The text of a speech i gave for annual sports day at a school. The initial paras have been removed.............
..........We will move on to the various sports in a short while (as soon as I shut up, I’m told). A few students will win prizes and there will be many who wont. Most of what I say is for the guys who wont win any prizes today. I urge everyone to give their best and not to lose heart. It is the spirit of participation that matters and please don’t take it as another cliché. Winning matters but whole hearted participation matters more. Some of you must have read Robert Browning who said ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for’. I’m sure your English teacher will check me for using the quote in the wrong context but............ the ability to give your best, to strive beyond the certainty of winning is an admirable trait. It will stand you in good stead, in sports field, in class, in life.
Sports is about not giving up, not till the last whistle. There must be a lot of football fans amongst you. Have you heard the quote with which the Georgia Tech University team fires themselves up
“We’re going to fight until we can’t fight no more. Going to lie down and bleed awhile. Going to get up; fight some more.” I am still talking about football. But just imagine this spirit in the game of life.
Sports is also not just about beating an opponent; it is about surpassing your own capacities, to gauge your limitations and work towards overcoming them. to develop the spirit of continuous self-improvement. “The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events themselves or the results.”
Another very important benefit that you get from sports is that you cultivate team spirit. It teaches you to work as a team with your friends to accomplish a common goal. It is not a mean achievement to be part of a team and to be able to look your teammate in the eye and know that you did not let him down, that you did everything that you could. That even after the body almost gave up; the mind made it stretch its limits. That you are reliable. That you will watch my back.
A word to the parents. In one of my previous assignments as the Chief Instructor of Naval Academy, in 2003, I found that almost 15 to 20% of the cadets developed stress fractures and the reason surprisingly was that those cadets had never played any game. Though they could clear the initial physical test, sustained physical activity took its toll. Most parents give precedence to academics and in the pursuit of academic excellence sports is given short shrift.
Time devoted to playing is not time taken away from studying. The Romans had a proverb, I cant get my tongue around it but it means 'a healthy mind in a healthy body'. Research has shown that the Romans were really on to something. While we have known for a long time that exercise can protect general health and wellbeing, it now seems that exercise also helps to preserve brain health. Fitness levels have been associated with maintenance of brain function and reduced risk of development of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
So, how can exercise improve brain health? The answer may lie with a group of proteins called growth factors. This family of proteins includes insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Studies have demonstrated that exercise can increase BDNF concentration in the hippocampus, a brain region vital to learning and memory. In a project analysing the effects of exercise on brain function and blood levels of growth factors in a group of young male students, it was found that physical training resulted in small but measurable improvements in learning and memory.
And it is not only health, playing any sport well involves superior communication skills, the capacity to assess situations, and the ability to take immediate and critical decisions in split seconds, where margin for error is very fine. “One half a step too late or too early, you don’t quite make it, one half second too slow or too fast you don’t quite catch it” I never thought I would be quoting from movies to students but that’s from one of those football movies, Al Pacino at his best.
Taking part in sports also boosts children's morale. Children realise that being selected to represent their school in a tournament is an honour and a responsibility. Their ability to fulfil this responsibility instils confidence in them. Kids who are into sports are known to display confidence in other areas of their life also. Physical activity and fitness is a very important aspect of life. In most cases, people are happier, have better self – esteem, and are more successful when they are healthy.
I have already had the privilege of declaring the sports meet open. Now lets go see some action.
Thank You. Jai Hind
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Visit to mhadei
What exactly is circumnavigation? (excerpt from the site www.solocircumnavigation.com)
Since Magellan and his crew proved in 1522 that one could sail continuously in one direction until once again reaching one’s homeport, circumnavigating the globe has been aspiration of countless sailors. Probably the first yacht to circumnavigate was British schooner Nancy Dawson finishing in 1850. Joshua Slocum did the first solo circumnavigation over one hundred years ago. Then others followed their example of leisure cruising from one port or anchorage to the next, until 1967-68 when Sir Francis Chichester sailed from Plymouth to Sydney and back via Cape Horn for speed.
He set the time mark for those who followed. Now the challenge became not simply to sail around the world, but to be the fastest to do so. More sailors, either solo or with crew, set out for circumnavigation and started to claim they were fastest. And here the trouble started.
As we know the speed is calculated as time over distance. During circumnavigation the time is done by our calendar system but the distance could be very different. Basically, to circle the globe means that you cross all 360 meridians of longitude. If everybody would be able to do it on the equator, everything would be OK because everybody would have to cover the same distance for the speed claim. The problem is that you can cross all 360 meridians close to the North or South Pole and you may claim that you have done circumnavigation as well.
If you do it a few feet off the pole, you can be very fast too, but would it be fair to claim it as a circumnavigation?
So how to set fair rules for specification of circumnavigation, especially when everybody can start the voyage in a different corner of the world? The answer is very simple: you must at least follow a great circle. But what is a great circle?
A great circle is a line traced on the surface of the globe by a plane cutting through the sphere at its center. It is a largest circle, which can be drawn on the surface of globe.
All longitudes are great circles because the plane cutting through every meridian of longitude cuts through the center of globe as well as through North and South Pole. Unfortunately there is no way to sail just following meridians.
If you put plane through the latitudes, only plane going through equator crosses the center of the globe and therefore only equator is a great circle. But again, you cannot sail following the equator, because the continents.
The simplest way to prove that one followed the great circle is to put the plane through any point of one’s sailing, preferably through the start point, and through the center of the globe, and then to find the opposite point on that plane – the point called antipode. Simply put, if somebody’s journey crosses pair of antipodes, he sailed a great circle (most probably even more due to passing around the continents), and he can claim true circumnavigation.
If a trip did not cross a pair of antipodes, the sailing did not follow the great circle. It does not matter how much shorter voyage was, even if the passage was longer that the one done just around the pole, the claim has no merit and is doubtful.
On his journey, Donde will have three stop-overs in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Asked how he would spend his time as he singly traverses the world’s oceans, Donde said if the weather conditions permitted, he would catch up on a novel. 'When I need to sleep, the yacht will be on auto-pilot,' he said. His friend Kabir has advised him to take a talking parrot with him, in case he feels like talking to someone
Incidentally, one person to solo circumnavigate the globe, Sir Robin Knox Johnston of the UK, in 1968-69 in 312 days, and who is Donde's mentor is in Goa to help tune the boat and train Donde for the mission.
The boat costs around Rs 4 crores, while the journey will come to another Rs 2 crores.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Written about a year ago
That is what the HR policy of Indian Navy is. Articulated by no less than Assistant Chief of Personnel(HRD). With a callous attitude like this, why do we express surprise at the number of people who want to leave the Navy. Is it wrong to request for a transfer (once in 23 years of service) to alleviate certain personal problems. Why should it become such a contentious issue that everyone derides you as a useless officer who has just committed high treason. Suddenly, you become useless but still not useless enough to be allowed to leave service. I have not understood statements like "You are useless but I have not had you transferred to some remote location because your performance has been excellent". Adm Arun Prakash in one of his lectures said, If you are unhappy with the Navy, resign and go away. dont go to court..... etc. What does one do when the resignation is met with "The competent authority has decided that your request cannot be acceeded to".
No rational explanation is given. Only veiled threats and ridiculous answers.
Having spent almost two years away from the family, i have now been transferred back to Bombay but with the suggestion that if i dont withdraw my request for premature retirement, the transfer will have to be reconsidered, (veiled threat!! actually, not so veiled). Leaves me between the devil and the d b s. If i refuse to be intimidated and refuse to withdraw, my wife will leave me (hyperbole, ruth, hyperbole) and if i go quietly to bombay then navy will not leave me. This round goes to Indian Navy
That is what the HR policy of Indian Navy is. Articulated by no less than Assistant Chief of Personnel(HRD). With a callous attitude like this, why do we express surprise at the number of people who want to leave the Navy. Is it wrong to request for a transfer (once in 23 years of service) to alleviate certain personal problems. Why should it become such a contentious issue that everyone derides you as a useless officer who has just committed high treason. Suddenly, you become useless but still not useless enough to be allowed to leave service. I have not understood statements like "You are useless but I have not had you transferred to some remote location because your performance has been excellent". Adm Arun Prakash in one of his lectures said, If you are unhappy with the Navy, resign and go away. dont go to court..... etc. What does one do when the resignation is met with "The competent authority has decided that your request cannot be acceeded to".
No rational explanation is given. Only veiled threats and ridiculous answers.
Having spent almost two years away from the family, i have now been transferred back to Bombay but with the suggestion that if i dont withdraw my request for premature retirement, the transfer will have to be reconsidered, (veiled threat!! actually, not so veiled). Leaves me between the devil and the d b s. If i refuse to be intimidated and refuse to withdraw, my wife will leave me (hyperbole, ruth, hyperbole) and if i go quietly to bombay then navy will not leave me. This round goes to Indian Navy
Water, water everywhere...........
I wrote this article some years ago but the main facts remain valid to date. The facts and figures are from various books published on rainwater harvesting by Centre for Science and Environment
I took over as XO, ------ towards the end of May 2001. Soon I found out that during get togethers, I was being cornered by quite a few of the lovely ladies of -------. However, it was more due to my inability to provide sufficient water than for my conversational skills. During the handing over, I had been told that there is an acute shortage of water in the Base and one of my main jobs during the tenure would be liaison with the Water department of the PWD to ensure that we got sufficient amount of water. I was told that everything possible has been tried and there was no solution to this shortage unless a new bigger pipeline from water pumping station was commissioned. However, I realized that a bigger pipeline is not a solution as PWD had only a limited supply of water and could not supply any more water to us.
This still left the problem of finding a source of water to alleviate the shortage. This led me to carry out some reading on water harvesting. The monsoons had commenced soon after my arrival at Goa and I found there was an enormous amount of rainwater available. It seemed criminal that in a place (Goa) which receives one of the highest average rainfalls in India (3005 mm compared to the national annual average of 1170 mm), there should be such an acute shortage of water. Compare this to the fact that if you had a hectare of land in barmer, one of India’s driest place, which receives only around 100 mm of water in a year, you could collect as much as one million litres of water. This is enough to meet the drinking and cooking water requirements of 182 people at 15 litres a day. Even if you are not able to catch all that water, you could , with rudimentary technology, capture at least half a million litres a year. Imagine then the amount of water available to us in our 250 acre campus with 3000 mm of annual rains (Rainwater calculator here).
However, there are a couple of things peculiar to rainwater.
-One, few of us realize the stupendous amount of water available to us because of the speed with which water, the most fluid of substance disappears. More so, In -----, an efficient drainage system ensures that the water drained out to sea as fast as possible. This gave no time for the water to seep into the ground and allow the groundwater table to be recharged. This was evident in the decreasing yield of our bore wells with some of them going dry.
-Two, it does not matter how much rain you get, if you do not capture it you will still be short of water. It is unbelievable but true that Cherrapunji which gets 11000 mm of annual rainfall, still suffers from serious drinking water shortage.
-Three, India receives most of its rainfall in just 100 hours out of 8760 hours in a year. If you don’t catch the water in these 100 hours, you will remain short of water.
-Four, the harvested water has to be stored for future use.
Even our ancestors recognized these facts and followed one of these means
-They harvested the rainwater directly by collecting water from rooftops, and stored in tankas built in the courtyards.
-Water collected from open community lands was stored in artificial wells called kundis.
-Harvested rainwater from monsoon runoff by capturing water from swollen streams during the monsoon and stored it in zings in ladakh, ahars in Bihar, johads in Rajasthan and eris in Tamil Nadu., to name a few.
Having got a glimpse of the enormous and undeniable potential of rainwater harvesting, I decided to work on it. I found that the rainwater drains had to be stopped and the flow of water had to be restricted to give it time to seep into the ground and recharge the groundwater. To ensure this, we stopped all the drains by building earthen dams across them by re directing the water to flow into sunken ponds excavated at couple of places. I am grateful to the members of the ship’s company who helped me in this exercise because it was an voluntary exercise and the excavation etc was done at the cost of a few thousand rupees.
With the first rain, a pond of 50 m by 50 m dug to a depth of six feet was full in the first hour of the rain and I had the pleasure of swimming in it. We found an abandoned bore well shaft and directed the excess water down that shaft. The water was allowed to seep into the ground. Although this would lead to recharging the ground water, no immediate benefit was available to ------ (At the end of the monsoon, the yield of the borewells was seen to be higher although we did not have any means to accurately calculate the yield). It was therefore decided to build concrete reservoirs to store the water and use it to supplement the Base’s water supply after suitable treatment (Never managed to finish this project. Actually couldn’t manage to start it also as I was transferred soon thereafter)
However, what we did manage was to collect roof water at Dhobi ghat as all the essentials like storage tank and filtration unit were available there. Eaves gutter and the pipes were fitted and it was found that during the monsoons, the water tanks at Dhobi ghat were always overflowing. A similar project was carried out in CO’s residence – ------ House where the rainwater was collected in a 25000 l ground tank and thereafter pumped to one of the bathrooms (Hampi, if you are reading this, now you know why you have rainwater in your bathroom, at least during monsoons)
I took over as XO, ------ towards the end of May 2001. Soon I found out that during get togethers, I was being cornered by quite a few of the lovely ladies of -------. However, it was more due to my inability to provide sufficient water than for my conversational skills. During the handing over, I had been told that there is an acute shortage of water in the Base and one of my main jobs during the tenure would be liaison with the Water department of the PWD to ensure that we got sufficient amount of water. I was told that everything possible has been tried and there was no solution to this shortage unless a new bigger pipeline from water pumping station was commissioned. However, I realized that a bigger pipeline is not a solution as PWD had only a limited supply of water and could not supply any more water to us.
This still left the problem of finding a source of water to alleviate the shortage. This led me to carry out some reading on water harvesting. The monsoons had commenced soon after my arrival at Goa and I found there was an enormous amount of rainwater available. It seemed criminal that in a place (Goa) which receives one of the highest average rainfalls in India (3005 mm compared to the national annual average of 1170 mm), there should be such an acute shortage of water. Compare this to the fact that if you had a hectare of land in barmer, one of India’s driest place, which receives only around 100 mm of water in a year, you could collect as much as one million litres of water. This is enough to meet the drinking and cooking water requirements of 182 people at 15 litres a day. Even if you are not able to catch all that water, you could , with rudimentary technology, capture at least half a million litres a year. Imagine then the amount of water available to us in our 250 acre campus with 3000 mm of annual rains (Rainwater calculator here).
However, there are a couple of things peculiar to rainwater.
-One, few of us realize the stupendous amount of water available to us because of the speed with which water, the most fluid of substance disappears. More so, In -----, an efficient drainage system ensures that the water drained out to sea as fast as possible. This gave no time for the water to seep into the ground and allow the groundwater table to be recharged. This was evident in the decreasing yield of our bore wells with some of them going dry.
-Two, it does not matter how much rain you get, if you do not capture it you will still be short of water. It is unbelievable but true that Cherrapunji which gets 11000 mm of annual rainfall, still suffers from serious drinking water shortage.
-Three, India receives most of its rainfall in just 100 hours out of 8760 hours in a year. If you don’t catch the water in these 100 hours, you will remain short of water.
-Four, the harvested water has to be stored for future use.
Even our ancestors recognized these facts and followed one of these means
-They harvested the rainwater directly by collecting water from rooftops, and stored in tankas built in the courtyards.
-Water collected from open community lands was stored in artificial wells called kundis.
-Harvested rainwater from monsoon runoff by capturing water from swollen streams during the monsoon and stored it in zings in ladakh, ahars in Bihar, johads in Rajasthan and eris in Tamil Nadu., to name a few.
Having got a glimpse of the enormous and undeniable potential of rainwater harvesting, I decided to work on it. I found that the rainwater drains had to be stopped and the flow of water had to be restricted to give it time to seep into the ground and recharge the groundwater. To ensure this, we stopped all the drains by building earthen dams across them by re directing the water to flow into sunken ponds excavated at couple of places. I am grateful to the members of the ship’s company who helped me in this exercise because it was an voluntary exercise and the excavation etc was done at the cost of a few thousand rupees.
With the first rain, a pond of 50 m by 50 m dug to a depth of six feet was full in the first hour of the rain and I had the pleasure of swimming in it. We found an abandoned bore well shaft and directed the excess water down that shaft. The water was allowed to seep into the ground. Although this would lead to recharging the ground water, no immediate benefit was available to ------ (At the end of the monsoon, the yield of the borewells was seen to be higher although we did not have any means to accurately calculate the yield). It was therefore decided to build concrete reservoirs to store the water and use it to supplement the Base’s water supply after suitable treatment (Never managed to finish this project. Actually couldn’t manage to start it also as I was transferred soon thereafter)
However, what we did manage was to collect roof water at Dhobi ghat as all the essentials like storage tank and filtration unit were available there. Eaves gutter and the pipes were fitted and it was found that during the monsoons, the water tanks at Dhobi ghat were always overflowing. A similar project was carried out in CO’s residence – ------ House where the rainwater was collected in a 25000 l ground tank and thereafter pumped to one of the bathrooms (Hampi, if you are reading this, now you know why you have rainwater in your bathroom, at least during monsoons)
Ahoy ---- Life at the Naval Academy
An article written by my wife on her stay in the Academy
“Jai Hind”. On entering the --------- Academy, the Quarter master greets me with this. “What do I reply” I ask my husband. “Silly, all you have to say in reply is “Jai Hind”. In course of time, the greeting comes easy. Saves you the bother of Good Morning, Good evening, Good Night.
Welcome to the life of a naval wife at -------. All is peaceful here in the lovely sylvan surroundings. We have our view of the beautiful river ------ and the peacocks dancing in the sun. Suddenly term begins, and you see this species of shaven headed youth running, rolling, jumping and leaping out of the greenery. You meet them ‘At homes” and the mess nights, and then find out that the running machines can actually talk. Here’s one typical conversation “ How do you like your training here?” Oh Ma’am, it’s great. I love all the cross country runs, drill at unearthly hour, camps in pouring rain and rolling over every inch of the campus”. How do you like being naval officer’s wife? Oh, I just love the numerous transfers where I have to pack my bags at the drop of a hat, the long hours and the days my husband is out at sea, the endless cocktails when my feet ache….’ “ I can see Ma’am that Navy offers us both a wonderful life”.
Then comes the time when the cadets show their prowess in various events. There is a lot to keep you busy with football, volleyball, sailing and other competitions where you can be part of the cheering team. They are anyway making unintelligible noises soyou can mutter whatever you want. Just jump and yell.
The Dramatics competition is a major event in the life of the Academy. All teams have the kurta pyjama clad Hindi MC and a suited and booted English MC. Why cannot it be otherwise! The English play is straight out of Hollywood including the accents and the Hindi play will stir your nationalistic fervour. The dances are marvelous and so energetic that you get tired just watching. The group song is again very patriotic and will make any Indian worth his salt immediately want to give up his life for the nation.
The ----- Ball is the highlight of a cadet’s life. They try through fair means and foul to get lissome young girls to be their partners for the dance. Unfortunately, the ones that turn up are so few you can count them on your fingers. You can guess now why we dance till we drop. There are you an officer’s wife surrounded by eight to ten cadets trying to teach you those body shaking and ankle twisting steps. “Come on Ma’am” comes the refrain “we have to win a prize”
The highlight of the term is of course the POP. When I heard this term at first I did not know what it meant. Someone said ‘Stupid, the POP or the Passing Out Parade, is what the whole academy works for. Our life revolves around the POP. When you actually experience it, you know why. Suddenly, for a few days lif is in a flurry. Of course, for us the major decisions are what to wear for the various functions. “ I can be see dead in the sari I wore at the last function’. “Dye it another clour then”.
Husbands suddenly look very dashing in their ceremonial uniforms and if you have relatives at home (like I always do) they want to take photos from every angle.
Before you know, it is valedictory function, which suddenly transforms the cadets and actually makes you see them as very talented young men. Finally, comes the moment you dreamt of, the Passing Out Parade. You hold your breath through the drills but there is not a step out of sync. Suddenly, as if by magic, the scrawny young boys turn into officers. As they march out – Why do tears suddenly come to my eyes? Must be all that dust on the parade ground.
“Jai Hind”
“Jai Hind”. On entering the --------- Academy, the Quarter master greets me with this. “What do I reply” I ask my husband. “Silly, all you have to say in reply is “Jai Hind”. In course of time, the greeting comes easy. Saves you the bother of Good Morning, Good evening, Good Night.
Welcome to the life of a naval wife at -------. All is peaceful here in the lovely sylvan surroundings. We have our view of the beautiful river ------ and the peacocks dancing in the sun. Suddenly term begins, and you see this species of shaven headed youth running, rolling, jumping and leaping out of the greenery. You meet them ‘At homes” and the mess nights, and then find out that the running machines can actually talk. Here’s one typical conversation “ How do you like your training here?” Oh Ma’am, it’s great. I love all the cross country runs, drill at unearthly hour, camps in pouring rain and rolling over every inch of the campus”. How do you like being naval officer’s wife? Oh, I just love the numerous transfers where I have to pack my bags at the drop of a hat, the long hours and the days my husband is out at sea, the endless cocktails when my feet ache….’ “ I can see Ma’am that Navy offers us both a wonderful life”.
Then comes the time when the cadets show their prowess in various events. There is a lot to keep you busy with football, volleyball, sailing and other competitions where you can be part of the cheering team. They are anyway making unintelligible noises soyou can mutter whatever you want. Just jump and yell.
The Dramatics competition is a major event in the life of the Academy. All teams have the kurta pyjama clad Hindi MC and a suited and booted English MC. Why cannot it be otherwise! The English play is straight out of Hollywood including the accents and the Hindi play will stir your nationalistic fervour. The dances are marvelous and so energetic that you get tired just watching. The group song is again very patriotic and will make any Indian worth his salt immediately want to give up his life for the nation.
The ----- Ball is the highlight of a cadet’s life. They try through fair means and foul to get lissome young girls to be their partners for the dance. Unfortunately, the ones that turn up are so few you can count them on your fingers. You can guess now why we dance till we drop. There are you an officer’s wife surrounded by eight to ten cadets trying to teach you those body shaking and ankle twisting steps. “Come on Ma’am” comes the refrain “we have to win a prize”
The highlight of the term is of course the POP. When I heard this term at first I did not know what it meant. Someone said ‘Stupid, the POP or the Passing Out Parade, is what the whole academy works for. Our life revolves around the POP. When you actually experience it, you know why. Suddenly, for a few days lif is in a flurry. Of course, for us the major decisions are what to wear for the various functions. “ I can be see dead in the sari I wore at the last function’. “Dye it another clour then”.
Husbands suddenly look very dashing in their ceremonial uniforms and if you have relatives at home (like I always do) they want to take photos from every angle.
Before you know, it is valedictory function, which suddenly transforms the cadets and actually makes you see them as very talented young men. Finally, comes the moment you dreamt of, the Passing Out Parade. You hold your breath through the drills but there is not a step out of sync. Suddenly, as if by magic, the scrawny young boys turn into officers. As they march out – Why do tears suddenly come to my eyes? Must be all that dust on the parade ground.
“Jai Hind”
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