Way of Life

When was the last time you had an open hearted laugh, which brought smile on faces of others and which took away all your worries? When was the last time you sat down to enjoy the serenity of silence? When was the last time you acted like a kid, showing ignorance to this complex world without being arrogant? Strange way to start a blog, isn’t it? Oh! another question. I leave the stage open for you to ponder on these questions. Today, only thing that can challenge Usain Bolt’s speed is the speed at which our lives are moving. There was a time when the only aspect we knew of life was enjoyment. Even without various comforts and no money in pocket, we could enjoy to the maximum. Getting wet in rain gave us happiness. Eating somebody else’s lunch in school gave us the devil’s pleasure. We fought with friends, with siblings but the next moment we used to be back, walking, eating and playing together. If all of it was possible at that time, then what is it that holds us now from being the same old ‘bravos’? Is it the time that has changed or is it us who have been molded into a different avatar? The answer to all these questions is with us. Yes, life has become fast and furious and we are now running towards goals, which even after achievement do not give us complete satisfaction. It is our unquenchable thirst for these achievements which has limited our vision of life and enjoyment. Let us sit back and remember all those beautiful moments. Let us give ourselves that time we need to dwell on and rediscover our priceless and unconditional smiles and laughter. Let us allow those thoughts and emotions to flow freely and we will realize that every moment is enjoyable and expressible. My wings, my flights, I discovered them today, Let me fly and find my own way… In the dark forests or around the sprinkling sun, Will live through my dreams and a new one would have just begun.

Walked on the road, walked through the sand... U taught me how to walk, while u held my hand. Walked through the darkness, walked through light... U always taught me, I need to keep up the fight U taught me about truth, u made me learn life... I followed ur foot steps and learned how to survive. Love is sacred, u told me some day...

GOODBYE DRAVID

As aptly said by the little master ,there will be no other Dravid.
I still remember the day when 16 years ago you scored a valuable 95 at
Lord's on your debut. Since then ,even though Indian Cricket was jolted
by many a tremors , you always stood tall and you actually always
stood, wall.
You donned gloves in ODIs for the team's sake , you opened the batting
when required and you batted for hours even if you were drained by the
energy sapping fielding sessions.
From you ,there have been innumerable marathon innings like 270 at
Rawalpindi , 148 at Headingly , match winning century at Adelaide and
many more. I cherished each and every one of them. Laxman's 281 at
Kolkata would not have happened without your equally precious 180.
You captained us through the Test Series wins in Windies and at the
English soil. Your willow was as eloquent as you and did most of the
talking during the tough tours of New Zealand and S Africa. Your 190 at
Hamilton in 1999 speaks volumes of your calibre.
Even best fielders in the game took notice of you and Wellington was
lucky enough to witness yourself breaking the record of maximum catches
in Test Cricket.
Many eyes might be wet 'coz they will not see you play again but they
take pride in what they have witnessed over the past decade and a half.
Dear Rahul Dravid, you will be missed.

The Year that was...

First day of the new year and I again have that sense of deja vu. Exactly one year back, mails were flowing in and out, messages of well being were being exchanged as everyone was getting ready to welcome 2011. Similar is the mood right now as we invite 2012 to enter our lives.

So I have decided to scratch my head and collate those moments and happenings that distinguished 2011 from 2010 or other years.

I asked the wall in front of me , "Has 2011 really been different ?" , and pat came the

reply"ofcourse yes". It is actually true because the number of events that took place this year

and their magnitude itself speak a lot about 2011.

It began with everyone flowing in the fashionable tide of making 'new year resolutions'. Few days into 2011 and we realized that this year also we will not be able to change our habits. Into

Feb, there started this buzz about the Cricket World Cup being held in India and the importance

it had for Sachin Tendulkar. Though we all know what happened on 02nd April, 2011 at Wankhade Stadium, it did no reputation loss to MSD too. On one side, World Cup Victory brought in more moolah for Cricketers , the gloomy condition of Indian Hockey remained the same even after India won the innaugral 'Asian Champions Trophy'.

While all this was going on, there were two things that kept on increasing consistantly. One was

the inflation and the other was interest rate hikes by Mr Subbarao. Though opposition parties

were protesting in the same old fashion against both these consistent ' Non Performing Assets',

India also saw a new way and wave of protests. ' Jan Lokpal movemement' was launched on a massive scale in which we all saw the rise of a new leader in the form of Anna Hazare. But if you think that it was only India which was affected by these rising prices and growing public rage, then you might be mistaken. While it was Jantar Mantar in India, places like Tahir Square in Egypt & Tripoli in Libya were also put on the world's map. 2011 saw the downfall of many dictators like Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi and 2011 also ensured that fears of 2008 like recession would haunt the world again through Euro zone crisis. PIGS ( Portugal, Itly, Greece & Spain ) were forced to take austerity measures while investors throughout the world seeked safe heaven in US Dollars. Markets kept bleeding and INR saw a record low level.

The year saw the birth of earth's 7th billion child, a $15 billion currency swap deal between

India & Japan , F1 racing coming to India , a massive and destructive earthquake hitting Japan,

double whammy by Sehwag in ODIs , USA taking the revenge of 9/11 by killing Osama, three

Pakistani cricketers being jailed for ' Spot Fixing', Ratan Tata handing over the baton to Cyrus

Mistry and among all those expensive Tablets being launched , 'Aakash ' also making its way in.

Another strange thing to have happened in 2011 was the number of celebrities that the world lost. We lost ghazal king 'Jagjit Singh', the very energetic 'Shammi Kapoor', Father of innovation

'Steve Jobs' , Mr evergreen 'Dev Anand' , the very talented UK pop star ' Amy Winehouse', the

powerful Korean 'Kim Jong II, Indy Car Driver 'Dan Whledon' ( car crash during a race ) ,

renowned cricket writer 'Peter Roebuck' (committed suicide ) , legendary singer ' Bhupen

Hazarika' and few more.

So 2011 was an year of eventful journeys. Some left good taste and some made world more strong through the challenges they posed. 2012 is now being wlecomed with expectations that the year will only bring good luck for the world and we will not be bogged down by any economic crisis or the fear of world walking on the edge. The positvity of achieveing something will keep us all going and as the new punch line of Coca Cola suggests, ' We will believe in a happier tomorrow'.

Similarities(Current Scenario) : Indian Cricket and The World Economy

Many people say that, combination of youth & experience is one the best combinations. While youth is responsible for taking the team forward with zeal and passion, experience lends stability to the team.

Currently, for Indian Cricket team and the world economy, this balance of youth and experience has been disturbed.

In cricket, with scars of the white wash of Indian cricket team from England still fresh,

everybody is excited to tell his opinion. While old foxes were out of color in this entire series, young guns could not show the temperament too.

Similarly,

Love , Hatred & Metro

Well, here comes my latest one. Though, starting lines might not seem to be linked to the subject, but by the time you reach the end of this blog, things will fall in place.

Smartness is being sold for just Rs100 by DMRC. If you regularly travel by Delhi Metro, you will be able to guess easily, how it is. For others, I will throw the light on it.

Ohh ! I haven't introduced my self. I am 'Common Local Indian Traveler'. I spend at least 3 hours daily to commute from my home to office and back.

It was a bit different yesterday. It took me 3 and a half hours just to reach my home, after I left from office. Most of the credit goes to India's already exploded population( which is being counter attacked these days by Idea 3G) and has been made smart by DMRC.
Coming back to smartness, DMRC sells smart cards to help us to enter the metro stations and yesterday while I spent more than an hour while standing in line, just to enter the platform, I realized there were at least 250 'SMART PEOPLE' in line, ahead of me. This 250 seemed equivalent to 25 million yesterday. This part, explains ' hatred' to an extent, yet not considering the packed capacity of coach filled with different kinds of odour , numerous delays during the travel etc.

So, amongst the cribbing , jokes and sweat, I stepped into the Metro coach. Actually, I could only step and could not move any forward. There was pushing, verbal duels, ' great Indian Jugaad , to find some place' which kept me and other ' Common Local Indian Traveler' entertained.
As my patience level was fluctuating and my cribbing was at all time high, I suddenly realized , the hidden motive of DMRC behind this. It is the love which DMRC was trying to spread. It made unknown people, friends, while they were standing in queue.
During these times of economic, communal and terror crisis, DMRC literally brought people closer. Inside the coach, everyone could smell his/ her neighbor's breath, read his/ her messages and save him/her from the ' dhakkas '.
My narrow mindedness didn't make me realize all this earlier, but it is better late than never. After , self created hatred , I could see only love all around.
Though, my only suggestion to DMRC is that, let love spread its wings freely. Don't divide humans by reserving the coach for fairer sex. :)

JUXTAPOSED : Emotions & Cricket

Have you ever realized, why Pakistanis kiss the cricket pitch after completing a century or why Sachin Tendulkar raises his hands and bat after his every phenomenal performance ? Or let me ask you this way. Why did Aamir Sohail showed Venky his place in '96 World Cup match and what was all behind Venky's response on the very next ball?

The answer to all such questions is emotions and the role they play on the field.
Emotions go hand in hand with sports. Any sport lets your emotions come out freely but being an avid cricket follower, we will talk about emotions juxtaposed with cricket . The excitement & the rushing adrenaline makes you vent everything out on the field. To win a match for himself and his country is a thing of tremendous pride for a cricketer and these emotions act as a catalyst to help players achieve this goal.
But there is a twist in the tale. These emotions can be of three types.

Firstly, there can be controlled emotions of the likes of Rahul Dravid or
Jacques Kallis, who don't often show it but mostly let their bats do the talking.
After scoring the double hundred( first of his career)at Centurion, Kallis' facial expressions showed how much it meant to him and how much he values it. After being one of the best all rounders of the modern cricket and playing for more than a decade, he achieved this milestone which he must have been waiting for since long.

Another type can be uncontrollable emotions. Remember the slap gate incident in IPL which doesn't really need much explanation or the famous monkey jumps of Javed Miandad, imitating Kiran More, in 1992 World Cup.List can go on and on.

To make things lighter on field, there is a third type, which is humorous emotions.
The incidents which fall under this category are : dance of Sresanth after hitting Andre Nel for a six in S.Africa and the antics of Billy Bowden, the famous trans Tasmania umpire. After all, cricket is not complete without umpires.

To sum it up, I would say , if you follow cricket quite often, you will observe these emotions and they will always keep you attached to it and its this abundance of the emotions which make you fall in love with this beautiful game every single day.