It is not cricket...

Cricket... It is a religion in India. And for me it is a long cherished passion. I am among a billion Indians who just can't live without it. India cricket has given a lot of greats to the world of sports and we had our ups and downs in cricket. It has always been a great experience following Indian cricket. India has gained a lot of respect recently in test cricket with wonderful performances down under and in Pakistan. Before the dramatic events of ashes this summer, India was the only side being considered good enough to remove Australia from the top slot. Of course, our one-day performances have been quite questionable lately.

But the recent events have really upset everyone following Indian cricket. Greg Chappell and Ganguly have locked horns publicly and all the mud is out on the walls. Media is doing a great job in making it as ugly as possible but that is there job. But all said and done, it is not cricket. This is not what a cricketing nation like India want to see. There will always be stories inside the dressing rooms. But why should it be out in newspapers. This is another issue. But considering that of all what is published even if half is true, there is something seriously wrong with Indian cricket. Who is responsible? Nobody will ever know all the details. But it shows a very serious aspect of Indian cricket and the whole process.

We are a country of hero-worshippers. We had all time greats like Gavaskar and Kapil but even they had a fair share of criticism and bad phases in life. Who can forget the great match fixing saga and Kapil's interview on BBC. But public has short memory. They will come in millions to greet their heroes after a win and will paint their house walls black if they fail. Even a player like Sachin has not been left alone for no reason of his when people started speculating about his injuries and wrong choice of bat and what not. But Sachin has been an example. Perhaps the best in history of Indian cricket for carrying himself really well. The recent events just show how we need more players like Sachin to keep the dignity of the game.

Saurav is great player. He has done a lot for Indian cricket. He has been a tremendous one-day players for years and the best captain in Indian cricket history (at least by statistics). But he has always been an eccentric person. He has his limitations. He more or less accepts them but he believes in himself to come out of it. He is a leader who will go wrong at times and accept it openly but will not back out. That was his strength in the past but it has now become the biggest issue in Indian cricket. His cricketing abilities are being questioned for quite some time but he was still considered the best captain till Greg Chappell decided to blow the cover. No doubt that Ganguly has one of the toughest job in the country but he has blown away his career by behaving in this manner in media. He has never been the best person to hide his emotions but this time it has gone too far.

I am not suggesting that all the fault is with Ganguly. If he is not supposed to be good enough to be playing in the eleven, then why is he chosen as the captain of the side. Cricket does not have the concept of non-playing captain. Why should Chappell be suggesting Ganguly to step down in the middle of the tour. Why can't we have a system where we choose the playing eleven first and then the captain. And that's what Australia does and Greg Chappell is new to our Indian system. He is trying to apply the Australian concepts in India which will not work just like that. It is a fault of our cricketing traditions where we can not easily remove the heroes even though we have better people to replace them. We need to change this soon to protect cricket in India. Because of all the hype and money, it is not surprising that it gets to your head and everyone can not be a Sachin Tendulkar. Saurav needs to take a leaf out of Sachin's book. That will make all the difference between him being just the most successful captain and the greatest captain of all times for India. I just hope these things do not remain in headlines for too long for the sake of cricket.

Recipe for Happiness

Today I feel a little philosophical. So, I am writing about something which I always think about. What is happiness? Why do I see very few happy people around? Why is everyone cribbing? Somehow I am not able to feel unhappy. Everyone can say that he has seen worse and I do not know how bad it can get, but I do not want to argue about that.

I somehow believe that I have seen a lot of situations in life (perhaps everybody would be thinking like that), but I have always believed that happiness is nothing but an illusion that you have to create around yourself. It is all about the kind of expectations you set around yourself. If you expect something which you do not get, that is the time you start feeling sad and unhappy. And we humans have a basic tendency to take all the good things in life for granted and then just crib about anything which is not according to what we want or expect.

I will share a few tips of how I keep myself happy. First and foremost, I never expect a huge deal from anything in life. I am not a pessimist. In fact, I am an optimist to the core. But I always keep in mind the worst possible scenario and prepare myself for it. And if the worst comes, I try to enjoy it thinking that I can add this to my experience and learn from it. Yeah, it sounds too theoretic. But the other trick I add to it is that I enjoy it by overcoming the so-called “bad” time by taking pride in going through it gracefully and then feeling good about myself. Does it make sense? Perhaps not. But that is my way of looking at it. I have enjoyed many things which majority would see as the most painful days in their lives.

But things are not that simple always. Physical trouble and pains are something different from emotional sufferings. Human is a social animal. Everyone needs at least a few particular people to go on in life. And then the expectations can not be avoided. I have been disappointed many times in life by many people. I used to feel angry and think about it for a long long time. I always gave a lot of importance to relations which I make. And it used to make me feel bad about why things happen wrongly. But then one day I got up and said to myself, why I should suffer everyday for something which is not my fault. I did whatever I felt right and I can not do anything even if I was wrong. I just do not look back. After all, I can not reverse the time. So, what is the point? Easiest thing is to blame yourself and keep on thinking about what you could have done. The other easy thing to do is to blame the other person and keep on cribbing about that. But in both the cases you are doing nothing but hurting yourself. But it is not easy to forget. So, I have a simple way to balance it. I think about how many mistakes I have made in life and I blame the other person and imagine that it is another mistake from that person and justify it in some frame of his/her. And somehow it all looks very easy to take. This is a very interesting exercise and it helps you grow. I feel much more open to things in life once I start realizing that everyone has his own way of living and you have to start respecting that.

Finally, the most important thing in my life to stay happy is that I always keep myself involved in something new. Something which I have never done in my life. This world has a lot to offer and you have a lot of time in a lifetime. Just look around and happiness is spread around you like a buffet. You just have to pick according to your taste buds. And remember happiness does not always cost a whole lot. It needs a little bit of innovation though.

I am not a great writer or something. But this was my attempt to understand myself and to put things in perspective for others. This topic is very close to my heart and if you are still with me, I would like to see some really thought provoking comments.

Potter Mania: Are you still not in?

Harry Potter: the boy with the mark. There must be very few of our generation who are not hit by Potter mania. If you are one of those unlucky ones, I would say you are missing something in life. Some of my friends say that it is for kids and they are too proud being grown up. I do not mind that as I have always enjoyed being a kid and I will always have a kid alive in my heart. And whenever I read HP, I feel something special. It is a fiction so well written that no wonder we have so many HP fans. It has become a religion.

Here are some of the websites from HP fans which would give you a good idea on how much people can research about their favorite subject:

http://www.mugglenet.com/
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/
http://dumbledoreisnotdead.com/introduction.html

Are these people crazy? Many would say that. But I really love these websites. This shows how much of imagination one can come up with by a good piece of fiction. The best part of the books is that they are very well planned and you can hardly find any fault with the whole story. Of course, some fans are too good with finding some minor glitches. And what I love most is the kind of speculations that go on about what is going to happen next. It might not last long as there is only one more book left as JKR has always maintained that there are only seven and she will have nothing to write after that. But as long as it is still a mystery, I would never stop enjoying the theories HP fans come up with.

There are a lot of arguments on which book is the best. My personal best is POA because that was the first I read, but I enjoy the connections between books much more. So, I would never rate any particular book in the series. And as the wait grows for each book, we tend to expect more and more. And it is not fair for new books to be judged against the initial ones which I had just picked up because I had nothing else to read at that time.

If you are still waiting to read HP, do not think that it is for kids. Just grab your copy and enjoy this timeless classic. I would say only one thing to conclude: If the world comes to an end and in the new era if we find these books and are able to decode them, there is nothing which can stop up from thinking that there existed a magical world of witches and wizards. I find it no different from Mahabharata and Ramayana in terms of quality of fiction. That calls for another debate which I would avoid as I know that it is not going to be accepted by everyone out there and I like to stay out of trouble.