Games People Play

 What are the games I have played? Well, I was in the cricket team at my school, Hyderabad Public School. I also swam in a relay race once in Osmania University College of Engineering.

I have also tried Hockey, Volleyball, Basketball and Tennis, apart from Tennis.  We played a lot of Bridge when I was growing up. And a lot of Badminton. 

Now, I play Golf when I get a partner to play with. The last time was at Kodaikanal with Vijayakumar and Dhanapal. I also like to train unsuspecting people- students, faculty, friends, relatives- in the basics of Golf. Sohni Roy, a colleague in Prestige University, and some faculty at NMIMS Bangalore (Tanmeet, Alisha, Prerona) were my victims, along with lots of students, and some alumni. Also my international friend, Veronica, who visited Prestige Indore to teach a course, along with Snehal Singh, visiting faculty. And Natasha, a visiting friend.

Sohni Roy above, and Snehal Singh, top.

My brother in the U.S. learnt and then taught Hapkido, a Korean martial art. We all were inspired by Bruce Lee and Kung Fu at one time! I have also watched live some Kalaripayattu performances in Kerala when I worked at IIM Kozhikode. And American Football at Clemson University while studying there. 

We invented the game of Frisbee Footer- where you pass a Frisbee and score goals- at IIMB out of necessity, because we had no facilities yet for any other games. And had a Frisbee!

 

Reinventing Yourself

 The only reason you can't do this every day is because it may need some preparation, or work. But periodically in life, it might be doable-if you think it's desirable. For example, careers can change- from small to large changes of direction. You can learn a new skill, a new musical instrument, or a sport, like I learnt Golf, to add to Badminton or Cricket that I played earlier. 

Why do it? It makes life interesting, for one. If you learn a new software as an academic, it may help you to get published, and that counts. If you learn how to write Cases, again, it can help you teach better in a class. You can use these cases too. Sometimes, you can also publish these.

Reinventing yourself may mean a change in direction, or a change of pace. Or just redefining your priorities, and doing more of something, and less of other things. Working of your health or fitness, maybe, as some of my friends seem to be doing. You don't have to go to the Himalayas to become a hermit, you can do lots of interesting things in the plains. 

Try it, if you think it's worthwhile. Life becomes more interesting, so you have nothing to lose.

Saand Ki Aankh or Bull's Eye - A Review

This is another endearing film on a genre which seems within the grasp of Indian film-makers. Mostly, they are doing a good job of small-town heroes involved in sport- and most of these are women sportspeople. Mary Kom comes to mind, and Dangal. There was also a Dhoni biopic that I did not see.

This one (about shooters) is well-made, and well-acted in. One thing that struck me is that in almost all movies now, the villain is one of our own, not the "other"- larger than life guy with a den and a moll on his arm. It is men and women who represent patriarchy, oppression or false expectations. Prakash Jha as Tau is the perfect villain- patriarchy in its purest form- in this film. He seeks to maintain the old order-and fails.

Bhumi Pednekar and Taapsee Pannu have both acted in several good films, and here they both do a Sanjeev Kumar with panache- act old! Their individual acts and chemistry with each other make the film a delight. The supporting cast is adequate for their job.

Insights about rural India (and urban India by contrast, and Maharajas) abound, if you are looking for them. Seems like a directorial debut, and a good one.

We Are Multidimensional

Women more so than men I think, but we all are to some extent, multidimensional. I think the tendency to look at a human being as only one thing (or two) is extremely myopic.

We all function for about 60-70 years in ways that require many skills at work, and even more of them outside it. We might pursue a hobby (or many of these-photography and writing, in my case), maybe play a sport (I have played Golf, Badminton, Tennis and cricket at various points, apart from Table Tennis), travel alone or otherwise, interact with a variety of people from all walks of life (maids, drivers, assistants at work, bosses,...you get the picture), and some of these are not easy things to do.

We communicate, handle emotions of great variety, from anger, frustration, joy, hope, in ourselves and others too, and handle mundane tasks like cooking, cleaning, setting up a home, bringing up kids, buying a vehicle, and need various life skills to do that.

Did I mention academics? It is deliberately left to bring up the rear, because I want to make a point.

The End of the short lecture.

50 People Who Messed Up The World- Book Review

 

The authors, Alexander Parker and Tim Richman are South Africans. Aided by a cartoonist, they have compiled a pretty good list that contain some surprises. I won't give it away, but it includes a musician, a couple of magazine editors, a big sports cheater, a social media founder, and a good number of mass murderers. The musician (a teen heart-throb) is accused of spoiling our taste.

Written in a humourous style, it makes for an easy read, one or two chapters at a time. The chapters are well-researched, and show more than just a passing acquaintance with the history of the places and people they write about. The lessons to be learnt are also summarised well, to caution us not to let History repeat itself..but of course, it always does.

Naturally, they excel at the African dictators and Diamond merchants, being so close geographically. But the Pol Pot and Mao chapters are no less instructive. So is the Father of the Atom Bomb, Oppenheimer. Ponzi king Bernie Madoff is also given pride of place in a chapter. And Kim Kardashian. In other words, they are unsparing, and don't talk about political animals alone.

A great read, and I am glad I bought it. Worth every penny.

My Failures

Inspired by something I saw on Facebook recently, I will try and recount some of my failures.

I failed to nurture some talents that I had, except maybe writing. I may have been good at cricket if I tried, or Badminton, or singing. But I feel happy that I did not subject anyone to my cricket commentating skills. Or TV-serial acting skills. The last one doesn't exist.

I failed to be firm (an infirmity?) when I could have, a few times. Particularly with my bosses. Though I did get into fights with some, and even quit jobs over those fights.

I usually am a failure at judging people-or being judgemental, to be precise. I feel everyone has lots of talent, and it is usually someone's failure to spot it that puts them in a spot. Maybe I am guilty here.

I am a complete failure at taking life seriously for too long. Sooner or later (usually sooner), I start to see the funny side of it. A congenital problem, I would say.

Being an eternal (non-serious) optimist, I fail to see any reason for the negativity that one sees on TIMES NOW or on Social Media. That, you might say, is a BIG one.

Is More IQ Necessarily Better?

I think we prefer uni-dimensional brilliance out here, to the exclusion of other qualities.

For instance, we want kids to score 99.99 percent in all subjects. It is not Ok to be good in one or two or three of them, and below average in all others.

What good is a person who has a very high intelligence (measured academically in the usual way), but has not learnt to co-exist peacefully with others, or to follow the law, or his conscience, or respect humans (and other forms of life)?

Do we want a cynical, mind-numbingly intelligent being? Wouldn't you rather be/have a guy/gal with just enough intelligence of the kind we adore, but an Emotional Quotient that is reasonably high or higher?

There are other forms of intelligence that don't even get measured. Aptitude for art, sport and so on, that someone may have, gets side-lined in the world of uni-dimensional worship that we are all so used to. Could be one reason why the arts in general are seeing a decline. With respect to one art form that I am familiar with, Hindi films, I can vouch for a decline in many areas-writing, lyrics and music. Humour in written form-books, and mainstream films-both Indian and foreign-also has declined in quality.

Hope we take time out and see if we can set our priorities right.

Why We Get Along with Some

Why Do We Get Along With Some People More Than Others?

Dale Carnegie, don’t squirm, please. I don’t actually know, but I have a few good guesses.

We can talk to some people for a long, long time on everything under the sun.

Some people make us comfortable, so we do the above, and open up.

Some are good listeners, important for people who love talking.

Some are book buddies, who share our love of books- and some, sports buddies. I am talking Golf, but it could be a sport of your choice. It was TT and Badminton when I was growing up.

Some share our good taste. Meaning, whatever we think is good (taste).

Some have a nice laugh (not kidding, try it out on someone you know. But first, you have to learn how to tell a joke).

Some people are helpful, and get us out of a jam (and I am not talking of those who let you copy their homework).

Above all, those who are unconditionally supportive of us (like our mothers, but different in some ways). 

Vibes could be due to karma, past life, if you believe in the stuff. Whatever the reason, it's true that we get along with some better than others.

Sport, TV and Roman Gladiators

The more I see the games being played, I am reminded of the Roman gladiators fighting. 'What's the connection?' you may ask.

To my mind, a sport is played foremost for enjoyment without hurting another (or even intending to?). I can also vouch for the fact that some sports used to be that way. Competitiveness was there, but muted and mostly, 'the bat did the talking', to use cricket terminology. Now, cricket resembles the gladiatorial contests more than anything else I can think of. Kill, or be killed, seems the philosophy, the body language and the associated corruption.

Maybe there are sports like Billiards, Chess or Badminton that are not yet at that level of crassness, but you don't see them reported about as much, so I really can't say.

By the way, it's not only cricket which is that way. I find some TV shows actually so rude that I cannot bear watching them. It's another thing to create a badly scripted story, but to build shows on people ratting on each other, or the anchor abusing the participants is a bit hard to digest. Having a celebrity is no excuse for any of this.

Anyway, I also find that companies are eagerly sponsoring a lot of these. Good luck to them, and their consumers.

Games I Played

The swing, see-saw, and slide, not in that order, in childhood.

Marbles, without losing mine. Jhaad bandar, if you know what I mean.

Top, the spinning type bought in the village market. You had to string it. Skill involved in making it fly into your hand without touching the ground. Secondary skill was in picking it up from the ground on to your palm, still spinning. Also had a 'tick tock' noise-maker from the village fairs. And boats that run with balloon power.

Ice pais or its variants. Gilli-danda, though not too often.

Seven stones piled on each other, hit with a ball. Forget its name.

Hopscotch.

Table tennis. Badminton.

Cricket, volleyball, hockey. At school in Hyderabad.

Tennis, at Clemson, on seeing empty hard courts staring at us.

Golf, at Harihar, on seeing an 18-hole golf course around 500 metres from our house in the Kirloskar colony. Still do, when I can.

Unemployment and Solutions

There seems to be major unemployment threatening lots of people in India. Some of these unemployed (even ex- BIG BOSSES) and underemployed guys land up fixing matches. If ever the following find themselves in such a situation, here is what they could do.

Kapoors can start a school for putting on weight. With pics of all the male members of their clan, you don't need a hard-sell.

Khans can start their own version of the Cannes film festival. Pronunciation is almost the same, anyways. This can be held at the Kandivali fair grounds, to match with the name of the fest.

Madhuri can start a primary school to teach arithmetic, as in "Ek do teen.."

All bit role actresses of yesteryear can have an eatery called Bits and Pieces, which will serve variety of chats, or a cybercafe that is titled Bits and Bytes.

Nana Patekar could start a school for wannabe actors who will learn how to deliver fiery dialogue in a ghati style.

All other game-players can start a welfare league for themselves right now, as their earnings probably will not be able to support them even at the peak of their careers.

Finally, the commentators of cricket can set up the next edition of comedy circus, as they fit the requirements to a 'T'.

How about it?