+The fall of Raisina hill.. AGAIN!!

There have been several moments ever since our country's independence which have greatly embarrassed the sane, unbiased and concerned Indian citizen to feel disgusted and disheartened about calling himself Indian. And an incident happening right now, will stand as another milestone in that regard. A parliamentary form of government which India has, has very limited role for the highest seat of governance i.e the President and apart from republic day parade's and official perquisites there has been very little respect that a President holds too. When i remember studying Civics and Politics, my teachers used to address the President as a Rubber stamp!! And maybe until 5 years ago, that was the respect I myself held to the President of this nation, the first citizen of this nation and the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. Everything changed about 5 years ago when one man who hailed from a remote village in Tamilnadu, who turned a scientist and went on to win the BharataRatna for his contributions to the Indian Army, a Poet, a musician and of all a great humanitarian elevated the post of Indian Presidency from Rubber Stampship to Humanitarian Politics... Abdul Kalam is the name.

Maybe after the political leaders of the Indian Independence movement, there hasn't been a person who has won the hearts of people like Abdul Kalam has, and honestly is not achievable in the foreseeable future. And if there was a person that deserved to be in the presidency, at least for the sake of preserving our nation's dignity, it was Kalam undoubtedly. I don't know whats stupidly wrong with politicians that argue that after Babu Rajendra Prasad, no other person was the president for the second time and hence the formality must be continued!!

Gosh, i wish no person was allowed to be the Prime minister or Chief minister for a second term.. We would have done away with one term of a female dictator called Indira Gandhi who with her indiscriminate abuse of power caused the darkest moment of India post Independence in the name of The Emergency, an idealistically blinded statesman like Jyoti Basu who took Bengal a few decades into the past, while the whole nation moved forward and a communal fanatic like Narendra Modi who with his fanaticism has caused enough harm to the nations social fabric and our nation's respectability in the world, to name a few. And if the politicians dont deserve the same treatment as the President, dont you find something terribly wrong with our political system? I agree that even the Presidents in the past like KR Narayanan, Shanker Dayal Sharma, Radhakrishna etc have been eminent personalities and also great statesmen. But what has been different with President Kalam has been his accessability with the common citizen, his active participation in social activities, his association with children and his love for being a human, untainted by the tainted politicians. Even when someone asked him if he wanted to be president for the second term, he humbly said he'd wanted to go back to teaching. Ask the same question to an existing minister, MLA, MP or even a municipal corporator and he'd kill or slaughter to cling on to the same position of power. Maybe the greatest achievement of the NDA while in power was to bring someone as respectable as Kalam to the presidency.

However, Utopia cannot continue forever and today The President of India, My President forever will be stepping down and another Rubber Stamp will be coming into his place. And the funny part being, she's the rubber stamp for another rubber stamp!! Have you ever seen a Bullock Cart with two humans and another lady sitting on the Cart and whipping the two and running the show? Well, thats precisely how the next years of our politics will be. Sonia Gandhi holding the reins over the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and our soon to be President Mrs Pratibha Patel! And the sole reason why President Kalam was not let to continue for the second term is due to his straightforwardness with which he has embarassed the UPA government on more than a few occasions. And hence though he enjoyed over 70% of the support of all politicians and a vast majority of Urban Indians wanted him as the President ( as revealed by several polls), the Congress and their lady in charge wanted someone who would nod his or her head to every stupid action the government would take, another rubber stamp, another symbolic figure and what best than a woman, a total blind follower to the Nehru Gandhi family than Pratibha Patel.

I certainly have no problem having a woman president and it certainly would have set a great precedent having a first woman president. And there have been numerous women who have contributed in some way for the upliftment of downtrodden women, or active politicians or women who have fought for a cause and made an impact. Maybe a Medha Patkar, a Menaka Gandhi(the only peson whom i repsect in the whole family), a Kiran Bedi etc. Sorry if I have missed many names, but I am sure all these women have contributed some value to society. But what has our honourable soon to be president Mrs Pratibha Patel contributed, except being literally a rubber stamp to the Nehru Gandhi family!! And due to her sincerity she was climbed the political ladder to even become the president of this nation, from almost being a total stranger to 99% of the Indian population. And I am not an anti congress guy, except for their blind worshipping of the family, the modern dynasty which has been ruling this nation and in my opinion killing the spirit of this nation with idiotic politics, fallible statesmanship and masked dictatorship!

I am neither against symbolism. It sure feels good to think of a woman as the the first lady of the nation. It also felt good to have a Muslim. Next we might have a christian, next a budhist, next a physically challenged, maybe a lunatic and finally a eunach(as if we dont have enough of them in the politicians today, no disrespect meant to eunachs please)!! After all, they are a minority too! Please dont get me wrong, but symbolism is acceptable, but not always appreciable at the cost of the deserving. The congress and the UPA had a vast number of leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, Pranab Mukherjee etc who could have made very respectable presidents. Ofcourse they might not be as good rubber stamps as Mrs Sonia Gandhi would have wanted.

There was a poll conducted on IBNLIVE and more than 90% of the voters claimed they lost respect and confidence on the Presidency in India. And I am among of them. And I am sure many of you reading this essay would agree with me, but we are helpless in this system of politics where we only choose our local representatives hoping they would bring in the leaders we like, but many a times this remains wishful thinking. President Kalam will be a happy man going back to what he does best, touching and changing hearts. He will go back to teaching or just talking to students and till the end of his life and maybe mine, He will be my President of this nation.. As for Pratibha Patel, well I just hope and pray that some sanity prevails in her mind and does not become a total puppet to Sonia Gandhi. I hope she upholds the respect that President Kalam brought to this office. But again its merely wishful thinking. We surely have learnt in the past what rubber stamp presidents have done to this nation, and lets just hope that though Raisina hill has fallen, fallen greatly, lets just hope it doesn't fall as bad as it did in the past, like in 1975!

The Beauty in being yourself...

One of the most daunting tasks for a human in my opinion is knowing himself, and then even more difficult is preserving himself or simply not loosing himself, in the pursuit. There is something very striking both in young children and old people that make them very attractive, they are themselves. They don't act for our sake, or try to be different than what they really are. Its just that honest admission of their shortfalls and their excellence that appeals to the person, for innately everyone wants to be himself. It sometimes baffles me, that some people live their whole lives just for appeasing someone else. A husband does one job over another opportunity to appease his wife, a lover wears a dumb shirt which he never would have worn just to appease his girlfriend, an employee drinks at a party cause his other colleagues would think, he's a nerd etc. The worlds greatest people have all been eccentrics in their own way, not going with the way of the world, and maybe that's why we adore them so much. In my opinion every individual has something in him that makes him different to everyone else that we know. Some of these qualities are superficial and don't deserve much attention. I am talking about those innate qualities that make up the core of a person. And most of us give up on those qualities either due to the fear of non acceptability and some due to the fear of acceptability.


The tragedy begins young in childhood, when the parents compel the young mind to being something it isn't. They want him to be dignified in front of people, talk politely. If one child is silent, they compel the other to learn from his silence, but isn't noise as beautiful as silence. I remember once when I as talking to one teacher when I was budding as a poet, asking him which poet's style I should follow. He asked me to follow the path of my heart, as I am still just a budding river, that needn't be tamed. It is the wilderness that creates beauty in it. So is the case with a child, he is born to be wild. If a child is silent their might be something wrong with him unless he was a saint in his earlier life, and was born back with the same vasanas. The reason the parent does this compelling, is he has some expectations on the child or more like he wants the child, like he is not or he is. In my opinion one of the greatest sin a parent can do is to steal a child of himself. Schools do not do much good and further curb the innateness within the child, and the biggest tragedy in life is, we don't realise what we have lost, until we find it in someone else.

Institutions that govern our lives are another cause for destroying a person's personality. Religion, marriage, parenthood, universities, employment organizations are all a part of these institutions that tamper the growth of an individual instead of helping in discover himself. To correct myself, it is not always the institution, but maybe the interpretation and implementation of the institution that does this. A perfect example of an institution gone wrong is marriage. There are several purposes of marriage, and the most important purpose of it in my opinion is discovering one another with the help of the other person. No one shares such privacy, intimacy and space with you as your spouse, and he or she would know many things about the person which no other might even imagine. Marriage to me is a laboratory, a daily coffee club with two friends sitting every day across the table and sipping a coffee and conversing, a battleground between two egos, a playground for fulfilling and transcending your sexual desires, an experience of experiencing evolution through parenthood etc. I was one day very surprised to read in a newspaper that about a third of Indian youth in metropolitan cities are contemplating not marrying at all! And maybe due to social compulsion or due to peer pressure or due to loneliness one might opt for a late marriage, which many a times can be compromising. i have seen many friends and cousins get married in recent times, and sometimes I wonder, is marriage today all about formalities, social compulsions and social restrictions?? There is rarely true love for the family members of one's spouse. When I was in love with a girl earlier, I looked upon her parents as my own, not more, not less. And tragically even though we parted ways with time for our reasons, the love for her parents still exists in totality which baffles me even sometimes. Maybe, thats love. And why is it difficult for a people to be themselves in the case of marriages, because we dont try to understand what love is. Love is mistaken for attraction, infatuations, commitment, lust, attachment, expectations, responsibility etc.

Of course employment organizations can do very little to help you discover or preserve yourself. Cause most of the times, there are preset rules, regulations, commitments and expectations that in the longer run generally curb the growth of the individual except as per as the office he holds. A thought process is fed into the mind, so he does not stand against that thought process some day later in life.

Maybe the greatest service a person can do to this world is discovering himself and then preserving himself against all odds in the world. For one day he might need to contribute for the betterment of himself and everyone around him and that can be done when he truly knows who and what he is. Then what is the way to keep yourself from being curbed by everything around you. Its a tough question, but I have only one answer. Check every step you take in life, every lesson that you learn and check if it has helped in expanding you as a person or on the contrary curbed you or your thought process, has it freed you from inhibitions or further confined you. If we remain ourselves untainted by the vagaries of the world aroun us, we are as beautiful as the picture on this post. Its a journey not many people wish to take or rather realise even to undertake, and for everyone who does it cheerio guys and girls, we rock!!

Much Ado About Nothing!!!

This very expression of Rahul Dravid speaks a million words of India's dismal exit of the world cup. I never believed they were favorites, unlike the millions fooled to believe the same, but yes if all guns fired, we sure were talented and damn experienced. Sport has long lost itself as being a pure entertainer, with match fixing, murders and such debacles its surely as interesting as a thriller movie and is script for the longest TV serial ever made. Too bad Ekta Kapoor doesn't buy scripts with too many men in the lead roles. And she surely is not at loss, with team India's dismal failure. Its only Rs 2500 crores of losses for the Indian economy, but its ok, the market's anyways in a slump. And the true cricket fan, can watch the real teams battle it out. It might be Australia or South Africa, but I believe West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are looking good too.

I don't seem to understand one thing ever. How can Sachin Tendullar be branded as the greatest living cricketer or at least of the current era? I wouldn't deny his finesse in cricket, his ability to manhandle any bowler on his day. But in his long long career of 18 years, never has India won any significant tournament! And nothing at all overseas. Take a look at Lara(who in my opinion is the greatest batsman of this era) who delivers when West Indies needs him. A team that everybody thought was turning into a minnow, now is fighting a mega tournament and seems at least a Semi finalist, thanks to the able guidance of Lara. I Still remember when Lara played for over a hundred overs with Ambrose and then Walsh on one side, to save a match against the mighty Aussies. If Lara was with India, and gets to be chosen into the Indian team along with Sachin I am sure he would have landed up much higher than what Sachin has achieved. And most importantly any sport is won in the mind, not in the field, and Sachin never won a match in his mind. Ponting, Inzamam, Jayasurya are certainly far better players, as they delivered when it mattered to the team. Ponting lead his nation to one world cup win and is on his way to steer his team to another one in 2007. I am not undermining Sachin's exceptional ability to play the game. He is truly a genius and by far, one of the most gifted talents of the game. But is ability and talent enough to make someone an icon? Its unfair to make him a demi god, and now call for his retirement. Remember, he never delivered when India needed him most, and don't expect him to do so. But expect a few fireworks now and then, he's a player for the average Indian, the advertisers and of course the BCCI who would never imagine taking of a Maharastrian out of the Indian team with Sharad Pawar ruling it.

What really is baffling is that though this collapse happened now, its premonitions were visible long long ago. We always boasted of the best batting line up, as we have many match winners, I mean many guys who have won matches independently, on their hay days. Apart from Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj, not a single Indian batsman has the required technique to hold a cricket bat properly, let alone winning matches. Out of them, at 34 years age, Sachin is on a downward spiral, ganguly trying all his best to save his spot in the team, Yuvraj just recovering from an injury and Dravid, well I love him as a player but captaincy is eating up his playing abilities too. So that means, team India was to win the world cup with the Dhoni's. Sehwag's etc. Gosh, Isn't that stupid. Actually I realized Sehwag plays against only team's of his caliber, thats why he pummeled Bermuda. There was clearly the requirement of one batsman with god technique to hold the innings together. Someone who can perform when you want him to, someone who has a track record of doing well, and what is that person doing... he's sitting with us watching cricket with us as a true Indian fan, after being let down by the BCCI four times.. VVS Laxman. I am sure if India had laxman in the team, India wouldn't have faired so badly, cause unlike the icons of cricket like India has, he will perform when the team needs him, not when he wants to. But unfortunately team India has no place for players that play with pride and for the nation. And how on earth could Robin Uthappa be picked over Laxman, when India had decently good number of people to open the innings. India normally playes with ten people unlike eleven, as anyways Sehwag will not perform, with Uthappa in it seemed like we were playing with nine players! I don't intend to let down the young chap, he's good. But I wonder what Tendulkar was doing down at number 4 when the ball was swinging and wickets were crumbling in front of his eyes, surely he should have opened with Ganguly or Sehwag(well we can't remove him, he has a contract till he is 70 to play in the Indian team)and the other one coming at number 3, Laxman at number 4(or even 3), Yuvraj at 5, Dravid at 6 and Dhoni at 7. If Laxman failed Dravid would have been there to save the game, and vice versa. We only had match winners, no team players and thats why India failed miserably, and we blame the coach, the captain etc. In the bowling too, we had one more KAR, Agarkar. This guy deserved a boot from the Indian team long long ago, but well he is from the same state as oof the BCCI president. With Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan sitting on the bench, we have this guy throwing his ball here and there. Look at the opening bowling attacks of other teams and of India, its no wonder we could not pick wickets which even Bermuda could pick. In 2003, one of the strongest point of the Indian team, was the presence of 2 left arm seam bowlers,who were so different and worked well as a team. What in the world happened to Ashish Nehra? And even Irfan with some grooming or Sreesanth would have been a better bet than Agarkar. Irfan would have brought some depth into the batting and more choices too. Oops I forgot, they aren't from Maharastra, right.

So now with the last nail hitting Indian hopes with Bangladesh routing Bermuda, the head count will begin. Firstly, Chappel will go, after all he's the scapegoat. And maybe his tactics don't deserve to be used with a team less team. We need a coach that will groom individuals and provide them with safer haven, but not someone who tries grooming a team. Dravid might also been show the door, but unfortunately he doesn't have a proper replacement. I would hope and pray Dravid plays on, with Yuvraj being given the vice captaincy. And places of some players will be shaken, some younger guys will be coming in and lets hope they aren't made icons.

There still remain a thousand questions unanswered... Why doesn't the board prepare seaming and bouncy pitches in India? Out of the thousands of crores the BCCI earns, a few crores can change the shape of Indian pitches. But it cant risk team India loosing at home too, and that would dent its earnings. So we have cement grounds as pitches and hence, when we are overseas we fail.Why aren't younger players like Pathan etc not protected by not playing them in onedays? Oneday internationals can ruin a good cricketer with pressure. Why isn't the BCCI first reconstituted, enough of 'Pawar' play instead of Power play? Why isn't there more efficient selection systems for the zones and states also?

A similar situation happened in West Indies too about 2 decades ago, when great players like Vivian richards etc just stepped down from cricket. And those greats played like a team, but the nations that make the west Indies could not groom replacements for them. If we don't address these similarly grave issues, we could go down the downward spiral that west windies went into and take another 2 decades to start getting some international respect.

Kratos is backkkkkkkkkkk- God of War 2

Finally the wait is almost over.. god of War 2, one of the best PS2 games ever and my favourite game of all times is back and is back with a bang, a big brutal bang... I just cant wait to get my hands on this brutal beauty of a game. Strict warning: this game is not for the faint hearted who cannot tolerate absolute brutality beyond your wildest imagination. And why do i love it, you need to play and realise why. You just cannot stop yourself from loving, hating and envying this brutal anti hero of the game called Kratos. The graphics are mind blowin, the music is spine chilling. And Gosh Kratos looks wonderful in my new 40" LCD tv and a real home theatre.

If you own a PS2, just grab God of war 1 and then wait for God of war 2 which should be here in India by end march. Cause if you love video games, own a PS2 and havent played god of war, you've really missed a milestone in life.

A royal Bengal tiger.....

Of all the roles I play as a human, I think the most significant one is that of a thinker. I have always been a radical and deep thinker and learnt to beautify my thoughts in poetry. But somehow prose and essays never interested me much, though I always felt that poetry was not fulfilling my thirst for writing to the fullest… And hence comes this Blog. Its no exaggeration to say, I could be world famous and make millions just through a chronicle of my thoughts. Maybe that’s the case with everyone, but I know my potential like a few, while others are on the lookout.

And as I was looking for a good topic to start this blog, the name of a cricketer flashed in my mind as I watched him take the man of the series award in the last ODI between India and Sri Lanka at Vizag. Popularly known as dada, the Bengal tiger, prince of kolkata… Saurav Ganguly. I somehow always despised him. Never liked his arrogance, I wanted him dumped out of the Indian team, or maybe have him as a 12th man captain. As a captain he was very good, but lost his cricketing skills almost a few years ago. India was winning, and so he was riding the wave of success. He was a burden in terms of not scoring, but thanks to the politics within Indian cricket, we bore with him. And finally about an year ago, he was taken off the Indian team, and trust me.. I was damn happy…

I laughed at him when he acted in a pepsi advertisement, ridiculed him how he shamelessly came in front of camera and admitted he was out of the team etc etc. Then he was recalled, about a month ago and I again thought the bad times of Indian cricket are back again. But then he proved me wrong and played decently well in the south African test series where almost every other Indian batsman barring Laxman failed quite miserably. Thought, Ganguly has some luck. Then did even better in the West Indies ODI series and finally the Man of the series at the Sri Lanka ODI series!! Gosh, I was impressed! Impressed not at his abilities of captaincy or his batting or bowling abilities, but at his sheer attitude and guts. A man with his reputation, being dumped out of the team, is ample reason for him to retire out of cricket, remember he is no kiddo, he is 34 years old. Or maybe take up commentary, coaching or something of the sort. But he worked his place up the ladder, fiercely competing with youngsters half his age, working on his deficiencies and got a place in the team and even better, proved his mettle.

There are millions of Ganguly’s around us that go unnoticed. They fail in life after riding the wave of success and give in to circumstances or give up on themselves. But the few fight, and even fewer succeed in the fight. Its no joke to be a phoenix!! And DADA just proved himself as one phoenix, one hell of a phoenix if I could say. And the more I think of him, I feel there is scope for a rise in each one of us. We go through tough times, relationships going wrong, career setbacks, financial worries, deception by someone u trust etc, but if we can find this very spirit of the phoenix, the spirit that will rise from its own ashes, we all can make ourselves as famous as Ganguly. And remember, it is the primal impulse of the human spirit to RISE, to rise against all odds around it and leave a mark. Maybe Ganguly used the cricket bat, maybe I could use a pen to write, someone else use a brush to draw, and you could have your own way. But the spirit is the same, and the principles of success and fulfillment are the same. I just hope DADA does even better in these last few years of cricket in front of him. He surely is a tiger, a Royal Bengal Tiger.