P Gopichand: A case of passion with perseverance

Pulella Gopichand happens to be one year junior to me in age but when I met him and learnt his story I felt like touching his feet. His father is a banker and consequently they kept moving from one place to another. He started playing badminton at the age of 11 when in Hyderabad he went to a club and found no place in his favorite cricket and second favorite football coachings. His elder brother motivated him to take up badminton which he did reluctantly. Soon he found himself doing better than the other kids and represented AP in the National level tournament where the morale was so low, as they were in awe of the other players mostly from Maharashtra, that the only motive was to be able to see others play well and somehow learn from it. 

He was coached by many coaches and ultimately he got Prakash Padukone as his mentor and coach and won the All England tournament in 2001 like his mentor. Before this he also won the national Championship five times in a row. 

Long before all these He was part of an Indian squad in Malaysia and was the junior most. All of them had lost their matches in the very first round and were discussing how it was almost impossible to beat the good players from China, Korea and Malaysia. Suddenly the youngest boy declared that it was possible. He was immediately mocked at and probably this was the moment that made him what he is today. 

Coming back to his training days, like all other middle class families his family also always kept studies before the sports and he was allowed to go for a training from 6.30 am only on the condition that he will study for one hour before that. The matter got worse for him when his elder brother cleared IIT. What made him better than the other kids still was his extra 15-20 minutes that he gave to badminton compared to the other kids. His determination and grit was already in place which helped him later on very much. 

Unfortunately he became injury prone and despite that came back bouncing several times in his career but ultimately had to give up. But in the process he also got the formula for success at the international level for which he himself was not fit enough owing to his injuries. He started an academy in 2008 to help kids learn from his experience and he was sure that with his formula will be able to produce winners which he actually did. 

His real test in life was in opening his academy and he had to ultimately mortgage his house to secure some money for the facilities, land was given by the government but he even had to fight a legal battle when the government wanted it back. It was at this time that he got good support from his family. Support did not come from many expected places but he also kept getting support from unexpected quarters every now and then. Initially he had thought that he would get a lot of help from everyone as he was such an icon and people used to get mad to meet him. He was proved wrong.He was made to wait for several hours when he approached people for money for his academy and he suffered mentally a lot during this period. But his love for the game was so big that he never gave up and we all know what he achieved for our country. 

He is a complete down to earth person despite his phenomenal achievements and one feels so good when he is around. Speaks very softly and smiles a lot. God bless him.