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.