PANAJI: “MUTTON BIRIYANI,” and “Kari Kuzhambu” (Meat curry in Tamil) are dishes that may be unheard of in France. But for two-time Olympian Prithika Pavade, they are her favourite dishes.
While she could dabble around in her broken Tamil, Prithika has all the promise to become a star. The southpaw, making her UTT debut this season, has been the silver lining in what was a disappointing campaign for the PBG Pune Jaguars. Her appetite for such dishes comes out of her Indian upbringing in Paris. Born in a family that moved to France from Puducherry in 2003 — a year before she was born — Pavade returned to the country of her roots once again for her UTT debut. "Last year, they asked me if I wanted to come and I saw it as a really great opportunity but due to a tight schedule, I couldn't make it. I thought to myself, 'Okay this year is the perfect moment for me to come back.' I also wanted to play UTT because everybody who played this league told me really good things about it," she told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
Her return to the country as a professional is not the first. In 2024, the French World No 33 had taken part in 2024 WTT Star Contenders in Goa. Prithika also said she visits her grandparents in Puducherry for her holidays. But for her parents — Vijayan, a hotel steward in Paris, and Suguna, a supermarket worker in the suburbs, life was not the easiest when they moved to the new country.
"From what my parents said to us (Prithika, brother Eshwar and younger sister Brinda), they wanted to move to a new European country for better living conditions. But, it was really difficult at the beginning to adapt because of the new language and they didn't know anything from this country so I cannot imagine how hard it was. Now when I see the position in which my brother, sister and I are, we are extremely lucky. So, I think we just are really grateful to them," he said.
It all began in the Bourgetin Club located near her apartment in Paris. Her father, who was once a state-level table tennis player, introduced her to the sport. “He felt it was the perfect opportunity for us to play sport because the club was just a three-minute walk from home. However, he never forced us to become professional. I really fell in love with table tennis and that grew progressively,” she said.
Soon that translated into remarkable achievements in age-group tournaments. Aged 10, she won the U14 French Championships, and at 16, won a U21 title. And at the same age, Prithika earned a spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics team for France. With continued success across junior and senior tournaments, Prithika added another Olympic appearance to her CV, and she now sits comfortably in the top-40 in the world rankings.
In this year’s UTT, Prithika has been showing what she is capable of. Beating two-time UTT MVP Yangzi Liu of UP Prometheans was the highlight. "It could have been better this season, but personally I adapted well with the new rules and a new team and so many other things which were not easy to deal with. We had some really nice moments together,” she said.
The 21-year-old aims to put on good performances in as many tournaments as possible and keep improving. "The next big competition is the European Championships in October but before this we have WTT Champions in Japan next month, followed by Euro Smash. The goal is really to be able to play well because I know that if I do that I can get good results. I don't really try to be focussed on the result because I need to put the right intentions into my game to be able to reach my goals so that's how I try to approach. After the European Championships, there are two Champions events in Montpellier (France) and Frankfurt (Germany) and then the Mixed Team World Cup in December in China, which is now the Olympic event, so there's always something to play," she said.
But her immediate plans are to go back to her grandparents in Puducherry, and have her favourite dishes in their truest forms.
Tuesday's result: Kolkata Thunder Blades 8-7 U Mumba.
