From injured physios and bitten defenders in
the Football World Cup, to India winning 10 matches in a row in the Cricket
World Cup, sports talk has been the pulse of conversations in social circles
for the past year. In the wake of the nail biting and exciting year in the
world of sports, I found myself in an interesting discussion with my friends
about sports in the global context and the scope of being a sports person in
India today. One of my friends in this discussion was Ryesh Venkatraman, a
professional footballer and avid sportsman. He spoke of how athletics has been
brought into the limelight in the past 5 years and how kids today have ample
opportunities to pursue sports.
Thinking more on that conversation after I
got home that day, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to Ryesh about his
journey as a sport person and know more of his thoughts on the subject.
Promptly, we met over coffee the next day and had a fun heart to heart on
growing up, careers and sports!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“When
I was younger, my family and I lived in Bombay before eventually moving to
Pune. As a kid, I spent my days at the Bombay Gymkhana, a club renowned for its
social and sporting life. And I guess that’s what got me to fall in love with
sports ! My family and I are sports fanatics and we love the outdoors. My
younger sister Tishya and I grew up playing a variety of sports and our parents
always encouraged us to have a life outside of the typical school-exam-classes
routine”, he told me, talking about his initial interest in the outdoors.
