Book Review – ‘It’s Not About The Bike – My Journey Back To Life’ by Lance Armstrong

CANCER – just a word is enough for someone to be frightened. Many patients, lose their courage to fight against it, when they come to know that they have Cancer. Many seems that, Cancer means death, though there are treatment available to cure it.

Lance Armstrong- Winner of Tour-de-France Championship- too had a Cancer, diagnosed at its third stage. But he fought this toughest battle of his life and got cured of it completely.

The book ‘It’s Not About The Bike- My Journey Back To Life’ is an autobiography of him. It tells us that how Cancer has changed him and his way of looking at life. The first part of book tells about his mother, childhood, schooling, how he became cyclist etc. Next part is related to his cancer and its treatment. It broadly explains us what actually Cancer is, its treatment i.e. Chemotherapy, its side effects, psychological condition of patient during Chemotherapy etc. Then the last important part is his comeback to racing – while reading this part we come to know that how it is difficult to make comeback after getting cured from Cancer and why Lance is one of the great cyclist.

Coming back to second part, when he came to knew that he had a Testicular Cancer, one of the rare Cancer, initially he too was disgusted. He thought that Cancer would change everything for him. But after knowing about the treatment and some examples of people who were completely cured of it, he too determined to fight this battle – Life vs death- caused due to Cancer and he was certain about his victory.

Initial diagnosis showed that his Cancer is at third stage. But when he took the second opinion on the advice of his ardent fan who was doctor, he came to know the worst thing that it was reached to his brain too, making very thin chances of his living. So he went to Indianapolis where Dr. Einhorn, the foremost expert on Cancer treated him. Here he had brain surgery and Chemotherapy as a treatment.

Chemotherapy is done in three phases on patient. Each phase consist of twenty one days. In each phase, first five days, patient is given doses of chemicals and remaining days is for to recover body from its effect and be ready for next phase. These later sixteen days of each phase were tough to bear the mentality of patient. He consistently had nausea. The drugs injected during first five days makes felling of burning inside the body. During this whole period of three months he was looked after his mother, girlfriend, surrogate parent, and friends.

During the end of treatment he met with other cancer patients including children. He got to know the other end of life. It changed his views towards life and transformed him to a more responsible man. So when he got completely cured and came back to normal life, he launched the Cancer foundation and organised a Ride for the Roses – a bike race to raise the money for his foundation. He himself became a dedicated activist against the Cancer disease. It was one of the most important changes in his life.

When he decided to start for racing he took a press conference and announced that he was ready for next Tour-de-France. He expected that the sponsors would come and endorse him. But nothing had happened. No one was sure about his strength and stamina, as it is difficult for Cancer survivor to regain his strength. His manager was meeting with many sponsors, teams that take part in Tour-de-France. But no one was interested in him.

This was another tough time period of his life. Even tough he was a World Champion, he didn’t  getting sponsor was embarrassing and he was annoyed.  After a lot of discussion US Postal team agreed to include him as its team member. He was satisfied and went to Europe with his girlfriend, to practice for upcoming tour. But not everything went as per his wish. He was fit but had not regained the strength that required for various tough tour championships. So he was not at the top position in couple of tours that he participated. As he had the habit of winning the race, and now not coming in even top ten, made him annoyed on his performance. He was disturbed. He instantly taken the decision to quit the race and gave up the hopes of comeback.

When he came back to US, his friends, manager, coach requested him not to declare his retirement publicly instantly. They suggested him to take his own time and then decide. He agreed to it. But even after few months he was undecided. Rather he was living as disguised life. On the other hand, his wife, friends, coach had not given up. Behind him, they were doing every possible move that could bring back him in racing. So his coach asked him if he wanted to retire, then he should retire by taking part in upcoming US Pro- Championship as his last race. So that people would know that he is retiring with some pride. He liked the suggestion. But it was the part of their plan to change his negative mentality to full of enthusiasm.

To be ready for US Pro Championship his coach advised him to go for practicing outside of Austin, in order to be in shape and fit. He chose Boone, in Appalachian Mountains, where he loved to undergo training, in his initial part of cycling. Also he had won the Tour Du Pont race twice, which gets conducted there annually.

During the training his coach challenged him to increase his wattage- the amount of work in pedaling- in a week. In order to beat him he really worked hard. During these days he came out of his depression and enjoyed the every moment of training. He got his life back. After a week, he was able to increase his wattage not to the decided level but much more than that. Finally, their plan to bring him back from depression, got succeeded. He left the thought of retirement and planned for racing again.

He again went back to Europe but this time with more determination. Before taking part in Tour-de-France, he intensively trained in France under his Team coach. He left no stone unturned. This intense training gave him confidence that he had regained enough strength and stamina required for tour. In the book he mentions every detail of the tour which is 2290 mile- about its careful planning in team, about who will lead when and where, where to be attacking and where to be defensive etc. He went on to lead the tour timing table since first day to the last. During the tour days, he was consistently questioned by media about his lead in table, in order to detract him from his goal and stop him from becoming winner. But no one abled to stop him from becoming winner of the race. This was the most memorable win for him.

His success doubted by many critics who claimed that it was fluke and many top cyclist was not participated in that tour so it was easy for him to be a winner. But next year he participated with more vigour. And this time too he proved his critics wrong by winning the tour for second time consecutively.

This book is purely an inspiration for all of us and especially for Cancer patients who can gain more courage to fight against deadliest disease, by reading his story. His story tells us that nothing stops you even a Cancer from your goal until you are determined, ready to work harder and harder. Cancer transformed him and he then became a torch bearer for Cancer patient to fight against it. The book is must read at least once.

 

NOTE – In 2013 he accepted the doping  allegations against him. So all his achievements from 1999 to 2005 i.e. 7 consecutive Tour-de-France titles has been stripped off him. So now he can be regarded as inspiration for Cancer Patients but not for cyclists. Because he started to take drugs of performance enhancer only after 1998 i.e. after recovering from Cancer.

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review – The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

It is a fictional story, written so beautifully that it received the most prestigious award – Nobel Prize for Literature. The story has three major characters – The old man : Santiago, The boy : Manolin, The fish : Marlin.

Santiago was a fisher. He had been without fish for eighty four days. Manolin had accompanied him for first forty days. But his parents told him to leave Santiago and join other fishers. Though he left him but he continued to take care of him when both returned from their daily work. Both had developed a very cordial relations.

On eighty fifth day Santiago decides to go as far away until he got the fish. After going far away from coast, he did find a fish. It was Marlin fish and the largest that he had seen ever. As it was big, he could not pulled it towards the skiff. Fish was still taking efforts to be free from the line in which he caught. So he thought that let fish get tires first then He would kill him. Fish began to pull the boat along with his move. This went on for two days and nights. On third day fish got tired and then Santiago kills him with the help of harpoon. He starts return journey to home.

While taking Marlin into the skiff, few drops of blood got dropped into the water. This attracts the Sharks swimming in Deep waters toward the skiff and the real fight begins between Santiago and Sharks. They attacked consistently for getting flesh of Marlin. Old man fought bravely but in the end he could not able to save the meat of Marlin. what remained  was the skeleton of Marlin, head and tail. Old man disappointed about final outcome, he kept it as it is in his skiff and went to home and went to deep sleep.

In morning other fishers gathers around his skiff and measures the length of fish. Some people seated in nearby cafe, watched it and assumed the fish as Shark. Back in Santiago’s house, the boy was waiting for his awakening. Boy was relieved,  when he saw the old man sleeping on the bed. When Santiago woke up, boy gave him cup of coffee and told him that they will go together for fishing henceforth. Old man agrees to it and again goes into sleep with dreaming about the lions at coast of Africa.

This is all about the story. The beauty of the story is in writer’s style of writing, his ability to perceive the scenes are fantastic. Loneliness of old man during fishing, his soliloquizing dialogues are vividly described. His mental and physical toughness too aptly mentioned. He endured lot of pain caused by fish’s move. on certain occasion he was in doubt over his capability. But he assured and reassured himself about that he could do it. His talks with Marlin, after getting it into skiff was awesome.  He admired fish, he even called it as his brother.

The fight between him and Sharks written so nicely that as if it is happening before our eyes. His character is depicted as  brave, that he decisively fought with them, killed many of them. At first he fought with harpoon. But it get lost while killing one of them. Then he bound the knife, at the end of oar and used it as a spear. Though he unable to defend his catch but shown great character of defender.

This small literary book is worth of reading. Not a single word is as excess. It is very precise, but its meaning is great. This book is excellent example of narrative art.

Book review – My Brief History by Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking, nicknamed as ‘Einstein’ by his classmates, is one of the brilliant physicists of the present era. His book’My Brief History’ gives us glimpse of his personal life. Book contains many rare images of him from childhood, which adds more light on his life.                                  He is borned in sophisticated middle class family with father being researcher in medicine. Father wanted that his son should go for medicine. But Stephen shown interest in physics and mathematics. So he went to Oxford for graduation.                                                                    His final year marks was on borderline between first class and second class. So he made Plan B and applied for Civil Services. He passed the interview and then written exam was remained. But he forgot about it and missed the exam.                                                          Meanwhile his college interviewed him for, which class should he get. As he shown willingness to go for higher studies in Cambridge, college gave him first class and thus he could able to go Cambridge. Thank god, college gave him first class, otherwise he might have been somewhere else and we might had missed him as great physicist.                 In Cambridge he shown interest in cosmology. He did research on many theories like Black hole, Big bang, Time travel etc. Book gives more information about it. In between this, he wrote so many books. One of which – ‘A Brief History Of Time’ was international Best seller and remained on the list for 237 weeks.                                                                                During higher studies in Cambridge, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease which restricted his motion to a certain limit. But it could not restricted his brain from thinking, his desire to do more research in cosmology.                 He has written in the book that his disability was not been hindrance in scientific work, rather as asset. Due to his disability he haven’t had to lecture or attend time tedious meetings. Thus it helped to devote himself completely to research. What is an attitude by one towards his disability.                                                  He gave message to disabled people that, they should concentrate on things that their handicap doesn’t prevent them from doing and not regret those they can’t do. He himself as an excellent example to them.                                           Book reveals many facets of Stephen Hawking – as a physicist, husband, father, professor friend. Reading about him that too in his own words, gives so much joy that one completes the book in single sitting.

Book Review – The Test Of My Life by Yuvraj Singh

A sportsman determined to fulfill his dream which would bring joy and pride not only to him but also to whole nation. In persuading his dream he even ignored his health problems for nearly a year. Finally his dream became reality with his all-round performance at field. Later on he was diagnosed as Cancer patient. But he did not gave up and fought bravely against this fatal disease. He got cured and within a year from his diagnosis of cancer he made successful comeback on field. This is a story of famous Indian southpaw Yuvraj Singh.

Yuvraj was on mission to fulfill his father’s dream that his son should become a successful cricketer, as himself could not become. Since his teen age, he was getting trained intensively under his father as a coach. He mastered the batting skills and shown his capabilities in domestic cricket. This opened up the door of Indian cricket team for him at age of 19.

At Nairobi in ICC Knock Out Trophy 2000, he debuted in ODI International Cricket. In match against Australia he played a decisive innings in batting which helped India to defeat Australia. That match gave  a new match winner to India for many years since then. Thence he played an important role in India’s many memorable victories- NatWest trophy 2002, ICC T20 World Cup 2007, ICC World Cup 2011 etc.

Any cricketer has dream of to be a member of World Champion team. World cup gives this opportunity which held once in four years. He had once nearly reached to that level in 2003. But lost the final match and ended as runner up. So he had the taste of defeat which he wanted to change by winning it in 2011. There was one more reason to have it, for the world famous and most revered player of India – termed him as ‘God’ by Cricket lovers in India i.e. Sachin Tendulkar- whose probably last world cup then. He wanted to give it as gift to Sachin by winning final before his home crowd.

During cup he was literally disturbed due to his deteriorating health. But he more focused on gameand prioritised to win the Cup. Even after winning the cup he continued to play cricket in order to be a successful test player. He thought that his health has minor issues and he will deal it with after completion of series. But such excuse continued for next three series.

He was so obsessed with playing that finally doctors have to intervene and they literally stopped him from playing further more. They have diagnosed a tumour in his body near lung. With more tests and analysing results they confirmed that it was a rare getm cell tumour called mediastinal seminoma.

The only way is to have Chemotherapy. For this he went to Indianapolis in USA. Treatment to be followed under the observation of world known oncologist Dr. Einhorn who cured many world athletes from cancer.

In separate chapter ‘test of my life’ he has mentioned in detail about Chemotherapy. What is it actually, its side effects, how it is given, duration of one cycle etc. The most challenging task during the treatment  is to have and maintain stable mental condition of patient. This is a daunting task before patient and his family. Weakness is the other challenge. Desire for food gets lost- at one moment patient demands particular type of food, and when it brought to him, the next moment he throws it from table. What a strange condition it is.

During treatment how he was feeling, how his friend and mom taking care of him, boosting his mental condition, pouring wishes from well wishers from all over the world, visit of NRI youths to wishing him get well soon, etc. gives the in detailed picture of his life during that time.

Even after all this, occassinaly he felt sadness, disappointness. A personal visit by Anil Kumble for whom he has great respect helped him a lot. He advised to concentrate on health, focus on recovery. This changed his mindset. Thence he looked cancer as his opponent and determined not to give up his wicket. What a great change in mentality by just meeting with respected person.

He completed then chemotherapy and returned to India. As a passionate cricketer he did not wished to be idle. After a needful rest he went to NCA Bengaluru for getting trained under observation of physio. He was given daunting task of exercise in order to recover and be fit for upcoming ICC T20 World cup 2012.                                                                        He taken it as challenge and did rigorous exercise as per given instructions by physio. It resulted in his timely recovery and return to international cricket with selection in team.                                                                                                                                 From being a cancer patient to normal man, he realised what would be situation in common man’s family which has cancer patient. Because cancer has became social stigma in India. No one want to reveal it openly in society. Second thing is large section of society do not diagnose it at early stage and comes to know it at last stage making life harder. Third is funding for treatment and many such issues.                                                                                                            In order to do something for these patients he started YOUWECAN initiative under his Yuvraj Singh Foundation – a non profit organisation. It aimed at early detection of cancer, creating awareness of cancer prevention and fight against stigma. A very appreciative initiative by a cured cancer patient. Hats off to Yuvi.                                                                             This book is about hope, determination, courage to face challenges. Never give up and be inspiration to others. Human being is a more social animal, we owe lot of to community to give back the community that we can. Yuvi has rightly pointed out what he owe and what he can. In that sense he has certainly became an inspiration for cancer patients in India.

Book Review : Unbreakable By M.C. Kom

Imagine a country where females are still discriminated by patriarchal society. A young girl from relatively isolated region of that country, dreamed to conquer the world and she did it. She is none other than MARY KOM of India.

This book is an autobiography of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom. A daughter of landless agricultural labour in Manipur state, India. As financial condition of the family was not good she had to work in field with her father in morning, then to help her mother in housework and then to go for school. In evening again she had to help her mother in making dinner. After the dinner she had to do study and then to go bed. This daily hectic schedule prepared her body to follow sport as a career.

While undergoing training at sport Authority of India’s facility at Imphal, capital of Manipur, she decided to go for Boxing. As her inherent abilities suited for Boxing, she opted for it. Once she finalised the sporting category and started rigorous training, she never looked back. Within short span of time she impressed her coach with her game. Coach nurtured her skills, technique, and prepared her to take on opponents fiercely. Once she started to play competitions she quickly moved from district level to national level by winning all those competitions and selected to represent India at world level.

At international level she is one of the bright spot in Women’s Boxing. She won five times World champion title out of total 6 championships that she fought. In addition to it she has won Bronze medal in London Olympics 2012. It was the first medal to India in Women Boxing category uptil now. It was also the sole medal in India’s Boxing contingent in that Olympics.

In between these things she had written about her life partner- how they met, his lovable character etc. His promise that he won’t stop her in persuading her Boxing ambition after their marriage. This  led to chose him as a life partner.

In their KOM community, there is one interesting tradition – Boiling of Tea. It is the event in which a boy’s family asks for a girl’s hand in marriage by boiling tea in the girl’s house. This is done three times before the date of wedding gets finalised. Mary has written in detail about this ceremony in her marriage talks.

Other important part that she has written is the politics in Boxing federation of India. Biasness in selection, unfair treatment to players during competition, providind low quality infrastructure etc. hampering the growth of Boxing in India. Even she had faced the biasness in selecting the squad for International event that too after establishing herself as World Champion.

In the last part she has written about her future plan. She has already started Boxing academy at Imphal, which is absolutely free of charge. It focuses on underprivileged children. She is doing the expenses- of these children- like food, lodging, an extra coach etc. There are others like Army, state government, SAI helping her academy by one way or other.

She wanted to give back to sport that whatever she has, through training young generation. It is her dream to make her academy as an international standard boxing academy with excellent facilities.

Mary still has not hanged her shoes. She is buzy in preparation of Rio Olympics 2016. She has dreamed to win Gold in it. We wish best luck to her.

This book serves as great source of inspiration for not only budding sportsperson but also whole young generation of India especially Girls, which are still facing lots of hurdles in their development.

Book Review – Playing it my way by Sachin Tendulkar

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If Cricket is said to be religion in India then he is the God of Indian Cricket. Yes, you rightly guessed ‘he’ – SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR.

He retired from his International Cricket Career on 16 November 2013. He termed it as a completion of first innings. In his second innings of life he debuted with his autobiography that too within a year of his retirement.

Book start with his father’s words that became his life’s philosophy. Father told him that as a parent he would be happier to hearing people say that “Sachin is a good human being” than “Sachin is a great cricketer”any day. Sachin followed the father’s words throughout his career. We never witnessed a arrogant, selfish, angry man rather he behaved as a gentleman, friend to his juniors. Even a debutant like Virat Kohali who was a few years old in his life when Sachin debuted in Cricket, never felt awkward in dealing with him. There are many such players who experienced same thing.

He written in detail of his childhood. It is interesting to know how a naughty boy he was. His elder brother Ajit, found a instinct talent in him for cricket and sent him to  Ramakant Acharekar sir for coaching. Since then a Guru – Shishya relation started which is still continued.

He thoroughly mentioned about his early years of making him as a cricketer, how his foundation of becoming a great batsman in cricket is nurtured by his Guru by strict discipline and rigorous practice.

As we progress in reading we come to know about his debut in international cricket career, in Pakistan – traditional rival of India. After that his first hundred in international cricket in England which saved a match for India.

In between this he has also written on his life partner. From how they met for first time to their marriage he written everything in detail.

As every player has ups and down in their career Sachin too was not an exception. Also he was suffered from various injuries like Tennis elbow and others during his whole career. How he faced these situations and overcame on it gives immense inspiration for all of us.

Though he had established himself as a one of the great player in Cricket but he was still missing the one greatest trophy in cricket that every cricketer wants to possess i.e. World Cup. He has written a separate chapter about how India won it on 2011. His teammates determined to fulfil his dream and in the end they stand by their commitment.

The last chapter is tour of West Indies in India which is supposed to be end of his career. During the last match how the preparation was done by BCCI to honour their one of the most revered player shows that how a Sachin is Great not only as a player but also as a human being.

The book ends with his speech that he gave after the end of his career. It is one of the best farewell speech that a retired player has given. It includes not only the names of his teammates, coach, but also a media, fans, BCCI personnels  etc. He thanked his fans for that the memories of sound of ‘Sachin, Sachin’. He said that this will reverberate in his ears untill he stops breathing.

Book also gives the statistical data of his major tours at the end of every such chapter. Also at the end of book there is thorough analysis of his Test and ODI career with the help of statistical data.

The book serves as a treat for his fans from all over the world to know their favourite player’s life in his own words. It too serves an inspiration for youngsters who have big dream in their life.

We are proud of him, and it further makes us proud when we come to know that the proceeds from this book will be used to support two charitable causes – the alleviation of malnutrition in children and the provision of clean water to the underprivileged. Hats off to him.

Happy B’Day to Cricket Legend

Every Indian fan loved him. Whenever he came to bat, they stopped their work and switched on television set. When he got out they turned off the television. Whatever the mammoth task of chase, fans believed him. Because they knew that he will perform well and help India to win the match. He didn’t disappointed them. Who is he? Yes you have rightly guessed – he is our beloved Tendlya i.e. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Today is his 43rd B’Day.                                                                          He entertained us throughout his cricket career of 24 years. He made us happy by his phenomenal performance to help India to won many trophies – some of the prominent of it are Hero Cup 1992, Sharjah Cup 1998, VB series Australia 2008, World Cup 2011.                          Many cricket columnist said that he is born to play cricket and make records after records. Some of them are so big that that can’t be broken in near future which includes – most runs and centuries in ODIs and in Tests, most matches played in ODIs and in Tests, most Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards and many more. He is the first man to make double hundred in ODIs.                                                                                    In 2000 year match fixing scandal happened in which Indian as well as other nation’s player involved. This had hurt Indian fans. They even turned away from cricket. But because of him they once again moved back to cricket. Fans knew that he will not cheat with us even others could. They trusted him and he never lost this trust of fans. This shows his special character of making bond with his fans.                                                              After a prolonged career of 24 years he retired from cricket in November 2013. Whole India got deeply hurt by his decision. This has to happen one day or other. It is a part of Cricket. But he has started his second innings of life for working betterment of society especially for children. He is an Ambassador of UNESCO for South Asia region. He is also a nominated MP in upper house of Indian Parliament.                                           He is respected not only on ground but also off the ground. Children, youths, adults and old people loves him. He is truly a Legend of Indian Cricket. Happy B’Day Sachin – The God of Indian Cricket.