Sports occasions
Two sporting days, National Sports Day on Dhyan Chand's birthday and International Chess Day, with dates and what to write to someone who plays.
National Sports Day on 29 August is Major Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary. It is the day the Rashtriya Khel Puraskar awards are presented at Rashtrapati Bhavan, including the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Awards and the Dronacharya Awards for coaches.
International Chess Day on 20 July marks the founding of FIDE in 1924, and India has become impossible to ignore in the game, with a generation of teenage grandmasters and a widening base of players well outside the traditional centres.
Writing to someone who plays
Congratulate the training, not the medal. Anyone who competes knows exactly how much of the result was luck, and a message that names the years of early mornings reads as more respectful than one that celebrates the podium.
For a loss, say so plainly and stay. "That was hard to watch and I know it was harder to play. You'll be back" is better than pretending it did not happen or rushing to the silver lining.
For coaches, who almost never get written to at all, name a player they made. That is the whole career in one sentence.
A note on the awards
Dronacharya Awards go to coaches and the Dhyan Chand Award to lifetime contribution, so if someone you know is honoured on 29 August, getting the right award name into your message is the small detail that shows you read the announcement rather than the headline.
Congratulations messages covers the wider rule: congratulate the effort you witnessed, because the result is already public.