Please rein in your imaginations here, and don’t get blown away by the title! This is not related to any amorous sensual experience, so let your emotions be in check; and neither should it be linked to Lady Gaga’s venture from the debut album containing the critically acclaimed “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” flick, so no luck there as well! But this piece has a lot to with love, quite a bit to do with games and tad speck about a love game as well! Hope that it has now started to bring back some sensible sense in to the readers’ mind; and the word tennis is gradually coming in to the picture!
Flashback:
July 08, 1990. The day will be more remembered in sports history for the FIFA Football World Cup final where Germany defeated Argentina, may be in one of the ugliest matches in the history of the Jogo Bonito! But for me it was the start of a love affair that was to stay with me for lifetime.
A bit more detail now.
The football world cup of 1990 was a way more than just another football tournament for us, the Chaudhuris of Kalighat, along with our extended families and very near and dear ones as well! There was an arrangement of a mini betting syndicate where each member of the family put his or her money on a team (no no, don’t get excited here, the amount of money each person put in was only a meager amount of rupees ten only!), and that developed and culminated in to a grand dinner on the finale. We all gathered to watch the football match together in our parental house in Kalighat. The match between Germany and Argentina was supposed to be aired pretty late at night, and the Wimbledon final just happened to the perfect prelude to that. Tennis at that time was not a very common place sport for us; that is to say we never followed tennis to the extent we followed cricket or football. The opportunities were also limited since the area tennis used to capture in the sports page compared to what cricket or football got was directly proportional to the size of the tennis court to that of a football field! Forget about TV coverage. But I being an ardent sports follower was aware of the surroundings and beyond. Becker and Edberg or Graf and Sabatini of that era, Lendl and Wilander or Navratilova as well, and the Mcenroe, Connors, Borg or Laver or even the local Zeeshan Ali or Ramesh Krishnans were not exactly household names to me, but were not complete strangers as well. So, even though there were hardly any takers for the gentleman’s final match at the Wimbledon, I along with my brother Debanik and my friend Sambarta were actually looking ahead to it.
Boris Becker was more of a crowd favorite due to his charisma and vibe, while the so-called-boring Stefan Edberg was actually in the form of his life in the way he had decimated the World number 1 Ivan Lendl in the semifinals. The match started as anticipated, Edberg cruising through the first two sets with ease, 6-2 and 6-2. We were all expecting a short final, and a quick dinner. But Becker, being the champion he is, began his comeback, and he took the next two sets 6-3 and 6-3. The final set started. The momentum was totally with Becker, and so were much of the crowd, both in the stadium and in the room. Deep inside though I was pinning for Edberg, a bit due to the typical underdog effect, but mostly due to the tennis he had played that evening until that point; effortless with his backhand, silk and smooth in the way he moved around the grass courts and the style and finesse in the way he played the game, calm composed and yet totally humble and unassuming. And as expected, Becker started stronger in the final set; broke Edberg to move 3 games to 1 up. With Edberg known to be the unexciting player, lacking the fire inside, Becker was looking at his fourth Wimbledon title. But then something changed, and Edberg broke back and then broke Becker again to finally take the fifth set at 6-4. I remember the war cry that came out from inside at the moment of glory; and something that changed inside me; an unknown emotion; and a new fan for Stefan Edberg was born that day.
I started to subscribe to Sportstar and Sportsworld magazines as my source of data and to collect pictures, news items and any other trivia that I could put my hands upon which was any way related to Stefan Edberg. A true fan in all sense, but more importantly a love for a new game had emerged, as inside I was always in confusion whether I like cricket more than tennis, or is it the other way round. (Football, badminton and table tennis always played a farfetched second fiddle).
As the years passed by, so did the era of Edberg. The next bunch of Samprases and Agassis did not impress me much, though I was awed by Steffi Graf almost to the extent of Edberg. And when Federer happened, I was too old to be a fanatic, though somehow I felt a similar sort of feel. This now I believe is only due to the love of the game, I was hooked into the game so much, and I could not live without following one player very seriously.
The Grand Slam
On a parallel plane, during the time between 1990 and 1993, after the Wimbledon final Leo Grand Slam happened in our life. As our (I am using plural here to include my brother Debanik) involvement with tennis grew, we tried out our own simple and economic way of including tennis into our life and lifestyle. Our first tryst with practical tennis experience was a crude and innovative way of using cricket bats and balls as the means to play. The location could be anywhere, our terrace (hard courts) or a small ground (grass courts)! Lawn tennis was a bit out of our reach in those days but obviously that did not deter us for having the experience of the real deal! And during this time Leo Mattel toys introduced Grand Slam in the market; a pretty advanced and real-life-feel-like toy set of tennis set of two rackets and a sponge ball. As far as I could remember, the set used to cost 199 rupees; and we got one! The playing experience of tennis changed totally.
But we encountered an issue pretty soon, the ball got lost after a few months! So we tried with rubber balls instead, and the rackets were not designed for it; and pretty soon one of the rackets got damaged a bit! So we craved for another new set to be bought, and this time we got a single racket and ball set, which I believe came at 149. So we were back to normal playing terms, and before long we also located a shop in the Behala market which sold sponge balls as well! So we were destined for glory and glamour after all. It became popular in our friends circle as well, and we got promoted to use the badminton court at Rhitwick’s housing society, and we created a tennis group, where we had Sayan, Nilesh, Diptayan, Rhitwick and we two brothers playing almost every weekend at Rhitwick’s place. It will be pertinent to note here that in most of these matches, my brother used to win, and sometimes Rhitwick. I hardly remember me winning! But the fun was more in playing and enjoying, rather than winning. (Although the great Martina Navratilova may disagree a bit, as she once said “Who ever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.”) But this craze gradually subsided, and ultimately faded out of our life mostly due to study pressures and maybe we outgrew the sponge balls! And active tennis went out of my life for some time, and it got limited to only watching matches in television and news! But the love for the game remained.
The Tale of Two Cities
The third chapter in this love game happened in the first decade of the twenty first century. Those were my first few years in my work life. And it relates to two separate jobs with two separate companies, and a couple of deputation trips to two different locations in Europe, two Grand slam cities to be precise!
The first one was a couple of month deputation to the headquarters of Technip at Paris during my tenure with Technip KTI. The time was most opportune, post Spring and early Summer, to be exact; when the city manifests its splendor and grandeur to the maximum. I had quite a few weekends in Paris to explore and discover the city and around. Beyond the Eiffel or the Louvre or the Notre dame, I was patiently waiting for one major event in Paris – The French Open! I had the chance to see Agassi and Sampras and the rest! The weekend arrived and I was there after breakfast, at late morning on Saturday! But I had a huge disappointment; the tickets had already been sold out for the day! And the counters were actually all closed! How insensitive! I then tried my luck the non conventional (and borderline illegal) way to get a ticket, but the rates they were charging were too high to take the risk. So be it. French Open became an event I watched from the streets, and the nearest visible courts hosted, may be a junior doubles match! And I managed the best possible view of the available, and continued to watch the match for almost an hour. But something was always better than nothing!
The second was a 10 day trip to Reading from Foster Wheeler Kolkata, which is about 45 miles west of London, just before the Christmas. Since it was for 10 days, I had a weekend at hand and took the opportunity to have day trip in London. My to-do list had the Wembley Stadium, 221B Baker Street, Tower Bridge and among other the Wimbledon, the Mecca of tennis. Being off season, it was already closed, but I took quite a detour from the normal tourist route for a day tour in London just to visit the place, and at least touch the main gate!
Modern Times
Jump to October 2015, and it is time to introduce my friend Mahendra to the readers here, the catalyst to the last phase of this Love Game affair. The first proposal (not the indecent type!!) from Mahendra to me was though induced by Sushree, and after quite a lot of deliberations and discussions a team was confirmed and concluded. It included Mahendra, Prabhat, Pranay and yours truly! The venue was selected as the Saket Sports Complex in Delhi and we started our journey together on a chilly January morning in 2016, the time for our first tennis class was specified by Sudhir Sir at 7:00 am. Three of us from Gurgaon travelled via the Delhi Metro and the fourth one joined us at the Sports Complex. Warming up on the first day was an issue considering our novice-ness and the winter morning nippiness. It was actually a historic moment when I held a real tennis racket for the first time, though it was a borrowed one from Sudhir Sir for the training; but in any case it was the first time I held a real tennis racket; that too a Wlison one!
The first hour of tennis training happened like a dream, I learnt about the grip, especially the difference between a forehand a backhand ones. And when I actually hit a few balls after a short duration of shadow practice it was still something hard to believe for me, as if, I was still dreaming. But my experience in tennis in my senses made me feel like a pro, someone with quite a bit of experience in playing the actual game!
We named our group “The would be Nadals”, simply because, our court had a Nadal poster just adjacent to the benches! In due course of time “The would be Nadals” became “The Nadal Parindeys”, a late realization that would-be-Nadal was actually a way over the top expectation from us. In due course of time, each one of our team member got their own rackets, I got a Head mid level racket for me; and we also tried to make the once-a-week affair to a more regular one. We tried to look for options around Gurgaon so that we can hit a few balls on a weekday evening after office. But this faded out gradually, yet retaining the weekend early morning sojourn of tennis at Gurgaon which is built on the strong bond developed amongst us with a common goal of hitting a tennis ball across the net for a clear winner!
Parting Notes
Never stop dreaming, never forget
What you are made of is dreams.
Never stop dreaming, never regret
To hope and follow your dreams
Never Stop Dreaming - Berlin Ballroom
Dedicated to all the “Nadal Parindeys” of the world, and especially to my group of Mahendra Kadao, Prabhat Srivastava and Pranay Gadre for helping me realizing my dream and putting back the faith in me that dreams can come true irrespective to age, date and time.
Flashback:
July 08, 1990. The day will be more remembered in sports history for the FIFA Football World Cup final where Germany defeated Argentina, may be in one of the ugliest matches in the history of the Jogo Bonito! But for me it was the start of a love affair that was to stay with me for lifetime.
A bit more detail now.
Boris Becker was more of a crowd favorite due to his charisma and vibe, while the so-called-boring Stefan Edberg was actually in the form of his life in the way he had decimated the World number 1 Ivan Lendl in the semifinals. The match started as anticipated, Edberg cruising through the first two sets with ease, 6-2 and 6-2. We were all expecting a short final, and a quick dinner. But Becker, being the champion he is, began his comeback, and he took the next two sets 6-3 and 6-3. The final set started. The momentum was totally with Becker, and so were much of the crowd, both in the stadium and in the room. Deep inside though I was pinning for Edberg, a bit due to the typical underdog effect, but mostly due to the tennis he had played that evening until that point; effortless with his backhand, silk and smooth in the way he moved around the grass courts and the style and finesse in the way he played the game, calm composed and yet totally humble and unassuming. And as expected, Becker started stronger in the final set; broke Edberg to move 3 games to 1 up. With Edberg known to be the unexciting player, lacking the fire inside, Becker was looking at his fourth Wimbledon title. But then something changed, and Edberg broke back and then broke Becker again to finally take the fifth set at 6-4. I remember the war cry that came out from inside at the moment of glory; and something that changed inside me; an unknown emotion; and a new fan for Stefan Edberg was born that day.
As the years passed by, so did the era of Edberg. The next bunch of Samprases and Agassis did not impress me much, though I was awed by Steffi Graf almost to the extent of Edberg. And when Federer happened, I was too old to be a fanatic, though somehow I felt a similar sort of feel. This now I believe is only due to the love of the game, I was hooked into the game so much, and I could not live without following one player very seriously.
The Grand Slam
On a parallel plane, during the time between 1990 and 1993, after the Wimbledon final Leo Grand Slam happened in our life. As our (I am using plural here to include my brother Debanik) involvement with tennis grew, we tried out our own simple and economic way of including tennis into our life and lifestyle. Our first tryst with practical tennis experience was a crude and innovative way of using cricket bats and balls as the means to play. The location could be anywhere, our terrace (hard courts) or a small ground (grass courts)! Lawn tennis was a bit out of our reach in those days but obviously that did not deter us for having the experience of the real deal! And during this time Leo Mattel toys introduced Grand Slam in the market; a pretty advanced and real-life-feel-like toy set of tennis set of two rackets and a sponge ball. As far as I could remember, the set used to cost 199 rupees; and we got one! The playing experience of tennis changed totally.
The Tale of Two Cities
The first one was a couple of month deputation to the headquarters of Technip at Paris during my tenure with Technip KTI. The time was most opportune, post Spring and early Summer, to be exact; when the city manifests its splendor and grandeur to the maximum. I had quite a few weekends in Paris to explore and discover the city and around. Beyond the Eiffel or the Louvre or the Notre dame, I was patiently waiting for one major event in Paris – The French Open! I had the chance to see Agassi and Sampras and the rest! The weekend arrived and I was there after breakfast, at late morning on Saturday! But I had a huge disappointment; the tickets had already been sold out for the day! And the counters were actually all closed! How insensitive! I then tried my luck the non conventional (and borderline illegal) way to get a ticket, but the rates they were charging were too high to take the risk. So be it. French Open became an event I watched from the streets, and the nearest visible courts hosted, may be a junior doubles match! And I managed the best possible view of the available, and continued to watch the match for almost an hour. But something was always better than nothing!
Modern Times
Jump to October 2015, and it is time to introduce my friend Mahendra to the readers here, the catalyst to the last phase of this Love Game affair. The first proposal (not the indecent type!!) from Mahendra to me was though induced by Sushree, and after quite a lot of deliberations and discussions a team was confirmed and concluded. It included Mahendra, Prabhat, Pranay and yours truly! The venue was selected as the Saket Sports Complex in Delhi and we started our journey together on a chilly January morning in 2016, the time for our first tennis class was specified by Sudhir Sir at 7:00 am. Three of us from Gurgaon travelled via the Delhi Metro and the fourth one joined us at the Sports Complex. Warming up on the first day was an issue considering our novice-ness and the winter morning nippiness. It was actually a historic moment when I held a real tennis racket for the first time, though it was a borrowed one from Sudhir Sir for the training; but in any case it was the first time I held a real tennis racket; that too a Wlison one!
The first hour of tennis training happened like a dream, I learnt about the grip, especially the difference between a forehand a backhand ones. And when I actually hit a few balls after a short duration of shadow practice it was still something hard to believe for me, as if, I was still dreaming. But my experience in tennis in my senses made me feel like a pro, someone with quite a bit of experience in playing the actual game!
We named our group “The would be Nadals”, simply because, our court had a Nadal poster just adjacent to the benches! In due course of time “The would be Nadals” became “The Nadal Parindeys”, a late realization that would-be-Nadal was actually a way over the top expectation from us. In due course of time, each one of our team member got their own rackets, I got a Head mid level racket for me; and we also tried to make the once-a-week affair to a more regular one. We tried to look for options around Gurgaon so that we can hit a few balls on a weekday evening after office. But this faded out gradually, yet retaining the weekend early morning sojourn of tennis at Gurgaon which is built on the strong bond developed amongst us with a common goal of hitting a tennis ball across the net for a clear winner!
Parting Notes
Never stop dreaming, never forget
What you are made of is dreams.
Never stop dreaming, never regret
To hope and follow your dreams
Never Stop Dreaming - Berlin Ballroom
Dedicated to all the “Nadal Parindeys” of the world, and especially to my group of Mahendra Kadao, Prabhat Srivastava and Pranay Gadre for helping me realizing my dream and putting back the faith in me that dreams can come true irrespective to age, date and time.
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