I know what you mean, and better...

Coming back after a really long time on the blogosphere... Blame it on work or stuff going on in personal life or the eternal time hog (a.k.a. cricket) or sheer lethargy, here I am back after just 14 posts in the year and none in the past 5 months or so... 


Strangely, one of my favorite blogger Prem is back after a long hiatus as well... He posted again after a long time yesterday... So, a good coincidence there... 


And what a topic to return after a sabbatical... To attend the book launch of Abhinav Bindra's semi-autobiography, one of the very rare gold-medal winners Olympians from India, and that too when it was launched by another giant in his own might - Rahul Dravid - is special.


To have a great feat written about is great, but to have it launched by an equally great and yet humble athlete is even better. For me, RD is the epitome of selflessness and discipline. He might have not got his due and has often been overshadowed by his more famous compatriots, but he is still has had a better fling at publicity than AB. So, the comparisons of their outlook is very refreshing, although unsurprising.


  • If a choice of another sport was give, AB would choose IPL (glamor, publicity) but RD would choose golf (privacy).
  • For AB, success comes once in 4 years and he looks forward to it. He is not even afraid to share his secrets. For RD, it is intimidating.
  • Both agree that hard work is the key to ultimate perfection which has its own criteria of determination. So, the journey is the same, the destination is different, and its undefinable.


One more unsurprising attribute among all great athletes is the mutual respect. Rafa-Fedex, Sachin-Warne, Anand-Kasparov and countless others share this mutual respect towards fellow athletes where they look to each other as rivals and not as enemies. Though AB and RD are not related that way, but I am really heartened by their mutual admiration.


Another point I noted above is that this is a semi-autobiography. It is not entirely written by AB. He was assisted by one of the best sports writer in India - Rohit Brijnath. I feel ghost writing is one of the most difficult and thankless jobs to do. The key to ghost writing is to be essentially transparent between the author and the reader. The substance of the topic has to flow through without getting polluted by the style of the medium of writing. If you are successful at doing that, then the ghost writer will be invisible and there will be no mention of the good work and the real author takes all the plaudits. If you are fail at curbing your style, then the ghost writer will be criticized at masking the topic. I have not read this book, but reading this review, and especially this section, I have no doubts that RB has done a great job at it.
When reading a particularly fine passage in a co-authored autobiography, the almost inevitable question in the mind is, how much of this is the voice of the subject, and how much the voice and skill of his amanuensis. I was at the time a little less than halfway through a book studded with passages of stunning eloquence, and already that question had occurred to me multiple times.
Now, after an evening of listening to the ace shooter speak, at ease extempore, I know: the skill, the craft, is Rohit’s, but the voice is indisputably Abhinav’s.
What an occasion to miss. At least I look forward to reading the book.