In January 2017, when Griffith University graduate Sherin Pujari returned to Mumbai to work as a 'fitness scientist', he set a one-year deadline for himself. If the advanced skill set, acquired through a three-and-a-half year course in sports science from a premier Australian institute, wouldn't find takers, he'd return to pavilion. "Going back Down Under was a contingency plan. One I hoped to never resort to," he says. The Colaba resident was aware that he was an oddity. None of the other Indian fitness scientists he knew had returned to the city after completing their course overseas. But, Pujari longed to be back. He wanted to take off from where he had left.

Demystifying the science
Over a year later, we meet him on a sunny morning at Colaba's Bombay Port Trust garden, and it's evident that the 36-year-old has found home, literally and figuratively. A regular at the garden, the locals greet him at every other step. At one time, Pujari was also famous among the swish set. In fact, he was on the speed dial of many fitness-loving celebrities such as Shilpa Shetty, Celina Jaitley, choreographer Ganesh Hegde and industrialist Sanjeev Nanda. By the age of 25, he had set up gyms across Mumbai — including a private one at Madhuri Dixit's house — and was providing judo training at Delhi's Sports Authority of India and was even invited by the Mumbai Police to instruct their judo team. "After all of this, I felt, what next?