I’ve seen a lot of my teammates walk away from the game—most of the time without the slightest warning, without even saying goodbye. I have watched as they faded away into the distance, and each time I have regretted that I/we never got a chance to celebrate their achievements. Recently, another teammate, one of my dearest friends, chose to step away from the game we love so much. It has still not sunk in. Playing in a Hyderabad team without her will be strange, and I won’t believe it is possible until it actually happens. When I heard the news, I realized that I didn’t want to regret letting her fade off, and that it was time to celebrate a career that has had a huge impact on mine. To me, Mantravadi Shalini will always be a super star. When I first started playing, she was the senior whom I used to carry extra peanut butter sandwiches for, who was the ‘princess’ of camp because she had the most number of ‘fans’, and who came whizzing in on her TVS Scooty milliseconds before