Baba Prasad

A sense of “play” hangs heavy in the air in India these days as Sachin Tendulkar retires, and Viswanathan Anand hands over the World Championship crown to a much younger man. All of us on the sidelines become witness to the senior players’ realisation that the day fades for the best individual also. In this rather sombre atmosphere, this blog post is an attempt to highlight the value that play—with all its ups and downs, its twists and turns—brings to our lives and our professions.

To Play is Human
“Play” is a central element of human life—it is ubiquitous, popping up unexpectedly in every aspect of our lives. You lean over the cubicle wall and engage with your colleague in an exchange of spontaneous puns as you play with language; you play a board game with other colleagues after lunch; you call your spouse and enjoy play-acting as you pretend to your spouse’s chagrin that you did not do something you were supposed to do; you sit with your child and make the bed a train station, the pillows become trains. Play characterises human life—there is nothing weird or unnatural for even the most thoughtful CEO to be twirling a pen in her fingers—engaging in play—as she makes a momentous decision. In fact, the Dutch philosopher, Johan Huizinga, renamed the human species when he titled his book in 1938: Homo Ludens, or the “playing man”.

Harshavardhan Reddy Sports Person Support And Chairman Of Hvr Sports