Cricket, the only religion I believe in

Cricket.... at first glance the word itself tells you nothing. Some knowledgeable chap, in complete ignorance of cricket ofcourse, might think this blog post has something to do with a certain insect. It does not, not even remotely. To be frank, cricket ain't such a big deal in our 6 billion strong, two World wars surviving, crazily diverse human race. Though the International Cricket Council does have 104 member countries, only a fool would tout that statistic to boast the popularity of cricket. Heck, cricket was never even a part of the Olympics, the biggest celebration of human athleticism since time immemorial and is only likely to be introduced from 2020. All in all, for most people on this planet, cricket is just one more game played by some people in a few colonies of the British Empire.

True, but this post is not about bashing cricket's popularity. On the contrary, I wish to address the seemingly little knowledge people have of the beauty of this game. Cricket is and will always be a never ending pursuit of the balance between sheer athleticism and intellect. The myriad rules of cricket might boggle a newcomer, but once you get past the initial hiccups, the possibilities for innovation, awe-inspiring tactical strategies and plain old cunning can make anyone gasp in wonder. Herein also lies one of the biggest strengths of cricket. This game doesnt ignore you if you aren't looking for mental stimulation. The contest between bat and ball, the battle between technique and raw animal power, and the conquest of new records by itself is sufficient to make anyone thirst for more. To put it simply, there's a lot more to cricket than what appears above the surface.

Like many other people in India, cricket is a way of life for me. Following the national team's progress (by itself a tedious affair) comes as naturally to me as perhaps, following the stock market comes to some people. Cricket in India, is by all means, a religion. I, like many others got indoctrinated into this great game at a very young age. By the time I was smart enough to realize it, I was hooked. Celebrating the successes of the national team wildly and of course, cursing them when they fail, comes naturally to me. Truth be told, I wouldn't want it any other way. The more you stay with this game, the more you are forced to marvel at how little we truly grasp the beauty of this game. One of the legends of this game, and probably the best cricketer ever, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (how can i write a post about cricket without mentioning SRT, the God of Cricket), is living proof that if you give your life to this game, it will award you richly and take you places few men have gone before. Some people utter that cricket is a game of luck and that the newest format of cricket, Twenty20 cricket, is even more so. My answer to this is a simple quote by Thomas Jefferson,

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

The euphoria that a cricket fan experiences, standing in a stadium filled to capacity, with wild cheering fans screaming themselves hoarse, can only rivaled by few other experiences that life has to offer. Finally, whether for the joy of watching the unceasing struggle between the batsman and the bowler, or for exploring the infinite intricacies that this game has to offer, even the most skeptical newcomer would surely be hard pressed to pronounce Cricket anything, but one of the finest inventions of mankind. Here's to Cricket.

Sunny Boy!

Which is more beautiful, blue blue skies and a big yellow sun shining down and making everything in its wake brighter, or lots of clouds and the sun playing peekaboo from behind them, giving occasional flashes of warmth to us earthly denizens?? It all boils down to one simple truth - Life is relative. For a sun starved European, every glimpse of the sun is like a kiss from a hot girl... awesome while it lasts! But for a native of the glorious continent called Asia, used to the hot sun streaming down on him 10 out of 12 months in the year, baking him to a light nutmeg brown, these glimpses are like 3rd degree torture. They remind him of a land where summers are so hot you could fry a omelet on any car left in the sun for too long. Or where winter means a warm 15 degrees low, a cool breeze and maybe a shiver or two at night. Some poet once said that the Sun loves the earth so much it gives and gives without reason or care as to whether earth will ever return the favor. But honestly, even the Sun seems to be relative doesnt it?? By the time summer comes to an end, some parts of the earth have been baked into a crisp toast gasping for some moisture to soothe their parched souls, while others are just left wishing the summer would last forever and not leave the dreaded winter in its wake. Whats up with that Mr Oh so Romantic Sun??? I think I'm gonna call this my extension to Einstein's Relativity Theory, and I know for a fact that the niceness of the comments on this blog are going to depend on the relation of the commenter to me. Case in point. ;)

My Eulogy to Cricket

Oh Cricket Oh Cricket
arent u so wicked
u can make our hearts soar
and bring us to our knees
make the crowds roar
or weep if u please

U have many fans
both the masses and the gentle
all of 'em in a trance
some admirers some just plain mental!

Learning your nuances is
every cricketer's joy
Be it perfecting the stances
or spinning the ball like a toy

Played by one and all
On the city's tar paved streets
or the dust bowls of the plains
From raggedly clothed lads
to the upper class chaps

For some ur just a pastime
played on a lazy summer day
for others you are the ticket
to glory, riches and fame

There have been many
who have graced this game
taken it to another level
and immortalized their names

But like a pearl in the ocean
like a diamond in the rough
Came along a man called Sachin
a little short, but nail like tough

He slew them all the bowlers
of every name and land
took each one to the cleaners
with barely a grimace at all.

Such then is the story
of the gentleman's game
The true test of a man
that brings his character to the fore
coz once you have played cricket
you are never again the same

Life's lessons

Everytime I have faced a harsh time in my life.... I have surfaced without any scars.... was what I used to think. Now i realize that every breathing moment we have on this earth will have some consequence on our lives later. Its sunny outside while I write this and I realize just the simple act of the Sun coming out has made my day that much brighter. Now when I go back to my studies after writing this I have a smile on my face and am even more determined to put my best foot forward in whatever i do. How u ask?? Well how can one enjoy the simple joys of life, the ones that matter the most if one has not seen the other side of the coin? When tomorrow I have achieved my dreams and made something out of myself, I can gladly look back to many such days when I almost gave up but for something small like this making me reboot and start afresh. That day I will look at the Sun and thank it for all that it has given me. In a similar vein, when something upsets me, it arms me for future troubles and makes sure I am armed and ready for battle the next time some trouble comes knocking on my door. When you lose a battle, dont lose the lesson too.....

Pop!

Its been two days since i am back in Hyderabad... and the first thing that strikes me here is.... OMG! This is where I have lived all my life! The absolute chaos of the traffic, the hundreds ( and hundreds) of 'loving' relatives who will give u advice about everything under the sun (whether you want it or not ;) )... the maddeningly huge variety of foods to eat that leave you stumped as in what to eat... the frustatingly slow internet that makes you wish you could throw a brick at it .... the glorious sunshine makin u feel so warm all the time :)... the girl in the telefax shop giving u a shy smile ;) .... i guess that the one year I was in Hamburg, I was living in some kind of bubble where I had forgotten all that my life was made up of before coming there... and then POP! Today suddenly that bubble burst! This is why I love being in India... because I am only truly alive when I am in India. India is bursting to its seams with life and makes no apologies for it. What if the traffic makes you pull your hair out... it makes sure every drive is an adventure! :P .. What if the internet is slow.. it makes sure I dont stay too long online (unlike in Hamburg where I am the undisputed biggest FB king :P) ... all in all.... man its gonna be tough entering that bubble again when I go back to Hamburg... but its a long time till then... and am gonna enjoy every second I can, living the way only a 'Hyderabadi' can! :D Cheers!

What i wanna do

To be able to go out and run around like a dog in the open again... to open a window to let the breeze in and not have the room become like freakin -10 degrees x-( .... to sit in the bus and listen to a hundred different people talk a hundred different things..... to sit back in my balcony in a rocking chair with my favorite book in my hand and the warm sun streaming on my face... to act on a whim and go to some strange part of the city i haven't seen before just because i can... to be so bored sometimes as to watch all kinds of weird insect documentaries on the Discovery channel... to have an endless stream of pretty women dressed in all the colors of the rainbow walk right past me wherever i am... to go to my favorite snack stall and have panipuris till my tummy threatens to burst... to go wild and jump around like crazy with my friends every time Sehwag hits a six... to have my mom make chicken curry, eat every last morsel i can get and then lick my fingers, the plate and the bowl clean ;) .... to sit in a darkened movie hall and watch an awesome SRK movie that has you wishing you could get up and twist :P.... and most of all... to have so many wonderful friends that you always have at least one person willing to join u in all of this... thats what it means to be in India for me... India... Main aa raha hu :D

Who am I?

'Be Yourself'..... this has to be the biggest most nonsensical ludicrous bullshit motto ever invented by man. I mean, look at this way....have you ever realized that you are nothing but a product of a process that delivers millions of people like you every minute?? The minute u r born ur lifestyle is already decided for u.... U have absolutely no control over the clothes u wear or the language u speak or the beliefs u consider your own..... for god's sake u cant even decide ur own name!! The one thing that's gonna define you, that will set u apart or at the least should set u apart. U might be thinking, hey we can just change our name if we don't like it right?? Wrong. The problem is cud u ever go around telling the people around you to stop calling u wit that silly name and use the new one? The point I'm trying to make is that who we are is decided by our circumstances before we can even think straight about who we want to be. For example, if I were to take a baby in a strictly vegetarian family ( and I mean strictly) and put it in a family where meat is eaten every single meal.... don't u think that same baby after growing up would eat meat like it was second nature to him/her? On the other hand if the baby were to grow up in the same vegetarian family he/she would probably later say.... "Uff! Even the thought of meat makes me wanna puke! How can you eat that?"!!

The point I'm trying to make ( if your still awake that is) we have absolutely no hand in the kind of person we will become. We just end up adopting the beliefs and culture of the society around us. I am not saying that people don't enjoy having a ready-made identity thrust at them by the time they make it out of the womb... most people would say its better than being an orphan who doesn't know where he came from or where he belongs. Also some enlightened people might even say that you can always defy your circumstances, adopt any belief system you want or even make a new one and then you can be 'unique'. But honestly, the chances of that happening are so bleak that should you ever manage to do it, your uniqueness would only be glorified a hundred years after your dead and gone! All of man's greatest ideas came from people who defied their societal traditions or conventions.

How can anything unique come out of a world where money makes all the rules? If you ain't putting bread on the table, you ain't doing anything worthwhile, or so think the billions upon billions of people in developing countries. Can anyone even imagine what all those minds would think up if they had not to struggle for the basic needs? The mind is like a gateway, and to get across first you need to pay the toll. People are so busy scourging for this toll they have forgotten to ever cross that entrance to mental nirvana. True peace and happiness only lies in mental and physical satisfaction. Ask those hundreds of millions of people barely making ends meet what they would change and you'll see the truth. Then perhaps we would one day truly discover what mankind is capable of when each and every person becomes 'himself' and sets his mind free!