Intimate Murder!!

Relentless rain had left me with no choice but to stay home and stay glued to television and watch the persistent live show of Anna Hazare’s fast that all news channels have determined to shower on us. Reporters seem to have found an opportunity to show off their modern world journalistic expertise by bringing minute to minute development (which there wasn’t much and yet keeping its viewer interested as if something were to happen at any instant).  

Anna Hazare, an activist who, just four months ago, was not known to 75% of population of India, is now named as 'New Age Gandhi'. He and his team, according to many, represent views and ideas of whole India. I am not going to dwell too much into the details of incidents that ignited the protest. I sincerely think government has failed to contain the situation when it was well within its reach. As a matter fact, frolics of government have provided a solid base for Hazare to stand upon and build up a mammoth support to make government his puppet. As many analysts said, the timing of protest couldn’t have been better especially when people were exasperated, with revelations of few politicians being involved in sidelining unfathomable amount of money, and were looking for a way out to vent the emotions. There it was, a ‘fast’ train driven by Hazare and People had no second thought but dump their frustration to strengthen the locomotive which was determined to derail corruption (or was it headed to derail democracy itself?).

The determination of Team Anna was so firm that they never hesitated to continue the protest even when they knew their demands were unconstitutional and undemocratic. I have no objection with people demanding for introduction of new bills/resolutions to cleanse the system and stem the corruption but the path one chooses to express the protest needs to be scrutinized. It’s not just achieving goals, but the process one chooses is also as significant. In fact, if it wasn’t vital then we would have never read/ talked so high about non-violence (Non-Violence is a weapon that was introduced to the world by Gandhiji which in turn inspired many across the world to adapt and achieve greater heights.). Team Anna chose Gandhian way to begin with, which inspired millions across the nation and subsequently to retain the agitators they chose to add in histrionics by throwing cheap punches at government, which only made few analysts and activists distance themselves from the movement.  It was  so appalling to see Team Anna, some of whom were inspirational for fairer sex for fairly long time, become blinded by the light of fame and glory that many had no choice but to withdraw support when Team Anna adamantly decided to continue fast even after Government (Prime Minister himself) promised of introducing the bill/resolution and holding discussion.

One of dreadful outcomes of the protest is the precedence set by Anna Hazare by demanding the government to pass the bill that was drafted by his panel without any vote, which only encourages people to hold a gun to their head and force the government to do something that they wish even if it is unconstitutional. I wasn’t really happy to learn the comparison of Anna with Gandhi. It’s an insult to Gandhiji himself. It was perplexing, if not more, to see Sangh parivar (RSS) people call Hazare, ‘Second Mahatma Gandhi’, since they never approved or agreed the ideology of Gandhiji himself. I guess, they have no option but join the procession and gain a mileage out of it, even if it means to get rid of some of its fundamentals.

When all this was happening, even when millions of voices were echoing  Hazare and JanLokPal bill, there were few voices, which stood tall to dissect the facts and condemn wherever/whenever it was necessary. And at the same cross roads there were few intellectual voices, which were loud and clear on many occassions before, standing speechless and acquiescing spinelessly. For me this is more perilous as somebody said ‘silence of a genius is more dangerous than an idiot’s rhetoric’.

Not all outcomes were bad in this protest. It was promising to see that People still get inspired by Gandhiji, especially when many of us thought face of the nation was changing drastically. I am not against ‘change’. Change is inevitable whether you accept or not. But without any change in ‘us’, without any change in our compassion towards a fellow human being , without any change in our thoughts towards society, it would be a futile effort to bring in new bills and expect that a reform would emerge.  

Fall of a Mountain!!

Last week, my wife said, I, emotionally, was not as strong as I looked. I unquestionably agreed with her. In fact I would never want her to be wrong. Emotions are unsung tunes of melody and misery and unvented expressions of glee and glum generated in heart with empathy. I would never want to suppress my emotions, especially when someone very close to heart breathed their last.

It was 4:30 AM; I woke up early to catch live action between India and West Indies in world cup cricket. As I turned off my alarm, I observed that a message was waiting in my inbox. I opened the message up only to learn the fact that my Babayi had passed away few hours ago. I was shell shocked to say the least. The essence of the message was so stunning that I had to read more than couple of times to get grips on my balance. I immediately called home and got it confirmed. He was suffering from brain hemorrhage and was bedridden for quite a long time.

Babayi had always been a determined and kindhearted person (Some might not agree and I don’t wrong them either). If I ever made a list of well wishers in my life, He would make it in top five, indisputably. I remember my childhood days in Hyderabad (late 80s and early 90s), so very filled up with His footprints. He was very instrumental in every decision, every aspect and every step we took in our lives (siblings). He was our strength and we were his world. He would turn the lives of many upside down to see the smiles on our faces. Sometimes, in achieving smiles of His beloved, in attaining his goals, in accomplishing tasks, I feel, He might have failed to understand the consequences and troubles others had sustained. Perhaps, He was ignorant to these situations or grew nonchalant in overwhelming satisfaction rewarded in smiles on His beloved faces. Either way, His loving nature and compassionate heart should never be undervalued. His way of living was achieving the desired goal at any expense, at least up until he turned 55 years, up until he fell down for first time and, also for last time and He could never pick Himself up again.

Even though threads between families of us are not as binding as they used to be and memories of togetherness does seem fading away, but His influence on us is so powerful that a message of His death unstoppably brought buckets of tears. In retrospection, life seemed very different with Him being our forte, and we being His joy. But, as time went on, life made us to drift away from His path of possessiveness. And today, news of death made me realize, I could never be detached from Him.

I felt putting these words on the paper might console me, but deep down a voice haunts me that I never made an effort to pay a visit when He was lying on the bed, when He was hapless and when He truly needed our smile to rejuvenate Himself. My wife was very fortunate to have met Him in her latest visit to India. Her description of Him, a disheartened, speechless, helpless and motionless person left me aghast and compelled me every opportune to picture Him, but I couldn’t and I hope, I wouldn’t. My memory is so full of joyful Him. It’s impossible for my brains to picture Him vulnerable. But in the hands of death, we are all vulnerable and so was He.

He was our inspiration and He was our Babayi, He is and will always be.

Holy Grail - 2011

Once again it’s time to rejoice the festival of cricket. Once again it’s time to bring out our wishlist. Once again it’s time to scream in joy and pain, yes, cricket world cup is here. This time expectations are sky high as sub continent gets ready to host the world cup for third time.

World cup has to be the best arena for a cricketer to show off his skills, after all eyes of world of cricket will all be hoping to witness a display of cricket of highest skills. This is the moment all teams in the world wait four years to lay their hands on the prettiest cups of all. It’s hard to pick out one favorite among all, as most of the teams stand very close in ICC rankings. One might pick India as the favorite as they will be playing at home and obviously, will have the advantage of familiar conditions and support of millions of wild and enthusiastic spectators. If they perform well, that latter will definitely prove to be an asset, otherwise they would have to find the ghettos to save themselves.

South Africa, like always, seems very strong. But their inability to get over chokers tag always leaves a speck of disbelief that they would emerge as winners. If they ever want to get rid of the chokers tag, this is the opportunity, or shall I say, one last opportunity before the legend Kallis retires from cricket. Australia might not have performed well in the last year, but they will always remain favorites in any cricket event. Events like this spur the energy in Australians. I believe, they are relied more on their confidence and commitment than the skills. Once they get the momentum going, it would take a gigantic effort to stop them. Certainly, their last three world cup performances talk tons about their ability to strangle the weaker teams and their never give up attitude even in the realms of discomfort. I would never ignore Australia, they always pose a threat.

SriLanka has team with a good mix of experienced and young players. Their bowling is as powerful as batting. 3M’s bring variety and subtlety in bowling that any captain would love to posses in his armory. Sangakkara and Jayawardhane provide strength and stability to their batting order and there is always DIlshan at the top order to kick start the innings to a flier. Then again, it all depends how they will perform under pressure. Playing at home doesn’t always give the comfort of playing freely. World cup record shows that hosts have never won the world cup so far. This world cup might emerge as trend setter.

There are many reasons this world cup will remain memorable. This world cup will be his 6th appearance in the world cups and will give Sachin Tendulkar one last opportunity to grab hold on the holygrail. This remains one dream unfulfilled in his long and illustrious career, so far. Other than him, there are many others who will say good bye to cricket after this event, Legend spinner Muttaiah, one of the best all-rounder Kallis, one of the best batsmen of modern cricket Rickey Ponting, and many more. I am glad that I have one last opportunity to witness display of greats. We might not see all these legends combat again but these memories will always remain fresh.

Enough with talk shows, enough with analyses and let’s not divulge more in past records. Let’s not squander our time discussing wasted opportunities. Let’s not evaluate the performances based on the warm up games. Now that dance shows are done, let’s open our ears for some sweet chin music, intoxicating sound of leather hitting timber, melodious mantra of leather contacting middle of the bat. Enough words, let the game begin!!