Over three hundred members of larger Career Launcher family assembled for CL Olympics at Jasola sports complex in Delhi from across the spectrum of endeavours of the movement. The assembly included a few professors, quite a few functional and operational heads (age 35-60), but predominantly (80%) youngsters in the age bracket of 22-32, including students from the business school, IWSB. It was a day that took away most from the mundane and placed them into arenas that one really regaled in the childhood – sports and games – football, volleyball, throwball, cricket, table tennis and badminton. Check out for the photos

The day began with cheerful faces and enthusiastic bodies eager to indulge in one game or the other. In the next couple of hours the cheerfulness still existed on the faces of the most, but only a fraction had their body mobile and agile. As the day progressed beyond lunch, it became very clear that the very same handful are still going strong and excelling in each and every sport, surprise of the surprises, most were in the wizened bracket of 35+, all with same alacrity and swiftness, devoid of any breathlessness. Every winning team was anchored by this priceless and ageless group!!

This throws a few questions for us to ponder upon –

– Where does fitness and health figure in our priorities of life? Am I responsible enough?

– How serious and passionate are we about whatever work we do, when we are not really serious about our own personal well being?

– Can I really take care of the bigger issues in life, or health of an organization, if I cannot take care of my own health?

– What has our education system brought upon the youth of today? What have we really contributed, as facilitators or parents in the learning phase of the children’s life?

– What is the real essence of education, if it cannot enable an individual to think rationally and be healthy in mind, body and soul?

I am a very enthusiastic person on physical fitness (an hour of continuous swimming whenever I enter the pool or pursue running and gym for a couple of hours every day, I do go on a couple of treks / out-bounds and long purposeful walks every year), yet the latest comprehensive medical examination yielded that my cholesterol counts are unusually high even while the Tread Mill Test reports that my cardiovascular system is at 110% of what is expected of a male at my age. I have been advised to watch out on what I eat, while increasing my physical activity agenda!! My only indulgence of once in a month ‘gol-gappe’ goes out of the window, and my vegetarianism moves a few more notches up, to raw, sprouted or boiled!! I am discovering the freshness of unadulterated !!

Of late, I have come across youngsters, in their twenties, suffering heart stroke. I am sure you would not want to be one? So it is time for each one of us to get our priorities right. I will certainly be a proponent of including some form of Physical Fitness Index (BMI – Body Mass Index and a couple of other physical fitness parameters) integral to annual performance evaluation, whether in the school, university or at the work place.

As a parting shot, when we were exiting the arena at the end of the day, one youngster summed it up saying,  “In buzurgon ki fitness dekh Mujhe Sharam aarahi hai, Mujhe kuch karna hoga!” (Looking at the fitness of these elders, I am really ashamed and embarassed, I have to do something!)

What do you think? Kindly comment…