By Sevanand Gaddala
It's interesting how certain icons of a particular field are most unlike their contemporaries. Bob Dylan was a folk singer but offended fans when he went electric, Eminem is a white rapper who isn’t much of a gangster, Tiger Woods is multi racial in a sport played overwhelmingly by whites, heck, even Barack Obama is a black man who won the most powerful position in the world, not by embracing but transcending race.
Another aspect of great men is that they transcend. The world takes more interest in their field or profession only because it has been brought to their notice through the great man’s feats. You may not care about painting but you know Picasso, classical music may not be your type of music at all but you’ve heard of Mozart, and scientists may seem like the most boring profession but you wouldn’t mind being as smart as Einstein. For me the thing that allures me most about Sachin Tendulkar is that he is a transcendent figure.
He is a shy, short, stocky man from a third world country that dominated a sport taught to us by colonial powers. The rest of the world may still think it is silly that men wearing whites play a game for five days with lunch and tea breaks all after which a draw is a probable result, but they want to hear more about this man who maintained such level of excellence for 24 freakin’ years.
I don’t like cricket that much. I cringe when I read some of those banners and posters held up by spectators in the stadiums. I roll my eyes every time I hear the phrase “In India, Cricket is more than a sport, it is a religion” and I want to scream “blasphemy” when Tendulkar is called a god. But I like Sachin Tendulkar and I don’t mind that he plays cricket.
As with the other greats, observing and thinking about Tendulkar is both exhilarating and frustrating. It’s exhilarating because you know that humans are capable of such excellence, but frustrating because It comes with the realisation I would never be able to command my body and mind to perform so.
Since I’m not an aficionado, I don’t care about his technique or his skill set, but I’m intrigued by the inner workings of his mind, psyche, and will. But because he reveals so little in news conferences and interviews, Tendulkar remains a mystery. Even his wife Anjali recently confessed, “There's a lot that goes on in his mind. He doesn't let us know, maybe one day he will tell.”
Watching him, the spinning top comes to mind – at optimum speed it looks still, almost motionless, but we know that there some laws of physics that are frenetically at play. I want to know if it’s pure instinct, or if he’s relying just on the conditioning of practice. Just how closely do his mind and body work together? I wonder what it must feel like for him to experience the thrill of imagining doing something a certain way and then physically doing it exactly that way – again and again. Those times he is in the zone (heck, when is he not in the zone) does he feel he is in control or is it some kind of a possession? Is he ever afraid he will lose that or can he will himself into the zone?
I’m in awe of the way what for his peers is a mountain top to him is a plateau, a table land. There are other batsmen who found themselves in such good form, a purple patch, but just as they reached the mountain top they invariably had to descend. There are no mountain tops for Tendulkar. He is such a force of nature he has blasted and hammered the mountain top to create a plateau – for himself.
So, Tendulkar has finally walked away from the game and I need to get back to my life. And I will ever so often, look for inspiration and pointers from the greats of my profession, but I know I will not be able to resist looking for clues, any bits of crumb, from any talk about Tendulkar, that can unlock at least some quality of performance in me. I might even think of him when I’m doing the not so complex or great tasks of everyday life. Isn’t this how the rest of the country thinks of him? And now maybe even the rest of the world?
Who else but a transcendent can creep in and burnish himself in the flesh and grey matter of our brains? We all have a little part of our brains that Tendulkar owns. Maybe that’s a much bigger accomplishment than owning the 22 yards of the cricket pitch.
Raised in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, Sevanand Gaddala is a writer, journalist and theologian. He is based in Bangalore and one of a few Indians who doesn't care about cricket all that much.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THREE
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PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
RESULTS
Catchweight 82kg
Piotr Kuberski (POL) beat Ahmed Saeb (IRQ) by decision.
Women’s bantamweight
Corinne Laframboise (CAN) beat Cornelia Holm (SWE) by unanimous decision.
Welterweight
Omar Hussein (PAL) beat Vitalii Stoian (UKR) by unanimous decision.
Welterweight
Josh Togo (LEB) beat Ali Dyusenov (UZB) by unanimous decision.
Flyweight
Isaac Pimentel (BRA) beat Delfin Nawen (PHI) TKO round-3.
Catchweight 80kg
Seb Eubank (GBR) beat Emad Hanbali (SYR) KO round 1.
Lightweight
Mohammad Yahya (UAE) beat Ramadan Noaman (EGY) TKO round 2.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) beat Reydon Romero (PHI) submission 1.
Welterweight
Juho Valamaa (FIN) beat Ahmed Labban (LEB) by unanimous decision.
Featherweight
Elias Boudegzdame (ALG) beat Austin Arnett (USA) by unanimous decision.
Super heavyweight
Maciej Sosnowski (POL) beat Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) by submission round 1.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
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Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
THE BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Whenever I have any free time I always go back to see my family in Caltra, Galway, it’s the only place I can properly relax.
Favourite film: The Way, starring Martin Sheen. It’s about the Camino de Santiago walk from France to Spain.
Personal motto: If something’s meant for you it won’t pass you by.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding