I am Anna today, what about tomorrow?

Its been an incredible few days for India in the past couple of weeks. Mr. Anna Hazare, his team, and their brand of expressing dissatisfaction has created a huge uproar amongst the entire nation. Thousands have supported him and his methods and then there have been others who have criticized the entire episode, but eventually the spirit of a man, ready to undertake physical agony for his principles is commendable and deserves much appreciation. At the end of it, honestly, I was more keen on Mr. Hazare breaking his fast than any bill getting passed, and thats the kind of connection true leaders make with people.

I could spend hours and hours writing about how unsurprisingly incompetent our government has been in handling the entire situation, and how a few of those I considered future leaders of India have come out as nothing but absolute hypocrites, but then it would just be reiterating the obvious. I must though point out that that the Congress government needs to have a very close look at their PR folks; the current lot is downright terrible, has no clue of public sentiment, sounds arrogant, egotistic, and even idiotic most of the time. Its as if they sit on a self destruct button each time they open their mouths, and destruction is all they do. The government really does not need opposition parties or political enemies having been blessed by spokesmen of the quality of Mr. Manish Tewari and Mr. Kapil Sibal.

Now to come back to my thoughts on the entire campaign. It was undoubtedly heartening to see “young india” come out in thousands to support the cause of Mr. Hazare. For the past 30 years that i have existed, i haven’t seen such support at a national level for anything other than cricket, and cricket kind of became an aversion with the abysmal performance of our team in England. The campaign would not have been what it turned out to be and would not have made the impact that it has been able to, had it not received the massive public support that it totally deserved. Hunger strikes have happened in india in the past, civil activists have tried to fight for causes, but i have rarely seen anything garner as much support as this one did.

All this while, i had consciously tried to not be judgmental about the situation, one way or the other. There were a lot of things that i agreed with and a lot that i totally disagreed with, but then i guess thats what ‘free will’ in a democratic country is all about. (i would like to write some day on how much for granted we take our power of expressing free will) Now that everything seems to have taken a positive note, there are a few things to reflect upon:

1. The only way to make people support a cause or an individual is to be honest with them, both in actions and intentions. Anna Hazare stood ground no matter what the government tried to do, he took responsibility for what he believed in and saw it through. His actions and methods may have sounded like blackmail to a few (including me, at times), but his intentions were always there for everyone to see.

2. They say that “customer service” of a product is as important, if not more, than selling the product. You may think you have a great product, you may even be able to sell it using fancy marketing tricks, but  sustained business will only be achieved by providing continued customer service for the product. If you customer service sucks, or if you stop responding to customer complaints, your company and your product is likely to fade out of favor sooner than later. The same applies to elected government bodies of the country. Absolute majority in the parliament does not justify making decisions that are absurd. Also having absolute retards in important PR positions, is like making a nursery student answer customer care questions for Airtel(on another note, the nursery student may do a better job). Bottom line, if you don’t know your shit, you should either be quiet or be honest with people. Making up stupid excuses makes the people feel cheated and that is one emotion not easily reparable.

3. If we, the people are to bring any revolution in the country, we’ve got to start with ourselves. I know it sounds preachy, but there is no doubt to the fact that unless we undergo our own revolution, any bill, however good or bad it is, will be just another piece of paper that we never intend to read or follow. Corruption is something that cannot be discriminated against. If the commonwealth games scam is an example of corruption, then so is us bribing traffic cops to get away with small fines. If the 2G scam is corruption, then so is our crossing red lights, throwing waste on streets, caring a damn about road safety rules or using black money for purchasing properties. We cannot call some forms of corruption acceptable, just because it saves us time or money, and call other forms of corruption evil. Corruption is evil, in all its forms; period. Just as we ask the government to take a step forward and pass a historical bill, we, as responsible citizens of India, should also take a step forward and get rid of the corruption that exists in our lives. There is no excuse for us not to do this.

4. Finally, the lesson to learn from this entire episode is that one person can actually make a difference. If I really am Anna, then the most important thing for me is to not only talk about what is right for the country, but also enact upon the principles i preach. More often than not we complain of what we alone can achieve. That myth has been busted by the recent events, and we have a live example of how one man can change the thought process of an entire nation. Lets just not give into the frenzy of achieving a short term victory but use this as an opportunity to improve ourselves and subsequently our country for good.

The Lords of the Kings…

There are times when a few of my ‘not so cricket crazy’ friends ask – “How can a sport be so important to a country that it stops people from going to work and almost brings the entire nation to a halt”. I usually respond with a smile, frankly because i have no clue to the answer myself. Since i was a young boy, probably 6 years old, i have had this crazy obsession with the game, which has not faltered a bit, in spite of the trials and tribulations that Indian cricket has been through.

When i was young, my father used to tell me stories about the 1983 world cup – how the team qualified for the finals against all odds, and then how he turned off his radio set after India’s innings and then could not help himself and switched it on again and found India on the brink of a famous famous victory. The glint in his eyes and the expression on his face while narrating the story – priceless!!

Here is the thing with stories though, especially the unbelievable ones. If you have been a part of that story, and have witnessed it, you feel like telling it over and over again, and the spark in your voice never dies down. You want everyone to realize the importance of the moment when you witnessed a great thing happen, and you never get tired of it. On the contrary, if you were only 2 years old when the phenomenon happened, and have no memory of it, you would grow up looking for such a story around you and try to be a part of something that can be shared for generations to come.

My such moment has come…On April 2nd’2011, at around 11:00 pm in the evening, I was sitting with my hands folded and a prayer in my mind, in front of the television set, when the captain of the Indian Cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni the magnificent, used the pretty version of the much hyped “helicopter” shot to dispatch Nuwan Kulasekara over the long on boundary for a six. A special six that was too, for it won India the Cricket World cup, a moment that entire country had been waiting for. I shouted, hugged my wife, danced, and almost cried with excitement. The story I was looking for was here, and no one could have taken that moment from me for I was there, I witnessed it, I saw my team win the cricket world cup. Unbelievable feeling.

The wait was well worth it. The scenes of jubilation, the tears of joy in the eyes of the players, the hugs, the shouts, the fist pumping, the cheers from the Mumbai crowd, the victory lap, the lifting of the trophy, the flowing champagne…aaah…indeed the wait was well worth it…

I’ll keep it short and not write about the various moments of the game, the ups and the downs and so forth, because they are already permanently etched in our minds for the rest of our lives, but there were a couple of moments from the after match celebrations that just blew me away:

1. When Sachin Tendulkar was asked about his 22 year long wait before he could actually lay his hands on the ultimate prize, he said “22 years haan…I dint give up, did I??” Awesome awesome…everyone can take a cue from the great book that Sachin Tendulkar is.

2. When Virat Kohli was asked about the gesture of carrying Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulder around the stadium he replied “He has carried the burden of Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years, the least we can do is carry him on our shoulders”. Take a bow Virat Kohli…you are awesome.

There are lords of the game and then there kings of the game…but I can proudly say that the Indian cricket team has proven themselves to be the “Lord of the Kings”. The ultimate prize is ours, the ultimate feeling is ours…thanks Team India…we are immensely proud of you.

And now as i go back to basking in the glory of the victory, something that i have not been able to get over yet, probably wont get over it anytime soon, i have only one thing to say  to the folks not yet around- “Be ready kids – daddy has a story to tell!!”

(Photo courtesy Cricinfo.com)

Its fingerlickin good!!

It sure is…30 days into the cricket world cup, we will now witness the real deal. The quarter finals are decided and India will be playing the not so mighty Aussies on the 24th Of March…National holiday anyone? Be there, glued to your TV screens wherever in the world you are; as they say “more power” to the men in blue, and you will all be needed to channel your energies for the game.

All in all, the eight teams expected to be in the quarters are eventually there. Some like England, have peaked with the better teams and proven their worth, while others like WI have gone in with no so many credentials having only beaten teams ranked below them. The fact is that each game in the quarters, given that its a knock out, will be a very different ball game. The pressure will be different because the stakes are the highest now.

Ah…i still cant believe that India is playing Australia in the quarters. In the game against the WI, when the opposition was almost running away with the games, eyebrows were raised on whether India did not want to face Australia in the quarters and hence are not performing to their fullest. Painful, as it was to watch WI dominate the game for the first half of their innings, frankly speaking Indian bowling has been pretty much the same all throughout this world cup. The problem I guess is with the mindset that a team ranked below us will not be able to beat us under any circumstance, a fact that was proven wrong by Bangladesh in the last world cup. So instead of doubting our team and our players, we should enjoy the game as it stands.

Coming back to the game against WI, i was quite keen on seeing India match up with the Australians. Come on now…An opportunity to knock the Aussies out of the world cup at an early stage has not come that often, and that too under home conditions. Of course, whats added fuel to the fire has been the Australia vs Pakistan game. The Ricky Ponting caught behind must be the most embarrassing moment of his career. It would be almost foolish to assume that Mr. Ponting had the fancy thought that the Pakistan team wont go to the third umpire for the dismissal, and that probably speaks much of his current condition. In that one instant though, UDRS convinced me of its usefulness. It will probably still be debated much, and will still produce occasional controversies, but there is no doubt that it will discourage folks like Ponting from trying to improve their batting form at any cost.

If any of you folks watched the Aus-Pak game, you would have also have heard the Ian Chappell rant against Shahid Afridi’s celebratory posture and almost everything about the Pakistan team in general. Its not unusual to see Australians start to point fingers on totally non relevant things, when losing, but Chappell’s commentary was almost close to total nonsense. As far as i can remember the Australians have tried every trick in the “How to play dirty cricket” book to win games, and although several Pakistan players have contributed to maligning the reputation of their team, it seems funny to hear an Australian complain about postures on the field. Its called gamesmanship when an Aussie does it, “friendly banter” in the expert’s language, but when someone else does it to them, definitions change. Funny, but not surprising, coming from the Aussies.

The other great debate that has sprung up in the last couple of games has been ‘to walk or not’ if the umpire does not give you out, but you know you are. Sachin Tendulkar walked, when the umpire did not give him out, and numerous TV replays could not confirm if he had nicked the ball. On the contrary, Ricky Ponting did not, argued with the fielders, the opposition captain, and then had to leave the field because the TV replays clearly showed that he had nicked the ball. A lot of my friends and people i know have made this instance into a glorification parameter for Sachin. I disagree on this subject a bit. For starters, Sachin Tendulkar now needs no comparisons with any Ricky Ponting or anyone else to prove his credentials and greatness in the game. Lets leave it to the people who still dont agree with his greatness do the stupid talk and then just laugh at them. I guess that’ll be sufficient. Secondly, i believe what Sachin did, goes on to prove that you need to keep improving as a cricketer. He may have walked or not when there was no UDRS, but with the system in place all you are counting on is a blind person in the third umpires seat to not give you out. I guess thats what Ricky Ponting hoped for; unfortunately for him though, it was he who was made to look like a joker at the end of it.

The Australia-India game will be one hell of a cricket match, given the history of these teams, and the sweet relations they share with each other. I can only hope that India brings their A game on the game day. It will be sufficient; anything less than that wont do…Fingers crossed!!