The starry-eyed twinkling twins

They are young and hungry for success. Although they took to sports by going in for swimming at the age of four years, today nine years later (inspired by their mother who introduced them to the sport) they are names to reckon with in table tennis, where they have won plaudits for the determination with which they are going about making a name for themselves.

There seems to be a healthy competition even in academics where they are coming out in flying colours much to the delight of the management of Bhavan’s Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya (BSRKV) in Sainikpuri, where they are tenth standard classmates. One cannot miss them during any championship. As identical twins they are certain to catch the eye of the onlooker because of their unmistakable similarity in physique, appearance and even playing styles, if one may say so.

Meet V Sasya and V Laasya, the twin sisters who bear no sibling rivalry but find themselves as the best of friends and supportive partners to one another. As they get ready to celebrate their birthday on May 8, they have resolved to scale further heights this season. “Our immediate target is to break into the top four national sub-juniors rankings so that we could get an opportunity to don the national colours in international fixtures,” declare the two in unison.

They have enough of achievements in the cadet and sub-junior categories to serve as morale-boosters to up their self-confidence levels as they get competitive-ready for the season just ahead. According to K Sreedhar, under whom they train at Anandnagar Welfare Association (AWA), “they are both gifted paddlers. It is slightly tough to make a qualitative assessment of the two talents as they are almost on par with each other. If they can apply themselves better and maintain a comfortable degree of consistency, particularly as they are at the cusp of the higher league where the challenges will be tougher, they are bound to climb the success ladder, sooner than later. They are not short on the wherewithal.”

For the records, apart from several State-level medals and prizes, they have also fared exceedingly well even at the national level. Sasya has won individual cadet bronze in the national ranking tournaments at Bengaluru, Jodhpur and Gandhidam while she improved upon her showing in the Under-15 sub-junior category having pocketed team national bronze in the company of Laasya in CBSE and SGF Nationals.

Not to be left behind and in addition to the team medals won along with her sister and a couple of individual medals, Laasya has a few more honours in her kitty, which include a national team gold in the Under-17 category that she bagged in 2014-15. She capped of the year with the coveted Jawaharlal Nehru award for emerging as the national CBSE Schools champion. The twins have an enthusiastic approach to the sport and striving for excellence is apparently the driving force in their household because to hone their skills at every available opportunity they have a training facility at home where Madhu and Damodar conduct sessions and work on their strengths and weaknesses.

The second week of March was yet another opportunity to understand the prevailing trends as they underwent a fortnight-long training stint at the Achanta Kamal Academy in Chennai seasoned coaches Srinivas, Murali and Rajat Kamal. “That was a very useful outing for us because it ranks among the foremost training centres in the country. We could improve our game by several measures,” points out Laasya, who aspires to become a chartered accountant.

Sasya, who endeavours to become an IAS officer, says that they were chasing the dream of “being in the top four bracket as only then can we have a national recognition.” What comes off as a refreshing aspect when one interacts with them is their choice of role-models. Being down-to-earth, they do not fancy any big names as inspirations because they have been motivated by the exploits of the locally grown child-prodigies-Vijayawada international Karnam Spoorthy and the Hyderabad-based international Akula Sreeja. That speaks volumes of the humble tastes of Sasya and Lasya.

By:Sridhar K Penna