Pulella Gopichand, the new All England badminton champion's Madras home was a buzz of activity when Shobha Warrier visited the family the morning after he won the championship. The telephone was constantly ringing, with congratulatory messages from all over the world pouring in, and friends and well-wishers were constantly dropping in with big smiles on their faces and bouquets in their hands.

"From yesterday night, all of us are so busy that I cannot tell you how I feel now. We are tired, but very pleasantly happy and proud," Gopichand's mother, Subbaravamma said.

Gopichand's father P Subhash Chandra Bose had left for office, as usual.

Bose works for the Indian Overseas Bank, as assistant general manager, in Madras. Gopichand's only sister, Himabindu, who had come to Madras from Bangalore to watch her brother's match along with the family, attended the uninterrupted telephone calls. Gopichand's maternal cousin, Sandeep, was also with them. Manchala, Sandeep's mother and Subbaravamma's sister, was Andhra Pradesh women's champion in badminton in the early seventies.

Were you very tense when you watched the final?

Whenever he plays, I feel very tense. I would say from here, 'Gopi, what are you doing? Come on, Gopi! Why did you make such a mistake? Oh, it's out. Please don't take it...' I would talk to him as if he was in front of me.

We were very confident that he would defeat the Olympic champion as he had defeated him a couple of times last year. This time, the semi-final was a very tough match for him, and we were very tense before it. But once he reached the final, we felt he would win the championship. Yes, we were quite confident; he was also confident.

Yesterday, throughout the night, we were busy. So many of our friends were here with us till 12.30 at night. Then, there were phone calls to attend to. Some presspeople also called on us at night. So, from yesterday, we were talking only about his achievements and nothing else!

You won't believe, my son tried to speak to us several times at night but could not get our number as the phone was constantly engaged! So, it was only at 2.30 at night that he could contact us. He asked me, "Mama, are you happy?" I told him, 'I am very, very happy.'

What more can a parent expect from her son? Yes, I am very, very happy.

Your daughter mentioned that your elder son was also a badminton player. How did your sons get initiated into the game?

When my elder son was 13, we wanted to enroll them into some game. We were not very sure which game to choose. But we were sure about one thing: We wanted them to be in an individual game.

My younger sister Manchala was a badminton player; she won the AP championship in 1974. So, we are a badminton family, and all of us love the game. No, I don't play badminton!

Why did you want your sons to play an individual game? Was it because you felt you could give more encouragement to your children?

Exactly. We wanted them to play only an individual sport. We thought of tennis, badminton, etc and finally we chose badminton because we knew something about the game. My elder son Rajasekhar started playing badminton when he was 13. Whatever his elder brother did, Gopi also would do, and that was how Gopi also started playing.

At the age of 12, Gopi played the National Talent for Sports tournament in Delhi. He stood 13th in the country. Within two years, he improved a lot.

At that time, did you ever expect him to reach such heights? Did you have such an ambition?

No, not at all. We just wanted them to play a game. We had no other ambition. We never expected Gopi to be such a huge success. Once he started winning, our hopes also grew.

After his Intermediate, we had to make an important decision: Whether he should concentrate more on the game or on studies. Our elder son chose academics when he got admission to IIT, Madras. But Gopi was more keen on the game. So, we had to take a decision.

After Intermediate, he had to sacrifice his studies and concentrate more on the game if he wanted to reach the top level in the game. Till then, we were also confused; you can say it was 50:50 for academics and games! But after Intermediate, we were hundred per cent sure that Gopi was going to take up sport. So, he joined a course for his BA even though he had scored very high marks in the Intermediate exam.

Was it a tough decision for you, especially since your elder son was in the IIT?

It was a very, very tough decision. In India, it is a very difficult decision. Now, we have no regrets.

At that time, were you doubtful?

Mmmmm... everybody in our family discouraged us. All my uncles and even my father told us we were making a big mistake. We knew it would be tough to do well in both academics and sport. He could not even attend his BA classes as most of the time he was traveling or playing some tournament or the other. What he did was, he just wrote the exams.

But my sister encouraged him a lot. Yesterday night, she called me and said, 'Our dream has been fulfilled. It doesn't matter now whether we live or not.' She was that happy for Gopi.

For us also, year after year, championship after championship, we waited for this moment to happen. As you know, this championship is like the World championship.

In the early days, without any sponsors, was it tough for you to buy all that was needed for a sportsperson?

Yes, it was very tough. My husband is a banker. So, we had a real tough time when both our sons were playing. A shuttlecock itself cost Rs 6 or Rs 7 then. Then, you had to buy shoes, dresses, and such accessories. Those 4,5 years were very hard days for us. Still, he has come up. Gopi says, because he is an Indian, he has to really work hard. So, he worked very, very hard.

Once he became the national champion, did things begin looking up?

It was in 1991 that he won the junior national championship. By 1993, he was almost the number one in India. But everything began falling apart when he had that major injury in 1994 while playing the national championship in Pune.

How did he cope with that difficult period?

It was a difficult period for all of us. We were in Delhi then and we had taken him to a very good doctor in Delhi: Dr Ashok Rajagopal. The operation on his knee lasted 3, 4 hours.

It was a difficult period in another sense that everybody said it was the end of Gopi's career. But Dr Rajagopal gave us confidence by saying it was not the end of Gopi's career. He said, 'I have built a very good knee for Gopi.'

Gopi also was very, very confident. He was in bed for three months, and I used to cry a lot. But he would tell me every day, 'Don't cry, mama, I will definitely play again and play for the country.'

My elder son used to tell me that injury was a part of the game, and that there was nothing to worry about. Gopi also comforted me by saying the same things.

When people wrote that he would not come back as a badminton player, it made me very sad, but my son told me not to listen to all that, and that he would come back strongly. And, he did.

Many who knew Gopichand had written he is a very soft person in real life but very aggressive on court. Is that so?

Yes, he is very affectionate and friendly with family and friends, but on court, he is very aggressive. He always tells me, 'If I am playing for the country, I will give 200 per cent and nothing less than that.'

How does he take victory and defeat? Does he get depressed when he loses a match?

Earlier, when he was very young, he used to feel very depressed whenever he lost a match. It is not so any longer. After he started doing yoga, meditation, etc, he has become very calm and composed.

He is also a disciple of Sri Sri Ravi Sankar, is he not?

Yes. Gopi is a regular visitor to Sri Sri Ravi Sankar's ashram. Once I asked him what he gained from going there. He said, 'Concentration.' I must say he has become a very mature person now. After practicing meditation, he has become so composed and focussed on the game that he has started playing better badminton. He is a very disciplined and hardworking person also. He doesn't take any rest at all. He practices 365 days a year.

First, his ambition was to reach the top ten, and he did it. He wants to be the world number one. But one of his greatest ambitions was to win the All England championship! It was his dream as he idolises Prakash Padukone even though he started playing only in 1985 and Prakash won the championship in 1980!

Is he very attached to you?

Very much. We are like friends, I would say. We fight a lot too!

Do you help him in any way in his game?

After the injury, that is from 1994 onwards, I have started traveling with him. When he was very young, he didn't like us going to the stadium to watch the game. He used to tell us, why do you want to come? No other parent comes to the stadium. Of late, he wants me to go with him to all his tournaments; but only in India. It is not affordable to go with him to other countries. He does not play cricket; he plays only badminton, you know.

Even when I travel with him, I don't interfere in his game at all. I just keep everything ready for him before a match, and also keep track of his appointments. I don't ask him about the game immediately after the match. Just before the match also, I don’t talk to him about the match. May be, a few hours after the match, I discuss the match with him. But whenever he has an international tournament, he will call his elder brother, Raja, every day and analyse the previous day's match with him. Then, they will discuss the strategies for the next game.

Let me tell you, even now, he is like a five-year-old kid to me! I am going to Delhi to receive him, and the gift that I am going to give him is a hug and a kiss. That's the gift that we had always given him

Design: Dominic Xavier

ALSO READ:
A feather in the cap

Interviews