Venugopal Chandrasekhar
Encyclopedia
Venugopal Chandrasekhar is a former National table tennis
champion from Tamil Nadu
. He earned the Arjuna Award
in 1982 as well as a lifetime achievement award
. Among his major achievements are winning the Nationals, making the semi-final of the Commonwealth championships in 1982, and helping India progress to category I from II in the 1983 Tokyo World Championships.
He has won a real-life battle that would dwarf the ones on the sporting arena. The world crumbled for the flamboyant table-tennis star, when a knee operation in the mid-1980s at a renowned city hospital went wrong. He was already the national champ and was making his mark on the international TT scene when he had to go in for knee surgery in a world-class super-specialty hospital. Chandra was twenty-five and at his prime when he went for a relatively minor surgery to mend a cartilage tear in September 1984. He should have been up and about in three or four days. But things went horribly wrong on the operation table, and Chandra suffered brain damage
that cost him his vision as well as control over his limbs. He spent 36 days in a near-coma state. Eighty-one days in the hospital as part of 'rehab'. The treatment abroad was funded mainly from responses to a public appeal by Chandra for funds. Members of the public, other sportsmen from India and abroad, politicians, and actors responded generously. The treatment abroad improved Chandra's condition a bit. The lawsuit was filed in 1985 and it was three years before it came to trial. The medical community's omertà was broken by a few brave doctors, especially an anesthetist from Maharashtra who helped to demolish the hospital's case. During the trial it came to light that the orthopedic surgeon
of the hospital had received training at arthroscopy only in workshops at UK and not in a medical school
as part of the curriculum. Eight years after the operation, five years since the trail began, after examination of ten witnesses, after recording a thousand pages of evidence, the court delivered a verdict in favour of Chandra in mid-May 1993. The judgement pronounced that, "The plaintiff is entitled to in total, Rs 17,37,920.78 by way of special damages
and general damages. A medico legal case of this proportion was unheard of in India. A young patient had sued a hospital for negligence and had won nearly twenty lakhs. Even the cynics of the Indian Judiciary were impressed." The hospital appealed against the decision, but ultimately settled after two years in the courtroom during the trail years Chandra continued his treatment in India and abroad, and worked at a bank to support himself. He was a gold medal
ist of Madras University
(Economics), but the operation had reduced him to being a cashier. A fight which he feels would not have been necessary had "human spirit prevailed over ego". After a prolonged struggle he triumphed.
Thanks to his mental strength, which he acknowledges is his principal strength, Chandrasekhar has made a good recovery physically. He has regained 70% of his vision, though reading small letters on the computer and driving at night are still a problem.
Chandra was extremely popular with the crowd during his playing days through the sheer power of his personality and of course talent, which is God given according to him. The Madras Port Trust tournament was Chandra's first attempt at serious table tennis at the age of twelve. He lost badly to 53 year old Krishnan, an amateur. He joined the Emesor sport's council and it helped him to improve his game. Emesor was founded by M.S.Senapathy, an eccentric according to Chandra and the training regimen included Yoga and prayers, apart from table tennis. Chandra became the Tamil Nadu state sub junior champion in 1970. In 1973 he became Tamil Nadu's junior champion and also entered the National quarter finals. Chandra's style was flamboyant, and at a time when sports coverage on TV was very limited, tickets for his matches sold in black in towns that traditionally patronized table tennis like Indore and Pune. Chandra then went on to win the National championships thrice. More important than the Chandra-Chandra chant that filled the stadiums or his winning the National Championships, was the change he brought about in the staid table tennis establishment in Tamil Nadu.
"Chandra loved to beat the bogey. Before he entered the scene, Tamil Nadu was a no impact team on the national scene. Southies spoke of the Bombay team with awe. This attitude really irritated Chandra. In his tenure Tamil won the team title twice. He proved that reputations could be demolished. "
"Up north Chandra had this image of the superstitious and religious southie who was not above invoking the supernatural. Most of the Delhi players actually believed that Chandra was chanting some mantra! remembers Kamlesh Mehta (another former national champion). They thought he wore a ring that had some something special. Chandra had the habit of putting his hand (actually two fingers) in his pockets."
"For some reason this psyched the Delhi players. Whenever he did this they would groan mentally 'Ab do finger dala ...!' At first Chandra was amused by this accusation. Soon he was able to use this as a tactic. Chandra began to put his fingers in his pocket at strategic points in the game and this actually broke his opponents' concentration."
Chandrasekhar was one of the sports professionals in India to ask for appearance money and also actively sought to improve player's working conditions. He, along with another player, Sanjay Butalia, formed the player's association. Chandrasekhar wrote a column on table tennis, 'TopSpin', for 'The Telegraph' and also covered tournaments for newspapers after his operation.
From a person equipped with razor sharp reflexes needed to play a game in which the ball typically travels at 100 km/h or more, Chandraselhar today is a person who does not have normal peripheral vision
and cannot see beyond a few feet; he suffers from a condition called nystagmus
- his eyeballs cannot focus. A bulb, for instance, appears as a series of points of light. Chandra runs an academy for young table tennis players and is married to Mala; they have a son, Sanjay.
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
champion from Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. He earned the Arjuna Award
Arjuna award
The Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of 500,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll....
in 1982 as well as a lifetime achievement award
Award
An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
. Among his major achievements are winning the Nationals, making the semi-final of the Commonwealth championships in 1982, and helping India progress to category I from II in the 1983 Tokyo World Championships.
He has won a real-life battle that would dwarf the ones on the sporting arena. The world crumbled for the flamboyant table-tennis star, when a knee operation in the mid-1980s at a renowned city hospital went wrong. He was already the national champ and was making his mark on the international TT scene when he had to go in for knee surgery in a world-class super-specialty hospital. Chandra was twenty-five and at his prime when he went for a relatively minor surgery to mend a cartilage tear in September 1984. He should have been up and about in three or four days. But things went horribly wrong on the operation table, and Chandra suffered brain damage
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
that cost him his vision as well as control over his limbs. He spent 36 days in a near-coma state. Eighty-one days in the hospital as part of 'rehab'. The treatment abroad was funded mainly from responses to a public appeal by Chandra for funds. Members of the public, other sportsmen from India and abroad, politicians, and actors responded generously. The treatment abroad improved Chandra's condition a bit. The lawsuit was filed in 1985 and it was three years before it came to trial. The medical community's omertà was broken by a few brave doctors, especially an anesthetist from Maharashtra who helped to demolish the hospital's case. During the trial it came to light that the orthopedic surgeon
Orthopedic surgery
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system...
of the hospital had received training at arthroscopy only in workshops at UK and not in a medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
as part of the curriculum. Eight years after the operation, five years since the trail began, after examination of ten witnesses, after recording a thousand pages of evidence, the court delivered a verdict in favour of Chandra in mid-May 1993. The judgement pronounced that, "The plaintiff is entitled to in total, Rs 17,37,920.78 by way of special damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...
and general damages. A medico legal case of this proportion was unheard of in India. A young patient had sued a hospital for negligence and had won nearly twenty lakhs. Even the cynics of the Indian Judiciary were impressed." The hospital appealed against the decision, but ultimately settled after two years in the courtroom during the trail years Chandra continued his treatment in India and abroad, and worked at a bank to support himself. He was a gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
ist of Madras University
University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public research university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three oldest universities in India...
(Economics), but the operation had reduced him to being a cashier. A fight which he feels would not have been necessary had "human spirit prevailed over ego". After a prolonged struggle he triumphed.
Thanks to his mental strength, which he acknowledges is his principal strength, Chandrasekhar has made a good recovery physically. He has regained 70% of his vision, though reading small letters on the computer and driving at night are still a problem.
Chandra was extremely popular with the crowd during his playing days through the sheer power of his personality and of course talent, which is God given according to him. The Madras Port Trust tournament was Chandra's first attempt at serious table tennis at the age of twelve. He lost badly to 53 year old Krishnan, an amateur. He joined the Emesor sport's council and it helped him to improve his game. Emesor was founded by M.S.Senapathy, an eccentric according to Chandra and the training regimen included Yoga and prayers, apart from table tennis. Chandra became the Tamil Nadu state sub junior champion in 1970. In 1973 he became Tamil Nadu's junior champion and also entered the National quarter finals. Chandra's style was flamboyant, and at a time when sports coverage on TV was very limited, tickets for his matches sold in black in towns that traditionally patronized table tennis like Indore and Pune. Chandra then went on to win the National championships thrice. More important than the Chandra-Chandra chant that filled the stadiums or his winning the National Championships, was the change he brought about in the staid table tennis establishment in Tamil Nadu.
"Chandra loved to beat the bogey. Before he entered the scene, Tamil Nadu was a no impact team on the national scene. Southies spoke of the Bombay team with awe. This attitude really irritated Chandra. In his tenure Tamil won the team title twice. He proved that reputations could be demolished. "
"Up north Chandra had this image of the superstitious and religious southie who was not above invoking the supernatural. Most of the Delhi players actually believed that Chandra was chanting some mantra! remembers Kamlesh Mehta (another former national champion). They thought he wore a ring that had some something special. Chandra had the habit of putting his hand (actually two fingers) in his pockets."
"For some reason this psyched the Delhi players. Whenever he did this they would groan mentally 'Ab do finger dala ...!' At first Chandra was amused by this accusation. Soon he was able to use this as a tactic. Chandra began to put his fingers in his pocket at strategic points in the game and this actually broke his opponents' concentration."
Chandrasekhar was one of the sports professionals in India to ask for appearance money and also actively sought to improve player's working conditions. He, along with another player, Sanjay Butalia, formed the player's association. Chandrasekhar wrote a column on table tennis, 'TopSpin', for 'The Telegraph' and also covered tournaments for newspapers after his operation.
From a person equipped with razor sharp reflexes needed to play a game in which the ball typically travels at 100 km/h or more, Chandraselhar today is a person who does not have normal peripheral vision
Peripheral vision
Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze. There is a broad set of non-central points in the field of view that is included in the notion of peripheral vision...
and cannot see beyond a few feet; he suffers from a condition called nystagmus
Nystagmus
Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary eye movement, acquired in infancy or later in life, that may result in reduced or limited vision.There are two key forms of Nystagmus: pathological and physiological, with variations within each type. Nystagmus may be caused by congenital disorders,...
- his eyeballs cannot focus. A bulb, for instance, appears as a series of points of light. Chandra runs an academy for young table tennis players and is married to Mala; they have a son, Sanjay.
There are times when I stumble on the footpath, and people have thought that I was drunk.
That is when it hurts for it is not my fault. Then I look at the computer in my office and cannot read the small letters. To be lesser than a normal human being is what pains me the most. But I know I have to carry on. There is no point in looking back. - V. Chandrasekhar.