Blessed with twins last October, Pallikal, 31, has been training hard for the last couple of months with the focus on the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games later this year
Dipika Pallikal
One of India’s finest squash players, Dipika Pallikal is back on the court after four years, a break she needed to start a family and to do something different in her life with her career graph stagnating.
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Blessed with twins last October, Pallikal, 31, has been training hard for the last couple of months with the focus on the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games later this year.
Pallikal is aiming to create more history at the two multi-sporting events. She is expected to take part in the doubles events in the Birmingham Games before gradually increasing her workload to also play singles in the Hangzhou Games.
Pallikal and India’s highest ranked player Joshna Chinappa had won India’s first ever gold in CWG history at the Glasgow edition back in 2014.
Speaking on motherhood and comeback, Pallikal said she was fortunate to have had a support system which allowed her to take time off from the game back in 2018.
Special phase
Being mother of twin boys is double the hard work but Pallikal, married to cricketer Dinesh Karthik, is enjoying this special phase of her life.
“Yeah it is hard [being a mother and professional athlete] but I don’t want to emphasise on it. Obviously, it’s hard with the sleep cycle of the kids and it is double the work because of twins. My husband is also an athlete, and he’s away training and playing. So a lot of responsibility lies on me but obviously I’m very lucky to have had to have a solid system, a family, that helps me with my scheduling that I still go for training in the morning and the evening,” said Pallikal.
‘Extra responsibilities’
“It’s all the same like before but have to get up for a feed at 3am before training. But I knew well before that I wanted to come back and play. I had wanted to do this even before I had kids and I know it was going to be double the hard work that I had to do after I get kids. It’s been exactly that, it’s not been easy, but I’m enjoying the space of extra responsibilities of just going back home after training and being with the kids.”
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