There are those who excel in professional sport. There are those who make it big in the IT industry. But for someone to excel in both is quite an achievement. M.A. Parthasarathy, who once represented India in Basketball and then retired as Associate Vice-President at Infosys, is one such man.
“I am equally proud of both my careers,” says a beaming Parthasarathy now aged 67. “I was very lucky to have had the right breaks at the right times. But on top of all that I worked hard and performed. Basketball at the international level was very tough. So was the role I played at Infosys. That was something in which playing basketball helped me because if you have to be there you have to be extremely competitive.”
Parthasarathy started playing the game only in the second year of his electrical engineering degree at R.V. College of Engineering (1966). It soon became an “intoxication.” Every day Parthasarathy would reach the Young Men's Mandyam Association (YMMA) courts at 5:30 a.m.
"I was one of the fastest to grow in the sport,” expresses Parthasarathy. “Then I continuously represented the State in 17 national championships (three of them for Bihar while working in Ranchi) till the year 1987. I received a lot of support during my stint with the Indian Telephone Industry (1975-1978). This was, in fact, instrumental in me getting selected for the Indian team for the Asian Basketball Championship in 1977,” he adds.
One of his most memorable experiences was with Sergei Stroilov, who coached the National team at the Asiad. The Russian coach, a former Olympian, used to hold five sessions as compared to the double sessions most coaches have. This, according to Parthasarathy, was extreme but one which taught the men to play a disciplined game as a result of which the team performed excellently. “Playing for the Indian team dramatically raises the quality of your game,” feels Parathsarathy.
This perhaps prepared Parthasarathy for an equally rigorous stint in the IT industry. Apart from the engineering degree, he holds a PG Diploma in Computer Science Engineering, Diploma in Business Management and is a certified Quality Analyst (QAI). “One concept which I borrowed from basketball is the 'A Sense of Where You Are’ (a book by John McPhee profiling Bill Bradley at Princeton University). It talks about the different things you can sense – your opponents, team-mates, referees and the ball movement without actually seeing them. I used this extensively in my profession. While doing a software project you need to have a sense of where you are in the project, at what stage and what is happening because you need to set targets or break you project into milestones so that you can monitor your progress and make necessary corrections.
Parthasarathy feels that those who have not played sports or been in a team environment find it difficult to adjust and work as a team at the workplace. “Often they come and complain and say that individually they will do the work but not with the newcomers. They also don’t know how to accommodate their positives and negatives. Generally people with a sports background find it easier to work in these situations.”
In order to achieve the best of both worlds like he did, Parthasarathy feels that there needs to be a system to support elite sportsmen so that they can have a decent and secure career after retiring. By all counts, Parathasarathy's has had a fulfilling career. But he still doesn't rest. He now conducts computer classes in Malleshwaram free of cost for elders. “I realised that I should do something for the society. That’s when I realised that the elders of my age who have missed the bus as far as IT is concerned could be taught. It has been going on for about six to seven years. I have taught more than 650 elders.”