Independence Day

Aug 15th - Today is the Indian Independence Day. When I was a kid, Independence day made me happy as we get a holiday and even if we go to school there is this excitement about flag hoisting and receiving chocolates. Other than that, Independence or for that matter any National holiday never made any difference to me. And I ask why should it make any difference? And I am pretty sure many of you agree with me even though you may not say it loud.

I was always intrigued by the line - "I love my country". When people say it, do they really mean it? And what does it mean when you say "Happy Independence Day". How is Aug 15th different from Aug 14th or 16th or for that matter any other day in a calendar year except that we get a holiday? And this year Aug 15th falls on a Sunday and I am sure many people who say 'Happy Independence Day' are not so happy about it as they miss a holiday. And on top of that some of them may need to go to office on Sunday just to hoist a flag adding to the unhappiness of missing a holiday. So, what does 'Happy Independence Day' mean? Why is someone happy about it? What difference did it make being free from British rule? We still follow British education system. We still follow British Parliamentary system. We Indians treat Cricket (which again invented by Britishers) as the game of the nation leaving aside our own National game 'Hockey'. And when it comes to Soccer, we religiously follow English Premier League and don't even care about our own soccer team. And above all we use the name 'India' which was given by Britishers. So, what difference did it make being free from Britishers?

Coming to my initial question, when someone says "I love my country" - Do they really mean it? If so, what's the meaning of it? A country is an abstract thing which cannot be defined. History says that India itself was not one country but a group of different countries that were fighting against each other. And then it became one country to fight against Britishers and then again it was separated into two different countries which are being considered rivals till date. So, I am not the one who is deciding what I should love but I am being told that I should love something just because some politicians up there decided that this is my country. And tomorrow if they divide this country, Should I limit my love based on the boundaries created by some politicians? I don't think it makes much sense.

A country is nothing but a group of people. And so is your neighboring country and for that matter any country in the world. We all share a planet and our own mother earth does not differentiate between countries and does not care about the boundaries set by a few people. As we move towards globalization, we need to learn and understand the fact that every war in history of mankind was an attempt to conquer these imaginary boundaries and once you start limiting yourself to these boundaries there will always be conflicts and wars. We should try to rise above these boundaries and above these limitations that were set and were imbibed into us right from our school days. We always encourage people to say that - "Before I belong to a state, I am an Indian". I say - Why can't we encourage the fact that we all belong to single entity - Mother Earth before we are recognized as the citizen of some country.

Loving your mother, loving your neighbors, loving the place where you were born, loving the place where you live is important. It helps you to strive for the development of the surroundings where you live. Love your parents. Love your soldiers who are fighting for you to protect your home. Love your farmers who provide food to you. Love your each and everyone who made your life easier. Love your country. There is nothing wrong in it. But the love for your country or for that matter the love for anything should not make you develop hatred towards others. Try to love people irrespective of which part of the earth they come from. Remember that the thing you call "country" is just defined by a few boundaries and your love can have no boundaries. Celebrate the Independence of fellow human beings from slavery. Always remember before you are a citizen of a country, first you are a human being.

I wish everyone who is celebrating the victory over tyranny, oppression and slavery a Happy Independence Day.

-Venks

Why English Fails Tendulkar?

Last month, when Sachin Tendulkar blitzed through to his 200 in the Gwalior ODI against a clueless South African side, he completed a linguistic process that was set off in another millennium.

In 1988, Tendulkar was 15 years old, and had scored 326 in the Lord Harris Shield, an inter-schools event. When the stumps were drawn for the day, the first words the English-speaking Republic of India came up to describe him with were, Little Master.

Some 22 years of sustained batsmanship later, and with the ongoing IPL tournament only adding more feathers to an already ornate cap, the torrent of adulatory adjectives has run dry of descriptive energy. There are, after all, only so many synonyms for excellence.

The last definitive word used to describe Tendulkar after his 200 knock in the Gwalior ODI was neither an adjectival phrase nor even a nominal superlative. Tendulkar's genius had transported him to the realm of the inexplicable. He had turned God. Now you see it. You score enough runs and you just stop being human.

In fact, the day after his innings, one newspaper carried a large, frontpage picture of Tendulkar, bat in hand and looking at the heavens either in acknowledgement or identification, with just 'God' written across the photograph. Tendulkar had become the inexplicable.

True, during the Australian tour of India in early 1998, a series in which Tendulkar scored three consecutive centuries, he was already seen as an incarnation, prompting Mathew Hayden to say in all seriousness: "I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests." Evidently, a Christian had become a convert.

Since then, just about every word and phrase in the book for greatness have been tried on Tendulkar and have been found wanting: prodigy, master, master-blaster, genius, super, perfect, terrific, consummate, fantastic, incomparable, saviour, phenomenon, historic, legendary, maximum-man, titanic, humongous, tremendous, incomparable, and immortal. All said; yet, the man is not done. The essence of Tendulkar as a hero remains elusive.

Clearly, we identify Tendulkar with our deep-felt need for a totally desi hero: a small-built Indian with crinkly hair and a snub nose who is happily married, wears T-shirt and drinks Boost. Our own kind of Terminator, the guy who makes us feel OK to be Indian despite frequent bouts of suspicion to the contrary. Not the foreign hulk with 8-pack-abs and 18-inch-biceps, who uses four-letter words and is good at kissing and shooting in the same breath. It is a charmingly indigenous, middle-class notion. Tendulkar himself buys into it big time. He may make close to Rs 120 crore a year in emoluments, but conducts himself with the unassuming grace of a well-brought-up bank officer.

That is why, unlike others, when Tendulkar walks out to the middle, a visored warrior, a ragged nation rises to a man in appeal and hope. Our identification with the hero is complete.

India may lose a match; but if Tendulkar has done well for himself, we could live with the bad news. Tendulkar's art liberates us from shackles of the commonplace. In gratitude, as becomes a naturally garrulous people, we shower him with adjectives. Just as it is normal in the Hindu tradition to praise a deity in a thousand names.

Tendulkar, meanwhile, has evolved from an adjective or a heroic noun to a purer form of being: an act. Words tend to fail where sensations that a verb evokes predominate. Which is why next time Tendulkar plays the big innings, it might be a good idea for us to fall silent, and just meditate on the ball rise and rise towards the heavens.

The above article was written by C P Surendran on Mar 29, 2010 for Times of India.

The IPL and Blah blah blah...

The third season of IPL starts off with much anticipated hype and promises to create rivalry among the otherwise united states of India which exist together in harmony and peace just like the different political parties that rule them. And this time the IPL returns to its homeland carrying with it a lot of controversies and issues - the security of the players being the most discussed one. I don't want to go into details of all those controversies as they were discussed, debated and forgotten by everyone. And again for the umpteenth time, it opened up a stream of debates whether this format is good for the players or not. I don't want to discuss that either because the players themselves don't have any issues as they are getting loads of money and I don't have any issue as I am getting loads of entertainment. Let us leave that discussion to the age old people who love classic cricket and those who really care for the game. All we people in India need is entertainment. Period.

So, what do I want to talk about? Nothing concrete. Just Blah.. Blah.. Blah. Throw in some flat pitches, Rope in stars from Bollywood, Attract some Hi-Fi players and here is the future of Indian Cricket right before you providing non-stop entertainment for everyone. Players are happy, BCCI is happy, Commentators are happy (they get to throw some jargon like DLF Maximum, Citi Moment of Success, Karbon Kamal kaa Catch etc in their otherwise boring commentary) and the viewers are happy. Why worry about players’ fitness when each player earns more money by playing just 14 matches than all the matches combined in one year? Why worry about the hectic schedule when more matches can generate more money? Why worry about the charm of the age old classic cricket when Bollywood and Corporate companies can provide the charm that the game is losing? Why worry about future of Test Cricket or for that matter future of Cricket itself when so many are happy and busy counting their money?

Let's hail the money spinner of our times. Let's hail the ultimate entertainment engine. Let's hail the Indian Premier League.

BTW, I could not resist this piece from one of the articles in Cricinfo. This article was written after the match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi DareDevils.

"Gambhir pointed out how crucial the home fans would be for his team tonight, even going as far as to say they would be the 12th man, but the crowd's reaction to each run Tendulkar gathered made it sound more like Dadar than Delhi. When Tendulkar clipped three runs, collecting the ball from outside off and working those wrists, the fans showed their appreciation. When he walked down the track and put Farveez Maharoof away for four, they went wild. And when Tendulkar steered a lovely four, opening his hands and placing it past the infield, well that was just what you'd expect from fans of this man. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, had spoken before the first season of how he had envisioned city-based loyalties. That's not going to happen anywhere in India when Tendulkar is batting."

And it goes without saying that I support Mumbai Indians. Let the fun begin.

- Venks

What's the Point ?

The difference between work and hard work is that work is what you do to achieve something and hard work is when you don’t enjoy the process. My question is - What's the point in working or trying to achieve something if you don’t enjoy the process of doing it?

Let me tell you a story...

I like travelling. More than a hobby, it's my passion. Recently I went to visit San Francisco. On the day of my traveling, my flight got cancelled. I called my airlines and they told me that they don't have any flight to take me to my destination for another two days. I cancelled my booking, booked another flight from Charlotte on the same day and drove down to Charlotte (which is like 150 miles from my place). When I reached Charlotte, I found that my flight got delayed. And because of that I missed my connection flight in Atlanta. To add to my frustration, there was no flight available to San Francisco till the next day evening. So, I had to wait for 24 hours in Atlanta cribbing, cursing and blaming the airlines, weather and everyone responsible for this mess. After 24 hours when I got a chance to fly, my flight again got delayed.

Finally when I reached San Francisco, I was not happy. Somehow I felt that my vacation has been deliberately ruined by someone though its no fault of anyone. I went around and visited all the places I wanted to. But still in the back of my mind, I had that feeling that this did not go well.

And within 48 hours I am back in the airport for my return journey. As if someone did some black magic on me, my flight from San Francisco got delayed and I missed my connecting flight in Dallas. By this time, I was really tired and completely devastated. And finally when I reached home in the evening, I was almost in tears. My trip was extended from three days to four days and I had to take a leave for no reason. I spent more time in airport or flights than where I wanted to spend - San Francisco.

After a few days when I was going through the pictures of my vacation to San Francisco, I started thinking of what went wrong and how I could have made it better. Every difficulty provides an opportunity. Many of us tend to forget it or chose to ignore it. Whenever we face something which we cannot handle, we just feel helpless. We tend to go into depression. We blame ourselves and others even though none of them or us has anything to do with it. Instead of focusing on what we cannot handle, if we can try to focus on how we can make something out of it, we can always find means and ways to get over with the impossible situation we are in. Always remember - Every difficulty provides an opportunity and there is no exception to this rule.

What I should have done? Instead of whining, cribbing and blaming myself, others and everyone I could have gone out and explored what Atlanta or Dallas has to offer. I like traveling. I like visiting new places. When I had the opportunity to explore Dallas or Atlanta which I have never visited, I was sitting in the airport depressed and dejected. Why? One - I completely forgot that every difficulty provides an opportunity. Two - My focus was completely on San Francisco. I was thinking of ways to go to San Francisco and I ignored the opportunities given to me.

Opportunities arise if you stop, look around and think instead of simply focusing only on the goal. You should be flexible enough to understand that it is OK to fail, It is OK if you cannot able to reach your goal. It is OK if you are being delayed or being given hard time in reaching your destination. I know a lot of people who work long hours, day and night. They want to earn money so that they can be happy or keep their family happy. But, what's the point if you don't take some time for your family or your well wishers or at least for yourself for whom you are earning money? What's the point in rushing through the herd if you cannot wait for your friends or family to catch up with you? What's the point in focusing on something when you can find better ways if only you can stop and look around you?

You should have a goal in life. It helps you in organize your life. It gives you a sense of direction. Without a goal, I would not know where to go or which flight to catch. It's very important to have a goal. But, my point here is - Never focus on something so much so that you miss some precious things on your way. Nothing is more worth than taking a break, having a sip of coffee and spending some time for yourself. Always remember - Every difficulty provides an opportunity. Never let your goal or destination make you ignore those opportunities or make you miss those small moments of happiness.

As someone aptly said - There’s no such thing as achievement for the simple reason that as soon as you achieve it, its boring. It’s the run towards it is what is exciting.

Cheers,

Venky

The Time froze for One man

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had a Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

Taken from BBC Website. Loved this comment

The Final Flourish that will not end

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - 'The Master Blaster' , 'The God of Cricket' - All superlatives fail before this man's class.

The following article is taken from http://www.cricbuzz.com/ by Saurabh Somani. I can't say anything better than this.

21st May 1997: A date that has annoyed, irritated or in some cases tormented many a cricket fan. It was on this day that Saeed Anwar broke Viv Richards' record for the highest ever score in a One Day International. The record was thus passed on from a legend of the game to a player who was merely good, but by no stretch extraordinary - Anwar averaged 37.62 against the major nations in ODIs, and away from home his average shrank to 26.70. Then last year, another name joined Anwar at the top of the list: Charles Coventry. Even after he scored 194 not out, a lot of people in a lot of cricketing discussions over lots of beers in lots of pubs, would still be asking: Charles who?

The anomaly at the top of the record charts was begging to be corrected. As my colleague Srivathsa said, he was waiting for this day since that fateful May night almost 13 years ago. He was not alone. There were thousands - millions probably - who felt that the name that belonged at the top of the table was that of Sachin Tendulkar. In what is proving to be a golden twilight of his career, Tendulkar has systematically gone about checking all the un-checked boxes in his cricketing CV. One important one was ticked when he led a mammoth fourth innings chase against England at the same ground that he had failed to complete the job against Pakistan in 1999. Another was accomplished today, with the world's highest ODI score and first ODI double-century. No other name seemed to have belonged so naturally at the top of the list than his.

Until today, Tendulkar had seemed like the logical successor to Viv Richards as the greatest ODI batsman of his generation. Not anymore. He is now undoubtedly, the greatest ODI batsman ever. He has made the great Viv seem like a mere prelude to the real thing.

From the moment he came out to bat and stroked his first boundary to the moment when he raised his arms in triumph, in release, in acknowledgment - he looked like he was batting in a different zone. This is supposed to be a man on his last cricketing legs, but he didn't use a runner for a single minute of his innings and came out to field from the first ball to boot! With Sachin Tendulkar though, what is supposed to be and what is, don't always match.

One man is not supposed to carry the hopes of a nation of a billion every time he walks out to bat. But he does.

One man is not supposed to be the barometer of a country's happiness - he is being thrust with an impossible responsibility. But he is.

A man who makes his debut as an impressionable, precocious 16 year old is not supposed to last for 20 years as an international celebrity and not have any outrageous scandals associated with him.

One man isn't supposed to display a superhuman quality of being human, if he has been granted the superhuman gifts that Sachin Tendulkar has. But he remains so.

A man is supposed to be mortal, to be granted the allowance for errors. But he isn't.

A man is not supposed to retain the same enthusiasm for a sport across more than 20 years, having spent the majority of those years under public scrutiny like no other. But he has.

I thought I had expended all possible superlatives for Sachin Tendulkar, when he completed twenty years in international cricket and I wrote this piece. I forgot, for a moment, that with Sachin Tendulkar superlatives don't ever exhaust themselves. There might come a day when Roget's Thesaurus will fail to find adequate words to describe the man, but he himself will not fail.

As he raised his arms in triumph, a country pumped its collective fist and let out a collective primeval roar. The relief, the sense of accomplishment, and the satisfaction at getting to the landmark was all the more keenly felt because for a long time now, there has been only one man who seemed capable of breaching the 200-run mark in an ODI. Sehwag has also threatened to do that, but Sehwag has never come as close as Sachin has. He made 186 not out against New Zealand at Hyderabad, but that was in an era when 300 was an almost certainly winning score. He then hit 163 not out against New Zealand a year ago, but retired with cramps. And then of course there was that heart-breaking 175 against the Aussies in November last year. Many of us feared that his best shot at the record was gone with the end of that innings. When we, his fans, could not pick ourselves up after that shattering loss, how would he manage to do so?

However, while that loss might have broken lesser men, it seemed to spur Sachin Tendulkar on towards ensuring that such heart-break was never to be experienced again. The next time he came so close, there would be no denying him. And so he battled on. He had hit the ball with unbelievable power, and his hands must have been tiring. He had placed the ball with unbelievable dexterity, and his inventiveness must have been ebbing. He had run every single run with unwavering commitment as hard as he could - his partners' and his own - and his legs must have been sending urgent messages to his brain to let up. But nothing was going to sway him today. There had been too many golden moments snatched from him at the last moment. This one was going to be had.

The final flourish of a golden career is going considerably better than the purple patches of most other batsmen's careers. Two check-boxes remain to be ticked - a Test triple century beckons, but more than that, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will want to keep his date with destiny on April 2nd 2011 in Mumbai.

Even if those landmarks are not achieved though, India will remain happy. He doesn't require much effort to keep India happy - all he has to do is get hold of a bat and stride out to the middle. And so, years from now, when he has retired, we will be fondly paraphrasing Robert Browning to the next generation and the next: Sachin Tendulkar was in his batting gear and all was right with India.

Aamchi Mumbai...

Sachin Tendulkar, Mukesh Ambani, Shahrukh Khan and for that matter many people in Mumbai - Everyone has something in common. Everyone faced the heat and some still facing the heat because they believed in something. What did they believe? It does not matter or may be it matters but everyone in India has a right to give their opinion on what they believe. But the rules are different in Bombay... Ooops Mumbai.

I am neither a celebrity nor a politician. I don't even have much idea about the history of Maharashtra or Mumbai. I am just another common man from India. But, what I know and what I believe is that India is a sovereign country and everyone in this country has every right to live, to earn their bread and butter, to travel and to settle in any part of the country provided they accept, follow and respect the laws, rules and regulations of the Constitution of India. So, What's the story behind this Mumbai and it's self proclaimed guards called 'The Sena'? What do Sena or Thackeray need? The problem lies not only in "What" they need but also "Why" they need it. And the 'Why' is always more important in the process than the 'what'. But unfortunately everyone focuses on 'what' than the 'why'. Most of them don't like what they need and they start talking about how ignorant are these orthodox fanatics in this globalized world which in turn make things complicated and at the end of the day no one remembers the 'why' behind this foolishness.

The first and foremost rule in politics is that there are no free lunches. Everything happens for a reason and every reason has a strong motive supporting it. It does not matter whether the motive is good or bad. In fact there is nothing like good or bad because in the end it's just a battle for survival. So Shiv Sena, Congress, BJP or for that matter every political party needs something to hang on to for their survival. It does not matter whether that 'something' is good for society or not as long as it hits a chord with the sentiment of the people. And that sentiment can be anything - Caste, Religion, Region, Language and in some cases the absolute need for improvement. It can be anything - anything that helps a political party in creating a unique identity and eventually which helps them in getting to power. It does not mean that the political parties never do any good to the society. They have to do some good at least to some sections of the society. Otherwise they cannot survive. Remember, there are no free lunches.

In case of Shiv Sena the 'something' is Marathi or Maharashtra. The issue gets highlighted when that 'something' involves the nation's financial hub. The Sena argues that Mumbai belongs to Maharashtra. Fair enough. The city is located in the state of Maharashtra and as said earlier everyone has a right to give their opinion. No one can deny the right of Maharashtra over Mumbai. But the problem arises when they say that Mumbai belongs ONLY to Maharashtra. And the problem becomes an issue when they threaten to bring down anyone who try to oppose them in public as is the case with Sachin, Ambanis, SRK etc. While Sena has a right to say it's opinion, it does not have any right to enforce its opinion on everyone.

Mumbai is screwed because of many reasons and one of them is the lack of infrastructure to support the exponential growth of the city. The residents of Mumbai may be suffering because of the insurge of huge population into the city. In stead of fighting against the 'problem', political parties like 'The Sena' are trying to take advantage of the 'Sentiment' or 'Suffering' of the poeple. Every problem has a solution and blaming others just for the sake of political power is definitely not a part of it. Instead of focusing on the issues at hand, it is utter foolishness to blame it on the people who come to Mumbai in search of bread and butter. And the genuine problem is being side tracked with some foolish acts like raising slogans proclaiming that Mumbai does not belong to India and opposing anyone who does not agree.

If you think that the jobs are being taken away from the local people, try to realize that the jobs in the first place were created by many who came in search of livelihood to Mumbai. If you think the history or culture of Marathi or Maharashtra is being diluted by the outsiders, try to understand that it's because of so many people that the history of Maharashtra is known to many across the world. If you think that the infrastructure of the city cannot support exponential growth of the population, try to realize that given the income Mumbai generates the infrastructure CAN be developed to meet the needs of the people if government works on it honestly.

We are all united into one country because we all opted to come together to fight for a cause. We share a history together. We share the spirit of Unity in diversity and what's a better example than Mumbai to show that spirit to the world. Let's not ruin it. It's Aamchi Mumbai and it is for all the people living in our country. And I sincerly thank and admire everyone who holds up this true spirit.

Below is an excellent article in Indian Express which I want to share with you all. Thanks Samta for sharing this.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fauji-vs-sena/575191/0

-Venks