Updated Apr 27,2008: Owing to Vijay Arumugam’s comment, i have amended the greatest designation i gave to Anand. Thanks for pointing out Vijay.

Last night we had the privilege of listening to Vishwanathan Anand – arguably amongst the greatest sportspersons from India if not the greatest. He singlehandedly put Chess on the national sporting agenda. Unfortunately, in a cricket crazy nation his accomplishments are often overlooked.

He spoke about his life’s lessons. The words may not be accurate but i have tried to capture the essence. Please read this as if he is speaking:

“I learnt chess at the age of 6 from my mom. And within a few months after that i went to a tournament and promptly lost the 3 games i played. I had a lot of enthusiasm which is an easy thing to do for a 6 year old. Then i went again and again and even won an award for perseverance. I started winning slowly, became the subjunior champ, junior champ, got the IM title and then the Grandmaster title with the requisite 3 norms.

I was in 10th grade in 1987 when i became GM. I was extremely happy. Felt on top. I was staying in the top hotels, playing in top tournaments etc. But suddenly, life was feeling empty because it seemed like there was nothing left to do.

Then i decided to try for the world championship and that gave me something to look forward to. I was also beginning to get used to the trash-talk and other psychological tactics my competitors were using. People used to say i had “great talent” which is an euphemism for saying i am not a champ yet. That told me that people were afraid of me and that i have truly arrived.

I achieved the world champion title in 2000, somewhere on the way beat both Karpov and Kasparov. Again i felt the same emptiness. I was getting into some sort of a routine and then i had a disastrous tournament in 2002 that forced me to rethink everything. I changed a lot of things, tried new openings, dumped my permanent coach etc. Kept at it and finally couple of years later i again won big in a tournament in Mexico.

What i learnt is this – i should not have waited for a disaster to change myself, adapt myself. We have to keep changing all the time proactively.

Last year i again made the goal to try for the world champ. This time an open tournament. I prepared hard but i was a bit detached. I was going to give it my best and try to win and not become too attached. I managed to win.

In sum, my lessons are – be enthusiastic/passionate, do things you love doing, be perseverant, don’t get into a rut, keep challenging yourself and keep adapting.

Hope that helps a bit. ”

Then he took a few questions:
1. Who is the toughest player you encountered?
Kasparov. These days this Carlson boy is a big challenge.

2. Why were the Russians so dominant?
Soviet Union was the only country that played professional chess. It was them versus all the other amateurs from the different countries. They had the system and the seniors trained the juniors. Untill Bobby Fischer came no one could challenge the Soviets.

3. What about India and Indians? What holds us back?
Indians are very creative. But when it comes to getting something done as a group we don’t do it consistently. Our public leadership is seriously lacking. With so many people in poverty we have to do something seriously. We have a long way to go.

With that his session ended. It was amazing how well he simplified and
presented the learnings.

My laments about the Indian cricket team got to her. Priya Raju makes a fine attempt to put an end to my sorrow. What can i say – ROTFL.

——–

Reading my posts, you might wrongly conclude that I have not a serious thought in my mind. At this very moment, let me assure you, that I’m thinking long & hard about spittle. This is how it all came about.

Ok, close your eyes & think about India’s performance in any sport in the world arena. For every Viswanathan Anand, Shiny Wilson and Leander Paes, we have exactly 99,952,789 talent-free zombies who think they are sports-persons. My husband, a patriot, is deeply distressed by all this. So I decided to fix this once & for all.

Sure, we were doing great in Hockey, Cricket & a few other games. As long as 2.14 other countries were playing it. In such a scenario, a medal or a cup is inevitable. It was almost enough for us to show up on time.

But soon, trouble started. The Chinese, the Koreans, the Americans, the Ukrainians (and the 190 other countries in the world) started playing all these games. Better than us. Totally inconsiderate of them, I daresay. Why, tomorrow upstarts like Vanuatu & Tonga Islands may start playing hockey & beat us pants-down.

Clearly, we need a strategy here. We should go after a sport where we have the natural inclination. No tired old shtick – we need a new game. A game where traits like team-work and discipline are not needed – we mutated & lost those traits ages ago.

We need a new game: a game where – why be humble – we Indians may be the greatest in this planet. I give you (drum-roll, please)……The Great Millenial Spitathon! Exactly what is a Spitathon? Why, the great Indian sport of spitting on the streets, of course.

You think spitting is not a sport? You narrow-minded varmint. You’ve clearly not seen a master in action. The trajectory of the spit, the speed at which it is delivered, the distance traveled – why, the possibilities boggle my mind. Not to mention the spitting mouth action – veritable gymnastics, that will give Nadia Comaneci a complex.

And the sound effects, the acoustics that go with it – I can imagine an indoor Olympic event near the wash-stand. And there is so much regional variety in spitting. Some states use paan heavily, some chew tobacco, some neither – sort of unity in diversity.

Think of all the other advantages. We don’t need special playing facilities. Any road will do for a practice session, as long as there are other people on whom one can practice. No new-fangled turf, pitch, spiked shoes or hapless coaches to blame our failures on. And there will be so much competition & skill in the country, that the selection committee will be over-whelmed.

You ask me what we should do if the French and the Brazilians latch on to Spitathon quickly & beat us? True, we must be prepared for every eventuality. Never fear, I have that covered – we can nurture 2 other games on the sly. Games where we may have total monopoly in the world: Snotathon & Peeathon.

Sorry if FTOTW had you flummoxed. It stands for Fine Tastings of the Week and was suggested by a friend Kesava Mallela.

1. Did you  know which bird migrates the longest distance? It is the Arctic Tern which migrates approx. 12,000 miles from the Arctic to Antartic and back every year. In what is undoubtedly an amazing feat of endurance, the Arctic Tern does not land during that entire journey unless absolutely essential. Wow! [Note: I couldn't find any authoritative source on the net to corroborate this particular fact].

2. What separates the great from the nearly-great? Marshall Goldsmith answers in an insightful post drawn from observing the brilliant lawyer David Bowies. <Via Jeremy Zawodny>

3. Antikythera mechanism from Greece is considered to be one of the world’s oldest known geared machines. The exact purpose and functioning of this machine has been a puzzle so far. Few days back, scientists have published their research findings in  the Nature magazine, which shows that it was an extremely accurate astronomical device. [Note: regardless of what some people say about the Wikipedia, it is amazing to note that this news item only a few days old is already featured in the Antikythera mechanism's page].

4. Animal watching 1 – A recently published study shows that female chimps in the wild form coalitions to fight back against aggressive males. Goes to show unionizing is a primitive instinct!

5. Animal watching 2 – I had come across a report a while ago that mentioned that Humpback whales used complex grammatical rules in their songs. I found that intriguing, of course. Couple of days back scientists reported that Humpback whales have some types of brain cells seen only in humans and the great apes like the Spindle Neuron and the cerebral cortex. That could explain how Humpback whales “get” grammar.

6. Roger Federer, Marat Safin and some other Tennis stars are blogging on the ATP site.
<Via Ebenezer Grace>

The entire world is savoring the world’s biggest sports spectacle – The FIFA World cup 2006 is blowing away attendance records with 3 million attendees, additional 12 million in public viewing areas in the major host cities, billions of people watching on TV. Contrast this with the Super Bowl, the biggest event in the USA which attracts about 100MM viewers. If that is not enough to make your head spin, consider the security ramifications. One incident could create devastating damage.  To tackle this, the world cup organizers have tapped several recent technological advances to make the world cup a dramatically more secure event: 1. Personal identification is mandatory in the stadiums and is coded into an RFID tag in each one of the 3.2 million tickets.
2. When the spectator passes the entrance gates, the identity as coded in the RFID tag is checked against the database.
3. Once inside the stadium, the seat location is sensed using the same RFID tag. If someone makes trouble, his/her location can be instantly determined.
4. The stadiums are equipped with advanced video surveillance systems which are capable of zooming in and reading even the brochure in the spectator’s hand.
5. Security personnel are equipped with fast fingerprint scanners to instantly check a troublemaker’s print against police databases. the list goes on. 
(Via IEEE Spectrum)

B. Aravind is running in the Silicon Valley Marathon scheduled to
take place on October 30 under the aegis of Asha. Asha focuses on basic education in the belief that education is the
most important ingredient in bringing about socio-economic
changes. Asha channels its efforts into India where 1/3rd
of the children are deprived of basic education. So far, Asha has supported more than 385 different child education projects spanning 24 states in India. In terms of project
funding, almost $4MM has been disbursed to these projects
since Asha’s inception. In 2002 alone, Asha chapters
raised and disbursed more than $1MM to over 200 projects. The
other good thing about Asha is that there are no administrative
costs at all due to the fact that it is entirely run by volunteers.
Definitely sounds impressive. Aravind says “I came to know about Asha a year back. The
data astounded me and made me realize how lucky I am to have received my education. I strongly believe in the tangible and intangible benefits of education, and I was fascinated by Asha’s complete focus on education. The coaches from Asha told me that they will help me run a marathon. I have been running for a little more than one year, and have completed 2 half-marathons in that time. I am planning to run the Silicon Valley marathon on October 30. I have gone through my fair share of injuries, and I am looking forward to that date with some nervousness.” Wingees and readers, let us all donate as much as we can and support Aravind and wish him luck for a successful run. For donating online, please go to Aravind’s member
page.  Donation guidelines –
$1 per mile = $26.2, $2 per mile = $52.4, $4 per mile = $104.8.
Any other amount you are comfortable is also okay. If you would like to mail a check directly to Asha, please make it
payable to “Asha for education” and in the Memo field write
Aravind’s runner id “2005TA88″. Please note that ASHA is a registered non-profit organization
under 501C3 in the USA and all donations are tax-exempt. (
Tax id 77-0459884).