BookMarks #101: Don’t Go There

Title: Don’t Go There: From Chernobyl to North Korea—one man’s quest to lose himself and find everyone else in the world’s strangest places

Author: Adam Fletcher

Genre: Non-fiction, Travel

Published: 2018

BookMarks

Don’t Go There – a travelogue which is collection of not so popular tourist destinations which the author has visited – a collection of places from across the globe, some of which have not so clear standing as well. Amongst all the places North Korea and its on-the-spot-guidance from “Dem two bruddas” stood out!

I like how the author has defined a functioning society with the following equation

People + Resources / Time = Functional Society

Those of us born as majority people will never know how much of a fight it is to live as a minority, not protected by the cushioning of statistics. The wrong group gets too certain about themselves, their beliefs, and their rights. They pull society’s levers and inflict the repercussions upon everyone else. History is what happens when ego meets happenstance.

Quite a succinct description of how everything has come to its current state and its ever evolving.

A line which stood out for me - Boredom is a Luxury Good. Don’t feel so safe and secure and bored that they actively go out looking for danger, just to feel more alive. A perfect description for everyone In this social media world bitten by the #wanderlust bug!

And a few more for the Bookmarks

• Being where you don’t belong frees you from any expectations about how things there are supposed to work, and, in turn, how you will react to them. A childlike naivety takes over.
• I guess we all do—recast ourselves in the stories of our lives, giving ourselves starring roles in our successes and minimising the role we play in our failures, working back from our actions to justifications,
• the only way you know that something has value is if you find yourself willing to make sacrifices for.

Quite an interesting and hilarious book. Seemingly funny yet also making a deep impression at the same time.

Previously on BookMarks: Peaky Blinders – The Real Story

P.S. The narrative also reminded me of another world adventure – A Bear, A Dog and A Kangaroo!

Thomas Cup 2022 Champions - INDIA

Scarcely believable but true. What a performance this has been from the men's badminton team over the past week as they went past one opponent after the other. The path wasn't easy filled with higher ranked opponents throughout but every time they were cornered the team fought back and hung in there. Fighting off match points, coming from a game down and in case of Prannoy not even letting a bad fall come in the way. And with each passing day, having to ward off the myriad jinxers on the social media timeline as well (As a sports fan, I am a firm believer in the power of the jinx).

What a performance it was - especially from Srikanth, Satwik-Chirag, Prannoy & Lakshya. Just showcasing the depth in Indian Badminton - not just individual brilliance but the collective strength. Living true to adage of whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Now to rewind a few years. I first heard of the Thomas Cup back in the early 90s. It was more of a GK question back then – which sport is Thomas Cup associated with? At the time it was dominated by the usual big names – Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Korea, Denmark etc. For India, even qualifying for the main tournament was an achievement in itself! And now we are the Champions! What a journey this has been. The 2022 crown has just been a culmination of the Badminton’s steady rise since Gopichand’s All England win in 2001.

Now that we have tasted success, what next for Indian Badminton? Uber & Sudirman Cups should certainly be the next targets. And while we have had a steady flow of World Championships & Olympics medals in the past decade, certainly looking forward to winning more titles now. And the best part is all these are well within the grasp of this young Indian contingent!

What a lovely and inspiring sight it was to see the Indian Team with the Trophy and hearing the national anthem being played.

India – Thomas Cup 2022 Champions – that sounds right! 

P.S. Pretty sure Voot & Sports18 subscriptions would have seen a significant bump in the past couple of days! I certainly did my bit!

Road To Paris: Episode 1

It has been a while since the conclusion of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The best day to start my “Road To Paris” journey was the day after the Closing Ceremony. However, as usual, there was some dilly-dallying. So chose the second best day to start off this journey. Today!

It will be a shorter journey this time (hopefully). Fingers crossed that the covid disruptions are minimal. Although this year’s Asian Games, which would have also served as first qualifiers for a few events has already been postponed.

The events list has been officially released. This episode focusses on the changes made to the events roster in comparison to Tokyo.

There will be a total of 329 events across 32 sports down from 339 events in 33 sports at Tokyo. Following are the changes:

Sports Dropped: Baseball & Softball and Karate

Sports Added: Breaking (also known as Break Dancing)

Changes in existing sports

• Athletics: Men’s 50 km race walk has been dropped and replaced by Race Walk Mixed Team event.
• Boxing: Men’s events have been reduced from 8 to 7, while there has been an increase in the women’s side from 5 to 6. Consequently there has also been a re-jigging of the weight categories on both sides to accommodate the changes.
• Canoeing: For both men & women, the Extreme Canoe Slalom event has been added. And one individual sprint race has been dropped for both.
• Sailing: One Men’s Dinghy event has been dropped and replaced by a Mixed Dinghy event
• Shooting: Mixed Trap has been replaced by Mixed Skeet.
• Weightlifting: Number of events has been reduced to 10 from 14 with 2 events dropped in both men & women’s sections. The weight categories have also been rejigged consequently.

There have also been tweaks in the qualification processes in some sports, while others have had changes in the number of participants. Overall, continuing the move towards improving the gender parity.

Will start focusing on Team India’s qualification journey from the next episode (hopefully soon). 

Links: Paris 2024 Events Programme 

BookMarks #100: Peaky Blinders: The Real Story

Title: Peaky Blinders - The Story of Birmingham’s most notorious gangs

Author: Carl Chinn

Published: 2019

Genre: Non-fiction, History

BookMarks

Peaky Blinders – gangsters/ruffians/hooligans from Birmingham who blinded their opponents using razor blades stitched inside the peaks of their flat caps. Or this is what the mythology has been built upon, especially with the hit TV show of the same name.

This book states its goal as giving the real story of these gangs. Over its 200 odd pages, it keeps reiterating that the show is a fictional depiction and the real “peaky blinders” were not so sophisticated. Yes, they were notorious, there were many incidents of violence committed by them especially against policemen, they controlled a fair chunk of the illegal betting market. And some could have used the signature cap as a weapon, but it is most likely to be a myth! The author, himself a descendant of an illegal bookmaker has tried to give the history of the rise and the later fall of these anti-social elements. Class divisions and poverty were the major reasons for the rise of these gangs. Better policing and involvement of the communities through youth sports and clubs channelizing their energies certainly contributed to the decline.

However, the book is a too long for the subject it covers. Given the repetitious content and lots of unnecessary details, it could easily have been a third of its size without losing any essence. This book seems more like an attempt to cash in on the success of the TV series!

Previously on BookMarks: 51 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World

P.S. This is the 100th blogpost in the #BookMarks series! Certainly been a long ride!