Dr Sadiya Vanjara’s motto in life is to be carefree, resilient, and confident, and these traits have helped her clinch the gold medal in the women’s 45+ category at the recent National Masters Table Tennis Championship in Pune last week.

The physiotherapist’s motto is not shaped by the travails she faced with a paddle in hand, but by her two-and-a-half decades-plus experience as a medic while simultaneously running an animal rescue shelter primarily for cats.