Medal Tally

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing great.

"Adolf Hitler tries to rule the world, but Dhyan Chand ruled Adolf hitler."

- The Sunday Herald Dec 1967

It is great to be blogging again after quite a long break.

The Olympics are almost the oldest sporting events in this world which are being carried on from generations together with the same rich culture and best sportsman spirit. It is a venue where skills, guts and tenacity meet.

The Olympians are an inspiration to all of mankind for their dedication perseverance and patience.

Let us now discuss about where India stands in this great global event.

When P.V Sindhu won the silver medal and Sakshi Mallik won the bronze medal in Rio, we are sure that it was a very jubilant moment for the whole Nation.

We all must respect the Olympians who went from India, because we appreciate the callus attitude of the sports authorities towards them.

We took some time in considering one of the most important factors for success i.e., the benefits given to the Olympians. An analysis has been made of the benefits given to an Olympic aspirant in India and in comparison with the benefits given in the US. Few may feel that there has to be no comparisons as it would be unfair since, the US is far ahead of India in many disciplines and we are still in developing front. It is true. This has to be seen with a positive mind-set and only for the benefit of our country in the field of sports.

After reading some of the thoughtful articles about the sports services given to Indians and other countries we got some takeaways.

In India there is a popularity index imbalance towards cricket and other sports which is alarming and unhealthy. No doubt cricket is great game but why should we not think as other games are not as great as cricket?

The Indian Government has set up an institution called the Sports Authority Of India popularly known as SAI, has many schemes like “you are the coach” for veteran Olympians and “come and play scheme” for the children of Got employs children to learn and play at SAI.

These are measures which will help the aspirants to full fill their dreams but at the same time India needs a buff of energy where everyone is so proactive that they should keep the next Olympics in mind and target to win more medals.

There are some horrific incidents that are not good news; like MS Shanti Devi a great Kabaddi player who won national Kabaddi championships in 1976 who served as a captain during the period of 1983- 84 and she also had won a silver medal at the Guwahati National Kabaddi league, now for the shocking part today this great sport person is a vegetable vendor trying to meet her ends. MR. Kashaya Dadasaheb Yadav, he was the first wrestler to win an individual medal at the Olympics, later he joined the Police force as a Sub-Inspector, after his retirement, he was denied of pension by the Government and had a sad demise due to ill-health, even after his demise there was debate going on should the government confer him a Padma award or not? Is it not disrespectful?

These are just some stories which will startle us; there are many truths which we don’t even hear about.

Just take a glance at the US Government benefits given to its Olympians:

All of the following services are included in the figures for direct athlete support:

·         “Athlete performance pool – support training” (i.e. stipends)

·         “Elite Athlete Health Insurance & Other Medical Benefits for Athletes”

·         “Operation Gold – awarding top place finishes”

·         “Tuition assistance to pursue a college degree”

·         And “Special grants not already included above”

Source: usatheltictrust.org

Also find the pie chart of the detailed expensed published by the same website:

Our hockey team used to win unanimously till 1982 after that the graph declined, which also adds to the saddening part.

Predominantly India is a cricket centred country and it is one of the best in the world. We have to appreciate the best of efforts put in by the players to make our tri - coloured flag fly high. At the same time we have to question about the progress of India in other sports. India is failing to buck up in Olympics. It is easy for every Tom Dick and Harry to sit and pass loose comments on India's performance in the Olympics but none have till date understood why the failing is happening. After the failure the immediate next thing we do is to blame. Blame the Government and blame the players for having not done well at the biggest sports extravaganza in the world. Few days later everything is as it is. But in fact, every Indian citizen is to be blamed and has a role to play in the either success or failure in every sport because; it belongs to each and every on. 

We had filed an RTI to find out what were the benefits that were given :

Let's address about the current Govt., (the BJP led NDA Govt.,) that has announced several schemes and revised several policies related to Youth affairs and Sports. This should have given us some more medals. But we are happy and settled for two medals. There has been something which has gone wrong miserably. Are the schemes just for making the papers look glared!

It is for the first time that the participant’s numbers crossed 100 and all were in a hope that medal tally this time would be of double digits. Hopes were shattered. Finally it was just two and not even a double figure. Recently there was an article published in the TOI that a woman marathon runner was not provided with water or any other energy drink where, designated stalls were kept by other countries at regular intervals in the event but there was no stall from the Indian side. How could anyone expect to win a medal where provision of basic facilities failed? What were the officials doing that is the question that needs to be asked seriously?

It's actually very strange in India where, after the Olympics the winners were received back home with all the due respects. Why can't they be provided with best of the facilities prior and during the course of the event? This may lead to a sort of "be happy with what you got" state and may not see try for improvement.

Below, are the suggestions we have prescribed to improve the current state of being of sporting culture in our country:

·         There has to be an allocation of separate funds for the purpose of building new state of art sport stadiums in the annual budget. Borrow some of the best models of sports infrastructure around the world (USA, China, Australia…). Creating a separate wing in the sports building (Martial Arts require a different set of needs such as weaponry….. creating a separate wing for only Martial Arts would be helpful and the same follows for other sports).  Identifying and converting poor, non- performing sports stadiums in each and every district of our country into ultra-modern powered stadiums.

·         In Cricket, usually there will be best coaches from other countries for all the   departments of the game. Likewise for other sports, recruitment of coaches from best sporting nations should be in practice. Coaches hailing from India should have some sort of an International experience.

·         Critical analysis of the aftermath of any sporting event (domestic/Intl.…) should be implemented. Analysis to be done on a based on science. It is in fact a vast subject and also a very crucial subject for transforming any nation into a sporting nation. Government should sponsor for those (Coaches/Experts…) who would pursue a course in sports science in a Foreign University.

·         Use of technology in sports would create a massive impact. Every sports complex in the country should be integrated using this. This would save time, money and resources. A separate team should be constituted for this.

·         World-class experts should be deployed on advising about the nutrition diet for the sportsmen. Every so often journals/papers have to be published based on an in-depth research.

·         Selection of a candidate for a sporting event/competition should be only based on merits and not on any other basis such influence and like such. Tap on rural side to get the best sporting talents by providing them top-notch sporting culture. Increase the price amount for any competition that is organised. Frequently organising international events for getting exposure. Most importantly organising every event in a competition should be made compulsory and should be conducted with utmost seriousness.

·         http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelzakkour/2016/04/08/in-china-the-fusion-of-sports-gaming-and-e-commerce-could-become-a-1-trillion-industry/#17b047cf5a94 This is an article about how China is progressing in the field of sports. We also could do some of those that they have only when we slightly shift our focus from the IPL to other sports.

·         There has to be a district wise establishment of SCE to be made mandatory so that proper training would be given to everyone which would reduce the running around. It should also operate as a refreshing unit.

·         Key concerns that are to be addressed where the Government should form a separate Governance Cell under the Ministry of Sports and also under Ministry of Home: Accountability, Developmental and Administrative issues.

·         Sadly, even though, there is a separate subject PE in the schools it has just become merely a subject of pass. After the schooling that particular subject is not touched. A simple solution for this is the change of current system of teaching.

Sports ministry this year gets an allocation of Rs 1592 crore. What is only required is proper utilisation of this allocation for the betterment of sport. Private players have to be roped in for the funds for development of world-class sports complexes.

Ultimately there has to be a strong political will along with the change in the mind-set of the common people is very much required for the betterment of sports. For a country like India with billions of people which is cruising for the world power status will not be a difficult task for it to become a sporting power of the world. Fortunately/unfortunately everything is in our hands..!

To conclude, we feel that it is ‘IMPLEMENTATION’ that is failing horribly. Every effort of the concerned who painstakingly work for the betterment of sports is actually going in vain. We see that there will be no better results if there is no realization in the implementation of the various benefits that are to be given for the improvement of the sportsmen. Addressing the root cause of the problem/issue/failure and implementation of the whole ball of wax is what is required for the progress of a country in all disciplines.  

Thanks a lot for your time

Living with hope.

Harish Murthy and Tejus R.S

The Yamuna Gaffe.

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing well.

“What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
-Henry David Thoreau

All of us believe in some values in common, for instance you trust your family, you trust your best friend, you also believe in God for some it is Ram, for some Jesus for some Allah and so on.

In this world from time immortal we have different positions in the society to the class of priests, the pope, the fakir, the rishis and Pandits. We all consider them as divine and powerful in their intellect and the power to spread the message of God.

Many of our saints and religious leaders have done their duty in the purest form, which had helped this society to a greater extent. But we see some religious leaders have just turned this into a commercial venture and are minting money like any other multi-national company.

We seriously condemn such spiritual centres which use the faith of their devotees to get their break-even and also project the profit for the coming financial year!

Materialism in spirituality is baseless.

Nowadays it's becoming easy for the rich and powerful elements in India to destroy natural environment without any fear of law or anybody that governs and protects the natural environment.

Flood plains are rich in biodiversity and have a high degree of ecological importance. They help in rejuvenation of groundwater and prevent adverse damage caused in times of floods. Hampering the same would result in a serious environmental threat in the longer run, which we have already witnessed some of the disasters in Chennai and Uttarakhand.

Yamuna river flood plains in Delhi are important for the groundwater recharge and also an area with rich biodiversity. Recently there was a massive destruction of floodplains done and few environmentalists fear that it could have a permanent footprint. Art of Living (AOL) which conducted a three day cultural festival on the floodplains of Yamuna River had no sense of responsibility. They were absolutely unaware of the damage that they were causing. They were given the 1000 acre land for the construction work. This is the prime example of how one can use his power and money for any purpose without any fear of anyone.

 If the AOL was so cultural sided then they would have not chosen the place for their festival. They would have chosen some other place which was not having any environmental importance. There are many reasons why they exactly chose this place and not others. And we would recommend an enquiry about the same.

The land has been flattened and they have mercilessly destroyed the natural environment in the name of culture. 

At the first place the DDA should not have granted permission for the AOL to conduct this event. There is no doubt that the DDA would have been pressurised so that they had no other choice other than granting permission. And the NGT slapped a 5 crore as a penalty for reclaiming damages. What is the use of imposing heavy fines when these types of organisations have loads of money which is full throughout the year?

This issue has to be taken seriously. 

The honourable prime minister of India should have taken the decision not to allow this event happen at the cost of the great river Yamuna, but sadly it happened.

We seriously were not happy with the way the things were taken care of just before the programme was about to start like, you pay crores of rupees as fine and carry on with your event we feel that was illogical.

We appeal to the Government of India to be more serious and stringent while landing these types of issues going further and it should make sure that the AOL help sin rejuvenation of the place at least close to what it was before.

Living with hope.

Harish Murthy and Tejus R.S

Need of the hour.

Hi readers

Hope you are all doing well.

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”

-Chris Maser

The word life brings a charm in our minds, because we all love to live, enjoy this world which is beautiful and filled with life.

The earth is 4.853 billion years old, it is home to thousands of species the modern man or famously called the homosapien is living from just 2 million years.

If we think about how all this evolution or the geneses happened? The first answers that strike is the chemicals of the ancient earth, the evolution of the gene proteins, the uni-cellular organisms, then the multi-cellular creatures and then the plant and animal kingdoms and then finally we!

From these 2 million years we have lived on this earth what have we achieved? let us put it on a list.

We learnt how to make and use tools, how to create fire, finally farming and how to domesticate animals and use them for various purposes. But now there is a major imbalance that is created due to man, the reason is man's selfishness and materialized life.

We are very much hurt by some people who treat animals very poorly, for instance if we visit a forest, the way people behave is ordeal to look at, there are instances where some people pelt stones at elephants and chasing deers.

Why have we cultivated such a bad habit of destroying and tampering nature's assets, aren’t we aware that forests are ours? It is the three letter word ‘ego’ and greed what is making a human being so heartless. India is currently left with only 3% of protected areas in forms of National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Tiger Reserve, Conservation Reserve and Community Reserve.

There are other forests which don’t come under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. They fall into the territorial division. Out of 3%, not all are well protected. Each PA (Protected Area) is facing many problems where conservationists are becoming helpless. Problems arise where there is presence of people.

Poaching, illegal encroachment, illegal felling of trees and driving rashly inside the forests which causes road kills of wild animals. All such problems are grave in nature. To solve them one needs the support of common people. But when such common people are only the reasons for these problems, how can the solution be found?

Poaching thrills some set of people, where they derive some sort of wired satisfaction when they kill an animal. After the kill the meat of the animal is consumed and some of the body parts are sold which gains them higher profits. Illegal encroachment results in habitat loss. For example there is a patch of forest where elephants regularly use that path for migration. Slowly that patch is being encroached and the result of that is a non-forest land. When elephants use the path for movement They are electrocuted and killed for the reason that they are causing trouble for the people.

Whose mistake is it? According to human beings, for his/her survival, they can go to whatever extent they want.

Illegal felling of trees is for the timber production. They are in a high demand. When one cuts tons of trees in the forests, they are used for various commercial purposes resulting in deforestation. Rash driving inside the forest and stopping and getting down from the vehicles, shouting like hooligans inside the Forests create massive disturbance.

According to the law any such above mentioned acts are considered to be illegal and the people can also be jailed. Recently there was a supreme court judgement that roads in the Pench Tiger Reserve to be widened and it also stated that development is More important than tigers.

This will add more ingredients for the destruction of forests. Forest fires are very dangerous, where the fire blazes destroys acres of forest land and also kills many land dwelling animals. There is a misconception in this case that forest fires are natural Phenomenon. Readers this is nothing but a myth. Forest fires are caused by the people for there benefits. Yearly, in the summer season people set fire to the to the forests. For the forests to get recovered form this requires a long time.

Problems are inevitable. It has to be minimized. At first strengthening  of forest department is needed. More and more staff should be recruited for the lower rank (guards, foresters and watchers) of the department because it is they who patrol the forests regularly and ensures protection. Sadly there are huge vacancies in the lower order across all most all the forests in India.

Secondly, it is us the common people should change our attitudes and March forward to protect and conserve our last remaining set of forests and its animals. There is still a ray of hope that our forests will not be destroyed any further.

Please have look at this link where supreme court said development is more important than tigers!

http://m.timesofindia.com/home/environment/developmental-issues/Development-more-important-than-tigers-Supreme-Court-says/articleshow/50662141.cms

Let us all start the wave of conservation.

Living with hope

Harish Murthy and Tejus R.S

Why this arrogance?

Hello readers

Hope you are doing well.

 

The power of nature is just incredible, of course it is and we are part of this system and we are the people who are called intellectual and innovative and brainy.

But do we really deserve all those adjectives mentioned above, sometimes we feel we act too immature and do not deserve to called the most brainy ones around.

The discussion about how we are treating the flora and fauna around us.

We feel we have taken few things very casually and for granted which is very unfortunate and seriously the poor animals do not deserve that.

For instance we saw a video about the hidden truth about the dairy industry in New-Zealand, it was truly shocking to watch that some take always from the video: a new born calf is separated just 3 hours after its birth , a cow has to give birth every year so that it can find adequate milk.

The calves irrespective of its gender are culled in slaughter houses mercilessly like some toy, it truly broke our heart to see that, but that is the intense ugly truth.

Man with use of his so called 'intelligence' is exploiting all possible natural resources and animals and plants for his needs at-least there should be a point of common sympathy we should be shown towards animals.

We appreciate some ethical values of the Indian culture where some animals like the cow, snake, monkey are considered as God's which has planted a sense of respect for these animals on the minds of our people.

Most of us have reached a point where for our survival we are ready to do anything and exploit everything. We are not able to understand the hard fact that there are also so many living beings which are Co - existing with us. Is it the human alone on this planet? Don't we think that other living beings too have the equal right to live? We have exploited so much that it is hard to replace back the misery that has been caused by us. 

Why this arrogance can we not consider them as one species just like us and respect them, after all we are an evolutionary products in this biological planet. Please think about it and try to make that difference.

Where are we heading? What is our goal? It is to reach the top place by destroying whatever comes in our way. We are doing that at present. Competition and growth are the words which are taking us nowhere but actually it is a one way of digging our own grave. Economic growth of country is important.

But for whom it is important? We have created everything according to our needs. But have not even thought of what the other living beings need. We act like superiors because there is nobody to question our actions. 

Thanks to some like minded people around world who express some sympathy towards the other creatures.

Thanks for your time

Living with hope

Harish Murthy and Tejus R.S

Luck?

Hello readers

Hope you are doing well.

Luck is believing you're lucky

-Tennessee Williams

In every phase of life there is constant action and we always expect things to work according to us. Not always we get what we have actually desired for, things may take unexpected turns and could give us undesired results. Few people may not agree of what we are actually trying to convey. It is about the ‘luck’ factor.

Does this have an equal share in shaping up our lives? Or there is no such factor to be worried about. According to us, if not equal share there is definitely a strong role played by luck in our lives and some people may deny that fact. It's like there will be for and against for every debate.

Though luck is a uncontrollable factor and a matter of chance, this could shape up things in  favourable manner wherein, it is life changing experience if it works well.

We have seen many movies which are based on luck and we all feel a sense of joy when we see that and put ourselves in that situation and wish we were lucky like the hero of that movie, but that is actually a movie if you analyse the story of the movie is made by a team who aim to catch the eye and fan power.

But in real life it is a bit different as we cannot depend on luck.

We have experienced some instances where we say luck played a crucial role, and that day would be a happy ending, and some of us before we sleep we have a habit of going through the day and just looking back at that day we may acknowledge saying that I was lucky today that I got that work done or got that job and so on.

let us take a situation where you had to get some work done, you and go and stand in the queue say in some department and apparently your job is done and you go back home and feel happy and thank your stars, when we analyze this further we find that, first we had taken all the necessary documents  to get the job done we went there on time, and everthing possible to get the job done, then is there a need to say I was lucky this is actually a debatable topic.

We feel that we have to do all we can to get close to our goal at that moment luck too helps you get there so finally luck is like a force which also pushed you in front.

But always depending on luck is also not so good, because we fall for this disease called wishful thinking which can create a madness in a person's mind and make him illogically optimistic.

So let us put effort in whatever we want to achieve in life and later count on our stars in other words first work towards your goal and just depend on luck to the least extent possible.

Thank you and have a nice day ahead.

Living with hope

Harish Murthy and Tejus R.S.

Typical Paradox.

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing great.

Great Minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events;small minds discuss people.

-Eleanor Roosevelt.

2016 begins  you know, as the years are rolling by our lives become more complex and we will have to take more responsibilities than we had taken in the previous year well, sooner we understand this truth we lead a peaceful life.

what is it to be judgmental?

Judgmental... We hear this word in all most all places, ask  people arguing they say you are being too judgmental  by not   giving me a legitimate chance  to counter. It is defined as predicting a person based on his physical appearance and making statements without any proof!

Brain’s power to cook up stories!

We all know brain is an organ which draws ideas, if it is fed with inputs in the form of vision, sound, speech or touch.

When we hear a song we identify the singer as the brain has stored without telling you the voice tagged to that singer!

But this machine if not guided by you in the right direction can mislead you. For example: just seeing a random stranger who has a sulky face and saying "that guy has lost happiness in life!"  How can we  just say that without even knowing what is his actual state of mind.

Do we know one of the functions of the brain is to keep you mentally healthy; it tries to do it by always transmitting neurological signals that generate hormones that make you egoistically strong and satisfying?

So the point is that brain being judgmental on everything and anything is habitual but you need think and keep your brain in control and stop it from over doing it.

It is  common for us to judge a person at the first instance itself. For example: when we see a house in a poor village where it is equipped with a dish  connection and fewest of the furniture immediately we think  are those people really poor? Or are they being just glorified as poor. We have come to a common judgmental paradox where what we see and the way we perceive to be correct even if the actual truth is not the same. 

 In this case we actually don’t know the exact status of those people in that house. We just jump into conclusions all of a sudden that they are rich We don’t give a second thought.

It is highly impossible for anyone to understand a person completely even if he/she is known for years together.

Randomly judging people without any motive is unnecessary and just not adding any value for your own life, so what is the point of  just getting worked up when you just see a person.

We should be judgmental only if it is necessary and  when you are about to take a decision, which involves another person and you entering into business.There are any more important situations like these.

All the best to all our readers have a great year ahead.

Thank you and have a  nice day.

Living with hope

Tejus R.S and Harish Murthy