Jeev, the best known Indian sportsperson in America

Jeev, the best known Indian sportsperson in America

By

Ramesh Chander

JEEV MILKHA SINGH is fast becoming the best known contemporary Indian sportsman in America and perhaps, throughout the world too. This weekend he finished 4th in World Golf Championship event. A commendable achievement indeed – considering the best golfers in the world participated in the event! He finished ahead of the best golfer in the world -- Tiger Woods. During the final day of the tournament, which was watched by tens of millions, there was a spotlight on the show, exclusively profiling Jeev.

Though Indians have done great things in cricket recently, it is hardly followed in Americas and much of Europe. Even in countries like New Zealand and South Africa, cricket is dying out – judging by the crowds. (About three quarters of the small crowds there are Indians/Indian-origin people). Golf on the other hand, is widely followed. Many of the golf tournaments in America, regularly beat the ratings of basketball and tennis.

There seems to be some inherent connection between the talents required for cricket and golf (both involve hitting a ball very accurately through great distances). A disproportional number of golfers in the top 100 in world rankings, come from cricket playing countries – Australia, South Africa, and England. Equivalent non-cricket playing countries like France and Germany have hardly any players in the top 100. Similarly, India has two players in the top 100 even though it has zero public golf courses, whereas China, inspite of government effort to make a mark in this sport and building of hundreds of golf courses, has none. (Of course USA, where the sport is very popular and which has enormous facilities is an exception – who knows, if Tiger Woods had taken to cricket, he might have been another Tendulkar). If only the Indian Government starts encouraging the sport more and builds some public golf courses or even driving ranges – where the non-millionaire Indians can go and play, Indians, will surely shine in this sport.

Most of the Indian golfers are self-trained or trained by their parents. Chowrasia, who won the Indian masters last year, was a son of a ‘mali’, who learnt golf by sneaking into the golf course at dark and playing there till the guards chased him out. Even Jeev’s golf swing is “unorthodox” to say the least. If these people were trained properly, they would have achieved much more.

Jeev’s achievements are enormous. Apart from finishing fourth in the World Golf Championship, he won the Asian tour order of merit, the Barclays Singapore Open, (beating many of the top golfers), won two tournaments in Japan and another one in Europe – and all this just in the last year.
The money he earns too is enormous. Last year, some Indian newspapers reported that Jeev has become the first Asian to earn a million dollars in a calendar year. What went unreported is that the million dollars was the money he earned from the “Asian tour”. Jeev also plays in Europe, America and Japan, and his total earnings from golf winnings last year was around $3.5 million!

It is also unfortunate that Indian Press still treats golf as an elite sport and hardly covers this sport. When Jeev finished fourth in the World Championship, more coverage was given to some statement made by Shewag and Sania’s second round exit in a tennis tournament.

Jeev is currently ranked 29th in the world, with lots of potential to move upward as he plays more in America – where even a tenth place finish is awarded more ranking points than winning a tournament in Asia. He is probably one player who can put India on a global sports map, with Sania rapidly fading in the other widely followed sport of tennis

A son joins the father.

My father who studied only up to third standard , some time in the first decade of the twentieth centaury knew how to read and write Tamil, Malayalam, English, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada. The versatility which he showed in expressing his ideas were remarkably great. Though he was a struggling hotel worker before independence , he thirsted for the independence of his country. I as a small boy of five , knew all about the great nationalist leaders. I used to quote Verbatim, the arguments of the great lawyer called Bhulabai Desai who defended successfully the soldiers of INA against charges of waging war against their country .He slowly guided me in to the great world of knowledge and writing. He used to be very proud of his ancestors who were Shastris, musicians and astrologers of Puducode village of Kerala. He used to tell me that a branch of our family were the ultimate source of consultation on any aspect of Acharas. Possibly I did get a small bit of it from him and my ancestors. This blog was created to put my random thoughts in to the web. My next generation consists of three people, my son Ramesh Chander, My daughter Meera and my brother’s daughter Roopa. All these three learnt the art of reading, analyzing and thinking along with the cups of milk they drank in the infancy. All of them read a lot and write extremely well. I am proud to put the thoughts of my son in Raja Thatha’s blogs.Unlike me his thoughts are more modern.

One of my pet poems

I like to read poems. Today I was searching my old collection.I found this gem. I do not know who wrote it. It goes on like this:-
Que Sera Sera
When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Honey moon at 70

I am racing towards 70 and my better half has just crossed 60. We normally spend our days by temple hopping. For a change we went on a sponsored conducted trip to Malaysia and Singapore in the first week of February. This was our first honeymoon.
When we got married only heroines and Heroes of Indian Cinema used to go for honeymoon., According to them, the couple used to spend all the time in singing and dancing. This word is translated as “Then Nilavu” in Tamil and more Romantic “Madhu Masam (Honey filled month) ” in Malayalam. As far as I understood it was a time for the young couple to spend all the twenty four hours of the day in understanding each other without any responsibilities or day today duties. Had they been at home there would be several jobs for both of them and a huge chunk would be cut off from the honey filled 24 hours. I personally feel, that it has lost its relevance today because , understanding each other does not lead to adjustment in habits and pattern of life either by the husband or wife nowadays.
Due to not being a practice during those days, me and my wife never had any honey moon. Ofcourse over these 40 years we have understood each others angularities and have been leading a life of peace and happiness. This peace used to get broken once in a while by squabbles or violent difference of opinions. But it did not matter because we knew each other well and were prepared to adjust with each other.
During of first honey moon at 70 , though we did enjoy the sight seeing and rushing from one place to another, our mind was filled with thoughts of our daughter, son, grandson and grand daughters. When we saw some thing , we thought , how our children would enjoy it better. When we got a time of our own our thoughts raced to the well being of children.
But in spite of all these turmoil and worries in the mind, we did enjoy the time together from our lonely home , though even in our home we were alone and with each other all the time. I who am very busy with computer related activities all the time and my wife who used to be busy in group chanting of stotras and chit chatting with her friends, , found out that we liked each other’s company . Had we been not rushed by the tour operator from place to place, we possibly would have done lot of talking with each other. We would have planned out future senior citizen years , and would have discussed our future plans.
This first honey moon , made us want for more such honey moons in each other’s company , possibly at a much slower pace and with some body to take care of the hassles and arrangements for the tour, stay and sight seeing.

Rules of life of our bare footed ancestors

The following are the rules to be followed in a day to day life of a Brahmin:-

He should wakeup during the Brahma Muhurtha (4.30 AM) . As soon as he wakes up he should take a stock of
1.The actions we did yesterday.
2. The money we earned by just means
3. The actions that we plan to do today.
4. How we are going to earn money today.
5. How we have to behave so that we do not hurt others. And
6.The efforts involved in doing the duties.
And then we should think of God.

He should then answer the calls of nature in a place outside the village without causing any pollution to homes, fields and places of spiritual importance. While doing so the Yagnopavitha should be taken out of the usual place and hung in one’s ears. Then he has to clean ourselves several times with mud. We should also gargle and spit several times followed by Aachamana. Then we should clean our teeth and take bath .After this he should wear the cloth as prescribed and wear marks of Gobicchandana or Sacred ash as per the custom of his clan. After this he has to do Pratha Sandhya Vandana, followed by Oupasana and Vaiswadeva homa followed by worship of Gods like Shiva, Vishnu or Brahma. After this he has to do Madhyahneeka, Brahma Yagna and feed a stranger and then take meals. The after noons has to be spent in learning Vedas or chanting Vedas or Teaching Vedas. In the dusk , he has to again do Sandhya Vandana and retire for sleep.
Each of these actions have to be done according to certain rules. These rules are given in the second chapter called “Ahneeka Dharma Prakarana” of the great book Samkshepa Dharma shasthram. The detailed translation of this part has been completed and is available in
http://stotraratna.awardspace.com/sruthi.html
under the heading “day to day Dharma of a Brahmin”.
I clearly understand that these rules even to a minor extent are impossible to follow by 99.99 % of our people. But reading this would give them an idea as to what is expected out of a Brahmin. I have a humble request. If you have time please do read them. These were those great people who following all these rules contributed to the number theory., Trigonometry, Astronomy, Diplomacy, thought about aeronautical engineering and gave detailed maps of aero planes, were the founders of a unique system of medicine which included surgery not only to human beings but also to animals and trees, Writing of gigantic epics and so on. Can any of us working for 24 hours without break blessed with lots and lots of sophisticated instruments do even a fraction of what those bare footed geniuses did. I believe that there is some thing we still do not know about them.

A Dog in the high court of Madras aka Chennai

There is a great Euphoria among all Indians for getting several awards to the Indian artistes of the “Slum Dog Millionaire.” At the outset I would like to congratulate them because in a country like India full of brown and black people , nothing is greater than a recognition of the white people .
But most of you possibly did not notice about another dog usage in Tamil Nadu. When Dr.Subramanya Swamy , a Ph .D from Harvard , a great intellectual and a classmate of mine (whom I have not seen for the last 48 years) was appearing in some case in the High court of Madras, the lawyers enraged at his attitude towards LTTE, called him “Parppana Naye” (“Brahmin Dog” or literally a “Refugee settler dog”). I do not have any opinion on the right or wrong of Swami the politician but I was terribly pained by the usage resorted to by the intellectual lawyers of the high court of Madras.
Visibly there was no protest aired by the Tamilian Iyers, not even in their yahoo groups. Possibly this is due to their being harassed by the government and people of Tamil Nadu . This is in spite of the fact that Sage Agasthya was a northern Brahmin , River Cauvery was his wife. Thiruvaluvar wrote in his great Tamil Veda that
“Brahmins are righteous people, because
They treat all beings with mercy and kindness.”
When the contribution to the Tamil language or culture of this community from the Sangam times to today is summed up , it is a very high percentage in spite of the fact that they never were more than 3-4% of the Tamil population at any time in the history. . I totally agree that like every other forward communities in Tamil Nadu and India, they practiced untouchability and for reasons unknown were able to get maximum number of the white collar jobs under the British. This to my mind is not sufficient reason for calling them dogs.
This would not have happened in any other state in South India , other than Tamil Nadu. True some jeering and some harassment of Brahmins are there in other states too but from the poorest to richest , all people have great respect for them. They respect them for their sincerity, honesty and intelligence.

Oldicapped Syndrome

I am calling those senior citizens who are handicapped, either by physical limitations or mental limitations as oldicapped. According to the figures which are available, these people form about 20-30% of our population. Many of them are slightly miserable, some highly miserable and a few are really happy. I am sure all of you would like to ask “Is this problem new? Did it not exist before?”
In case of our previous generation the life expectancy was very small. If a man or woman lives up to 60 it was a cause of celebration. People living more than 80 were extremely rare, and their birthdays used to be celebrated by the villagers as a whole. Most of them after retirement at the age of 50-55 or after disposing the business they were running used to come back to their ancestral homes in their native place. Their sons used to send regular remittances for their upkeep. Children and grandchildren used to make it a point to visit them and spend with them at least a month during the vacation. They had the privilege of searching for grooms and brides to not only their children but to their grand children also. Family squabbles and quarrels used to be there but there was a silken bond of affection tying the members of the family. Whether it is marriage or other celebrations or even death, the villagers considered it as a family function. They used to toil night and day to make happy functions a success and sad functions sublime.
Things have changed. The senior citizens have started easily living up to the age of 80+. Hundredth birth day though still rare, are annually one or two in a locality. Most of them live a face less life in a community which ignores its members. They do not have ancestral homes and prefer to settle down in the places they last worked. Their children are not with them, even if they live in the same town. Most of the children are settled either in the Middle East or in USA. Ofcourse there is a heavy demand of this oldicapped people for their services as long as they are healthy. Help in the kitchen, assistance during delivery and baby sitting are their normal jobs. But once they are not of any use, they are thrown out first as we throw our curry leaves from the dishes. Due to the rat race called life, to attain higher and higher peaks, the children and grand children think of them as a burden, once they are not physically or mentally fit. These oldicapped ones suffer within themselves. They know their future is to be either to be looked after by nurses or even worse, becoming a member of some old age homes. I would now like to detail some specific problems of these oldicapped citizens.

1. The poor oldicapped people
There are large numbers of parents who spend all that they have earned to bring up and educate their children. They also have to spend lot of money on marriages of their daughters. At the end they become poor at a stage when they become so old that they cannot earn any more money. The pensioners are slightly lucky among these people. If their children do not give money to their maintenance or for treatment of awful diseases that attack the old age, they simply become miserable. There are many old age homes that are prepared to take them. But it seems some body in the society should admit them in such old age homes and guarantee some responsibility in great crisis. Would their children do that?
One of my friends remarked that such cases are found only among the middle class and the rich. Among the poor, he said, no son deserts his parents.

2. The once efficient old mother
This type of handicap affects men and women in a different way. The housewife who has brought up children to become great people and looked after her husband like an angel has tremendous demand among working couple as long as she is physically capable. But it is clear that the demand is for her but not to her husband who can only create confusion and not provide physical help.
Such old mothers have all their lives been the queens of their kitchen. One generation before, there used to be conflict between her and the daughter in law for the ruler ship of the kitchen. The modern working daughter in law is least bothered about the control of the kitchen. But she deeply dislikes the Aacharams (religious dos and don’ts) to which her mother in law is attached and also for her , the little time of privacy that she gets with her husband and children is sacrosanct. These do fan the conflict and one day the poor mother in law is out of the house. Her only support is her husband. But both being physically weak, find it difficult to manage a household independently. As long as the partners are together, they somehow manage. Moving to the daughter’s house rarely solves the problems. Old age homes or God is their only solace after such eventuality.
But there are some very wise woman (You find them in large numbers today), who know about this extremely well. They easily manage the house according to the likings of her daughter in law and manage to keep themselves happy. God bless them.

3. That old man who is active.
Fortunately large numbers of old men are active thanks to the great advances of modern medicines. If they have independent wealth or income and have their own house, the problems crop up only when they loose their partner or they become physically dependent. Till then the major problem is spending time. If they are religious they can join such groups and become contended that they will definitely are going to heaven. Spending time is a great punishment for them.
The grandchildren are very busy in their own way attending thousands of classes apart from attending school. Their children do not have time to speak with them. Unfortunately two problems crop up at this stage. The old man keeps on dwelling in the past and repeats the same events again and again. Another problem is that they do not keep the toilets clean. This is not because they do not want but they do not realize that due to the prostate problem, drops of urine fall outside the basin and give rise to awful stink. They also become like children and keep on hankering for their favorite sweet or savory. Their wives are helpless because they are outside the kitchen and their daughters/daughter in laws simply does not have the time.
Some of them manage to join an old man’s club which is active in street corners and parks. But I understand some how this does not help them much.

4. The sick oldicapped people.
With the advancement of medicine, most of the old people have either high blood pressure, High Sugar, High cholesterol or arthritis of the joints or a funny and entertaining combination of some of these. Imagine an old man being asked not to consume sugar, salt and chillies and walk at least for one hour daily and also keep a strict diet. Food, the only entertainment in the old age becomes a punishment. The medicines/injections they have to daily take are very costly. If they can afford it, it is fine. But if they cannot afford it but have to ask their daughter in law for money (there is nothing wrong) it becomes greatly painful. As long as it remains like this it is well and good. But some old people get serious diseases like cancer, kidney malfunctioning, heart attack and so on. More money is needed and apart from it lots of the precious commodity “Time” of their children is also needed. Life becomes miserable and daily such old people pray God to take them away from this earth. God sometimes accedes to the request but some time he does not.

5.Alzheimer’s disease
Very high percentage of oldicapped persons beyond the age of 85 or 90 are attacked by this disease. They loose all their memory and are worse than just born babies.If the children are not there to look after them, there are not many institutions who can take care of such people.

6. The security of oldicapped people.
In almost all towns in India murders of oldicapped couple takes place with an aim to rob them. Though the police say that this is not done by thieves but by relations or friends known to them, it becomes almost unbelievable.

7. The oldicapped prisoners
It is not an exaggeration to say that some oldicapped people are locked by their children in their own house when they go to work. Thus without partaking in any crime, these persons are sentenced to simple imprisonment. Though not done like this, the oldicapped persons going to visit their children in USA are virtually prisoners in their homes from Monday to Friday during office hours,

What can be done?

1. Learn healthy habits even while you are middle aged. Even if you are not sick, restrict salt in take, avoid sweets and sugar in coffee. Make it a point to learn Yoga which gives lot of relief.

2. Take up a medical health insurance even while you are fifty for you and your wife and see that this policy is renewed year after year.

3. Even while you are fifty, cultivate some serious hobbies like reading (difficult to the eye) or writing (think of Parkinson), walking (difficult in case of arthritis), music, art, cartooning, giving speeches etc. You need not become a master in any of these but this hobby would help you spend time, when you stop working.

4. The need of a wife and husband to each other reaches epic proportions when you become old. Love her (him) , spoil him(her) with love , talk with each other, discuss your problems and so on. Let the husbands who have never bothered to learn cooking start to learn it when they are 50 plus. Let the wife who has never done outside works like going to bank, pay electricity bills etc start doing it. You both only would be there to look after each other. So if one of you is disabled the other should manage the entire house.

5. Talk to your children openly. When they start earning, do not tell them, that you would manage the house. Demand a portion of salary towards home management. This would become a habit for him and he would realize that he has to contribute a part of salary towards old parents.

6. The society should start old people’s crèche with transport facility in all towns and villages. When the children go away to office and grand children go away to school, these oldicapped people should be looked after in a company of similar people by the crèches. This would also help them to make new friends and facilitate exchange of ideas.

7. If you are forced to live alone by circumstances, and have a brother or sister or cousin who is also old and retired or even friends of similar circumstance try to move your house near to theirs. You can then form a mutual looking after club among yourselves.

8. A better idea would be to promote community living of oldicapped persons. Most of these persons live alone in their big flat. If only they call their friends / relatives to whom they are attached to live with them under the discipline of community living, apart from having company they would lead a more secure life.

9. Building of more old age homes is necessary. Though our politicians want integration at every stage, it would be better to have these old age homes based on a community. In fact the community can organize such homes.

10. All police stations should keep a register of homes where only oldicapped persons live. Let a beat constable once in a while go to these houses and enquire about these people.

11. Let hospitals register these oldicapped people and keep their health problems in their computers. If they are rushed to the hospitals in an unconscious state, possibly this will help.

12. The oldicapped persons should carry their identity and SOS phone number always with them.

13.Institutions to take care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease are a priority. The government and social organizations should do their all towards this.

14. There is an organization called Dignity foundation in Mumbai and Bangalore. They help oldicapped people to get jobs and live a life of dignity.

I know I have raised problems, suggested some practical/impractical solutions but I know this is not complete.
Young and old, please think about it.