PRAKASH AMRITRAJ

 PRAKASH AMRITRAJ

For years Prakash Amritraj lived in his father Vijay's long shadow. Today, the former player of tennis has become one of television's most perceptive and distinctive voices.

Prakash Amritraj, son of Vijay Amritraj, stepped away from Tennis in 2010, about a year after reaching a career high ranking of 154. He had felt his passion for the sport was on the wane. 

Two years later, while attending Wimbledon as a spectator, a conversation with Richard Williams altered the way he thought about himself and his career. 

"They (Richard's daughters Serena and Venus Williams) don't even process what other people think about them, especially the negative stuff."

Prakash speaks of the lessons he took from that afternoon, " I thought to myself, what a magical way to exist. Because then, you can focus on what you nactually need to do."

Though he took hiself seriously into tennis again, a shoulder injury at 30 had halted his come back. It was the first heartbreak in his life. 

Heartbreak, in time became motivation. He refused to leave his potential unrealised. After tennis broke his heart,  Amritraj found his courtside voice active.

He rebuilt himself with patience and purpose. He trusted his inner voice. He chased fitness relentlessly. Training was an obsession to him. 

He states his biggest asset is listening. 

He goes by the principle, "When people see someone who looks like them succeed on merit, it expands the boundaries of what is possibe."

And you get the best out of your life..

OVERHAUL FOOTBALL IN INDIA

Kota in Rajasthan is well known for its coaching centres. Students accompanied by their parents flock to Kota to prepare for entrance examinations and secure admission in the premier engineering and medical colleges in India. The parents leave everything behind and stay with their children to provide them support in the  endeavour of the children.

When the FIFA World Cup fever sweeps across the world India  has not made it to the tournament. India with a population of 1.47 billion - No. 1 in the world in population -  finds it extremely difficult to put together a team of footballers to compete with the best in the world. It is a tournament where 39 year old Lionel Messi scores a hatrick in the first game Argentina has played. It is a tournament where 40 year old Vozinha, the Cabo Verde goalkeeper, made 7 stellar saves to hold off tournament favourites Spain to a draw in the 90 minutes encounter. 

Indians truly lack the fighting spirit on the football field that they display at Kota.

Football in India is top heavy. The Indian Football Association doesnot know how to manage the game in India. Indian football is in need of a Kota like approach.

India at the moment is incomparable with debutants, Cabo Verde and Curacao, two teams whose exploits in the current World Cup far exceed expectations.

Cabo Verde with a population of 530000,  is an Island country and archipelago in the Central Atlantic Ocean off Western Africa.

In a thrilling game,they shocked  Spain, 2010 World Champions and current European Champions, with a goalless draw  

Curacao with a population of 158000, is an island  in the southern Caribbean Sea,  north of Venezuela. 

Curacao, rank outsiders, had shocked Germany and the entire world when they had scored the equaliser after Germany's first goal against them. Though they lost out 7 - 1 at the end, they showed they knew how to play the game.

Perhaps, India will be able to compete in the World Cup to be held four years from now if the IFA is dismantled and Football is brought under the direct control of our dynamic Prime Minister who knows how to get things done. 

A drastic overhaul of football in India alone can raise the level of the game in India. Football must be nurtured from grassroot levels. Discover them young must be the constant call. 

If teams from a population of 530000 and 158000 can debut at the World Cup, it is apparent,  the team from a population of 1.47 billion can certainly make its debut there. 

We have the talent.

LECTURES NOT THE BEST METHOD OF LEARNING

 

LECTURES NOT THE BEST METHOD OF LEARNING

ADAM GRANT
THINK AGAIN

Lectures are not always the best method of learning. They are not enough to develop students into lifelong learners. 

If you spend all of your school years being fed information and are never given the opportunity to question it you won't develop the tools for rethinking that you need in life.

While a boring lecture would fail, even captivating lectures can fall short for a less obvious, more valid reason.

Lectures aren't designed to accommodate dialogue or disagreement. They turn students into passive receivers of information rather than making them active thinkers. 

Lecturing becomes ineffective when it doesnot propel students to think.

True, lectures preach new thoughts. But they rarely aid the students in developing their own thinking process..

Charismatic speakers can put us under a spell. But we should be persuaded by the substance of an argument and not by its shiny packaging. 

Experiments have shown that when a speaker delivers an inspiring message, the audience scrutinizes the material less carefully and forgets the content, even  as  they claim they remember most of it.

CREDIT CARDS NOT FOR IMPULSIVE BUYERS

 

PRANAV SAKHADEO WRITES ON CREDIT CARDS

in Times of India 16June2026 

Money matters

First understand your income and expenses.

A credit card is not an income

It is not free money

It is not a tool

If there is no discipline credit cards are dangerous.

In the wrong hands it can become debt

In disciplined hands it can reduce the cost of everyday life

Making the most of every Rupee is just part of survival

You need buffers, planning and discipline.

Do not buy something simply because a card offer is available. 

Ask yourself whether you really need it.

Financial planning should become routine

Perhaps it may be a little boring

Never miss a credit card bill

Never pay interest for credit card purchases

Never withdraw cash from a credit card

Never spend beyond the avilable limit. 

You would be charged for going above the limit

Check your credit score intermittently

Keep your credit card utilisation low

This works only with discipline

Before a large purchase compare offline and online prices. 

Check bank offers and decide.

This is how the savings add up.

Not through a magical card, but through repeated small decisions

Choose cards according to your spending

Do not spend according to your cards

Review your cards whenever there a devaluation.

Credit Card devaluation happens when your card issuer reduces the value, perks, or rewards your card offers. It means you would receive fewer benefits than what was originally promised when you had signed up for the card, making it harder to obtain the same return on your spending. 

Do not accept all upgrade offers, if the card does not suit your spending pattern

Do not count fee waivers as savings. 

Treat them as cost control

Impulsive buyers, people who don't track bills, people who spend future income and expenses, people who use EMIs often, people who withdraw cash and people who shop just because an offer exists - these categories of people should not use credit cards at all.

If you wish to hold multiple credit cards, do not start with several at once.

At the beginning of every financial year, sit with your wife or your husband, if you are married and prepare a detailed expenses sheet. If you are not married please do it alone. Factor in inflation.

The annual planning takes about two hours.

After that daily spending mostly runs on autopilot.

Money matters

 

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MUSIC COMPOSER PRITAM

 

Music Composer Pritam

Shares a reflective note on his 55th birthday on 14June2026

"Today, I have decided to gift myself a few years to live life differently. To catch up on what I have missed.

Time to set off on new journeys, which have been kept on the back burner for long. 

Mainstream is a great ride.

But I've always been more curious about the roads unexplored."

.....................

In this mad world where people hedge and nudge to go ahead, to be always on the ascent, to put down everyone else and strive to grow materially and impose their own stamp of hegemony over rest of the world, Music Composer Pritam chooses an untreaded path  many do not dare to traverse to enliven the future years his life .

 He is putting at rest his pursuit of worldly gain. 

ECOLOGY SUNDAY AT CSI CHRIST CHURCH TRIVANDRUM

 

It was Ecology Sunday at CSI Christ Church, Trivandrum on 14 June 2026.

The message at the Worship was delivered by a special guest. He is the son of  a great friend of ours.

We could observe that the young boy we knew was not a boy anymore. Evident was  the wonderful transformation in him. The articulation was flawless.

Since I did not have the contact information on the speaker, a message commending him with an evaluation was sent to  his father  who had promply  forwarded it to his son.

It is placed here.

"We see our children as little children only. We see them as the toddlers who had hung on to us, who had rested their heads over our shoulders and whom  we had led on.

When they grow up, when they come into their own, we fail at times to see that. 

We are afraid they'd falter at each and every step, and it makes us walk with them exerting an extra effort to steady them. 

We don't acknowledge they have grown up, they are grown ups.

If parents assert they are far removed from these emotions, I can only define them as hypocrites.

The youngster was very good in his presentation yesterday. It needed courage to stand at the lectern. It needs superhuman effort to open  the mouth and deliver the address to literally  an august audience whose combined IQ level is unimaginable.

He touched all the parameters effectively. The diction was excellent.

The topic was wide. The boundaries keep on shifting even as you delberate. 

Eco disruption is so familiar to each and everyone as we are reminded of it through events that occur abruptly and discourses that are lively or dull and drab.

Congratulations to the young man for the effort he took to prepare and the courage he displayed to deliver.

A critique has to navigate the horizon. 

The message was long.

10 or 15 minutes is the maximum you can command the attention.

There was no need to read out the verses of the song beginning with "All things bright and beautiful."

The relegation of the presentation of the activities of the ecology forum to the conclusive phase was an error in judgement.  It made the interest of the audience wane.

When you mention you are concluding, you have to wind up in one or two sentences. Unfortunately the conclusion was prolonged beyond that. 

He ought to have modulated the delivery of the message. It was monotone.  Monotone lulls the listeners into deep slumber. To counter this effectively, you have to read out the material you have prepared loudly in the privacy of the four walls of your own room at least four or five times. It makes you present your presentation confidently.

Messages become lively when they are linked to life. Quoting verses from the Bible extensively can only lengthen the speech. It does not convey.

Speakers fail when they fail to convey. What you convey has to reach the audience. 

What normally happens is, we are happy with our own presentation. But we can see with a look at the eyes of the audience or their responses, we are not reaching them. 

The effort goes in vain.

Recently a medical representative, a non Christian, whom I met casually, learning I was from KUTS, told me he passes by that campus everyday. He added the view from the road was beautiful - scenic beauty, something out of the world.

Ecology opens such doors. We just have to observe them and link them to our message. 

It makes the audience to walk with us.

Regret, I have loaded you with a drab discourse. 

Please forgive me for that.

Grateful for  your patience to stay this far."

ADAM GRANT ON THE BEST WAY

 

The best way 

to learn is 

to teach