Latha Srinivasan: Dream Run

At this yr’s Nationwide Masters Athletics Championships, Latha Srinivasan, 62, received three silver medals — in 5K, 1500m, and 800m. She completed her first marathon final yr. At an age when most individuals retire from sports activities and athletics, she has simply begun. 

Till 4 years in the past, her publicity to sports activities was restricted to the occasional Olympics and Wimbledon-watching on TV. 

“Then, in 2018, I noticed an article by Pankaja Srinivasan in The Hindu Metroplus relating to an upcoming marathon in Coimbatore. It kindled an curiosity inside me. So, I contacted an area runners group and joined them,” she says. 

Latha signed up for the 10K occasion on the Coimbatore Marathon, which was simply over a month away. However operating at a retirement age was not very straightforward. “I used to gasp after operating only a few metres. I felt signing up for the 10K occasion was a mistake.” She requested her runners group coordinator if she ought to downgrade herself to 5K. However he informed her, ‘Simply hold practising. There’s nonetheless a month’s time. The vibes on that day will carry you previous the end line.’

It did. Latha, aided by the help of her brother and sister-in-law (each of them, runners), completed the 10K run. “The euphoria of finishing that run… Nicely, I can’t describe that. Ever since, I haven’t regarded again.”

Working, she says, is like meditation. It helps her stay match and wholesome too. 

To those trying to begin operating, Latha’s recommendation is: “Don’t focus an excessive amount of on the velocity or distance. Consistency is extra necessary. It applies to any new talent you need to grasp.”

Navin Balachandran: Play by ear

Navin Balachandran
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In July this yr, Navin Balachandran, 46, got here throughout a couple of articles concerning the rising reputation of pickleball within the US. He noticed that a whole lot of standard athletes reminiscent of LeBron James and Kim Clijsters taking over the game. Many enterprise capitalists had been investing on the sport which is a mishmash of tennis, desk tennis, and badminton. . 

His curiosity piqued, Navin wished to examine if the game was performed in India as effectively. That’s when he discovered the Instagram web page of the Tamil Nadu Pickleball Affiliation. “Hey, appears like you might have a pickleball setup in Chennai. The place do you play?” he pinged them. 

Just a few days later, Navin was on the DAV Boys College, one of many follow venues of the Chennai ‘picklers’. “I quickly realised that it’s a community-based sport,” says Navin. “If you begin enjoying a sport, it’s powerful to search out folks to play with since people who find themselves higher, don’t need to play with you. However folks had been very welcoming. The primary day, I performed with a man who had accompanied his brother, his spouse and his dad. So it may be a sport for your entire household.”

Inside a couple of months of taking over the game, Navin received the doubles gold medal on the Tamil Nadu State rating match in Kanchipuram and made it to the singles and doubles quarter-finals on the Nationals in Indore. However greater than the medals and victories, he cherishes the sensation the game offers him. “I select to place myself out of my consolation zone. I benefit from the thought of studying one thing new and assembly completely different folks, doing issues I by no means knew existed. Pickleball gave me that,” he says. 

Divya Rolla: Giving it a shot

Divya Rolla
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What do rifle taking pictures and yoga have in widespread?

The 2 appear worlds aside as rifles are normally related to violence and yoga with peace. However they aren’t, says Divya Rolla, 41, who took up rifle taking pictures 4 months in the past. As a yoga coach at Cult Match, she trains folks in focus, breath, and stillness — three issues which might be important in taking pictures as effectively.

“Put up-COVID, I used to be trying round for one thing I might do after work. And, this rifle institue, which was simply 10 minutes away from residence caught my eye,” she says. 

Divya was not completely new to rifle taking pictures. She had briefly practised it throughout her school NCC days. However that was 20 years in the past. With out follow, she was going to really feel like a novice. After a couple of courses, nonetheless, she felt like she by no means left taking pictures. Now, it has turn into an necessary a part of her life. She attends the courses two hours a day, 4 days per week.

Working at a Cult Match, she is effectively conscious of how tough it’s to begin a brand new health interest. “Even I used to be not very positive if I might keep on with taking pictures. I believed it will put on off. To date, it hasn’t,” she says.

“The trick is to choose one thing that excites you — one thing that you’d do simply because it offers you pleasure. Don’t burden your self with the expectation of being good at it. Take it sooner or later at a time. And, don’t disgrace your self when you really feel like dropping it.”

Prabhakar Aloka: Write flip

Prabhakar Aloka
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There’s a world of between real-life espionage and its pop-culture portrayal, in accordance with Prabhakar Aloka, a former intelligence officer. “Whereas the latter entails 5Gs (glitz, glamour, gizmos, weapons, and women); the precise factor entails simply 1G (grit),” he says. 

Aloka is aware of this as a result of he has served the Intelligence Bureau for over three a long time. When he retired two years in the past, he wished to inform folks what occurs within the lives of actual spies. He thought-about doing it through a lecture collection or a podcast however neither of these codecs let him discover the psyche of a spy. “Spies are normally proven as motion heroes who can leap off tall buildings and interact in fights. However they’re additionally people with feelings and conflicts.” The easiest way to convey this, he felt, was by tales. 

Aloka knew what to jot down; he simply needed to study how to jot down it. He was into Hindi literature at school and school and a fan of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s works; English literature was extra of an acquired style. He began writing solely in direction of the tip of his profession. He took two years to complete his spy thriller Operation Haygreeva (Penguin Random Home), which was launched in direction of the tip of 2021. 

This yr, he completed its sequel, Operation Sudarshan Chakra, which is out there on-line and in bookstores. After a long time of lifeless critical intelligence work, now, as a author, Aloka says he feels “the juvenile pleasure of a scholar anticipating his examination outcomes” earlier than the discharge of his books. 

Jayachandran Palazhy: Develop inexperienced

Jayachandran Palazhy
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Jayachandran Palazhy grew up amidst greenery. As a boy, in his village in Thrissur, he used to water the paddy fields and experience again residence on a bullock cart. He left the pastoral life to pursue arts in Chennai, then in London, and finally in Bengaluru, the place he based the Attakkalari Centre for Motion Arts. Dance has beenJayachandran’s major focus for many of his life. However each time he travelled, the bushes lining the roads reminded him of his boyhood conversations with Nature. Always surrounded by concrete enclosures, he says, robs us of one thing intangible that we discover within the midst of greenery. So, over the past yr, the worldwide choreographer has taken up natural farming on a three-acre plot close to Bengaluru. 

“I really feel there’s a connection between artwork and sustainability,” he says, “Artwork teaches you to have fun Nature, to follow a easy way of life, to consider the subsequent era. We should always all contribute to that.”

Although Nature is a crucial a part of his artwork follow, Jayachandran longed for a visceral expertise. “Lots of people are into natural farming. They personal a chunk of land and get vegetables and fruit from the farm. However to get happiness and pleasure together with the yields, they need to get their palms soiled — really feel the earth, the leaves, the water.”

In his 60s, he’s, in a method, going again to his boyhood but in addition studying one thing new. “Scientists say dance and music assist the mind make new neural connections. There isn’t a time restrict to studying one thing new. The second you cease studying, you cease evolving.”