Memories from Yesteryear

 

Srikanth, my good tennis friend from India forwarded me an email I'd sent him wayyy back in 2007 when I was still an undergraduate at NUS, learning how to play the game:
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From: Sarah Pang
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 10:26AM
To: Srikanth Vendantam
Subject: Tennis

Hi Srikanth,

I don't know if you remember me, but I'm a tennis player you rallied with a really long time ago on the courts of NUS.  I'm a rather tall, I was wearing longs and playing with my dad.  You passed me your name card and said you were looking for someone to play tennis on a consistent basis.  I have been intending to email you as I am also looking for people to rally with, but lost your namecard.  I just found it!

Would you be interested in hitting the NUS courts sometime round?

Best,
Sarah

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I remember I was practicing with my dad that morning when he very lackadaisically strolled by our court.  It was a hot weekday and he had his tennis racquet in one hand and a big red plastic bag with a few old tennis balls in the other.

Being the goofball I was, I immediately became very self-conscious about what I saw as my ridiculous tennis outfit.  I was in a tatty long-sleeved shirt, coupled with baggy long pants and an oh-biang cap.  The garb was "sponsored" by my neurotic dad, who insisted that I had to protect my skin from the terrible sun.

My dad ended up inviting him to hit with me (father's neuroticism also translates to a certain charm at times, which he uses whenever he sees fit).  Srikanth very sportily agreed, I sheepishly got onto the other end, and the rest, as they say, is history :)

It never fails to amaze me how the game of tennis gives us such wonderful opportunities to make many friends.  In some cases, they become good ones, and Srikanth has, over the years at NUS, become one of them.  One thing that made me like him from the start was how easy going he was.  He never minded my ridiculous baggy, long outfits, or that we used only old balls and ratty racquets.  What he did mind was treating others well and refraining from passing judgement on others.  Match that with conversations about tennis technique, mechanical engineering and literature, Saturday morning tennis sessions during my Undergraduate days were made that much less awkward, and a lot more enjoyable!

Unfortunately, as training revved up, we started hitting less often.  And recently, Srikanth just returned to India for good, with tenure to teach in Chennai.  He and his lovely wife Aparna invited me over to their place for a kick-ass goodbye dinner--and it was such good fun just talking and chowing with them, I couldn't help but wish we had stayed in contact more frequently after I graduated.  I mean, I could've had chance to eat more of Aparna's kick-ass Indian food!! ;)  Still, as we said our parting goodbyes, Srikanth grinned and told me that if I ever reached the 3rd (or was it 4th?) round of any Grand Slam, he would def. fly over to come watch me play.  

I laughed out loud and grinned back, big time :D  Have a great time back home, dude!  We'll keep in touch for sure :)