Meena Parande

Meena Parande (born 12 December 1930) is an Indian Table Tennis player.[1] She was the 10th Indian woman to be crowned as a champion. During her career as a Table Tennis player from year 1948 to 1965, she was the National Champion[2] four times. She represented India to England in 1954 and to Japan in 1956. On the International level, she had toured Singapore, Bangkok, Vietnam, Pakistan and Shri Lanka. She received training from Mr. Chandorkar of Nagpur. After retiring from Railways, she trained many players for Table Tennis from 1965 to 1985. The players trained by her, amongst other, include are Dr. Charudatta Apte, Rajeev Bodas, Suhas Kulkarni, Ajeya Sidhaye, Neela Kulkarni, Nandini Kulkarni and Sunanda Kane.

Meena Parande in the 1950s

In 1951 her grandmother encouraged her to play table tennis. She learnt the nuances of the game very quickly and started playing competitive table tennis in year 1951 itself. Her rise in the sport was prolific. She travelled extensively in India and abroad for participating in table tennis matches at national and international level. She was The National Champion for 4 years; first in 1954 at Baroda, in 1956 at Saharanpur, in 1957 at Ahmedabad & finally the Triple Crown of Table Tennis in 1959 at Calcutta. She played for Maharashtra State from 1953 to 58 & then for the Indian Railways from 1959 to 1965. She is the first Maharashtrian woman to represent India in World championship twice (London in 1954 & Japan in 1956). She also represented India in Asian championship at Singapore in 1954, Bangkok in 1955, Vietnam in 1961 & Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1963. She was ranked number 3 in Asia in 1954. She toured Sri Lanka & Pakistan thrice and won the local tournaments there.

While playing table tennis she coached many boys and girls in Pune amongst those are the following:- famous neurologist Dr. Charudatta Apte, Ajay Shidhaye, Ajay Tulpule, Prakash Tulpule, Rajiv Bodas, S.K. Bayas, Makaranda Godbole, Shrikant Kale, Suhas Kulkerni, Nandini Kulkerni, Neela Kulkerni, Sunanda Kane, Ranjana Vaidya and many more and thus popularized the game in Pune. Nandini Kulkerni, Neela Kulkerni, Sunanda Kane represented India in World championship and many more represented Maharashtra 'B' in National championship.