The hair is straight and unruly, flopping onto the forehead. The eyes, cheerful and curious, are shadowed with glasses. The diminutive lad walks about casually, without a hint of self-importance.
Harry Potter strikes when you see Saurav Ghosal.
The transformation from there is magic.
He slips into white Wilson shorts and T-shirt.
Off go the glasses, the eyes more focused on the job ahead, he fastens the headband and reties the shoelaces.
Saurav, the pro-athlete, steps into the glass-back squash court.
He is into his stride quickly, filling the room with his electric footwork and sharp reflexes.
He twists his tongue in the mouth, plonks his foot near the ball, snaps the wrist and smacks the ball into the wall.
Another winner.
On court, he is capable of some wizardry too.
At 19, he is ranked number 65 in the Professional Squash Association, the sport's international body with a tagline 'Squash means business' and more than 300 members.
Last month he created history when he became the first Indian squash player to qualify in the main draw of the prestigious British Open.
Though he lost in the first round to the eighth seed and more experienced John White of Scotland, Saurav thinks it was one of the best experiences of his life.
"To be honest, I wasn't even thinking that I would be the first Indian to qualify for the Open. But just playing there was a great, great experience," he says. "It's a superb tournament, with super glass courts, and the crowds are fantastic. Just having a crack at the draw was satisfying."
On the match itself, which he lost 6-11, 2-11, 2-11, he says he had no regrets facing a top ten player right away in the event.
"I played against a guy who is the hardest hitter of the ball on tour. There were sometimes when I couldn't see the ball and couldn't keep up to the pace. I know I would have a better chance if I was not playing a top ten or top twenty player but if I had beaten him, it would be a bigger thing than beating the rest."
There is a glint of hope in his eyes as he talks about beating the best in the business. It is this hunger and courage to excel in a sport, still adolescent in India, which saw him move from Kolkata to Chennai and the ICL Academy. And then from an under-19 British Open champion in 2004 to the world junior number one.
"It was obviously a very proud moment for me when he won the junior British Open," says his father R N Ghosal, who introduced him to the game. 'Saurav has always made the decisions for himself, be it shifting to Chennai or to England recently."
Saurav currently trains at the Pontefract Academy, 15 minutes away from the University of Leeds, where he is studying economics on a part-time scholarship.
"I love economics," he says, while his father adds, "Saurav was a winner in studies as well as sport right from the beginning."
"He has tremendous discipline. Even when he was in school he used to manage his time very well. He has been a meticulous person, and, still, it does not mean he doesn't have fun. It's just that he enjoys what he's doing."
Saurav chose the Pontefract Academy since most of the top British players train there.
"Once he sort of outgrew what India had to offer him, he decided to shift to Europe. It is important that you play players better than you to improve and in India there were not enough players of his level to practice," his father adds.
Shifting base to England has meant long months away from home, but it has isolated him in his ambition.
"He even cooks now," his father informs us gleefully. "He makes very nice pasta."
Though Saurav quite naturally misses home, he says there is hardly any time to get lonely as the tuitions and squash practice keeps him busy throughout the day.
At the Academy, he trains with two of the top 10 players, Lee Beachill and James Willstrop, five days a week, picking up technical and strategic cues from them.
"There is so much to learn by just watching them. In India the benchmark is Ritwik Bhattacharya, but there I play with players as good or better than Ritwik all the time."
The results are showing, as he has progressed from 102 in the world at the beginning of the year to 65.
"Till July the results were not there, but I have played well after that," says Saurav, who turned pro in 2003, at 17.
"At this level every match is tough. In the juniors you have to play really badly to lose, but here the players control the game so well; the pace is higher and all the top 10 players have completely different games technically."
On leave from university to defend his title as the national squash champion in Mumbai, his immediate goal breaking into the top 50 by the year-end.
'Next he wants to break into the top 30 by next years," says his father. "But after that it is up to him. The competition gets tougher once you are top 30 and we are not thinking about top 20 or top 10 right now. The only aim is that he realises his full potential."
"I'd give myself a year to start competing with the top players. And in two, three years I want to be a serious threat for the top 20 players."
Saurav Ghoshal could well be the magic boy of Indian squash.
Photographs: JEWELLA MIRANDA
