Part of a regimen for dealing with Type 2 Diabetes is daily exercise. Just as we saw that Srila Prabhupada would take walks to help mediate his condition, my wife Vidya also exercises regularly. Most days she drives into Moundsville to the Four Seasons swimming pool, carpooling with Kelly, and swims 1.5 miles (2.4 K).
When I have some errands to run in town, like making my weekly pilgrimage to Big Lots to see if any organic stuff has shown up on the shelves or getting parts, whatever, I go in with her on the days it is her turn to drive and use the vehicle to run around in while she is swimming.
I route and schedule myself so I end up back at the swimming pool when they are ready to leave, doing the mission critical errands first and then the optional ones. Sometimes I get back a little early, and one day i happened to look up at the pool Swimming Records board. I used to see the name Suddha Graves up there. He set a couple of records back around 1996. This time I noticed his name was gone, replaced in 2008 in the 100 meter Fly category.
He used to be on the board in two places, and one of them was also a state record as I remember. I believe he was captain of the swimming team.
Another point of interest to me on the board is C Daily. I used to coach a lot of the high school soccer players in a spring league, and he was on my team a few times. That was when Tulasi was playing.
Suddha is a New Vrindaban gurukuli, son of Soma, and former teammate of mine on a roller hockey team we had one year in a local league in the early 90s. Our team was called the Palace Guards. Here is Tulasi modeling my team T shirt.
Members of the team as I recollect were Soma and Suddha, Cakravarti (German) and his son Hari Kirtana, Murti (Canadian), Deet, Venu, Bhagavan (Bhokta’s son), and myself, as best as I can remember. Corrections requested if someone remembers differently.
It was an eight team league. After we lost our first game 15-3, and our second 17-2, we started to think it might have been a mistake, but we stuck with it. The idea of playing was two fold — it was a mix of teens and adults so it was a positive outlet for teen energy, and also to help overcome the bad image devotees had in the local community at that time. Winning wasn’t essential to achieve those goals.
As we hadn’t played together before, and had no practices, we didn’t start to gel until the third game, winning it. Soma had played in high school so was the coach and rock at defense and Murti also had some experience and was the goalie so that kept us in games. We ended up winning 5 games in a row and were in third place by season’s end with a 5-2 record.
Seeded third in the tournament, we won our first game and then faced the team that had beaten us 15-3. We all played like mad men and ended up winning, placing us into the championship game. There we played the team that beat us 17-3. Krishna showed us His mercy in that one so we didn’t get puffed up. They ran up a ten goal lead and then played keep away so we lost but still not a bad season, 3rd in league play and 2nd in the tournament, for a rag tag bunch of devotees, most who had never played before.
July 31, 2008 at 2:03 pm
suds grad. in 1994, Does tulasi must be saving money on razors this summer.
July 31, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I’m amazed you still have that shirt!
July 31, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Hey! I think that’s my old shirt. i was number 17.
August 1, 2008 at 7:15 am
Madhu is correct, I graduated in 1994. When I graduated I had the school records in the 100 butterfly, 200 individual medley (IM), and the 100 backstroke. The 200 IM, and 100 backstroke records were beaten within a couple of years. The 100 butterfly, surprisingly, lasted until this year. Anyways, I don’t think I would have gotten any of those records without all my training at the ghat:) When we were kids, we would have races in the ghat all the time. We would race to the fountain and back, or across the ghat and back.
Also, the roller hockey league we played in was a lot of fun. You know they still have leagues there. What do you say we dust off our rollerblades, or skates in your case, and go for round 2. Just kidding…
August 1, 2008 at 9:58 am
Madhu: Yes, Tulasi is getting shaggy, I am waiting to see if he cleans up before returning to college.
Suddha: If you are interested, a team could happen. There are two bhaktas here now who played hockey and would play on a team.
As a matter of fact, Bhakta Chris told me last night after reading about the old team, that if we don’t get a team going, he would have to take another birth just to fulfill that desire. :-)
Bhakta Tom played in WASA the local Wheeling ice hockey league growing up and indicates he would play.
You, Soma, Bhaktas Chris and Tom, Gopal has indicated some interest and me — that’s practically a team right there.
So be careful what you kid about. :-)
FYI, Vraja gave me a pair of roller blades so I now have options, I’m not limited to my pair of old school skates. :-)
The only thing I lack is stamina.
Soma: I don’t remember my number, only that I had a shirt when the league ended and I have one now. Maybe my old one got worn out or lost and I retrieved your old one from the NV free store.
If it still fits you you can have it back. :-)