A senior statesman looks back

Bangalore, July 2004:

Manjeshwar Gurudutt has the soft, dignified look of a bureaucrat; not of one used to the rough-and-tumble of sport. Even in an old black-and-white photo taken around a half-century ago, there is a thoughtful aspect to the bespectacled young man. Gurudutt was one of the early representatives of Karnataka (then Mysore) badminton, playing at the national level for around four years.
Gurudutt was around when the badminton games at Canara Union started. He formed a good doubles combination with Naimpally Bhaskar, representing the state four times. A mechanical engineer, Gurudutt (78) went on to do aircraft design at Indian Institute of Science, and then joined HAL. He shares some of his memories on the early days:

The beginnings
Ramesh (Padukone) was mainly responsible for starting shuttle badminton in Bangalore. Another person responsible for encouraging a lot of people was a gentle man called Salvi, who I believe was a marker at CCI, and he was brought here by one Mr. Parekh, who was the Managing Director of the Plywood factory at Yeshwantpur.

Salvi was a fantastic chap, he would've beaten anybody at that time, except that he was a professional. And therefore he was disqualified from playing. I think there was some rule about these professionals. He never played a tournament. He was used as a sparring partner by all the good players in Bombay at that time. He used to play at the Canara Union and lot of us, we were beginning at that time, and he was responsible for some of the basics that we learnt from him.

Take-off
Once the State Association was formed, Century Club got a court, Bangalore Club got a court, and ITI… there was one works manager called Kulkarni, and they had put up a wooden court. We used to go there quite often. This was in the 60s. That is when we started representing the state.

I left Bangalore in 1970; I was away for 10 years. That's when I lost touch with badminton. I used play when i was in HAL, at Bangalore Club. There was one gentleman of Julka Sports Club, Mr Julkha, who used to organise tournaments regularly at Intermediate College...
I used to play more of doubles, used to partner Naimpally Bhaskar, and we represented Karnataka for three-four years.

On Prakash Padukone:
He was very keen, you could see, every time I remember he would make a nuisance of himself by running into the court when we played. He was a very good learner. He would sit on the sidelines and watch.

Playing at Canara Union
The trusses at Canara Union were very low. And every time we had to serve through one of the trusses. And they would have dinners, so the floor was so slippery that we would slide from one end to the other. The floor was of stone slabs. We used to scrub it and play.

Style of Play
Initially, yes, it did influence our style of play. Malleswaram Association was black with granite. We used to toss through the trusses.
These days, they make such a song and dance about sportsmen. A person takes five wickets, they make him seem a king. I remember in cricket the performances of Vinoo Mankad... have never been repeated. He single-handedly won a Test in England. He scored a century, bowled 50-60 overs, so he played on all five days. In our younger days, Vinoo Mankad was a hero. At that time, hockey was even better in the North. But there was no money in any sports.