Saurav Hamara Gaurav : Saurav is our pride !!!

So in a few days from now the Bengal southpaw Saurav Chandidas Ganguly will play his last test match, and then he will walk for the last time to bat and perhaps hit that sublime off side shot one last time. And then he will walk off from this main stage that left us spell bound for more than a decade or so. What he leaves behind for all of cricket lovers will be perhaps some amazing memoirs and a legacy of which very few Indian Cricketer's can be proud off.


Arguably the greatest Indian Left Hander ever to played Cricket, Saurav Ganguly was an enigma on the field and off the field. Right from the time he did hit that magical century at Lord's to the one he scored at Mohali in his last test series against Australia, he brought a sense of newness to the Indian Cricket Side. Be it "taking off his jersey" at Mecca of Cricket Lords after winning the Natwest Trophy in 2002 or perhaps his ability to dance aside Hrithik for the Hero Honda Ad he was just too unpredictable.


Nobody, and just nobody in the history of Indian cricket has evoked the kind of bipolar emotions that he has consistently done throughout his career. Right from the time he was picked for his debut test series and was defamed as a quota selection to the every glorious extra-cover drive he played to every short ball he awkwardly fended; for every time he danced assuredly down the track to the spinners to every time he misfielded, for every silken boundary he hit to every single or two he refused - people either loved him or loathed him. But there was something more.

Saurav Ganguly fed the Indian teams he led with a potion, an elixir which captains before him had not dared to touch. It was called aggression. And happily for us, team India has since then not stopped consuming it. And I repeat here who can forget his adrenaline-fuelled shirt twirling on the Lords balcony, when he mocked not just the English cricketers but Lord's tradition itself? Or India's amazing run to the World Cup final in 2003? Or his captain's innings of coruscating brilliance at the Gabba?

No chronicle of his legacy would be complete without a reference to his captaincy and his ability to get the best out of his players, particularly the younger ones. Whether it was the inspired decision to convert Sehwag to an opener, or the rather painful decision to make Dravid keep wicket to have that 7-4 combination, or the decision to bring Harbhajan back from relative obscurity for the 2001 Australia series, or the decision to promote Laxman to no.3 in THAT match at the Eden - most of his decisions were taken by putting his players directly in the cauldron - and almost all of them came off.

Never shy of taking the odd difficult call when it mattered the most, Saurav Ganguly was arguably the very best captain India had. He backed new kids and needless to say today we reap those rewards in Bhajji, Yuvraj and Zaheer. He did not mind keeping Kumble out in away tours when he was sure he needed only one spinner and that was Harbhajan to him. And against quite a popular view he never picked Laxman for 2003 WC. Perhaps it came to him only naturally as he always backed his own instincts. His struggle post his ODI debut in 1991-92 made him aware of the age old prophecy. It pays to back your view rather than going by popular choices.

But to me two incidents which really made Saurav Ganguly what we know today was none of the above discussed. The first was the incident which happened in the Indo-Aus Series in 2001. In one of the warmest sunny humid summer mornings in Kolkatta Saurav Ganguly made Stephen Waugh wait for almost two minutes before he came out for the toss. What was even more suprising and perhaps annoying for Steve Waugh was that Saurav deliberately called the wrong toss and even claimed that he had won it when it was Steve who had actually won. The "Hunters got Hunted" and from there on the Indians did pose serious questions to the Australian supremacy and were by the by far the only team which did that for major part of that decade. It was a invaluable scene to see how a bunch of "modest Indian" dominated the Aussies in their own field and in their own way. The second was when he took that call that Anil Kumble will sit out of 2003 WC Final against Australia. Now let's put it straight Kumble is a big name in India and leaving him outside from the playing eleven was a big news. For a long time Kumble did had that grudge against him but then did he ever care about these trivial things. What he wanted and always dreamt was Indian Victory and for that he could have taken any step.

He may have been in the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar for his batting exploits for the most part of his batting career but then he played one of the mighty role in the scheme of Indian Cricket. If Sunny Gavaskar taught us how to Bat, Kapil Dev the art of bowling fast then Saurav Ganguly taught us the art of captaincy and more importantly that " Art of Winning". Saurav Ganguly will be remembered as, statistically and otherwise, India's greatest ever left-handed batsman, an exceptionally good Test match player who never allowed his average to dip below 40 and one of the all-time greats of the one-day game. But most of all, he will be remembered for his brand of captaincy that quite simply changed the face of Indian cricket.

Saurav Ganguly : Take a Bow !!!

Rock On !!!

I am an avid movie watcher. And I try to watch almost every movie. And I can practically sit most of the movies without an issue either. It is rare that movies out do my thought process but then this was different.

Rock On!! … As the name suggest the movie is indeed special. The movie is fast, it is stylish, and it gives you a feeling of newness and is contemporary. But more than anything else it has script which makes the character breathe life into it. It has story which tells you about shades of life where you can relate to. The heart of any film lies in its characters and your ability to empathize with them. Rock On makes you do that. In a nutshell, here's a film you just can't afford to miss. We've had our share of masala films week after week. Now have a look at a film that India can proudly showcase to the West. ROCK ON!! simply rocks!

The film is an interesting mix about four friends and their families involved and parallels about the rock band these guys are part of. Shades of Dil Chahata Hai and Jhankar Beats for the Music competition relevance. The movie is an interesting mix of emotions and relationship and has lot to do with music. Circumstances play villain here and it has been captured well. The fragile relationship and the compelling narrative makes you spellbound.

Purab Kohli is tremendous and so is Luke Kenny. The extremely talented Purab Kohli may be reduced to the comic sidekick here, but he gives the film some of its nicest moments. Arjun Rampal does well in the role. A guy who towers above the rest with an earnest performance as the idealistic musician. And how can you forget the powerhouse performer Shahana Goswami. She was just marvelous. Superb is the word.

But to me this film is all about Farhan Akhtar. Years later when we sit and discuss this might end up be the bench mark for him. Such has been his enormity in the acting skills that some how I feel is vocal chords might have been over shadowed. It's courageous on the part of the film's makers that they went with Farhan's vocals for the songs that are filmed on him. And they were spot on. Farhan Akhtar makes his debut as an actor and he displays rare maturity for a first-timer. Known as an accomplished director all along, Farhan will now be acknowledged as a mature actor as well

There is something about Farhan that we keep on discussing. He started his movie career with a bang with the Dil Chahata Hain getting rave reviews and critical acclaim. He followed that with another good movie Lakshya. The only discomforting factor about that movie was that every time I watched it I started comparing it with his earlier classic DCH. Comparisons are hard to justify and the movie pales into insignificance in front of DCH. How much did I think that if Lakshya was his first movie then Lakshya might have been accepted by the audience much much more. But then would we have known Farhan Akhtar the way we know him today in case his directorial debut was Lakshya. We know Farhan Akhtar because of DCH and how much you try to better; DCH was one puzzle hard to repeat.

Coming back to Rock On !! It is an amazing experience. The highpoint is the emotional quotient, the skillful performances and the superb execution of the subject.
Rock On!! leaves you to feel nostalgic about your young age. And ends in a feel-good note, to follow your dreams. And before I end let me confess that I jumped out of my seat the moment I saw Farhan Akhtar singing the Dandiya version of “Sanso Ki Jarurat Hain Jaise”.

A must watch movie.

The End of Beijing Olympics : The Awakening of INDIAN Sports !!!

How often you would have thought that events unfurling in distance gives you that the chance to put things in perspective. A medal or two or perhaps three and yeah .... that included one solitary gold in the Olympics puts the entire nation into that discursive mode. How often does a sport other than Cricket evoke debates? How many times in not so distant past did you remember of keenly following a sport over the net, the newspapers and with Sports Gal in the 24*7 news channels? I am sure you must have done but guess it would not be that frequent. Thrice in the last couple of days young Indians have brought me to my feet and caused emotions to leap up in joy. Indian sport rarely does that and so this was an awakening.

Abhinav Bindra fulfilled the sports lover’s ultimate fantasy. The tricolor went up and the national anthem played and if your eyes weren’t moist at what he had achieved you weren’t Indian and you didn’t know what heartbreak meant. A young man with still chubby cheeks and a distant look has joined the ranks of India’s greatest. And how can I ever forget Sushil Kumar and Vijender the two unknown yet so magical guys who brought the world to their feat by their splendid achievements.

There is, however, a bigger cause for celebration, a good news story not entirely told by this medal tally. It’s the story of a phenomenal, across-the-board improvement in India’s sporting standards. It’s a story to be found way below the stratospheric level of the Olympic podium. It’s one that we can appreciate only when we free ourselves from the tyranny of expectations of an Olympic medal.

Let’s look at the Olympics first. Besides the three medal winners, when was the last time you saw so many Indians break into the quarter-finals, even to the last 16? Paes and Bhupathi in the quarters along with three boxers and a wrestler. India’s shooters have begun charting the path that India’s chess players did ten years ago. But the chess players were luckier for all they needed was a cardboard box, some chess pieces and a handy laptop. Even that was beyond India at times. But the shooters have overcome more and now we must give them, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Anjali Bhagwat and Gagan Narang and Avneet Kaur and everyone else, a standing ovation for they have won at different places on the world stage. As we must for young Saina Nehwal. Just 18 and looking it, which is rare in many sports, she showed the kind of determination that tugged at the heart and made you want to reach out to her. She has gone where no Indian girl has gone before in her sport.

Today, two shooters are in the top 10 and at least six in the top 20. Saina entered world badminton’s top 15 at the age of 18 and should at some point enter the top 10. Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand are already in the men’s top 50. Wrestling, weight lifting, boxing, all have, between themselves, several Indians who are leading contenders in their own respective categories. Our golfers have made a phenomenal improvement and now three are at least prominent regulars on the international circuit. Chess today boasts 18 grandmasters, many more than ever, underlining the fact that Anand wasn’t just an odd-ball prodigy, but an inspiration for so much hidden talent waiting for opportunity and a role model. And how can we ever forget Narain Kartikeyan ... a man who has single handedly changed the way 1 Billion People look at Formula 1.

Even in cricket, with our ongoing trouble with Mendis and Murali, our international rankings have never been higher. Our Test team has stacked out the Number Two spot in the ICC rankings as its own for a couple of years now (though slipping narrowly to No. 3 right now). Never in our history, not in the days of Gavaskar, Kapil and the great spin trio, have we been ranked at No. 2. Playing overseas in the past decade, we have won Tests and sometimes even the series. And surprise of surprises, our one-day performance entered the 50% zone for the first time in our history in recent weeks. What this means is that now we have won as many matches as we have lost, a Rubicon never crossed in the game’s four- decade history, not even in 1983, the year of the World Cup win.

And then I saw men full of spirit play their heart out for India on a football field. Rugged Manipuris played alongside a Kashmiri and a Sikkimese. Goans stood tall alongside Bengalis. This was Indian Foot Ball finding its feet and only just becoming aware of what it could do.

This is perhaps one of the very best phases of Indian Sports for quite some time...

Let's Enjoy.

Miracles

I believe in Miracles. In Science. In Fiction. In Angels. In Fairies. In Magic. In Misty Mornings. In Pleasant Evenings.In Dense Forests. In Deep Sea. In Mystical Chanting. In Ghostly Silence. In almost everything.....I do believe in Miracles.

As a child, I would fall a asleep hoping that when I wake up I would be lucky enough to watch the fairies polishing the leaves and watering buds with dew every morning. After all this exactly what my mommy use to say night after night every night. Of course I have never been a morning person and thus never did catch a sight of them doing that stuff but that did not make me believe any less in them.

I would also imagine as I lay in my bed that the angels whispered to me about sweet dreams and more often that not I would sleep safe in the knowledge that they watched me as I slept.

I have grown up quite some time since then but I still believe in impossible about things that lies beyond our ken and things that are beyond the realm of our imaginations.

The Importance of Being Mr. Pragmatic

( Guess this had to happen after the extremes of Dreamzz and Great Expectations... I had to take a middle path )

Ask any person on the street that whether he is optimist or pessimist, chances are pretty high that he will come with a reply which would suggest to us that he would be liked to be known as optimist rather than pessimist. Better to say glass half empty rather than half full. Even better to be known as a positive rather than not so... And now it is a ell established fact that an optimist has a better chance of succeeding than the person who is not so.

Life becomes very easy when we choose to live in fake world. We put new paint on dead walls, we walk with no clothes on body and still feel as if we are draped in silk, we cover rubbish on the floor and convince ourselves there is marble beneath. So very easy to make people imagine the golden dreams of future... that so very difficult to to make them see the hard vagaries of present.

So you see it is not the question of being optimist. The question also is not of being pessimist. The question is of being realistic. The question is of being PRAGMATIC. The question is of being able to face realism away from fake world. So should we still ignore the bricks and only concentrate on the paint or rather the color of our carpet or should we look inward within our self, be honest and realistic and build our future away from foolish fake imagery world. The choice is entirely yours.

Great Expectations

( This piece is written essentially as a sequel to my earlier article called Dreamzz )

How many times did you feel that people close to you have made you feel touch low even when you thought that you had given your best ? What happens to you when you come running back to share a good news only to find the usual sigh ? When was the last time you felt something great ... but alas still you were made to look just that equal ?

We live in the world of expectations. We breath in a world bubbling with expectations and trust me more often than not this bubble bursts without meeting it's ultimate realisations. From the scrawny street urchins playing near the mosquito infested drains of Chowk in Old Lucknow to the celebrated superstar walking out to play a Test Match in Lord's, almost everybody expects greatness and glory in the cricket field.

The scientist working in a isolated laboratory away from motley group of onlookers day in and day out expects to achieve a breakthrough in the dreaded A- Word AIDS, the ever so successful broker expects to hits the bulls eye every time he deals in the Bombay Stock Exchange. Every child entering the portals of Shivaji Stadium in Mumbai or Maidaan in Kolkatta wants to become the ultimate in the game of cricket : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar or Shane Warne and every student of Science at some point of time in his academic career must have been asked by his folks aside that " When will you become an engineer?"

So many of us expect greatness and go for glory little realising that nature has placed limitations on us. We try to be what we cannot and I tell you what that path lead to frustration only. Instead we should look inwards and try to do what we are meant to do and then get down to do that job better than anybody else and stamp our authority over it. It is not easy for it requires hard work, energy and motivation but also two of the most important things often taken for granted when it comes to achieve success. That of being Realistic and that of being Honest all the times. But is quite possible that you end up conquering the entire world with that extra effort and be the best in that field.

Moments Here n There !!!

When I was 11, I climbed up the highest floor of the tallest building around & felt like I own the world, Gosh !!! I am invincible ! I am destined to rule !!!

When I met with the nasty accident on one frightful summer night a year later and fractured my collar bone, had a slip in the hip & tasted physical pain… I thought Oops, I tasted the zenith of pain! What could be worst than this!

Passing out from my alma mater and parting ways with all the childhood bumchums when I was in Class X .... that was bad & I felt my first sense of lost.....

Going Out for a walk beside the Girl Ihad my biggest crush (I was 17), and felt that this is it!!!Nothing gets better than this!!!

I took my first hat-trick in college cricket & felt like am the only man around…

I got admission in B-School and felt like crying my heart out in joy...

I got through MBA, glide through a job interview, got my first job and I knew my life was made!!!

I lost everything one fine night and felt It's all over for sure !!!

How naïve was I !!!What was I thinking!!!Between then and now, through a thousand smiles and gallons of tears, I know better…

Hmmmm….I know...that My feet are still on the on the ground. It is just that I m wearing better shoes

The Don : Sir Donald Bradman

One of the many things which creeps your mind the moment you start pondering over about Sir Donald Bradman is his amazing test batting average of 99.94. Considering the next best is of another great Mr. Graham Pollock at 61.70 this little snippet in itself tells you a big story about this little genius.

Sir Donald Bradman was a living legend. He is the brightest jewel in the cricket crown. But more than anything else he is the most famous son of Australia. He was to Australia what Taj Mahal is to India, what Eiffel Tower is to France and perhaps what Statue of Liberty is to America. In cricket he is the ultimate gold standard. Anything good in cricket had to and had to be compared with THE DON.

A few years ago when i was going through one of the many cricket magazines I used to read, I came across that the ACB ( Australia Cricket Board ) Post Box No. is 9994. Initially I thought ACB might have opted for 10000 as this would be a very easy number to remember as it's Post Box number but due to non availability it was given 9994.

Very quickly I realised that how foolish and mistaken I was. Talking about numbers ACB Post Box number in Melbourne is 9994 as a true tribute to it's most famous son whom many consider as the greatest cricketer of all times.

Some Expierences about ....

.... Life ... It is no straight bed nor even an easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered. But, it is a maze of passages through which we should seek our way, lost and confused now, and again passing through that blind alley hoping against hope to look for the streak of white light.

But always if you fight for your way ahead and have that zeal and the enthusiasm to move forward and have that hunger and that passion to drive through nobody simply nobody can stop you from getting to that door which you might have not thought initially to enter but one which might end up being the very best for you in times to come.

Ageless Fable !!!

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at the stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred time without a single crack showing in it. Yet in hundred-and-first attempt it splits into two. And i know it was not that blow which did the trick but all which had gone before.

Think on it. !!!

Dreamzz

We all dream. Don't we. We dream of making the sun appear in the night sky, we dream of making moon come down to the earth. We dream of anything and everything. Those lovely dreams which make our life the very best and very special. In our dreams we do almost the everything. We slap arrogant policemen, we make rude municipality officers apologize and we make railway station master's clear the entire mess in the railway station. But then we wake up and when we wake up the entire scenario gets changed. In our real world we just shrug our shoulders and keep quiet when the milk men says he would not give us more milk.

Ah !!! the world of ordinary men that you and I live in. But then there is another world you know. A world that knows no full stops, where people create dreams since daily targets do not mean anything more, where excitement lies in shaking hand with the unreal and unseen. You can paint them with most gorgeous colors and embellish them with the most lilting music. You can fly in them and meet the most loveliest people. Really you can do anything because those dreams are yours and guess what they do not come with the wake up call attached. They start with the words : " Once upon a time they lived ..... " and end with " ..... and they lived merrily ever after."