The religion that cricket is.....

Having had my childhood in the 1990s, I belong a particular special generation of Indians who know what it means to stay awake in the post midnight hours to watch the results of an India Pakistan one-day match in Canada!! I distinctly remember those years when we used to wait for these specific yearly cricketing events like Sharjah or the Sahara Cup in Toronto to watch India establish its supremacy over the archrivals. This was all just a decade ago but it seems like that era has passed when cricket was followed religiously by people like us for the sheer magnificence of the sport. And when I say magnificence, I mean the feeling and passion that you get from watching an Azharuddin leg glance, a Rahul Dravid square cut, a Sachin Tendulkar straight drive, a VVS Laxman on drive and above all a Sourav “Dada” Ganguly’s cover drive that earned him the tag “the god of the off-side”... This is just the Indian version of the fabulous game that I am talking about. The global scene has a longer list of tremendous exhibition of talent that is just impossible to list. But in any case, like 90% of the Indians, I am a fan of cricket but an aficionado when it comes to Indian cricket....

There are people who fail to understand what is so peculiar about this sport that it’s the most widely followed “religion” in India and as a friend of mine often says, it is probably the only sport where people get to stand in the field doing nothing or sit on the pavilion just watching for the most part of the game!!!! If you talk with logic and reasoning, there seems to be a point there. After all, compared to so many other sports like football, athletics or tennis, the stamina involved is much lower... But then, the charisma in this sport lies not in the game itself but the perception. Let me be a bit clearer. This game brings out the patriotism hidden inside every Indian and those who remember the night of the Indian win in the 2001 series against Aussies at home turf or the famous Natwest final, or the ICC championship (formerly called mini-world cup) will know what I’m talking about. Just to think of those moments gives an exhilarating feeling that only a true Indian cricketing fan can understand.

It’s a sad state of affairs that the very concept of patriotism that used to define the Indian cricket is fading with the concept of IPL coming in. Not that I do not follow IPL (as I said, I’m a cricketing fan and any version of the game is appreciated!) but the speed with which test cricket is losing its charm among the “aam aadmi” is a bit worrisome. I don’t know how many people will agree with me but cricket in its purest form is losing its meaning. The sport has become a business... It hurts when you have to support one of the teams in a KKR vs. MI match.. Come on! I was the biggest admirer of the opening partnership of Dada and the little master. They are meant to play in the same team. Anything other than that seems absurd to me. If I choose to support MI for the master, how can I cheer when Sanath Jayasuriya takes a catch off Shaun Pollock to dismiss Sourav Ganguly.. What a fix a true Indian fan is in!!!

That apart, it feels good to see that there is still that generation of people that I grew up with, who watch cricket for what it was a decade ago. This post was inspired by a morning call with my bro, my oldest pal when it comes to discussing cricket, where he reminded me of the Ashes series that still remains one of the most popular yearly events despite all the 20-20 buzz that has been gaining momentum consistently! There is still a bunch of cricketing buffs at my workplace where everyone gathers in front of the common TV area to watch VVS save a test match for India and to wait for Sachin to hit his 50^th ton! It is moments like these that remind you of those days when you used to get up at 4 in the morning to watch a test match in Perth from the moment the coin is flipped in the air and this is when waking up in the morning is the most hated thing for a night person like me...

As busy as life has become giving you hardly any time to focus on anything other than the job at hand, cricket still remains the only distraction that can bring 100 odd people on a JP Morgan floor at a peak hour to leave their work to applaud for an Indian test match victory!!! Proud to be an Indian cricket fan.....

Mastery over mind

There are times when everything about your life seems out of place, somewhat mismatched, making no sense... These are times when you fail to realize how lucky you are compared to so many other people who are struggling to get places. No prizes for guessing that I am going through such a terrible patch currently! It’s not this feeling that disturbs me for I am pretty sure that all of us at some point or the other have quite a pain trying to make sense of the “bigger picture”. What is bothering is that this phase has continued on for quite a long period of time (close to a year now!!!!)...

I spend most of nights trying to figure out why everything seems to be so disconnected, what some people call as introspecting! And the reason I am writing today is that I think I have found my reason. I have been living alone in this beautiful city for the past eight months. The only thing that has been with me over this period is my job. That’s what life is all about now! Getting up in the morning, going to workplace, doing a job that is manageable though not very exciting, coming back almost at midnight hour and doing this same thing five days a week (often even seven days a week!!!). Not that there is anything particularly unsettling about the job part, but little else other than that is going smooth these days.

As wonderful and proud as I feel at the thought that I am one of the very few people in this country who manage to get an independent life at an age of 23, the point in living alone away from home in a city where I know a handful of people is slowly fading away. It’s hard to keep track of the number of nights that I have spent wondering whether I would be happier to be in a place where there is more to life than just job! Is it because of the fact that I am unable to settle into the new form of life that I entered into six months ago??? That still remains to be determined!

There is this craving inside the heart that longs for that someone special who can take of you and make sure that you never feel alienated, in whichever corner of the world you might be in... I don’t have that someone! At least I haven’t had him for the past one year... So this is the second reason (the first being away from family as stated above...) that I thought could be causing these unsettling emotions. The inability to get over a relationship that failed to exist almost a year earlier is quite a defeat and that was actually a part of the reason for this unrest in the mind and a constant feeling of being lost even when surrounded by friends or family.....

I don’t know whether it’s a perception or there is some truth to it but there is a creeping feeling inside that I am losing touch with myself. And finally today I have almost come to a conclusion. Actually after being in this phase of life for a little more than 7 months, this is what I realized. I have always enjoyed having a variety of things in life-dance, sports, reading, painting and the list goes on... But as of today, I hardly find time to do any of the things that I so used to love doing! That dynamic nature that used to define my character has gone missing. In the process of making myself suitable for the corporate role that I have always longed for, I have failed to grasp the fact that some of the softer things in life (that might often be ignored by many of us....) are slowly but surely taking a backstage! Guess bringing that back is the best way to bring back some of the lost colour in life...

With this realization, I proceed to the next phase of trying to revitalize the flavour of my day-to-day world. There is only one way to do that. Get out of the self-pitying state of mind and as a very dear person says to me constantly, “just need to remind yourself that you are lucky to be in a place where you have always wanted to be... a few minor hiccups on the way are inevitable!!!”

Hope to write my next blog in a much better state of mind J Fingers crossed though!

A thinker among bankers

How many people do we come across who have the guts to go up to their manager within four months of landing in a job at a "coveted" investment bank and put in his papers?!? Guess not many.. But I recently met such a guy. A remarkable human being who happens to be a dear friend and one of the most self-possessed persons that I have ever come across... We meet people everyday and most of them share a common trait- a profound disliking for their job and a special pleasure derived from publicly discrediting their work-life (No offence but that's human mentality and yours truly falls within this club of ordinary human beings!)

Not to say that this friend of mine is divine or something, but he is a stand-up enthusiast with a zeal for life that is seldom seen in a generation that is involved in the frenzied race to an unknown goalpost that often escapes my understanding! I met him in a training room six months ago on the first day of my new job but I really took notice when a week later, in a team introduction lunch he happened to mention that his hobby was Formula 3! And I immediately thought "Hey, that's kind of idiosyncratic in a spectacular way!" but well, that was just the beginning!

We became great lunch-time buddies and I came to know that we share a common root- the city of Chennai and that somehow, for some inexplicable reason made me feel that I have known him long. A sports car racer for hobby and a thinker for profession, he exhibits a strong personality of a dynamite with the mischief in his eyes of a teenage boy.. His interests and ideology give a strange alacrity to his guise that is so compelling yet so charismatic!

We were a bunch of enthusiasts who discussed over every conversation that we wanted to make it big in life. And somehow, I have always thought that I knew where I was going with my life... But then the day he said that he was quitting to take up a job that was much more saner than this and involved usage of not just time, but brains as well, I took a pause and wondered whether I was chasing a dream that when realized would seem meaningless! I admired him when he said that he was leaving to do something that he liked but when I learnt that it was half the pay that he was currently earning, I had a new-found respect for this man who was an aberration in this money-minded generation. All of us crib about what we are missing out in life but here is a guy who has set out to make his destiny rather than accept it!

It may seem like giving a demi-god status to  a normal person but such courage needs appreciation and moreover, he was a wake-up call for me. He says everyday with a warm smile “Dude, quit this job! You are not meant for this!” And I smile silently, all the while knowing that he is right! He has made me question my 8-year long ambition and for that, he deserves this post :-)

And when he cut his farewell cake yesterday that fittingly said “freedom at last” (which were actually my words!) I knew I was going to miss the camaraderie of a great pal – a motivating, pragmatic and lucid thinker – who is a treasure to the people that have gotten to know him! I can’t thank him enough for that….

Hats-off to the gallantry act of deviation from what is the accepted norm of life!!!            

Induction

I hated the word blog when I first heard it just for the fact that I could not stand the language English being used so mercilessly in the verb form "blogging" and I swore to myself that I'd never be part of this community...that was four years ago! But as I stand here today in a city far from home, family, friends with just a handful of acquaintances, I am left with no other option....

I ain't a great writer but seldom does the destiny leave you with choices! So a voluntary shift of mindset as I break my promise (thereby agreeing for the first time in life that I was wrong about a particular view!!)...and begin a long journey...a friendly hand towards this world of random thoughts!!!

At least, let the first post here be brief...for I am never a person of few words!