After the ordeal he went through during the Kerala floods, Arjun MR shifts focus back to badminton

Arjun MR and Maneesha K had lost the first game of their Hyderabad Open round of 16 match 8-21 to Indonesia’s Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.

It was not surprising, even though the Indonesian pair is ranked 107th in the world. Arjun and Maneesha don’t even have a ranking. This is the first tournament they are playing together.

Maneesha had won the Lagos International title in July with Manu Attri but he decided to skip the Hyderabad Open to attend a family function. Arjun, meanwhile, had not played mixed doubles since his junior days.

However, Arjun and Maneesha did not get blown away. They upped the ante after losing the first game and won the next two 21-19 and 21-15 to enter the quarter-finals of their first tournament together. What makes this effort even more commendable is the fact that Arjun and Maneesha only got to practice for two days together ahead of the tournament.

After competing in the world championships in July with his men’s doubles partner Shlok Ramchandran, Arjun returned to India and headed to the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi, where he trains.

He would, by all likelihood, never be able to forget the events of the next 30 days or so.

Arjun’s parents, brother and sister were among the lakhs of people who were asked to evacuate their homes as Kerala was hit by the worst floods in a century this monsoon. As many as 488 people have died since May, according to the government’s estimates, while 3.42 lakh people are still residing in relief camps after evacuating their homes.

Arjun’s parents live in a duplex house in the Cheranallur area of Kochi by the banks of the Periyar River. It is an area that is surrounded by backwaters and lagoons and, thus, was severely affected by the floods. For the first two or three days after the floods hit Cheranallur, Arjun could not even contact his parents.

“It was really scary,” he said. “There was no mobile network at the relief camp. Luckily, my brother was with my parents so I knew he would take care of everything.” Arjun finally managed to contact his parents when they left the relief camp after three days and went to stay at one of their relative’s homes.

Once the flood waters receded to a certain level, Arjun and his parents went back to their home to assess the damage. “The ground floor was totally submerged,” the 21-year-old said. “The water even reached the first floor. Luckily, there was no damage to the structure of the house. My parents had kept the TV and other electrical appliances on the first floor before leaving, but the furniture – bed, tables, sofas – and utensils were all ruined.” According to Arjun’s estimates, the damage would cost them around Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh minimum.

Arjun had initially asked to be excused from training for two weeks, but was forced to extend his stay to almost a month as he helped his parents in the rehabilitation process. As a result, he missed the Barcelona Masters and the inter-institutional badminton tournament last month, where he was supposed to represent his employers, the Airports Authority of India.

“That’s the only tournament that AAI asks us to play for them but I couldn’t go, so they weren’t happy,” Arjun said. “They were like, ‘How can you tell us at the last minute?’ I said, ‘My situation is bad here. Please understand.’ They said, ‘We understand but still you have to be here and play.’ I don’t know what will happen now. Thankfully, AAI has a good team – Shlok, Chirag and Lakshya Sen, Maisnam Meiraba, Shreyanshi Pardeshi, Malvika Bansod – and they won the tournament.”

Arjun was only able to return to Hyderabad on Sunday as the Kochi airport was closed till August 29. “I reached back on Sunday night. I practised with my partners on Monday and Tuesday and the tournament started on Wednesday,” he said, adding that his parents will move back home after a couple of weeks.

Considering all that he has gone through in this last month, it’s quite remarkable that Arjun is in the quarter-finals of both the men’s and mixed doubles at the Hyderabad Open. “Luckily, I was able to train and stay fit while I was at the Kochi academy,” he said. “It’s good to be back playing. Hopefully we can go further in the tournament.”