12. Once they set me up with a match on TV, I don’t need anything else!!

Ineterviewee: Shakuntala, Interviewer: Varsha, Date 5/6/2011

I visited Shakuntala Kaku while she was visiting her dear friend in my neighborhood. As I entered the house around 4 on a quiet spring afternoon, I found her enjoying an afternoon snack, reading a hand-written article. Her friend, my neighbor offered me some tea so I could give her company as Shakuntala Kaku doesn’t drink tea at all! We settled at the kitchen island with our respective tea / snacks and I asked her if she was ready for her interview. “Ask me whatever you want, I am prepared!!”.

Age: 81

Birth Place: Pune, Maharashtra, India.

Background Information: The only sister to three brothers, Shakuntala was third sibling, born in a well to do family. Her father was a lawyer by profession. She mentioned how there was music in the family and how she had taken some Violin lessons for a few years. She loved to play Badminton and belonged to the elite ‘A’ group. “It was very difficult to enter our A group” she reminisced. Like her brothers, she aspired to be a doctor when she grew up, but times were different then.. “if you educated your daughters very highly, then it was harder to find a husband who was even more educated!!” So in spite of having the grades to enter medical school she enrolled into a B.Sc(hons) curriculum. Her father encouraged her to do teacher training after that.  After marriage she moved away into neighboring state and lived in various places before settling in the city of Indore where they raised a family and Indore soon became “home”.

“I would say my happiest memory is that of watching my daughter’s success in sports! Like me, my daughter played Badminton. She was a good player and got good opportunities. She would always make the local papers and “Nayee Duniya” (local newspaper New world) would always carry her photographs on the sports page. We felt very proud of her achievements when she represented India in several tournaments abroad. She travelled to UK, Indonesia and Australia to represent India’s Badminton team. She also played in the Asian Games in 1982. “As she rapidly narrated her daughter’s successes she seemed to be reliving the joys of those years all over again. “Oh yes, those were good years! Even though my daughter wouldn’t let me attend her games, I came to know of all the details of all of her tournaments!”

I asked her if she missed sports after all these years and she promptly stated “Of course I do! But now with your TV and Internet I get to watch so much more! I watch Tennis and Cricket and had a great time watching the world cup cricket tournament last month. Once they set me up with a match on TV, I don’t need anything else!! “, she said with a laugh!

I had to wind up the interview as it was time for me to go pick up my son. It was nice to see a daughter picking up the same sport as her mother, making great strides into it and perhaps fulfilling aspirations of two generations in one shot! I would have loved to stay a bit longer and witness the long volley down memory court of this sports loving octogenarian!