India

Sanjay Manjrekar: Vegetarianism

“Yes,  vegetarianism is supposed to be healthy and all that,  but I have seen many fat,  unhealthy vegetarians to know that it is more about eating less and eating healthy,  than being a vegetarian or non-vegetarian.” 

—Sanjay Manjrekar. 

Pulella Gopichand: Physical literacy

“In the last few years, somewhere down the line, we have lost the importance of physical movement. We have moved a lot more towards alphabetical literacy, numerical literacy and forgotten what the basics of physical literacy are. I think in our race to become more and more educated alphabetically,  we have lost the fundamental of physical movement and it brings us back to our early days when our own native games used to have so much physical literacy in them.”

—Pulella Gopichand. 

Pulella Gopichand: Happiness index

“Sport is fundamental if we want our happiness index to go up. The physical activity brings new brain cells. Sports, physical exercise  and education have a lot of synergy. Sport needs to be up there.” 

—Pulella Gopichand. 

Pulella Gopichand: Playing and coaching

“… as a player,  you are internally driven. It’s about you,  your body and mind working in unison on the court. As a coach,  it’s the same but in reverse—you take that drive and channel it onto the player.” 

—Pulella Gopichand. 

Ravichandran Ashwin: 150% madness

“I am 100 per cent method, 80 per cent skill and 150 per cent madness.” 

—Ravichandran Ashwin. 

Dipa Karmakar: Vaulting names

“Hopefully,  one day a vault will be named after me.” 

—Dipa Karmakar,  Indian woman gymnast. 

Sania Mirza: Dressing

“How I dress is a very personal thing.” 

—Sania Mirza. 

Is Lokesh the next Dravid? 

Mohinder Amarnath,  in his latest column,  anointed Lokesh Rahul as the next Rahul Dravid. 

He may be right,  he may be wrong. 

Much earlier,  Cheteshwar Pujara was Dravid’s logical successor. 

Then,  it was Ajinkya Rahane. 

Now,  it’s KL. 

It’s never easy to step into the shoes of colossuses.

I’m sure each of the above would rather be recognised for themselves rather than somebody’s clone. 

And it will take some doing to match Dravid ‘s feats and consistency over a sustained period of time. 

Greatness doesn’t occur overnight. 

In some way,  Dravid seems a little short-changed by these comparisons. 

Is it because his achievements are the result of constant improvement, endeavour,  discipline, technical correctness and correct temperament rather than simply genius, wristiness or off-side godliness? 

No one points to any of the current lot and claim that they’re the next Tendulkar,  Ganguly or Laxman. 

Comparisons are sometimes drawn between Kohli and Tendulkar,  but the Indian test skipper has etched out a stellar place for himself. 

Coming back to the question,  is Lokesh the next Dravid? 

He’s surely  the next Rahul. 

Mahesh Bhupathi: Run with your mind

“After a certain distance,  you run with your mind,  not with your legs.” 

—Mahesh Bhupathi. 

Sanjay Manjrekar: Cribbing

“The world changes for the better when we all crib—cribbing is good.”

—Sanjay Manjrekar.