Frustrating ……

The first Grand Slam of the new decade, The Australian Open, 2010 is drawing to a close. As an Indian, there was precious little to cheer about. Hopefully, as a Roger Federer fan, there will be lots. As I post, Fedex is getting ready to commence his match with Tsonga.

Catching glimpses of the ladies’ half of the tournament, it was difficult not to wonder at the strides that tennis, and in particular, women’s tennis has made in China. With some more luck, it could have been an all Chinese women’s singles final. And our own Sania Mirza made her customary exit in the first round. Ironically, as the Chinese girls were working their way up through the draw, Sania was in the headlines, at least of Yahoo! India for having broken up her engagement. Yahoo! considered this bit of tripe to be more news worthy relevance to the Indian audience than the fact that Nadal had made his exit from the tournament. Does say a lot about our news quotient.

It was not so long ago that Sania was the toast of the country. She was running the Williams sisters close in marquee tournaments. Pundits were predicting a top 20 ranking for her. The country was expectant. The number of times she appeared on television (sadly in TV spots and not on prime time tennis) suggested that she had arrived. As it happens so often in Indian sport, she turned out to be yet another meteorite. Selling herself way too short and content with the perks of her fleeting success. Unlike Leander who left no one in doubt about his hunger for achievement, in the case of Sania, Indian tennis fans cannot be faulted for wondering if she even gave it her all.

On the other hand, the persistent rise of the Chinese women and Federer’s reign at the top tell us what could have been. Ignoring the patriotism that makes me cheer for the Indian cricket team, I have always supported the sporting underdog. It was always McEnroe, the upstart when he arrived to challenge the champion Borg, always Sabatini as strove “manfully ” to lay Steffi low, always Senna as he set out to decimate Prost, never Tiger as he scythed through the rest of the field. But in the case of Federer, in spite of his virtual hegemony, I continue to root for him. Considering all that he has achieved in the last decade or so, it is amazing that he still finds the motivation to, forgetting everything else, even turn up for these slams. My admiration for him has turned to something bordering on respect and the only other sportsman who commands this from me is Sachin. When there are such stories so close at hand to draw inspiration from, what is it that stops fellow sportsmen to be similarly inspired. What is it that stops Indian sportsmen with obvious talent from reaching the top of the ladder. I was reading Michael Jeh’s post on cricinfo where he refers to the rapid strides made by Aussie U19s in general after a certain point in their evolution as cricketers, and in the process leave the other Asian U19s far behind ; inspite of having significantly lagged behind the Asian in terms of sheer talent. He is not alone in his inability to solve this puzzle. But for the notable exceptions of China, Japan and the Koreas none of the Asian countries have a history of sustained domination in any sport. In a few cases, as is with hockey, the rise of the other countries has coincided with the precipitous fall of erstwhile Asian super powers like India and Pakistan. The tragedy of this state of affairs is compounded when you consider that, at least here in India, there is a full fledged Ministry under the Central Government whose job it is to oversee the development of sport in the country.

The relative “non-success” of sportsmen like Narain Karthikeyan also lays low the excuse of lack of economic resources for excellence in the sporting arena. Karthikeyan came from as privileged a background as one could expect to come from, in a statistical sense, in a country like ours. If this is indeed a valid excuse, I would submit that we wind up all sports related activities and focus on building economic wealth and subsequently try our hand at creating champion athletes. The rest of the world can wait. For a country that fails to attain world class standards at almost everything that it does, is it not avarice to be expecting our sportsmen to be world class performers.

Australia’s Under-19 marvel

Australia’s Under-19 marvel

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Uncluttered

Is urban life cluttered. Going by what people have to say after spending time in Arco, it would seem so. What is it that clutters life in the cities. And what is missing here that makes it appear uncluttered.

People come to Arco Iris for a holiday. Naturally, they tend to leave the workplace behind. Given the number of hours that people are spending at their workplace, it follows that time tends to hang, initially lightly when there is no workplace to go to. It can be argued credibly that people do the same over weekends. Yet, there is no sense of this “unclutter”. Could it possibly be that leaving the workplace is one thing and leaving work is quite another. These days, it is impossible to meet a working professional without a blackberry and/ or an ordinary mobile phone and/ or a internet enabled laptop. With these leashes firmly in place, is it not logical to continue to get the feeling of being tethered to the workplace. Thankfully, in and around Arco, the wireless signals fight a losing battle and most of them wireless devices are rendered impotent. The extent to which “connectivity” has inveigled itself into our lives is impossible to realise till we experience otherwise. It has been my personal experience that the “now and here” of mobile communication is so pervasive so as to make us blind sighted to the longer term. I used to be paranoid about responding to mails and unanswered calls. The feeling of self importance is heady and more relevantly, delusional. The world, as it has for so long, will continue spinning. As for telephone calls, the world would be a better place in the absence of these stark inanities which pass off for conversations between friends, spouses and well-wishers.

Then there is thing about “doing nothing”. A few times we have had guests checking in with noble intentions of checking out all the places around Arco and ticking off the list of must-dos and must-sees, only to surrender to the simple pleasure of “doing nothing”. The number of times that this has happened is revealing in itself. The pressure to be doing, or in the least, be seen as doing something is so intense that, guilt quickly dispels any thought of doing nothing. Even a holiday becomes a plank for outdoing the Joneses. Yet, given half a chance people are extremely comfortable taking up the option of simply lazing around or lounging with a book and a some beers. The prospect of doing nothing is liberating and actually experiencing it is thrilling. Less is more is truer than ever in today’s times.

Could it also be being closer to nature brings with it a sense of tranquility. For all the speeding that we do the fact remains that Mother Earth continues to spin at more or less the same speed. Is it that a little effort at aligning our lives to the natural rhythms makes our lives appear “less off-key”. The feeling of oneness in being woken up by the birds is refreshing, if not uplifting, and is less stressful than being rudely awakened by a shrill alarm.

All this is not to suggest that all is wrong with the fast pace of urban lives. As long as we are able to balance it with quiet, introspective periods doing things that we like and want to do, including “doing nothing”, life will be “uncluttered”.

Nearing the end of our first festive season

In a few more days, we complete our first festive season in Arco Iris. It has been a lovely ride so far. In this period, we have had the pleasure of meeting wonderful people who have given us the privilege of hosting them during their stay in Goa. What has been particularly revealing is the relative brief amount of time that it takes to make friends with people who we met for the first time. Without exception, all have arrived as guests and departed as friends. At the same time, dormant friendships have been rekindled. Facebook stands testimony to this.

I guess, Beni and I have truly found our niche as “hosts”. Although the learning curve has been steep, in a sense, it has been an extension of what we were doing in Bangalore and in Chennai before that. We have always prided ourselves in hosting friends in our home. It is a little different when people who you have not known before express a desire to stay with us in Arco Iris. Any apprehension that we have soon disappears after a few hours. This also affords us an opportunity of seeing things constantly through others’ eyes. So many things that all of us take for granted in our daily lives, be it the chirping of local birds or the sight of the mist rolling in from the lake or the simple joy in enjoying a hot cup of coffee by the lakeside becomes memorable when you get to see others enjoying it so obviously.

This period has also reiterated that all of us have so much more in common than we would like to believe. It has been strangely reassuring to be reminded that all of us have our personal battles which, come to think of it, are not very different from the next person’s. It is simultaneously humbling and elevating to be reminded of this. Life is all about facing up to these and hopefully overcoming them.

What started as a lab scale experiment has now become a way of life. Without falling into the trap of looking too far ahead, we would like to believe that the results have been very encouraging which gives us the conviction of continuing along this path. It has been a while since I made that assertion.

The Circle of Life

1990

Final year of college. Decisions to be made. Narrowed down to an MBA or a CA. CA was the cheaper option. Clincher was the fact that you could actually get paid Rs. 150 as monthly stipend for the ordeal. However, thanks to friends who opted for the MBA route, met people who were also embarking on a career in “management”. SB was one such acquaintance. Drinking oiled the friendship. Both of us went our separate ways and kept in touch on and off. Remember those were the antediluvean era before email, cell phones and social networking.

1996 or 1997 (memory is not what it used to be)

Joined an international consulting firm in Bangalore. AK is my boss. More friend than boss. Suffered each other for a fairly long time. Life moved on, more by accident than design. Though we never stopped taking credit for all the good things happening to us and around us. Naturally, the job started to bore. Start checking out other options. SB’s second coming into my life. Mentions his sister is now married to a gent who happens to be from the same confounded consulting business and is looking for people (do they ever stop). Fixes up a meeting for me with him. Meet him in his office. AK is kind enough to let me go for the meeting. Never landed the job. Cannot remember why. Cannot be lack of merit (fresh from reading Bonfire of the Vanities). Distinctly remember discussing the meeting with AK. Life moves on, as it always has and always will. AK and I go our own separate ways and I presume, so did SB’s brother in law (hereinafter referred to as “SU”). But not before, AK introduced me to the rest of his family including his sister DK.

New Year’s Eve 2010

First season for Arco Iris, our (Beni and I) newest baby. Touch base with old friends for selfish reasons. Hoping against hope they will refer guests, the paying ones that is. SB obliges. Calls up and says SU and SU’s wife (SB’s sister for those who still have not got the hang of it and hereinafter referred to as “VU”) are looking at options for bringing in 2010 and presto, they are coming to Arco Iris. Cheers all around. Me, am happy that I will be meeting SU after more than a decade. Forgot to mention that besides his professional competence, what impressed me the most about SU during the one meeting in 1997 was his heavy smoking. Doesn’t take much to impress me, then and now. A breath of fresh air in these rabid anti-tobacco days.

28th December 2009. SU and VU arrive. Pleasantries exchanged. Me shocked to be told that SU has quit smoking. Respect slides down a couple of notches. Literally fell off the chair when SU started espousing the causes of meditation and yoga. Me wondering if this is the same SU or an impersonator. Things do change in 12 years time. VU sweetly hands over the gifts that she has for us. 3 paintings. By VU’s ex-colleague’s sister. Picked up in her first exhibition.

The chat veers to our professional careers. During the course of the conversation realise that AK and SU were colleagues at some point. And that the paintings are by AK’s sister DK. After VU came to know that she would be spending New Year’s with her brother’s good friend, she decided to pick up gifts and almost celestially she decided on paintings by AK’s sister, DK, without the slightest idea of how all this was connected. More to come. SU and Vu’s yesteryears’ neighbour in Mumbai, PK happens to be a colleague of ours (yes, both Beni’s and mine). And quite miraculously, one of my seniors during my CA internship days had interned under him in New Delhi a few hundred years back. Agreed, it is a small world, but this small ?. Given the way things were unraveling, I was quietly confident that if we have dug deep enough, we would have realised that our fathers were separated at birth. Thankfully, by then my Old Monk had run out and that was that.

So, by some divine quirk, 3 paintings by DK adorn our home, Arco Iris, in Goa. Happy Tidings and a Sign that wonderful things are on their way.

Wishing all of us a wonderful 2010.