a farmer family. He had a big family with eight siblings. His early life was spent in their house in the village, and he studied till 8th in the government school there. His school was five kms away and he used to go to his school on foot. Later his father bought him a bicycle.

Bharat says his early life was a struggle as their only source of income was farming which had limited profits. His family also did dairy business and they had some cows in their home. He and his brothers did all the farming chores like working in the fields, driving the tractor, taking the cows for grazing, watering the fields etc.

Bharat was an intelligent child and topped in his school every year. After eighth he was sent to Jodhpur to the Chopasni School for further studies. He learnt how to play tennis there and played at state level. When he was in 11th class he had to leave his studies due to the weak financial condition of his family. He joined the Navy in the electrical department. His first training was on INS Chilka.

When he was in the Navy, Bharat did a six months electrical diploma course from Jamnagar. Meanwhile, he had totally left playing tennis. But destiny had other plans. In 1989, some officers encouraged him to play tennis as he was good at it. He played at the Command level for two years. Again he was transferred to INS Vikrant which put brakes on his tennis. But, seeing his potential in tennis, he was sent by the Navy to NIS Patiala for a two years course in tennis coaching. He graduated as a certified tennis coach and built a team of Navy personnel. His team won the Inter Services Tennis Tournament eleven times in a row. He was given an out-of-turn promotion and also awarded the prestigious Navy Chief Batch.

When he retired from the Navy, he had a two year stint at MSLTA Academy in Mumbai. Then he had an offer from Mayo College and has been there as a tennis coach for the last 15 years.

As he had not had much education earlier, his hunger for formal education remained alive inside him. So, when he was in the navy he kept on studying. He completed his 11th and 12th and also graduated. He further did M.A. in English Literature and MBA from Symbiosis Institute, Pune. Even after retirement from the Navy he went on to do M.A. in Political Science and Yoga, qualified UGC Net, did LLB and LLM, and also did different Yoga courses. His advice for the youth also is that apart from practical knowledge they must have good formal education.

Bharat says that out of the 800 students in the Mayo College Girls School, about 120 play tennis. The school has won the State Level Tournament 10-11 times. Over the years, about 100 girls have played at the national level and two have even played at the international level. He was awarded by the Ajmer District Administration on Independence Day for his contribution to sports. Along with tennis he also teaches general awareness and yoga to the students.

When asked about role models, Bharat says he has been inspired and influenced by Vivekananda, Osho and Murari Bapu. He says he has had his struggles but at every stage he met people who helped and supported him which let him overcome the challenges.

His hobbies are reading, travelling, trekking, cycling and yoga. He is happy that his passion is his profession.

During the COVID lockdown he, along with his brother, developed three tennis courts on waste land inside the Rajput Hostel. He also took upon the responsibility of watering all the plants and trees in the school as the gardeners did not come for three months.

Bharat is of the opinion that education and experience are like two wings of a bird and both are important in life. If he gets a chance to go back in life he would like to learn some form of art like music, dance or drawing.

Bharat says that scores in tennis start with ‘Love-all’ which has an inherent message that we must love everyone. His message for the youth is to work hard and leave everything to God, he will definitely look after you.