A tribute to Vishwa

A son-set in the northeast

Shillong: Vishwa Deenadayalan, the strapping lad from Chennai, was meticulous and labourious as any aspiring youngster would be. The 18-year-old had all the trappings of dreaming big and achieving it. He, unlike most teens, believed in setting goals and pursuing them with dedication. His career had taken off nicely, and he was slowly but surely spreading his wings and starting to fly off towards stardom. But fate snuffed his life out.

In a few minutes, everything changed—a blossoming career abruptly ended and brought untold miseries to his team members, his friends and, above all, the family that nurtured, loved and took pride in him. His loss left an indelible scar on the minds of all. The training sessions he had with the group of players in Chennai won’t be the same again.

A. Sharath Kamal admitted in as many words when he came to know the passing away of Vishwa in an accident on his way from Guwahati to Shillong for the Senior National Championships. “We have lost one of the most promising youngsters who would have gone places. I haven’t seen as dedicated a player as Vishwa was. A wonderful boy full of enthusiasm,” said Sharath, recalling the training sessions he had with him, especially during the peak of Covid-19. Sharath had handpicked the boy and a few other paddlers and trained with them when government restrictions prohibited them.

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Vishwa became a Cadet National champion and was India No. 1 in his category in 2015. Within a couple of years, he graduated to the next level, becoming the National Sub-Junior champion in 2018, leading the pack as the No. 1 player on the ranking chart. By 2019, he had climbed up the Junior Boys ladder to be No. 1 and held the position until 2020. Incidentally, he had broken into the world’s top-50 in 2019 with sterling medal-winning performances during the period.

He was a part of the Indian squad that won gold in the ITTF World Junior Circuit and Cader Open in Serbia in 2018. He had also won half a dozen silver and bronze medals to swell his medal kitty. Considered a force to reckon with, Vishwa was not only a popular and easy-going boy among the group but a potential medal winner at any tournament on the domestic circuit. Over a dozen gold, silver and bronze medals in age-group events in a short span of five years between 2015 and 2020 speak volumes of the quality timber we have had in our midst.

Vishwa’s s initiation into the sport was a pure accident. Table Tennis would have lost him to football if not for his sister Raveena. She brought the six-year-old to Coach R. Ramnath Prasad at the Krishnaswamy TT Club at Anna Nagar, Chennai. But Raveena and Prasad had to do some sweet-talking to convince the boy as he was hellbent on following his football passion.

But the moment he agreed to pursue table tennis, his dedication and commitment were absolute. Within a week of picking up the racquet, Vishwa started hitting 150 balls during the training sessions. He observed and learnt the nuances—the blocks and the forehand and backhand drives—and no sooner did his services improve, he picked up variations, too. “He was a quick learner,” Prasad had pointed out, describing the qualities of Vishwa.

Prasad, who trained Vishwa for over 12 years, said he was like a limb of his body. “His loss is like one of my body parts is missing so suddenly,” said Prasad, his choked voice expressing the pain.

Prasad had high hopes and even expected Vishwa to enter the medal round in the singles at Shillong. He was also headed to Linz for the WTT Youth Contender in Austria, and a good performance at the Shillong Nationals would have catapulted him to stardom of a new kind. But that was not to be. At times, both life and death can be cruel.

In Vishwa’s case, the latter proved precisely that, sorrowfully nipping it in the bud.

Master D. Vishwa- A Tribute by the Committee of Administrators (TTFI)

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