A meeting that can change my life forever

Yeah.....the long wait and the anticpiation associated with it is finally over. I did propose. And the result is encouraging. The date was only for around half an hour but the implications may be for life time. I am on the verge of getting married to my love. The feeling is indescribable. This is just a small step in our marriage. A marriage that knows only unadulterated love. A marriage which thrives on passion.

Its a sacred marriage which doesnt know the meaning of divorce. Thats the charm of such a relationship wherein u share unconditional love. Your soulmate doesnt need you to prove your love.

Well, u ask who is the one. Dont kill me when i say its my first step towards my marriage with my love - sports management. :p

After some 25 calls, an unnending wait, a 400/450 km sojourn in Hyderabad, a Rs. 109 ride (that lasted one and half hour) on rick, I did meet the bigshot(Director) of a sports mgmt company. I am happy that he appreciated my effort to meet him. The guy was a jolly fellow. It hardly took any time to break the ice and very soon we were chatting as friends do, discussing the indian sports market and drawing comparisons with the global sports market.

Never ever did I realize that i was talking to a fellow who has studied at MIT and delivers lectures at Wharton Univ. And thats how a director should be. I wish there were a few like him in my present company.

Though I am no big name, i recevied a royal hospitality. The place was simply superb. It was a villa kind of bungalow. An ideal setting for a sports related firm. I left the place with a feeling of satisfaction that my efforts will bear fruits soon. Though its a kind of mixed feeling that i still have to wait for some more time. :( As fun spume says, the best of things are worth the wait.

From there, i headed over to my native village. I will reserve that for the next post.

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Sports update in brief:

There is some good news for the indian sports lovers. Our girl, Joshna Chinappa, is in the finals of World Jr. Squash Championship. I wish her all the best to clear the final hurdle. And Sania too has moved up to 64 in ATP rankings following her impressive showing at Cincinnati open.

Why Me??

Before u assume anything, let me state this is no crib. The question, nevertheless, raises this doubt. That's why wanted to cast away any such aspersions right away. I have got strict warnings from my colleague against posting any CRIB on my blog. :) And i will try to go by it.

Don't we all at some point or the other keep questioning ourselves this particular question when something particular goes against our wishes. It used to happen with me when i had a torturous time dealing with amoebic infection. And that too, one day prior to my engg exam. In fact, i dread amoebic infection to such an extent that if i am affected by anything other than this i always go back to those days and feel happy that this disease is better than amoebic infection. :)

I came to write about this when i read through one such post on ryze network. Coudlnt hold myself back since it is related to sports. I don't like posting fwds n all on my blog. But i am sure many of us here wont be aware of this particular Arthur Ashe incident. So here, it is.

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of CANCER. From All over the world, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed:

"Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:
The world over 50 Million Children start playing tennis,
5 Million Learn to play tennis,
500,000 Learn professional tennis,
50,000 Come to the circuit,
5000 Reach the grand slam,
50 reach Wimbledon,
4 to semi finals,
and only 2 to the finals

When I was holding a cup, I never asked GOD "Why me?"
And today in pain, I should not be asking GOD "Why me?"


Now, I too, will never ever question, "Why me?".
I thank anitha for posting this on ryze network.


PS: I feel ashamed that even i myself am not much aware of Arthur Ashe's story and his exploits on the court. Will make an effort to find more about him.

Also am receiving comments to highlight the solution part for our sporting woes instead of questions. Will do so in the next posts.

My Fave Topic - Billion Strong Nation and No Olympic Gold?

As promised, I am here for blabbering some serious stuff. And if its sports that perk you up, then this sure is a must read for you. For a long time this topic has been a fave for GDs. And the resulting discussions are sometimes, hilarious, to say the least. What with even TOI(Times Of India for the uninitiated) floating a theory of our genes to be blamed for the sporting debacle. Hello, excuse me plz. Let me have my say too.

How many of my fellow indians are aware that even Leander Paes was a junior wimbledon champion? Ok, some may be aware of that fact. But how many of us know that PT Usha's running timing at the age of 18 was comparable to that of Marion Jones at the same age. Now does this have any relation to the question. It sure has if we try to find out why Paes and Usha couldnt acheive what their contemporaries could. Now plz dont take me wrong that both these great athletes didnt acheive anything great. I am saying in relation to their fellow contemporaries at the world stage. To lay a bit more emphasis on the point i am trying to make, let me add that Federer too was a junior wimbledon champ. The enthusiasts can google to get more info on this.

The answer aint a complicated one but yeah.....the implementation, sure is. Where is the sports structure here? Is sports a viable career option out here? It maybe, but only for a few affluent ones. And as long as it doesnt become one for the common man, i dont see how we can win gold medals consistently. Well, we may have some sania's coming in between though. Do you have an iota of knowledge how costly pursuing tennis as a career can be? Just to throw some light, i read that sania's training costs for a year mount to arnd 45/50 lakhs. Do we really have that might? Thats the kind of money it takes to create a champion apart from, of course, the commitment, determination blah blah...... But the point is u need a platform. That is one of the major reason why our folks are not aware of the other girls such as Sonal Phadke, Radhika Tulpule in indian tennis who were quite a match to sania just a few years back.

Of course, the media too is pretty irresponsible out here. Just to prove my point, you will see all the newspapers and news channles write about the sports affairs pre and post olympics. Why not take these issues at this point? Come 2008 olympics and TOI will carry out an article some 15/20 days prior to the Games about our sorry state of affairs. Why not carry out articles on Saina Nehwal, the new kid on the block, who is beleived to take the indian badminton to a new high.

And i have a grudge against our esteemed IIMs too. They often give this topic for GD. Instead, why not go a step further and start a sports mgmt course where people like me can enroll. Why not tie up with the associations and impart the necessary training to the fellow "babus" who are handling the sports and thereby dilly-dallying with the future of aspiring champs. Well, lets leave this for another post some other time.

Coming to the answer part, set the management right first. Get the right people at the right places. Give them some time for their ideas to be implemented. Of course, pay them what they deserve. People like me want to desperately get into the "system". But do we have an avenue? Can i get an assurance that i neednt worry about my economy and concentrate on my work - sports management. Sorry sorry......is it sounding more like a crib? Whom am i telling to set the things right? Its we as a nation who have a job on our hands if we are genuinely serious about our sports. If not, then please never ask why the hell cant we win a single gold when even nations unheard of, can get one. Thats the least thing u can do as a responsible indian citizen.

Well lagata....jyada ho raha hain......let me save some for the remaining posts. This is just a beginning of a series of articles to be featured right here on KhelNayak. I promise that u folks will be amongst the first ones to get a first-hand knowledge about indian sports. Wait for my next article. Do leave your comments.

Joining The Blogwagon!

So there I am. One more addition to the ever increasing blogging community.
To begin with, actually, i have never maintained a diary for myself and in fact, was never enthused about folks maintaining one. Always felt a bit weird about such things. So then why this blog?

It took some time for realization to dawn that blogging is actually a great tool to reach out to the online community there. Things to expect in this blog: Anything and everything related to sports....and more so Indian sports. And to be precise sports management. Now u know why the title KhelNayak(courtesy of my delhi freind).

So expect me to blabber about the sports affairs in my country - India, right from the so-called "system" to the changes taking place to the new people who will revolutionise the sports strucutre.

As can be gauged, my writing skills need tonnes of improvement. Hopefully, with the f/b from all u folks, i will.

Thats enough, i guess, for a debut post. Let me settle on the crease and then u will find me hitting great scores out here.

Special thanks to lakshmikanth, Shub, Pilli and my other freinds who supported me in my endeavour of Blogging.