Chak De, India !

“Chak De, India” a recent Hindi movie is possibly the best thing that could have happened for hockey in India.

Famous Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan, plays the role of coach of the Indian womens hockey team. This unfancied group of girls who saw themselves as representing their States are made into a perfect team in the course of the movie. In the movie, the girls win the World Hockey championship. This movie is without doubt one of the best films on sports ever made in India. It brings out the positive aspects of effective coaching and the power of team spirit.

Although the story is supposedly fictitious, it is based on the story of Mir Ranjan Negi, India’s goal keeper when they were thrashed 7-1 by arch rivals Pakistan in the Asian Games of 1982. Negi was dubbed a traitor in the media and underwent all kinds of humiliation. He fought back and redeemed his honour when he was the coach of the Indian team which won the Asian Games gold medal in 1998.

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Too much TV too soon? Beware!

Are your kids watching too much TV? And, how much is too much?

A report in the Times of India quotes a study in New Zealand – results: watching TV for more than 2 hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence.

Both boys and girls showed a nearly 40 % increase in attention problems among heavy TV watchers.

Carl Landhuis of the University of Otago in Dunedin writes in the journal Pediatrics ” Those who watched TV for more than 2 hours and particularly 3 hours and more during childhood showed above average symptoms of attention disorder in adolescence.”

The disorder typically presents itself during childhood, and is characterized by a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity, as well as forgetfulness, poor impulse control or impulsivity, and distractibility.