Never So Long……..

As I am sitting down, with tears flowing down the cheek and a big lump in throat, I am not thinking of what has already been written or said about the “Pride of India”, rather thinking of the last 26 years of my life which has been revolving around Cricket because of Sachin “Paaji”.

I remember reading about this child prodigy in Sportstar & “Cricket Samrat”  regularly and a huge buzz surrounding his name” since 1988. Then, I very prominently remember 30^th October 1989, the Nehru Cup Semifinal which India lost badly to WI. I had a huge discussion with my friends about the inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian Team post that match, arguing replacing old blood with New. Not to my surprise Sachin got selected for the Indian team for the Pakistan Tour a month later and I was elated. The next memory was of Tom Alter’s interview of Sachin just before he was embarking on the Pakistan tour and somehow there was a distinct look of self-belief and motivation in his eye. To my credit, I didn’t go to school just to have a look at him for his first International Match J. I remember he was fielding at Long Leg in his white sweaters when he first fielded the ball. What I didn’t know at the time was the joy this baby face will bring to the life of a nation and to the people worldwide.

One of the moment that stood out for me in that series and something that confirmed that he is there to put his mark on international cricket was the 2^nd inning of 4^th Test in Sialkot. India were some 30 odd for 5 against Imran’s army of Waqar, Wasim and Aquib, when “Paaji” came to crease. It was the second delivery he faced from Waqar and got hit on his face. Blood oozing out from his face and still he told Sidhu - “Maain Khelega”.  He went on to save the Test and Series for India.

In my eyes, he crossed the human boundary during the 1999 world cup when he came back to play after his father’s sad demise. All the years of watching him with awe turned into respect and out of shear respect for playing that game and holding on the battle within himself and going on to score a century against Kenya I bowed to him for the first time. It was conquer by all means and in my watery eyes the greatest conquer “paaji” ever had in his life. I remember jotting this down in my personal diary which I used to maintain at that time.

There are various visuals of “paaji”embedded in my memory – Sachin hitting Hadlee for Six over long-off in a double wicket tournament and Sushil Doshi shouting in commentary box “Sachin ne maaidan par aate hi vidyutiya chapalta utpanna kar di hai”, Various sixes dancing down the ground, Sledging Mcgrath in the 2000 ICC Mini world cup, Hitting Shoaib for a Six in 2003 world cup & so on. It’s difficult to name one, however, the one that stamps a permanent place in my mind is of 2011 World Cup final, when he was sitting on Pathan’s Shoulder and shedding tears, I was privileged to see it live from the ground and the scene is still fresh in my mind. That showed how much it meant to him and that behind a hard man there exists a soft heart which beats for cricket.

As years went by and “Paaji” redefined the art of Batting with a Paddle Sweep & an upper cut etc,  mastering over his own-self and increasing his durability, one fear that kept hitting me was – till how long the joy will last? Now that my fear has come true, I will continue to watch cricket with the same passion knowing well within my heart that it will never ever be the same again……….

As all of India is weeping by his departure & the tenderness of his farewell speech, I for one didn't think that I will be inconsolable – What a speech & what a man……!!!!

I bow to you master……..

खुदी को कर बुलंद इतना कि हर तक़दीर से पहले;

खुद बन्दे से खुद पूछे बता तेरी रज़ा क्या है। 

Harsha Bhogle: The rise of cricket, the rise of India

One of most gripping talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/harsha_bhogle_the_rise_of_cricket_the_rise_of_india.html

Sansani ki Vidayi

Last evening Sansani (character from our team) bid adieu to all of us. It put me under a cyclone of thought. I started wondering, who should be blamed for Sansani’s departure? Is it the way IT industry is working? Is it the way people with not so good communication skill get victimized or is it a collective failure of a team. Or shall we blame Sansani himself for being not so smart in handling situations.

While I am thinking this, I remember a line from Tom Cruise’s movie – “A Few Good Men”, in which one of the officers says “we need to be punished, because we are supposed to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves”. I am having a similar kind of feeling here. But in this case I think the team tried, tried its best to help Sansani in every possible way. There was an occasion when team fought together in order to salvage his career and pride. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t to be and the doom’s day came.

Lives moves and so do we, characters in our life come and go, but his departure has jolted me out of stupor and I am beginning to firmly believe that this world does not belong to people who choose to sit silently. On a brighter day, Sansani will be happy, working at a better place with some other team and its member, but I guess the world around us will change for bad or worse and some other Sansani will bid adieu from some other team because he was not a smart cookie, because he was not good at speaking English and because he worked under a mean machine…………

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand............................

Maharashtra Assembly – What A Shame????

Once again the whole concept of Democracy was broken into smithereens. It was savaged brutally by a set of unruly people selected by us to rule a state. The question that always floods my mind is – are we so helpless that we cannot do anything about this? Do we really care about our country or do we love our country? If the answer to this is yes, then how can we sit silently and let incidents like this happen on a regular basis?

MNS members are proud of what they have done? They are issuing warning to Abu Azmi about his life being in danger. Like before, I am wondering where the hell they hide out when terrorists attack our country or the Maoists kill innocent people? Why in the world they shout when some Indian gets attacked in Australia. Aren’t they doing the same thing (promoting Marathi over national language Hindi)? For me they are the real traitors of our country. When the need comes to do something for the country, they will be the last ones to come out, but when it comes to power, lust and money they will show as if they are doing it for the country. These selfish people have pushed the country into a place where no one feels safe.

This incident has been truly a nation shame in all the senses. Democracy has been ravaged, freedom has been slaved and the worst part is the responsible populace is feeling proud of this. Though they have been expelled from the assembly for doing this, but does that make any difference? Does this guarantee that incidents like this will never happen in future? The Answer we all know is a big NO.

I am not sure what the solution is, because this has formed such a vicious circle around our society that it will take a revolution of some kind to remove this problem from grass route. However, I feel that it’s not only the politicians or the bureaucrats responsible for this; we as a common man are also responsible for whatever is happening around us. We tend to make a lot of shout but do nothing about any wrong doings; we do not make these guys accountable or answerable for anything.

I also want to understand from Marathi people, do they really think that Raj Thackery or his MNS really care for the well being of so called common people of Maharashtra? I sincerely and humbly request all you guys living in Maharasthra to come out and teach a lesson to these traitors.

Its time we do not sit silent and get tortured by these atrocities. Its time we should wake up and do something and tell these politicians that this is our country and they have to rule it the way we want them to. These are just handful of people and we are billions, can’t we take these bulls by the horns????

The Mumbai Massacre – What after those 59 hours???????

शहीदों की मज़ारों पर लगेँगे हर बरस मेले;
वतन पर मिटने वालों का यही बाँकी निशाँ होगा...

I have purposefully used the word massacre here, yes it nothing other than massacre, Massacre of Humanity, Massacre of Human life, Massacre of trust and Massacre of civil society…..

Like many others I am also angry and sad at the same time. I also feel like shooting these bastards (no matter if it is Pakistan, Dawood or someone else), I also feel like weeping with those family members who lost their members. Amongst these feelings I am thinking—

1. For how long we will remember this?
2. Will we learn anything from this?

I do not have any answers to this, I am sorry but I do not have. I am living in a country whose Prime Minister lacks authority, the crime happened in a state whose chief minister does not care about terrorism, this country is having a Home Minister who is a shameless creature and has never heard of a simple term called Morality. Yes, I am talking about Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mr. Shivraj Patil. By the way where is Mr. Thakre, with his brave Marathi Sena, I could not trace them on any of the News Channel and also if I remember correctly, they did not find the way which was any way near to Taj, Oberoi or Nariman House. As I am writing this, I am seeing on one TV channel that Deputy CM of Maharashtra is saying that its no big deal, bade bade sehron mein aaisi ghatna ho jaati hai ( In a big city like this, these events do happen occasionally). What bull shit this is? Can someone please ask MR Patil, what if out of those 182 people that died; one would have been from his family. India is still paying the price of one Mr. Mufti Mohammad Saeed’s love for his daughter.

I think I am already getting the answer of point 1 after seeing what Deputy CM has to say. Based on this I am changing my mind, I think we should start with the enemies within the country, people like Mr Patil should be taught a tough lesson. We as an Indian should do something now to teach such guys a lesson, because it is very evident that all the politicians belong to the same gutter and we cannot rely on these bastards to take care of our country. It is we who holds the responsibility.

I am also amazed by the role media is playing, I appreciate what they have done to bring the coverage to us, however, I feel that it is not out of their responsibility towards the society that they have done this, but it is beause they wanted to earn fame for themselves and for their channel. The reason why I am saying this is that, after the completion of the operation, they are engaged in the same old rat story –

“One Mr. Deepak Chaurasia is showing pictures from inside of Taj and repeating like a toy, these are exclusive pictures being shown on Star News, then comes Barkha Dutt, these footage are shown for the first time on NDTV, someone from IBN7, Sahara Samay etc are doing the same. What the hell this is, people know that they are watching STAR NEWS, NDTV etc. Moreover, at such a time of utter grief, pain and sorrow why would we want to know who is brining those exclusive pictures. Why don’t they understand that they have far greater responsibilities towards society then selling themselves and their channels? Journalists are supposed to be the mirror of common man through which we can see the facts. Mumbai is bleeding and so is the society, please do something to stop that, do something to appease the pain, do something to uncover the culprits, do some campaign to bring people together, something to jolt these self-centered quiescent politicians out of stupor.

Everyone is talking about the hand of Karachi in this massacre, but my question is if we have evidence and even if we can prove that Karachi is behind this brutality, can we do anything? Do we have the guts to go ahead and kill the ones who are involved? Do we have the mettle to attack Pakistan if they refuse to give us the ones that are involved.

We all know the answer, isn’t it?

So my question is what is going to be different after those Deadly 59 hours? Unfortunately like before I am sorry I do not have any answers because my Country has been paralyzed due to inept politicians and policy makers who will do meeting after meeting in an Air-conditioned Hall with coffee snacks etc, then come out with some stupid plan that will never get implemented.

And we “The common people” as well as the media will again sleep and get busy in our life until (God Forbidding) something like this or even major or slightly minor happens again. Nobody will remember those Karkare’s Kamte’s and Salaskar.

India let us pledge to do something to change things in our own possible way and not forget the sacrifice of the Karkare’s, Kamte’s and Salaskar’s –

संभल जाओ होश में आओ ऐ हिन्दुस्तान वालों

ना जागे तो दास्ताँ भी न होगी तुम्हारी दास्तानों में........

The Wonder Years - A serial Par Excellence...

Every time I watch any episode of “The Wonder Years”, it jolts my whole personality out of stupor. I began to think of my life, the learning I had in a similar manner to the narrator of this amazing serial. It surely is a timeless classic, something which I will never get tired of watching.

As I grew watching this serial I have learnt a lot about life, about relations and about the general human behavior and psychology. Those one liners at the end of the serial leaves me pondering and wondering. For instant in today’s episode the narrator says – 

Love can tear and rip you apart. It can kill you. But if you’re lucky, it can put you back together.

Even at this age when I watch it, I discover a new meaning from the episodes that I watch, I remember the days when I uses to miss my computer classes in order to watch the episodes of this serial. If that sounds normal, then, how about recording the entire episode in an Audio cassette and then playing it, listening to it time and again. I still am having about 10 Audio cassettes which I recorded way back in 1998. Such was my craziness about the serial. These days I have put an alarm in my mobile which sends me a reminder 15 minutes before the start of the serial.   

Then there was this one liner which helped me out during one of the tough times in my life with one of my friend –

I guess in a way we are all odd men out ..until we find a match that makes us even...Someone who challenges us to be our best...someone who understands us even in our worst....I was beginning to appreciate how rare a thing (true friendship) was...

 "There is one more that I always remember –

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.

It just is an amazing serial and I bow to the creators of this serial – Neal Marlens and Carol Black.

In Pursuit Of Happiness

I was just thinking today “What do we need to be Happy”?

 While trying to find the answer to this, I figured out that Happiness is a feeling which is inside us, whether we want to find that or not is a separate question altogether. Life gives us enormous opportunity to be happy but I feel that most of us are not apt and skilled enough to grab those opportunity. Rather, we start shooting ourselves with negativities of future and succumb to the unseen painful future while living in present.

 Life has been kind on me, and I am trying to be happy at most of times yet when I am writing this, I am finding it difficult to narrow down on things which can make us happy. I am also wondering why people always tell me “tu hamesha muskurata kaise rehta hai, itna khus kaise rehta hai” (How do you manage to be happy always)…the honest answer is I too do not know and do not realise this unless someone tells me. Still, since someone has asked me to write about this, so I can say few things, but rest assured I am thinking out of my skin to figure this out. 

1. One thing that I think keeps me away from sadness is that I try very hard to not expect much from people. I will not say that I do not expect from people, but there are very few people from whom I expect things in return. What it does is that it gives me freedom to treat people as they are and not put them within certain boundary expecting them to react in a certain way under certain conditions. No expectation No pain.
2. I generally try to be honest to myself. Most of the time when I do something, I ask myself, am I doing the right thing? Will I be happy doing it? And how would I feel after the completion of this? If I get the answer in affirmative I do it, else I keep asking myself until I satisfy myself with either a Yes do it or No, do not go for it.
3. I am never shy of making a fool out of me and generally make a mockery of myself most of the times. What this does is that behind that laughter I myself act as my critics and hence do not get surprised by my short comings, weaknesses etc. As a result I accept myself with my failures and treat it equally with my strength and successes.
4. Last but not the least every night when I go to bed to fold my day; I make myself answerable for everything that I did during my day. After the question answer round, if I feel that I did not hurt anyone, did not cause pain to anyone, I sleep well and it reflects on me the other day.

 Some years back, when someone asked me “what is the greatest achievement of your life?

I replied – The greatest achievement in my life in terms of morality is that, I can bow to someone I did wrong and ask for forgiveness. Besides anything, it flushes my heart and wipes away all the guilt and gives me a clean slate always.