On the heels of “Sundays With Purav”, “Chai With Raja” talks about topics more privy to Indian Tennis. “Chai With Raja” is a 7 part series coming your way to make your next seven Sundays exciting
Read the first four episodes here –
Episode 1 – Davis Cup
Episode 2 – Roberto Bautista Agut
Episode 3 – Coronavirus
Episode 4 – The Indian Express
Some of my peers love him but some don’t. Some of the tennis fans love him, others definitely don’t and some females love him while some do not. However, two main points we have to understand here is that this 24 year old boy doesn’t really care what you think and more importantly, he is one of the most gifted guys in this era to ever hold a tennis racquet.
I have the pleasure of knowing Nick and yes, he is brash sometimes and yes, he can be tough to handle. But I now understand that this “Bad Boy of Tennis” is a severe misconception. His ONLY real love-hate relationship is with Tennis and all these are just by-products. The only sole criteria is his enjoyment or hatred for the ridiculously demanding sport. Before you judge him though, please ask yourselves if you get out of bed every morning feeling the same way about work and I know most of our heroes on the tennis tour today come across looking like manufactured robots. However, we are all just very normal human beings. My friend Nick Kyrgios is just more honest about it than any of the others and hence often this misconception is created.
There are a few underlying points created by him here which is imperative for Indian Tennis. The first one is – we as professional players on the whole can enjoy tennis a lot more than we do. This will lead to a better on-court performance and a more all-rounded human being in the future. Secondly, this Aussie legend can also teach us the value in the Subtle Art of not giving a f***. We as Indians(including myself) are brought up with the value of caring too much of what people say and what people think. This, I believe, is detrimental to make a singles champion as it can create doubt and make you care if you win or lose bringing in that taboo Raja word ‘Fear of Failure’. To do the same thing as others and expect a different outcome is the height of stupidity. If we want to be different – we’ve got to do different things.
Raja – Hey NK, why don’t you just shut down the critics and win a Slam like we all know you can if you just knuckle down a bit?
Kyrgios – Raja, how’s that going to make any difference? I’m still gonna play basketball and video games
Raja – Mate, will be huge – people will stop talking and you will have achieved everything in the sport. You could be the greatest Aussie ever!!!
Kyrgios – Yes mate . That’s true however there will still be people dying of starvation in Africa, right??? Accurate???
This, to me, sums up everything and we are blessed to have him in the sport and play tennis as this. Freak of an athlete could have played any sport he wanted and would have been the best at it. Thank you for entertaining us Nick Kyrgios.
Impossible is nothing.
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Purav Raja
