Sports teaches you many things — humility, how to handle failure, staying grounded even when flying high with success and perhaps, the strength to fight your depression.
So, when Bengaluru’s home girl Deepika Padukone took to social media to holler about it in a video, she hit home. It resonated with a number of Bengalureans who may not have made a career out of sports, but have pretty much made it a part of their lives.
Take Ranganath Thota for instance. An army kid, he insists that there was nothing to do but play sports growing up. Aside of the usual suspects, windsurfing and sailing were in the mix too. Now, golf is his chosen one, something he makes time for every week.
“Although I picked it up later in life, it’s an interesting sport. You are to blame for everything and there are no excuses. Since it’s an easy game to cheat at, how you react to situations, if you own up to it and even how you treat your caddies speaks volumes about your character. Hence, the golf course is not just a good place to do business, but it tells you whom to do business with,” says the CEO and founder of founder of Fueladream.
Ms. Padukone might be on to something when she says that sports teaches you survival, and city folk can’t help but agree. “It puts you under pressure and reveals your strengths and weaknesses. Collaboration and team work is also what I took from it and brought to the table at my current job,” says Maaz Khan.
The business head at Centerstage and a producer with Improv, the 30-year-old Bengaluru boy juggles roles effortlessly and he owes it to sport. As the captain of his school’s cricket team in Baldwins, playing for the State’s under 14, 16 and 19 teams, Maaz says that whether you’re simply watching or playing it, sport has the ability to bring people together. “I think we need that most right now. It has the potential to bridge any social/economic divides and bring ideas and opportunities to the front,” he opines.
You don’t have to have played a sport all your life. You can pick it up at any time, like now. A counseling psychologist from the city, Peki took up running just under two years ago.
“My reason was quite simple – I wanted to get cardio and Zumba and aerobics weren’t my cuppa. Running fit the bill because it’s an endurance sport. It gives you structure, discipline and teaches you that it’s all in the mind – you can’t be negative about your goals because that can work against you,” she says, now running marathons in aid of social causes. Everyone needs to pick a sport. Why? “Because, once the body is healthy, so is your mind,” adds Peki.
