Table Tennis

Our old house had a back yard.  Not too big but was big enough to house a well, a bathroom, a place for washing dishes, a stone for washing clothes and quite a little bit moving space.  It was partially covered with tiled roof and the remaining  was open with a wall separating two neighboring houses.  We had a big brass vessel which was used to soak clothes before washing.  This vessel got stolen one night and that triggered a house remodeling project.  We closed off the back yard fully and remodeled it to house a new kitchen.  In this remodeling process my dad wondered what to do with a teak wood door that could not be reused anywhere.  He decided to make a dining table out of it and thus we got our first and only dining table.

This dining table could seat 6 comfortably and can accommodate up to 8-9 if we squeezed in.  We never used the dining table if it was more than 8.  We moved it aside and sat down on the floor.  This table morphed into our table tennis table during hot summer afternoons.  We placed two tumblers on either side and kept a wood plank and this was our net in the middle.  We initially played with hard bound notebooks and then my mom took pity on us and got us cheap bats.  The boys from my neighborhood played well and I had to keep up with them.  Since it was my house, they were forced to give me turns too.  I started playing with them and enjoyed every moment of it.

After marriage never got a chance to play TT or ping pong as they call here.  We then bought our own TT table and played in the garage.  My husband does not like playing with me so I only got a chance when we had guests who needed a fourth partner.  I taught my son to play.  It was a long arduous process testing my patience but he learnt well.  We still don't play at home since the garage is full of other junk now and the table stands folded in a corner.

At my work place there is a game room which has a TT table.  I look wistfully when I see people play but never gathered courage to ask them to include me.  In my new team, I saw my project manager was playing with another person one day.  I went to him later and told him that I play TT too and if he would include me too.  He asked me the next day and we played for half hour.  I was so happy to play the game that was part of my childhood memories.  He said he knows two more people from our extended team who play and that we can play doubles sometime.  I have been playing for the past three months and every time I play, I go back to being the teenager who spent hours playing the game on our door turned dining table turned TT table.  I am thinking of joining classes to hone my skills.

I now have to clear out the garage and set up the table so that I can play with my son again and maybe get my girl interested in the game too.