A LinkedIn post brought table tennis player turned coach, Gurumurthy N’s, living conditions to the fore.
He is currently driving an auto-rickshaw to make ends meet. “I have coached the Olympian Archana Kamath when she was a member of the U14 Karnataka team in 2012,” Gurumurthy N told The Bridge in a telephonic conversation.
Life was not always the same for Gurumurthy. As he child, he followed his uncle’s footsteps, to learn table tennis at the tender age of eight. But his real calling was in coaching.
After pursuing coaching courses, he found a job at Tenvic Sports, a company founded by the former Indian cricket captain Anil Kumble. Five years later, he set on his own course at the Bengaluru Table Tennis Academy on government premises.
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The Covid-19 pandemic brought a halt to his regular coaching sessions while a local MLA claimed the academy space.
“He cited the fact that it was government property and used it instead to store kabaddi mats,” laments Gurumurthy.
His auto rickshaw now carries a signage for on-demand table tennis coaching.
“I now conduct on-demand one-on-one and group classes,” he says, while stating that he aggregates roughly 3-5 classes a week.
And training an Olympian during her formative years is a matter of great pride for him,
“In 2012, I was a coach with the Karnataka U14 and U12 state team for a national tournament in Gandhidham, Gujarat,” he recalls.
“Archana Kamath was on that team and I worked with her during that event and afterwards as well,” he says, with palpable excitement in his voice
“She was at the Paris Olympics last year. It was a moment of great pride for me,” says Gurumurthy.