A CALIFORNIAN HIPPIE

As an intern with Microsoft in California, Archit Gupta, CEO, Cleartax, used to represent Microsoft in the Ultimate Frisbee tournament with Yahoo. “Interesting people, including Yahoo Co-founder David Filo, would come to join the game. When I heard about it, I thought let’s give it a shot, and became a regular player.”

Ultimate Frisbee, quite popular in the Bay Area, was considered a game for hippies but has gained global popularity now. Unlike rugby or football, it is a no- contact, seven- on- seven sport, in which men and women play together.

A series of coincidences enabled him to continue playing the Ultimate (as the game is popularly called). After returning to India, he started throwing the disc with a close friend who used to play with the Delhi Ultimate team, called ‘Stray Dogs in Sweaters’. He, in fact, joined the team too.

Gupta takes pride in calling himself and other Ultimate lovers the Californian hippies. What he loves the most is the ‘ spirit of the game’. “It’s a no-referee game in which players have to call out their own foul.” Sharing an anecdote, Gupta says once a 19-year old captain of the team, which had lost the tournament, huddled with team mates and analysed what went wrong. He had shouted at a player but was humble enough to accept his mistake. “The way he led the team and analysed it was impressive. Even captains who are directors in companies are not so good in leading their teams. It was a lesson for me on leading my team,” says Gupta.