-
“Social media not
only snatches your time, but it also teaches you attention deficiency.”...
--
Well, I remembered this quote not to slam social media, neither
I am of the types who loves bashing social media & Internet & use by
themselves the same extensively; I remembered this quote as I came across this
wonderful story which has been has been narrated by one of the best sports
journalist Boria Majumdar about our Badminton World Champion P V Sindhu &
her coach Gopichand & the pains they took to earn Olympic Medal! I have
been always fascinated by such stories as these are not some writer's
imagination, these are real life stories of the legends& these stories
reminds us, no success is a fluke but its outcome of sweat, blood, thousands of
hours spent in training, discipline, determination to success & most
importantly trust in each other i.e. the player & the coach! The time
freeze as it’s a world of two, the coach & the player with one target, the
Medal! We often ends up naming some player who are our idols for the poor
performance & ignore the efforts they have put in behind those few hours of
the game (sometimes even seconds, ask Usen Bolt). Indeed success or failure
even after such hardship is part of game but while saying this sentence &
accepting failure with smile one must be sure with himself or herself for
giving everything one has to achieve the target set!
Of-late we often come across discussions about use of social
media & distractions it creates, especially with students as well young
players (read as achievers). This story is eye opener for many as it’s not
about banning use of social media, it’s about understanding social media's role
in our life, as a student or even as achiever when we have already grown up! An
addiction is bad may it for a youngster or for a grown up as it distracts you
from your goals that's why it’s been called as addiction! Social Media may not
disable or damage you physically the way smoking, drinking or the
drugs do yet when you have set some target then your challenge is time & it’s
this time which gets lost if not health when you get hooked to social media. It’s
not bad to be social but it’s definitely not just bad but worst to
let others define your identity by their likes & smilies! Like any other
medium social media is a boon if used as a tool but then a gun or
a sword is also a tool to win the battles, provided in right hands with
right head to control those right hands! Today I know even grownups
hooked with social media & indeed many of them are successful also in
their respective professions yet imagine what they could have done
with this time they spent on social media as you can be just alone & do
nothing, try it, its wonderful feel! We have
forgotten to write (most of us), to paint, to sing, to dance, to admire a birds
flight or to admire sunrise & many such small real life things under the
tag of “I am busy” but we have enough time to check every single forward & re-forward
the same which comes on our smart phone! We don’t admire our kid dancing in-front of us
but we react with an emoji to some unknown fools absurd clip on Tik-Tok, we
don’t get happy (if at all we realize) if our old mom or dad admiring us for
our achievements but we are unhappy for not getting enough likes for our FB
post, wow & yet we call ourselves grown-ups & expects our kids to keep
off from social media!! And again, if you are using social media to share your
creativity then its fine but if you are judging your creativity by others likes
then its defeat of your creativity as to post something is ok, to
count likes, is you are addicted & any addiction is bad, is my personal
opinion! And more than what & why you post on social media is what defines
whether you are addicted to social media or not! Someone can use it
for commercial purpose, it’s perfectly fine but what a student or a player can
commercialize by social media at the cost of the time which could have put in
training (read as studying) is something he or she must ask to himself or
herself as well the students parents & teachers also should ask this
question to the student! And let me share something which my genre too has
faced & so has every generation, there may not be social media when I was a
kid but then social fear factor was always there, like a trip is going to some
place & most students are going, I knew my parents can’t afford it, so just
by not going to the trip isn’t going to make me anti-social, is what I knew
then also! Same is with play time, when I had exams (due to my engg studies
erratic schedules) always when most boys from other fields had free time
it was my study time & I too have this feeling of getting tagged as anti-social
as I used to be forced to sit at home & study while entire colony’s kids were
on play-ground! Well, I had my fights with my parents on this & I am sure
thousands of others boys & girls must have had their own fights over this
social aspect of student life! Every time when some kid has been refrained
by the parents or teachers (read as coach) there has been friction & at
that time you think your coach is the worst human being on the earth & most
of such kids when grow up & look back, has thanked their coach for behaving
the way in which they have behaved!
Today when I look back, I too laugh at my foolish concepts of
being social & well I must admit today also I am a student when it’s being
social! Today nobody can tell me do this or do that, I have access to unlimited
internet data & allowed to be member of any social platform (thanks to the
fifty years I have put behind) yet I ask to myself every time, what I really
need in life, some likes on a B or Twitter on my post or some time
for myself to set a new target in the form of a new challenge! I
think till the time this question haunts me, I am ok to use the social media
but the day I will be without any target or any challenge; that will be end of
me as an individual mind, well social media has found another victim that day!
And to set new targets, new challenges doesn't mean loss of peace of happiness,
it’s just a sign that you are giving justice to your aliveness which you can do
happily also, isn’t it?...
And
then everything has its right timing as to my knowledge even today PV Sindhu is
one of the most active personality on Insta & Twitter & inspires
millions of kids by her posts but only when she is not having
any tournament ahead, this is what Gopichand was successful to make her
understood & she is successful to handle the tool
named social media! Here is that story…
--
PV Sindhu had just lost a hard-fought first round match at the
Australian Open (2015) against former world No. 1 and London Olympics silver medalist
Yihan Wang. But coach Pullela Gopichand wasn’t flustered.
Rather, with her sister Divya in Australia, Sindhu spent the next few days partying.
Gopi in fact temporarily removed all restrictions on food and late nights.
Those were the last few days of enjoyment. Soon after returning to India, Gopi handed Sindhu a letter.
Rather, with her sister Divya in Australia, Sindhu spent the next few days partying.
Gopi in fact temporarily removed all restrictions on food and late nights.
Those were the last few days of enjoyment. Soon after returning to India, Gopi handed Sindhu a letter.
It was the first in their
long association and listed the ‘dos and don’ts’ for the next eight months.
Among them was a clause that a 20-year-old youngster would have to surrender
her phone. Talent, he argued, needed to be honed to win an Olympic medal and he
was determined to leave nothing to chance.
“Yes, I was a little worried about the phone because among all my students she is the fastest to respond to a phone message. But it was a distraction we could do without,” Gopi says while l ..
while looking back at the period that eventually made the legend of PV Sindhu.
“Yes, I was a little worried about the phone because among all my students she is the fastest to respond to a phone message. But it was a distraction we could do without,” Gopi says while l ..
while looking back at the period that eventually made the legend of PV Sindhu.
“I didn’t think he meant it seriously. Definitely not about the phone .. How could I not have a phone! And yet when he gave me the letter, I instinctively said yes. So when I looked back in the evening there was nothing much I could do because I had already agreed to the conditions,” Sindhu laughs.
Gopi was leaving nothing to chance. He had a
full programme in place not only for Sindhu but every bit for himself as well.
“In our house it’s always Vishnu (son) and Gayatri (daughter) who decide on the
food. I really don’t mind. But not so then. For those few months, it was about
me, and me only. I wanted food of my choice because I was afraid of falling
sick and missing training. It would mean Sindhu missing training and such
things weren’t permissible,” Gopi states with a smile.
By the time the duo reached Rio, Sindhu was in
top physical shape. But Olympics aren’t only about being in good physical
condition.
Pressure, nervousness and control of the mind was key to success. Sindhu, understandably nervous, was playing in her first Olympics and started poorly against Michelle Li (round two) of Canada losing the first game. She did play a good second game but in the third, she was down 1-4 at the start. Her Olympic dream was in the balance and Gopi, yet again, was .. staring at a barren Games. It had eluded him in 2000 when he was in the prime of his career and it was threatening to do so yet again.
For months, Sindhu had been told to play one particular shot. In practice it worked but in match situations, she just wasn’t able to get it going. And now all of a sudden in Rio in what was in Sindhu’s words “the moment it all changed”, the backhand cross court defensive block came out. Balance, poise, positioning — it was a perfect stroke. As perfect as .. one could hit it. Even Gopi was surprised. Something indeed had happened and Li was soon shown the door 21-17 in the third game.
“That’s the stroke we had kept practicing for months ahead of the Olympics. It was one weakness I was determined to overcome and pushed Sindhu to play it for hours and hours. It would take opponents by surprise and if they didn’t attack here knowing she would play the defensive block, I was confident Sindhu would be in control. If you watch the semi-final in Rio Okuhara tried it and bang — Sindhu played the stroke for a winner”, Gopi said with a smile of contentment.
“Gopi sir made me stand in the middle of the seven courts in the academy and screamed at me. He wanted me to shout and be aggressive. I hated it. Hated him and what I was being asked to do. And I started crying but wasn’t able to shout,” smiles Sindhu as she looks back at what all she did with fondness.
Pressure, nervousness and control of the mind was key to success. Sindhu, understandably nervous, was playing in her first Olympics and started poorly against Michelle Li (round two) of Canada losing the first game. She did play a good second game but in the third, she was down 1-4 at the start. Her Olympic dream was in the balance and Gopi, yet again, was .. staring at a barren Games. It had eluded him in 2000 when he was in the prime of his career and it was threatening to do so yet again.
For months, Sindhu had been told to play one particular shot. In practice it worked but in match situations, she just wasn’t able to get it going. And now all of a sudden in Rio in what was in Sindhu’s words “the moment it all changed”, the backhand cross court defensive block came out. Balance, poise, positioning — it was a perfect stroke. As perfect as .. one could hit it. Even Gopi was surprised. Something indeed had happened and Li was soon shown the door 21-17 in the third game.
“That’s the stroke we had kept practicing for months ahead of the Olympics. It was one weakness I was determined to overcome and pushed Sindhu to play it for hours and hours. It would take opponents by surprise and if they didn’t attack here knowing she would play the defensive block, I was confident Sindhu would be in control. If you watch the semi-final in Rio Okuhara tried it and bang — Sindhu played the stroke for a winner”, Gopi said with a smile of contentment.
“Gopi sir made me stand in the middle of the seven courts in the academy and screamed at me. He wanted me to shout and be aggressive. I hated it. Hated him and what I was being asked to do. And I started crying but wasn’t able to shout,” smiles Sindhu as she looks back at what all she did with fondness.
But here she was in Rio
playing the best she had ever played. Beating the super talented Tai Tzu Ying
wasn’t easy and Sindhu did so quite comfortably to set up a quarter-final
against Yihan. “On the morning of the match against Yihan, Gopi sir told me I
was doing it for India. As we were going into the arena that day he showed me
the massive queue of people making their way to the venue and there were
Indians who had travelled to Brazil to see me play. It was very different from
anything I had
experienced before,” says
Sindhu.
“Her warm up wasn’t the best before the quarter-final. Her shoulders were tight and I had to do something to get her going. You don’t beat a former world champion by just turning up and this was the Olympic quarter-final,” says Gopi.
Again, contrary to expectations Sindhu beat Yihan in straight games to make the last four.
“Her warm up wasn’t the best before the quarter-final. Her shoulders were tight and I had to do something to get her going. You don’t beat a former world champion by just turning up and this was the Olympic quarter-final,” says Gopi.
Again, contrary to expectations Sindhu beat Yihan in straight games to make the last four.
While entire country was
celebrating, Gopi was starting to coil up. Feel more and more tense. Sindhu
wasn’t assured a medal yet and Gopi just didn’t want to end up fourth. “I’ve
always been one to soak in pressure. In the final against Carolina for example,
I never felt any pressure. Even in the world championship final in Glasgow in
August 2017, I was calm. But not on the eve of this semi-final. I didn’t want
Sindhu to go through what I had suffered. And continue to suffer. I wanted that
medal .. remembers Gopi.
He didn’t sleep a wink that night. Paced the room and kept thinking. He just couldn’t let the medal slip away.
“When I got up in the morning Gopi sir was all ready to go out and train. He had showered and was waiting. I had this feeling he hadn’t slept.
He didn’t sleep a wink that night. Paced the room and kept thinking. He just couldn’t let the medal slip away.
“When I got up in the morning Gopi sir was all ready to go out and train. He had showered and was waiting. I had this feeling he hadn’t slept.
While he never said that to
me I could sense he wasn’t his usual self,” recollected Sindhu while smiling at
Gopi who by now was starting to look a little sheepish. “And when I won the
semi-final I turned to Gopi sir and saw tears rolling down his cheeks. While I
was delighted at making the final, to see him cry made me understand the
enormity of the achievement.” And for Gopi this was his moment of
reckoning.
The pain of Sydney was
finally behind him. India had an Olympic finalist for the first time ever and
Gopi had finally achieved his dream. “Yes, the job wasn’t done yet. But at one
level for me it was done. May be I was wrong because I did feel satisfied. May
be if I hadn’t we could’ve planned the final differently. God willing that will
also happen,” says Gopi.
“The tears were genuine.
Sindhu could now leave the sport a decade later with an Olympic medal. It was
hers forever and there was nothing left to chance anymore. All those months of
effort had paid off and I was seriously happy,” he adds.
The duo had done all sorts of things in Rio. Constructed a net with towels in their room in the Olympic village and practiced.
The duo had done all sorts of things in Rio. Constructed a net with towels in their room in the Olympic village and practiced.
Practiced in the morning
and again late at night. They had simply given it their all and left nothing to
chance as they had set out to do in Hyderabad when Gopi had taken away Sindhu’s
phone and stopped her from eating ice cream and biriyani. Gopi was the guru
with Sindhu his protégé and the Olympic medal their moksha. You can watch
this candid sharing by Sindhu on U Tube link below about restriction on use of
Cell Phone…
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..
Think Green, Think Life
Posts
