Posted below is the Aditi’s response to questions from Über Desi’s readers and panel of bloggers
First, obviously, thanks a ton for having me “on” the blog! I’m going to try awfully hard not to be too long-winded here, so as to a)not bore you and b)encourage you to ask me more questions down the line.
Aditi Kinkhabwala responds to questions from our readers and bloggers
img: via SI
Alrighty, here we go:
1. The NY Giants sure looked good in the season opener last night. Are you thinking repeat? – Sanjay, CA
Well, we all know how hard it is to repeat as Super Bowl champs – only 10 title teams have ever even returned to the Super Bowl and in the last 28 years, only four teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls. And in this era of complete revenue sharing and salary caps, that whole any-team-on-any-day thing really exists.
Now having said all that… I DO like the Giants’ chances. From what I can tell, this team is a lot hungrier than the Giants’ 1987 and 1991 teams (which followed their title years with 6-9 and 8-8 records, respectively). These Giants have manufactured themselves a chip, believing they’ve been dismissed as a fluke or as somewhat less fierce without Michael Strahan and Osi Umeniyora (personally, I think the Justin Tuck-Mathias Kiawanuka combo could make for a better pass rush). The very solid rookie class from a year ago is more seasoned, that good month Eli Manning ended last year with consisted of three road playoff games and if Plaxico Burress can bring himself to make his meetings, he’s still as money a skill guy as the league has. So Sanjay, there’s nothing wrong with a little optimism.
2. As a fan, what sports do you watch? – Anantha
This is one of those tough ones, Anantha. For most people, sports are a way to escape – the thought of relaxing to a game, or debating the merits of certain players, makes for a good time. But when covering games and analyzing plays and constantly chatting up athletes is your job, well, it’s sometimes easy to look to something outside sports for leisure!
Of course, I love my job and I love sports, so I will more frequently put a sporting event on than anything else. I can always watch a college football game, regardless of who’s playing. I like watching tennis, and Tiger Woods, and athletes I don’t know, like Olympians. When you get to walk on the field at Yankee Stadium, or line the court on press row at Madison Square Garden, it gets harder to just sit in the stands and be a regular fan.
3. Brett Favre – jilted legend or crybaby? Your thoughts. – Anantha
Legend. In my generation, there’s not a player who can so fabulously make something out of nothing, who’s so completely fearless, and who’s been so darn fun to watch for so long. I love him.
4. What made you decide on a career in sports media? What is your advice for other South Asian youth who seek a similar career path? – Anantha & Santosh
I’d say I fell into it more than I decided. I was a little tomboy and always into sports, and I always loved to write. (My mom still has a book I wrote – and illustrated! – when I was about five: The Case of the Missing Diamond.) But I also always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. I read lawyer books, I watched lawyer shows and I went to college to be an American Studies major, which is a combination of history, government and culture. I had summer jobs and internships at newspapers and at Sports Illustrated, and I worked in Cornell’s Sports Information Office, but that was largely because it was fun and because my engineer dad always said writing is a skill that never goes to waste. Still, I never considered writing as a profession.
By the time my senior year rolled around, though, I was a little turned off by the legal profession and knew I needed a break before applying to law school. The original plan was Teach for America or the Peace Corps, my mom was SO not a fan of that (and I was still a very well-behaved daughter then) and so I accepted a job at Bloomberg Financial Services. Which, to anyone who knew me, made no sense.
Fortunately, the sports editor at the San Antonio Express-News e-mailed me completely out of the blue, a week before graduation, and said he had a job, someone had given him my name and he thought I’d be perfect for it. First I thought, “Okay I’m flattered, but Texas?” Then I figured, “Why not just take the free interview trip to Texas?” And now here we are, eight years later, and I’m still writing. (Incidentally, my dad stopped asking me when I was going to law school three years ago.)
The lesson in all that is: don’t be afraid to do something totally crazy. Your parents are ultimately going to support whatever you have a passion for, so give yourself every chance to explore what you think you might be interested in. I believe curiosity is one of our greatest traits – ask questions and don’t ever hesitate to write to writers you admire. Sportswriters are a good lot and most will be flattered to tell their stories.
5. To say Charlie Weis’ hiring at Notre Dame has not panned will be an understatement. Do you think he will turn it around this season or will this be his last season as ND coach? – Santosh
I disagree Santosh. You have to give the guy a little time. Let him get his players in, his system in and let’s see what happens. Just look back at last Saturday’s third quarter against Purdue – three drives, three touchdowns, quintessential Notre Dame. The win over Michigan looks even better now that Michigan’s beaten Wisconsin and 3-1 is not a shabby start. Like I said, have some patience.
6. Regarding desis here in the USA — is there some compilation or list of professional athletes of South Asian heritage/background available somewhere? Beyond Vijay Singh, what about Brandon Chillar (half-Indian, plays for the Green Bay Packers)…and I believe there was also a Desi NHL player (for the Rangers, I think?). Does anyone else know of any more? Surely there are more than just these few that I can think of, off the top of my head…thanks! -Annu
Annu, a few years ago, I came across some page on the web that tracked American athletes of South Asian descent. I spent a full hour searching for it after seeing this question and no matter what words I put into Google, it’s just not coming back up. So all I can tell you is what I know anecdotally (and what I found on that Google search!)
Football – First came Sanjay Rajiv Beach, and Indian and Jamaican wideout who played six years with the 49ers, Packers and Jets. There’s also Chillar, a linebacker, and guard Bobby Singh, who won a Super Bowl XXXIV ring while on the Rams’ practice squad and then two years ago won a Grey Cup with the British Columbia Lions. The CFL has another player of Indian descent in Saskatchewan DT Nuraj Singh Bassi.
NHL – You were right to remember Manny Malhotra, who was a seventh round pick of the Rangers in 1998. Before him, though, came Robin Bawa, who spent parts of four NHL seasons with the Caps, Canucks, Sharks and Mighty Ducks. They’re both Canadian, but if they compete in an American professional sport, we can count them, right?
Gymnastics – Mohini Bhardwaj won a team silver at the Athens Games in 2004, Raj Bhavsar won a bronze at this past summer’s Games in Beijing.
Laxmi Poruri was the first Indian-American on the WTA Tour, but I don’t think she did much after beating Monica Seles as an amateur.
It’s too bad Indian-American kids don’t have more professional athletes to point to, if only to show them the possibilities. It’s been well documented why kids of Indian descent here don’t pursue sports with the same level of seriousness as kids of other ethnicities – Indian parents don’t view sports as a way to break out of less-than-stellar backgrounds, or for social purposes. That’s what education’s for, right? The average Asian-American household’s income is higher than any other group’s and more Asian-Americans graduate from high school – and college – than any other group. Still, just because Indian-American kids don’t NEED sports doesn’t mean there’s no value in pursuing sports…
7. Few months back, Rinku Singh, a cricket player and son of a truck driver in India wa s selected for training with some MLB teams in a million dollar pitching contest conducted in India. Any updates on him? Also with cricket and baseball being so similar do you see more crossovers of this kind happening in the future? – Santosh
I’ll be honest – I Googled Singh and came up with nothing after his May arrival in Los Angeles. What you can find on the web would be what I could come up, short of trying to find who’s training him and calling out to California.
As for cricket and baseball, they are indeed cousins and so one would think MLB would be mining the country for future stars. It’s not happening.
MLB has sent coaches over to run clinics and camps several times in the last few years, and First Pitch, a very cool New York-based organization, has a baseball project in Manipur, where the sport’s been popular for years. But where MLB has built training centers in China, and invested heavily in developing Chinese talent, the league’s not yet doing so in India, and I think that’s largely for cultural reasons.
The last time I was in India, a fabulous Indian sportswriter named Gulu Ezekiel got us a meeting with the Indian Olympic Committee chair. Gulu, my brother and I spent an hour with the man, who very patiently – and very frankly – said Indian athletes still don’t have the commitment to physical training that elite athletics require. He also told us Indians just aren’t yet all that interested in being major players in the sporting world, that having a Major League Baseball player isn’t really a collective goal.
Of course, ESPN’s reach has spread in the last two years and that may all be slowly changing.
Okay, again, thanks for having me. I guess I didn’t do so well with that “not long-winded” thing…
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