Founder's Journal

The seed for starting Bangalore Pickleball Community (BPC) was sown years ago when I, Anne Sequeira, found myself wanting to feel a sense of community and belonging while in Sydney, Australia. As an MBA student, my first two years there felt like a dream. It was easy to find a sense of belonging while being affiliated to an university. 

Although all students aspire to graduate as soon as possible to discover what lay in store, I found that the sense of community was suddenly lost. I was no longer a student at a top university, but just another immigrant in a country filled with immigrants. I never took up sports as a career because my achievements in academics always outshone my performance on the field. In India, where I grew up, a culture of academic excellence was stronger than a culture of sports. 

Hence, I started searching for communities in Sydney where the common denominator was not one's race, but rather everything else that defines us as people. I joined women's hiking groups and hiked quite a bit every weekend. At some point, I even started my own women's hiking meetup group. It was called 'Lady Birds Sydney' and attracted women who both loved and hated the name. I cannot explain why I named the group such. It just seemed right at the time.

And then came COVID-19 and everything went for a toss. My group had to shut down because let's face it, everyone went through this phase of 'mass hysteria' about 'catching the virus'. 2020 was the year that I graduated from the university and bid adieu to group gatherings at campus to embrace 'lockdown' life like most Australian residents. The lockdown eventually eased and I joined the workforce and continued hiking with other mixed hiking groups. They didn't feel the same. The sort of fun that I had on the women's hiking groups and the sort of women I met and befriended from all over the world were suddenly gone. They had all retreated to their countries before the international border had closed. 

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In December 2022, I discovered Pickleball at community games hosted at a nearby recreation centre. The games were hosted at Bondi Waverley Council community sports centre and I recall playing there on weekend evenings. They had open play games for 3-4 hours and I was one of the youngest there at the time. I seemed to have a good sense of direction on the court and picked the game up just fine. As time went by, I felt more inclined to play at another community centre based in Glebe. I felt very much that I belonged more over there because the players there were friendlier and warmer towards me.

And then Baseball happened. I discovered that there were women's baseball games being hosted every Sunday at a ground in Marrickville. They had a team-based league that ran across winter from April to September. I remember dropping everything to enroll myself even though it took me a 90-minute commute to get there. I grew up playing cricket, so how hard could baseball be?

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I struggled to connect the tapered cylindrical bat with the ball during my first 2 months, but once I got the hang of it, I was one of the top batters in my team. My confidence in the sport grew with being a part of a team of women who held space for me to improve with time. By the end of the season, I was ready to enroll in a D-grade Women's Spring Softball league. I played for the RSL club in Cronulla and opened the batting for my team. By the end of the season, I had a strike rate of 2 runs in every match and was the top batter in my team - commendable for a foreign-born woman who had just learned to play the game.

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These leagues helped me find my footing in Sydney and also helped me grow through some tough, personal life challenges. When I returned to Bangalore after 6 years abroad, I felt the need to create a sense of community here. As young adults in college, we have our friends to turn to. As older adults, those young friendships begin to fade as life takes on a more busy and serious edge. True that it is hard to be 'best friends' with people you meet later in life, but that is not what communities are for. 
 

The real purpose of a community is to create a safe space for people to be themselves while learning how to navigate life's challenges over time. I often find myself sharing more with complete strangers than with friends who have known me since childhood. This culture of constantly seeing new faces and meeting new people over a shared purpose of sport is what helps us get on with our lives. Some call it a distraction, others a workout, and some others a way to pass time. 

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Whatever your reason may be, you need a community to be yourself without the preconceived notions that your friends and family already have about you. The Maslow Hierarchy of Needs places 'community and a sense of belonging' as one of the later needs in life. I am of the opinion that you need it alongside your basic needs in life. Community isn't a consequence of a happy life, it is a requirement for it. 

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​Through the Bangalore Pickleball Community (BPC) that first started in 2024 with a small group of players, I have grown with it as a person. I need the community as much as it needs me and you will feel the same after you join us and meet some amazing people who will help shape your lives for years to come.

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There is no tomorrow. Seize the day and make your memories. 

See you on the court soon.

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