Friday, October 17, 2008

the upper cut!

Today finally the day came when the ordained happened to the world of cricket! Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar took his rightful place as the highest run getter in all forms of the game.

The GOD has now collectively scored almost 30,000 runs at the highest level (some good ones don't score even half that much in first class form, forget the internationals!) against the best bowling opposition for almost four bowling generations - from Qadirs and Marshals to Wasim and Waqar to Donald, Warne and McGrath and now to Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar!

Countless media articles today and media space would have been reserved for the greatest sporting icon the country has ever seen. I will stick my neck out and say that he is the best the world would have ever seen! He has been blessed, hailed, wowed, etc. by one and all. This has to be the news of the year for us! Yes. This news is definitely much better than any political or economic dooms/busts/dawns news ... (pun intended).

Sachin Tendulkar is hailed as everything great right upto what I think of him as the GOD himself! But, this is only apt. He has been termed as I read in a news article about him - the living university for all the young sportspersons in India! It is so correct that he is an university.

Everything from handling pressure and expectations of a billion strong cricket crazy fanatics to working hard at your chosen field, to putting the cricket ahead of himself, his unjuries and his family - in every aspect, he has become a person to emulate. His mild mannerism and his humility only add to the halo around him. We love our heroes to be modest and Sachin is the epitome of modesty. Such humility residing in such a world class act only makes him bigger in the eyes of his devotees...

His humility is best characterised in his quick retort to a TV anchor when he mentioned to him of his greatness that he is only a normal human being playing cricket! Never mind your humility Sir, we know what you have given us. We can only be grateful to you for giving us the privilege of watching you, of experiencing what a great joy there is when someone as great as you bats. Thank you for being who you are. Mere mortals like me can only revere you. We can only aspire to try and imbibe your humility and your perseverance and your hard work in our petty lives. We can only aspire that we are able to make 1/1000th the effort you have made and we can only hope that our closed ones be as proud of us as your close to billion followers are!

I must admit that there have been some rotten grapes amongst us lovers of the game who have time and again riled HIS greatness and said unnecessarily horrible things about this modern day Bradman. I guess such is our love that we want Sachin to go out and score a century every time he leaves the boundary ropes towards the pitch. Hence, we want that like a good romantic tale, every victory be composed of its own little Sachin story. And the reality is not too far away from that. Another reason for the Sachin fairy tale to last forever!

Isn't it apt that Sachin should invent a stroke like the upper cut and say that it was his favourite stroke in one of his best centuries down under recently? Indeed, HE is the uppermost cut today when it comes to legends of the gentleman's game ....

Monday, October 13, 2008

Relation-ship(?)

I recently had a heart-rending discussion with my loved one where I inflicted quite a bit of emotional pain by my verbal volley. We all are capable, nay doers, of such acts at some point or other in our lives. The loved ones at the receiving end change - that's all!

Why do we act or behave in such a way? What inspires us? Our frustrations? Our fears? Our inability to communicate in a timely fashion? Maybe all. But, does that give us a permit to lash out at our loved ones? Definitely not. Does that hurt like hell? You bet! Then why do we do it?

The only solace (if you may call it that) is that we feel guilty after it all. Maybe we repent too! We tender apology too. Does that lessen the hurt? Definitly NOT. It can never. The only thing is that the person understands that we understood!

It is a strange word relationship. Ever tried breaking it? Relation and ship. It is apt that we call it that. I believe any relation is a faceless, even meaningless, a bond inflicted by destiny and luck. But, it is through our collective wants and deeds, that we convert the relation to a relationship.

Relationship can be with anyone. Grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends even! But, important thing to note is that these are all relations. Many faceless and some meaningless. They turn into the ship mode only when we along with the other person start spending time with each other and start sharing a bond - when we travel in the same boat! Only with timely contributions to it, we turn that boat into a prospering ship. We are fellow travellers on a voyage of life. Only when we row together, that the ship will move - first slowly and then, at the speed of knots. The voyage can last a few days, months or even a lifetime. Doesn't matter!

That brings me to the starting point. Why do we inflict such pain on our loved ones. The fact is that, when we do, we forget that we need these fellow travellers on this ship of life. We need them so that we can row this boat together. Without them, you and this lonely ship of life won't be able to move an inch - forget about travelling to destinations at speeds of knots!

Only if I and those of you like me knew it when we should have....

Bon voyage!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Apt analysis for India

Those who care about India should read today's article by Shri M D Nalapat in the editorial section of the daily Times of India titled 'Hindutva helps Jihad'. It is a succinct, crisp and spot-on analysis of how we are aiding the nefarious plans of the country's enemies by carrying on behaving in amateurish manner about the religions and regions in India.

Today everywhere you see, we are either fighting with our own brothers either for religion or then for region! We call this country our house. Then why are we fighting to wrest control of every room from the others? Is a 'house' made up of rooms or people? The Muslims eternally complain of partisan treatment (not entirely wrongly). The Dalits complain and struggle for more! The Bodos struggle for their land. A certain Raj Thackeray for Mumbai and Marathi. Abu Azmi for God knows what! Karnataka with Tamil Nadu for water. North East for independence. Jammu for Amarnath Shrine board. Naxalites for communism (in spite of the fact that they should be grateful India has tolerated them for so long!). We have now been at eternal strife for more than a decade!

If we see closely, none of these strifes merit attention. We are a free country with right to live and behave as they please to its citizens. But our laws and particularly, the politicians in the country really need some soul-searching to be done. Have they not made every effort to make sure that the country is kept simmering? Have they not made the heinous crime of taking lives for their selfish gains? So-called leaders have always seen their own good and no one else's! They have not bothered about the country at any moment. They won't ever - at least till we start demanding better things and better deals from them. We need to start speaking out.

Take the case of Hindutva and conversions to Christianity. It’s an open and shut case that the tribals and illiterate poor will convert to Christianity because the gullibles realise that they will get help in money and food from the church. Can the Hindu temples not start taking care of the locality? Why can the Hindu temple not become an institution to start making this society a better place to live? Why cannot the purohit at the temple start preaching to one and all how encompassing this wonderful religion is? Why can he not start propagating the fact that WE ARE ALL HINDUS! Hinduism is NOT a religion but a WAY OF LIFE and we all are hindus by that definition. It is the narrow minded selfishness that has trickled down to the lowest levels in this society and the utter lack of a bond called 'nation' that is taking us down.

We need to make our voices clear and call out in one voice that we are not Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Marathi, Dravid, Assamese, Bodo, UP walas, etc! We are Indians ... nay ... we are Bharatiyas ... that's the name of our nation, ain't it? For that, the new social order needs created. We need to break the shackles of reservations and compartmentalisms that the politicians have forced on us. Once and for all. This will in turn ensure that we stand up against the enemies and that they don't find easy support for targetting us amongst us!

Let us stand up for our nation. If only we want to survive with our heads held high...then NOW is the time.