31st December 2006

Festive season is here. A reason to smile, a reason to celebrate. The wind has a certain niceness to it. The stars beam with all the glory. Another year coming to an end, another "new" year to look forward to, new resolutions, new relations, another step to the inevitable. Last year was easily the most eventful year of my life. It had everything from stupid fights,extreme happiness, extreme sorrow to moments of highest of highs. It started on the 31st Dec 2006. It was a very significant day in terms of what it represented, a bad fight and the beginning of a new relation which almost defines me at this moment. I can still remember that day vividly, when I was roaming around, looking for acceptance, while all my dear friends where trying to make it special for me. Piyush one of my closest friend was calling everyone and anyone to see if he could get me into the best party for the New Year. But it was hardly the consolation that I needed. I had a fight with a very dear friend. It was something unwarranted, but yet something extremely important to do. I was feeling down all through the day and was waiting for something to calm me, someone to make me feel better. The same very moment I got a call wishing me Happy New Year. I was ecstatic, it meant everything to me. It was God sent. It was from a friend I had just found, thanks to the social networking site called orkut. Those two minutes of conversation brought back the smile on my lips. I was looking forward. I knew some special script was being written up there, and it definitely had a happy ending. Almost a year later, I have understood the game. The fight was inevitable, it was important for the birth of a new relation, a relation which was worth all the fights, a relation which was worth all the lows ,all the red-herrings. A relation which is here to stay for eternity. The relation with MY GOD. Amen!

Love Vs Lust

Both Love and Lust begin with the same letter L, used interchangeably in almost all relationship, I set out to discover the differences between the two. What is amazing is that how we tend to worship true love and all that jazz, but cleverly bypass the feeling of lust that tends to engulf us all the time. Some of the differences between the two that came to my mind were:
- Love is temporary, Lust is permanent
- Love is fickle, Lust is stable
- Love has no boundaries, Lust is restricted.
- Love is a Utopian concept, Lust is the most real of all emotion
- Love can be deceptive, Lust never deceives
- Love never needs a reason, Lust craves for one.
- We rarely fall in love, we lust everyday
- We need to discover love, Lust discovers us.
Love is a fleeting emotion. It is very difficult for an individual to love the same person forever, it is doubly difficult to love more than one person and it is impossible to live without love. Lust simplifies life. It is unpretentious and uncomplicated!

All about records!!

Just yesterday while I was glancing through the newspaper, I read articles showering much deserved praises on Dada and Yuvraj for their scintillating knocks against Pakistan. One thing caught my attention was the list of the records that were made. One of the records made was It was the first 300 runs partnership by TWO LEFT HANDED BATSMEN against PAKISTAN in INDIA. Wow, I thought to myself, we people are really obsessed with numbers and records. This record made no sense to me at all. Isn't everything a record if we keep on narrowing it down. Suppose a batsman made 4 runs against Pakistan in Bangalore , then it might be the first 4 runs in 8 balls against Pakistan, if not then it will most probably be the first 4 runs in 8 balls against Pakistan in Bangalore, if not then it will definitely be the first 4 runs in 8 balls against Pakistan in Bangalore in 12.5 minutes. How does it matter. Navjot Singh Sidhu with his characteristic wry sense of humour once remarked "Statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is interesting but what they hide is vital". It makes so much more sense to look at these numbers with a perspective. A perspective would help us make sense out of these, otherwise these numbers will give us a false sense of security, a false sense of achievement. A billion Indians are obsessing with the records Tendulkar has made in his illustrious career. Records have so defined him that the day he doesn't score a century he is deemed a failure. Isn't it time we measure achievement by some other intangible parameters like commitment, passion, grit, determination. A number is no more than a number. From the board percentage in 10th and 12th, to JEE AIR to CAT percentile and then the salary the tendency to measure an individual with numbers is taking heavy toll on us. We need to stop this madness, this obsession, this objectivity in judging everyone. Or else we'll keep making records, records which don't matter, records which only say we can add, subtract, multiply and divide with amazing dexterity!

Racism!

"Mirror mirror upon the wall, who is the fairest of all?". So asked the queen once. The mirror answered-"Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all". The story though seems completely out of context here, has a very important message. For years now Indians have been cribbing about how racism has affected the way they work in foreign land. How they are called Paki and the discrimination they have to face because of their nationality. Stories of Shilpa Shetty facing racial discrimination filled the tabloids for weeks. Before we feel sorry for ourselves one more time, isn't it time we reflect if we are part of the same ilk. How many times have we laughed at a sardar joke, or mocked at the girls from the east as 'chinki', laughed at the accent of people from the south and cleverly assumed the next girl from the states as "forward going"? How many times have we labeled a girl laughing with a bunch of guys as a slut. The truth is we are all the same. We are always looking for the mirror that calls us the fairest. TV commercials promote fair skin for all and sundry. Anyone who is not fair is touted as ugly and needs a "Fair & Lovely" or "Fair & Handsome" to look presentable. We are obsessed with fair skin. We have zero tolerance towards anyone who is remotely different from us, look wise, accent wise, region wise. So why this cribbing when we get a taste of our own medicine. So the next time before you buy yourself that 'whiteness cream' ask yourself if it changes anything inside you. The next time you feel bad about being called a bloody Indian, think of how many Indians you abused as sardars or chinkis. Think about it! The mirror needs to answer differently this time. It needs a different question!

That Match!!

For some strange things that have been going on in my life for the past few days, I have started reminiscing the good times. The good old days when everything was simple, uncomplicated and a lot of fun. The thought took me to one of the cricket match I had played when I was in class 7th. Now at that point of time in my life winning meant everything to me. It was fructification of all the effort and hard work I had put in. It was the vindication of my belief in my talent, my ability and myself. So coming back to the match it was between my team "The Warriors" and another local team whose name we never cared to remember. The team was furious and very methodical in its approach. They had a genuine fast bowler in Varun, an all rounder in Little and fantastic leg-spinner in Anupam, who was also the captain of the team. On the other hand our team consisted of bits and pieces players. We had players from the age group of 3 to 13, some who could barely walk. So we had quite a task in front of us.The team heavily depended on me and Ankit. We both called ourselves all-rounders, due to our ability to perform either with the ball or the bat, never both together. All we had was an insane belief in our self, a belief that we were the best! Anyway the match started sharp at the scheduled time which was 2:oo pm. It was a 15 over a side match. Anupam's team won the toss and chose to bat first. Today it was one of the typical bad bowling day for both Ankit and me. We got hit left right and center. The only consolation was that owing to our bad performance with the ball there was a chance that we would bat well. Anyway they scored 120 in their 15 overs and we required 121 in 15 overs at an asking rate of 8.07. It was a difficult task made even worse by the fact that Ankit was injured during the match. Ankit and our burly neighbour Deepak took guard. Now Deepak was the most important member of our team because it was his bat that was used by all. His scores never reached double digit in his entire career. But today was a new day. We had told him that a score of 10 from him will be heavily rewarded. As the rule of lbw wasn't there we told him to use his size to the advantage. Varun took his 25 metre un up and came speeding in, much to the discomfort of our trembling opener Deepak. Off went the ball only to kiss the bails . 0 for 1, hardly a score we needed. I walked with heavy booing in the background. It was me who had to perfrom, was the thought that ran into my mind. Ankit was anyway limping, so it had to be the aerial route today. It's said that in cricket there are some days when everything you do clicks, when every shot you take goes past the boundary line. That day was just one of those days. Soon Ankit and me were in full flow. Runs came thick and fast. We achieved the target in 9.1 overs and consequently won by 9 wickets and made a hefty profit of Rs.10 per member. It was the biggest victory and a moral boast like no other. Vishal the youngest member all of 3 years suggested we go and have cold-drinks.It was still an hour to go before it would be too dark to see. We decided that we wanted to practice, cos celebration could wait another day, we still have the finals to play. And we had to WIN because loosing was not an option!!!

Life and its wondrous uncertainity!!!

Have you ever felt on a particularly bad day that your life is not going in any direction, that you are traveling against the whole world, and that life officially sucks! Well like most of you, I have felt the same many a times in the short span of my existence, though I have realised that most of the time we tend to exaggerate everything and take it to a level where we feel that there is no respite. But there is an auto-correction, the day when we realise that things are not that bad . When we enjoy small inanities, a nice song, coffee with a friend, small talk with a colleague.
On a whole different level it may also happen that something so bad happens that suddenly nothing else seems bad. You laugh at what you were crying. You look at yourself and feel stupid about the days you spent cursing the traffic, howling at your neighbour, fighting with a friend when you could have laughed, called your mom or watched Casablanca. And then there is another auto-correction, you smile to yourself, and tell yourself for the millionth time that you'll be happy. That you'll fight it out, that you'll never give up.
This is life, it always comes a full circle. There is always something or someone that reminds you that there is hope. A hope for redemption, a hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better world, our own la-la land!!

Amen!