Why India should win CWC 2011....

I am no cricket expert, and have been reduced to an infrequent follower owing to paucity of time and often patience (with most forms of the game demanding the most useful part of your day - it is often difficult to even stay updated). But for whatever little i know of cricket, and especially of Indian cricket, i know about one man "Sachin Tendulkar".
He needs no introduction, and often no description, he is no stranger to cricket and feels like the guy next door to every Indian. He is the one whom a di-syllabically blessed growing up infant in India could name, and he is the one whom even a disinterested cricket fanatic would have heard of. If u live in India, no matter which genre, segment or portion of the country/society u reside in, you would have definitely heard of him - thats the omnipresence of Sachin's personality in India!
When u talk of sports - u exemplify his passion, when u talk of cricket - u eulogize his talent, when u talk of field presence - u highlight his attitude, when u talk of commitment - u say Indian cricket is indeed blessed!
No wonder the cricketing community describes him as God, and it would be only fair to say Sachin has fewer fans than he has "disciples".They worship him, revere him, love him, praise him, salute him, bless him.....and for many he is the only reason why they follow cricket!
There is so much said, written and heard about Sachin that a novice like me can never do justice to the same, but why I even attempted to describe him at this point of time is because he has given 20+ years to Cricket, and is perhaps the last worldcup he is playing in his international cricketing career (although with his passion i wont be surprised if he squeezes in another one ...but to be honest that will be too much to ask from an aging sportsmen).
At the beginning of the Cricket World Cup 2011 India were arguably favorites to win the cup, although critics have never refrained from banishing their chances of a victory - some times on ground of batting, sometimes bowling, sometimes fielding, and more often than not because of teamwork. My knowledge of cricket is so rudimentary that forming an opinion on India's chances is a distant thought - even agreeing/disagreeing with the critics is often a task for me. I dont know whether its fair to call Indian cricket team the favorites for the cup, i dont even know if they bat/bowl/field well or not, and as i said i am no expert, no critic, not even a fair fan, but i know for sure - if there is one reason why India should win the Cricket World Cup 2011, it is HIM - this is his last chance!

A sigh of relief!

One of my most hated places in Mumbai city is the American consulate. Not that the rest of Mumbai is any more lovable for me, but this is definitely not the place i would crave for, and especially if its early morning office hours. The scene outside the consulate on the main road can be described as a swarming beehive, with all aspiring applicants buzzing in anticipation to be mated with the queen bee aka 'the consulate interviewing officer' - the only difference being that there are multiple queen bees (interviewing officers) instead of the single one in the actual beehives, and to make it worse - i have heard that in recent times the consulate has undergone expansion, meaning more queen bees, hence more drones and the worst - more buzzing!!
A typical writer would describe to u the anxiety of the applicant and how overwhelming the crowd over there makes one feel, but i guess i have something more interesting to tell - so let me detour. My recent visit to the consulate was in mid-December - while most parts of the world look forward to festivities at this time of the year, we Indians enter the sabbatical from one of the biggest festivities of our lives "weddings" - actually between the mid of December and mid of January due to Hindu calendar showing inauspicious dates weddings get stalled in India. But the brighter side of this period is that you get to see many more newly weds (those who got married in the pre-sabbatical wedding period) or newly engageds (those who are waiting to get married in the post-sabbatical wedding period)- whether you bump into them doing the new household shopping at supermarkets or in the finger-lock around the malls and movies - they seem to be ubiquitous. The American consulate on that morning was not spared of this ubiquity either!
Right in front of my eyes was a newly wed, wherein the woman's bangles were shinning so bright under the scorching sun, i almost felt i would turn blind if i looked at it for too long. I guess the idea of donning them was to just shove it into the interviewing officers' face and ask him to approve the visa as a ransom...lol. But as i said, i could not strain my eyes looking at the lady's bangles for too long, so i just bowed my head trying to spot some pebbles to trot, just then my eyes paused at another newly wed's footwear - it had some kind of mirror or reflectors (to be precise), believe me they were causing such great reflections of the shining sun that i thought when she enters the consulate office she may set the fire alarms ablaze and may give rise to an emergency situation. As it is the consulate is such a sensitive area, i thought this was the minimum precaution madam should have taken when cladding herself. Anyway, the visa rules don't make any allusions to the loud dressing sense of applicants, so the newly weds can take all liberties...and boy they were really taking liberties!
Right at the beginning of the line was a lady- who looked like she hailed from south India - i could tell from her south silk Saree - bright maroon with the golden zari conveying her newly wed status loud and clear. I wandered my eyes on her for some time - observing her obsession with the crisp pleats that she had set around her waist and bosom. I think she wanted to enter the consulate in the most prim and proper saree the interviewer would have ever seen ...as if that was the basis of getting her visa approved...lol
All around me I could see every third woman carrying a huge file like looking thing, which after a few glances around i realized, were wedding albums. They are gotten to the consulate to show the interviewer authenticity of the wedding status. As most of these ladies who travel to united states after their wedding travel as Dependants of their husband, it is an imperative to prove as much of the dependency as one possibly can. While getting bored, in the long ever-lasting queue outside the American consulate, I actually wished that one of those ladies would offer to run me through their albums - u know wedding albums are real good time-pass activities.
Looking for more entertaining stuff i ran my eyes across the length of the line to see what proportion of interviewees were newly wed. They say - Indian weddings, no matter in whichever part of India, never disappoint u with their celebration. Even, as the celebration of weddings died they echoed in 70% of the interviewees that day at the consulate. What a statistic: Nearly 70% of Indians entering USA in the next few weeks will be newly wed!! - and we though the great Indian consumer growth story was limited to India alone...we forgot about the diaspora!!
The entertainment i had that morning was good...and it also brought back the memories from my Visa interview some 3 years ago. Of course those memories werent as entertaining because i was not applying for the newly wed dependent visa myself and neither was it the post wedding season of India (although few newly weds were still seen- u know na recession ho ya inflation India mein shaadiyan to hoti hi hain.
When i had awed at the album carrying newly weds 3 years ago, my coworker had mocked me then - he said "Don't laugh at them, for all u know u could be standing here in this line in the next few months, carrying the load of your wedding album"...I had laughed at his comment resenting it from my heart and shrugging off at it because you never know what the future has in store for you. Three years later, i was still laughing at that comment, only much more confident this time and sighing relief at the fact that i never got into that queue again!!

I am learning to appreciate the obvious!!

As a child brought up in the northern part of the country, I was introduced to the sight of hijras rather early in life. In fact I should say that I was introduced to the concept with a positive flavor. They often said in Delhi, "seeing a hijra, on way to work is a very auspicious sign".
I spent my childhood laughing at this very thought, and also at the same time I worked out a plausible justification for why it is so said; and the justification was nothing but what is conveyed by the gazal 'dil ko khush karne ke liye Ghalib ye khayal achha hai'. Indeed, when u see a sight as repulsive as a hijra, u have none better to convince yourself than saying "you are likely to have a nice day". So be it!!
While I never took this belief/superstition so seriously in life, in recent times I did start acknowledging the fact that I sighted a hijra, whenever I did. Infact, in Mumbai i have noticed hijras ask around for money like beggars ask for alms at red lights. Of course the hijras exhibit much more vanity in the way they accost the whole business of asking for what the giver may believe is alms. Eversince in Mumbai (two years now, oh my God!!...time just flies) i make it a point to give these hijras some money whenever they accost me for the same. In fact nowadays even before they approach i fish out my wallet for the smallest notes i have..."Note" - yes I did say "Note"...i never give hijras coins...for the sheer pride with whch they open out their palms. I would rather be deemening them by giving them coins, so I prefer the more expensive way out.
As far as them being auspicious, I am still not sure if that superstition is completedly described using only the word "auspicious", because my personal observation is that whenever I come across a hijra, my day/evening is spent tackling and appreciating what is so obvious in life, which we otherwise can never appreciate. For instance, only when I see a hijra that i manage to appreciate my obvious right of being epithet "madam" by any Tom, Dick or Hari on the street. Yes, whenever I see a hijra, I end up in a situation which though is difficult, but fondles the very obvious foundations of my life, and the realisation of the very presence of them in my life gives me immense pleasure, eventually.
Today was one such day, I encountered a hijra at the marol naka red light, on my way back from work. I handed it a ten rupee note, and allowed it to place its palm on my head. I must confess, it gives me a feeling of charity alongwith appreciating the ignored obviousness of life whenever I see a hijra. And not to forget the fact that it does fill me with the anticipation of something auspicious likely to happen. After all, childhood foundations, are deep seated, and though life may want to teach me otherwise, I wont deny that I am waiting for something auspicious to happen today!!

Searching for passion!!

Gaddu called me up last week, to tell me a story which he read in the local delhi newspaper (or maybe it was national news, but since i rarely pick up the papers, i really dont know if it was that famous an incident).
The story was based out of a small village in haryana, wherein a boy & girl madly in love with each other were turned down for marraige by the girl's parents. Determined to unite & attracted by the idea of being paidby the govt of a social massacre, the couple considered & successfully killed 7 members of the girl's family. The accomplice of the crime was none other than the girl herself, and after the guy killed 6 members of the family & refused to kill the seventh- a child, the girl volunteered herself.
Coming from Gaddu, such a story wasnt surprising, considering he is famous for all kinds of wierdity.But what was important was the point he raised alongwith. What he insisted on was the passion that instigated the couple to take up an act as grave as this. I am sorry to say, that I did agree with him!!
Most people may say that we are saddists because we appreciate a story of this sort. But I must say, not appreciating this is like demeaning someone's passionate fervor. 'Passion' I believe, is the underlying word of this incident, and three cheers to it!!...If someone can go to such an extent for the sake of love...i think asking whether they deserve that love, is only folly...howveer, this world is full of fools and foolishness!!
There is ofcourse a practical aspect to it all, the fact that most probably the couple will have a lifelong honeymoon behind the bars...but if i were the adjuricator for this case, in my heart of heart i would have definitely granted forgiveness, though bound by duty i may have done othewise...
Where do people get so much passion from, what are these people composed of...and why is it that i have come across nearly none such people in my life (though good for my life, varna pata laga out of passion someone killed me too;))...I dont want to die out of someone's passion, but i want to be the sheer spectator of passion of this magnitude...i really wonder if it was only unique to this couple, or it does exists elsewhere too!!

My interpretation of tradition

For those of you who are guessing, that modern art has become indeed very modern, lemme eplain...

This was the diagram that i created for my niece's birth ceremony (called chhatti). My niece (cousin brother's daughter) born on the 18th of April, had to have a birth ceremony done to her. To mark the birth of a child, the child's paternal aunt is suppose to make this masterpiece and apply kohl to the new born. For the same purpose I flew into Bangalore last week and did the needful. This was indeed my maiden experience at doing this ceremony, and believe me I was very excited about both the application of kohl, and the creation of this piece of art (which is very evident from the fact that i have decided to dedicate a post to it).
For those of you (and I guess that's most of you) who dont understand the gibberish smeared on the yellow chart paper, let me bridge the gap between the traditional drawing requirements and my artistic talents.
To begin with, the borders' zigzag lines are nothing more than aesthetic designs. They have no significance whatsoever, they are just meant to beautify this piece of art, and mitigate the meaning engraved in it(not intentional though). Beginning with the distorted H like things on the top. They are seven in number, and are supposedly Siva mai's 7 houses (now please dont ask me what that means, i have no clue!!). I did try to find out who this siva mai was, whose houses i have been bestowed to architect. But i am sorry, i didnot get any conclusive answers from the elders around me who were chaperoning me to create this. Some hints that did come up were, that she is Lord Siva's mother, or may be Godess Parvati (Lord Siva's wife)...nobody could say for sure.
In the next line, there are a series of things, to begin with there is the moon & the sun (which is diagramatically not so difficult to decipher). The reason for making these is that it conveys that we pray to God that the light of the sun & moon always illuminate the child's future.
Shifting a little down from the line, what I made was a lipstick. Being a female child, all necessary accessories that she may need in the future are drawn, and God is prayed to make them available to her. Now I really wonder whether this Godess really knows what a lipstick is, and whether my drawing conveyed the exact message. If it didnt then i hope she is reading this post ;)
Anyways, even if she is not reading this, the girl may end up having ample lipsticks(its common these days!!), which can help her develop into a hot babe. Vaise I some times wonder if this prayer of making lipsticks available in order to make girl child babe types really works. What makes me doubt it is that, even my mom must have had this diagram made from my paternal aunt...then how come i never became the hot babe.....?????
Coming back to the series of items in the long line, the next is a vermillian case (sindhauda, as we call it), it is suppose to be a storage case of vermillion, which is suppose to be the most important accessory of a married Indian woman. Makes sense, to pray to God to make this available to the girl in the future.
Next, what looks like a sharp-toothed lethal weapon, is actually a comb. Again an accessory. Infact this time a unisex accessory, though more frequently and needfully used by girls.
Next, is an isometric view of a cuboid, with some ray-like things emanating from it. This actually is a mirror. I could have well put that as a question in paanchvi pass se tez, and had the contestant out of the competition!! But come to think of it, a mirror is difficult to depict diagramatically, lest it is concave or convex, and u have to draw some ray diagrams associated with it.
Right below the mirror is a palanquin (doli), which is usually associated with a girl's wedding in India.
Right of the mirror, is a kohl case (kajrauti, as they call it). Kohl is a dual purposed accessory for a girl in the Indian society. Not only does it beautify one's eyes, it also protects one from evil eyes. But i really wonder how many girls in our generation would use a kajrauti like that for accesorizing themselves with kohl.
The next is a flower, which most women like, so assuming the new born will have future liking for it, it is there.
The last two items are beetle leaf (paan)& supari. Now thats pretty contraversial. I mean, parents dont really want to push their kids towards any habit forming edibles. Having drawn this is like an open invitation to the new born to adopt habits of the nature of consuming tobacco, smoking, drinking etc. Anyway, why it is there is because a beetle leaf is considered very auspicious in hinduism. So hopefully if we manage to convey the message in the latter format, the child may avoid habit forming substances like beetle leaves.
Since I had ample blank space below these items i just made a garland, and i guess that did help beautify the whole chart.
All in all, I thought it was a very stupid exercise to do. Though I thank my niece for coming into this world and giving me the joy, along with the experience of something as stupid as this!!