It is said that the Guttikonda caves, near where Srikanth Kidambi grew up in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, were where Gautam Buddha performed his Kalachakra (wheel of time) ceremony for the very first time. It is also fairly well known that French astronomer Jules Janssen travelled to Guntur in 1868 to observe the solar eclipse, and noted the bright yellow line in the spectrum of the chromosphere, the emission halo that turned out to be the discovery of helium eventually – though he was never credited for it. Guntur can be very esoteric that way.
This week, Srikanth brought a sudden spring in the step to the darkly eclipsed Indian badminton scene, with his bright surge into the Malaysia Masters final. A win on Sunday will be swell, but Srikanth brings another sort of earthy aura, a reticent radiance to the sport, that Guntur with its spiritual and celestial moorings, will always be proud of.