One day Robin Uthappa called up his girlfriend, former tennis player Sheetal Goutham, and asked her about her workout. She said she did 3,000 squats. “3,000 squats. Wow.

That sort of stuff inspires athletes,” Uthappa tells ETPanache at the Mumbai Cricket Association Recreation Centre, Bandra Kurla Complex. The 28-year-old had just finished net practice with Ajinkya Rahane, under the supervision of coach Pravin Amre. Uthappa was the top-scorer in the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders and earned a recall in the Indian ODI side. Among the people he credits for his revival are Amre, his personal coach, and Sheetal, who he has known for almost eight years. ,”If not for her, I wouldn’t be playing cricket,” he says.

Uthappa was one of the stars of India’s stirring victory in the inaugural World T20 in 2007. Fame and riches followed. At the first IPL, Mumbai Indians bought him for $800,000 ( Rs 4.75 crore). At the 2011 IPL, Pune Warriors paid him an eye-popping $2.1 million ( Rs 12.45 crore. But soon he lost his form and desire. And though financially secure, he was not happy.

“I turned into a bitter person who did not enjoy other people’s success,” Uthappa says. “That did not sit too well with me. I thought I’d go abroad and do something different.” He discussed this with Sheetal, who spoke sense into him. “First, she put me onto a nutritionist. I was 95kg, in the worst shape of my life. Once I lost weight, I felt better emotionally and physically.”

Two years later, Uthappa is IPL champion, IPL topscorer and in the Indian team. While material things do not define his relationship with Sheetal, he has been generous with gifts to one of the people who made it all possible. “It was her birthday on June 6. I bought her summer dresses. Then there was a DKNY watch she wanted. Some of us got together and bought her that.

During the IPL, I got her an iPad mini.” Nutrition was key to Uthappa’s return to form. It also inspired his first foray into business. Last October, Uthappa and a few friends started ITiBSE 0.48 % f fin, a healthy meal service for professionals and school children. Uthappa invested `1.5 crore in the operation. A senior employee of a major financial institution is a minority stakeholder.

“I lost 20 kilos in a year-andhalf and know the difference healthy eating made to me,” Uthappa says. “Professionals sit at their desks for long hours doing stressful jobs. In India, there are so many people with diabetes and hypertension. We offer cultural food calculated to meet an individual’s requirement and prepared with fresh and natural ingredients. We are providing meals to 300 professionals on a daily basis, and 500-600 school kids per day.”

ITiffin’s target is 15 lakh customers per day across India. “We want to scale up a bit and are looking for investors,” Uthappa says. As far as scaling up his relationship with Sheetal, meaning marriage, he says, “The world will know when it happens. No fixed plans, but it will be soon.”

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Panache / by ET Bureau / June 12th, 2014