Ping-Pong

With the addition of a ping-pong table (along with a pool table and a foosball table) to the Legal Department lounge, ping-pong (or should I say, "table tennis") mania has swept the Legal Department. Fanning the flames of ping-pong madness is a Legal Department ping-pong tournament, with separate doubles, singles-beginner, and single-advanced brackets. Trash talking is plentiful, both live and over IM and email. I was particularly impressed by Balaji, who maintained a constant stream of creative commentary for almost an entire hour, both from the sidelines and during actual game play.

One of the cruelest cuts thus far, however, came from a very unlikely source. Stuart and I were finishing up a game when Susan and Rumit, her doubles partner and a new member of the Legal Department, came down for some practice. While I'll be the first to admit that the level of play in the Legal Department is not quite Olympic caliber -- we wouldn't, for example, want to
challenge the Engineering Department -- quite a few of us have memories of holding our own in college pick-up games. Stuart and I are definitely considered above average in the Legal Department, and the ending of this particular game was a decent display of our ping-pong prowess. Susan, on the other hand, is a more casual player, and, by association, we figured Rumit was the same.

Our game ended, and since Stuart owns his own paddle, Rumit came upstairs with me to get a paddle for his practice with Susan. Having just met Rumit, I asked him the standard introductory questions. After a bit of chit-chat, Rumit asked me if Stuart and I would be participating in the tournament. I enthusiastically answered in the affirmative -- at which Rumit asked, without any pretension or guile, "So you're in the beginner bracket, right?"

Ouch.

(As it turns out, Rumit trained with coaches as part of a state championship team in India, so his standards of quality ping-pong play differ significantly from those of the rest of us. In fact, he subsequently made the comment that he didn't think anyone from the Legal Department posed a serious challenge. As before, he stated this as a simple fact, without the intention of insulting anyone or elevating himself in the process. So far, he has yet to play his first tournament game. He's good, but beatable -- mostly because he's still pretty rusty.)