finders keepers

Last weekend Jispa had her trials to represent the city for the state meet. Jispa has been training pretty hard over the last one year. This is when she and her coach started to seriously set their eyes on qualifying. She has had some amazing improvements in timings over the year. But she has been unable to br4eak into the top three. Her coach is also realistic about it. He told us that it was pretty difficult as Jispa seriously started only a year back. The other kids had been at it much longer. But his immediate priority was a top six finish at this meet. Jispa managed that in the 50mtrs butterfly (fifth place) and the 50 mtrs free (fourth place). The top 6 go to Pune next month for the state meet. Her coach feels that the exposure and the confidence gained will be good.

The tournaments are held with an age bracket of two years being bunched together. At their age two years is a lot of difference. So in the under 11 category someone aged 10 has little chance of winning. Everyone talks about the disadvantage year and the advantage year. The year gone by was an advantage year for Jispa, and the one coming up is a disadvantage year. Next year she would participate with little chance of winning anything. Her coach was telling Jasmine that Jispa has a lot of potential. He said if she can be so fast with such horrible strokes, just imagine how fast she would be if her strokes is corrected. After June is the off season and this year is her disadvantage year. So the coach will now have time to correct the strokes and movement. I want to go and tell him. He is talking about preparing for the state meet two years hence.  Pretty deep stuff. Stuff that we had no insight into until you go through with it yourself. I am looking forward for the state meet. I want to see what it’s like. How are the facilities and the arrangements? How do swimmers across the state stack up against the Mumbai lads. How they come, what they do and how they behave.

I noticed an interesting things at the meet on Sunday. As Jispa and her contemporaries lined up at the starters block, I saw something that struck me. All the kids at the whistle took the block with a small ritual. They touched their hearts or they touched their heads or made a cross or something. They all looked for divine inspiration. Some supernatural force to come and assist them or mere blessings before the BIG race. Jispa merely took the starters block with no such ritual. We haven’t taught her God Rituals. Now I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Definitely I was not going to teach her empty prayer or stupid rituals which have no meaning but at the same time, what I have robbed her of, is an external focus. Something that can help you when you are all alone. I don’t go to temples at all and I don’t recite any prayer, but in times of extreme situations, I do have my conversations. Something that I tell him, come dude, get me through this shit. Or thanks dude, nice one. Or its testing but I will be back, just give me strength to weather this one. I assume this is there because as a child I did believe in God. Today I grow up to question common belief and faith. Shit cannot happen to me just because I don’t pray or good cannot come because I do so. But sometimes, when the going is tough an external voice to talk to in private may be a good thing.  As of now Jispa doesn’t have this God figure in her mind. At least that’s what I think. But instead she has herself to talk to. I have spoken to her about what she thinks. Like the time when the results for the Hindi elocution was to be announced. She talks to herself. I think that internal belief is possibly better than a God belief.

Jispa willy-nilly has become a test case. Not out of my wanting it to become. But it is an interesting study on what a human do would if he were not brought up on a religious diet. What would you do if your dad actively questioned religious belief and God, your mom didn’t teach you to pray but at the same time your grannies took you to the temple? How would you have your conversations? I guess she will rely on her instinct as a human more than her instinct as a religious person. So she will take the starting block stand as a human being free from man constructed beliefs. She will I assume talk to herself. Look at an internally locus of control, an internal voice to guide her. A voice that is not borne by faith taught or not borne out of a faith in opposition to faith taught (like me), but a natural voice that human will have. That I think will be her God. And I hope and Pray that she finds it useful for her and holds her good stead. I Pray I have not robbed her of something important and eternal, but that I have given her something natural, inborn and lasting. I hope she finds her own GOD. Finders keepers.

Jump Jump

This week end Jispa has her top city swimming event. If she does well, she represents Mumbai at the state meet. She seems to be doing well and she has a decent chance of making the cut. At least in a couple of events. The last one year has been a bit tiring for us as regards her swimming. How much do we push? What does she require in nutrition and how do we balance swimming and studies. Her studies are cranking up a notch and Jasmine is feeling the pressure of studies which is getting transferred to Jispa. I don’t really blame anyone. Jispa is a nine year old, aspiring champion and a smart kid. Jasmine is a mother who knows that while swimming is good, studies is probably more important. How do we balance the two? It’s a delicate balance and here I must interfere and calm all the nerves around the house. Sometimes things are on the edge and the atmosphere gets very tense.

Even while swimming, it can get very tense with Jasmine getting dam irritated with Jispa when she suddenly starts swimming awkwardly. Jasmine goes twice a day to the pool, manages the food, the studies, everything and then if Jispa suddenly decides to do silly things, anyone can blow a fuse. My role is very clear in these times. I am lucky to be detached from the system. I am one step away. I can stay out and keep telling jasmine – its ok its ok. At that time, the biggest risk is that I can get the brunt of it.

Parenting is really frustrating at times. It’s impossible to keep your sensibility in check at all times. You never know what’s the next fight that’s around the corner. While swimming Jispa behaves like the champ. She changes into her costumes, adjusts her cap and goggles, takes her start and swims like crazy. As parents, one tends to forget that the tough competitor hides a child. A nine year old child with enough ants in her pants. This came to the fore during the otter’s club meet. The otters club swimming pool has a section which has a diving board. The kids completely freak out on it. Jispa has never been off one. Between events Jasmine told me that Jispa is having fun at the diving boards. I thought should go around and teach her a trick or two. I used to dive off the board as a kid and it was good fun. We used to have fun diving just like that as well. Who needed a board. We tried to perfect dives and I remember we even tried to do a somersault while diving. That was real fun. Especially if you land on your back and get a whack from the water. So I thought it would make sense to knock some non sense into her diving.

I reached there to find Jispa doing this…

So here I was the one trying to teach a kid to be a kid. It’s humbling to know that your kid doesn’t need you to teach her. Later I asked her who taught her and of course, I should have guessed. Her friends. Get a board and a water body, that’s all the kids need to have fun. I can only take credit for the fact that I did not stop their fun.

making money - out of nothing at all

Seigniorage – Simply explained, this is the profit that the government makes from printing money. Your ten rupee note doesn’t cost the government ten bucks. It costs much less. Hence for a fraction of the cost the government can pump money in the economy. Of course things are not so simple. Here is one nice podcast by planet money on the topic. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/04/19/150976150/should-we-kill-the-dollar-bill . Transcript at the bottom of this post. You should be able to broadly understand seigniorage while listening to the benefits of the coins versus notes in circulation. One of the most interesting stuff is the argument that the government makes a lot of money by having coins as opposed to notes is because people don’t put coins back into circulation because they don’t like them in their wallet. And to add the fact that coins tend to get lost between the cushion on the sofa! That’s all profit for the government. But obviously there is a cost to such seigniorage, which they correctly identified. Moneys made through inefficiencies are what you count as profits. It is stupid. It is not your primary job. The primary job for money is to pass around, not sit in the vault like McScrooge. Do you guys remember this cartoon of Donald Duck’s uncle jumping and swimming in his vault with tons of cash stashed around?

Cash in your wallet and in your jars and under your sofas are profit from the government but are absolutely useless for the economy. The money has to be in circulation and put to productive use. If you save it, put it in the bank, so that a portion of it can be lent out. Accounting for accruing money from lost coins is the same as black money you can store in your vaults. It’s the same problem. It’s not simply the tax that is saved. Legitimizing the flow of money has a much larger positive effect of the economy than simply the tax being collected.

Similarly, even corporations try and earn money through inefficiencies. The finance industry’s famous one is called ‘float’. Simply – if I owe you money and I write a cheque to you and give it to you one day late, I will earn interest income for one day. Not that you mind it too much. You don’t care about the one day interest on your small amount, but added up in a large amount of payments and you have a very large float for the organization. So if you ever wondered why they love you to pay online, instantly but they always like to pay you by cheque, you have an answer.

Even in mutual funds and other such organizations, you will have tons of money that is lying with the organization which is pretty much forgotten. Some body once told me that UTI would have hundreds of crores of money that would always be invested with them because of people who simply forgot or have dies and their heirs are unaware of the investment. I am not sure, but it’s likely that even insurance firms would accrue such seigniorage. The fun of policies sold and lapsed due to non-payment created a happy boom for them till the new rules set by IRDA disallowing the firms to benefit thus.

I think we get too clever for our own good. We forget our core job, which may be to provide a service in the best possible way for the customer. It should be a firm’s fiduciary responsibility to ensure efficiency in the system. One normally blames the regulators but the Indian regulators brought in some semblance of order to the insurance industry causing abnormal inefficient profits to be wiped off, also the regulators forced the banks to pay daily interest. Otherwise they were paying only on the lowest balance of the month with some other complex calculation. Ditto for getting rid of prepayment of home loan charges.

Even in the other firms I have worked for, not just financial firms, I see this problem. The finance guys get over smart and start controlling the system. They make an excel sheet to prove how paying payment a little late and getting payments a little earlier can cause great amount of ‘savings’ and profits to the firm. Money is an interesting topic. The structuring of money and the economic, monetary, banking systems are lopsided towards making tons of money through inefficiencies. The ones in the know can hugely benefit from those not in the know. In India this is popularly known as the Gujju mindset and this particular breed seems to understand this better than others. Gujjus and Marwaris are typecast thus. Or if you prefer the Brahaminical order, you would call it the ‘banya’ mindset. Use your trader mindset to make money. You definitely need a trader mindset while doing business and understanding cash flow is critical but using it to overrule simple customer centric thinking is pure stupidity.

But forget all that. When we went to Matheran a few weeks ago I did something that made the government a teeny bit richer. I remember as a kid once we had a trek organized to Matheran. We went up the hill station from the back road and came down the main road which at a few points crosses the Famous Matheran Light railway. At the time, my friend had pulled out a few coins and put it on the rails to see how they become when the trains run over it. This time around I had the chance to do it and show Jispa. We saw a train coming and I quickly put in a one rupee coin and a five rupee coin on the tracks. Jispa was wondering what I was doing. Sure enough the engine passed over it and flattened the coins. Jispa was pretty excited and we could send it with her the next week to school for a show and tell. That was a pretty unique show and tell and it benefited the government by around five bucks (I am assuming it cost one buck to make the two coins). Here are the two profitable pieces of metal for the government.

The Transcript of the podcast as follows.

April 19, 2012 -:

Subway riders here in Washington were recently the target audience for an unusual ad campaign. The ads show giant one dollar bills and asked, do you heart the dollar? They're part of a small lobbying war over the fate of the dollar bill. There's legislation in the House and Senate that would eliminate all $1 bills and replace them with dollar coins.

NPR's investigative unit and our Planet Money team checked into the debate over coins versus bills. And David Kestenbaum and Robert Benincasa think they have a winner.

DAVID KESTENBAUM, BYLINE: Here's the question. Given that we need to have some form of money out there worth a dollar, which is more cost effective, a bill or a coin?

ROBERT BENINCASA, BYLINE: Before we tell you who the winner is, let's hear each side's case.

KESTENBAUM: In one corner, arguing on behalf of the dollar coin, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat from Iowa. He told us coins are a clear win. They last much longer than bills.

SENATOR TOM HARKIN: The most important thing is it's just more efficient. It's way more efficient than a paper dollar.

BENINCASA: Dollar coins last something like 30 years and he says switching to coins would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

KESTENBAUM: Coins are also, he says, easier to stick into vending machines. Harkin's office put out a video of him struggling to buy a snack with a worn out $1 bill.

(SOUNDBITE OF AD)

HARKIN: Has this ever happened to you? You try o put a dollar bill in the tray, but it won't take it. Well, that's why I've introduced bipartisan legislation to replace the dollar bill with a dollar coin.

KESTENBAUM: Harkin can rattle off a long list of countries that have replaced bills with coins.

HARKIN: Canada has a coin that's worth $2. England has a coin worth about $3 U.S. Switzerland has one worth about $5 U.S. And yet, what have we got? We got a 25-cent piece.

KESTENBAUM: Republican Senator John McCain has also signed onto the bill. And it's worth noting that businesses in both senators' states would benefit if this bill passes.

BENINCASA: Harkins' state, Iowa, is home to a company called PMX, which makes the metal sheets that get turned into coins.

KESTENBAUM: Senator John McCain's state of Arizona is home to some big companies that mine copper, the main ingredient in dollar coins.

BENINCASA: So, that's the coin side of the fight. In the other corner, fighting for paper, you'll find an organization called Americans for George.

KESTENBAUM: Because George Washington is on the $1 bill. Americans for George put those ads in the D.C. subway and again, here you find a lot of money behind the arguments over money. Americans for George was started by the company that makes the paper the $1 bill is printed on. Crane & Company.

BENINCASA: Doug Crane is a vice president there. As you might imagine, he says paper dollars are better than coins.

DOUGLAS CRANE: A dollar bill is made from a blend of cotton and linen fiber.

KESTENBAUM: Paper bills are cheaper to manufacture than coins, he says, and they last surprisingly long. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, a $1 bill lasts about four and a half years.

CRANE: U.S. currency, you know, it's some of the most durable banknotes on the planet. And, you know, the $1 bill is probably the hardest-working note there is.

KESTENBAUM: So, what to make of this. The coin people say coins are better. The paper people say paper is better. Both cannot be true.

BENINCASA: And to make things more confusing, both sides point to the same official report to make their case.

KESTENBAUM: The report was written by the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan arm of Congress that's often called on to settle questions like this.

BENINCASA: We talked with the GAO's Lorelei St. James who oversaw the report. The GAO has recommended switching to coins.

LORELEI ST. JAMES: That still stands.

KESTENBAUM: She says switching to coins would make the government money. Over 30 years, a lot of money.

JAMES: We show that there would be a $4.4 billion net benefit to the federal government.

KESTENBAUM: But it turns out that $4.4 billion does not come from the fact that coins are more cost effective to make. Coins do last longer, but they also cost more to manufacture. No, according to the GAO, the extra money for the government comes from this other weird thing. It's going to take us a minute to explain.

BENINCASA: It turns out if you switch from dollar bills to dollar coins, you can't just do a one for one replacement. You actually need more coins than you would bills. Why? Because people don't like carrying coins around.

JAMES: A lot of people when they take their coins out of their pockets at the end of the day or their purses, they'll put in what we call a coin jar.

KESTENBAUM: The coin jar effect. In Canada and the U.K., the governments had to put out all these extra coins, over 50 percent more, just to keep enough money circulating. The GAO says these extra coins mean extra money for the government.

BENINCASA: Because the government makes a profit from every bill or coin out there, so more coins, more profit. It's called seigniorage.

KESTENBAUM: So case closed, right? Not so fast. We're here to tell you there is something big missing from that GAO report, which is where all that money the government is getting comes from. It turns out it comes from us.

BENINCASA: To help explain how this works, and to render the final judgment, let's meet one more person, Robert Whaples. He's an economist at Wake Forest University.

KESTENBAUM: Whaples weirdly came to us via the dollar coin lobby, a group called the Dollar Coin Alliance. The Dollar Coin Alliance said make sure you talk to him; he's a pro-coin guy.

BENINCASA: So, we called Whaples up. He read the GAO report, thought about it, and he said the choice is very clear: The paper dollar wins, the coin loses.

ROBERT WHAPLES: It's clearly an inferior substitute. People are going to be putting them on top of their bureaus instead of spending them for transactions. And that seems like a big waste of resources to me.

BENINCASA: Whaples says all that money the government makes on the dollar coin, all that extra money, it doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from us.

KESTENBAUM: Think about it this way, if I have a paper dollar, I'll probably use it or put in the bank. But if stick a coin in a jar, I'm not getting anything from it. I'm not earning any interest on it. It's like we're paying a tax.

WHAPLES: That is exactly how I would see it.

KESTENBAUM: Well, but the Dollar Coin Alliance said I should talk to you because you favor the...

WHAPLES: Yeah, I guess they made a mistake.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

KESTENBAUM: There you have it.

I'm David Kestenbaum.

BENINCASA: And I'm Robert Benincasa, NPR News.

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whats worth more?

When we grew up we hardly had any swimming costumes to choose from. You just went to some sports store and picked yourself a costume. I used to swim regularly in Dubai, that is till the third standard. When we shifted to India we stopped swimming. No club, no pool. One big posh building (Avanti) in the locality had a swimming pool which was empty. They repaired it a few years later and started it, but it was out of bounds for outsiders. The only accessible pool was the municipal pool at Shivaji park, which was some distance away.

As a kid I went into the pool but I hadn’t really properly learnt swimming. So after a long time when I finally went swimming with my friend at the Avanti swimming pool, I realised I had completely forgotten to swim. I used to do some variation of the underwater stroke or something, which just about kept me afloat. So there was no swimming for me for many years. Till one day V-inu and I in the first year of college (F.Y.B.COM) decided to swim properly at the Shivaji Park pool. We figured out when the forms come out (once a year), got the forms, filled it in and started swimming. We saw what the coaches taught and learnt that one has to hold the sides of the pool and splash ones legs to learn to float. So we sat and splashed. Slowly we figured what we thought was free style and swam.

We also had started doing odd jobs as sales promoters. One assignment was at the defense canteen. So there we used our contact we had built up and I remember buying for myself a swimming costume. A defense canteen would have heavily discounted stuff, thanks to the non-applicability of taxes. I don’t remember the brand but it was some home grown, possibly Jalandar made brand. I don’t remember too well, but I think I couldn’t afford and hence did not even dream of buying swimming goggles or a swim cap. I did try and buy ear plugs but quickly released that they didn’t help a bit. Speedo was a brand that was not available in India and was something I could only drool over. OOO… Speedo swimming wear.

So when Jispa started swimming seriously we went and picked Speedo swimming costumes. They were an upgrade from her home grown ‘mad max’ or some brand like that swimming costume.Speedo. Wow. She had not one but three speedo swimming costumes. When you go for competitive swimming, you change your costumes after every race so that you can remain nice and dry while you await your race. Speedo costumes, cap, goggles. Not bad eh! Till recently we realised that even Speedo is not it. Now Jispa is a walking talking Arena billboard. She prefers that material over Speedo. Slowly we are seeing Arena  taking over. Speedo seems to only stock during the summers. Most sport shops are out of stock of Speedo or any decent swimwear the rest of the year. Whereas Arena is slowly building credence with the serious swimmers. This is a serious marketing lesson. In the last three four years, I have noticed suddenly Arena swim wear on the bodies of the athletes. This has an effect greater that what we can imagine. If the champions in the pool start wearing Arena, then the others will slowly see and realize that Arena is ‘real’ swim wear what champions wear. Even the casual swimmer will see this and slowly gravitate towards Arena. Speedo is in real danger in Mumbai at least of being the lower performing swimwear brand.

This emulation effect is larger than we realize. Big brands have understood this and that’s why you see the bad rush to pay obscene amounts of money to make champions wear your brand on the stage. But what Speedo is failing to see, is the fact that there are champions in every small nook and corner. The classic marketing case of Arena having really high end swimwear in stock, which probably doesn’t sell at all but defiantly has a strong rub off for the more boring models. They sponsor the Otter club meet where they have a stall. I glanced through the selection and quickly ran out of there when I saw my costumes for two thousand bucks. Hah! One other parent told me, forget that. There was a kid’s model for 12 thousand bucks. A high end costume which has to be worn in a particular manner. It probably took around 15 minutes just to wear it. Oh come on.

Then we got talking and I realized some kid champions were wearing real high end costumes, costing upwards of twenty thirty thousand rupees! Oh dam you. Some real special fast costumes. These costumes I had read reduce your drag and help you swim faster. The net effect would be something like one tenth of a second at best. One tenth! In these club meets and state meets, timings are taken by hand held stop watches. There are two time keepers for every race and then timings are taken at the end. One tenth of a second is the easily human error in the stop watch, it surely is not what the kid needs for now.

The most of the timing improvement at this age is not the equipment but strokes. The right strokes help you slash off seconds. Your improvement is measured in seconds. The coach works on this every day. For Jispa the coaching fees are around 900 bucks a month for 5 one hour evening turns and 3 one and a half hour morning turns. From which the gymkhana keeps a cut and shares the rest with the coach. For a coach that produces state and national champions, it’s hardly any fees. Jasmine and I find it really cheap.

The coach has a strict policy of not accepting any extra gifts or money. They refuse any attempt by the parents to give them anything.  They are extremely sweet. This year the club decided to honor them at a party (tomorrow) and the mothers are using this as an opportunity to collect and give a cash envelope with the felicitation. It interesting to see the reactions of the mothers and others while the hat gets passed around. For me the coach is paramount. I hold him in the highest esteem. It because of him that we are around. They make or break us. We did not know Jispa would swim so well. We had no dream about her swimming prowess. The coach has dreamt of her victory. We can only be grateful. I never had any sport coach. I value them immensely.

While we were have the discussion on expensive costumes I wryly remarked – ‘we can pay 30 thousand for a swimming costume that saves us one tenth of a second but we don’t pay much for the coach who helped our kid cut 20 seconds to start with’. It’s embarrassing for me to have Jispa’s swim bag contain equipment that is worth almost twice as much as what the coach makes from teaching Jispa in a year. Whats worth more?

Tough shit

In around Jan I twisted my knee to end my best ever cricket season. I was averaging 30 plus runs in every match. This was all due to a simple lesson that I overhead one coach at Shivaji Park give out to his wards. The most important one was to keep your hands close to your body while playing the shots. These 30/40 runs also could have gone to become higher scores if not for the fact that I used to run myself out so that others get batting. In all my cricketing outings, playing twenty twenty for the corporate team, I haven’t ever hit a fifty. I came close, tantalizing close to 50 once, around four five years ago. This season was the season to hit 50. Normally my job as a youngster was to hit and clear the ropes or as an elder to eschew all risk and ensure the team doesn’t lose all the wickets. Over the last two years I built the B team into a decent formidable team that had decent batsman and decent bowlers. So my role changed to keep one end up for around 7 to 10 overs while keeping the runs flowing and then attack the bowling from 10 to 15 overs. With the technical flaw getting ironed out, I started to score runs and keep my wicket guarded. The team was also doing very well and we were building a strong nucleus in the side. So I was pretty frustrated when this Jan I twisted my knee and was out of the action. The team then went on to lose two semifinals and generally morale was down. Yesterday I decided I was fit enough to play. I had been keeping my workout going in the intervening days. Swimming was on. I even started cycling in the gym and I was doing 10 kms in 30 min with a 5 resistance. So I knew my stamina and speed wouldn’t be an issue but I was very worried about being in touch. Also the issue of captainship. Men. We love to play politics and we hate giving up power. We play our game and we take every chance to play a little game. Even the game of cricket where there is probably nothing at stake, we will play our political game. In my absence, coteries had formed. The captain had formed his own favorite gang. I realized why the B team had lost its knockout matches. We lost our core and we lost it so bloody fast. I had drilled it into the team that we play, not to win but to enjoy the game. We play to have fun, and to give everyone a chance. Slowly in my absence the team forgot about this. The captain would over bowl himself and his coterie, possibly in his desire to win. The B team doesn’t have talent. They have potential. Untapped and waiting to be let lose. You will never know on which day, which player will perform. The key was to ensure enough guys get enough chances. That simple principle was thrown out of the window. People just don’t get it. “When you treat a disease you win, you lose, but when you treat a patient you always win” – Patch Adams. When you play to win, you may win or lose, but you play to give people a chance you will always win. Winning is not the objective of the sport I play. It is the happy outcome. Having such an attitude helped me unearth good talent that helped us win and build our side. But all this is complete bullshit. I left the team for a few months and we forget all that. We mess it up completely. Now I know why some guys just kept bumping into office kept asking me to come back and lead. They indicated that they would come in only if I came in to lead. In yesterday’s match I did not lead. I stayed around the fringes. The guy in charge made some stupid, silly noises and asked for my opinion as if to pay due deference. I also did not seize it as I wasn’t sure of my own fitness. I struggled on the field missing a few catches and letting a bowl go from under my feet. So I was a bit apprehensive going into bat. Opening the batting, my job was to hang around till a few overs. I hung around a bit. Hitting a few drives and a missing a few. I stayed there till the fourth/fifth over to realize that possibly we were a bit slower than required chasing 160 in 20 overs. I gestured to captain if I could start hitting. Affirmative came the gesture. I started playing aggressive, trusting my footwork and my drives. I started stepping out to the spinner. A few boundaries and a few shots played out. I was on a roll! My shots were connecting and my technique was supporting me. The heat was also oppressive, but my cycling and swimming kept me through. I was a bit tired but not dead. Ten overs and I was still going strong. I realised that we still had bench strength, which meant I could go for more shots. Up the run rate even more, if possible. In Mumbai cricket is played on maidans with the pitches never in the centre. So you will have one boundary closer than the other. Typically the spinner will always use bowl from eth end where he gets a long leg side boundary and a short offside. It’s a trap I have used many times. Get the spinner to toss up to a really long leg side field and tempt some BIG shots. You might giveaway a six but you will get his wicket next. It always works. I was not going to be suckered into this trap. I wouldn’t be able to clear that. Especially against the left arm spinner bowling away. But that meant I could get the ball to clear the offside with the spin. Easier said than done. From a Leg side player when I started playing maidan cricket twelve years ago I had slowly evolved an offside attack. I hit a few boundaries there and then… there… one of my big dreams of my life. I danced down the spinner on a pitch that was holding up and smashed the spinner with the spin for a lofted cover drive and cleared the boundary for a SIX. I have never been able to cover drive a six. I have once smashed one over point. But that was a fast swing bowler. This was the shot to unsettle the spinner. He had no option but to bowl short and that meant easy pickings. Anything on the offside was being hit hard. Your game is over. While batting I felt a twitch in my knee. The same knee. I felt my back a bit. Oops. While running and turning sharp I realized I might have hurt my toes (two blue toes when I saw them later). So now I knew I was close to my first ever fifty and I knew I might not play another match this season. What should I do. Slow down. No. never. The team comes first. So I continued hitting till one mishit and I was in the pavilion. I had batted for thirteen overs, ran like crazy for a lot of runs, hit 6 boundaries and a six and when I saw my score I wanted to kill someone. 48 of 41 balls. My god! Another chance missed. The form of my life and I had not converted it. Was I going to retire without a 50 ever? We won the match eventually and I was declared man of the match. A huge achievement for someone who never had formal coaching and learnt by reading, listening and playing. Playing cricket in my mind. Promising never to repeat my mistakes. That’s the way I learnt. The real hard way. Here is me getting my award….

And here is my scorecard, for my record. Sorry to inflict this on the reader...

But I still walked away completely tired and frustrated. Frustrated that I did not hit 50 and even more so that my team was getting destroyed. I could see the resentment on the few players. I could see that people would not come in to play in the next few matches. I could see my team disintegrate and I knew that my knee, my back and my toes would not allow me to play again this season. And hence I have no option. Shut up and walk away. I will have to rebuild the team next season. I can’t interfere from outside and I can’t change a dam thing. Oh dam, I tried explaining this to the fellows in charge but people just don’t get it do they? Simple principals are forgotten in our desire to win. We forget why we are there, to start with. All we want to do is win and we start doing stupid things. The current guy in charge is a good cricketer but he will bowl himself more than required and he will not experiment as much as he should, he will rely on old hands and do old tricks. They don’t always work for you. And you can’t build long term on short term tricks. So I walked away with a win, man of the match and a great shot with disappointment and anger. Quiet seething rage. No fifty and a team being killed and I can’t do jack. Tough shit. Really angry tough shit. I will wait for time. Possibly rebuild the team and possibly hit at least one 50. At least one.

a nice mix

It’s a bloody mela. Summer follows winter. And if you are the person swimming in winter then you tend to look at all the others who come in summer with a little disdain. They are not real swimmers. I dont see them when the water is cold. Real swimmers come and swim even in winter. They swim even when its 10 degrees. They don’t crib about the cold. I swam thru the coldest winter we ever had in Mumbai. But it’s also true that the only reason I swam was -circumstances. First reason - I had to come to the club in any case. My daughter had her swimming at 545 am. Second reason - I twisted my knee - that meant no squash no treadmill. Only option - swimming. But I can take credit - I decided to brave the water instead of lying around on my butt, waiting for Jispa to finish swimming. So I have some moral ground to stand on :-) even if it is a bit wobbly. Of all the things in the world, I never imagined I would be swimming alongside my daughter. I dreamt of other stuff. Like trekking, camping, cycling. Yes cycling.
V-nu gifted us a cycle of his. A nice expensive light cycle. Jispa had hers and we bought one more Jasmine. This was a few years ago. In our enthusiasm we dreamt of a family cycling together. We put a hook in the garage to chain the cycles to and we cycled a few days. Then the cycles just lay there securely chained. They stayed unused gathering lots of dust. Neighborhood construction ensured enough cement layers formed on the cycle. We got Jispa’s cycle up and kept it outside our door which meant it was relatively dust free. She cycled a bit. But for two years or more our adult cycles just sat and withered away.
A year back we sold one cycle to one of the maids working in the building. Her kid goes to school on a cycle and his cycle just got robbed. I had great intentions of fixing and servicing the V-nu’s cycle. Those intentions finally materialized last month. V-nu was in town and we hauled the cycle on a truck and took it to the repair guy for a complete overhaul. This was at Dadar. The day I had to collect it back from work, I decided to cycle back the 6 odd kms. I would assume that would not be too difficult. But I had never cycled on congested Mumbai roads in peak rush hour. Collecting the cycle I set off. At first out of sheer habit I hit the traffic and was waiting behind the car in front of me. It then suddenly struck me that I was on a cycle and waiting like this in a traffic jam is what you do in a car. A cycle would weave its way through the traffic between the cars. Whoops. I set off between the cars. The last time I saw a cyclist waiting patiently behind a car at a signal was at Geneva. He was taking the same amount of space as a car would, maintaining distance. This is crazy thing to do in Mumbai. I guess I would have been run over. I enjoyed weaving between the cars, going uphill then downhill. The cars I thought were pretty ok; the problem I faced was from the motorcycles. We were fighting for the same aisles between the traffic. I, with pedal power and them on their powerful motors. I had to cut lanes and out of sheer habit again, I found myself looking towards the imaginary rear view mirrors on the right. I really don’t understand how cyclists twist backwards in their attempt to see what’s behind. But on the whole I thought the experience was pretty much nice. I avoided the roads where one normally saw truck traffic and weaved through the bylanes. The greatest fun was crossing signals as a pedestrian and taking shortcuts through the wrong way. A cycle has many advantages in Mumbai.
Now with the cycle home and happily serviced, I could take Jispa to the garden cycling. With the long summer days I could cycle till late and enjoy. The first day Jispa went cycling, in some time she soon complained about her calves. Calves hurting? That too for Jispa. Thanks to swimming, Jispa has a very well toned body. She has a six pack stomach, muscular legs and a gazelle like structure. He calves paining sounded very funny. We realised that she does a lot of swimming. A WHOLE LOT OF SWIMMING. She has swimming muscles in her calves and they are different from cycling muscles or even walking or climbing muscles. The coach has given strict instructions not to swim on weekends and give the muscles some rest. So cycling muscles are different. So Jasmine and I decided to get her to cycle on weekends. Nothing as strenuous as her swimming but a bit of light cycling in the garden on weekends might do her good. Over the next three weekends, her cycling calves seemed to loosen up and she could cycle with ease without complaint. It’s probably a good thing. We really don’t know for sure, but we guess that a little bit of all round muscle development is good. I read once about Armstong (the champion long distance cyclist) complain that cyclists hate taking stairs. Its hurts them. I saw a variation happening at home. So light cycling is a nice thing, we assume.
This weekend, Jasmine packed some fries with mayo and ketchup along with some water and we took the hamper for a picnic. We cycled a bit. Now Jispa cycle a bit more on her own, take sa few rounds and then we sat down to enjoy our picnic. Just daddy and kid. Here…



I loved the time we spent. Just cycling away and then lazing around. A couple came in with their dogs with which Jispa played a bit. A nice way to spend your Sunday evening. Time well spent.

treasure your silver

“Uncle”, one kid called out to me yesterday at Jispa’s school swim meet. The school swim meet is the eagerly awaited meet at our home. Jispa always does better at her school meet and her best times are at the relay there. It is easily the most important swim meet as she gets to show case her swimming in front of her friends. All her friends know that she swims regularly. They participate but know they can’t match her. Of the four strokes you are allowed to participate in only three. You pick your ones. For Jispa the breast is the weakest stroke and hence she opted out of that one. So you had the kids sighing a relief that she was not in that stroke, which means the others have a chance. She won the golds in the three stockes and that too by a wide margin. The second place was ten seconds behind in some races. It was complete domination.
“Uncle” she called out to me, “you must be very proud of Jispa nah?”. “why?” I asked. “you must be proud of her because Jispa is so talented”. She was alluding to the fact that Jispa has had a rocking year. She did well in English elocutions, Hindi elocutions, sports day and then the swimming event (technically it’s the next academic year) etc. “er, no kid. That’s not why I am proud of her. I would be a proud parent irrespective of her talents. It doesn’t matter”
Talent. Versus hard work and perseverance? Talent is good but you still have to work a lot on it. when parents tell me congrats for my kid, I just point them in Jispa’s direction. That’s the one doing all the work. I got a chance to explain this to Jispa over dinner. I told her you have had a great year but its all becausue of the hard work you have put in. “do you remember” I asked her. “do you remember in peak winter crying before going to swim because the water would be very cold”. She nodded. I asked another one “do you remember when you practice your elocutions, I would sometimes get angry and scold you and you would cry”. She nodded again. It’s a lot of hard work. Very hard work. I keep telling any parent who cares to listen. Please put your child in any one sport / discipline outside of school. Pursue it properly with the help of a coach. Don’t aim for any medal category but preserve with it. Something that the child enjoys. Do it properly. It teaches the kid a thing or two. It teaches hard work, discipline, the fun of improving every year. A mental makeup that will hold in good stead.
Jispa knows a thing or two about swimming, about getting up in winter morning to brave the cold waters. She saw her timings improve after the weather warmed up. These experiences are more precious than the golds she wins. I don’t hold any of her medals close to my heart. They are a means, not the end. Some of her races are more fun than others some more exciting but really, its about training every day, focusing on technique, concentration and above all perseverance that counts.
After her three strokes, came the time for the relays. One was the girls relay which she anchored and the team won effortlessly. Fourth gold. The last was the mixed relay in which they take the top four swimmers per house. She was anchoring that as well. At the start her friend went in first. A competent swimmer, I saw she missed her tumble turn to touch the wall and come back. That is clearly one to two second loss. Why did she do that? I later realized that it was because while swimming her goggles twisted and she was almost swimming blind. She bravely yet barely gave a lead which was lost due to a weak second and third swimmer, which meant that Jispa would start being around 15 meters (half length) behind. Now that is the best situation for Jispa to be in. Anchoring a relay and starting well behind. Go jispa go. Last year she came from behind similarly to clinch gold. This time her adversary was the fastest boy in primary. She took off and swam like hell. She gained and gained and gained. Till the very end. People were screaming and going wild. Could she do it? The last 15 meters and the boy was still ahead. Jispa wasn’t tiring; she was going fast, still gaining. An improbable coming from behind victory looked probable. Can lightning strike twice. GO JISPA GO, I was screaming, I couldn’t stop myself. Last 5 mtr, the boy is ahead and only just, and the finish. Boy wins by one second. WHOA. What a race. Jispa misses her fifth gold to get silver.
In the evening I asked Jispa “do you remember the athlete’s prayer”. “Which one, dad?” “When a great….” I started to have it completed by Jispa “player comes to write against your name, he writes NOT if you have won or lost but how you played the game”. “Yes Jispa. You came in second in the second relay, but then what happened? Everyone forgot the first place and came personally to congratulate you. They all told you that you swam a lovely race. You did very well, you were surrounded and everyone was talking about you and congratulating you. Who remembered the winner?” “Yes, you are right”. “Understood Jispa? It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you have played your game. They saw your game, not your victory (or lack of)”. The penny dropped. She understood. She smiled. All these I wasn’t talking bum. These are things you can’t understand when you win. That’s a pretense of humility or talk. But you experience it when you have played your heart and yet you have lost.
That silver Jispa, that silver… is more valuable than your Golds. Treasure it.

light ears

We are wondering on how smart should smart be? The other day Jispa took news cut out to school. It said that some scientists found a new galaxy (an odd shaped one) 79 million light years away. I have been talking to Jispa about physics and the speed of light. So I explained to her that that statement meant that the galaxy is so far away that light will take 79 million years to reach it. “And” she added “nothing can go faster than light”. Yup. So here is your cut out and there you go to school.
In the evening I asked her, how her day was. She said, “the teacher corrected me. I said the galaxy is 79 million light years away. That means that light takes 79 million years to reach there. Then teacher told me – no that’s wrong Jispa. A light year is not that. On earth we measure time in years and in space we say light years”. ARRRRGGHHHHH. Oh God. That was a real painful one for me. It isn’t wrong. Her teacher is wrong. I was livid. If you don’t know, you should keep quiet but you shouldn’t correct the child. I went online and showed Jispa what the correct definition is. I was thinking of sending a print out. In the evening Jasmine suggested that sending a book instead of a google print out. Anyone can have a printout but a book is somehow … different. Ok fine. I am sure I have a book on galaxies that explained the light year. So I hit the shelf and found one. Sure enough.
The light year is a unit of distance not time. And it is the amount of distance the light covers in one year (technically – in a vacuum). So I was all ready to send it today morning with her. On Sunday though, I got cold feet. What if the teacher thinks we are too smart? Over smart? Should we, shouldn’t we? Or just let it be. What difference does it make? Like the teacher in second grade who does not know the difference between a parrot and a parakeet, or an egret or a stork. So I told Jispa “wait a bit, take it to school a few days later. Tell your teacher that you read this in a book and then you thought you could show it”.
Well, we really don’t know. The power equation in a school, any school, any classroom is completely in favor of the teacher. When I teach I try and shift the balance a bit back to the class. Allow them to talk, allow them to discuss. Let them know that they could be right and also better than the professor. It’s not that tough to say I don’t know to a class. That’s what I try and do. Only when things get a little edgy I explain who the boss is. Status maintained, now we can get messy again.
So we are wondering. I will probably ask Jispa what she feels like doing and get her to do it. I would like her to go and have a chat without being too haughty about it. The book is also the perfect book. It’s a guide to the gob smacking galaxy. A simple nice, easy to read book in a really simple language. It’s probably the right thing to do, but I am going to let Jispa take that call. Let’s see.

Lord almighty!

Man. God is in fashion. Real fashion. Many years ago I had been to Trambakeshwar and I remember it being a sleepy town and a sleepy temple. But last week I went there to be confronted with a three hour queue. Dam it, the architecture wasn’t even cool enough for me to wait in that line. And I am not too keen on worshipping stone. The queue outside the complex looked innocuous enough and we stood for an hour to get in to be faced with a long winding queue inside. Jasmine and I wanted out, but our friend and his wife wanted to stay. We would waited outside if not for Jispa who wanted to stay. Dam you Jispa. So we stayed on a snaking queue which was 22 lanes long. Another two hours. Very painful.
Only one way in and one way out. High metal bars so that people don’t jump the queue. Railings in the middle so that people don’t squeeze in thru the bars. Luckily there was a roof overhead and a few fans, but overall it was bloody tiring and hot. Here is a picture of Jispa waiting in the queue. I feel like cattle being herded in. Why do we mistreat our people thus? The people have no bloody option. There are only twelve special Shiva temples – the 12 jyotirlingas and if you want divine intervention you have to go in and pray there. After waiting for 12 hours, you get only 2 seconds in front of the deity with the ushers constantly pushing you out of there. The whole point of the 3 hour wait is to get an audience with God. To tell him I was there, that I waited. And my friends were very happy. They managed to get the Prasad that they had bought through to the God. The priest took their packet and touched it to the deity and gave it back to them. Awesome for them!
I got out of there and sat behind. Jispa came along and I explained to her; if enough people believe it, even a piece of stone can become a God. But I guess it works both ways. To me the lines show me that there is no God inside. This is pure delirium. To the others, the presence of this line might only ratify that there is not only a God in there, but a huge powerful God with boon granting facilities.
Its amazing how many people come in and follow rituals, how many try and beat the line, how many push and pull, how their tempers flare. How badly is the pilgrim treated? All this must an integral part of pilgrimage. Here is the photo of the line in which we stood. Its stupid and chaotic.



And if you think India is shining and that India is improving, one just has to look at the loo facilities provided. The common loo outside was a really bad place. It was dirty, dark, dingy and never cleaned. Luckily Jasmine had a scarf which she first gave me. I wrapped it around my face to get in. There was no way I could have held my breath for that long. In many loos in India we have suddenly understood that we can start charging money, but hell, we just understood that. We did not understand that after charging we must ensure hygiene and cleanliness.
Sacerdotal intercession. The belief that we need a conduit to get to God. The all-powerful Pandit in this case. He has a vested interest in keeping you insecure, in making you explain that all you need is a mantra or a ritual to set you free from the encumbrances in your way. I am lucky. I consider myself very lucky, I soon realized the fallacy in believing in this. I refused many years ago to believe in it. My mom and dad were practical about this yet we did go all over India to different places of religious interest, stood in lines, prayed and performed poojas. I think, like most others, we too were confused Jains. Fundamentally you can’t have the Jain and the Hindu faith intermingling in your mind. The Jain faith is about a way of life, a kind of athesism that says that the answer lies in living your life in a certain way. To give up desire and greed. The Hindu faith has pandits, who can help you. In Jainism there are monks who can only explain the path to you. But to my parents and to so many others I saw, it was all confusing. I like the way we called ourselves Hindu. Forget that – I love the way Shiva is a Hindu God when it seems there is no mention of him in the vedas. It seems he was a probably a tribal God of fertility or something that got well integrated into Hinduism. So many don’t even realize that the lingam in which form the God is worshipped is actually considered by many as a phallus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingam) and it stands on the female organ. Of course there are numerous interpretations but people do worship blindly without knowing or understanding these concept as well.
But there is a line – a queue outside that is three hours long. And I dam it stood in it. Ok. In hindsight it was probably a smart decision. I don’t know what Jasmine and I would have done outside the temple complex for two hours in the heat. It isn’t like there is a café there to hang out in. no proper restaurants and like all Hindu towns, there are lots of cow, which produce copious amounts of cow dung. So the line was good. As the devout would say – you were there because God called you in there to witness his star presence. It was only willed by him. Cool. Thanks God. Was worth every penny. Just forgive me if I don’t do it again.

Sports mind

I guess it’s important to feel good as well. Brands make you feel good. Jispa has been swimming pretty good these days and I like the way her strokes have improved. And with the amount of swimming she has been doing, she did run out of costumes. Jasmines keeps around four to five costumes for her. You need these many if you are competing. In a typical competition she would take part in 5 races and you need to come out, change into a fresh costume and remain dry till your next race. So jasmine went yesterday to buy Jispa’s costumes. These are among the few things that I don’t like to see price. You get simple Indian costumes for around 500 bucks and you get the speedos or the even higher end Arena for upwards of 1500 bucks. Jispa prefers the Arena. She says it’s lighter in the water. And somehow the material and feel is much better. Though I am quite sure it would not influence her timing one bit.
As a kid, we hardly got the right material to play with. Not that I played any sport seriously but even a simple TT racquet would be the cheap one if any. I like buying good sports equipment. If you play the sport you have to buy the equipment. Many times it’s even a bit about feeling good. You can debate forever about how much impact it may have but there is no denying that having a better brand on your side makes you feel better. When I first started playing cricket I too had the hangover of days gone by. I did not have my own kit. No bat, no proper tracks, no proper shoes. The first thing I bought for myself was cricketing gloves. I was pretty proud of them. Then I remember buying pads and thigh guards. Finally only about a year back I bought proper cricket shoes. I would make do with the running sneakers till I realized at my age I was slipping and falling and not having rubber spikes on my soles was a bad thing. I even relished buying my squash racquet then upgrading it and then breaking it and buying another one in its place. That was really fun. I love the smell of new equipment, the feel of new equipment.
One colleague once remarked – Jispa is spoilt nah? I was like – no she isn’t. She definitely isn’t. But then I decoded the statement. Ya. I answered she is privileged. She definitely has more resources at her disposal than what I had at my age. She gets more shopping, more fun, more games, more books, and a lot more. We try and give her more but we try and not spoil her. Spoilt is a relative term. Sure we take the car and go roaming about. We don’t travel 2nd sleeper non AC. We stay good, we eat ok. But we don’t have a full time maid after her. She doesn’t get down from the car and expect someone will pick her bag. She has no right to on the air conditioning on her own. She walks where possible and she eats largely what’s decided upon. Sure she is privileged but I wouldn’t say she is spoilt.
And if I don’t buy three Arena costumes for my kid who swims 12 to 15 hours a week, what’s the point of taking shit from office. Hence when Jasmine called me and asked me, I said – sure. Buy them. She swims so much, she is doing decently well, the least of all she deserves is a costume she likes wearing. I don’t want her to go in the pool, eyeing another girl’s costume.
I was talking with my boss the other day. His son plays tennis at the inter-state level. There the costs are phenomenal. Costs for shoes every month, racquets, gutting, coach, a marker, etc. It easily comes to around a million rupees (10 lakhs) a year. and what do you make back from it? probably nothing. Unless you seriously break into the top league. Then I look at Jispa’s costume that lasts a year and look at the price and think – sure kid – buy one more. Here.
Here expenses will come if she breaks into something really big later. If she has to go abroad to train, then she buys those really specialized costumes, and does some serious Olympic level training. But till then I am a relatively happy soul and Jispa is relatively privileged girl.
Side note – she met and saw Rehan Poncha train at her swimming pool. He is India’s swimming hope at the upcoming London Olympics. She spoke to him about his training and food. And more importantly she saw his swim. She was gushing about it and was pretty excited. “He went so fast”. Jispa was lucky to see it. Champions are champions and when you play the sport seriously you realize what a champion is. Jispa could see the champion, his strokes, his power and his speed. She said – ‘dad, when he came out of the pool, his body looked like a triangle. Really big shoulders and a small waist… and his calf muscles had lines...”. I was happy that she saw a champion through the eyes of a sports person. I have always felt that one must play a sport. In nothing else you will understand a nuance to life. You will have a sportsperson’s mind and a sportsperson’s eye. Just being a dad to a swimmer has changed my perspectives to sports in general, I can only imagine what it might have done to Jispa. Mission accomplished.

swim for me

22 laps… that is 550 meters. That’s what I swam today. The most I have ever swum at one time. Wohooo.. I feel good. A few days back I found a trouser of mine closing a bit tighter. The scared me. I promised my self that I will swim hard now. Probably age is catching up. Metabolism is slower and the propensity to put on a rounder self is greater. Probably this was also due to two days of marriage revelry which was preceded by three days of conference. Five days of pure sugar. Feasting and pumping your body with sugar can only add a few inches to your mid riff. I have this tendency to binge on food and then completely stay off without even feeling any craving. It’s not like I punish myself when I am off fried or sweet food. It’s a natural shift. SO right now – I am healthy Sam. So I told Jispa that I will do 20 laps.
It’s always the best thing to announce your goal to someone. I keep telling myself and Jasmine and Jispa that I would do 20 laps. 20 laps. Out of which 10 will be in one go. So today morning also I told Jispa that I will hit 20. At six am I jumped in. There are some days when you somehow have reserve energy and you end up swimming quite well. The moment you hit the water you know this is going to be a good day. Your legs keep splashing and your hands glide through the water. Today … today… was NO such day. After the first lap, I was thinking about resting. The third lap and I wanted to stop. Legs not moving, hands not in sync, my reserve dipping and I was left wondering, what I ate last night. Why am I tired already? But a word made to Jispa was a word made to Jispa. If she does it, I have to as well. I started pushing myself. Four, five, six…. Then on it was good. You get tired but you are ok with it. The muscles then get used to it. Slowly slowly pushing it. Easy on the hands, hold your position. Keep kicking. Check body, head a little ahead, the arms must bend while pulling back, imagine you are pulling a rope, yes, keep going, push the water back. Everything that the coach told me was going through my head. Ten Down. A bit of rest and the next set begins. Taking a couple of breaks I finished the rest.
I sat out of the water, at the edge of the pool for a few seconds. Taking in the achievement. Wow. I have never swum so much at one time. 20 was a big goal of mine for some time. Now on to the next goal. 40 laps. That is a proper kilometer of swimming. Of course the mini goal on the way is the doing 20 without stopping. Another Big goal is to learn the tumble turn from Jispa. It seems that’s a tough one. You end up blowing out with force so that you don’t breathe in water when you somersault inside.
Now that my swimming style has been refined, one doesn’t get that stressed out post the swim. It a bit sore on the muscles but it’s not like I am limping or anything. Now I can really appreciate what Jispa goes through every day. In the evening many times while sleeping, Jispa requests us to press her legs. Especially when there has been a kicking session at the coaching camp. I have always loved massaging her legs. These days we have been using olive oil. It’s a dad thing I guess. I can understand but now I have the right to say – I almost truly understand her … pain? Well it’s not really a pain as she never really does complain about it. She seems to enjoy it. I once explained to her that her pain is due to muscles tearing and repairing and getting stronger. I think knowing the reason for pain is enough for her to bear it. Also she is doing something she loves. She enjoys her swimming, she enjoys improving her timing… and that’s pushing her forward. That’s important. I have always maintained that a motivation for a champion must come in from within. You can’t push from outside. I can’t push her. I won’t push her. I can only wake up in the morning at 5, wake her up by 5.15 and take her to the pool. That’s my deed. I can press her legs and give her a good diet. But the Pool is hers. I have to stay out.

Shopping requires growing up

It can get frustrating shopping with Jispa. Not that I really blame her. It’s just that as parents we need to grow up. Jispa is nine years old and like a good nine year old she has an opinion. Whatever the reason, whatever the thought process in her mind… how can I fault her for having an opinion? She just can refuse to wear something out of the blue. So we always get her to choose her clothes. These days I have been trying to get her to buy a dress. Too much jeans makes a tom boy. She has very clear stuff that she would like to wear. Rule one – no sleeveless. I don’t know why… she never gives a reason except – just! And most of the pretty dresses are just that – sleeveless. So this time I really picked her brain and told her to explain to me why she doesn’t want a dress. I finally cornered her. She was not clearing her preference because if she explained to us what she wanted and Jasmine got something basis that then she would have to wear it, whether she liked it or not. So she and I got into a pact. I would only buy what she liked and she would not be pressured into buying anything. In return she will shop with me for a dress. I finally understood what she wanted.
She wanted a simple solid color dress. No frills, no stupid embroidery, no extra flowers or motifs, not too much flair. Basically a women’s dress and not some baby Barbie pink floral dress. I like that. That’s my girl. It’s a different thing that we never did get anything to that specification.
But I think I figured a little bit more about her. She does not immediately explain her mind. She thinks a lot. Many times I tell Jasmine that don’t take her answers or behavior at face value. There is a lot she doesn’t tell and her mind ticks faster than anything else Jasmine has ever experienced. Be aware of her insecurities; be aware that she thinks a lot. She thinks about what you might think basis the answer she gives. She is two steps ahead of you. Not in a shrewd selfish way, but in an acute perceptive way. How do I know all this? Simple – I remember my childhood.
Now I think I might have got her shopping pulse - How am I to get shopping with her without my brains being fried? This time we went shopping for an Indian dress at fabindia. A Salwar kurta. I led her to the place. Showed her the designs and we quickly agreed to a piece to which I quickly agreed. She is an action lady not a dainty girl with a Barbie purse. Jasmine keeps blaming me for making a tom boy of her. What I realized one day, is that possibly Jasmine is the one influencing her dress sense. Jasmine never wears a dress. On a daily basis she is a sloppy dresser, being in a track and t shirt through the day. What role model does she have at home. No lipstick, no make up, pants and t-shirts. Further proof – Jispa loves chapsticks and guess what – jasmine applies chapstick. Jasmine will definitely point at me for a lot of things, but I guess here – she underestimates her role as a role model as well. It’s impossible that I am the root cause of all evil :).
So Jispa found her single color salwar kurta and tried it out for me. Man, has she grown up, she looked nice and cute and grown up. I am finally coming to terms with her growing up. It’s difficult but I have no choice. It’s a funny uneasy balance. I push her to grow up and behave on so many things, and then she keeps reminding and fighting for us to recognize that she is grown up. Whoops. This is one tug-o-war.
Here is she… trying one for size. She finally picked this one. I really like this photo. I really love her. Gosh.

haw many have you missed?

Finally I seem to be getting a grip over things. I guess this job change has been very good from a learning perspective. I joined here in November 2010. It’s been a year plus on the seat. With the benefit of hindsight I can say, I came in with a bit of arrogance. I thought I could radically change the way things are done around here. Give new direction to the way marketing must function, show the fellas a trick or two, ‘oh what a great boy am I’. Quickly I ended on the wrong side of things. No one likes to be shown that they are wrong. I realized that I wasn’t exactly entirely welcome here. People are resistant to change. Things change far more slowly in a large organization. Egos are volatile things. Everything can move must it requires a gargantuan force to move it. I am reminded of a phrase ‘when immovable object meets unstoppable force. Yes. It’s been tough. Very tough one year.
Also managing 15 heads is another challenge. I have to understand their jobs, their restrictions, their own strengths and their own weakness. Yesterday I arranged for a talk with the IT guys with my team. I thought it was pretty informative. Any one is worth listening to as long as he is saying something from his experience. The head of the department said something which I hope to never forget. He was talking about his a-ha moment when he changed some fundamental things about the structure of the trading engine. I asked him about the risks associated with the change. He said “we realized one thing. Whenever you do something it is very important to understand the limitations of what you can do. As long as you can understand that , you are not likely to go wrong”. Yup. It takes time to understand that. I think those words are golden. I too came in knowing my strengths, knowing that my strengths are my weakness, but I really did not know my limitations enough. I did not know the limitations of my team, I did not know the limitations of the infrastructure they are dealing with. Its easy for a guy who is new to the system to come in and say that the way things are run here …. It doesn’t make sense. But I learnt – and it’s taken me a year to learn, that things are difficult. Have patience, understand people, understand their limitations, and understand the limitations of the system. The fine line is to understand this yet push through change. Yet keep that fire. Of course I have to change the system, but by staying inside of it, not by being outside of it.
Wasn’t that the reason I left consulting and joined the business? The chance of doing real work and making a real impact by staying inside of it. That was my objective. No matter how smart you get, life always gets the better of you. That is the best part of it. It never ever fails to teach you a trick or two. You have to be willing to put your nose to the grind, bend and have patience.
Speaking of life, parenting also teaches you something every day. Every time when Jispa sleeps we know she will rotate quite a bit. She twists herself in unimaginable postures. She flips around and changes her pose in ways you think are impossible. So every time she sleeps, I put a bunch of pillows on the floor. She might fall anytime and at least the pillow will help. Sometimes, she likes to sleep in our room. We put the mattress and make her bed on the ground. Then as a precaution I put a pillow near the leg of the bed, just in case she hits it, then near an edge near the wall, just in case she hits it, then near the cupboard, just in case she hits it. The day before, she wanted to sleep inside. We let her. I helped her make the bed. And I missed putting the pillows. Also she’s grown up now. At four am, I hear a thud followed by her saying ‘ouch’. I get up to see her sitting up and rubbing her head while she saying something. I ask her what happened. “ I hit the bed”. “oops, don’t worry, go back to sleep, its ok, I will put a pillow there”. Now she is old enough not to cry on getting hit. She went back to sleep. In the morning I asked her how was her head. She looks at me for a second and remarks “oh, I thought it was a dream”.

That’s the thing with parenting – you don’t know how many you have saved, but you surely know how many you miss. I won’t know how times my prudence will have saved her, but I will definitely know when I missed doing something and it resulted in something bad happening.Hah!

I have been writing.... elsewhere

I have written stuff that has appeared in press before but it was always for someone else. Sometimes for the business head, or sometimes on a product. But this one was published in my name. It’s not a great achievement for sure. Online sites are always hungry for content… but hell… it’s there, isn’t it?
I don’t expect great views, reviews, comments but the essence of it is pretty much strong. It is pretty much strong marketing fundamental stuff. That I am ready to risk my neck out. Read on only if you are marketing inclined, else it’s not likely to be of much use. Though I did try to simplify it.
Thanks Dharen if it sounds good. And if it doesn’t – I am sorry. I probably did not get it right.
http://www.exchange4media.com/45298_font-colorredguest-articlefont-so-you-think-that%E2%80%99s-a-nice-ad-eh.html

Because its there

On Saturday Jispa had her sports day. She is a nice light tall runner. I have a lot of problems with her running style but have learnt not to correct them. She seems to be jumping around taking strides longer than natural. I think she loses too much energy and effort in her bid to run faster. But nevertheless – she struck three golds. The max possible. The 50 meter dash, 200 M and the relay.
A few weeks back, she told us that from this year onwards she has a 200M race. It involves a circular track and she was wondering why not all the kids start on the same line. I explained the dynamics of length alongside a curve to her. I also told her that for her good, its probably the best thing to be at the innermost circle. This way, she would always be trying to catch up and suddenly on the last curve she would turn the fastest and find herself in an amazing lead. Being on the outer curve gives the illusion on being in the lead at the start and one could possibly slow down.
When we saw the race on Saturday, we realized that the 200M race allowed for lane change from the start itself. They only gave curved starting line a la the 1500M race. But she was still starting from the inside lane and she ran well to win. She tailed till around the 100M mark, which was more due to the staggered starting line than anything else. Pretty cool. She also ran the first leg of the relay to give her team a good lead which they comfortably held on to, actually increased it, till the end.
Then came the father’s events. I had my knee jammed a few weeks back playing squash. It’s an old injury which somehow came back to haunt me. Basically I twisted my right knee and my ligaments became loose. I had been half nursing the knee. A few days back Jasmine asked me if I was participating and I said no way. She seemed cock sure I would be. She asked me a couple of time more in the days coming upto the event. She did seem a bit eager. On the event day she even kept abreast of the schedule. She seemed so keen that I decided to run. Love is blind and combined with vanity it is completely stupid. Wearing my knee cap I trudged towards the starting line. Ready to run dude. Ready to run. The heart rate moves up a bit in anticipation. The Mind is focused on the finishing line. You take the track line that seems to offer less gravel. It’s a relatively less crowded line. I began observing how the guy was giving the clap. What is the giveaway. As he is about to slap the boards he first takes them slightly away before bringing them together. That’s your cue. That split second gives you the start faster than others. Impossible to catch and perfectly legal. Your muscles just push the ground a spit second faster. I pushed off the starting line. Legs pushing up and hitting the ground hard. Only the ball of the foot and toes hitting the ground. I was in a comfortable lead. Running hard, I felt an effortless glide. It was one of my best runs. I was enjoying every moment of it. Half way through I could see no one beside me, and I also contemplated slowing down for the final leg, till I felt a twitch. My knee. Dam. My knee. The muscles had come lose around it. STOP. There is no glory in walking out of the stadium in a crutch. I stopped and walked off the track. I did it. I screwed my knee completely.
No regrets though. I started well, I ran really nice and I would have won. That’s all I need. And in the process I just pushed my knee recovery a few weeks. Worth it. In mind I stay on as the fastest father. What else do I need? A little bit of prudence, possibly? Next time.
Winning at 36 feels good. When I entered college I was 58kgs with a 28 inch waist. I feel ill often enough. I had no muscles and a really wiry frame. My god I was a thin weakly child. I loved sports but wasn’t fit enough to follow through on it. It’s taken a lot many years to come to a winning position. In my cricket team there is a player who even played Ranji in his heyday. He is now a pale shadow, he put on weight and I outscore him. I got a bit better over the years and the others simply deteriorated. For some people life blooms late.
I never thought I would swim, play squash, cricket or run this much, so late in my life… and actually be half decent at it. It’s a dream I am living. And so when people asked me after the event why did I run, or why would I want to spend half the day in a hot sun laying cricket, or why would I get into the pool early morning in the cold. What can I tell them? What answer do I give?
George Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort "Because it's there", which has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering. I guess no one will understand a real reason and this is the best answer to give.
I play because is there to play. I run because I have legs to run.