Ram Ramakrishnan

Ram Ramakrishnan

About

I was born a human;
Of the average kind, a specimen;
Childhood aspirations were aplenty,
To become a yeoman, a swordsman, a bowman;
And I dreaded perchance becoming
A conman, a doorman or a barman;
Youth had its own delusions and dreamt
Of being an airman, a seaman or a showman;
A few talents raised visions
Of leading a life as a craftsman;
Middle-age found me slotted in a niche
And I rose up the ladder to be a helmsman;
But was otherwise essentially a layman;
At times, to frighten children, a bogeyman;
. . . Then there was a call . . .
And I realized that I was only a point of consciousness and no man;
This insight made me a new man;
I glimpsed a realm that was beyond God and Mammon;
Now, some call me a madman,
While others believe I am a shaman;
Being neither, I am just me, a man.

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

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<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that  cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>

Story Behind The Book

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<span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;line-height:normal;border-collapse:collapse;color:#000099;">The story line is very simple. But the characterization of the players in the drama is sophisticated. Each character shows how some deficiency in him is compensated by proficiency in some other aspect. The paralytic who cannot speak but can write poems of poignancy; the child who cannot run because of polio, but who can soar to the skies in imagining the milky way. Life situations are portrayed purposefully. We can see how a man of essential kindness is unable to bring up an orphan in his own home but has to support him from o<span style="background-color:#333333;"></span>utside because his wife does not share his concerns. The poems spontaneously blossom out of the prose adding colour to the narration. The exploration of outer space is intertwined with the discovery of the life within the mind of the explorer. - Justice Rangarajan (Retd), Andhra Pradesh High Court</span>