Gandhi, Godse, Hitler

Very often do I have people asking me the question. Why do I admire/appreciate/whatever Hitler? Don’t I agree with the fact that he was a mass murdered and all that. In many words and at various times, I have tried and explain this answer. Yet, more or less, my words fail me when it comes to expressing it. One (of the few ) good things you can find about him is, The Revolution. He was the one, who came who changed, the man of action. One who had ideas and had the guts and ability to steer the course of an entire nation, and almost the whole world.

The second ques, which might arise in the mind of anyone reading this title is, Gandhi & Hitler, def can be used in close proximity, but how does Godse get the honour of being his name taken in such esteemed company. Thats where my point tries to sneak through in midst of these names. Godse, if nothing, is an interesting character in Indian history. There have always been assassins through the history of world. Even India has had its share of assassins, so nothing new in that activity. Yet,

This was the man who killed Gandhi, who killed Mahatma, who killed the biggest apostle of peace, who killed a bapu of a nation, who killed one of the most famous person in human history  and (arguably) most famous Indian ever. He, as an individual, should have been absolutely destroyed in the modern history, as it was written by the followers/fans of the Mahatma.

All this said and done, we never find Godse’s name maligned. We never hear accounts of him being a beastly human with more penchant for blood than feelings. Facts are facts which can’t be changed much, but folk lore or the stories are the part which can be fabricated anytime by anyone, and made to look real by the situations, we have seen enough examples of that. This, very fact combined with the statement of Godse, and whatever I have read of him on net and books, makes me put Godse on the same pedestal as Gandhi and Hitler, in the same sense that I admire history.

They were all revolutionaries, they had some (misguided at times?) set of rules, they had some principles, they thought about things and executed what they wanted to, in the fashion they wanted to. What makes them all different from simple, men of actions, is the effect on society. Agreed, Godse wouldnt stand anywhere near the two, and even if he hadn’t, the old man would have died in a few years if not months, by himself (or the self induced fasts). But, his revolution lay not in, ridding India of Gandhi, which was his purpose. Rather, it can be more understood, as a man standing against the Mahatma.

Bose vs Them

Image via Wikipedia

Netaji shall always stay  one of the most important and respected figure in Indian National movement, looking through the annals of Indian National movement, he seems to be the only one among the major leaders, who seems to have no seemingly obvious flaws. Nehru is criticized in all circles in India, Gandhi might have been the Numero Uno pre-independence, yet you shall find Gandhi bashers in every corner of India (I am not talking about pro-Gandhi people, as they were and would always be present in large masses everywhere). Netaji, who was at a particular time (perhaps?) more influential than Gandhi (1938-39). But 70 years from that time, and many decades after his supposed death Netaji although popular among Indians by the virtue of his name and his war cries like “Delhi Chalo”, “Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi dunga”. He shall always be considered a national hero, but leitmotif of the pages of history have been the question of his death(about which nothing can be done) and the supposed ignorance or negelect meted out to him.

The first part of this riddle, the question of life and death, which in itself is a very interesting question and a question of (perhaps?) national importance. Yet by all senses, the question might have lived out its time. But, the more important question could be the supposed neglect of Netaji, the way he has remained only a name in the history books unlike Gandhis and Nehrus who can be seen as landmarks all over the nation. The question of his death, at best can be termed as a bit of trivia, as the question whether a man died or not on a particular date can only be of certain level of importance to a nation of a billion. The question, whether a certain leader has been amply respected or not, has he been given his proper due or not, is one which can be perceived as one national importance and thats what I shall try to pursue in the next paragraph or two (which is the max such a platform can allow me).

The powers at the centre is censured time and again for neglecting his contribution and name (and perhaps rightfully so). This might seem an act of disrespect to the ‘bharat mata ka veer putra’. There certainly could have been more recognition for the man. But, looking at it all from a broader (and different) perspective might/should not arise such issues in the mind of people. Even if we emulate the views/doctrines of the Great man himself, which if it has to be described in one word, can be called Realpolitik, which in lay man terms can be defined as bit of ‘opportunism’. One of the comment he made was, if he had to shake hands with the devil for India’s independence he would do that. Hence if we look at him taking his own ideas as the backdrop, it can be seen (to an extent) to be consistent with his doctrines. It’s the opportunism/realpolitik which has kept him away from the well deserved honour. The Gandhi/Nehru ideology has been the winner in the struggle among the Freedom Fighters, and hence Subhas has more or less remained in silent pages of history.

Although this might seem wrong to some people, but then History has never gone by right or wrong, it has always been written by the winners, and with valid reasons. This can even be related to Survival of Fittest, ones who win have the right to do things their way, because its been their method which was more successful hence giving them more of an option of surviving. Hence, Netaji great as he might have been, lost somewhere in the race and since politics is always about masses and voices, and dead men dont posses any voices, so by any kind of rule/system, they are bound to receive less attention and importance than the ones who survive.

Thats why, I think its time, we leave the past and its legacy and start living with the system which has been in place, because it is there only after passing some tests. Even if, we ignore the dying part, saying Gandhi also died, yet his legacy remains strong as ever. Thats where we can find the fault in Netaji for not being able to set up a legacy or a support cast (read : Nehru) which could have carried his name ahead. After all it was the game of politics they were all playing and like any other thing in the world, some win, some lose!

Preemptive Planning

Local authorities and the govt are perhaps two of the most cursed things in India, after our very own legendary Ravindra Jadeja. Each and everyday, we end up cursing some or the other thing related to the administration, ranging from unfilled potholes or the roads which havnt been refurbished after the extended spell of monsoon that the city enjoyed. Yet, since the time I have come to Hyderabad, the HUDA (or whoever is the concerned authority) if it hasnt managed to be the best local development authority, then I would surely rank it above many places I have been to till date.

The whole life, according to me is nothing but a matter of balance, and it is in maintaining this balance that HUDA has more or less succeeded in the, almost 5.5 years I have spent in the city of Nizams. Sure, we shall always have our problems, the roads in old city will always be crowded and congested. The diversions in Hitech City, shall always be hijacked by a group of people, unable to quench their thirst of spending more hours working, taking (supposedly) illeagl shortcuts to reach office early. Still, with such problems which every major establishment shall face with the increase in population, specially the IT inspired population explosion that Hyderabad has experience in past few years.

Such a explosion is bound to fail all the existing systems of a city, yet somehow Hyderabad, much to its credit hasnt yet choked fully. You can still see open spaces, you can still find empty tracts of road, you can still travel 8-9 kms in 20 mins or so. Hyd, as I said, has been about maintaining balance, it hasn’t gone the Mumbai, Bangalore way and as a result making people spend major part of their days on road. Neither has it been lucky like Noida and specially Greater Noida, with having lots of space to extend and huge amounts of capital investment to support the impending infrastructure development. Greater Noida, when inhabited shall be a city to marvel, yet as of now, it just seems a lot of money invested to build lots of houses and lots of good roads, with no people to use them.

One major part of development of Hyd, since the time I have come here is the preemptive planning, a point, which, Not many planners around the country are taking into account. I still remember, once upon a time, the Nagarjuna Circle, used to be one of the busiest places in hyderabad, and was touted (perhaps misgivingly) as one of the busiest circles in Asia. Yet, just the construction of a simple flyover at the place, has decreased that problem by orders of magnitude. That was one example of taking action after encoutnering the problem, a strategy missing in almost all cities, where things are mostly allowed to Let It Be. Chandrababu Naidu, shall be thanked for inculcating a flyover culture in Hyderabad. After the construction of this flyover, the PVNR Express Way was also more of example of acting at the problem. The examples of preemptive planning are the new flyovers which have come up/are coming up in Hitech City and near Gachibowli (respectively). Agreed, the traffic at the Cyber Towers circle has increased exponentially in the last few years. But in no situation had the problem exaggerated to the extents of needing a new flyover. Similarly the situation at Gachibowli circle commanded even lesser attention than Cyber Towers, yet we do have a flyover construction in full force there as well, and, shall sooner than later, be welcomed by the sight of a new one. Yet, the most shocking part was, when I observed, what could only be the building blocks of new flyover near the Begumpet flyover.

I guess, for once we should thank the Authorities in Hyderabad, for trying to do their best in an endeavour to make the lives of us Hyderabadis simpler and more convinient.

Officially : Quarter Life Crisis’ed

I have very vibrant memories of times in our school/college when going through the pages of TOI, I would at times stumble upon an article talking about the problems that the young corporate India was facing. The term used in the papers was Quarter Life Crisis. To describe,what I could make out of the phenomenon (after reading such articles time and again) was the confusion that these people had, the lack of purpose, lack of direction and such things which were threatening to disrupt their mental balance.

Looking from the POV of a starry-eyed teenager or an unconcerned college student, these issues didn’t amount to much. It was quite hard to appreciate the feeling of emptiness/void being talked about in the articles. It always seemed quite weird to me that people having good pay packages and all the comforts in life, they could think of, would still be unsatisfied, could still be puzzled and muddled. Looking from the point of view, I had at that time, getting a job and earning handsomely could have been the simplest solution to life anyone could ask for. Yet, such is the rule of life, that when you find the key to the lock of happiness, somehow or the other, lock  changes and you are left flummoxed at some nook or corner of a road, which until now had seemed like heading in one direction with no seemingly visible obstructions or turnarounds.

Today, more than 1.5 years since I left the college and joined corporate culture, left right and center, I can see people going through the Quarter Life Crisis. Words like void and incompleteness which only graced the pages of science textbooks for all such science graduates, started becoming the words which describe the current status of their lives. It might be wrong to say that most of the people this age are looking for solutions and things to do, yet the fact remains, that some way or the other this is the time to THINK. Someone’s happy with a relation, some one else is all geared up to settle down and have a happily satisfied life, some are looking towards their job and making a glorious career out of it through their own efforts, some people after spending enough time in corporate world are looking to go for education, mostly an MBA or MS which would help further their career in the line of service they choose. Such people, who have chalked out a path in life for themselves can definitely be found around us.

Yet even with all this said and done and people having options and many of them even selecting them, there remains a large chunk of population,  torn between the issues which shall decide their life, someone’s torn between looking for (and hopefully finding) a gf (ignoring bf coz girls just supposedly don’t care that much) or else, working for and looking to develop a career, which can be a bit difficult if you give time for the activity of finding and maintaining a girl. Troubles in the task of finding a life or a better(?)/different career is compounded by the fact that S/W field is a very comfortable and (atleast for me) a well-paying option, which desists an individual from taking any sort of risks because it shall involve giving up a life which is good, comfortable, paying and respectable! Almost everything you could want from a job is provided by the field, yet leaving a blank/void somewhere somehow which makes you think again and again, more and more until you are irritated by the thinking and also as a result of all this thinking have exaggerated the pre-existing void in your life.

Asking for a solution to such a thing, is never going to be easy. Since a whole generation is suffering with the problem, you would be hard pressed to find people in your peer group, who can give u solutions, at best people around can be used as a sounding board, on which you can bounce your own ideas and think for their views and opinions, but its going to be hard finding help more than that. It’s hard to say what path life takes in such cases, someone more experienced in this situation can help people out. But, each and every person having his/her own mindset/problems/talents/desires leads to the fact that no one can understand the issues like you do, and the things they recommend could be wrong in your context. I can’t say, which way this ends, or rather which way it shall chalk out for me, but I guess I shall be looking forward to it,because after all

Jeena isi ka naam hai

Related Articles

• Quarter-life crisis? Thoughts on turning 25. (trueslant.com)
• Quarter-Life Crisis Ahoy! (ask.metafilter.com)

Open Letter to Sun

Dear Mr. Sun,

At the onset I would like to thank you as a nation, as from time infinity (that is since India left the Antartic plate and crashed into the Asian plate), we have been very gratefully endowed by your sparkling rays which have been the constant source of energy and life for us. Unlike some of the countries in higher latitudes, we dont have months of night and neither do we have the inclement winters, and are allowed to live in a weather which wouldnt be termed gloomy.

Keeping in mind, all these points, there are somethings I wanted to discuss with you. Although, you are heartily welcome in our parts as and when you decide to shine upon us. Yet, as the adage goes Too much of anything is bad. As we keep moving to the southern parts of our country, your affinity also keeps increasing, and instead of 3 months in higher latitudes, and 7-8 months in northerm part of India, you keep increasing the months allotted to you.

All these years, circling around the earth (as we see it), you must have got to know humans quite closely, and humans as you might know, are rebellious creatures. No sooner do they get used to something, they rebel against the system. We living in Hyderabad, are quite used to bearing your brunt almost through the years. But, there are months in the Gregorian Calendar (mostly December and January) which are supposed to be free from your interference.

After waiting for the winters so long, we finally got something which resembled winter and you were neatly tucked behind a layer of clouds, giving us a nice charming comfortable feeling. Yet, true to your nature, you couldn’t stop showing your dominance and strength, and after a period of dormancy, you finally came up the cloud cover, with the usual dose of hot rays and skin burns (which is your primary weapon). Its only in light of the very recent events that I would sincerely like  you to

FUCK OFF!

I’ve had enough for you.

Thank You

Yours Sincerly
Himank Sharma
(Earth)

We are the champions

We have generally been a nation of mediocres with no special achievements to show for on an international arena. We might have given the world its 0 and the Kama Sutra  but that was in a time so prehistoric, that I dont even know what and who they were. Talking of recent achievements except a few Nobels by NRIs and a very rare Nobel once in ages could be the only thing we could talk of! In sports, too, nothing to boast of except may be the hockey prowess of people who arent even alive.

So now when the Indian team has become the No. 1 test playing team in the world. I guess its high time all of us take a pause and raise a toast to these bunch of individuals, who although may not be the best in the world, not even the best India has produced. They have gone and done what has never been done in around 80 years of Indian Cricket. For the first time, India is at the top somewhere (not even in things like Population, COrruption and Pollution are we No.1! how disheartening).

Most of the people around me have been brought up in the disappointing decades of 90s when overseas tours were synonymous with white washes. So coming to the naughties, its always been a great pleasure to get up at some odd hour, checking the score of a match being played in Australia or WI and to your surprise finding a score favourably loaded in India’s favour, which ofcourse over the time became more of a habit than a rare surprise as the later years of the decade started rolling over, and the ending of the decade being capped with gaining the Numero Uno status.

Indian team might not be the undisputed champion, they are not heads and shoulders above the opponents as WI or Aus used to be, but they have definitely been consistent and provided results and just for that, lets stop brooding over, if this team really deserves to be No. 1 or how long will we remain atop.

Instead let us all remember all those moments passed by, teary and jubilant, dominating and defiant,of Glory and of Disappointment which all brought us here, and raise a toast to the great Game of Cricket and the Team of ’09 which finally did it! Because thats what they deserve

Presribed Readings for the cricket fans:
Steps to the summit
It’s been a long Road

And the day…

…shall always be remembered with happiness, sadness, ecstasy, disapointment. Every person in India was glued to the tv screen or cricinfo if the Tv wasn’t available. It was a day when all the cricketing noobs around the world got a taste of Godness of a particular person, besides getting to know the fundes of Powerplay, free hit amongst others. It was a day when a mere mortal took it upon himself to perform a deed which even the Gods couldn’t think of. This was the day when this particular person transcended the boundaries which the Gods have defined for humans, a performance which would be marked as scintillating even by those who observe us from skies above. Had such a feat been accomplished in Mahabharata or Ramayana, the associated imagery by the authors would have been of Gods coming down to Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad and garlanding the master or showering him with flowers from the skies above.

20 years have passed, many moments, many memories have passed, there are matches which almost every fan has by heart. It all started with Karachi in 1989, when the world saw the youngster for the first time, there was that mastery in Old Trafford in 1990, Sydney 1992 (arguably his best innings), Hero Cup 1993 where he showed the first signs of his magical side, 1996 WC where he started to take serious strides towards becoming the best in business (which btw was the time I started watching cricket), 1998 Sharjah aka the time when we knew that we werent witnessing some ordinary mortal, instead it was the God of cricket who was charming us, Chennai ’99, the epitome of disappointment, 2003 WC, where he again stamped his authority on the spot of the Best, that 186 against the Kiwis in Hyd. Almost any other player would be content to have one such match associated with him like the 281 by Laxman or the Adelaide test which belonged to Dravid and yet this man has been doing it for the  past 20 years. He set a benchmark in 1998 and now 11 years later, he comes up with something which could be termed as spectacular if not better than that one.

Everybody knows that there have been 2 Sachins who have played international cricket, one who was a youngster back in 90s whose name was synonymous with terror for bowlers, Shane Warne, arguably the best spinner to have graced the game would definitely agree with that. His innings used to be flashy, commanding,  flamboyant, he was jumping out of crease, he was slapping the bowlers for sixes, the pulls that he played were audacious, the last thing on mind when playing a drive was whether its in air or not…

…

And then came the Tendulkar of 2000s, a guy who in his late 20s was supposedly the senior most member in the side, a guy who was held responsible for every defeat although similarly cheered for every victory. A guy who didn’t have the cushion of someone like Azhar who was his senior to fall back upon. One who had to effective instead of attractive, his injuries also playing a role in this transformation. The whole of India was flummoxed at this transformation, where was that cherubic boy we loved and adored, instead he was replaced by some sincere statesman of the game. We slowly got used to this new avatar. After all we Indians are used to listening stories of 9 avatars of Lord Vishnu, this God had took just a single new form. Slowly we begin to love him, because although the stepping out to spinners wouldn’t be there, but the gorgeous cover drives were still there with cheeky shots behind the wicket replacing those straight sixes and he was Great as ever and more effective than earlier, when there was always a risk factor associated with his innings. We started thinking its ok, we don’t miss the previous avatar that much now.

BUT, deep within our hearts there is always a collective desire to see him back in 90s mould. We always loved sights of him traumatizing the bowlers, him stepping out of the crease to play that shot straight over the bowler’s head or that pull which would deposit the ball on the roof of the stadium. Although admitting something like this would be a sin, but deep within our hearts and minds, the greed is still there, the lust factor always prevails, each time he comes to bat… there is a secret desire… a wish in our minds and a prayer on our lips that we will get to see the first avatar of the God today and not the latest one.

5th Novemeber 2009 was one such night, you could sense that something speical was in store when he threw the ball on ground in disgust after the last ball of Australia’s innings, after all how many of us have seen him displaying his emotions. I have never seen such a mad rush of people on twitter, FB, Gtalk Statuses. I was always of the view that  I must be a bit different to be such a big fan of this person but last night was the night when he dispelled all those notions, guys n girls (yeah girls), cricket fans as well as amateurs, all of them were reciting just one name and there was only one number which people were concerned about i.e 200!

I have always wondered what it must be to be The Beatles but I guess this guy’s life must be more extraordinary than those of those 4 individuals combined. In my living memory, i havnt seen a real life scene as dramatic, awe-inspiring as this one. This is one of the nights I will always remember for the rest of my life , and even though all of India can still feel the pain of last night, but such is the quality of the man, that some years later, this match wouldn’t be remembered as a failure of India, instead it would be seen as the triumph of a man over all things earthly. When Sachin plays in the manner he did last night, the results are mostly inconsequential ( although they definitely count).

Its just a sense of respect for the man which lingers in your mind, a sense of previlige on having witnessed something as Godly as this from a man, who walks the earth and devours the grains just like we do. Frankly speaking I consider myself ill-equipped to be the narrator of events such as this..

Would just end the story here with a line by Rohit(a college batchmate FYI) which describes almost everything which happened last night.

I think God doesnt want Sachin to be God, so he keeps doing such things to him

Bengal and the American Revolution

These days, there is a lot of talk abuot gloabalization and the effect that the situation of American economoy has on the economies of countries all over. While the effect of things happening in one part of the globe on sumthing on the other part has increased multifolds with the advancement of technolody and coming closer of the world coz of better transport facilities. But there have been some events where you could see the effect that the, one of them is the part played by the state of Bengal in The American Revolution.

The interrelated events in this scenario are the Bengal famine of 1770, a famine from 1769 to 1773 which killed one-thirds of the population of Bengal and the most famous event in the American Revolution, The Boston Tea Party.

Now coming to the connecting link between the two events:

As a result of the famine in Bengal, 1/3rd of the population had died. This sudden decline in the population set the bells ringing back in England. Military and Administrative costs mounted beyond control in the region of Bengal administered by the East India Company due to a marked drop in labour productivity. There was also the commerical stagnation an depression in Europe following the lull in post-Industrial revolution period.

All this didnt bode well with the economics of the East India Company.Directors of the East India Company in a desperate attempt to avert bankruptcy, sought help from the British Parliament. This led to the passing of the Tea Act in 1773, which gave the company greater Autonomy in running the trade, as it meant that the company didnt have to pay any customs or duty on tea it sold in the Colonies.

While there were a plenty of reasons which made Americans resent the British rule and there were protests but the Tea Act and the resulting event of Boston Tea Party was a major catalyst of Amrican Revolution and till date remains one of the most promiment event of American History.

We can see that not a very important reason behind the American Revolution, but the famine of Bengal can be seen as one of  the immediate cause for the American Revolution. The events transpired as a result of the famine, sure provided fuel to the fire burning inside the hearts of Americans.

Song of The Day:- Raat Akeli Hai Bujh Gaye diye from Jewel Thief

PS1:- Gandhi and India presentation done
PS2:- Thanks to Pranav Sir for telling me to go look for the effect of Bengal in American Revolution, this was quite an interesting find.
PS3:- Think I can be more regular in posting now!

We! The Indians

We are a funny lot, us the Indians!! We find pleasure in things so strange that leaves the whole world amazed and confused. We find so much pleasure in urinating and spitting at public places that nothing can compare to such pure heavenly experiences and then there are so many situations where we just fail to notice the rampant humour and happiness which is present. We can at times be so self possessed that we stop caring that there is a land by the name Kashmir which needed to be handed over to Pakistan and we also keep crying over the 200 or so lives which were lost in Mumbai while not noticing the death of 9 poor terrorists. But we can also be quite caring at times, taking care of shit aka the household waste from western countries and dumping them in our country so that those people can live their life peacefully and in cleanliness after all we are used to sitting in the fields, what would some petty waste from so few people in these countries matter to us.

For instance how can we fail to see the happiness which we should receive when we have an actor who was booked and served a sentence in jail comes out to contest election. He i being termed the messenger of Gandhi in this age for the youth and of course he should be referred to as one. Dont we all rmr that he was the part of highly successful venture which professed about Gandhi and I am pretty sure that he must have been the only person there sitting with the Writing staff serving up as an encyclopedia about Gandhi and his philosophies. Irony of the situation is that some fools try to write him off, saying that he shouldn’t (or can’t) contest elections and as a result angering his supporters. Now here, I would like ask those dear friends of mine,  if we can have so many criminals in politics then why can’t we add another one to the list. After all he made us proud by making a film on Gandhi, thats all we need in a politician ain’t it?

Then you have another set of fools who even try suggesting that may be we could try caring less about International Accolades and recognition and try being satisfied with the recognition we get in our land and not let people who are heroes in their own rights in the nation to the level of paupers in other nations just because they are from a different culture and speak a language very different. After all, the only thing we need in our heroes is a certification from some global body, because its only such bodies which can recognize the real worth of anybody or anything. Don’t you think the people from West Indies are such fools, how could they not make such a fuss about Brian Lara not being amongst the top batsmen in Test Cricket! :O Look at us and all the hue and cry we made just to get a certain someone called Sachin Tendulkar, who just has only 28,000 runs and only 83 centuries in International Cricket (OMG what a shame, not even 100!! ). I mean what can these nos and view of millions of Indians who consider him “God” mean against a list released by Wisden which placed him at the 25^th position. We are colonized people and we need the recognition from our Lords sitting in the office there at Lords to give their stamp of Authority and failing to do so, we can’t do anything but be cry babies because they are so important than the millions of us. Its beyond common sense how West Indians(they are also sort of Indians atleast the name says so) be so ignorant of those high powers and don’t crib about their batsman being there at the top of list. Such a laughing stock they are We also really enjoy it when the best movies made by us, which at times have changed lives of people, made people laugh, cry and see things like never before are allowed to compete in Oscars in secondary categories like “Best Foreign Film” after all its always an honour to be recognized by them!

As everybody knows that we are very cooperating people and tend to accept everybody with open arms and hearts, we have been receiving people from all over the world. We are such loving people that we have made it a habit of marking people who don’t identify with us as our own and showering all our TLC on them. That’s why we get all mushy mushy and start blushing when Bobby Jindal kisses his wife in public, We keep calling Salman Rushdie to India, because it is real sons like him who by telling the world about all the problems in India are doing us a favour. We also have no problems in accepting Slumdog Millionaire as our own product, coz after all its based in India, and it has actors like Anil Kapoor & Irfan Khan in it, doesn’t matter that the director is a foreigner coz he knws the director of the movie, its only the actors who make the movie, isn’t it?

Song of the Day :- Delhi 6 from the namesake movie!

PS1:- Saw Raaz-2 today and the movie is definitely worth watching, one of the best in the genre in recent times.
PS2:- Did nothing significant on Republic Day except sleeping!!
PS3:- Have my Gandhi & India presentation day after tom!!
PS4:- Finally some cricketing action involving India starting!!
PS5:- Should sleep now, its 5:15 already and hav a class tom!
PS6:- Thinking about doing the tag Anks tagged me for!!

Sachin : The Phenomenon!!

I need not remind anyone of the occasion of today’s post, even the cricket noobs are aware of the fact that this is the day of the God, this is the day when he has surged past Lara making him the official crown holder in both the forms of cricket. We all knew this moment was to come, sooner or later we knew that this was the place which Sachin rightly deserved and finally today he did the needful doing the task of getting the required 16 runs and going past Lara, the one batsman in modern cricket whose stature can be compared to that of Sachin.

If the knock played by him in the 2^nd innings of previous test match was an antithesis of the Sachin we have known then today we saw Sachin at song, of course the part till he scored the runs required to overhaul Lara was a bit painful but that is understandable but after that everything was vintage Sachin. If the glorious On-Drive, the Cover drive with ball speeding away was there then there was also the use of feet against the spinner to send the ball to midwicket boundary. It was Sachin as we have seen him for so long, the person who sounded death knell for the opposition. The whole innings was chanceless except the once he made a mistake and Peter Siddle the debutant made merry depriving Sachin of a well deserved century.

There has been a lot of hue and cry over Sachin extending his career, him being finished and Ian Chappell saying that the “Fab Four” are playing only for financial gains. To that man I will just say one thing “_|_”. Sachin answered you today and then answer didn’t come by the display of his shots or the innings he played here or in Chinnaswamy or the hundreds of others which he has played over the last 19 years. You just have to see him still running hard the first run always looking for more and more runs. His eagerness for runs was quite evident when he played a ball from Johnson and wanted the third run though Ganguly the evergreen sloth of Indian team not interested sent him back which brought an immediate frustrated “Come on” from the master and after all this if you tell me that this guy doesn’t have the drive to play, then it would be better if we just don’t talk about it.

As a batsman he may be at par with a rare few but he is not only a player for us Indians, he is a phenomenon, he is the God. He is the inspiration we all look forward to when we want to know how success looks like; he is the epitome of hard work. He is the face of the new India which like the Indian team was hopeless in 90s until he came and showed us how to succeed and how to take the opposition on, no matter how strong the opposition is. Even if you have your back to the wall, you can always come out a winner, if you wanna achieve it.

In the end would just quote cricinfo

“But Tendulkar is more than the sum of his figures. His mere presence is a morale booster, both for his ten colleagues in the team, and the billion supporters outside it. As remarkable as his record is his self-possession. His head hasn’t changed size, his boots haven’t grown smaller. He alone knows what it means to be Tendulkar, with its frustrations, its sacrifices, and the need to be Tendulkar at all times. He is a one-man university that teaches sportsmen how to handle money, fame and pressure”

Just one more thing to say

Cricket is my Religion AND
Sachin is my GOD

Cheers to you Sachin! May you score many many more of these runs.

EDIT: Some time back a friend of mine asked me who would I chose between “Beatles and Sachin”, I was confused for a while before deciding it was Sachin but I can’t be more sure today about the answer. Thank you man for all these Wonder Years which you gave us!!

EDIT2: Few Interesting reads
Is he the greatest?
Harsha Bhogle pays his tribute
An Australian Homage
His Feats
A Blessing and a Curse

Song of the Day: - High Hopes by Pink Floyd

PS1:- Went to see my first match in stadium, the ICL match between Delhi Giants n Bengal Tigers, though wasn’t that great an experience, but we got the tickets worth Rs.300 in 50 bucks
PS2:- Really need to start working on my BTP and CAT prep and placement, everything’s getting stacked and I’m not doing anything
PS3:- Gonna get a party tomorrow!! Will be going to Angeethi for the first time.
PS4:- Listening to Floyd after ages
PS5:- Everyone knows about the milestone which Sachin and Ganguly reached but no one should forget the milestone which Ishant Sharma reached.. He scored his 100^th Test run today!! So cheers to the lad
PS6:- This is my 3^rd post on Sachin, but can any number of posts dedicated to him reflect the gratitude we feel for being entertained for so many years? Naah…
PS7:- Btw should say sorry to all the people who clicked on the feed in Blogroll and found no post on my blog two days back, I will come back with the post for sure!!