Souvik Roy, a former state table tennis champion and later a professional coach with nearly 10 years of experience, has an unspoken regret. 

Despite having guided several prominent table tennis players of Bengal and India to achieve laurels Souvik feels he has not obtained the deserving recognition. 

“Does the table tennis fraternity know that Sutirtha Mukherjee, after facing an 18-month suspension in 2012-13 how bounced back and became champions in the three national ranking zonal tournaments? Does the table tennis fraternity know how I rejuvenated Sutirtha during that phase by inspiring and practicing with her?”

Souvik claimed, “Just around three weeks ago before the national championship that year Sutirtha shifted to one of the Bengal's prominent coach's academies following his advice. I am not Arjuna Awardee. I am not that influential. My coaching institution does not have modern infrastructure due to a lack of financial support. So it was natural for them to shift to other coaching centers and I have accepted it.” 

He added, “It was not highlighted by the media that I was the mentor of Ayhika Mukherjee. The media has not highlighted how much extensive training I gave her from 2016 to 2022. Both of us are employees at the Reserve Bank of India. I used to stay at the office quarter in South Kolkata and Ayhika took a flat on rent beside our office quarter so that the intensity of our training does not get hampered.” 

Souvik built up his Lonely Wolves Academy in Bhawanipore 14 years ago with only two students. Now he has nearly 60 students, out of whom most are the kids. Souvik claimed, “In the beginning, my focus was to improve the rankings of the established senior paddlers. Not only Sutirtha, but several prominent paddlers including Harmeet Desai from other states also came to my academy for training.”

He added, “If you go through statistics you will find the data where my hard work has guided several lowly-ranked paddlers to improve and reach within the top 10 or 15 rankings. But that has not counted." 

Now Souvik, taking lessons from his experience, has decided to work out with the potential kids. "I want to groom promising kids, nurture them, and produce paddlers of international standard like Ayhika and Sutirtha. 

So, in a bid to produce paddlers of international standard like Ayhike and Sutirtha Souvik has set his focus on promising kids at his Lonely Wolves center for grooming, and as its reflection, Souvik has joined another academy introduced recently by Swami Vivekananda Institute of Science and Technology (SVIST) in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas. 

The academy which began its journey a couple of months ago with 10 students under the leadership of SVIST director Nandan Gupta, has five table tennis boards along with modern equipment including a ultra-modern robot machine for training. 

Souvik said, "The academy is gearing up with the required infrastructure and I hope it will be an important training center for the promising paddlers of South 24 Parganas as well as Bengal and India also. SVIST has also a hostel where the paddlers from other states or remote places of Bengal can stay." 

Somnath Roy, general manager of SVIST table tennis academy also expressed hope revealing that all other infrastructural support will also be provided for the paddlers, and after table tennis, the organization has plans to start a training center for tennis also.

SVIST conducted the TTPL Corporate Cup recently where Roy Enterprise became champions in both men's and women's sections. Vice-president of South 24 Parganas District Table Tennis Association Debashish Chakrabarty was present in the program.