Badminton legend Nandu Natekar reminisces the days gone by on his 84th birthday

Badminton legend Nandu Natekar was always fond of music. “I remember anything that has got to do with music. Music kept me very very young. Music has given me a fresh lease of life,” said the all-time India great shuttler here on Friday.

The occasion was Natekar’s 84th birthday and he was the cynosure of all at the Legends Club get-together at the Cricket Club of India’s CK Nayudu Hall. It was an evening where some of the great Indian shuttlers gathered to relive the glorious days of the past.

There were also some leg-pulling by Natekar’s contemporaries that included Dinesh Khanna, the first Indian to win an Asian Championship title in 1965, multiple women’s singles and doubles champions Sushila Rege Kapadia and Ami Ghia Shah among others.

Natekar, six-time singles national champion until 1965, has won scores of doubles nationals titles besides being the first Indian to win an international title when he triumphed in the Selangor International Tournament in Kuala Lumpur in 1956. 

Natekar has fallen so much in love with music that he has begun to learn it about five years ago. At 84, Natekar’s memories are sharp. His badminton stories are worth listening but his remembrances of incidents connected with music are not often heard of.

On Friday, he recalled: “I was playing my first nationals in 1951 in Lucknow. We were allowed to go to the banks of Gomti River. We carried phonographs and played Talat Mahmood songs. On the other occasions, I was interviewed by All India Radio. What I fondly remember was the walls along the stairs of AIR had photographs of great music artistes including Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Omkarnath Thakur and Kesarbai Kerkar.”

Natekar also regaled the audience by rendering a stanza of a Talat Mahmood song ‘Seene me sulagte hai armaan’ from the Dilip Kumar-Madhubala hit Tarana.

Natekar was a household name in those days that after winning a triple crown in Amritsar Nationals in 1961, he was told by Punjab governor to stay back and visit Chandigarh. But Natekar’s concern was “We, the Maharashtra team, have been booked by train to return the next day. What will happen to those reserved tickets?”

“I was assured that since it was on governor’s invitation, we would have a special bogie for the Maharashtra team the day after. And, it happened that way.”

Natekar, the first non-cricketer to be inducted into the Legends Club last year and the seven such inductee after Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar, was the most-sought after shuttler in his playing days. He drew crowds wherever he played.

His contemporary Khanna recalled an incident in Guwahati Nationals of 1958. “Nandu and Trilok Nath Seth were playing the finals. Before the final began, the court was pelted with stones. There were as many people waiting outside to watch Nandu-TN Seth final. Nandu had to go out and pacify the crowd. Such was the unifying factor that sports can be,” remembered Khanna.

Such was the popularity of Natekar during his heydays that the legend said Acharya Vinobha Bhave broke his silence and shouted ‘Jai Badminton’ when it was whispered into his ears that Natekar was there to receive his blessings at his hometown Wardha. And, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee told Natekar “Do you know, I had to wait for two hours to get a ticket for your match?”

Khanna could not stop singing praises after praises for Natekar. And deservingly so.

“What struck me most about Nandu was his footwork and stroke production. And, the kind of fluency with which he played backhand. I decided to develop backhand in my game. I learnt the backhand grip gradually as there was no coaching those days. We had to learn with the help of books. Gradually, backhand became the pivot of my game, my game revolved around that stroke. I could not do as well as Nandu, but it was near,” Khanna said.

Khanna also recounted his famous ‘tutor versus pupil’ in one of the nationals and ‘workman versus artist’ clash in the Nehru Championship that followed the Asian Championship final in 1965 with Natekar.

“Nandu was even considered one of the immortals of badminton as far as Thailand was concerned. Nandu’s drop shots were absolutely net-hugging that even now when I think of his drop shots, my leg feels a little heavy,” said Khanna, becoming a little emotional.

Recalling his match against Natekar in the Nehru Championship, Khanna said: “I had a lot at stake as I had to prove that my Asian Championship win was not a fluke. I was meeting Nandu in the semifinal. I knew Nandu would dribble in the net and attack my body. Though I was able to win in two straight games, I ran twice as much as Nandu ran on the court. And, despite my win, The Statesman next morning had the headline, ‘Workman vs artist’.”

Khanna went on: “The kind of anticipation Nandu had, his footwork, reading the opposition’s game were absolutely phenomenal. He had so much of versatility that not many players are capable of. Nandu has done enough to immortalise himself as far as badminton is concerned.”

Shushila Rege Kapadia spoke high of Natekar as “my captain, team-mate and friend”.