Go Kiss The World: Life Lessons For The Young Professional

Go Kiss The World: Life Lessons For The Young Professional ‘Go, kiss the world’ were Subroto Bagchi’s blind mother’s last words to him. These words became the guiding principle of his life. Subroto Bagchi grew up amidst what he calls the ‘material simplicity’ of rural and small-town Orissa, imbibing from his family a sense of contentment, constant wonder, connectedness to a larger whole and learning from unusual sources. From humble beginnings, he went on to achieve extraordinary professional success, eventually co-founding MindTree, one of India’s most admired software services companies. Through personal anecdotes and simple words of wisdom, Subroto Bagchi brings to the young professional lessons in working and living, energizing ordinary people to lead extraordinary lives. Go Kiss the World will be an inspiration to ‘young India’, and to those who come from small-town India, urging them to recognize and develop their inner strengths, thereby helping them realize their own, unique potential.

source : FLIPKART

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Married But Available

Married But Available By: Abhijit Bhaduri

BOOK SUMMARY

The much awaited sequel to the bestselling Mediocre But Arrogant

The first ten years are the most eventful, they say, in anybody’s working life. They certainly are in the case of Abbey, who walks into a job at Balwanpur Industries, fresh from B-school. Working in HR is fun, he soon discovers. What isn’tis  the fact that there’s hardly anybody in the company who doesn’t have a view of who Abbey is and what Abbey does-or should do.

Add to this the complications of being newly married to a woman more successful than he is, a crusty boss, and a sudden turn in the company’s fortunes that catches Abbey unawares. It’s up to him now, to apply all that HR wisdom learnt in business school to the dilemmas confronting him at work and in love. Can he hold down his job or will it end the way his marriage threatens to-rapidly and without too many regrets?

Keane – The Autobiography

Keane – The Autobiography

Book Name : Keane    Book Authors: Roy Keane with Eamon Durphy

Publishers: Penguin Books Pages : 293 Cost : 18 Pounds

Summary

[Contributed by V Hari - One of his old mail]

Roy Keane is the talisman of the all conquering Manchester United side, he epitomizes the will to succeed, inspiring and leading team mates to win which all the teams of Sir Alex Ferguson have. He has been the driving force behind the success of the team which includes back-to-back doubles( double means winning the FA Cup and league), the treble (winning the Champions League in addition to FA Cup and league) and the World Club championship. Keane’s passion, honesty and resolve have led to confrontation on the pitch and controversy off the pitch but they are what make him the player he is. The final say comes from the great Ferguson who said that “If I was putting Roy Keane out there to represent Manchester United on a one against one, we’d win the Derby, the National , the Boat Race and anything else. It’s an incredible thing he’s got”. Through this book, Keane talks about his life, how he struggled to get into a club team and how every club rejected him initially, his growth in the game, his success on the field, his controversies and also why he walked out of the Irish squad after leading them to the World Cup finals. This book scores for Keane’s honesty and he tells with passion. The book gives an insight into the mind of the enigmatic Manchester United star. The book gives details about key games and goes sequentially through each football season.

Keane was born on 10^th August 1971 in Mayfield, a northern suburb of Cork(a city in the Republic of Ireland) city. He was born into a family who were interested in sports. When he was growing, money was always scarce. A big recession affected the Irish economy and cork city suffered the most and so his dad worked on whatever job he could get. He joined a club called Rockmount (under-11 side) when he was eight and he won the best player award in his first year. Keane was a grafter and a worker on the football field and not a dazzler. He always listened to his coaches and tried to put it in practice. His obsession for football meant he neglected his studies and didn’t clear his intermediate exam in school. He hoped that he would be selected for the under-15 Ireland team. The trials were held in Dublin and if he got a schoolboy international cap, then he would get a chance of getting a trial with an English club. He did play well in the trials but was not selected. It was the worst disappointment in life as it shut his future. Most of them thought that he was too small to make a professional. Keane did odd jobs for some time and he wrote some letters to the top clubs to offer him a trial but was rejected by Chelsea, Arsenal and others. He couldn’t understand why nobody offered him trials since apart from size, he was brilliant and was a team player. He read the game, intercepted passes, cut off opposing players options and passed the ball. He worked with complete determination and concentration. He saw an opening in the inaugural FAS football course for elite footballers setup by the government in conjunction with Football Association of Ireland. He was selected and he joined Cobh Ramblers(a small team). He would train like a full-time pro and be paid 30 pounds a week plus travel expenses, an extra 40 pounds bonuses if he made to the first team. He made into the first team within weeks. They trained daily for 4 hours and it improved his football. There is no atmosphere in the training ground unless one creates it. There are no prizes to win but self satisfaction that one could push through the mental barriers. During this time, he was offered a trial at Nottingham Forest. Brian Mclough who won 2 European cups with the same team managed Forest. They had an outstanding player in Stuart Pearce. Nottingham offered a three-year contract to Keane at 250 pounds a week and a signing on fee of 1500 pounds a year. He was overjoyed and the only sad part was he had to leave his family. He enjoyed the pre season training and was very happy after his period of depression. He was getting stronger every day and he was shocked on some of the attitude the players in the team displayed. They moaned about everything, facilities and were finding excuses to fail. Keane vowed that he would never become a whiner and his late arrival in the pro game at 19 years of age had helped him in his attitude. Keane was selected to play the great Liverpool team at Anfield. Most of the teams were beaten before they even saw the famous “This is Anfield” sign in the tunnel leading to the pitch. Keane was making his debut in the highest level and most of his team mates didn’t know his name too. Though Forest lost, Keane had made his mark and he kept his seat in the starting eleven. Keane tells about Stuart Pearce who was playing left back but was the driving force in the team. He always fought desperately and intimidated the bravest forwards. His tackling was sharp and he led by example. The man nicknamed “Psycho” was loved by everyone and because of his defiance. Keane learnt from Stuart that willpower and desire mattered. The mental strength to out-battle the opposition was more important than the technical ability. He got a call to play for Ireland but the date clashed with a cup tie for Forest, so he politely turned down. He then got a call from his old coach from the FAS course, he said that if he turned down, then he would never play for Ireland again as told by Jack Charlton. He was stunned but said that he owed allegiance to Forest and Clough since they paid his wages and due to them that he has risen to this level. Outside soccer, he found it difficult to adjust the fame that came with it. This book tells the real stories we read day in and out about footballers being caught in a brawl or something like that. Though they are no angels but most of them are exaggerated. In one of the evenings in a bar, two people attacked Keane unprovoked and in the next morning, the headlines read “Roy Keane involved in a brawl”. Though he vowed not to stay out in the night, that never materialized! In the first FA Cup final he played against Spurs for Forest, it was the match where the phenom “Gazza” spoiled his career due to an insane tackle by Gazza. Keane saw the pressures of the media and the outside world taking a toll on Gazza. They lost the match 2-1 to Spurs. Keane has written that the biggest pressure before a match is the tickets issue, each player would need to get tickets for his family, friends and this list grows longer as you progress as a player. The off-field distractions can be destructive and would take off the focus on the game itself. The final lesson was that the Cup final was just another game and the media hype should not be taken seriously otherwise the same fate would occur as it happened to Gazza.

Keane after the first year in the top flight of English football was immediately selected to play for his country. Jack Charlton was the coach who took Ireland towards World Cup quarterfinals in Italia’ 90. Somehow Keane was not impressed at the Ireland setup from the beginning because Big Jack had a different view of football. Unlike passing the ball is a priority in the English football and in general, jack’s idea was to fire long balls in behind the opposing defence, then hunt them down with the intention of trapping them in their own half of the field. It was a primitive approach which would hamper the brilliance of the players. Since playing for the country made it big, the players would work as the coach says. Keane from his younger days refused to play by the rules and questioned the existence of some of them. This earned him a reputation as a hothead. He says that Ireland are happy to make up the numbers, if they reach a major tournament, that itself would be happy and everyone would be made a hero. This was frustrating for Keane since he had learned throughout his life and especially from Manchester United and Ferguson that each game should be won and the ultimate goal should not be lost. Whereas if England lost in the early rounds of the World Cup, they would be vilified and criticized whereas Ireland would be praising their heroes and this was sickening to Keane. The setup for an international game was also crap as they used to travel in economy class, the kit would come late, they would be put in bad routes and the training and everything is not professional at all.

The new Premier League had formed when Keane started playing for Forest in the second year, Forest had been a small club with limited resources but they had won two European Cups and two Championships under Keane’s manager Brian Mclough which has been a huge achievement. Keane had great loyalty to Clough whereas there was mixed response to the dressing room. Keane was impressed about the way Stuart Pearce conducted himself with his unswerving professionalism and demanded more from his team mates. In the second season, Forest was on the verge of relegation from the top division football and He re-negotiated with the club, got a right to leave the club if it got relegated and a higher pay. Meanwhile there was a lot of top clubs looking out for Keane. Keane writes that the agents make or mar a deal and they are not bothered about the player’s choice but according to how they can make money out of a player. So he advises that the players should be careful when they choose an agent, Keane appointed an agent named Michael Kennedy and still has him as his agent. After Forest was relegated, Keane felt pained about it but there were others who after minutes of getting relegated and with their careers in slide were wondering which restaurant to go! Keane felt sorry for the manager, the fans and he was voted the player of the year for Forest. In that summer, Keane played an important part in the Ireland qualifying for the 1994 World Cup to be held at USA. Kenny Dalglish who was the Blackburn coach approached Keane. Terms were agreed and he was ready to sign the contract for 300,000 pounds a year. This happened on a Friday and he couldn’t get it signed till Monday. So Keane left for home at the weekend hoping to be a Blackburn player by next week. Alex Ferguson called up Keane and asked whether he had signed anything but Keane replied that he hadn’t signed but shook hands on the deal and he would sign the forms tomorrow. Fergie says to Keane “You’ve signed nothing, Come over for a chat”. From that moment, Keane wanted to play only for one club and he knew he couldn’t refuse to sign for the world’s most famous football club. Next morning he flew to Manchester and met Fergie. Keane liked him straight away, for a man managing Manchester United who had just won the Premier league, he was unaffected by his success, funny and reassuringly human. He was also clearly hungry for more trophies. Fergie said to Keane “Roy, Manchester United are going to dominate the domestic game with or without you. With you we can win in Europe”. Ferguson told him that it would take some time for the deal to settle and he has to keep his cool. Immediately Keane called Dalglish about his change of mind to join Blackburn. Dalglish went berserk and revenged to sue him, which didn’t happen. Keane has learnt that nobody honoured any deals in the professional world of soccer. Players screwed managers; managers screwed players and in turn were screwed by directors. Keane came back for pre season training to Forest and everyone there had started to make comments since the coach was angry about the deal he refused with Blackburn. Two weeks into pre-season, Forest agreed for a 3.75m pounds record transfer deal with United. He got 350,000 pounds a year. Immediately, Manchester United were scheduled to fly out to South Africa for a pre season tour. Keane wanted to stay back and improve his fitness but Fergie told him to come. In the airport he met the following people – Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, Steve Bruce, Garry Pallister, Paul Ince, Peter Schmeichel, Mark Hughes and Denis Irwin. All of them were imposing characters, seasoned professionals and strong men oozing with self-belief. His first task was to get into the team and he was awed by the way United created a buzz wherever they went. Brian Kidd was their assistant coach and the training in Manchester United was interesting and the routine varied from day to day. In the initial pre season training, he hardly got a kick, in the training ground; he was working towards closing the gap between himself and the amazingly gifted players around him. United were champions in the ground, immaculate preparations on the training ground, inspirational presence of the manager always watching. There was no demoralization in the dressing room that had been present in the Forest. Keane played in the first Premier League game of the season and he had made a contribution crossing for Giggs opening goal. In the next match at Old Trafford, the home ground of the champions, he scored his first goal, timing to perfection a run and finished off to a Giggs cross. From that night, the burden of being the game’s most expensive player ceased to exist in Keane’s mind. Keane writes about his fellow United’s teammates in this book. Ryan Giggs was electrifying in the field. Cantona was brilliant, an awesome finisher and was the king in United. He rarely let the team down on the field. Bryan Robson known, as “Captain Marvel” was the main man in the dressing room, he was held with awe by his teammates. On the pitch, he was a fantastic warrior. When Fergie had struggled in his initial years, Robson had fought like a lion to bring the team forward. He was a great player for England and United. His enjoyment of life was as evident in his drinking sessions. Fergie consulted most of the matters with him. Men like Denis Irwin, Gary Pallister didn’t talk big time but they showed it in the pitch. Ince nicknamed the Guvnor talked the talk, but he could also walk the walk and was never found wanting on the pitch. Schmeichel was a poser; he played to the crowd but he was a great goalkeeper.

Keane writes that the readers of the book would feel that it would be more of Alex Ferguson’s story rather than his. But he says that it is decision that determines the destinies of Manchester United players. Without a structure, a club, a team, he accepts that neither Beckham, Cantona nor himself could have shone brightly. Most managers don’t manage at all. They pick the team, buy the players, dictate tactics, court the media and then get the sack. Fergie knows United from top to bottom. Watches “A” team and reserve matches as keenly as the first team, will know as much about a youth team player, his habits, his strengths and weaknesses as about the first team players upon whom the club’s success depends. Fergie was hard and straight, he was also very human. If one had a problem, he was very considerate. He had a huge network of informants in the Manchester area about the social behavior of his players. Manchester was a village where one couldn’t move without Fergie finding out! In the morning session, he would casually ask, “how was the night, Roy?” Honesty was the best policy when it came to answering Fergie. He knew what time you reached home and what were you up to till then. Fergie would not tolerate excessive drinking. Fergie was the first to arrive every morning and he stayed as long as there was work to do. No detail was too small to grab his attention. He monitored every player, always looking for signs of diminished appetite, slacking in training, unsettling social habits. Nothing escaped Fergie’s scrutiny. Keane found it very difficult to cope with the kind of fame that accompanied his status as a footballer. Keane initially lived in a hotel and was alone most of the time. Robson and Steve Bruce helped him out and also socially invited Keane out. Robson was always having a word with Keane about his football skills. He nudged Keane to become a playmaker. On his first season at United, they won the Premier League and FA and it was Bryan Robson’s last year as a player at United. He moved to Middlesborough as a player-manager. His move was a big loss to all of United. During the break, USA 94 was there. Roy Keane was very much a part of the team and he had lots to complain about the setup of the Ireland team. The book tells about the lack of professionalism among the Ireland coaches, officials and the entire setup. They lost to Holland in the second round after beating Italy in one of its group match. They returned back as heroes! , which Keane found unaccustomed to, celebrating failure!

In the following season of 1994/95, when the pre-season arrived, everyone was raring to go and re-establish himself. In United, nobody could take their places for granted, even if you had won the treble! There was lots of pressure in 1994/95 because of the talent in the reserve team dressing room. Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Neville brothers and Keith Gillespie were all wonderful players and they as a group was inseparable. That year was a big failure for United because they went trophy less. In the year, Andy Cole joined the club and there was that nasty incident which happened with Eric Cantona. United were playing away at Crystal Palace. Eric got involved with the marker when the score was 1-1. There was shirt pulling, obstruction and bit of chat, which led to break of concentration for Eric. He kicked the marker and got the marching orders. The crowd goes mad and there was racist taunts, chants about players personal lives and obscene songs about the Munich air crash! when Eric was about to enter the tunnel, some fan has a go at Eric, Cantona doesn’t react immediately but he turns back and launches himself at the tormentor. It was a kung-fu kick straight at the fan in his chest. He was banned for rest of the season and he had to face courts on assault charge and FA disciplinary committee. The media was baying for his blood, they wanted to banish him but Fergie kept his cool and didn’t cancel Eric’s contract. Fergie managed the whole issue by himself and kept the other players free of the worries. At the end of the season, he sold Kanchelskis, Mark Hughes and Paul Ince. Fergie found himself under fire but then kept his trust on the kids. There has been a famous quote by soccer pundit Alan Hansen – “You don’t win anything with kids”. Now by 2004, Alan Hansen has been made to eat his words innumerable times! By December, Fergie was criticised as a devil because United were 10 points behind Newcastle. Cantona had then returned after his ban and United put up a stirring run of wins and lost only once in the last 23 cup and league ties. Eric Cantona was on fire scoring 10 goals in his last fifteen games. Newcastle were broken under pressure and United did a double double. Winning the league and FA Cup again was a historic feat. And it was even sweeter, because the double was won with “kids”! That year Ferguson was under pressure since he was negotiating a new contract and this win vindicated his stand. Fergie got only 300,000 a year which was a pittance. Keane says that here was a man because he has been the reason for so much success but stills gets a pittance. United won the 1996-97 season in a stroll, they had kept the Champions League as the priority. Keane was already one of the established stars in the team and he demanded the team’s performance on the field at all times. They reached the semi finals in the Champions League and lost to the eventual winners – Borussia Dortmund. Before the start of the 1997-98 season, Eric Cantona had retired. It was a shock and tragedy for everyone at the club. There were thousands clutching the No 7 shirt and crying on the forecourt at Old Trafford. It reminded Keane that United was more than a football club. He says that it would impossible to imagine scenes like these in any other football club in Britain. Teddy Sheringham came from Spurs and Teddy arrived for training on his first day in a red Ferrari, every inch the confident Londoner. Teddy according to Keane was a very good player and scored lots of goals. Keane and Teddy didn’t get on well off the field. Keane became the captain after Cantona had retired. This season didn’t go well with Keane. He was again involved in a brawl in a pub just 2 days before a game and was not fit enough for the game against Leeds. Fergie was severe with him privately but sided with him in public. Keane spent the two days with too little sleep and the match was a nightmare game he just deserved. Throughout that game, he was having a private feud with Alfie Haaland. He was winding Keane up throughout the game. He did late tackles and caught Keane in his leg, then he started pulling Keane’s shirt and also off the ball was getting kicks at Keane. This irritated Keane and he wanted to trip Haaland, when he slid into make the challenge, his stud caught the turf and he heard the cruciate ligament snap. The pain Keane felt was instant and agonizing. Meanwhile Haaland stood over him and shouting “get up, stop faking it”. The injury was worst than expected. After 9 league games, his season was over and he was operated and rehabiliation took place. During that time, he was very depressed at times, but he vowed that he would never take his fitness for granted again. United meanwhile lost to Arsenal in the league and went trophyless. Keane got revenge back in the next season when he injured Halaand on a wild tackle which almost ended Halaand’s career. This led to a major controversy after the book was released.

Keane was ready for the 1998/99 pre-season tour and the manager had meanwhile signed Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke for record transfer fees. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer had joined United from Norwegian club for just 1.5 million pounds. Ole is nicknamed “baby-faced assassin”. When Ole first came to the club, Keane thought that Ole was a schoolboy of 16 years but when the balls came out, Keane found Ole as an extra-ordinary finisher and he could score from anywhere. He was one of the most popular players in the dressing room, a real nice man and an outstanding professional. More than often, Ole started on the bench but he never complained. Keane praises this quality of Ole as after all the hype about individuals, soccer is and will all always be a team game and a professional like Ole is priceless. As the season progressed, Keane started playing best football of his life and was due to the fact about the strength of the team. United were chasing the three cups – League, FA Cup and Champions League. They were close to Arsenal in the league and they beat Liverpool en route to a semi matchup with Arsenal in the FA Cup and lined up Juventus in the semifinal of the Champions League. 4 games in 14 days changed United’s season. Juventus was at home in the first leg but United didn’t play well. It ended 1-1 thanks to a last minute goal from Giggs. 4 days later, they placed Arsenal at Villa Park in the FA Cup semi final. It ended 0-0 the replay match was English football at its best with Beckham giving United the lead with a spectacular struck Beckham special and then Bergkamp equalized with 20 minutes to go. Keane was sent off for a foul on Marc Overmars, it was a desperate tackle failing which could have led to a goal. Then Arsenal got a penalty which Schmeichel saved. Then came one of the best ever goals scored, Ryan Giggs collected the ball in his own goal and he weaved and bobbed, fooled the England team defence of Tony Adams ,Sol Campbell and David Seaman for a spectacular goal. That was a pivotal moment for United’s season since everything swung in their way after that. A week later, United went to the Stadio Del Appi stadium in Juventus for the 2^nd leg. The match started badly with Juventus leading 2-0 within 10 minutes. Keane has written that this was a chance to prove that the team was worthy of playing for United. Since there was 80 minutes left to go, if they drew they would win on the away goals rule. Beckham gave a cross which was perfectly flighted and Keane was there to give a glancing header ino the back of the net. He mistimed a tackle on Zidane which meant that Keane would be missing the final. Yorke scored the equalising goal after combining with Cole. Cole scored the third and United were in the finals. They had three games coming up, if they win all three, then they win the Treble. First was to win against Spurs for the premier league crown. United beat Spurs 2-1 in a tense battle thanks to David Beckham and Andy Cole scores the goals that won United the trophy. Keane was having an ankle injury and had been playing with it. There was a party before the FA Cup finals and the entire team went for it at a pub. Giggs and Keane were standing on the bar already on a good high when two women and a guy approach them. One of the woman asks whether they will buy her a drink. When Keane and Giggs refuses and moves away, they follow and the guy asks whether you guys are going to get her a drink suffixed with a bad word. Keane replies “P*I*s*S off and leave us alone” and the girls reply “Who the f*&k do you think you are” and a glass fly and hits Keane under his eye. Then all hells breaks loose and a fight starts. These 2 girls quietly go out and makes two calls. One to the Sun Newspaper that Roy Keane has assaulted them and the other to the police that Roy Keane has assaulted them. So the police came and takes Roy to custody. Keane spent the night in the cell and was very ashamed about the fact that two of the biggest games of the club were around the corner and the club captain in a cell for drunk and disorderly conduct. The manager trust on the story Keane said that and gets him out of the cell. Keane lasted only 8 minutes in the FA Cup final before being replaced by Sheringham. Keane had an ankle problem and could not carry on. United win 2-0 and Keane lifted the FA Cup from Prince Charles. They flew to Nou Camp, Barcelona for the biggest game of their lives unfortunately Keane and Scholes could not play as they had picked 2 yellow cards during the semi finals. It was heart breaking but also the fact that they had contributed so much to United reaching the finals. The book builds up the climax very well and everyone was very tense including Ferguson. It was United vs. Bayern Munich in the final. Bayern scored early through a Mario Basler freekick. Bayern was uncharacteristically ready to just kill off the game very early in the game. It was surprising according to Keane because it let United back into the match. When 3 minutes of added time was shown, it was all over for United. Beckham flighted a beautiful cross, the ball was half cleared to Ryan and he mishit a shot straight to Teddy who poked it past the German keeper. The Nou Camp erupted and it was a relief moment for Keane and all of United. With a minute to go, United won a corner and Beckham sent another delightful cross and it was glanced by Teddy and Ole guided the ball into the net. Keane never felt so drained just watching the match and they were reluctant to go and get their medals but Fergie urged Scholes and Keane to get the medals. That night belonged to the lads who played it according to Keane. There was a great sense of achievement shared by everyone belonging to the club Alex Ferguson had created. Keane meanwhile had re-negotiated his contract and it extended for another 4 years.

During the next season, the hunger to win was missing with some of the players and this caused the manager to sell players like Cole and Yorke later. According to Keane, the greatness lies in repeating the feat. Liverpool and the in definitive champions Real Madrid come back year after year and did it. So why not United do it is the question Keane posed to his fellow players. In the next 2 seasons, new players were added like the talented Veron, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Fabian Barthez, Keane was the captain and they won the league once but lost to Real Madrid in the Quarter Finals and Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-finals in the following year. At the end of the book, Keane gives an honest interview on why he quit the Ireland national team at the 2002 World Cup. Nobody gave a chance for Ireland to qualify since they had Portugal and Holland in the same group. With Roy Keane leading the team, they beat Holland to reach the World Cup finals. Mick McCarthy was the manager but Keane had very little regard for him as a coach. As usual they were unprofessional, kit bags arrived a week later they arrived in Korea and the ground conditions were very dangerous to the players. When keane questioned these things in the team meeting, he was labeled as a rebel and even his team mates didn’t support him. This left him deeply pained and he realized that it would best to walk away rather than spend one month of torture. Nobody would like to miss a World Cup and that too at this age, 2002 was his last chance. But he made a choice after consulting with his family and Alex Ferguson. The book ends with the 2001-2002 season and after that Manchester United have again won the Premier League with Roy Keane as captain.

Keane married his long time girlfriend Theresa on 29 May 1997 is a devoted husband and father to 4 kids. This book is a true insight into the world of United through the eyes of their captain and also about the life and career of Roy Keane.

Lance Armstrong – It’s Not About the Bike, My Journey Back to Life

Book Name : Lance Armstrong – It’s Not About the Bike, My Journey Back to Life

Book Authors: Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins        Publishers: Berkley Books

Merits:#1 New York Times BestSeller, one of the greatest athletes in the modern world.

Pages : 289    Cost : Rs 388

Summary

[Contributed by V Hari - One of his old mail]

It ranks in one of the best books I have ever read in my life, an ultimate inspirational true life story. It’s a book for sports fans, sports haters,people suffering from cancer and other terminal diseases, people who are looking for inspiration to move on in their life and for all of us who might face challenges later in our life.

Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France victory has been hailed as among the most memorable moments in sports history during the century and the reason for his achievement is because he had come from a life threatening cancer and the doctors gave him a 5% chance of getting through the disease alive. Most of us (I assume for those who follow sports) know about the exploits of Lance Armstrong, the five time winner of 2290 mile road race, the Tour de France, considered as the ultimate test of strength,stress,stamina and living through pain barriers. One of the small writeups given in the back cover of the book sums up the entire story,

” Lance Armstrong does things in a big way. Other people write books about the long road back from cancer or the physical and emotional trauma of infertility or the experience of growing up without a father, or the determination it takes to win the most important bicycle race in the world. Armstrong lays claim to all of it and the result is a pretty terrific book. Armstrong’s book is both inspiring and entertaining. He doesn’t whine, doesn’t sugarcoat the tough parts and doesn’t forget to thank the good people who helped him most along the way.” This book discloses the entire facet of his life ranging from his childhood, cancer experience, cycling career,his son born through in vitro fertilisation and about his family. This book covers a lot of his cancer experience and goes into the details of his medication, so some of it could be unpalatable for the readers. This book scores for his frankness and his emotions during the turbulent times. The book covers the first two of his 5 Tour de France victories. The description and the attention to detail are riveting.

Lance was born when his mother was only 17 and he never had a real father. Everything in the world amounted to his mother and she had raised Lance with an unbending rule “Make every obstacle an opportunity”. His mother was working two to three shifts to earn $400 a month but provided Lance with small luxuries in life. Evntually she had got a job for $12000 a year and then moved to Ericsson where she worked her way up the ladder to being a key account manager. Lance has written that both of them grew with each other since his mother was very young when he was born. Lance was put into an upper middle and sophisticated school and to a predominantly football school where if you were not a football player, you did not exist. Lance was very bad at anything involved moving from side to side or hand-eye coordination sports and he was determined to find something where he could succeed at. When he was in fifth grade, he won a distance running race. He then learnt swimming and he had to learn with little kids which were an embarassing factor for him. But with the guidance of a great coach, he was fourth in the state’s 1500 meter freestyle race. He had got his first racing bike at the age of 13. In his town, there was a triathlon contest called IronKids and he had signed for it. Though he never practised for the event, he won the event by a long way. Soon he was on his way winning triathlon competitions and he started making his name in local bike races in his town. He and his mother decided that he could become a professional cyclist and he started practising after his school. He rode long hours into the lonely stretches of road and sometimes he drove 60 miles a day. He got his major breakthrough in a time trial in New Mexico. He didn’t come prepared for a cold climate and had to sit in the heat vent of the car to stay warm. He won the race and then got a call to train with the junior US national team and then to travel to Moscow for the 1990 World Junior Championships. His school objected to it and he had to quit the school. Lance had no clue about strategy involved in a cycle race,he went flat out, led for some laps and then lost it. The officials and a Russian coach were impressed indicating that he had the talent to become big. He got a call from Chris Carmichael, the US national cycling team director. Chris had heard about Lance’s reputation and wanted to develop young cyclists for the future. Since Europe is where the action is, Lance was asked whether he would be willing to goto Europe. He decided that it was time to get out of the house.

Before reading this book, I had no idea that cycling involved lots of strategy, Lance didn’t either when he went out to Europe. The local press had named him ” Toro de Texas” meaning the Texas bull who would just go all out from the start. He had competed in the world amateur championships and his coach asked him to wait and bide his time before he can go for the kill. In one of the races, Lance wanted to test his legs and so he went ahead all by himself building a lead of 1 and a half minutes. He got tired because of the heat and then 30 riders came and overtook him. He eventually managed to come 11^th, the best ever by an American at that time. His coach was happy as well as angry, angry that if he had been patient, he would have been in the medals. He was as strong as the other greats of World Cycling – Miguel Indurain, Eddy Mercx etc. So the strategy is what decides the race winner.

Let me explain the cycling concepts given in this book which is very interesting – The life of a cyclist means having your feet clamped to the bike pedals churning 40 miles per hour, for hours and hours and days on end across whole continents. It means gulping water and wolfing candy bars in the saddle because you lose 10 to 12 liters of fluid and burn 6000 calories a day at such a page. The tight packs of cyclists are called peloton. On any team, each reader has a job and is responsible for a specific part of the race. The slower riders are called Domestiques – servants – because they do the less glamorous work of “pulling” up the hills. Pulling is cycling lingo for blocking the wind for other riders and protecting their team leader through the various perils of the stage race. The team leader is the principal cyclist, the rider most capable of sprinting to a finish with 150 miles in his legs. The speed of the peloton varies. Within the peloton, there are constant negotiations between competing riders, pull me today and I’ll pull you tomorrow, give an inch and make a friend. You don’t make deals that compromise yourself or the team, of course, but you help other riders so they might return the favour. There will be 100 guys in the peloton, slowly 50 guys get dropped and the rest of the pack takes over and finally 15 to 20 riders remain, so that they can sprint to the summit. Team mates are critical because in a mountain climb, it could save upto 30% of the leader’s energy just by drafting behind his colleague and every team needs people who do the dirty work.

Lance won the prestigious race in Italy for the US national team in 1991. After participating in the Barcelona Olympic games where he finished 14^th, he wanted to become a professional and one of the most influential men in American cycling named Jim Ochowics signed him for a pro contract. Och asked him what his personal ambition was and the reply was “I want to goto Europe and be a pro. I don’t want to be good at it but be the best”.The American cycling team was regarded as a french baseball team in World Series! And only when Greg Lemond won the Tour de France that United States team was taken seriously as one of the top nations in cycling. Lance raced initially with no respect to the unwritten code of rules among the cyclists. A road is only so wide that riders are constantly moving around for position and often the smart and diplomatic thing is to let a fellow rider in. Lance in his early races as a pro put off top cyclists and earned the wrath both in and off the road. The coaches of Lance sensing his temparement just waited patiently for the lessons to sink in.

Lance was preparing for the World Championships in Oslo and the great Miguel Indurain was there too, he was just 21 years and no one so young had won the race. His mother flew with him and saw him win the race. He was then requested to see the king of Norway and when the guard wanted him alone to see the King, Lance responded that “I don’t check my mother at the door” and then both his mom and he met the King. In 1995, Lance started to win stage races in the Tour de France and also his reputation as a single day racer had to be wiped off and taken more as a serious contender. In 1995, Lance realised that the Tour de France needs patience since it is a long race and just going all out would not sustain a rider for more than 2 days.

Cycling is also a dangerous sport, Lance’s team mate Fabio Casartelli, the 1992 Olympic Champion was killed on a high speed descent. On a descent, you ride single file and if one rider goes down, it causes a terrible chain reaction. Fabio crashed along with 20 riders and he had hit a curb with the back of his head and fractured his neck and skull. By that time Lance recognised what it takes to ride the Tour de France. There were no shortcuts, it took years of racing to build up the mind,body and character, until a rider had logged hundreds of races and thousands of miles of road, one wouldn’t be able to win the race.

In the month of September 1996, Lance was not feeling well and he had thought that it was normal sickness. He started coughing blood and his right testicle was swollen and he couldn’t sit on his bike. He had an appointment with the doctor and he said that “It’s a testicular cancer with large metastasis to the lungs”. Lance had cancer and he had surgery on October 2^nd for removing his testicle. This type of cancer was a rare disease and his immediate reaction was “Oh my God, I’ll never be able to race again, not Oh My God, I’ll die.” And he called up Bill, his manager and said that his career is over and that he was sick. Athletes are too busy cultivating the aura of invincibility to admit to being sick, fearful,weak,defenseless,vulnerable or fallible and for that reason neither are they especially kind,considerate, merciful to themselves or anyone around them. When he sat alone in his house that first night, it was humbling to be so scared. Lance called up all his friends and he asked his doctor to tell to his mother the bad news.

Lance meanwhile got as much information about this cancer and looked out for treatments and options. He had an operation to remove the testicle. After that a report showed that after 24 hours, the cancer had progressed and he couldn’t wait for more days for his treatment to start. The chemotherapy session should start immediately and he had to go to sperm bank since he would become infertile after the operation. Meanwhile Lance had signed for a new team called Cofidis, the french team. He had stuck a great deal with Nike. The team backed Lance and said that they would help him get through this issue. Lance gives descriptions and the treatment of the cancer in great detail. The medicines would make him very sick but should continue the chemo treatment. Since he was in the midst of changing employers, he didn’t have a health insurance. Lance became a student of cancer and went to a big bookstore and bought all books regarding cancer. He read up on all the treatments,options and calculated his success rate of being alive. One evening, he had got a letter from Vanderbilt medical center and Dr Wolff a professor of medicine and an oncologist was a cycling fan and he wanted to help in anyway he could. He suggested to Lance that the current medication affects his body that he couldn’t cycle any more. He wanted to move Lance to a different medical center. Since his HCG level was very high, the doctor did a MRI scan on his brain. The result was that there were lesions on his brain and he had to go for the operation immediately. Now his chances of survival became very slim and Lance was desperate that even if he didn’t cycle again, he would take it as a blessing and continue with his life. He had a consortium of doctors who tried to keep his cycling career in check and treatment was modified to suit the same. Lance took up the brain surgery to remove the lesions.

The night before his brain surgery, he had thought about death and whether he was content with himself on what he had done with his life so far. He was happy on what he had done so far and only hoped that he would live longer. He had the belief everyday that he would live an extra day. After the surgery, the doctors assured that it was successful and the cancer tissues in his brain were dead. The doctors were surprised on how the tissue was killed and that his cancer hopefully is not spreading. After that his chemo sessions started, the painful part was the aftermath of the chemo sessions, it left him so weak that he lost his huge frame and became a fraction of what he was before the illness. He was so weak that he couldn’t move his body. Lance underwent four cycles and four cycles are given to the most severe cases. The drug started scorching his flesh and he had lost all his hair. Meanwhile his sponsor pulled out of his deal and he had lost a lot of money and now no team was ready to back him up.

There was some break after each round of chemo sessions. Lance tried cycling during one of the breaks when he was trying to climb a road and an old woman aged around 50 passed him easily and he couldn’t catch her at all. In one of the other occasion he fell down and nearly passed out. On december 13,1996 he took his last chemo treatment and during it he felt increased companionship with his doctors and other cancer patients. Lance wanted to launch a foundation for Cancer and help the patients and also fund some research activity. He wanted the foundation to manifest all of the issues he had dealt with it in the past few months, coping with fear, the importance of alternate opinions through knowledge of the disease and the idea that cancer did not have to be a death sentence. The funds would start through a charity cycle race called Ride for the Roses.

After his final session of chemo was over, doctors said that cancer is gone currently but he has to be patient for one year and after that if the cancer does not come again, he was free to live. But if it comes back, it would be fatal. He had nightmares about his cancer remission and went through lots of bad nights.

He met his wife Kik just after his treatment, he fell in love with her and she understood what Lance had been through and his mental state. His coach and mentor, Chris and Bill Stapleton tried to pull him back to the cycling career. Lance had a tough time after his treatment since he had to wait for a year to be assured of the success. He did not want to train and he was scared that if he pushed himself hard, cancer would come back. He was living in a state of paranoia. He lived his life playing golf and spent time with Kik. Lance had taken a Europe tour along with Kik. He was visiting Europe for the first time as a tourist. He had great fun there. Lance had trouble coming back into the ordinary world. His attitude was getting negative. After living a year in the fear of dying, he felt like he deserved to spend the rest of his life on a permanent vacation but in reality it was not possible and he had to return to his family, peers and his profession.

Lance after persuasion decided to take up cycling again, now that he was out of a team and his manager and friend Bill tried to scout for a team. He could not get any of the best teams and the money he had wanted. Finally he joined the newly formed US Postal Services team for a low base salary with few incentives. He along with Kik went to France with the US Postal Services for training and races. He slowly increased his strength and stamina. He was riding beyond the imagination of his team mates. Though his physical strength was gone, he had the experience to back him. He entered a race after 18 months and it was a five day race across Spain. He finished 14^th and he was depressed and uncomfortable. In the next race, he quit in the middle of one stage and returned back to his room and said that he was quitting. His coach and other people were patient with him since his attitude was the one causing the problem and temporarily managed to put off his retirement by making him take a big break. During the break he had become a slob, played golf every day, drank beer, watched TV and lay on the sofa. He was not enjoying but it was forced upon. He felt ashamed on what he had done in France by quitting and he was behaving totally out of his normal character. He realised that surviving cancer involved more than just a convalescence of the body, his mind and body also had to convalesce. Only Kik understood his state of mind and while Lance was playing golf every day, she would sit at home looking for ways to support the family. One event changed Lance’s outlook on life -

Kik asked Lance when he was leaving to play golf on what she was doing that day, Lance didn’t have an answer and then Kik responded “You need to decide something, if you are going to retire for real and be a golf playing, beer drinking and mexican food eating slob. If you are, that’s fine I love you. But I just need to know so I can get myself together and get a job to support your golfing. Just tell me. But if you’re not going to retire, then you need to stop ating and being a bum and you need to figure it out.” All of a sudden Lance saw a reflection of himself as a retiree in Kik’s eyes. Kik along with Chris and Bill conspired against Lance to get him back on bike. Finally Lance decided to take the plunge and he rented a cabin in Charlotte and started training. Lance became his old jovial self and enjoyed cycling. One day while training, he saw his name painted on the road “Go, Armstrong” and that motivated him to really get back into the cycling career. Lance again went to Europe with Kik to start training and getting back to fitness.

Lance describes “The Tour” (Tour de France) as a purposeless suffering but for reasons according to him may be the most gallant athletic endeavor in the world, cycling the entire circumference of France, mountains included over three weeks in the heat of summer. Lance started preparing for the 1999 Tour de France in right earnest and he trained with his US Postal team in the Pyrennes. Pyrennes is the ardous mountain sections and Lance along with the team practised on the mountains for seven hours at a stretch every day. Lance attacked the problem of the tour as a math class, calculating the balance of his body weight with the equipment weight, measured his food intake and for months training from morning to night. Lance had the determination to try the tough regions and he was developing the skill as a mountain climber. He climbed the tough mountains when the other riders were saving their stamina. When the 99 Tour de France came Lance was in peak physical condition and he was not even a pre race favourite. Miguel Indurain, the five time winner of the Tour was one of the favourites.

The first stage of the Tour is a time trial of 8 kilometers to give seeding to the riders. In time trial, one rider goes after another and clocks the time. The rider with the least time is the winner. More like the qualifying session of the F1. Lance finished first and for the first time in his career, he would wear the maillot jaune(commonly known as the yellow jersey). It was emotional for Lance to get a stage victory after his comeback to the tour and also there was a sweet spot since he had beat the Cofidis team who thought he was dead and cancelled his contract during cancer. The opening stages of the tour were the terrain for sprinters. They hurtled through flat and monotonous roads and there was a lot of manoevering and flicking in the peloton. The yellow jersey rider was always under attack from the other riders. The early stages separate the strong riders from the weak and when they arrived in Metz for a 56 kilometre time trial, the stage is called the race of truth since one had to go full out for 56 kilometers. Lance was just hammering on the pedals that he beat his near rival by 58 seconds and at that moment, Lance had the idea that he could win that year’s tour. After the plains, the most interesting stages are the mountains where day after day, 130 miles of steep climbs and free falling downhills make up the course. Mountain rides are tactical because drafting is very important. Lance’s team mates Kevin Livingston and Tyler Hamilton (renowned mountain climbers) would do much of the grueling work and whereas lance would save the energy for the final peak. When some riders start breaking away, one in Lance’s team would go after that rider and pull him back by sitting on his wheel so that he cant pull away. That is how the peloton was controlled. Not all riders were chased down since if the rider does not have any consequence to the overall title, he was left alone. Lance won the 130 mile stage in Siestere and at the last peak when he was feeling very tired, he felt pain but he also felt exultation on what he could do with his body. To race and suffer is hard but it is better than being laid out in a hospital bed with a catheter hanging out of your chest and throwing up for 24 hours straight, five days a week. As the race progressed other riders were feeling the pain and Lance was in his own world used to managing the pain. Meanwhile the French press was writing that the chemotherapy had been beneficial to his racing and he was drug tested after every stage. Lance was upset that he was in his deathbed and was not stupid for taking performance enhancing drugs. By the end of Stage 17, Lance was still leading and only an important time trial remained. The one thing to avoid in a time trial is to crash. Crashes lose a lot of time and bad things can happen. Instead of riding safe and preserving the lead, Lance wanted to show to the press and the rumour mongers that he was the deserving champion. He rode all out and won the race. So he went to Champs de Elysses,Paris as an inevitable champion and Lance Armstrong was the 1999 Tour de France winner. Suddenly in America, people were sitting up and noticing this event and lots of sponsors wanted to sign Lance. Lance said that winning the battle against cancer was better than winning the Tour since what it had done for him as a human being, a man, a husband, a son and a father.

This book gives hope to the suffering and sick, motivation for people to focus and work hard for success, thank people who had helped you in your life and courage to face anything in life.