Musings of Disha

  One of the most well-known verses of the 15 th century poet saint Kabir Das is “Guru Govind dono khade, ka ke lagoon paaye, balihari Guru aapne, Govind diyo bataaye” . What this essentially means is that when a mentor and God are both in front of me, I bow down to the mentor first because it is he who told me who God is! God does not necessarily refer to a mythological deity here, but can also refer to one’s own hidden powers. In other words, the role of a good mentor is critical for a mentoree to realize their full potential. During our visit to watch the Doha Diamond League, we had a rare opportunity to interact with one such mentor, whose focussed work behind the scenes has been a game changer for Indian athletics. Meet Dr Klaus Bartonietz, a world expert in sports biomechanics and the coach of reigning Olympic, World, and Asian Games champion in javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra. Explanation of the catapult action The question When we had the fortunate chance to meet Dr Bartoni...

There is no formula for continuous and guaranteed success. In fact, the theory of probability suggests that the exact same outcome is unlikely for a particular process repeated multiple times. This means that no matter how hard one prepares for a task, there will always be days when things may not go well. The question then is how does one handle an off day? And how does one deal with it when their colleague ends up giving a great performance under the same conditions? Fortunately, during our recent trip to Doha to watch the Diamond League Athletics meet, we got an excellent demonstration of how to manage an outcome that did not pan out as planned. Eldhose Paul: Commonwealth Games (2022) Gold Medalist in triple jump It was a privilege to meet and interact with Eldhose Paul, Commonwealth games (2022) Gold Medalist in triple jump and the first ever Indian to qualify for World Athletics Championship final in the triple jump event. The competition in Doha was his debut at the Diamond Leagu...

The Plan “ Iss saal summer holidays ka kya plan hai? ” is one question that pops up on most dining table conversations around April. When our family was amid such discussion this year, several destination ideas came up, with attractions ranging from nature, theme parks, adventure, and sports. One of these options was visiting Doha, Qatar to watch our favorite sportsperson Neeraj Chopra live in action at the Diamond League opening event. Once this option appeared, our son, an avid fan of Neeraj, refused to consider any other options. To ensure this was not just momentary excitement, we offered a few cons of Doha: it will be hot, there will be no medals/trophies or Neeraj walking wrapped in a flag at this qualification event, the Indian contingent is small, etc. Pat came the replies “I want to see him playing live at an international athletics meet. Temperature does not matter; our athletes will be playing in the heat too. We will wave the flag for him this time. Contingent size doesn’t ...