Without Me... ?!

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Guess who's back, guess who's back.....

Its the season for comebacks.. or so it may seem. First it was Kim Clijsters who, having given up tennis a few years back, suddenly decided that she had the fire in her to have another go at the existing bunch and came storming back to win a US Open and complete a fairytale comeback. And lets not forget that legend of a man, Lance Armstrong. His legacy aside, coming back from retirement and finishing 3rd in the Tour de France is no mean feat, even if you are Lance Armstrong. Then you have the lesser known Dara Torres. Who ? Yes, Dara Torres. A 41-year old mother, she returned to the pool after EIGHT YEARS away to win a silver in the 50m freestyle event in the Olympics. These are not just isolated cases. Remember Michael Jordan and his numerous comebacks ? Then you had George Foreman, Nikki Lauda, Henrik Larsson... the list goes on. 

And so, coming back to where I started.. Guess who's back ?? JUSTINE HENIN... yes you read that right, Justine Henin is BACK !!! After months in the wilderness, my favourite player has decided to stage a comeback a la her compatriot Clijsters. Finally in an era of power-dominated tennis, there will be that elegance and grace of Henin. I'd said it once and I'll say it again... Justine Henin's single handed topspin backhand is absolute poetry... right up there with Federer's passing shot and Zidane's double drag-back. Now the question remains, will she be successful ? I really hope she is ;) .

That brings the question, why do all the champions try to comeback ? What is it that makes all these people want to go at it all over again ? I think its the competition. All champions relish competition. When you've retired from a sport, suddenly you no longer have to work hard, push yourself that extra bit to be better. Come to think of it, ordinary life is rather mundane and you don't really need to sweat it out a lot. You miss that adrenaline rush, that rush of blood that makes you perform out of your skin. You even miss the crowds. But all comebacks do not have a fairytale ending. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson...there are atleast 10 failed comeback attempts for every successful one.

So heres to Justine Henin. May her comeback be successful...since as Eminem put it in his song

No matter how many fish in the sea 

It'll be so empty, without me ....  

India's heroes

So the other day I have this wallpaper on my desktop, a pic of Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri with the Indian tricolour after the Nehru Cup victory, when a friend of mine comes along and asks.. "Which team is this ?". After berating him for the next 20 minutes, I realised that its not just him but a lot of people who don't know most of the country's sportsmen. People know totally arbitrary players in the EPL but they don't know more than a couple of players from our own national team! Now that, in my opinion, is a disgrace. Which brings us to this post...

So maybe you don't know the country's sportsmen (/women).. but there are a few people about whom you SHOULD know. People who are making the country proud on a regular basis in the international arena... The following is a list of people who, in my opinion, have excelled for India in the past few years.

1.  Vijender Singh - Boxing

2.  Saina Nehwal - Badminton

3.  M.C. Mary Kom - Boxing

4.  Pankaj Advani - Billiards and Snooker

5.  Narain Karthikeyan - F1, now A1GP

6.  Abhinav Bindra - shooting

7.  Sushil Kumar - Wrestling

8.  Saurav Ghosal - Squash

9.  Leander Paes - Tennis

10. Mahesh Bhupathi - Tennis 

11. Vishwanathan Anand - Chess

12. Bhaichung Bhutia (actually the entire team) - Football

The amazing thing about the list above is that, if you notice, the last four names would have been on the list even if it were made 10 years ago ! Now that is consistency and and if that does not warrant attention and praise then I do not know what does. The list is not exhaustive and I may have left out a few people by mistake.. comments on the list are welcome. If you notice, a certain sport (played by *9* countries in the world) has not been included.