For someone who hadn’t played competitive squash for over three years, 30-year-old Dipika Pallikal did herself and the country proud, winning two historic gold medals (mixed doubles with Saurav Ghosal and women’s doubles with Joshna Chinappa) at the recently concluded World Doubles Squash Championships in Glasgow. In a chat with Sunday Times, Dipika talks about the hurdles she had to overcome
Your thoughts on joining a select band of elite sportspersons such as Serena Williams who have won top-level events after motherhood…
It’s been a crazy journey to get to where I am. Just grateful to be doing what I love with the boys watching me.
It’s been just six months since the birth of your twins. Has becoming a parent made you more responsible?
Definitely. I feel there is a responsibility to do well. You leave home, leaving the kids behind and I feel you have to make your time worthwhile being away from them. Of course, it comes with a different set of pressures. But for me I just try and take it as a motivation towards trying to achieve what I’ve set out to do.
You stepped back from the sport in 2018. How were the first few days of training during your comeback trail?
It’s always hard to come back from a three-year break. But I kept telling myself to be patient with the process because that was the only way I was going to be able to move forward. There is always self-doubt when you come back from a break. You tend to always try and compare yourself to the person you were before you took the break. But there were several times I had to sit myself down and say don’t be too hard on yourself as a lot has changed in these three years. I’ve become older, my body has also changed a lot. So, the key word for me was patience.
Since even your husband (cricketer) Dinesh Karthik has a hectic schedule, has he been able to share the responsibility of parenthood?
I’m sure he would have liked to spend a lot more time with the kids these last six months. But we both know our careers come with a certain responsibility that we have to be away from our kids to train better and get better results. Hopefully they will understand our sacrifices when they become a little older.
Could you talk to us about the support system since you were away from your babies for the first time?
The last six months wouldn’t have been easy without everyone who chipped in. My parents …….
