PROMOTION OF BASKETBALL AS A MAJOR ACTIVITY–RANDOM THOUGHTS

Every American Prison has a basketball court. Every garrison of American soliders builds a basketball court even in war zones. Mr. Nai Smith invented this game for young persons standing on street crosses doing nothing. The game is very fast paced and demands extra-ordinary physical fitness and concentration. It de-toxifies the body as nothing else does. ASK ME – I AM, SUBHASH MAHAJAN – and I will tell you stories till cows come home. I could live on basketball alone! Most of my students do!

SCHOOLS IN INDIA have become mini-prisons; we need to give these prisoners a break. The educational soldiers that we are producing by millions need to have physical fitness of equal measure. This is one game which can give this fitness within a period of 45 minutes. Innovative exercise drills which make children laugh and enjoy – make them WANT TO DO IT! Come, see me weave magic on a basketball court. Wherever I have gone BASKETBALL has become game number one.

DID I TELL YOU – Sister Julia from St. Mary’s Tumkur told me – all the children who have attended your basketball camps have changed – it is an extra-ordinary change. A principal who asked me to be the coach of her school didn’t have enough space to keep the trophies and suggested why don’t you start losing some games. Ha Ha! Come explore with me the potential that a ten year old boy has as he dribbles through his legs or behind his back or for that matter a twelve year old girl scoring a basket – then another – then another – then another – you wonder when she is going to miss.

WE DON’T TEACH THE WHOLE SCHOOL – just give me a group of 40 students – others will copy from them – we are only embedding, after that, there will be no turning back. I visited a school, which had three basketball courts – hardly anyone played on them. The principal told me, that they were planning to tear two courts down. I was allowed to conduct a camp for two days – now they are having problem to adjust so many students and a request has come for a FOURTH COURT [exclusively for girls]. Tell me, why I should stop teaching this game – tell me to stop living!

CHILDREN FITNESS is a big issue with everyone. It isn’t a issue with basketball players. Obesity is a crime – yet it keeps flourishing. Physically fit children do not fall ill, have a strong immune system, can take knocks and falls in their stride. At 56, as I run up and down the court for scoring or saving a basket – people stop in their tracks and wonder who is this bald child. And to get to this level of fitness the only crime I have committed is to have played basketball regularly for the last 45 years.

REALISE THEIR POTENTIAL before they become a burden for you and the society. Healthy habits must be developed early on in life – BASKETBALL is a good reason. Many players under estimate their talent – after playing this game – they understand one thing clearly – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. The spirit of courage and adventure is kindled in them. Climbing hills and walking in rivers –they can match any one at any age. You are listening to a man who has done more than 1000 hill climbs with probably more than one lakh children.

MORE – MORE ! I wish to train one million children in Basketball. Your co-operation will help me. Let us set the ball rolling. History may remember you – I AM ALREADY IMMORTAL!

CUT THE BULLSHIT! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

I have been using diplomatic words - words that lacked the ferocity of my thinking - hoping that you would understand. Since you refuse to - let me ask you to cut the bullshit. I have had enough! You violate the rights of children to play - in the name of giving them EDUCATION. Is education really what it is supposed to do? The education which creates a zombie who is capable of getting a fat pay check.

AND WHAT IS THE CONTRIBUTION OF THIS ZOMBIE - who has sucked the blood of his parents, sucked the blood of his country through subsidised education - will accumulate material wealth for his luxuries - and expect his progenies to follow in his foot-steps. WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE - YOU ASK?

I will give you the alternatives. Our traditional knowledge is extremely important for the whole world. We have to develop a proper mind-set. The world which cures diseases has to learn that PREVENTIVE MEASURES OF AYURVEDA are much more potent. We have to learn to combine the modern with the ancient - our failure to do so is the cause of so many problems.

The world has developed a measure for success MONEY! It isn't so - as we often learn. We have to stop calling every person working with his hands a POOR MAN! Poverty has to be redefined. Govts that impoverish its citizens and then give hand-outs must be recognized for what they are - CREATING BEGGARS out of honest upright workers. It is time to cut the bullshit! I have had enough! Have you, too?

I STILL WANT CHILDREN TO SIT ON MY LAPS AND REMOVE MY SELF-CREATED LONELINESS

This could be perhaps the deepest insight into my mind. I am perplexed by what I am doing. By day-time, I imagine a break-through in business - by afternoon I enjoy the lethargy of a semi retired life - by evening I am running at break neck speed on the basketball court trying to convert baskets - and by night the fact sink in that this day was the happiest of my life - AS EVERY DAY IT IS!

The cocoon with which I have surrounded myself allows me to indulge in any whims and fancies that I have - and for this I am indebted to the people who form this cocoon - my family, my colleagues in business and my students of basketball. They form the `core' of my reason to live and struggle. To ensure their joy I would do anything. They are the gods that I worship - just as they worship me as their god.

My home at SUMPOORNA is now as fulfilling as the one at Bangalore. I couldn't live without either - the extreme blessing that god has showered on me. I am alive to this fact that my life-bubble is nearing its end - hence the desire to give up `myself' in the totality is becoming stronger and stronger. AND this where my final `joys' live. I have arrived - of that I have no doubt. The travelling is over - the destination has been reached. The journies that others make I watch and wonder as to how I could help them. The desire to do something for them is very very great. I donot know whether this is right or not. If I could take away a little of their `pain' and give a `smile' - it would make my twilight years more meaningful.

I have come across people who cheated me for their gain. I bless them and pray to god that they too actualize their dreams as I have done. I have no grudges - no ill-will against them. I am also aware that there may still be `cheats' who would cross my path - but I also know that such people are cancelled out by the `good ones' who are with me.

To be able to play basketball with the young children, to be able to make their minds and bodies strong - I would like to do this till the end of my life. What the future holds for me - I donot know. But this is my strongest desire that SUMPOORNA becomes the battle cry of every child - and that to make their BODIES and MINDS strong is their goal. I have still not fully understood why SUMPOORNA has been created - what should be its goals - what should be its methodologies. I am still too much of a NON-CONFORMIST to allow any organization to run my `dream project'. I still want children to sit in my laps and fill up my self-created loneliness that I surround myself with.

I still want to be a child - and as children come to SUMPOORNA - I, too, like a child come here. Every basket they make - makes me feel that IT IS ME! I live in their bodies and minds. Their love will make me `immortal' - that which I donot seek. Let them create their own SUMPOORNAS when they grow up - let them be what they want to be [LET MY SUMPOORNA GIVE THEM STRONG MINDS AND BODIES]. Let god fulfill all their dreams as he has done mine.