I was searching for an important document in my old files once. I stumbled upon a clipping from "Indian Express" news paper dated 31.12.1981. Looking at it, I pleasantly remembered my badminton playing days while I was working in Guntur during 1972-83 period. I had played ball badminton while in school in Proddatur. I took to Shuttle Badminton only in 1974-75 in Guntur. Initially I was only accompanying my colleague, Mr.K.B.Sarma and watching a bunch of medical representatives playing in the evening in a covered make shift shuttle badminton court. Our daily field work as medical representatives used to be over by about 7 PM. After completing the day's work, about 15-20 medical reps used to relax playing badminton. Mr.K.B.Sarma presented to me his badminton racquet when he was promoted and transferred to Vijayawada in 1975. It was then, that I started to play somewhat regularly (I used to be on tour of Prakasam District for about a fortnight in each month) Badminton was also played in other towns like Vijayawada, Eluru, Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam, Warangal and Hyderabad in AP by medical representatives. The general standard of the game was fairly good and some of our colleagues were playing in open competitions conducted by various district units of Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association, often reaching the winners podium. Themis Niranjan, Pharman Kishore, K.Vidyasagar (Vizag) Pfizer Murali, Alembic Ramaswamy, Devadas, VS Prakasa Rao, Jayaram Ajjampur, Hoechst Suri and yours faithfully (all from Guntur) PBK Syamala Rao, Vijaya Narayan, Bose, George Varghese (all from Vijayawada) N.V.Rao (Hyderabad) Pfizer Deshmukh (Warangal) MPI Ranga Rao (Rajahmundry) were some of the prominent players amongst our medical representative fraternity who played the game with some aplomb.
There used to be two state level tournaments for the sales & medical representatives of Andhra Pradesh. Nageswararao Memorial badminton tournament was conducted annually by turns in different towns where our colleagues were playing the game. The other tournament was conducted annually by medical reps based in Guntur. Generally about 40 players used to participate in these tournaments. My first participation was in the NR memorial tournament in Rajahmundry held within a few months of my starting to play the game in 1975. The result was obvious and I didn't progress beyond the first round both in singles and doubles events. I was noticed as a player in the next NR Memorial tourney in Hyderabad where I won against Mr.Ramaswamy (2nd seed) in the singles semifinal event. But my ultimate success had yet to come.
At the suggestion of Mr.GVV Sarma (frontline manager in my company CIBA) I paired with my Vijayawada colleague, Mr.PBK Syamala Rao for the doubles event in NR Memorial tourney in Warangal in 1978. We paired to play well although both of us are Scorpios as per our birth (zodiac) signs (scorpions don't move in pairs generally) We won the Cup in the doubles event. I paired with Mr.Devdas and won the doubles events once again in later years.
The story in the singles event was quite different. Mr.M.D.Murali (Pfizer, Guntur) was the un-crowned king and was singles champion between 1972-78 in all our tournaments. However, I was the first player who ended his reign by defeating him in Singles. But very soon a youngster coming out of college qualified to partake in our tournaments by virtue of his employment as a medical rep, Kishore (Vizag) defeated me easily in our first meet in straight games in Nageswara Rao memorial tourney in Eluru. The second time we met, I could take him to decider game before losing again. Tables turned on him in our third meet when I beat him in best of three games. Details of my performance in 1981 is there in the clipping appearing herewith. I soon moved out of Guntur in 1983 and my playing days soon ended. However, my love for the game took a different turn and soon I qualified as an Umpire. That is another story!
Comments
Post a Comment