Degeneration Of Sports Clubs – Dogs & Indians Not Allowed!

I have been frequenting multiple Pune sports clubs over the past two decades. So I have kind of been a witness to how sports establishments seem to have moved from being open, sports centers to elitist recreation clubs. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before a “Dogs & Indians Not Allowed*” kind of board gets put up at these clubs. Through this blog, I hope to highlight what I think has gone wrong and some possible solutions.

This blog is primarily based on Deccan Gymkhana and PYC Gymkhana in Pune, as those are the clubs where I have spent most time over the past 20 years. However I believe most of the points below would apply to many such clubs across India.

Pune Marathon Runner Report

pune-marathonI ran the Pune Marathon 09 (10 kms category) and finished in 1 hour 26 minutes which was more or less as per my expectation. I think I could have shaved off 5-10 minutes from the time, but with few distance markers along the way, I couldn’t pace my run properly so left my final acceleration for too late in the run.

Indian Sport of Spitting On The Streets Needs To Get Its Due Recognition

India Sport - Spit On The Road Competition

“World Spitathon Champs”

Indians might have the strongest lungs on the planet. Not because of any genetic reasons but because of the exercise that they make their lungs undergo by firing spit missiles every couple of minutes. Across the country we have great exponents of this art, hard at work on every street. While walking, driving, through cars, buses and every other vehicle you will find spit missiles fired with great dexterity and regularity. Although the best performances come from tobacco consumers, even those who are not, often put in scintillating performances.

PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?

A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.

Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.

Just keep swimming!

The title to this entry comes from the movie Finding Nemo. Remember Dory? I learnt swimming many years ago however I never learnt it properly or was good at it.…