Table tennis rediscovered
I played TT after a long time. I prefer the Indian way of saying TT rather than the American version of ping-pong.
Growing up in India, I was aware of many sports and games. However, like millions of other Indians, Cricket was the only passion and every other sport merited only a quick update through the sports pages of The Hindu. 1987 changed this - the world table-tennis championship games were played in India. The Venue was New Delhi's Asiad stadium, I think. It could have very well been Talkatora stadium too.
The first thing that grabbed my attention was cups awarded to the men and women - Men's Champion was awarded the Swaythling cup and winning woman took home the Corbillion cup. For someone who knew only of trophies with names like Duleep, Buchi Babu, Ranji, etc. these names struck as curious and cool. The other cup which has an equally curious name is the Venus Rosewater Dish - awarded to the Woman's Champion in Wimbledon. Then there were all these curiosly named players - Zoran Primorac, Ilija Lupulescu, Eric Lindh etc. I was in 6th or 7th at the time of these games and exposure to anything outside Southern India was minimal.Add to the mix two commentators with Rhyming Bengali and Parsi names - Partho Mukherjee and Farukko Daiji. It was a veritable name-fest and for some plesantly inexplicable reason these names had a very mellifluous ring to them.
Lastly, the game itself enthralled me. The hand-eye co-ordination of all these players was beyond belief and the game had a sublime grace to it. There was no brute force required and even the most powerful smashes had more to do with technique than power. The ball touching the table between these fast rallies created a sharp stuccato like sound. I used to watch all these games with my mouth agape. Eversince then I have been a big fan.
During 10th tand 11th standards, I spent many a Saturday at school - playing TT, having conned my parents into thinking that I am at school attending special classes. Special? They were indeed. Classes? No way.
Growing up in India, I was aware of many sports and games. However, like millions of other Indians, Cricket was the only passion and every other sport merited only a quick update through the sports pages of The Hindu. 1987 changed this - the world table-tennis championship games were played in India. The Venue was New Delhi's Asiad stadium, I think. It could have very well been Talkatora stadium too.
The first thing that grabbed my attention was cups awarded to the men and women - Men's Champion was awarded the Swaythling cup and winning woman took home the Corbillion cup. For someone who knew only of trophies with names like Duleep, Buchi Babu, Ranji, etc. these names struck as curious and cool. The other cup which has an equally curious name is the Venus Rosewater Dish - awarded to the Woman's Champion in Wimbledon. Then there were all these curiosly named players - Zoran Primorac, Ilija Lupulescu, Eric Lindh etc. I was in 6th or 7th at the time of these games and exposure to anything outside Southern India was minimal.Add to the mix two commentators with Rhyming Bengali and Parsi names - Partho Mukherjee and Farukko Daiji. It was a veritable name-fest and for some plesantly inexplicable reason these names had a very mellifluous ring to them.
Lastly, the game itself enthralled me. The hand-eye co-ordination of all these players was beyond belief and the game had a sublime grace to it. There was no brute force required and even the most powerful smashes had more to do with technique than power. The ball touching the table between these fast rallies created a sharp stuccato like sound. I used to watch all these games with my mouth agape. Eversince then I have been a big fan.
During 10th tand 11th standards, I spent many a Saturday at school - playing TT, having conned my parents into thinking that I am at school attending special classes. Special? They were indeed. Classes? No way.
posted by brihaspati | 7/20/2005 07:42:00 am
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