In a country whose sports culture is synonymous with cricket and more than half of the children’s dream of representing the nation in the cricketing arena, a young 22-year-old Hyderabadi has nurtured his dream and passion of being a professional cueist. To top it, he has recently broken into the top 25 of the junior Snooker rankings.
Meet Aditya Shenoy, a Goan by origin and a HR executive at Deloitte in Hyderabad. The lanky six-footer had dreamt of being a top-ranked cueist as a school kid and today he lives his dream. So from where did the interest for snooker in a cricket crazy nation arise? “I first developed the interest to play pool back when I was in school. Although the rules for snooker and pool are different, pool is the first game one plays to basically learn how to cue, and later moves on to snooker or billiards,” says Aditya.
Being an HR of a reputed company and cueist at the same time can be taxing and managing time to practice for long hours still remains his biggest challenge. He owes a lot of his success to his employers for supporting him. “I owe a lot to Deloitte as an organisation for having supported me throughout in pursuing my snooker career as well. They gave me a 23-day leave to participate in Gwalior last year. Not only this, I also represented Deloitte at an annual event named Corporate Olympics,” he explains.
Snooker, according to him, has changed his life. Although it started off as a hobby, it has slowly become a part and parcel of his life. “I cannot stay away from a cue stick. Like people look forward to weekends for an outing or a picnic, I look forward to the weekend so that I can put in at least 8-10 hours of practice, ” states the 22-year old.
His proudest moment came when he represented Andhra Pradesh in the Manisha National Snooker and Billiards Championships in Gwalior last year. This, according to him, was the most wonderful experience in his sporting career. It was here that he managed to break into the top 25 in the national junior rankings. Ask him about his inspiration on the snooker circuit, pat comes his reply, “Ronnie O’ Sullivan.” Ronnie, he says, is the best natural snooker player the world has seen. “He is like the Sachin Tendulkar of snooker,” states Aditya.
Outside the sporting circles, he credits all his success to his mother. “My mom has supported me from the time I approached her with my aspiration to take up snooker beyond a sport I played to pass my time. She has helped me manage both my professional and snooker careers in such a way that I progress equally in both aspects,” he says. On advice to upcoming cueists, he says, “My advice is simple, if you believe that your passion towards the sport exceeds practicing at local snooker parlours, then put in your best efforts to fulfil your dream. You can be the next cueist the state and more importantly, the country is looking for.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Pushkar Banakar – Hyderabad / September 02nd, 2013