16 minute read
Appreciation of Life
The special session on the theme, ‘Appreciation of Life’ was chaired by R Ramaraj, Founder, Sify Technologies Pvt Ltd. Viswanathan Anand, Chess Grandmaster and Former World Champion, and Viren Rasquinha, Former Indian Hockey Captain, shared their wisdom of handling success and failure, pursuing one’s goals and enjoying life with fun. Excerpts from the Panel Discussion.
Ramaraj: Vishy. You became the first Grandmaster in India. There was no role model you could emulate. In your book, you have quoted Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra in their song of 'My Way, ' and how you did it your way. What pointers, based on your extraordinarily successful background, can you share with the young leaders who are going to step out of colleges into the business world?
Vishy (Viswanathan Anand): I am fortunate that I am the first Indian Grandmaster, the first Indian to qualify for the World Championship and so on. As a result, I could set my expectations. It was challenging as well as I had to learn many things on my own. In the beginning of my career, my three goals were just ranking, ranking and ranking, just like placement for college students.
Early in your career, you will not have anything called work-life balance. You have to go 100%. It's part of the learning process. You understand what happens when you press the accelerator all the way.
Soon I had a big breakthrough at the world level when I became a world chess champion and a grandmaster in the same year. It took me a while to get used to my new situation. Then I broke through to the next level that opened new doors to new prestigious tournaments, playing against top players. Then I got used to that, fighting at the highest level. Then the first unexpected slump came along. Things seem to be going smoothly and suddenly I felt like hitting a performance wall and I could not go forward. I realised that pushing myself 100% was good to test my limits but it was not a longterm strategy. I had to keep time for yourself. Even if you are fairly independent, you still need to set time aside for things to recover.
So around 93-94, I started paying attention to things I had neglected for a while. I was getting some time off, learning about new things, spending a few moments in the day to enjoy and going to lovely places. I expanded my horizon a bit and the beautiful thing is that very soon, I made the connections.
What you are saying is that there is a lot of hard work if you want to be successful and leave a legacy behind but you must balance it at some stage by being mindful of things around you. Just take stock. Enjoy small things. Take time to appreciate the little things as much as the big things. Viren, what inspired you to take up hockey and not cricket?
Viren (Viren Rasquinha): I came up from a very normal conservative middle-class background. I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, in the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai. You then had to become either a doctor or an engineer. My mom was a doctor and dad, an engineer. My parents were super-strict with my eldest brother and he loved sports. But he eventually became an engineer. They were sort of medium-strict with my second brother. He loved football and was really good at it. Eventually, he became an engineer as well. I was the third and last and the luckiest one, because by the time I came along, my parents were not bothered at all. That's how I could start playing hockey.
The funny part was that I was a fairly good student and in SSC board exams, I came 13th in the Mumbai merit list. Everyone told my parents that I should take up medicine or engineering. I was scared to see my mom's big medical journals and my brother's even bigger engineering books at home. I couldn't understand a single equation in school. I thought I would save more lives if I did not become a doctor!
I thought hockey was a little bit simpler and that's how I took to hockey. I was very lucky again in school, because my school—St. Stanislaus High School is famous for hockey. It has produced around six or seven players who have played for India, including a few Olympians. My coach in school—Marcellus Gomes—was an Olympian who played in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. When I was 11 or 12 years old, he taught me everything—not only technical hockey skills but also the importance of team work, discipline and commitment.
Most importantly, he taught me to believe in myself, to believe that I had the talent and if I worked out, maybe I could achieve something in hockey. Honestly, we all need mentors, good teachers and coaches in life. For me, Marcellus Gomes was that coach who changed my life.
As an athlete, I had to sleep by 9:30 or 10:00 every night because we would start at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. I was too exhausted to last beyond 9.30. There was hardly any internet, Wi-Fi and mobile phones for distraction. But I never looked upon all that as a sacrifice because I was just doing what I loved—playing hockey.
One thing led to the other and I went on to play for India, captain the Indian Hockey team and play at the Olympics. It was just a tremendous journey and I relate so much to what Vishy said about focus in the early days. I too was so focussed at that point of time.
I was in the Indian team by 18 or 19 years. All my friends thought I was leading a very glamorous life, flying across the world and playing in Amsterdam, Munich and Sydney. But it was hard to tell them that actually I did not see anything other than airports, hotels and stadiums. On hindsight, I realized that it did affect my game. We have to take some time off to take a walk down the beach or have a leisurely cup of coffee.
You both said that there is so much of hard work needed in order to be really successful. But if we reach some level of success, we get into a comfort zone and not really come up to our full potential. What are your tips to youngsters to realise their potential?
Viren: I can't say much about others. I'll just say a little bit about my own journey. After 10th standard, Indian kids make a decision in life to study medicine, engineering or any other stream. I wanted to play hockey and I did what I felt was best for me. I didn't feel that I needed anyone else to tell me what to do in life. I backed myself and I just said that I'll work hard and take full responsibility and ownership for my actions.
I was fairly confident that if I did not succeed, I would go back to studies. The same thing happened really. At the age of 27, when I had played many years for the Indian hockey team and was thinking of the next phase of my life, my aunt said that I should be playing for another Olympics cycle—3 or 4 years more.
At that point, when everyone wanted me to play, I wanted to study. I felt it was the right time to move on, when I was at the peak of my game and do what I wanted to do. The important thing here is taking calculated risks; backing yourselves; and being prepared.
I did my homework when I was 15. I had coaches. I knew the teams that I wanted to be in. When I was 27, I was already preparing for my GMAT exams. I got into ISB. I think preparation gives you confidence. If we prepare the right way and think in the right direction, then it will always help us. Take calculated risks and do not necessarily go down the beaten path.
Vishy, you had one goal—to become India's first Grandmaster and you became one. Why didn't you retire? What motivated you to keep going? Even today, you continue to play on the world stage and give everybody a hard time.
Vishy: This is a self-correcting problem. When I became a Grandmaster, I had the feeling that I've done this and that was enough. You could shrug off a bad result and just go on with life because you still feel very good about yourself. But I said this is self-correcting because it's almost human to have this kind of blind and even illogical ambition. Maybe it's not justified but we have it.
Usually, there is a natural way where you'll come out to motivate and push yourself. After a few months as a Grandmaster, I realized the world works in a certain way and that people forget that you became a Grandmaster. You also have to move on.
Second thing I would say is, as a species, we are very curious. We want to see how far we can go. The nicest challenges are the futile ones, because when you try for something, you discover a lot about yourself. We need to have a conscious goal. We can't just fly blind. This doesn't have to be an arrow pointing upwards always. It can point sideways too. You can do something with a bit more of fun or help someone else to succeed. But setting new goals like that, gives the motivation to work and it becomes very exciting.
Being from a country without a chess history had its advantages because people wanted to see me play. Organizers invited me because they thought Russians playing chess was no big deal and if Indians play, they wanted to find out and see what it was. I just went about working towards the world title, which means making constant improvements. After becoming the world champion, I still needed new ways to push myself, like striving for new ratings.
The key thing is understanding when you are likely to perform well and what are the conditions in which that happens. And for me very often, the answer to that was when I am relaxed, when I have slept well and when I am in a positive frame of mind. When you have that, you can also enjoy life and maintain a balance.
Vishy and Viren, both of you have been very fortunate that from a young age, you discovered your passion and then built on it. Most of us move either because of parents pushing us in one direction or peer pressure or many other things. So, how do we step back and set proper goals and not get buffeted by either short-term victory or failure?
Vishy: Similar to Viren, I was fortunate that my parents were incredibly supportive. My mother herself was the one who introduced me to chess and I also benefited from the fact that I was doing something that nobody really knew how to judge. I'm sure my dad would have given me more advice if I had tried to become an engineer. For becoming a chess player, what could he say? He said, ‘Okay. You figure your way out, ’ and that was nice.
One of the things I feel now is that the path is much broader. There are things you have to do in the right way but I cannot say now that I would not have become world champion if I had followed some other path. At a young age, we are obsessed with following one right path. But as you get older, you realize that there are many paths that could have led you to the goal.
It is important that I create an ambience where I tend to perform the best. We often try to see how somebody else did it but we're all pretty unique. Collaborate with people. Be aware of things like what irritates you before you go to sleep, what emotions do you have that you don't admit to everyone but you know it affects you a lot. It could be jealousy and we don't want to broadcast. We must know when it peaks and develop any perspective to minimize it the next time it comes up, as it doesn't correlate well with performance. Everyone has to find their own cooking recipe so to speak.
We are very good at assessing others but not in our own self-assessment. That is what Vishy said—Take stock. It could be small emotions. Our performance is dependent on the quality of our actions, and our actions are driven by how good we feel about ourselves, both at a physical level and at an emotional level. It is the Japanese way of Kaizen as they call it—small steps in the right direction.
Vishy: Yes. It is those small things. Only you will know about a small incident at the airport before you arrived at the tournament or a small interaction somewhere that upset you. Sports journalists always dissect the results and write only from what they see. There are thousand little things that can happen in the background. Emotional stability is very important.
How do you recover from failures?
Vishy: I practise recovering from a loss in two steps —first, recovering emotionally and then recovering technically. Emotional recovery is very important to find my balance. Technical recovery helps me to find out why I lost.
Viren, at every stage, we see that you brought clarity in your decision making—when you decided take up hockey in school, then to do MBA at 27 and later on take up a job. Tell us something about this (job) process.
Viren: Around 2007, there was financial meltdown. The Dean of ISB where I pursed my MBA got sacked. Somehow, I got a decent placement. Then I happened to meet OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest) Board and people like Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, whom I really admired. OGQ was a not-for-profit organisation. We did not have much funds.
When I met these people, I realised that this is a place where I can learn a lot from scratch. I had a blank white board and I could draw my own picture. It gave me the freedom to pursue my passion. I couldn't win an Olympic medal and I wanted to help the next generation. It gave me the platform to put the wrongs right, from my own experience of playing. I felt I would be backed by great people, a great Board, who were far more experienced than me. That was more attractive to me than the pay package.
In life, more than running a sprint, endurance is very important. In my hockey days, I would hate the endurance training, running from National stadium to Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi and back, six to seven times in a day. I loved explosive strength training but not this. But every kilometre of running would teach you something different about your body and about yourself. The mind has to be really strong to last a marathon.
Openness to learning is very important. We have to learn, unlearn and relearn. Vishy talked about the need for curiosity. Sometimes, our education system kills this curiosity, restricting students to stick to text books. So our students must develop the mindset to be curious and constantly learn and figure out their purpose in life.
Viren: True, a good coach is one who teaches you how to make your own decisions. Because, in a playground, when you step across the white line, you have to make your own decision. The coach is not going to play for you.
At OGQ, are you seeing a bunch of young women out there to make India proud? What quality do you see in them?
Viren: Most of India's stars today in Olympics are women —from Mary Kom to Sindhu to Sania Mirza to Mirabhai Chanu to Vinesh Phogat. They are amazing. Most of them are from backgrounds where sports was not their natural part. They didn't have the right coaching, infra or institutions. They had no support at all. Take the Indian women's hockey team. Half the team comes from small villages in Haryana. None of them had Astroturf hockey grounds to play. They can't have their own mobile phones. They can't marry someone of their choice. These are tough situations. Yet they are able to rise above all these. If women are given the right opportunities, the right platform and a level playing field, they can achieve far more than men.
How can you transform yourself from being a talented player to a champion player?
Vishy: Talent is a real thing but it exists in a very small quantity. There are many players who put in the same amount of practice but one player makes an effortless progress because of talent, while others slog. But when I work on something I am unfamiliar, my intuition improves. Thoughts become more coherent. If you want to get good at something, you must work at it. It improves your muscle memory.
If you enjoy something, it allows you to put in a phenomenal amount of time in it, without resenting that. Find something that you really love. If you don’t love it, find some part of it that you really love and work at it. For instance, I am more naturally drawn towards middle games than end games. But if I work on my end games, it allows me to focus well during a game. In this way, you can become good at doing things in which you are not naturally good at.
How did you lead as a captain of the Indian Hockey team?
Viren: As a captain, I set example in terms of work ethics, positive body language, creating the right environment for people to air their opinions without being judged, ticking off someone in private and praising them in public and ensuring the importance of team.
Vishy and Viren: Your closing remarks and advice to the students?
Vishy: You will have lots of success. Enjoy them. As you go along, you will have more of shocks too. Enjoy them too.
Viren: As a sports player, I had the courage to overcome injuries and other challenges. So, have courage and face your career successfully.
