Cricket and India!!!

Amidst the chaos, or the web that has been created by the Cricket World Cup 2011, lives a mind that thinks only cricket, lives a heart that feels only for cricket, lives a being who talks only cricket. As the World Cup encounters reach their final stages, the matches seem to get tense, intense!!


There lives a person who has shutdown all the other activities, but watching cricket, a person who seems to be in a trance, in a different world, in a different era where its only cricket, where God is in a tangible form, Sachin Tendulkar! 


There lives a person who moves out of his office because there is an important encounter lined up. There lives a person who walks out of college bunking classes because he wants to have bits and pieces of pre-match discussions by IIM Ahmedabad pass out, Harsha Bhogle and other cricket legends.


Today, I talk about a nation, which has upstaged themselves to let cricket take the centrestage in their lives. A nation which time and again, has been quoted as best audience of the world.


Today, I talk about a nation, which refuses to be unglued from their television sets even when their team is virtually out of the competition.


Today, I talk about a nation which celebrates the success of other teams when the home team gets knocked out.


Today, I talk about India. Today, I talk about Indians, about every common man who has a corner reserved for the sport, who is ready to let rifts infuse in family but won't hear a word against the cricketing demigods. Today, I talk about every Indian fan who waits for Tendulkar's 100th ton, every Indian fan who has lived to the reputation of being one.


Today, I talk about that lost mind, heart, being and person who has made cricket in this part of the world tense, intense, divine!!


Don't know which sub-continent nation (India/Sri Lanka) takes away the cup but surely, they have taken away hearts, and dealt with heartbeats!! *sigh*

Give me some sunshine!!

I woke up late today, probably 3 hours late than usual. I had the holiday feel right from the moment I woke up. As I made efforts to pull myself out of my bed, I could hear the sound made by the tiny raindrops when they fall over tree leaves. It was beautiful, it was music!

I got out of my bed and carrying a leisure walk made my way into the balcony. It was raining and was raining heavily. I got to know it had been raining since night. Thankfully, it was a holiday.

It was cloudy. A 5-6 year old would have been in doubt whether he/she has got up in the morning or evening.

It was dark.

I kept watching the rain, hoping it to end. Hours passed by.

Nearby our society was a college which was supposedly having a fest next week. While it was raining, I could see some kids practicing for some competition unperturbed by the rain. They were recording the scenes performed, may be they were making a movie. What struck me was the zeal they had, the perseverance they exuded. Because of the rain, they were not getting the perfect shots, they were being thwarted in their progress, but they kept coming back at the rain stronger and harder. And though slowly, kept moving. 

Unlike me, they weren't saying, "Give me some sunshine".

Later, the rain stopped, and as I got back inside, I better understood why I saw those kids. Probably, it was time for me to learn a lesson in my journey.

Because of the rain, I did not to do what I could have done. 

If wishes were money, I would have been a millionaire. However, that rain brought about a change in me, a change in approach, a change in living and a change in thinking.

Sunshine would never happen, unless you bear the brunt of healing yourself in the rain (read, storm).

Krish, Kanika, define meanings!!

Being a small kid, he was not used to hearing wisdom, he used to switch from one thing to the other swiftly.In essence, he was like every other small kid of his age, a normal boy. He would not like the notion of going to school everyday. While writing letters of English alphabets, he would make at least one which would be distorted in form. He would watch cartoons and laugh out loud. Till then, he did not know the technicalities of life, his happiness knew no reasons, his smile was not a slave to some success. Krish, as his parents called him.

Krish only had one friend, a friend with whom he used to go to school everyday, a friend who would come to play with Krish everyday, a friend with whom Krish watched movies beyond count, a friend who would fight yet fall in friendship with Krish, time and again. Kanika, Krish's only friend.

Being 7 years old, there wasn't much that they had to think about. Their relentless search for pursuit of happiness was limited to a lost toy. Their perseverance and tenacious efforts were limited only to finding a way out when they broke something. Clinched fists were the only expressions of anger.

Ever since their existence on planet, they only knew each other when they heard of friendship. They unknowingly considered falling in friendship, better. They would watch movies together, they would go to market together with parents, they would go to fairs. They would fight bitterly, would not talk, yet peep from the window to see if the other was sad. They would enjoy the rain spilling water, and they would crawl in the mud and share the scold, Together!!!!

One day, when Krish and Kanika were intensely involved in a video game, came a news, Kanika's father got posted in a different city, and she had to move away, Forever!!

They separated there after, their everyday meetings gradually came to halt, their was no one to watch movies, play video games and enjoy rain with them. 

A heart break?

Destiny?

Rule of Life?

Past and Parcel of a journey?

Whatever it was, Krish and Kanika defied it all, All!!

Though they lost touch, yet they would call each other once in a while and explain all that they experienced and underwent. When their hearts became full, they still found solace in the long lasting friend. They would keep e-mailing each other. They never asked about the well being of each other, they always knew how the other one was. They were, perhaps, connected by heart.

They learnt Life, the hard way, and chose to not get bogged down by it. They stood out and spread a few very important messages, which if incorporated in life makes it no less than a paradise.

1. If kids can give a befitting reply to circumstances, then, we all can!!

2. Enough of falling in love, this time, Fall in friendship!!

3. Live life, the easier way, Krish and Kanika's way!!

4. Define meanings yourself, Life's easy!!

versatility?? was it??

Years have passed since then, and I also have grown up and matured. I now better understand things and phenomenon. They, my classmates, my friends used to compliment me then. Now I understand, in  a broader sense, those were not compliments. Though, they used to tell me what they perceived then. After all, they weren't very mature either.  

I would be studying, and suddenly would walk up and move to the park in front of my place and go out to play. No rhyme, no reason.

I would be watching TV, and the very next moment wouldn't like pursuing the same course of action. I would be preparing for my Science exam, and would leave that to do Math problems.

No rhyme, no reason.

Different I was, or as they said. 

Quite often, I did things without rhyme, I did them because I felt like doing them, without allowing my conscience to come into picture. I did them just because by heart I was attracted to them. I did not care if they were right or wrong, I did not bother even afterwards.

I believe all of us take certain decisions which are beyond the boundaries of interrogation of our own. Quite clearly, these decisions or actions form a very small part of our lives, otherwise, we would not have taken so many such decisions.

In school, I would often receive pleasing compliments.Some would call me a multitasker, some would call me versatile. All because I would do things which were beyond the bounds of sanity yet not insane. All because I would do things that involved no sense of right and wrong, yet didn't appear wrong.

As the tide of time whirled the pages of book of my life, I realized that I was far away from versatility, far away from multitasking. I have been living in a misconception for quite a while now. And as I realized this, I wished had it not happened. I wished to be immature, to be still learning to walk. I wished if I were a kid, still.

But now I do realize, that this is bygone, and

I am not versatile, I am just volatile......

The feeling that was.....

A feeling that refuses to die out, a feeling of excitement mixed with fear and failure and much more that lie beyond the periphery of explanation. A feeling that you have just before the outcome of an event, just before the result of your work, a work that you have been pursuing for so long that it has become a part of you now, a work that you have given your heart and soul to.

It was one of those days; I was waiting for the result of something very important that I had undertook; something for which I knew no half measures. I was waiting for that day for quite some time now.

The result was about to come. I could feel my heartbeat now, it was scary. I could actually feel it pumping blood to the whole body. My ears were starting to get a bit warm, which often produces a feeling so uneasy that I begin to get irritated to death, for no reason. I felt like running a lil so that I could calm myself down. I was trying to blurt out certain things, say everything, so anything that would placate me, pacify me.

I went to the idol of Gods put up in a lil temple like structure nearby, prayed to him, asked him to give me what I deserve, no, what I desire, no, what I deserve, Ahh, I was too nervous, too scared perhaps, I could feel, I was panicking. The result was going to be out in a few minutes, and those few minute passed away with equivalence to years.

Well, whatever the result was, I realized something very important. After the results were announced, I no longer had that panicking feeling, that anxiety, that excitement mixed with tension and fear. I felt detached with what I had been pursuing for so long, I felt betrayed, I felt cheated, deceived and what not. 

I realized the journey to the destination had unknowingly become so important. I learnt that it is not always the end result that matters; there are more important things in life, things that are priceless, things that are implicit, and things that prove their worth the most when they are gone.