IPL vs ICL

You know what? ICL was better. It at least served as a platform for many local lads to step up to the limelight. The young Indian team in the ICL outplayed every other fancied team in the fray and won the cup. Players like Stuart Binny and Ambatti Rayudu emerged from obscurity. On this front at least, ICL did good on its so called intention to promote the interests of the game. On the other hand, IPL has been very disappointing in terms of promoting local talent. The IPL teams are packed with international cricketers, the ones you've got tired of seeing throughout the year. You get to see over-worked war horses dragging their feet on dusty, crumbling pitches with no sense of purpose or direction. You feel a sense of pity when you the likes of Bret Lee running in to get hit out of the park in an itsy-bitsy encounter.....if ever there was something called over-exposure killing the golden goose, this is it.

Life..

Another death in the family. A young boy of 18 years. My first cousin’s son. The family had gone to a resort for a holiday after his second PU exams got over. While swimming he cramped up and drowned. There were no lifeguards to help him. It took a while for a motley crew of waiters and visitors to pull him out of the water. They couldn’t save him. A tragedy beyond description.

Incidents like these make you realize the triviality of life. If you are destined to go, you go. It maybe now, it could be tomorrow, it might be a week later. All other worries and foibles seem so trivial. I often worry about work, pressures at office, my yearning to live abroad, all these seem so small.

Live your life happily. Be nice to your loved ones. Be happy. Smile. Living every day like it were your last day might be a tall order, but certainly don’t live like you had forever. You never know…

Cricket, sport, spirit

One solid learning for me from India's famous win against Australia was that,
" in sport, and likewise in life, attitude and spirit matter more than ability and reputation."

A motely-bunch of 20-25 year olds....pulled the rug from beneath the feet of the vaulted world champions.....the only thing that folks like Praveen Kumar had going for them was the comfort of anonimity and arrogance of youth...dropping the highly reputed Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, not only reduced the average age of the team but also increased its fearlessness quotient.....Dhoni's blokes had nothing to lose and it showed in the way they played on the field..

It is interesting to note that Dhoni's team seems to mimic the way Dhoni plays his cricket. Dhoni is not supremely talented in terms of wicket-keeping and batting. He is at best, effecient at both, but not magical. What makes him tick is his street-smartness, grit and no-frills approach to the game. His team is similar. Barring the gifted Ishant Sharma and the masterful Sachin, all its stars including Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa and Praveen Kumar are effecient cricketers, but by no means prodigies.

In the same manner, don't you know people with average abilities who make it big in life. I for one am a firm believer that the general populace is blessed with the same talent and intelligence, there might be exceptions here and there, but overall it's an even playing field. The ones who eventually succeed, seem to be the ones with that extra grit, determination and conquering spirit.

Marriage views – the regional divide

It is interesting to note how the views of North Indian and South Indian men (the young and eligible kind) differ on marriage. Their views appear to be a reflection of their approach to life. Young North Indian men have a more natural approach to marriage. They tend to see it as a part of life’s progression, an event that has to pass, something that shouldn’t be worried too much about - the sooner dealt with the better. Their take is that when there are more important things like career that need one’s attention going forward, you don’t want to saddle the most productive years of your life with the distraction of searching for a bride. To lend credence to this theory, a friend from UP pointed out that several successful businessmen like the Ambanis got married quite early in life and were subsequently able to draw on this familial stability to build their business empires.

In contrast, South Indian men seem to fret a lot over the issue of marriage. They approach family and career in the reverse order of their North Indian coutnerparts. They prefer to pursue professional and financial stability before venturing into marriage. It is a mindset that flows naturally from their approach to life. Right from childhood, a South Indian middle class child’s life revolves around academic achievement. It is drilled into one’s head that academic success always gets top priority; everything else can wait. In bargain while the South Indian male builds enviable career skills, his life skills remain under-developed (the vice versa is true for the average North Indian male – while his English may be weak, his worldly instincts are razor sharp). For a Madrasi, selecting which IIT to apply to is easier than choosing whom to get married to and hence, this is a decision that is avoided till it becomes ineluctable.

As a 25-year-old quintessential South Indian male, I’m facing these very challenges in my life. Whenever my mother talks to me about marriage proposals over the phone, I escape by citing that I need more time to build professional and financial stability before taking on adventures on the personal front. When I discuss this with my Haryanvi friends they are bemused – “financial stability?”- they ask – “that comes through marriage!”….ahem…now, that’s a different discussion, ain’t it? ;)

ps: Many of you might disagree with my generalization in terms of North and South Indians. I admit that such classification might be too simplistic. Nevertheless, this topic amuses me to no end...and I thought you folks deserve to have a good laugh on the same... :D

Why is a beamer called a beamer?

When I was bowling at the nets last Saturday, one of my attempted express deliveries slipped out of the palm and hit the upper "beam" that forms the frame from which the nets are hung. We all gave each other the all-knowing look and nodded - now we knew why a "beamer" is called a "beamer"...

Combating Cynisicm

I am becoming more and more cynical by the day. I'm worried. I'm worried because cynicism is like a self-fulfilling doomsday prophecy. It feeds on itself till it has devoured every sliver of hope that resides in you. It is a dark brooding feeling that sheds a pall of gloom on everything that is bright. It gnaws on you till you feel comfortable in its cold embrace. You begin to detest the sunlight. The lonely recesses of the soul become your refuge.

I have been through this once too often, and I don't want to tread here again. But circumstances are such...

Every time I've been through this darkness, it's been a steep ride to the bottom before a single stroke of light changed everything. I'm waiting for that glimmer to save me.

Purpose and publish..

Why can't one's purpose in life be, simply, to be happy...
Why does one have to forcefully write papers and publish them in journals and attend conferences and do all the associated b.s. that follows...
Why can't one simply be happy....enjoy the small pleasures in life and leave it at that..
If I genuinely have something to say, I'll write.....I don't want to publish for the sake of it..