CHENNAI: Former national table tennis champion and Arjuna award winner Venugopal Chandrasekhar, who battled wrong medical treatment and still managed to walk on his legs, is a source of inspiration for any athlete.
At the peak of his career, a knee surgery had left him near-blind, inarticulate and ataxic. He had to start all over again to re-learn simple human activities, such as moving his limbs, speaking and seeing.
Although the handsome and budding national champion’s career was cut short by this quirk of fate in his prime, his fighting spirit kept him going.
Once he became ‘near normal’, he took up coaching with vigour at his Medimix TT Chandra Academy at DG Vaishnav College and groomed several international national and junior champions.
For long, his dream had been to set up an exclusive stadium with all modern facilities for playing and training under one roof.
The government of Tamil Nadu had released a GO in 1996 to allot a site in Mogappair to carry forward his dream vision.
The first steps of the project were taken last year. The current state government, SDAT and the state association have all helped Chandra move forward with his dream.
In his pursuit of completing the project which runs into several lakhs, he has tried to gather help from every source.
“The table tennis stadium is my dream. Our Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, SDAT, TNTTA and many friends have helped me to move forward and make my dream a reality,” said Chandrasekhar.
“In order to complete the project, I need a lot of funds and support and decided to seek help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I wrote a letter to his office and three days back, got a call to meet the PM on Tuesday,” added Chandra.
Chandra and his wife K Mala met Modi at his residence. “The meeting lasted more than 20 minutes. Our PM was very courteous, he spoke very well and displayed a good knowledge of sports. I should say he is a sports-loving person,” recalled Chandra.
“I think he had been briefed about what I went through in my life. Our PM knew what had happened to me and how I suffered and how I am leading life now,” added Chandra.
“I discussed with him my unique and dream project of building an ultra modern sports complex in Mogappiar, dedicated to promotion of table tennis in the state and country.
“The PM understood my difficulty in raising money for the project. He promised to look into the matter favourably. From the way our PM spoke, I am sure he will make a sincere effort to help me and the sport,” signed off Chandra.