Past Masters of Indian Badminton: Sarojini, Sunila and Sanjeevani Apte - a tale of three sisters who ruled the Nationals

Editor's Note: Owing to the Coronavirus outbreak, all sporting action across the globe stand suspended or cancelled. The crisis, however, presents us with an opportunity to step back, rethink, and write on sports differently. In line with this thought, we are running a series of profiles on India's illustrious badminton stars. The articles, penned by Shirish Nadkarni, promise to take you on a nostalgia trip while touching upon the lesser-known facets from the lives of the past masters.

Few badminton players can boast of the kind of consistency and all-round excellence that characterised Sarojini, the eldest of the three Apte sisters who dominated Indian badminton in the mid-1960s.

Sarojini played in six Indian Nationals, from 1962 to ’67, and figured in the finals of all the three events in all the six years, except for a solitary ladies doubles final in 1964. In other words, seventeen out of eighteen National finals, but producing a slightly better than one-third result – six titles.

Sarojini ended up as runner-up to the prolific Meena on the first four occasions that she figured in the National singles final. The singles title then became so much of an obsession with the then 23 year old that she told her father, who had been receiving several marriage proposals, that she would not get married until she had won the singles championship at least once.

The departure of Meena from the National scene, the victim of a nasty knee injury, opened up the way for Sarojini to grab the singles National singles crown at Jaipur in 1966 – at the expense of her younger sister Sunila.

“I think my father was even more relieved than I was at getting the monkey off my back,” she smiles. “Now he could proceed with fixing my marriage; and shortly thereafter, I became Mrs. Suresh Gogte.

“Fortunately, even after my marriage, my husband encouraged me to continue playing. In fact, the only National triple crown I won was at Madras in 1967 as Mrs. Gogte, barely a few months after the marriage – with Sunila in the doubles, and my old faithful partner, Dipu Ghosh, in the mixed.”

It had been an almost similar story of being perennial runners-up in the mixed doubles, where she and regular partner Dipu Ghosh had to make do with the losing finalist position on each of the first five occasions, but would not be denied in 1967, when the two eased out Romen Ghosh and Sunila for the title. A unique case of two brothers playing with and against two sisters for the crown, with the elder siblings winning.

The 1942-born Sarojini is the eldest of three sisters – Sunila and Sanjeevani being the other two – who were in Bombay during the mid-1950s when the great Nandu Natekar was at his peak. Watching Natekar play was inspiration enough, but the urge to excel at the sport was fuelled even further when the girls saw their cousin Manik Apte playing and representing Maharashtra in the Nationals.

Sanjeevani played in the first All-India Schools Junior Nationals in 1962, the year that six-time Maharashtra State champion, Gautam Thakkar, won the first of his four junior national championships. Sarojini and Sunila both initially played inter-school tournaments, then progressed to inter-collegiate and inter-university levels almost as a matter of routine; and had soon annexed district and state crowns.

“By the time I was in my mid-teens, my father had taken the family to Nagpur, where we had nothing much to do, so all three of us started playing even more regularly,” says Sarojini. “I won the Madhya Pradesh ladies’ singles title at the age of 15 in 1957, and held it for four years.

“But I never thought I would become National champion. Aiming for the crown would have required a lot of dedication, commitment and facilities. The wily campaigner, Amrit Lal Dewan, urged us to join the Railways, which gave players a lot of facilities in terms of leave and attendance. So all three of us joined the Railways.”

Sarojini made her mark as a 20 year old at the 1962 Nationals in Bangalore, reaching all three finals. But the redoubtable Meena Shah cut short her ambitious march.

“Each of my four National singles finals against Meena were tough matches, but Meena had the experience to pull out the crucial points – something that I lacked,” recounts Sarojini, soberly. “I had leads of 9-2 and 9-3 in the two games in the 1963 Gorakhpur National final, but I did not know how to close it out, would get nervous, and allow Meena to come back and win the games.”

The lack of structured coaching and absence of adequate facilities were problems that the Apte sisters faced throughout their forays in the Nationals. They had little option but to practice against each other. They played all the major tournaments in India for seven years and bagged several titles.

“While Sunila and I played women’s doubles and won the national title twice together in 1962 and 1967, both of us also partnered Meena Shah in different years to lift the national title – Sunila at Madras in 1964 and I the following year at Bombay,” says Sarojini.

“I played in six women’s doubles finals in a row, and ended up on the winning side on three occasions. Sunila and I might have won more doubles titles together, but for the fact that (the late) Manda Kelkar was invariably a thorn in our side, initially partnering Prem Prashar, then Sushila Kapadia, and later Shobha Moorthy, to beat Sunila and me.”

Sarojini played in two Uber Cup campaigns – in 1960 and ’66. The two sisters would have been in the 1963 team as well, but the Badminton Association of India recommended the selection of just four players – Jasbir Kaur, Prem Prashar, Manda Kelkar and Meena Shah. The Apte sisters were sent back home at the end of the selection trials in Calcutta.

“The Apte sisters were unique in that they played for a long time, in tournaments all over the country, with hardly any break,” says Natekar, who considered them family friends.

“If you were to look for ideal players, it was Sarojini and Sunila. They were always very neatly dressed – white clothing clean and properly ironed, hair in place – and also very well behaved on the court. It was widely said at the time that, if a tournament took place, and the Apte sisters were absent for whatsoever reason, the event would be devoid of colour – even though they wore whites!”

After establishing her supremacy on the badminton court, Sarojini turned her attention to playing the role of a mother. Her first child was born in 1969, three years after her wedding; and she joined her husband in Patna in 1970 after managing to secure a transfer from Western Railway to the Eastern Zone.

However, staying on in the job would have meant travelling to Khagaul, which is well outside Patna city limits. That would have been a risky proposition for a woman in Bihar. Moreover, Sarojini found domestic duties far too demanding, and sent in her resignation to the Railways.

In her new assignment as a receptionist in the Bihar Secretariat, she found the going tough. But even this move turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for the secretariat was the only place in the city that boasted of an indoor badminton court.

“The men were wary of playing against me, even though I had put on a lot of weight by then and slowed down,” she recalls. “For them, it would be humiliating to be beaten by a woman.” Though she represented Bihar on a number of occasions thereafter, it was impossible to make a national comeback. Instead, she concentrated on practising and teaching kids the basics of the game.

In 1985, when into her 40s and realising that age had caught up, Sarojini gave up playing singles and concentrated on the paired event. She went on to represent Bihar in the East Zone until 1992, when she turned 50.

By that time, she had turned her attention to competing in her age group among the veterans at international level, and added singles once again to her regimen. She played in three quadrennial World Masters Games, widely considered the Veterans’ Olympics – in Toronto 1985, Aalborg in ’89 and Brisbane in ’94 – and went on to win the women’s doubles gold medal with Achala Karnik-Kotwal at Aalborg, Denmark. Sarojini was silver medalist in the singles in both 1985 and ’89.

“In my opinion, Judy Devlin-Hashman is the best player I have ever seen,” says Sarojini. “I have seen her play on at least three occasions, and she was a superb player. She had invited me in 1965 to the U.K. for a month-long training and playing camp, but the Finance Department in Delhi released the funds too late, and I could not go.”

Sarojini laments the existence of the all-pervasive bureaucracy in the country. “Apart from the Finance Ministry fiasco when Judy Hashman had invited me, I had a problem in 1989 when I had applied for leave and financial assistance to participate in the World Masters in Denmark. It took me six months and I had to make a round of 23 offices before I was doled out a paltry sum that just about covered the cost of the return air ticket.”

A glittering array of awards and trophies that Sarojini has won during her career adorn the mantelpiece of her home in Pune.

These include the `Meritorious Service Award, conferred by the International Badminton Federation in 1989 for “long and dedicated service and significant contribution to the world growth of badminton” and the `Deshratna Dr. Rajendra Prasad Award’, conferred on her by the Sports Forum of Bihar in 1993 for “promotion, development and propagation of sports and games, particularly badminton, in India”.

There was also the `Special Appreciation Award’ that she was given by the Badminton Association of India in 1982 for her quarter century of “continuous and consistent participation in National badminton at the highest level”.

If there is a modicum of regret, it is for the fact that her name was overlooked for the Arjuna Award. But then, she adds with all modesty, “There were so many good shuttlers around during my time; and not everyone can get that award. So, even though the Arjuna does not reside on my mantelshelf, I have several other trophies and my precious memories of having played the game well at the highest level.”

The writer is a former veterans' world champion (50+ age group men's doubles, Kuala Lumpur 2004), an eight-time National champion, and a 13-time Maharashtra state veterans' doubles title holder.

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