Aditi Mutatkar - Wonderful Interview

Interview of Aditi Mutatkar in Indian Express (former Number 1 Indian badminton player) threw out many statements which a honest sports person undergoes and feels.

Some statements are reflections which come out after you have left the sport and start reconciling with life. Thanks to Aditi for sharing her part of story which was a very inspiring one.

Enjoyed reading thoughtful statements from Aditi.

Every sports person should read this interview and learn from the journey.

Key statements which is worth sharing is listed below:

Memories of a sportsman

“Look, me and Saina will always be a painful memory for me. She was extra-ordinary. I wasn’t extra-ordinary. It is not easy to accept that someone is so good that you don’t have a chance at all. I could never break through that aura of Saina,” 

Mistakes ignorantly committed have important learning

On her return from Europe, a writer from Bangalore would urge Aditi to scribble about her fruitful European sojourn. “I actually wrote a nice piece titled ‘Thank you, Saina!’ It was written in the spirit of ‘You raised the bar, so we could follow.’ Day after, Tom sir (coach Tom John) was looking at me funny and asked me in his typical way: “Are you an idiot? What have you written? Don’t treat her like a god.'”

Very important message

Aditi jokes she can serve as a giant WARNING sign to the next generation, now chasing PV Sindhu, an even bigger figure. “Never put them on a pedestal if you have to play them! Have respect for them, but don’t be satisfied with just nicking a few points off them. On the court, you have to start as equal. They shouldn’t be beating you in the head even before the game has begun.”

Feelings on what was missing in coaching and attitude 

Badminton’s famous clash of cultures between Bangalore and Hyderabad, didn’t help matters. “Prakash sir and Vimal sir had a very democratic setup. Noone received special attention, and it was like sabko saath leke chalo. (Take everyone along). I had my Pune middle class attitude which could only take me to a certain level. At the top level, you need to be extremely selfish, doesn’t matter who falls by the wayside,” she explains.

Difficulty to reconcile and then to settle down

“I was competitive. But how do I accept that she’s 10 times better than me. Not knowing how to deal with it even when I played against her, ate me up,” she recalls of a torrid time.

At 15, Aditi had looked at her achievements the way other people saw them: casually tossing them aside compared to Saina’s. “I saw myself the way Saina saw me. But I should’ve enjoyed the journey more, rather than being caught up in this,” she says.

Dawn of wisdom

“I learnt that we should enjoy what we’re doing and not let another athlete bog you down. Sport is cruel, there’s no place to hide. But you can’t say, what’s the big deal in No. 2. Atleast you are No 2! When I won titles it was always back of my mind that she’s not there. But there were other challengers. And I beat them all. It really wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

We lionise winners, but there’s no space for ordinary champions or runners-up. In my life, every opponent gave me something to learn from, and were important in my journey,” 

Interview Link :(Indian Express) Aditi Mutatkar

Reflections of a self

In the below photo (from the Indian Express article) anyone from the four would have been a world champion with only change in name and face. We have to accept we know nothing about future and how life progresses.

We may never know who the other two in the photos are, may be they have some stories to share about their journey too.