Among his notable achievements as a sportsman: Olympics in field-hockey for the Federation of Malaya (ranked 4th/5th in 1956); Central Lancashire League (semi-professional cricket) for Sale, England; Tennis coach at the Chiswick (Southwest London) Courts where professional tennismen and Davis Cup players trained, having represented The Royal Air Force in cricket, hockey, badminton. He took up tennis at 36 and at 43 (in a friendly match) beat an Australian ranking 15 on ATP. The pic shows him aged 47 in London. [His bane he would take no pushing around or down from anyone: he reserved his "left" for those of his own build and his "right" for those twice his size.]
Too late for making amends
For T. Ganesan (1931-1985)
It is as though an unjust hand punished you
As if the Adlerian guiltless position in the constellation wasn't enough
toppling you from a pedestal
You were groomed for position
for heading a family
vacated by the head himself
out of time
So they protected you pampered you
the custom required it
there were sisters whose dowries you were supposed to earn
there were grounds whose circumferences you were designated to crush
there were centuries and goals you were bound to knock with stick and bat
there were exams you were deemed to sail through
there were jobs you were merely to inherit on merit
The second son was sacrificed
He was too close a second
They turned a deaf eye to your sacrificial deeds
the suffocating cries
"Work on what has been spoiled by the father and the mother."
Other hands worked on the second son
Other sacrifices nearly came to pass
Fierce jungles swirling muddy rivers
stalking cobras poisonous thorns
aboriginal hunters
even your suffocating arms to lock the broken neck
fresh from a hanging
These worked
where the mother and father failed
and instilled a wish for survival in your Abel
How could you be blamed for being the first born boy
if the second took longer to arrive
or instead came as a baby girl
Neither parent may be faulted
How could either have known or foreseen
Your traversing of the desert alone
often in shame
in fear of being found out
You kept your back straight
You honoured your position
You wore that air of masterfulness
in your stride
in your respect for the meek
in your willingness to come to the aid of the needy
in your alas mind's reach
bereft of the means to give it authority
In your own mind
you had wandered far
as far and beyond the distances of your strides
within three walls four posts open ground and air
you never bothered with approving thumps on the back
nor the little-watched heroic actions on some turf
nor did you recount these match-winning feats
in a thirst for applause
You were the quintessential sportsman
You played your last game alone
far away from your folk
You had no wish for a farewell
I know how and why you thought T. Ganesan was me in my younger days. Naughty, Naughty Monseigneur !!! He was my elder brother by a year and nine months which in Adlerian psychological terms of the constellation of siblings spells doom for the 'older' brother for the younger will butt and overtake the elder brother. This is what happened at the Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur. But then, I looked up to him in the absence of a father killed by the invading Japanese, and we were the best of friends even if he found himself in a disabused and untenable situation while I shouldered all along a guilt-complex. What made things more difficult for him was the lack of sponsorship of gifted sportsmen/women - unlike in America - in the British system. As every sportsman was aware, one had to make it big in his teens or at the latest during his twenties. He had to support himself in menial jobs: cook, building-construction worker, swimming-pool attendant, driver of trains in the bowels of the London Underground, etc., while finding time to keep up some kind of field activity. Gradually, depression took over his hopes at becoming a full-time professional sportsman: he would not seek medical aid for his injuries or failing eyesight soon enough. Just before turning fifty, he said: "If only someone had put a tennis raquet in my hands when I was a teen..." All Malaysians instead played badminton, for we were the Champions of the World in the postwar years. Tough luck, Ganesh !!!
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
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