The Shuttle days - II

There was no complaint about Mr.Diwakar’s playing style, but the way he dealt with his partners. It was for the same reason Tejas and Mallik stopped being regular, Hegde and I started avoiding being his partners. Mr. Diwakar always expected a class play from his team mates just like him. He sometimes used to discourage his partner by pointing out the mistakes his partner did. We all used to get scared of his discouraging words while accompanying him in doubles. We didn’t realize that pointing out the mistakes is what that makes one learn to a greater extent in life. We didn’t take his words positively. We in fact discouraged ourselves. By then, Mr.Diwakar had lost little interest in joining us. One reason was that, he wasn’t much pleased with Gautam’s playing style. And the second reason was that he had found one more troop of guys playing a good game in the campus. This in fact was one of the reasons which made us change that court too. Being covered all around by the trees, during the months of December and January the court was exposed to heavy winds. This was also a reason which forced us to leave that court to the one in the backyard of the department of microbiology.

There are two courts – one in the interior and the other exposed to the pedestrians’ views. We almost played in the latter one and still playing on it. This was the court which introduced to us some new people. The guys playing there previously were the old friends of Gautam. And so it wasn’t difficult for us to mingle with them. Parikshith, Chandru and some more were studying M.Tech in Material Science.  But those guys were highly irregular then and so the court was almost ours in the evening time. Hegde, Gautam and I were regular players on this court, playing singles all the time. Sometimes the lack of partners for doubles bored us to such an extent that, two persons started playing against one with modified rules. This again bored after two or three days.  It was for the same reason Hegde started losing interest and became irregular. From then, only Gautam and I played there for almost a month. Imagine, only two persons playing singles for two hours from 4 to 6 in the evening everyday! Even if that day’s of play had bored us, the thought of sitting at home workless itself had bored us. This was the reason Gautam and I had continued to play every evening. There was one more reason why Hegde stopped playing the game. It was our Chairman who missed to publish the interdepartmental sports schedule on the notice board. Hegde and I were eagerly waiting to participate in it. And this disappointment also reduced his interest over the game.

It was during the final semester’s exam period we stopped playing it. The lack of practice and the visits to the court and finding some other works for passing the time in the evenings had almost taken off the thoughts of playing the game. By the time exams were finished most of us were out of station. When all of us were back, Hegde and Tejas had already got jobs and had gone busy. Only Gautam and I were left jobless and again the same workless evenings pressurized us in going back to the court. When we were back we were actually surprised! There were nearly 10 people assembled to play the game – some of them were the same old guys playing on that court who were joined by some new Thais.  

It was initially difficult to pronounce their names, Sampuch, Diach, Lee (Shortly). There were two more ladies (I don’t remember their names.) Sampuch, Lee and one of the ladies are good players. Sometimes Mr.Diwakar, who liked Lee very much used to join us playing opposite Lee. These two are contrasting characters. Lee almost cool and calm, smiling faced, silent guy. Never talks while playing and never even comments on the partner’s skills. Whether it is 0-7 or 21-19, he neither loses his patience nor even rejoices for the thrilling victory. A peculiar character indeed exactly opposite that of Mr.Diwakar’s.

These Thais were almost regular except on the weekends. While in the conservations I used to have with these Thais, I learned that all of them had come from Thailand to Mysuru to have a degree course in English. It was in fact very difficult to follow their English in the beginning. They understood it and twisted their tongues so as to sync with the Indian accent as much as possible.

Thailand is nearly thrice that of Karnataka, a small country in fact. A country famous for white elephants (fairer than our elephants).  In a conversation with Diach I learned that there are several religions in Thailand, the largest being Buddhism. There are Hindus, Muslims and Christians and the Hindus in his region mostly worship Lord Parsiv. It was Sampuch who was much open to us after Diach. The North-East of Thailand where Sampuch lived is hotter in the months of August and September. This is the reason for Sampuch saying, ‘I love the climate, here.’ It was interesting to know the reason they chose India for their further studies. The education here is less expensive. One Thai Baht is nearly 2 Indian rupee. They had to pay around 10,000 Thai Baht as tuition fee in their country. While in India, the same tuition fee is just Rs.3000 which is nearly 1500 Thai Baht. Very less expensive, in the sense one tuition in Thailand is nearly equivalent to 6 tuitions in India. There was also a reason for them choosing Mysuru.  Initially Sampuch had tried in Pune. ‘The people of Pune always talk Marathi or Hindi which is not at all understandable. While here in Mysuru the local people talk in English with us. They are so friendly’ –  was what Sampuch's about Mysurians.

I loved to play against Lee always. Lee, Parikshith on one side, Chandru and I on the other always resulted in some good rallies. Diach was a young guy who was new to this game. He was just rotating his bat, hitting only few of the shots. When I asked about the games he knew, he mentioned the names of only three games – Football, Shuttle Badminton and Volleyball. He didn’t know anything about the games like Cricket, Golf, Baseball, Chess, Carom, ball badminton. There were in fact reasons behind it. ‘In my country, I was never free. I was bound to study all the time. I couldn’t even go outside to play any game. I just used to watch my friends playing the games. Now here I am feeling very free. I am really happy to be here playing with all of you’, he said. On hearing this I could no longer avoid this novice, playing the game more frequently with me! ‘Everyone starts learning a new thing as a novice!’, Diach  laughed often. 

I did observe one thing in these Thais! They never argued or quarreled among themselves for their turn, which we do very often. They even sit simply watching our game without asking for a chance, although they have all the rights (more than us, who have finished the course) of playing on the court.

As the days went on, the number of visitors increased. Each time a new person entered, whoever it might be, two matches in a row had to be reserved for him. The reason was that he was a visitor and not a regular player. Unfortunately he would then be regular with the interest arising in him with those matches. This increased the number of players almost to 20. Sometimes there used to be quarrel amongst us for the court. This forced few of the Thais to move to the nearby court. By  then people didn't want to enjoy the game, but win every of the one they played. A game that had introduced to us a number of people, was then becoming a reason for blaming one another for the loss. Every of the visitors started claiming the rights over the court. The harmony died.

This forced Gautam and I to take the decision of leaving that place and move back to 'our area.' 'Playing single in my own style and losing a game is better than playing doubles, at the courtesy of the partner', was Gautam's opinion.

Today we two play in the same old court, stopping the game for sometime due to heavy winds, expecting the presence of Hegde, Tejas and Mallik. Yet we enjoy teasing one another for the shots played. The game which was started with two is now left with two!