Some people are born great and some people have greatness thrust upon them. Nowhere can this be illustrated more clearly than in the arena of sports. I will be honest - I do not have the requisite levels of proficiency in even a single sport. I did play cricket and the odd game of football as a kid but once academics and other co-curricular activities began eating into my time, I abandoned sports. Abandoning is not actually quite the correct terminology, for you will come across very few born spectators of sports like me. I can watch a whole test match without moving a muscle and I can rattle off the names of over six scores of contemporary tennis players without pausing for breath. Being a sports enthusiast isn't an experience you can imagine or narrate - its something you have got to feel. Either you are one and you know what I am talking about or you are not and you are still wondering where this post is going. On the scales of glamour and glory, I would still bet on sports weighing down the dreamland of cinema...for cinema is painstakingly orchestrated whereas sports is rich in spontaneity. The 'Remember the Titans' series will celebrate this glory of sports - its power to suddenly make you aware of your skin as a separate organ, the phenomenal celebrations of narrow victories and the heart-rending agony of close defeats, the arrival of a moment when a million eyes are glued over a single line waiting for a ball to make it on one side or the other, the sight of a time-tortured body suspended over two feet in air, the raucous cries of a reverent crowd, the speed of players weaving into each other on a wet turf...simply put, this series is my tribute to sports and sportsmen who have given me some of the most memorable moments of life.
Each article in the series will feature a single sportsperson. Let one thing be clear - this series should not be taken as a definitive list of the greatest servants of sport. It is a personal list and will be heavily influenced by my own tastes and preferences in sport. For instance, the likes of Muhammad Ali and Carl Lewis, though towering figures in their own right, would never make it to this list because I watch neither boxing nor follow any particular discipline of track and field events. Sports popular in Indian households - cricket, tennis, soccer and to some extent, hockey - would thus be the chief reservoirs from which this list will flow out. Facts of course will be facts. Important they are but they don't matter for the moment. The articles will neither be a biographical account nor a mere recitation of the fellow's stupendous achievements. It will have a personal touch - something that is a must to work up magic. Opinions and reflections may then be exaggerated or downplayed accordingly.
God has given us four tools to fabricate greatness with - mind, body, heart and soul. Successful sportspersons usually make a successful use of the first two and enthrall the audiences. But, the ones truly great play their game using the last two as well which is why their names get honoured with hitherto unheard praises by the followers and custodians of history.
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