Research Shows- 3

Third in the series of research findings. This one's about sports. India happens to be crazy about Cricket, to the exclusion of almost every other sport. 

Yes, we have had Badminton greats, from Padukone to Sindhu, and Chess grandmasters and champs like Anand and Gukesh, and Billiards champions and a couple of Athletes who were World rankers.

But even a struggling Kohli or Sharma or a bowler, will always be in the limelight, for many years, whether we like it or not.

Occasionally, we talk about other sports. But even within Cricket, it's Men's cricket that counts, not Women's cricket. 

Even for cricketers at the State level, it's an uphill battle, to get into a national squad. Maybe it was better a few decades ago, when the money (and therefore, politics) was less, and it was mostly for pride that national teams played. IPL has changed all that for the worse. 

Globally, we don't pull our weight in most competitive sports. And exceptions only prove what is evident, if we open our eyes.

 

Thinking- a Lost Art?

We had a lot of time on our hands in my years of growing up. We probably had a lot of physical activity too, but this post is about the time we spent thinking about things, when we were not playing, studying, or watching movies-in theatres.

One of our think-tanks in engineering college, Osmania University. 1977-82.


I am not sure what we thought about-maybe what we would do as a grownup, whether we even wanted to grow up (I think we did, as the grass appeared greener on that side then). Maybe about doing wonderful things like flying (my first flight was at age 23), travelling to a different country or countries (that happened on my Ph.D. cum sightseeing trip at age 26).

Most likely, thoughts also included finding the love of your life (maybe not, maybe you thought you had already found her/him with every new crush), owning your own car and going on an adventure (it IS an adventure, come to think of it, on our city roads), owning a Badminton court so you could play without interruption ( a friend from college in Hyderabad had this ambition of having a Billiards Table in his basement and playing with Me!).

The world of thoughts is not constrained by reality, and is positive at all times. To this world!