Who is a leader?

Who is a leader? It is said that a leader doesn’t have to be the best player on the team, or the most outspoken of the lot. A leader is simply one who is willing to make the most sacrifices every day for his team. He is like water: fluid and hence capable of taking on any shape or any role that is necessary for his team to win. He is a leader not out of any thirst for power or authority, but simply because he knows that he can take the team in the right direction. He accepts the responsibility of every loss, yet realises that any victory is because of the team and not because of him. A leader knows when to pass, when to be more aggressive on defence or more assertive on offense. A leader is not afraid to take decisions. A leader clarifies the role of each and every guy on the team and ensures that each player realises their significance on the team. A leader is willing to accept mistakes and never makes the same mistakes twice. He is not afraid of failure and learns to improve with every step. He is conscious of the need to keep moving forward every day and taking his team forward. He is willing to lose today for a more permanent victory tomorrow. He knows how to push the right buttons on each of his team mates. A leader has the ability to inspire. A leader is one who is constantly in search of finding “the leader” within others around him. Once he does find “the leader” in others, he realises that his job is done, and he fades away from the spotlight just as silently as he came into the spotlight in the first place. A leader speaks from the heart, otherwise he chooses to remain silent. A leader knows that he has to lead from the front, and set an example. A leader is the most passionate, at the same time he is the most calm. A leader knows the importance of winning the right way. A leader is the one with the most burning conscience. A leader is one who trusts his teammates to a fault. A leader is one who is never tired, or even if he is-knows he shouldn’t show it. A leader realises the importance of every moment as an opportunity to make people around him improve. At the same time he understands the delicate need to not be too pushy and letting people make mistakes and learn at their own pace. A leader is one who prays for you even when you sleep. A leader is one with no ego distinct from that of the team. A leader is one who is the heart and soul of the team. A leader is one who realises the importance of continuity- of having a system in place even after he has long gone. A leader is the one who is the most sincere. A leader is one is normally of the opposite mindset of the rest of the team. When the team is nervous, he is calm. When the team is happy after a 20 point lead at the end of the third quarter, he is alert: knowing that the game is not over until it is over. That defeat is always most likely when victory seems imminent. A leader makes even the best player realise “you need the team more than the team needs you”. A leader is one who becomes better with increased responsibility. A leader feels no pressure at crunch moments. A leader is logical. A leader is a risktaker. A leader trusts his instincts. At the same time he ensures that his instincts keep developing through constant study. A leader is like a sponge- he imbibes the best qualities from those around him. A leader doesn’t demand respect- he commands it. A leader makes inspired decisions. A leader doesn’t wait for things to happen, he makes things happen. A leader shakes the collective conscience. A leader gives people hope. Contrary to popular perceptions, a leader is not flamboyant or flashy. Left to himself, a leader is a very simple and boring guy- who simply wants to play ball because he loves it.

Learning Sargams in the City

I had written this sometime in the middle of third sem (over two years ago). Just regurgitating it as I realised that this blog is named "Money, Music and NLU" and I have written nothing about music yet! Here it is:

Music is coming out great…I go across the city thrice a week and sit cross legged along with Pd, playing the sargam. Our Tabla guruji, Satish Ji charges 400 rupees a month and I should say it’s worth it. Every evening after coming back from college at 4:30 pm we sleep for an hour and somehow wake up in time to catch the college bus to Paota. Then we take a public bus to Jalori Gate. We have ganne ka ras at some tiny juice corner and walk into the old city. The street is narrow and very crowded. It is the main road apparently and we wind our way avoiding the bicyclists and the scooters; bikes and cars haven’t made their entry into this part of Jodhpur. The first three days, we always got lost. But we loved it nevertheless. This was the real Jodhpur with the blue houses and strong smell of cement and sand mix.

Satish Ji’s house is near the baori (water tank).Our guruji is tall and slightly on the heavier side. But his speed lay in his nimble fingers. In our first class, he spoke to us about music and what it really meant i.e. its universality. He explains eloquently:

“Right from the time when a child kicks in a mother’s womb, our love for rhythmic sounds grows even beyond our lives. There is music in everything we do. Our steps are in succession: left, right, and left again. Our heart beats 72 times a minute for years together. All the genres of music; be it western classical, rock, jazz, Hindustani, Carnatic or Hawaiian, they all have the same fundamental beats to them. The differences are merely variants of the same. The moment we realise these superficialities, music becomes part of our soul.”

He then told us about how he was a state level football player for Rajasthan and described the holy trinity of all round education. Indeed, academics, music and sports are primary requirements needed to achieve the balance we all crave for.

My Tryst with Poetry

Anybody who knows me even a little bit, knows that there is a basketball bouncing in some part of my brain at any point of time during the day or night, even when I'm sleeping. I have had dreams on countless occasions which have involved ten sweaty guys, an orangey brown sphere and two hoops. Piyush told me the other day that he dreams about sports cars. I guess all of us dream about something or the other that we care about…

Anyway, on one such idle moment when I was thinking about basketball, I remembered an incident in 9th (or was it 10th?) standard. We were all supposed to write poems for publication in the school magazine. Of course only the best entries would be chosen. In other words, entries of sincere students (aka toppers) whose poems generally went along these lines: I had a cat, it slept on a mat, ate a rat, played with a bat…

Girls around me immediately put pen to paper. Most of the guys were playing pen fight (a game where two guys face off with their ball pens on the table, and the objective of the game is to knock the other guy’s pen off the table). But I was at a loss at what to do. Poems are not cool. When you are a teenager in school, image is very important. Unfortunately, I had only one pen which I couldn’t afford to break, so left with no choice, I made my first (and only) fledgling attempt at poetry. Not surprisingly it was about basketball. In hindsight it was and continues to be an extremely lame poem, and I am still embarrassed by it. More so because it actually got carried in the school magazine, replete with my name and a black and white photo- just in case anybody who happened to read it and did not recall my name would be able to recognise the photo. So anyway, it goes something like this:

Basketball is the name of the game
Shooting baskets is the way to fame

If you are tall, you can dunk the ball
If your aim is true, then your team is through

Pass and play, its not you all the way
But you’ll have your say, unless it is a very bad day

Even Jordan was not a child prodigy
“I practised and practised”, said he

I may not have won yet, but I still play ball
‘coz I know one day, ill be in the famed hall

on advice to young players

The thing that I tell them all the time is consistency. If they watch me train, running on a track, it doesn't look like I'm over-exerting myself. It's a consistency with which you do it, in other words, it's an every-day-thing. You have a program, and a schedule, and you have to abide by that, religiously. You just stick to it, and it's the consistency that pays off.

-Kobe Bryant

on conditioning

Whatever your program is, the key is to push yourself to a level where you're hurting. You can't gain conditioning without going through it. You're going to have to feel some pain, you're going to have to feel like your lungs are burning, and you know, you want to spit up blood, that sort of thing.

-Kobe Bryant

Unless you breakdown everyday, you are not going to improve

on motivation

the best players are those who work the hardest.. and that is true for any sport or anything that involves competition. When Im tired i think of Kobe and Lebron and tell myself that you have to keep going because these guys are working. The key is to keep improving and setting goals.

-Brandon Roy, Portland Trailblazers

You arent playing ball??!!!

Basketball in India is poised for tremendous growth. I won't be surprised if it becomes one of the most popular sports in the country. I was reading an article by Ayaz Memon, a blogger on NBA-India, and he points out the sociological changes that all point to the growth of the game in our country (here's the link to his article).

Basketball has everything going for it: played over 40 minutes(the international game and not the NBA), consisting of 4 quarters, with time outs and unlimited substitutions and on a small-enclosed court under floodlights. It is already the most popular sport at the college level in India [apart from my university which is football crazy, but then again, it's only a matter of time before we get there!].

It is extremely fast paced [second only to handball, or ice hockey (but this is played on ice and the guys wear skates so can be discounted)] and considering India's growing fondness for T20 as a preferred version of cricket, we seem to be showing all the characteristics to take to basketball like fish to water.

And these are Ayaz Memon's predictions-a reputed journalist keenly interested in sports in general and cricket in particular. A journalist for over thirty years, Ayaz doesn't seem to have any serious connection with the game of basketball, not having played at the school or college level. I guess that's unfortunately because he was a product of his time, a time when the game 'never actually happened here'.

I speak so much about him because he seems to be following exactly the same career path that I would want for myself: A lawyer by profession who went on to become a journalist and now blogs for NBA.com!! He was also invited to cover the All-Star game in Phoenix! DAMN!!!

Coming back to the point. I couldn't agree with his predictions more! The game is definitely poised to become huge, if not huge already. I was playing at home the other day and this 11th standard kid happened to challenge me to a one-on-one. As a 20-yr old college guy, I was not the kind to back off, more so because I thought it wouldn't be much of a hassle beating him (he was a good 4-5 inches shorter than me ;) ).

He beat me 11-9 or something. Brilliant Handles-he could control the ball with both hands equally well, apart from being virtually ambidextrous in the paint. I later found out that there were 3-4 others who were equally good.

Kids these days are phenomenally better than what we were in our school days, at least much better than what I was as a kid. I could barely dribble with my weak hand, let alone attempt a lay up or a left hand hook shot. It is only in college where I had access to the internet that I started following the game more seriously and am slowly learning the finer points of the game. It only speaks of how much the standard of the game has improved in our country.

I'm gonna go all out here and forecast that it is only a matter of a few years before there's an Indian in the NBA rubbing shoulders with the likes of Chris Paul or Lebron James (assuming of course they haven't retired by then. But LBJ is indistructible and CP3 isn't too bad either, so I guess they'll stick around for quite some time!).

NBA revolution in India on the horizon. You heard it here first ;D