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Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Olympics history

One more Olympics has gone by. A total of 974 medals were won by 87 countries; 54 countries won at least one Gold The US flew home with the best medal tally of all time for that country with 121 medals. Notwithstanding the individual brilliance and the face saving medals of PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik, India's performance is the poorest among all big countries.

The discourse on this is an unhappy one: there has been a lot of handwringing, blame on the Sports Ministry and sports administrators, complaints about lack of facilities, grumbles about corruption being the villain, and so on. India says the same things, once in four years, during and after every Olympics. It should instead look for simple lessons, develop a strategy to win medals and execute it diligently. No, I don't believe that india should be planning for the Olympics scheduled eight or twelve years from now. While long-term thinking is good, any leader will tell you that it is too slow. We should aim to win a lot more medals in Tokyo in 2020. But how?

Olympic flag

The final medals tally by country tells all sorts of stories. The top 22 countries- those with a double- digit medals tally with a minimum of three gold medals-took home a total of 702 medals, or 72 per cent of all medals. The top ten suggests that only the established West (the US, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Australia) along with Russia, Japan and Sluth Korea will continue to dominate. The emergence of China is explained as "you know the Chinese can dictate anything, so they are not comparable." It is often implied that wealth and size are the reasons for the success of these countries. They have the facilities and programmes in place. They are bound to win. So goes the argument and acceptance.

Olympic medals

This logic should be probed further. Olympics medals are won by people between the ages of 15 to 29, with a few exceptions on either side of this age band. I looked at the number of medal wins in relation to the population in the age group 15 to 29 In each country, for which data is available. This was juxtaposed with medals won, to calculate the numbers of medals won per lakh of population in this age group. The story changes dramatically.

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S.K.K.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

History of Sudoku

'Su' means number and Duko' means single. The game of Sudoku has many similarities with the game of life. Sudoku is a puzzle game designed for a single player, much like a crossword puzzle. The puzzle itself is nothing more than a grid of little boxes called 'cells'. They are stacked nine high and nine wide, 81 cells in total. The roots of the Sudoku puzzle are in Switzerland. Leonhard Euler created 'carré latin' in the 18th century which is similar to a Sudoku puzzle. The first real Sudoku was published in 1979 and was invented by Howard Garns, an American architect. The real world wide popularity started in Japan in 1986 where it was published and given the name Sudoku by Nikoli.

In life, too, you start with a given set of notions and then work from there on. In Sudoku, you need to follow a set of rules to build up the grid, filling each row, column and box with numbers ranging from one to nine, so much like in life where you have to go on your way without hurting anyone else. Respect every number (person), and things would be fine. While playing, you never think of the end (the result); you just keep working on the numbers and the final result (fruits of action) comes on its own. Extremely difficult puzzles may take hours. Similarly, to achieve the desired results in life, may also take years. The game of Sudoku and the game of life are best played in calm but in a focused state.

Everything has to go together in a Sudoku grid: the rows, columns and squares. Exactly as in life. Your duties towards your family, teachers, society and country, all go on simultaneously. In Sudoku, the arrangement of the given numbers is symmetrical. This is instructive in life, on how to maintain steadfast faith, poise and equanimity despite situations when everything turns topsy-turvy.

There is a subtle difference between the two, as well. Make a mistake and you can erase it and begin all over again in Sudoku. Not so in life. You can learn a lesson through it, and avoid making the same mistake in future. What most people don't know is that Sudoku is not a mathematical game. It requires absolutely no arithmetic skills, but it does require logical reasoning. As you learn to arrange the numbers correctly, your logical thinking skills improve. Choose the correct alternatives:

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S.K.K.

Monday, January 9, 2023

Life lesson

1. During my growing years, my siblings and were taught both at home school to worship the photos and idols of the deities of our respective religions. When we grew a little older, we were introduced to scriptures like the Bhagwad Gita, the Bible, and the Quran, we were told that there are lot of life lessons to be learnt from holy books. We were then introduced to mythological stories, through which we learnt about ethics and morality. I also learnt to be respectful towards my parents who made my life comfortable with their love and sacrifice, and my teachers who guided me to become a good student and responsible citizen.

2. Much later in life, I realised that though we learn much from our respective scriptures, there is a lot to learn from our surroundings. This realisation dawned upon me when learnt to enquire and explore. Everything around us the sun, the moon, the stars, rain, rivers, stones, rocks, birds, plants and animals - teach us many valuable life lessons.

3. No wonder that besides the scriptures, in many cultures, nature is also worshipped. The message that is transmitted is that of maintaining environment and ecological balance. People are taught to live in harmony with nature and, recognise that divinity is there every-where.

4. Nature is a great teacher. A river never stops flowing. If it finds an obstruction in the form of a heavy rock, the river water fights to remove it from its path or finds an alternative path to move ahead. This teaches us not only to be nurturing but also to be progressive in life; keeping the fighting spirit alive.

5. We learn a lot in nature's lap but are unwilling to comprehend it. Rather than being considerate to our surroundings and environment, we are being senselessly insensitive. Overcome with greed, we are destroying nature, the extent of which is so profound that we are frequently facing natural disasters like droughts, floods and landslides. We refuse to accept that nature is angry with us. We forget that if the dam of patience bursts, the result is destruction.

6. However, it is never too late to learn, if we imbibe the life-giving and nurturing aspects of Mother Nature, the quality of our life will improve dramatically.