Prana – the vital, life-sustaining force of living beings, present in all natural processes of the universe. Prana was first expounded in the Upanishads, where it is part of the worldly, physical realm, sustaining the body and the mind. Blavatsky also tended to use the word “astral” indiscriminately for these supposed subtle physical phenomena. The esoteric concepts of Adi, the Buddhic plane, the causal plane, and the monadic plane are also related to that of the etheric plane (acknowledgement to Dad, Google and Wikipedia)

Ambrose – The middle name of the author of this blog and currently exploring his capabilities of writing meaningful tomes to attract sufficient audience to his website to garner business in the times of a pandemic. Also known as the “the cruel tutelage of desperation”. It now exists in all planes, trains, automobiles, and the world

In the last episode the protagonist extolled the virtues of his passion for the game and the role played out by his bosom buddy Ramesh in taking his life energy to new heights. We continue where we left off and move the needle forward in time to talk about my basketball life in college and beyond.

I could confidently say that I had a basketball life in college and not a college life playing basketball. It was an incredible era wherein I had taken my first steps of independence as I was staying at the hostel and the basketball ground was at walking distance. I did not have to ask permission or tell anyone I was going to play basketball and the joy was without bounds.

There were two basketball courts, and both were strategically placed near the entrance of the ladies’ hostel. My passion for the game grew leaps and bounds and I slowly made my way to the team thanks to Ramesh. The most unfortunate aspect of this entire arrangement was my course – Sandwich Mechanical. I had to attend classes in the in-house PSG Industries either in the morning or afternoon and attend engineering classes in evening till 8:30 in the night. This was very painful for me as I would head to classes as the rest of the team were on the court. But when a door is closed on your aspirations, God doth opens a window!

“The way I look at it we have a finite time on this earth and the need to fill it with positive thoughts and actions far outweigh the negative”

So, the industry sessions in the morning or afternoon were rotated each semester hence there was a semester wherein the industry session was in the afternoon. Never wasted a day! At the court early in the day and played to my heart’s content. Basketball is quite popular in Coimbatore and the college basketball ground attracted a lot of talent. I have played those mornings with elite club players and experienced wonderful games with them. The highlight was in my 1^st year of college when the district juniors were practicing at our courts and I joined their training. Boy was it intense! This was my first formal training in basketball ever!! The practice lasted more than a month and at the end of it the coach wanted me to play for the team unfortunately my age and college commitments gained precedence and I had to politely decline. What was lost was gained with experience and gratefulness!

The game of basketball is always my zen moment. It helped me put aside all problems, disappointments, anguish, and channel me to constantly improve myself. Had a bad day at work? Relationship problems? Lost someone close? Go to the basketball court and leave your troubles there and return re-energized to spread positivity all around. People have trouble letting go but thanks to basketball I never carry some grouse, nary a heavy heart and certainly not disappointment in a loss. The way I look at it we have a finite time on this earth and the need to fill it with positive thoughts and actions far outweigh the negative. The court has always absorbed my negativity and left me refreshed.

In my final semester of college, we did not have any industry sessions and almost my entire class played basketball and they decided that they will play only half court at the basket closest to the ladies’ hostel gate. Despite all their valiant efforts they neither learnt basketball nor garnered any attention from the fairer sex…but we had so much fun. That is what basketball does, brings people together based on a singular set of skills differentiated by talent and desire.

As I took my talents abroad to pursue a master’s in business administration, the game followed me to Cambridge. But due to the British weather basketball games were held indoors. I had a classmate from Israel, Omer Orbach and both us played in the university team. The main issue was the coach and captain of the team who I believe never played basketball and made statements like – only player A can score and everyone else should pass the ball only to him. Omer was always rooting for me, but we could see there was no points addressing the wall. It was a different experience but an experience none the less.

The next phase of my basketball journey took me back home to Namma Chennai and the key challenge during this phase was finding a court to play on Sundays. This journey took me to my old school St. Michaels followed by Shishya, IIT Madras, Anna University, YMCA and finally to Montfort. The daily routine had changed to once in a week affair and the build up to Sunday 4:00PM has often been a bone of contention between me and my family. If its Sunday evening everyone knows where I am going to be! During these 25+ years I have made so many friends and acquaintances who have helped me, nourished me, and cherished me! I am so grateful for them being an essential part of my life.

Thank you basketball!