Patriotism in Indian Cricket

This is cricket season.Of-course in India it will be always cricket season only.With India knocking out the defending champions,the mighty Australian team, and with India to take on Pakistan in Semi finals,cricket fans in India are just going too crazy.Let me put on my views on cricket,well I just want to discuss something more than cricket here,but still its all related to cricket.Don't just get confused on reading the above line,go through the entire post,you can understand what I meant.

It was on 24th March,2011,India-Australia quarter finals was going on.It was an interesting match,with Ricky Ponting playing a captain knock.Full credits to Yuvaraj,Raina and of-course the little master Sachin,for their valuable contributions,which saw India through to semi-finals.Minutes after India won the match,I got a bunch of SMSes mocking Ricky Ponting and the Australian team.I wonder how people are so quick in this aspect alone.The media is just going crazy(as usual).But my question is why are we hyping cricket to this extent?

One of the recent development related to cricket is that our honorable PM has courageously invited the Pakistan PM and President to watch the India-Pakistan semi-finals at Mohali.Is this so important?I couldn't understand what exactly the PM is trying to do here.Diplomats say not to expect too much from PM's invite to his Pakistani counterpart.As per the schedule,the match is being conducted in India and I believe the law permits people from any country to enter India through legal means.If Zardari or Gilani are that much interested in watching the match,let them come,India is not going to stop them or send them back.Poor PM what will he do,if a controversy arises in this regard,he will say that an 'X' asked him to invite and so he did it,he don't know anything else.

The worst part is the way people gets excited and emotional on seeing cricket matches. Whenever I say something against the Indian cricket,a group of people gets ready to fight with me.They even go to the extent of questioning my integrity as an Indian.Also they give advices like "be patriotic,being an Indian you should not speak against Indian team"- what crap is this?Where does the question of patriotism arises in cricket?Of-course everyone(including me) will be happy to see India winning matches.But that doesn't mean that we should not criticize them.Its really simple.If India and West Indies are playing and if West Indies are playing really well,we should learn to appreciate them.In Chennai,when Pakistan team won the test match against India,in which Sachin's stupendous century went invain,the crowd,though disappointed,gave a standing ovation and they didn't throw bottles or stones.This is the real spirit which we should learn.

Never forget this people,the 11 players playing for Indian team are servants of BCCI(Board of Control for Cricket in India).They are not our representatives.I read an article long back in a daily,which said that BCCI gets a lot of tax exemption because it is shown as a charity trust.Why should the BCCI get tax exemption?Till today I have never heard of BCCI helping orphanages or old age homes etc.In that case why should they get tax exemption?The most arrogant cricket board in the world is the BCCI.

The ICC is another useless organization which calls itself International Cricket Council,but has done little for the development of cricket.In all these years only some 7 to 8 recognizable teams have excelled in cricket.Teams like Kenya,Ireland has shown lot of promise before this world cup itself and Kenya even entered the semi finals in the 2003 world cup.If developing cricket and building goodwill among the nations is the real intention of ICC,they should have taken steps to give more matches to Kenya, Ireland, Netherland etc.Without any matches Kenya remains a minnow in international cricket.ICC is just another money minded organization.

Onions in general itself has the tendency to make us weep,if its cut.But nowadays on hearing the onion price itself people start weeping.Whats the connection between onion and cricket?Not only onions,the prices of all other food items are at an all-time high.Mr.Sharad Pawar,Union minister of Agriculture and Consumer affairs has no time to think about all these stuff, because,now he is also the president of ICC.He is more concerned about the international business than the national grievances.Nothing wrong,he can continue as ICC president,but he should have quit his minister post.

Now comes the important part of this world cup.India meets Pakistan on March30th in the semi finals.Every govt is taking measures to provide high security to all the stadiums and the cricketers.Irrespective of the outcome of the game,we may expect some clashes in some parts of India(not everywhere)For this no govt can do anything,people should have some sense.Well educated people itself behave like idiots at times,when it comes for cricket,then need not say much about people living in underdeveloped states.

Fine,on April 2nd,the world cup ends.Will the so called 'cricket fever' end with the WC final?It will not end.Because within a week,another big budget gamble called IPL starts.By this time bookies and the franchises might have fixed the winner of IPL,but still will do all sorts of non-sense to gain public attention like what Sharukh Khan did during IPL-2,by appointing someone to leak out the info about KKR,in the name of a blog fakeiplplayer(its not proven that SRK appointed a person to write that blog,but its just my opinion).Too much of cricket will definitely take away the charm and beauty of the game.

Now you people need not think that I am a cricket hater.Am not one.I too like cricket and I had lot of interest in watching cricket matches some years back,but after the match fixing saga and also due to too much of politics in cricket,I really lost my interest for the game.If there is something good which I have observed in cricket means its the following fact.In India we can find unity only at 2 instances.People will forget themselves,their caste, religion, sorrows etc and etc.The 2 instances are when people drink together in a wine shop and when people watch Sachin's batting.No doubt,Sachin is a pride of this nation.One can, not only learn batting techniques,short selection,foot work etc from him,but also decency,dignity and sportsmanship.

My point is,we should be sportive and we should not get emotional,watching cricket.Building a temple to Dhoni,when India wins a world cup or breaking Dhoni's house whenever India suffers a humiliating defeat is an act of madness.Abusing Ashish Nehra's mother and sister(got it as a fwd SMS) for his poor last over is absolute foolishness and it is highly uncalled for.

Let us enjoy cricket and hope that India plays good cricket and wins the World Cup.

'Change' - Is it possible?

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"Change is something which never changes" - almost everyone of us are aware of this saying.But still why this question?Why did I get the doubt that, whether certain changes are possible?As the saying suggests,so many things have changed in the past.People started worshipping godmen more than the God itself,drinking habit,which was considered a bad habit long long ago,is now being considered as an act of pride among the educated society,nowadays people feel proud, in calling themselves, belonging to a so and so community rather then being called as an Indian, like this the society has seen so many changes..But these changes has not done anything good to this nation and now the time has come,to change again.


Last month,I had a casual discussion with one of my friends.He has the habit of reading headlines in the newspaper and passing comments about it.The news was something like the opposition parties accusing the Prime Minister for appointing P J Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner,who himself(Thomas) is facing charges of corruption.There were also other issues like 2G Spectrum,S-band spectrum etc in the front page.This fellow as usual,after reading the headlines,started commenting as follows :


"what non-sense is this?daily I am able to see different scams in headlines.. 2G,CWG,Adarsh etc..everyday starts with this kind of news only..God save this nation.."


I asked him,"r u a BJP supporter or what?or do u support Communists?u r bashing the Central govt like anything,so tell me to which party do u support?"


That fellow replied:


"I don't support any party dude..every party is corrupt..the BJP and Communists are no saints.."


Then I asked him that to whom did he vote in the recent Lok Sabha elections..he replied:


"am I an idiot or what to waste my one day leave to vote for these useless people?"


This is the reason for large scale corruption in India.People hardly bother about what's happening around them.The fellow is not even bothered about his right to vote,but he will pass comments about politicians and will move away..Remember people,if we really want to change the governing system,then we should take part in it...There are many like this..I would also like to mention another incident here.


My another friend,who is working in HDFC bank,was abusing the state govt like anything,as the road is not good in his area..To be more precise,there is no road at all in his area..Then we had a conversation as follows:


Me : Who is the MLA here?To whom did u vote for?


My friend : MLA is Mr.X and I voted for him only.
[I just don't want to reveal the MLA name here :)]


Me : On what merit you voted for him?Is he really a good candidate?


My friend : Don't be an idiot expecting good candidates in politics :D..He gave me 2000 rupees and asked to vote for him..I did it..


After this I scolded the guy badly..This is actually happening everywhere.. This is also a form of corruption..Infact the worst form of corruption..If you r casting your vote for money,it means that the candidate has bought you.. You are not only selling out your vote,but also your respect and self-esteem..Can you question your MLA anymore?Do you have the moral right to question him?If you ask him,he will give a simple answer - "u got the money before voting right?you should have thought about this before getting the 2000 rupees"..


If someone offers something for free,we should never hesitate to say "No". The politician is bribing us because he is sure of the fact that he can't win on his merits.Before some months,the govt of TN, announced flood relief funds. I came across a news regarding this.Some people died in the stampede while getting the relief funds.Among them 5 people were IT professionals.For few hundreds of rupees,these people lost their precious lives.Inspite of earning thousands per month,they didn't want to miss few hundreds of govt money. I was really disappointed when I read this news.

Understand the fact that,a transistor,that we buy using our own earnings, is more valuable than the govt supplied color TVs or laptops.By giving these freebies,the govt is making the people as beggars.Its a real pity that,not many realizes the fact that these freebies are given by spending our own tax money.The govt should instead, use this tax money to bring some real development scheme,providing jobs for people..If we have a job,we can buy a TV,fridge,Set top box :D etc on our own..If all the tax money is spent on freebies,from where will the govt get money to lay roads or to install lights?


We can't change the minds of those politicians who are bribing us,but we can change ourselves.When will a nation prosper?Only when its citizens follow the ethics.Unethical life doesn't stop with corruption alone.It includes drinking,illegal relationships,burglary etc.As long as we don't have any bad habits like drinking,smoking etc., we will have sense of satisfaction.We may argue with people around us that these habits are not bad and we may also win the argument,but there is something called inner-conscience,that will never allow us to remain peaceful.


There is a culture spreading in the name of night life nowadays and people say everything is for fun.And some people also go to the extent of saying that we should enjoy the life.Always we should remember that our mistakes will definitely haunt us till the end of our life.


I have written so many things,now you may very well think that what's the use of writing all these stuff here?You can also think that,"this fellow is going overboard..he is writing so many things,is he 100% perfect?" - I will give an honest answer for this question that "I am not 100% perfect"..Not only me,nobody is 100% perfect,but we should always try to be 100% perfect and we should give up the habit of justifying our mistakes.

Do you really think that writing all these stuff in a blog will make a difference?It CAN make a difference.Hosni Mubarak,a ruthless dictator who ruled Egypt for 30 years,was driven out of power following huge protests by the entire nation.You know what triggered such huge protests?It is the facebook status updates,twitter tweets and blog posts.See the pic below:

I don't mean to say that,am capable of cleansing this society,but this is a small contribution from me.I may not be capable of making huge contributions like what Lord Hanuman did to Lord Ram,but everyone of us can atleast make some small but useful contribution,in whatever possible way,like what a tiny Squirrel did to Lord Ram.

We can use Orkut,Facebook,Blogs,Twitters etc in an useful way by sharing some valuable informations, instead of using them only for flirting.

Note : Whatever written above are just my views,I am not expecting anyone to buy my views,just sharing something which I felt will do some good.

Memorable Days at Pune

 Finally I have decided to blog about my days at Pune.Actually I never had a thought to write about this,but my friend Amirtha Deepan’s post about Pune in his blog, only inspired me to do so.But I am planning to write a lengthy post,so b prepared for it.

Note : The pic,which can be seen above,was not taken in Pune,but it was taken in Goa :D.

Let me give a brief intro about the pre-Pune scenario,that took place in Chennai.Let me not get deep into what has happened in Cognizant,as many who read this will be knowing it.After lots and lots of argument,finally we left to Pune.I was not at all happy to leave Chennai,but still my inner conscience said “Everything happens for a reason”,so I was not so upset or sad either.It was Deepan who was really very happy to go to Pune,because he had a belief that girls in Pune will look so good  and Anand Kumar too was in a similar state of mind like me.Since I was going to stay outside for such a long period for the first time,I got lot of calls from my friends and relatives,with their best wishes.Some of my friends and some relatives, came to airport to give a send off.At that time in airport I happened to see some politicians in airport and I told about them to my friends(for which they appreciated me  :D).Then we went inside.

It was the first time we were travelling in flight.But,honestly speaking I was not much excited.Anand was bowled over by the beauty of an air-hostess and he kept on dreaming about her.Now you don’t think I didn’t see her,even I liked her  and thank God Deepan didn’t see them properly :P.After that we landed in Pune and we were picked up by the cab arranged by the company and were taken to guest house.The rooms alloted for us were just too good and thank God,there was a tv in every room and more importantly one common system with internet facility.

Our office was at ICC Trade Towers,in Senapathi Bapat Road.For the first 2 weeks we had long working hours (from evening 4.30 to night 9.30,i.e., 5 hrs :D).There we met some Tamil guys(Sriram,Chidambaram,Arun Vikram) and we felt relaxed(ada erkanave konjam adimaigal vandhuttanga :D).To be frank,within office premises,there was no discrimination at all.Right from a PAT to a manager,everyone treated us nicely. There was no space for South Indian-North Indian bias and all.There were many PATs and just-now promoted PAs.They made us feel comfortable and the very first week we went for an outing to Mahabaleshwar,which was a memorable outing.

Be it in terms of room or team,Anand and Deepan were together and I remained isolated.They 2 were room-mates and they worked in migration team,while I had a separate room and I was in export team. But I enjoyed working in export team than them :D.It was mainly because of my friend Rakesh Upadhye.He was also PAT at that time and he was roped into the project right from beginning.So he was more or less like a TL and he always made me to come in morning shifts(7.30-3.30).But for some 5 or 6 days,I never stayed in office for more than 8 hrs.And after I joined the export team,we didn’t have any complicated issues too.So we always enjoyed.

Though I was in a separate room,I used to spend most of the time in their room only.Though I had a tv in my room,I will keep MGR songs in Anand’s room and enjoy there :D.For me it was enjoyment,but,for them it was a torture :P.Only once I kept all old songs from all Tamil Channels for some 2-3 hrs in my room to irritate my room mate(a hindiwala :D),since he tortured me one day by watching some hindi reality show(which is an utter crap :@).

99% of the cab drivers will speak in Hindi or Marathi only and they don’t know much of English.I never had a problem in talking to them in Hindi.But I had a different problem,most of the weekends I will be having off(leave) and these guys(Anand and Deepan) will be having shift.But the cab drivers will always call my mobile only. Lot of times,I thought of getting up at early morning around 11 or 11.30 AM,but these cab drivers woke me up at 7 or 8 itself.Atleast these guys were in the same guest house with me, but sometimes the cab drivers called my mobile to pick up people from other guest house too.My number has become like a customer care :D.

Another funny event in office means a mail with the subject,”Sweets @ my desk”.If we get this mail,we 3,the other Chennai guys and Rakesh,Rishab,Pallavi etc., will go to the desk,irrespective of whether we know them or not and will take sweets.Once when I took the sweets and congratulated a person for his b’day,the guy was looking worried(I took 3 sweets :D) and I caught his mind voice “u idiots,u have emptied the entire sweet-box,now what will I give to my girl-friend :@” 

Deepan was desperate to visit Goa  and he pestured us a lot and took lot of steps to arrange the trip and finally we too went to Goa.Arun Vikram too joined us.So we 4 went.I didn’t enjoy much in Goa  but we had entertainment in a different form.It was our car driver.While starting from Pune,he asked me a question,”have u ever visited Goa?” - I should have guessed the entire scenario at that time itself. That fellow don’t know the route to Goa and the worst part is,he was more like a beginner in car driving(goyyala unakkellam evan da license kuduthaan :@).Once I asked for the route,they told to take the 3rd left from the next circle,but this fellow will drive the car twice or thrice around the circle and he will get confused to take which left.Once he said,”this route will take us to Kohlapur(the one which v r supposed to take),but I wont go in this,I will take the shortcut,but I don’t know the route” - I became angry and told him to take up the route which he knew.We can write a separate blog post itself about this Goa trip and more importantly this driver.If my friend Deepan is reading this post,this is for him: “I didn’t write many things” :D.Others don’t bother about this statement :P.

Another important place which I visited means,Shirdi.It was simply awesome and SaiBaba(Shirdi SaiBaba) was kind enough to give his Darshan to me.Chidambaram alone accompanied me to Shirdi. The only regret is I couldn’t go to Mumbai.I couldn’t make proper plans to visit Mumbai :-(.

Another important date is December 3rd.We celebrated our Amirtha Deepan’s b’day in his room and had fun in teasing him as usual :D.Our friend Aravindraj gave the best b’day gift to Deepan(a beautiful SMS comprising of all bad words :D).

And finally we got a breather.A mail from our manager to be in Chennai on Jan 1st,2011.When I said that am going to return,my parents and my sister were so happy and my sister even bunked her college to welcome me(may be,she found a reason to bunk :D).And some of my good friends were also, very happy for this.My friend Gokul(college mate) even went to the extent of fixing a program in besant nagar beach.Some other good friends replied me like this :

“happy to hear this,treat machi”,”awesome buddy,waiting for u”,”thala vaa new yearku kalakkidlam”, “hereafter team-outings will be there”.

Now you don’t think am a very good person,I got other replies too like this,when I sent,”I am coming back to Chennai on 26th Dec” :D.

“Oh my God,what’s wrong with Cognizant?”,”machi 2 maasama nimmathiya irunthen da,pls reconsider da,dhayavu senju vandhudaatha”,”ayyo nee thirumba varriya?,7 and half start aaguthunnu josiyakaaran sonnathu seri thaan pola”…

Like this so many msgs :D.They were not kidding,they meant what they said :P.These good people said this to me straight away and someother good people didn’t tell any such dialogues :D(but I can catch the mindvoice of them :P).Don’t know how many were really worried that I came back :P,but I am happy to make a comeback :D.

On a serious note,but for expenses and food,Pune is an awesome place to live.Everything was very costly.We were not ok with the food items available.We still remember a only shop,where we had sambars without sweet,but food was comparitively good in our Eminent Guest house.And the people over there,served quite well to us.Once we asked for break-fast,but we were about to leave as the cab came and the break-fast was little late,but the cook pleaded us to have atleast some idlies.Then I called the cab driver and asked him to wait for 5 mins and we had the break-fast and went.

The only issue that almost tortured us was,the question of our return.Because if not that time,then it wouldn’t have been possible for us to come-back for atleast 2 yrs.By God’s grace everything was fine.And I had a nice learning experience in Pune,may be not in terms of understanding any technology,but in terms of understanding people.I learnt a lot in terms of that.The culture there,people’s mentality,people’s lifestyle etc.

Like this we were really happy to be in Pune(atleast I was happy).It was really happy to spend time with Anand and Deepan there.With nice friends,we can survive anywhere :-).

That’s all about our days at Pune.