Rohit Brijnath

Rohit Brijnath: Presence

“I don’t know how to fix an ancient civilization’s uncertain romance with sport. I have no idea how to build a sports culture. But I do know that among the best gifts you can offer an athlete is presence.” 

—Rohit Brijnath. 

Abhinav Bindra’s Name Certainly Isn’t ‘Avinash’

What he said:

“Yeah, he called me Avinash!”

Abhinav Bindra, India’s only individual gold medallist at the Olympics, reveals his bitterness with the state of sports  administration in the country.

Bindra recently released his autobiography,‘A Shot At History’, co-written with Rohit Brijnath.

An excerpt from his interview in the Times Of India:

You’ve titled a chapter ‘Mr Indian Official:
Thanks For Nothing’. Why such bitterness?

It’s just a very honest account of my experiences of Indian sport in the last 16 years. See, a sports administrator needs to have a fine understanding of the dynamics and uncertainties of sports, the planning and precision that goes into winning. Our sports administrators lack knowledge and attention to detail. They’re all nice people, but without an understanding of sports, which becomes a barrier. Running sport is bloody hard work ! It’s serious business. The whole idea of doing it as an honorary, half-hearted thing is just not good enough. The efficiency of sports officials has to match that of athletes. And their record is telling.

On winning his gold medal, Bindra says that then IOA head Suresh Kalmadi was unable to recall his first name calling him ‘Avinash’ instead.

What he really meant:

“I wonder if that was the name of one of his close relatives.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“What’s in a name?”

Abhinav Bindra: What he said, really meant and definitely did not

Abhinav Bindra Differs On Gold

What he said:

I once got yak milk from China because I was told it enhances concentration. It didn’t. I attached electrodes to my head to view the activity in my brain when I shot well. I lasered off my love handles. Let’s be clear: We’re not you. We’re not better than you, or other athletes, just caught in lives mostly weirder than most.

Abhinav Bindra, India’s first ever gold medallist—at the 2008 Beijing Olympics—in an individual Olympic event recounts the myriad attempts at  securing that little bit extra, that edge, that would separate him from his competitors—make him a better shooter.

Bindra’s autobiography, “A Shot At History”, is to be released on October 28, 2011.

The 260-page book, co-written with journalist and sports writer, Rohit Brijnath, is published by HarperCollins.

Bindra writes:

We have to be a little insane to do this, a trifle obsessive, almost as single-minded as shaven monks who sit for years meditating under trees in search of distant nirvana.

Of the fateful evening the day before he clinched his historic medal, Bindra says:

The mission, whose worth would be evaluated tomorrow…butterflies tango in the stomach.

The answer was a McDonalds meal and a long walk. I am too wired to sleep, but then I have already practiced going without sleep. I stand in my balcony at 3 am and look out into the dark nothingness, another athlete swallowing his fear in this dormitory of the strange and the gifted.

I felt the pressure of the Olympics, as if a nervous breakdown was imminent, and I carried it (a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels) with me. Now, on this sleepless night, I retrieve it from my toilet kit, I twist it open, empty it into my nervous stomach. As if it is an antidote to everything that assails me.

Bindra slept just an hour that night.

  What he really meant:

“Obsession—-thy name is gold.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“The book’s merely yakkety-yakkety-yak.”