August 9, 2008
Japan Habba 2008
Japan Habba 2008 will be held on Sunday 28th September at Jnana Jyothi Auditorium, Bangalore University, Palace Road, Near K.G Road. It is a Indo-Japan cultural Festival with lots of events. We will be having a Japanese Food stall by Harima Restaurant, Residency Road and Indian Food Stall so that you can enjoy your lunch at the event. Display and demonstration of "Kiri-e" (Japanese Stencil) in addition to Origami and Kirigami. I will be updating with more details on this blog.
August 3, 2008
Ping. Pong.
I have loved Ping Pong since the time I started playing.
My love for table tennis started when my brother and myself joined YMCA in Bangalore after our Summer holidays started just for getting to play TT. Before this we had played sometimes in Pollibetta club, Coorg but then I didn't even know to serve or hold the bat and had wanted to learn it badly. I had finished my 5th standard and my parents were getting transferred to Delhi. At YMCA lot of big boys used to play and since we were rookies, we didn't get much chance to play with the better players. Slowly bro and self played with each other and we improved. It used to be fun when there were many guys and only one table to play. We had this elimination round by circling the table and playing the ball to the other side and whoever missed had to go out. This way we used to get the order of play. whoever missed first was to play last.
After YMCA I didn't get much chance anywhere until we went to Srinagar. My uncle was in army and the army campus had all sports equipments. We played TT and also Tennis. It was fun. We played Football & Cricket in the evening. Kids used to play a lot especially since we had gone during our summer vacations.
I remember going to a Table Tennis competition in Delhi, as there were not many guys who knew to play TT. However, the other school kids were too good for us! Our school didn't have any TT tables!
When we were back from Delhi, again I found my new school in B'lore without TT tables. I was so much in love with TT that I used to look for a table wherever I went. Any club, any school, any place which had sports facility... Such was my craze!
Luckily my favorite destination - Pollibetta, Coorg had what I wanted. Nature and TT. The club there also had badminton, Carom and it was fun being there. We used to play badminton and TT till we were dead tired... After playing, we used to go for a walk or a drive into the coffee estates and then the forest boundary with the cool wind breezing through and the eerie sounds of insects, birds and animals!
Finally to my happiness I found few bad tables but enough to play in my college. The TT room used to be open only for a few hours during the day. We used to hurry to the TT room after finishing lunch as it used to be crowded lots of guys. Here I found that I was just average as many guys used to play very well, and some were state level players... Anyways I kept playing and though my techniques didn't improve much I learnt that there is much to be learnt!
PUC finished very fast with studies on my mind most of the time...
After a long break after my 12th, I joined BIT to do my engineering. Here after a few weeks I found that we did have a TT table and I was overjoyed! Not many good players used to come to play here. Still once in a while I used to find good challenges and go down fighting.
This went on until I finished my engineering and joined an IT Company - Caritor. Here we had two months of training and during this time, we used to play TT whenever we were free... Here the company managers' didn't really want us to play and have fun, but wanted to concentrate on our training. Hence we were allowed only after 5 and during lunch breaks. After our training, I never got to play TT. After close to 2 years in Caritor, I joined Adobe.
At Adobe, work environment is great. We had 2 tables and not many guys playing and thus began my new love for the game. Until now I never had a continuous access to TT and this really tested my love for the game. Sometimes playing everyday used to get me bored. Also my level of game had been average and hadn't improved and this really got me disappointed. After playing for a year to my heart's content, I finally stopped playing TT. But then how will this beautiful game let me go. What put me off was the fact that I had bought a costly TT bat - Butterfly which didn't have much spin, but had lots of control. This was good to improve my technique to learn to handle spin better. The Bat was good to play a defensive game, not aggressive. I tried hard but it didn't help. Finally I stopped playing with my costly TT bat. Then we had this competition in our office and I played with new bats. It helped me a lot as playing with the same bat didn't need much focus and didn't help me learn the game. Finally its time to play with a bat that I had to buy a long time back. "Kung-Fu" - A slightly costly bat during my college days, but comparitively less compared to the Butterfly bats, this bat has lots of power and spin. And I plan to improve and be unbeatable atleast in my office for the time being. I want to take a break for a year and then play in the international level. Hope that day comes...
Places not mentioned, where I got a chance to play Ping Pong.
MSS Club, Vijaya Bank Layout, B'lore.
Club in Mumbai.
A relatives house in B'lore.
My friend's house in Sagara.
All were great experiences.
Finally before I end, I was nick-named "pingy" in Delhi. Though I never played TT in Delhi, nor my friends knew about my liking for TT they phrased this while I played hand cricket/short cricket. What coincidence... Hopefully Ping Pong will be tamed one day by Pingy! :)
My love for table tennis started when my brother and myself joined YMCA in Bangalore after our Summer holidays started just for getting to play TT. Before this we had played sometimes in Pollibetta club, Coorg but then I didn't even know to serve or hold the bat and had wanted to learn it badly. I had finished my 5th standard and my parents were getting transferred to Delhi. At YMCA lot of big boys used to play and since we were rookies, we didn't get much chance to play with the better players. Slowly bro and self played with each other and we improved. It used to be fun when there were many guys and only one table to play. We had this elimination round by circling the table and playing the ball to the other side and whoever missed had to go out. This way we used to get the order of play. whoever missed first was to play last.
After YMCA I didn't get much chance anywhere until we went to Srinagar. My uncle was in army and the army campus had all sports equipments. We played TT and also Tennis. It was fun. We played Football & Cricket in the evening. Kids used to play a lot especially since we had gone during our summer vacations.
I remember going to a Table Tennis competition in Delhi, as there were not many guys who knew to play TT. However, the other school kids were too good for us! Our school didn't have any TT tables!
When we were back from Delhi, again I found my new school in B'lore without TT tables. I was so much in love with TT that I used to look for a table wherever I went. Any club, any school, any place which had sports facility... Such was my craze!
Luckily my favorite destination - Pollibetta, Coorg had what I wanted. Nature and TT. The club there also had badminton, Carom and it was fun being there. We used to play badminton and TT till we were dead tired... After playing, we used to go for a walk or a drive into the coffee estates and then the forest boundary with the cool wind breezing through and the eerie sounds of insects, birds and animals!
Finally to my happiness I found few bad tables but enough to play in my college. The TT room used to be open only for a few hours during the day. We used to hurry to the TT room after finishing lunch as it used to be crowded lots of guys. Here I found that I was just average as many guys used to play very well, and some were state level players... Anyways I kept playing and though my techniques didn't improve much I learnt that there is much to be learnt!
PUC finished very fast with studies on my mind most of the time...
After a long break after my 12th, I joined BIT to do my engineering. Here after a few weeks I found that we did have a TT table and I was overjoyed! Not many good players used to come to play here. Still once in a while I used to find good challenges and go down fighting.
This went on until I finished my engineering and joined an IT Company - Caritor. Here we had two months of training and during this time, we used to play TT whenever we were free... Here the company managers' didn't really want us to play and have fun, but wanted to concentrate on our training. Hence we were allowed only after 5 and during lunch breaks. After our training, I never got to play TT. After close to 2 years in Caritor, I joined Adobe.
At Adobe, work environment is great. We had 2 tables and not many guys playing and thus began my new love for the game. Until now I never had a continuous access to TT and this really tested my love for the game. Sometimes playing everyday used to get me bored. Also my level of game had been average and hadn't improved and this really got me disappointed. After playing for a year to my heart's content, I finally stopped playing TT. But then how will this beautiful game let me go. What put me off was the fact that I had bought a costly TT bat - Butterfly which didn't have much spin, but had lots of control. This was good to improve my technique to learn to handle spin better. The Bat was good to play a defensive game, not aggressive. I tried hard but it didn't help. Finally I stopped playing with my costly TT bat. Then we had this competition in our office and I played with new bats. It helped me a lot as playing with the same bat didn't need much focus and didn't help me learn the game. Finally its time to play with a bat that I had to buy a long time back. "Kung-Fu" - A slightly costly bat during my college days, but comparitively less compared to the Butterfly bats, this bat has lots of power and spin. And I plan to improve and be unbeatable atleast in my office for the time being. I want to take a break for a year and then play in the international level. Hope that day comes...
Places not mentioned, where I got a chance to play Ping Pong.
MSS Club, Vijaya Bank Layout, B'lore.
Club in Mumbai.
A relatives house in B'lore.
My friend's house in Sagara.
All were great experiences.
Finally before I end, I was nick-named "pingy" in Delhi. Though I never played TT in Delhi, nor my friends knew about my liking for TT they phrased this while I played hand cricket/short cricket. What coincidence... Hopefully Ping Pong will be tamed one day by Pingy! :)
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