top 1%

This weekend was a day spent almost entirely at home. I think I needed all the time to rest and recuperate from the hectic week I had. Saturday morning was spent watching Finding Dory – the second part of the crazy hit Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo was a lovely movie that we had watched years ago when it was released. Our favorite story is that when Jispa was very small we made her watch Finding Nemo and she was terrified. She cried through the movie and we just couldn’t understand why would a kid cry in a Disney movie. I guess the basic premise is very scary – Nemo is a baby fish that ends up being separated from his dad. That is a very scary proposition and I think it’s enough to give nightmares to young kids. When adults make these movies in animation, its possibly impossible to understand the effect it has on younger minds. How scary can it get? Jispa refused to watch so many animated movies till she was much older. We kept taking her in the hope that she would like at least one. I think in Ratatouille she scolded me in the scene where the main guy is taking the rat down to the sewers to throw it there.

Now I think I am done with animation movies. There are very few movies that are clear lovely movies that appeal to all without being preachy. I think the last ‘adult’ animation movie was Inside Out. It was a movie that was lovely to watch and understand and it beautifully depicted the mind of a person and how it can work. I think they had very highly regarded psychologists advising on the script of the movie. It was one cracker of a movie idea, far beyond the realms of average people. It came and went in India without even causing a flutter. Hardly anyone saw it or knew of it. By comparison the movie Jungle Book in its new avatar did very well. I thought it had a really bad story line and hardly any great emotional moments or camaraderie between its protagonists. It was surely a visual extravaganza with the jungle coming alive in realism animation. The trailers were magnificent and very tightly edited. It was meant for an Imax 3D experience. The Hindi version was also awesome with some awesome actors dubbing the lines, but still –the story and the interplay between the characters left me very cold. It did not recreate the magic of the original Jungle Book in my head.

Finding Dory was also similarly cold. Dory was a great character who brought a lot of stupidness to the mission of the original movie. A father is in search of his son and there is a stupid fish with short term memory loss. The whole contrast in the desperate situation made for a memorable story. Here the whole thing just died out and too many leaps of faith had to be made with the fish moving from one place to another, across land forms. I think this movie was a miss.

On Sunday, it was time to simply vegetate at home. In the evening, the city saw the monsoon setting it and the climate became lovely. I tried convincing Jispa to play something with me. Anything. Any game. We tried playing one round of battle ship which we quickly abandoned as it was quite boring. Then I convinced her to come with me for a walk. She only agreed if we went for a walk to crosswords the book shop near our house. I agreed. Down I pushed her to walk along the longer route via the garden. I am desperate to have longer walks with her. While walking we started talking. She is easier to talk to when we walk. At home she answers in monosyllables but while walking a conversation can ensue. We spoke about the upcoming kabaddi tournament and how I get damn frustrated when dealing with individuals. I told her that people just don’t like to change and they can innovate. You have to first say yes, it’s possible and then think new. I was speaking about the stadium experience and how we must enhance it. In India we stop everything from being taken inside a stadium. You can’t take anything inside, no food, no music instruments, nothing. I was telling her that we should have a carnival inside and outside the stadium, have lots of face painting artists free inside the stadium with only your team colors. People should have fun and talk about eth stadium experience. Jispa then remarked, that yes, exactly – otherwise people will slowly stop coming. Yes., Jispa  - you said something that 99% of India and especially the sport operators just don’t get. You need to allow people to take photos, share selfies, post online, get families and have a great time. I think and I have been screaming hoarse – we must get the women and the children, if they come in then the families are in. If you attract men, you sell one ticket if you attract the families then you sell four tickets. This is an air-conditioned auditorium, with the best setting to get the best crowd, but we end up screwing things up. We should have very fair priced snacks at the stadium and in fact have many more hospitality seats that allow for seat delivery of food. Simple snacks and peanuts must be allowed. Plus allow for players to meet the fans after the game. The experience must be awesome, enough parking and enough food and enough experience enhancing gimmicks. A well thought out plan. And then there is the in stadium experience. Encourage the crowd to get in early, have a flash mob, have a band playing and have people in the crowd with trumpets to cheer the team. I was telling Jispa that many years ago, I had watched a cricket game in Wankhede stadium. It was West Indies versus India. I don’t remember the game  or the score or who actually won. All I remember is that suddenly in the crowd one Parsi looking gentleman would stand up randomly in the middle of the game and play a particular tune on the trumpet. It was a simple 5 tone tune and he would play it and the crowd without any encouragement or prodding would simply shout “hey” at the end of the tune. He would emerge suddenly and he would then go somewhere else in a different part of the stadium and play his tune. He would come and go as he pleased. This was extremely entertaining and that’s what I remember. Why can’t we do that? We will have a lion (our Pune kabaddi team mascot) roaming around, but the mascot is not told what to do, he probably does not even know how the game is, he has no signature moves and he like an idiot only moves in the VIP areas. He should be the CROWD where there are hundreds of people not in the VIP area where you seat a few. He should be running up and down the aisles, dancing and prancing around, cheering the team.

But I guess we only know how to milk the cow, not create an experience. The great Indian sport tamasha is the IPL. This was invented by a marketing genius in London who with the help of research brought innovation to the game. Of course he made it 20 overs but he also brought in a few innovations like cheerleaders and the dugout. The dug out makes the team sit out in the field in one corner and not in the dressing room, it brings the players out in the open giving the fans more time to see them. Simple innovations bring about a greater joy to the sport. If you don’t have the crowds in the stadium it makes for a bad TV experience as well. People want to live the stadium experience on TV!

This is the simple truth about sports that people don’t get. You are fighting for entertainment money and every time you will listen to organizers talking about – the core audience, the kabaddi clubs and they rue that the crowd is not the same. How will it be – what have YOU done to create your fan base? What have you given them to love you as a team, how have you helped them enjoy and support the team. You just show up during the tournament and expect magic to happen. Where are your camps, meet and greet sessions, coaching programs etc?

It’s easy to skimp on all these costs and then wonder – WTF? People don’t support the sport.

You need to have loyal raving fans who take the game to the others and bring about a ‘Junoon’ in the stadium. These are the guys who will cry and scream for the team. They will follow the team across the country and create a noise and a cheer that will spur your team. But It requires effort and care.

Jispa and I were discussing all this and she added to the discussion and she got it. She also said that you must enjoy the stadium and you must do all the exciting stuff. She can’t understand why the organizers don’t get it. I was telling her that this is the most frustrating part of the work. Working with people who just don’t get it. I was telling her that she has a good brain and she has the ability to think. It puts her in the 1% of Indian population. She did not believe me. She thought at least 50% should be good thinkers to which I corrected her – no way – only 1% will be good thinkers. It is impossible to get more than this.

I explained to her about me being a secretary at Matunga Gym. In spite of all my ideas and all my efforts I could hardly get a few wins. There are so many egos and other issues at play. People just don’t think clearly and what you have is just a slightly better pool. I wanted to change the bathrooms and get the women to have the bigger bathrooms with better facilities but I couldn’t do so. People have issues with everything but if I wanted to change stuff, it would take a whole lot of time and dedication at my end and I would need to get involved with the politics of it all. So then Jispa asked – in your new job here, you can do what you want nah! “nopes” I can’t do what I want. Of course I have far more power here than what I had in my earlier job, but its still not an autocracy, I still have people that I have to work with, people that piss me off and dumb ass guys who just don’t get the point. I have to manage them and its not like I can fire anyone at will.

I don’t think even an entrepreneur can do this. You can try and surround yourself with the best minds you find, but then you cant really grow. When you grow and scale you will have to take calls and get stupid dumb people on board. They will fill your system. Else the other option, run a consulting service with exactly 4 employees. But here to get anything done you will require to deal with clients who are dumber and you have ass lick and get your payment. After all if he were so smart why would he need a consultant. So the real real option is to work where you find the least amount of these jokers in your life. Accept that these jokers are a reality. People will not understand odds and people will refuse to accept mistakes and admit failures and repent. People will do stupid things all the time. Understanding that and living and making some amount of peace with it is critical to sanity.

Stupidity is just one angle to it. Insecurity mixed with stupidity is a Molotov cocktail. But that is another angle for another rant for another time.

Till then just live with the stupidity around you and try to reduce it. Very few people read, very few listen and very few change. Try to read, listen and change. Believe that you are wrong when you start the conversation then only can you change and then only will you improve and then only will you remain less stupid. DO IT!

made it

This weekend was something special as far as dreams and ambitions are concerned. And a whole host of learnings and character building was done.

Jispa has been swimming for, I think 5 years now. She has slowly but surely kept scaling one peak after another. She keeps on swimming and wants to push her boundaries on her own. She knows what her goals are and she wants to achieve them. Many times we have given up and told her point blank, we would be happy if you give it up but there is some inner fire, some inner desire that she wants to achieve and that is fueling her dedication. She is dedicated to swimming. As far as natural talent for swimming is concerned, I don’t think she is up there with the natural born swimmers who just get into the pool and know what to do and how to do it. These kids just keep winning championship and break records one after another. They can do this with less effort and dedication. They are just meant to swim and they feel the water and cut through it much better than anyone else. Jispa is not that. For her swimming is hard work, a lot of effort and a whole lot of grit. If she doesn’t work as hard she will not be able to make it.

She likes to go for her sessions and she doesn’t miss many. At least not even one by choice. She would miss only due to illness or some other school commitment or our family vacations or something like that. She wakes up on time without too much fuss these days and she eats her bananas and she has her medicines (ayurvedic general health types) and she goes for her swimming. I am sure if the pool was close by she would have gone there by herself.

When the swimming timings started interfering with the studies timing we made it very clear to her that we would not let one affect the other. She has been trying her bets to keep up with studies as well. Right now the new distraction is her cell phone and whatsapp. That is another mountain for her to overcome. But all said and done, her quiet dedication to her swimming is something that has our utmost respect.

Though I think she doesn’t listen to her coach enough on her technique and that takes a beating and stops her from achieving the next level.

So all in all, it’s a tough swim schedule and sport for her. But she has really done well, and I think we respect that. Jasmine is not prone to showing emotions but I know for a fact that she is quite proud of her achievements. Of course Jasmine has a tendency to keep upping the game and demanding more and I tend to just be equally straight face. In the meets and the competitions and in the training pool etc, we meet parents of all types. There are always a bunch of fathers or mothers who are completely not bothered by all this. They don’t come to the events and meets and they have no clue about this and they are very clearly not in support of the swim schedules their kids keep. On the other side you have the crazy parents where both are heavily involved and bothered about the progress of the child and some who are completely committed to their kid’s achievements. Their cheering is one thing, their level of competiveness is another thing and the pressure they put on their child is to be seen to be believed. Here there is plenty of stupid word of mouth, half knowledge and a crazy ability and desire to push your child. Very early enough I decided that I will not give any input to the child. I will keep all my supposed intelligence to myself. In fact, I will do only what a father needs to do. Wake up and take the child to swim. I will help in the auxiliary things, such as getting the kid to eat, take care of her health and most important of them all – massage the kids legs and back at night. Because the coach would just kill her by giving the hard, really hard sets. Wow.

This year in the middle we changed our pool and we went to a new coach. He set the target high for the kid and gave the toughest sets possible to all the kids. He pushed the kids to work hard. Jispa also had two sessions extra of land training. We practically woke up early every single day of the week. The result – Jispa started performing beyond what she was doing thus so far. It was a tough long grind. She was getting ready for the state championships wherein she could fulfill her long cherished dream. DAD, one day, one time at least – I want to go to the nationals. The state championships were held last week and the weekend before that – She was down with fever and tonsils. Bam… out of the blue she was out and her crucial taper period where the coach gives easy swims to taper the kid so as to have relaxed and ready rested muscles, was lost. There was no way she would recover from this. The antibiotics would kill her muscles.

So she just made in time for the state selection meet. Her first race was a 100 m free which she promptly lost to come 6^th or 8^th place. She gave 2 seconds worse off her best. This was not going to be her meet. She went through the other races, improving only a little by little. The last race for her was the 50M back. I had seen her 100 M back and I had told her, here is your last chance and I genuinely think you will max this. Jispa has a good take off from the block. She inevitably has an explosive start because she uses her legs well to kick off.. also the case with her tumble turn... but she fritters away the advantage midway into the course. 50M is one place where in spite of her ill health, she had a chance. I told her, I think you will make it in the 50. It was a bit of a bravado but inside I knew there was hope. Also the three days of competition meant that her body would get that much more time to recover from the illness.

She started the race well and I followed her to the finish. I think I also screamed and cheered her (something I don’t normally do)… and then towards the last 10, I knew it, Jispa was not in the top two. Only the top two qualify. And so I simply turned and walked away. I am very good with the finishes and normally I know the podium finish order in a close race. In swimming it’s not easy to do that. Jispa was a third or even a fourth. As I walked towards Jasmine, I saw all the other parents crowding around Jasmine and congratulating her. WTF? This can’t be true. It’s… it’s impossible. That’s when I saw the screen. Jispa was in lane 3 and she was in second place. The touch pads showed the result. Something happened and Jispa must have stretched her last 5 meters to beat the the kid by 20 micro seconds, one fifth of a second. JISPA WAS GOING FOR HER NATIONALS TO BANGALORE! THAT’S IT. JISPA HAS MADE IT.

WOW. She did it. She did it. Pune who came third did raise a formal complaint which was dismissed. The touch pad is it. She did it.

She would have been able to do it in a few more races if her tonsils had not acted up. But this was a moment to treasure. It was a big deal for all of us. A very big deal.

I am not so sure what chance she has at the Nationals. All the kids are within 1 second of each other. Jispa has only one event to concentrate on. One month to work on only one event – the 50M Back. That in many ways is a boon. So now she can work towards one stroke and one distance. I think that will now be her best chance. No distraction and a clear focus to achieve one event, one super burst, one chance for redemption and glory … hehehe… now I sound like chariots of fire. *theme music playing already*

So let’s see now. She also has her vacations going unlike the other kids which gives her the best platform to perform at the best platform she could hope for.

I keep telling her that her next few years might be the best yet. She has only had 6 months with the new training program. Imagine what a year or so would help her achieve. So there… I only hope that you enjoy the ride and don’t let the burden of expectations weigh you down.