A short story (fiction) written by me.

It was the last day of my seventh grade that I was ecstatic to join a Table Tennis academy as I was on a quest to fall in love with an “Olympic Sport” to achieve a goal that I set for myself the day I had conquered my first Karate Nationals, in 2002, with a gold and a silver. A goal that Abhinav Bindra’s impeccable performance, three months later, made it technically impossible for me to achieve. It was only in 2020, Tokyo Olympics, that Karate was recognized as an Olympic Sport for the first time. And so, I explored new Olympic sport each summer in search of a sport that would resonate with my capabilities to achieve what I had aimed for. Having tried out Lawn Tennis, Cricket, Football, Swimming, and Taekwondo over the years, I understood that I wanted something involving more of tactics than physical strength.

Post ten days of training, I was classified as natural legerdemain by my coach who promoted me to a group of players learning the sport for more than a year. As I delved into the intricacies of the sport, which to a naive eye seems mundane, I felt more involved and wanting to explore it further. Over the next two years, we trained in a dedicated group which resulted in many incredulous upsets in various tournaments. But, hailing from a typical Indian household had its demerits. Education was given priority over any other activity, and as my tenth grade commenced, I negotiated with my stubborn self to continue with Table Tennis with all passion after I graduated my high school after multiple altercations with my parents. Post high school graduation, I was admitted into an IIT where the best athletes within each institute got an opportunity to compete with athletes across all IITs. Lacking across various dimensions in our training, we couldn’t produce the results I had dreamed of, and by the end of my Bachelors’ degree, I understood that my dream wasn’t viable anymore. Nevertheless, I continued the sport as a hobby to escape from mundane corporate life.

A few years later, in 2026, I was in China to persuade a customer of the firm I worked for to engage in business with us. Every moment from when we landed in China to when we headed back to the airport, all I wished was to escape for a bit and to explore the local flavour of Table Tennis. On our way back to the airport, the roads were jammed due to some protests as a result of which we missed our flight. Trying to belie the happiness within me, I asked my manager to visit the city in a dejected tone as soon as I had learned that we weren’t going to make it to the airport in time. My manager, impotent in this plight, let me wander around the streets of Beijing for until the next day when we had our new flight.

As I jumped out of the cab, I pledged to absorb as many experiences I could see that day. Walking a few blocks away from the road with copious immobile cars, I booked a cab. Thank god I was smart enough to download the Google Translate offline package to use in China through which I asked the cab driver to take me somewhere I could experience the local Table Tennis this time of the day when he asked me where I wanted to go.

The driver dropped me at a park that had eight tables that seemed to have survived many nerve-wracking matches on them. I was astonished to see all the tables packed at eleven o clock on a weekday. Upon watching a foreigner, filled with excitement, with a paddle in his hand the more than two dozen people comprising mainly of retired men and women along with a few middle-aged women cordially welcomed me. Everyone was extremely eager to play a 3 set game with me and called me “Huoban” which meant partner that they used to make me feel like one of them. It was tough exchanging ideas with them, but we tried to communicate as much as possible using hand gestures. We played until about one in the afternoon after which the retired men, together, took me for a treat to their favourite eatery to make me taste their all-time favourite delicacies. Even though I disliked every single dish that was on the table; my face was lit up with a broad smile throughout the meal due to the company of these hilarious men who tried to flaunt their broken English to make me understand what each dish was.

During the lunch, Mr. Xiaopang, who worked as a coach at the Beijing Sports University, offered to show me the Table Tennis life in the city and invited me to watch the Chinese Super League being held later that night in the town where, god knows how, my all time favourite, Fan Zhendong, was playing one of his last matches before retiring. Would I have said no to such an offer? Of course not. Sports Universities are academies in China that select young kids and train them in various sports to become the best sportsperson in the world. Now that I am writing this piece, I had no expectations of the experiences that the company of Mr Xiaopang was going to put forth me. He was a respected individual among the Beijing Table Tennis community for his service at the Sports University.

Post a laughter-filled lunch and thanking my company wholeheartedly for an amazing time, Mr Xiaopeng took me to an all-Table Tennis shop owned by his son. Such shops are rare outside China and to visit this place was checking off of an item on my bucket list. Being fanatic for trying various paddles at once, this shop had more than 20 paddles up for testing. I wish I could explain the happiness that arose within me while testing those diverse ranges of paddles. But, the best part is that this wasn’t the zenith for the day. After about 2 hours of playing and checking out various “drugs,” Mr Xiaopeng and I left the shop along with a shirt that his son gave me as a “memento.” Also, if I disclose the fortune that I spent that day in the Table Tennis shop, my wife will kill me.

Since it was around four o clock in the evening and the Super League matches were to commence around two hours later, Mr Xiopang took me to the Sports University where the most talented Chinese youth trained. On entering the campus, the guard initially refused to let me in. Mr Xiaopang called a middle-aged man who came a few minutes later to the entrance. The man was suited up in a sports uniform where everyone was in a tracksuit. After the conversation ended, he brought me a Visitor’s card, and the guard apologized for not letting me in earlier. As we were heading to the hall, we could see the framed pictures of various World and Olympic Champions hung up on the walls of the whose goal was, probably, to motivate the players in the University to work hard while they entered into the training hall before every training session. As we entered the training hall, I gasped by the sight of such a beautiful training facility where there were two rows of twenty tables each with beautiful lighting and the Gerflor flooring. Training in such a hall is a mark of eliteness among the Table Tennis community. The ambience was just perfect.

The players ranged from four years to twelve years old, and yet all of them seemed to play way better than me. During our visit to the University, the young champs had their practice matches. What amazed me was the culture in which these paddlers trained. Players who were playing their practice matches were cheered by their colleagues who weren’t playing their matches to simulate the tournament pressure. Since a young age, these kids are being trained to handle the pressure which is uncommon even among the practice sessions of adults in different countries. Mr Xiaopeng arranged a one-set match with one of the six-year-olds who managed to beat me 11-7 without much effort. The best thing during this match was that all the other kids in the hall started cheering for me as I started to gain some points and it felt great.

After the match, we went to see the university’s latest training robots built by the technological universities across China to improve their results. The facility is a secret weapon of the Chinese, wasn’t accessible in my presence despite Mr Xiaopang’s efforts to let me in. He later showed me various clips from the training session of kids with the robot. The robot analyzed the faults in techniques of the player using computer vision and generated a report for the coaches to help the players improve their game. The use of this technology has led to the reduction of time taken by kids (on an average) to achieve a benchmark level from five years to three years. The result of this is evident in the world ranking where six out of the top twenty players are teenagers from China.

We, then, headed towards the Worker’s Stadium, home of the Beijing team, where the Super League match was going to take place. On our way, we came across sporadically located tables in the city which is very unusual in other parts of the world. Similar to my childhood in India, where I played with random games with my neighbours in the evenings, the tables on the streets completely occupied with kids playing Table Tennis with enthusiasm. As we reached closer to the stadium, the number of people in “Green” shirts increased and already exceeded what I saw in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi when we were about 500 meters away from the stadium. Most of them were women supporting the 2012 Olympic Gold medalist Zhang Jike who was also a model and played for Beijing. We waited for about half an hour in a line to get past the security checks, and the crowd was energetic throughout the security check chanting their slogans of support.

On entering the stadium, we started hunting for suitable seats. The challenge was to find a group of people supporting Bayi whom I was supporting. Mr Xiaopang was not a fan of the home club and hence agreed to sit with supporters of the away team. After fifteen minutes of searching across a jam-packed stadium, we found a group of fewer than ten people supporting the same team as us. We were the only ones not in green attire, and hence we immediately exchanged greetings with hand gestures and smiles upon eye contact.

As the match started, the crowd started cheering for the Beijing team, and the stadium vibrated after every point won by the player of the home team. On the contrary, there were we shouting with all the energy we had in support of Bayi despite the mockery from Beijing fans. The chants in support of Zhang Jike, in the first match, by his female supporters almost destroyed my hearing ability. Beijing won the first game, and next up was my idol Fan Zhendong who won despite the anti-cheering without any difficulty in straight sets. The third match was between two relatively infamous players, and hence the crowd saved up their energy for the next match that was a battle between Zhang Jike and Fan Zhendong. Bayi won this match as well and led two to one against Beijing, and it was a do or die situation for Beijing, and their fans prepared to cheer their team for the next match.

As the players entered the arena, the fans started cheering and until the referee of the match had to indicated the audience to stop. Just as the match started, the female fans started their loud chants after each point Zhang Jike took. Our yelling wasn’t significant compared to the fans Beijing. Still, at the moment between the match, Fan Z. looked towards us and smiled. The match went up to the last set, and it was a tough call.

At last, after a struggle, it was Fan Z., the 2020 Olympic Champion who prevailed against Zhang Jike. After this major victory, the Beijing fans were sad. Only if it were the other way around, it would’ve ended up in the Beijing fans severely mocking us. As Fan Z. was celebrating his victory, he signed a ball and threw it towards us for our relentless support throughout the match. I immediately jumped to catch the ball that swung away from me. But I missed it!!!

I was extremely sad about missing the ball. After coming out of the stadium, we rushed towards the back entrance from where the players were leaving. Fan Z. Passed by us on the way towards his car and I captured many pictures of him that moment. As soon as he passed us, he halted looked at me, and I immediately asked him for a selfie. Not only did he agree for a selfie, but he also gave me a game T-Shirt of his as well and said “Thank You” to me in English. That was THE moment for me. I lost it out of joy. Mr Xiopang was very happy for me and asked me if I had fun. Of course, I did! I thanked him every few minutes on the way to a restaurant to have Dinner.

Treating Mr Xiaopang with dinner was the least I could do for the amazing gift in the form of this day he gave me. We couldn’t discuss much due to communication gap during the Dinner, but we talked about our history with Table Tennis using Google Translate. He promised me to visit India soon, and I promised him to show him around. We then parted our ways, and I returned to my mundane life after a day that compensated for a childhood desire of mine.