Rivals of Shantiniketan School’s volleyball team invariably face twin trouble these days. Blame it on Praveen Choudhari and Pramod Choudhari, whose strong performances have taken their team to two title triumphs in the last one month.
 Praveen and Pramod are separated only by ten minutes and they are among the latest set of twins to join the sporting world. They stood out in the Kumarans Cup and Soundarya Cup inter-school tournaments, and they have impressed in the ongoing Yashodamma Memorial Trophy, raising visions of a triple crown.
While the 5’11 feet tall Praveen won the best player award in the Kumaran’s Cup held earlier in the month, the six-foot Pramod bagged the top honour in the Soundarya Cup held last week.
The Choudhari family — Pratap Ram and Shakuntala — moved to Bangalore from Rajasthan 25 years back to set up their jewellery business here. But their children have been making their mark in sports. The twins’ elder brother, Dilip, also a volleyballer, has played in school nationals. The 15-year-old Class X students have an excellent chemistry between themselves. “There is no competition between us. We started playing together from Class V. We interchange our positions — sometimes he plays as an attacker and sometimes I don that role,” said Praveen, the elder of the duo.
Though both have been performing consistently, Pramod went a notch further and won a place in the State U-16 squad. “I attended the selection trials in May and got selected for the State team. However, since I had been just promoted to Class X, my parents thought it would affect my studies and so I decided to opt out,” said Pramod.
Coach Gopalappa waxed eloquent about his wards. “I have been training them for the past three years. They are very committed and have it in them to make it to the big league.”