From Pickleball Courts to Power Plays: Why Ease, Endurance and Trust Matter

Dear Insighter,

Over a year ago, when I first started hearing the word pickleball, I dismissed it with the lazy confidence of someone who hadn’t tried it. It sounded like a leisure activity designed for retirees easing their joints, not for anyone who grew up cycling, running, and playing badminton till sweat replaced sense. In my head, pickleball sat in the same mental drawer as laughter clubs and herbal medicines: harmless, peripheral, not for me.

And then it became unavoidable.

A colleague mentioned a game after work. A friend cancelled dinner because they’d “booked a court.” Instagram reels filled up with smiling strangers wielding paddles on courts that looked suspiciously smaller than tennis but far more sociable. I blamed the algorithm. Algorithms, like politicians, are very good at flattering your curiosities.

The real tell came during a recent trip to Vietnam. Hanoi, of all places, seemed dotted with pickleball courts and signboards. This wasn’t a Bandra bubble or an Andheri fad. Somewhere between the Old Quarter and the French boulevards, it hit me: pickleball had crossed the invisible line from trend to infrastructure.

Growing up in Mumbai, sport always felt personal but increasingly impractical. As kids, we ran everywhere. Then adulthood arrived with time scarcity and spatial anxiety. You can’t cycle without a low-grade fear of death delivered via potholes, construction barricades, and drivers who treat lanes as abstract suggestions. Gradually, unconsciously, you stop moving. Fitness becomes something you admire on other people’s feeds.

Tennis always felt like a sport with an entry fee beyond money — coaching, time, pedigree. Pickleball seemed destined for the same trap. Until I actually played it.

That’s when its logic revealed itself. Anyone can pick up a paddle and get going. If you’ve played badminton or tennis, your body already understands the rhythm and the rules. It’s not punishing. An hour leaves you pleasantly tired, not demolished. And perhaps most importantly, it’s social. Courts are everywhere now. WhatsApp groups buzz with last-minute “anyone up for a game?” messages. Once you have four players, the cost feels democratic — ₹200–500 per person in the heart of the city, cheaper as you head north.

And to my surprise, the sport had its origins in the 1960s, in the US, invented by bored adults improvising with paddles, a perforated ball, and a badminton court. No grand vision. Just the desire to play together. Pickleball doesn’t demand peak performance. It rewards showing up.

Sounds like the thread running through much of what we’re watching unfold around us right now.

As Arvind Mayaram reminds us, armies fight wars, but nations win them. Hardware matters, but only when backed by economic depth, technological capacity, and social cohesion. Ukraine’s endurance, Russia’s constraints, and even the uneasy lessons from Venezuela underline the same truth: visible power works only when invisible foundations hold.

That invisibility shows up closer home too. Mumbai’s BMC election, as Amitabh Tiwari argues, isn’t just a municipal contest. It’s a battle for the city’s identity. Mumbai’s demography has shifted decisively away from its old certainties, making coalitions more important than slogans.

Markets, meanwhile, are quietly signalling discomfort. Abheek Barua’s reading of the rupee’s depreciation suggests something deeper than tariffs or textbook capital flight. When the dollar weakens and Asian peers strengthen, yet India slips, it hints at a slow erosion of confidence about earnings visibility, data credibility, and our place in global supply chains.

Fiscal policy is walking a similar tightrope. Shilpashree Venkatesh notes that the challenge ahead isn’t just meeting deficit numbers but doing so without starving growth-critical capex. Nominal growth is easing, revenues face pressure, and credibility now depends on realism. Numbers untethered from execution fatigue quickly.

The bond market is already muttering its dissent. As Yield Scribe explains, rising yields aren’t a verdict on the Centre’s discipline but a consequence of swelling state borrowings. Markets price systems, not silos. When states binge on welfare commitments without revenue flexibility, the entire curve tightens. Coordination, once again, is the missing ingredient.

Even India’s defence manufacturing story reflects this patience-versus-performance dilemma. L&T’s defence business feels strategically essential but financially underwhelming, as Dev Chandrasekhar writes. Indigenous capability takes time. But capital markets, like impatient doubles partners, want quicker returns. The question is whether investors can wait for the rally to lengthen.

Technology has raced ahead of law elsewhere too. Sangeeta Jain’s analysis of the Delhi High Court’s ruling on taxing virtual services exposes how outdated treaties struggle to capture digital value creation. The economy has gone remote. Tax frameworks remain stubbornly physical.

Consumer narratives also need recalibration. Krishnadevan V warns that India’s jewellery boom may be a gold-priced mirage. At ₹140,000 per 10 grams, spending more doesn’t mean consuming more. Scale impresses headlines; efficiency tells the real story.

Speed, not size, is reshaping food delivery and QSR dynamics as well. Pizza Hut’s long-awaited operational unification has finally removed the coordination handicap that allowed Domino’s to dominate by default. Accountability concentrated in one operator changes everything. Execution risk hasn’t vanished; it’s simply visible now.

Trade diplomacy, meanwhile, is learning that symbolism can’t substitute substance. Ajay Srivastava’s dismantling of the “missed phone call” theory behind the India–US trade impasse is refreshingly blunt. Trade deals fail over tariffs, agriculture, and regulatory autonomy, not hurt feelings.

Silver’s astonishing rally tells a different story about neglected fundamentals. As Srivastava also points out, India has become the world’s largest silver importer, yet continues to treat it as decorative rather than strategic. In a world racing towards electrification and energy transition, ignoring processing capacity is a serious blind spot.

At the other end of the economy sit gig workers, whose labour oils everyday convenience. Ninupta Srinath’s argument is uncomfortable precisely because it’s accurate. Without binding regulation, algorithmic opacity and arbitrary deactivations become features, not bugs.

Environmental debates reveal a similar institutional confusion. TK Arun’s critique of how we define the Aravallis shows what happens when protection is reduced to committees and contour lines. Mountains aren’t metaphors. They’re systems. Diluting their definition dilutes the idea of conservation itself.

Not all stories are cautionary. Tamil Nadu’s electronics surge shows what deliberate, patient industrial policy can achieve. Rajesh Kumar’s account of how the state rewired its export economy underscores the power of sequencing, infrastructure, and labour alignment. Choose a sector. Stay with it. Invest consistently. It still works.

That patience feeds into Hemachandra Padhan’s larger argument that India’s 2047 story must be written in happiness, not just numbers. Growth divorced from lived experience hollows out legitimacy. Clean air, nutrition, mental health, and climate resilience aren’t soft goals; they’re productivity multipliers.

R. Gurumurthy’s reflection on Ulrich Beck’s “risk society” explains why this moment feels perpetually unsettled. Modernity now manages dangers it created itself. Crises no longer feel exceptional; they feel structural.

And as Srinath Sridharan warns, India’s rise is unfolding in a harder world. Power is asserted more openly, norms more selectively. Economic credibility, institutional trust, and strategic autonomy are no longer luxuries. They’re survival skills.

Which brings me back to pickleball. Its appeal isn’t excellence. It’s endurance. It works because it lowers barriers, builds community, and makes participation easier than withdrawal. In a fragmented world, that’s not trivial. Nations, markets, and cities don’t win by sprinting endlessly. They win by staying on the court, adjusting their stance, and trusting their partners.

Sometimes, progress isn’t about hitting harder.

It’s about keeping the rally alive.

Until next time, keep your eye on the ball and your paddle ready for the unexpected spin.

Also Read:

• Global Coal Demand Set to Slow Gradually; India May Buck the Trend by G. Chandrashekhar: As the world eyes a renewable future, India’s energy playbook juggles self-reliance with a stubborn reliance on imported coal.
• From Chai Chats to Voter Silence: Unmasking Young India's Quiet Revolt by Kalyani Srinath: Behind the educated youth's political apathy lies a simmering critique of the choices, and compromises they’re forced to make.
• Iran’s Internal Turbulence and the Myth of Imminent Regime Change by Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain: Unrest persists, but the pillars of the Islamic Republic show an enduring, stubborn resilience against predictions of its fall.