Scared of tennis? Too busy for golf? Pick pickleball!
Corporate India has a new obsession: pickleball. What is it? Here's what I think it is. Several middle-aged men and women, too afraid of tennis, too busy for golf, decide they want to hit something that gives the illusion of running around without having to do so.
It's the best answer to a 40-something's existential crisis, diverting thoughts of violence, divorce, and forcing an IB school on your second-born — probably named Amaiyrraah, with a silent h — onto your Bangalore housing society's newly constructed court, which was previously a 'Designated EV Charging Area to Come'. We won't delve into the armtwisting in the society group, where die-hard players posted YouTube videos showcasing how the sport was conquering America, thereby succeeding in the impossible: silencing the society chairman uncle who couldn't comprehend the passion, this 'non-sport' sport, and, by default, this India.
The game is designed so cleverly that it is beyond embarrassment. Just the right amount of hip movement without needing an orthopaedic on standby. Across the boundary from childishness, but not quite, as an athlete would define it, sport.
As a friend defined it, 'Pickleball is the sport's equivalent of Instagram wisdom providers. If I had to guess three pickleball players in India today, it'd have to be Ankur Warikoo, one Shark Tank judge, one startup founder who does beach clean-ups — you get the type'.
Let me get the basics out of the way, which you know already: there isn't a pickle involved. My AI little helper claims
