… And the Life moves on. Or does it really? #ThankYouSachin

My earliest memories of cricket go back to when I was 4 or 5 years old. Playing cricket back then I never really understood what I was doing. But everyone else around seemed to have been in senses was playing only this game. Since then it has only been cricket: a synonym for sport, an epitome for passion.

Every aspiring cricketer of our age would have spent umpteen numbers of hours worshiping this game… either playing it or just thinking about it. Wondering what would it be like to play for India someday? What it takes to wear that jersey? Fortunate enough are we, having had been blessed with someone that we can look up to and say, ‘Hey, I want to be just like him!’ It would simply make our day when someone would complement saying ‘…that shot you just played… it reminded me of Sachin’. We have grown up copying each and every thing that he has done… right from taking a guard against the mightiest players of all time, to a graceful walk-back to the pavilion. We have been fortunate enough to see him play, fortunate enough to learn from him, on and off the field, consciously or subconsciously. We have lived cricket through him, we have played cricket for India through him. Every century that he has made, every single run that he has scored is not only his, we feel it belongs to us as well. Sachin belongs to us!

We loved him, we hated him, we hailed him, and we cursed him. But we would not know our lives as it is, had it not been for him.

Seeing him at work for 24 years, relentlessly putting up with all the nonsensical expectations and carrying along with all the burden of an entire nation full of crazy fanatics, I always wondered what is it that moves him, makes him do what he does the best? I got my answer to an extent when I stumbled upon a quote by Viktor Frankl, which sums it all up real nice:

Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.

As he bids the adieu to the cricketing world today, it would not be an infelicitous statement to say ‘the life on this plant, as we know it, ceases to exist today!’

Enough has said, enough would be… But one thing would resonate as it truly be: We Love Him!

With a heavy heart we bow to thee, O Lord!

When the curtain falls the savior would have gone!

There he goes, in the realms of shadows,

Through murky waters, a rower to the unknown.

The guiding light would fade to dark,

Passing the baton along, to the elite stark.

There are heroes; there will be more,

Few were unsung, fewer fortunate with a folklore.

He walks on with his head held high,

Finally laid off the burden, and made us cry.

With eyes all moist, and a heavy heart,

We saw our God made his final depart!

#ThankYouSachin

Search for a meaning!

Here the wind blew again, blew into my face,

Where I stand naked to the place.

The place that built me, molded me, made me who I am.

It shook me up and looked into my eyes,

It whispered in my ear to look up into the skies.

With nothing to loose, I gazed up in what seemed to be an abyss of emptiness,

Where I could see the scores of stars with each one drowned in its own solitariness.

Then it struck upon me, the message was clear and outright protruding,

The man's journey is his own and the relentless search for a meaning.

The Face!

Cruising through the lifeless night,

Gazing upon the distant horizon,

Searching for a familiar face,

Driven to despair and barren distortion.

Unfazed, betting against all the odds,

I still hope in this deserted draught,

Resolute to reach that serene place,

Where my desire shapes up and I see that familiar face.

Gotta See About A Girl !

Heck of a day! And what a breather in the end! Just got off watching a beautiful movie called Good Will Hunting. I must admit it’s one of the nicest movies that I’ve seen in recent past that did not feature Al Pacino. I could go on and on about script execution, acting, direction, blah, blah, blah. But that’s not my job to review the movie. Reason: I am simply not qualified for that. I’ll do what I do the best – at least I think so.

Frankly speaking, I didn’t understand the movie to its core. It’s one of those plays that you really have to dig to get it. It’s an onion; you have to peel it and cry a little to enjoy it. The protagonist of the movie has a beautiful mind and an attitude of an ass hole. The description sounds about right for me. Well, if not the beautiful mind part I can be really good at being an ass hole. The problem with the guy is he does not know what he wants from his life. And the problem with most of us is we do not know that either. And here comes the interesting part; we don’t want to admit that we don’t know what we want from this life. We just feel like beating around the bushes and don’t give a fuck about leaving our comfort zone. And I say its good for you if that’s what you want.

We read books, newspapers and shit like that and then we pretend that we have figured out how this whole god damned system works. It’s like having a Facebook account with 300 odd friends in our friends list and we claim that we have a great social life! I am sorry to convey this, but social life is actually three-dimensional. You cannot know depth of a swimming pool just by looking at it. Dive In – if not that, at the least throw a stone to make a calculated guess it.

I think the time has come for some soul searching and thinking what I “really” want to do. It’s about the time for some drastic changes, some life altering decisions to be made. Time to drop the week shit and stand tall for what you believe in. Life is not about holding yourselves back fearing you could just spoil the status quo. But it’s about going after something that you remotely believe in and giving it your best shot not fearing about how it’s gonna turn out to be.

There is this nice little story in the movie where a guy misses, what apparently is one of the greatest ball game ever, just to see his girl. So he slides his ball game ticket across the table to his pals and says: “Sorry, guys; I gotta see about a girl.” Well, I guess, I have to get off the dock and set my sails to find my "metaphoric girl" to see about her.

3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!

As the ball is poised to drop at Times Square, it's about the time to bid adieu to yet another eventful year. It has been a roller-coaster ride (Thanks to all who made it so). 2011 holds a special place in my life. I did a lot of stuff that I never thought I could, I should or I would; loads of ups and downs, merriness and craziness, exploitation and exploration, pampering and hammering. And, after all this 'been there, done that' drama, here I am; all limbs intact – inexplicably, heart still pounding – sporadically, brain nerves still ticking – suspiciously. Thanks to the Holy Mother of all that is good and pure; I am still breathing. All in all, a helluva year, and as they say, "all's well that ends well"!

If there is ever to be a list of most haywire years of my life, 2011 would undoubtedly climb up to top the charts! It was filled with times of eccentricity, erraticness, emotions, euphoria, exuberance, extrospection, extrication, and etcetera. However, surviving the blows I mollycoddled myself with ecstatic moments. And I certainly believe that's all that matters in the end.

Thanks to Mother Nature and all those brainiacs who said, "365 days a year, that’s it. Shut it out!" Now it's time for a breather. Take a pit stop to refuel and rejuvenate. And step into a brand new, untainted, chaste year. I am glad to be on the verge of experiencing the warmth of 2012 sun under a clear blue sky. New Year Eve has always been an exciting moment for me, knowing that the New Year would bring me the most needed scope to screw it up big time!

You don't get to reborn – literally, but you always get a chance to relive. And that’s what the concept of New Year brings in; scope to make new mistakes and learn from them. Do what you haven't done before; face your fear, stand at the gun point, pee into the wind, blaze up the weed, huff the paint thinner, try and reach that dreaded extra mile, make some unrealistic resolution just to break them off at your will, love deeply, and kiss slowly.

All I am saying is make mistakes, but don’t be stupid enough not to learn from them. Die hard; take the mission deemed impossible; don’t be afraid of failures. And if the fear gets hold of you just ask yourself this question: Jyada se Jyada kya hoga!? And if you haven’t just died; picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!

Happy New Year! And remember; Prosperity is just a byproduct of an effort!

Go Nuts!

~Abbey

http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)

P.S.: Share your New Year resolutions if you will in the comments section.

The Child Is Father Of The Man!

Ever heard someone say, "Today's generation is far more advanced; they do this, they do that!"? And then they start comparing themselves with the newbies. I was wondering if this is actually some NEWS or just an old expression since Adam and Eve. My prefrontal Cortex tells me that nobody would have ever said that their decedents would be a bunch of morons (this is a generalized statement and should not be taken otherwise). I bet every generation grew up hearing that they were, in fact, the smartest of all that has walked upon this earth. They have the capability and courage to overrun whatever the previous generation’s laggards have left behind and render it kaput. What do you think the rational behind this behavior is?

The answer for this could be many folds, and just for the records, I am no Doctor or a Psychologist to pass upon my judgment with certainty. But as far as I could apprehend the situation it's the incubated aura that the incumbent generation carves out for next age group. We have everything modeled for us and what has not been done shall be done by some brainiest people of current generation. And this cycle would go on and on and on. There is nothing out of the blue here. This is what is expected. Isn’t this what the great Darwin said in his theory of evolution? Remember opposable thumb!?

I grew up in an era where computers were deemed as "fancy gadget" to be flaunted by Richie Rich people. Status quo: a child, from a middle class family would learn and type 'ASDF' before it learns to write 'ABCD'. It took ages for the likes of Da Vinci, Newton and Einstein to device some theories and formulae that we use so often to solve our problems ranging from finding a shortest past to our office to launching a stealth missile.

This universe is filled with mysteries and being the curious creature that we are we always strive hard to unravel it. We don’t like the enigmas to be lying around the table, unsolved, untouched upon. We have been handed over the knowledge torch, already lit up. What we need to do is to keep the flame alive and discover new arenas and avenues. We cannot and should not compare ourselves with people from different generation. That would be like comparing apples and oranges. So, would it be wrong and unfair to say that the next generation would be what we expect them to be and not the bunch of Michelangelos and Galileos?!



~Abbey
http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)

A Beautiful Mind!

What if I were to tell you that I am Opinionated? You would judge me. Some of you (let’s call it group Radical) would say that I am hard-hearted and obstinate. Some (group Casual) would say that I think clearly and have a strong opinion about things I talk about. And the remaining (group Whatever) would be indifferent. Now what if I were to change my stand and tell you that I don’t have an opinion about anything? Again you would judge me (that’s all what we do; Judge People). Only this time, it may so happen that you might have shifted from Radical to Casual or may be to Whatever group. And to be honest and truthful to you, there exists no science that would figure out which group would you be jumping off to. The reason being you have your own "opinion"!

Having an opinion is not a bad thing, but getting glued to one is. You read about something, you hear about it and then when you "think" that you have enough of information to form an opinion you go ahead and do it. We all do that, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s good to have an opinion. Isn’t that’s what makes us human that we are?! Having an opinion is an integral part of our nature. Now here is the real test; what would you do if someone makes you jump into a conversation and challenges your opinion to prove it wrong? What would you do in such situation? You would:

Option 1: Retaliate with the hardest argument that you can to demolish the person standing against you?

Option 2: Go into the conversation with open mind and if you feel, down the line, that the argument made by someone else has some credibility associated with it, you would accept that you were wrong?

Option 3: Be indifferent?

Before we try and unravel, let’s see what all is it that contributes toward holding one thought dearer while berating other. Whenever you make an opinion you would like to believe that you have reached to this point all due nothing but your rationality and your intellectuality. But the fact remains that other irrational factors has equal involvement. While the opinion is in the making it arises from: your knowledge about the topic, your values, circumstances, feelings and experience. If you think hard enough you would realize that every human being, at any given point in time, hold these things. And everything that we do is influenced, if not driven, though subliminally, by them. Now, for the time being let’s make a hypothesis that whatever we have discussed till now is true (I am saying hypothesis because some of you would not agree with me on this, but even if you don’t please try to walk along for the sake of fun). Here is the fun part; if you give the list a hard look you would notice that all that’s up there is subjected to change with time. You read, you talk about the topic to increase your knowledge and you know a lot more than you were aware of before. Values are a tricky business. It changes along with the situation, e.g. Lying is not a good thing, but what if it is in the best interest of everyone at that moment? Circumstances and feelings change every split-second.  And as they say, the number of gray hair is directly proportional to the mistakes (they call it experience) that we have made!

So now my question is, if all the factors that have helped you reach to an opinion are variable and are subjected to change with time, is it a good idea to get stuck and be adamant about your school of thoughts? Would it not be in your best interest to be open-minded? I know it’s real hard to flip 180 and go ahead to admit that you were wrong, but isn’t that what shows the character?! You can go along and debate your opponent out with you callous arguments, but in my opinion that is the worst thing to do if you really wish to explore the subject in discussion (of-course with an exception for court room trails and a debate competitions).

Ultimately, it’s in your hand what you would like yourself to be perceived as: The Great Debater or someone who has A Beautiful Mind!

~Abbey

http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)