International Yoga Day

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International Yoga Day, Prime Minister Modi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, The Art of Living Foundation, Yoga

For the uninitiated, yoga looks so complex. I can imagine my favorite author P G Wodehouse describing it as people tying themselves in knots. Yet kids are taking to it just as their elders. Black, white, brown or any color in between, in nearly 200 countries, big and small, people are taking to what might be, at least in India for sure, the most inexpensive way to managing good health. They are practicing it with vigor and unprecedented enthusiasm from San Francisco, Ca touching the Pacific Ocean,  across the US mainland, Europe, Africa, and Asia to Yokohama in Japan on the other side of the Pacific.  From the capitalist United States to communist China, yoga is taking the world by storm. 

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My Memories of The Olympics

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Al Oerter, Cassius Clay, Milkha Singh, Muhammad Ali, Munich 1968, Olympic Games

The passing away of boxing legend Muhammad Ali a few days ago brought back a flood of memories. I remember him winning the light heavyweight boxing championship at the Rome Olympics in 1960, only though at that time he was still known as Cassius Clay. Later I came to know that he threw away that precious Gold medal in the Ohio River following an incident of racial discrimination. Some years after the Rome Olympics, Clay became what was then called a “Black Muslim” assuming the name of Muhammad Ali. I remember reading about some of his famous fights over the years when he defeated Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and many others. This article in the Indian Express details ten of his best fights. Reliving those moments brought back memories of the different Olympic Games I read about or saw on television.

So Near Yet So Far, Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2016

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AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, IPL9, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Shane Watson, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli, Yuzi Chahal

When Shane Watson fell at 164 in the 16th over, a silence fell upon the 30,000 odd people who thronged the Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru that day. Could the tail for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) score 44 in the last 3 overs? Hyderabad had scored over 50 in their last three overs but we didn’t have their fire power. At one stage it had seemed that even 208 the target set by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) could be chased down. Now it appeared inevitable that RCB would fail in their bid to win the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL). It was not to be third time lucky for them having lost earlier finals in 2009 and 2011.