Comments on: Life’s lessons from Vishwanathan Anand – world’s no.1

By: Sukumar

Sukumar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:14:08 +0000

Vijay,
Thanks. please let me know when you are ready to do a guest post. I will also be very happy if you wrote regularly on sports which is a topic we don’t cover that well here and we are all interested in sports probably to your level. Maybe you can try one post and then based on the response decide on a course of action.

Vijay,
Thanks for pointing out. Of the names you have cited Manuel Aaron is a worthy one and Anand used to speak in laudatory terms about him even then. But unfortunately, we need to look at conducting the highest levels of professional chess namely getting GM titles. Since Anand is the first GM, and that is when the Indian Chess floodgates truly opened up.

By: Vijay Arumugam

Vijay Arumugam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:54:27 +0000

Hockey was already a national sport (it is still is the official national sport), whereas Anand has that distinction. There was not any professional chess worth its name in India before Anand.

Sukumar,

I don’t disagree with the fact that Anand was the first real world beater from Indian chess. But we still need to acknowledge the fact that Indian chess had some very good names like Manuel Aaron, Vasanthie Khadilkar, Ravi Kumar and Parameswaran before the success of Anand.

By: Vijay Arumugam

Vijay Arumugam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:49:29 +0000

Sukumar,

Can you please remove the repeat comments of mine? I guess the initial comments weren’t published and I happened to post them again. My bad!

By: Vijay Arumugam

Vijay Arumugam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Thanks Sukumar for the kind words. Sure, when I find more time, I shall write a separate post on the great sportsperson of India. I know the fact that this blog isn’t the best of places for a sporting aficionado like me. But that doesn’t matter, as I enjoy the posts on history and anthropology and other stuff here.

By: Sukumar

Sukumar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:44:05 +0000

Thanks Priya. The question you have has profound implications and i don’t know the answer. I am not sure we can say the only way to live is to continuously reinvent yourself, although as you say, if you study successful people like Anand, that is what would emerge.

In the blissful category i can see 2 kinds – 1. ones that are not aware of their potential and are not aware of what life could potentially be and hence are carrying on with their lives 2. ones that are aware of these but still continue to do what they do by taking a conscious decision. It seems to me that the first kind are the ones that may need some help, but i am not sure anyone can be forced.

This comment has forced me to think some more to come back with a better response than the above.