India goes down under in a Down Under series

The inability to win elusive Test Series in Australia will now become a blot of shame on the otherwise glorious career of the Golden generation of Indian batsmen. The loss at MCG on 29th Dec came as a shock not because of its individuality but because this is straight 5th overseas defeat of India. No one can forget the 0-4 drubbing received by India at the hands of English Team. This is only the second time in my life where i have seen such a grand whitewash, the first being 3-0 loss in 1999-2000 series in Australia. The Indian batsmen were new and inexperienced in that series but the team that played in England in 2011 was one of the finest produced by India. So it becomes very complex to examine the reasons behind the defeat. Indian batsmen ( except Dravid and occasionally Sachin) were completely overwhelmed by the English bowlers. All these golden boys of Indian cricker will retire in a year or so and their absence will create a big black hole in Indian cricket and our Test prospects will go for a toss.

We are not able to find a suitable replacement of Sourav Ganguly (Sourav retired in Nov 2008) and we have given chances to Pujara, Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli but no one has been able to cement his place. There are big question marks on the techniques of Dhoni and Gambhir on bouncy wickets and Laxman has never been consistent in his career, despite of scoring many big glorious centuries. So it creates a huge pressure on Dravid and Sachin and whenever one of them fails, India fails. The same has happened in England,
Dravid played brilliantly but Sachin's performance was not upto the mark and same is destined to happen in Australia. Actually it has just happened in Melbourne, in the Boxing Day Test. Both these batsmen failed in 2nd Inning and India lost the match miserably. So for the betterment of Indian cricket we should not press for the retirement of these great batsmen rather we should first find no. 6th batsman. No need to go to T-20 to find one, get it from Ranji.

Indian bowling looked pretty decent and Umesh Yadav's performance was very very good. Its a very good sign for India cricket but Ashwin needs to improve his bowling.

Performance Rating of Boxing Day Test
Umesh Yadav                8/10
Zaheer Khan                 7/10
Ishant Sharma               7/10
Sachin Tendulkar           6/10
Ravichandran Ashwin    6/10
Rahul Dravid                 5/10
Virendra Sehwag          5/10
Mahendra Singh Dhoni 1/10
Gautam Gambhir          0/10
Virat Kohli                   0/10
V V S Laxman             0/10

Life is beautiful

For the last few months, i was slogging to get the holy grail of Indian bureaucracy and in between i got a great gift from the God. On 25th October, 12:55 PM, I become father  of a 2.75 kg son. To see a new life made of your own blood and flesh and with the grace of God is an unbelievable feeling. Fatherhood is an amazing stage of life and this makes you a complete man or person. I miss my dear Father in this dear moment. He died an unnatural death on 6th December 2008 midnight (3 years back) but i can still feel his presence and blessing with me each and every fleeting moment. Thank you Pratiksha for giving me such a beautiful gift and thank you my God for blessing me with this gift.

In search of an Indian Identity: Part 1

They say India is a Secular Republic just like US but with a subtle difference. US govt is not supposed to interfere in religious affairs without any exception while Indian secularism allows Indian govt to interfere in religious affair and most of the times this interference becomes a nemesis for the growth of Secularism in India.

Every time when Indian govt had tried to interfere in religious affairs it had attracted its share of criticism. It started with the abolition of inhumane Sati practice, abolition of polygamy, abolition of untouchability (this abolition has to be respected and implemented in every corner of the country, its a shame that untouchability is still prevalent in many parts of our country). But if i look at all these reforms, i can easily observe the absence of any such reform in Muslim society of India. They say polygamy is allowed in Islam but polygamy is also not prohibited in Hinduism then why Hindus are not allowed to keep multiple wives while on the other hand Muslims have that rights. I totally abhor the concept of polygamy but why Indian govt has not made any law so far to ban polygamy in Indian Muslim society. Does that make them less Muslim?

I have digressed a lot from the topic of my post, lets start with India as a country. They say India as a country did not exist before 18th century but so was the case with US, Italy, Germany, Iraq, Malaysia etc. Nation state is a modern concept and we became a nation state and Indians on 26th Jan 1950 but what about the history and people of India before that date. What is the base civilization of India. They say its a synthesis or a fusion of various streams of creeds, religions and people who continuously migrated to this region since the advent of last interglacial period or before that. So who were Indians before Aryans migrated to India (although  the migration concept is now hotly debated and Mrs. Romila Thapar has modified his theory of Aryan Invasion from Aryan migration)? A logical answer is the Dravidians or the indigenous people of India or the inhabitants of Indus Valley Civilization. I respect that culture and all places from Harrapa, Mohen-jo-daro to Kalibangan, Lothal etc are very close to my heart and not even in my remotest dreams i will plan to destroy the remnants of that culture. Every Indian should feel attached and proud of that glorious civilization.  This is the fundamental premise of Indian identity as well as the bedrock of Indian civilization.

The Cup of Joy finally returns..

The Picture says it all. Its been a long wait but an eventful one (Image courtesy Cricinfo.com) 

Some things never change

Its a dream for any aspiring cricketer to play for Team India and Its a dream for every Team India player to play in  World Cup and no dream is bigger than defeating arch rivals Australia and Pakistan in knock out stages of  the World Cup. This Indian team has done it all. When a nation grows then its friends and rivals both change. And  because of this reason only that India-Australia match heat is comparable to India-Pakistan match heat. For an young aspiring Indian, victory over Australia is more significant than victory over Pakistan but loss to Pakistan is comparable to a crime that can not be washed even if you take 100 dips in holy Ganges. Its party emotional and partly because of a the confidence of growing middle class of India. India loves to compete and defeat Australia on the one hand while it loves to always defeat Pakistan on other hand. The last 10 years has made this huge change in the mindset of Indians and this reflects in the Buddha like posture of Dhoni. The bunch of jokers have become world beaters and as they say Rome was not built in a day, the same is true for team India. Sachin has remained a great agent of this transformation and all the players starting from Ganguly, Dravid, Prasad, Kumble, Srinath, Laxman etc  have played their parts. Dhoni and others are just culmination of the process started by Sachin decades back. Its a fitting tribute to Sachin and we all owe it to Sachin.

There are two things that can unite this nation. War is one and Sachin is second. It has been sheer pleasure to experience Indian wins against Pakistan in 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003 and yesterday. 1992 World Cup was a gone case for India still we defeated Pakistan despite escapades from Miandad. 1996 win was a sweet one as it propelled us to Semi Final against Sri Lanka and we failed miserably in that Semi. 1999 World Cup match against Pakistan was similar to 1992. 2003 World Cup match was the grandest match ever played by India against Pakistan till then. It was the match that added another story in the Legend of Sachin. Akhtar was silenced forever. Anwar and Akaram were retired forever. Yesterday match was very much

one sided and Pakistan managed to fight only till 35 overs of Pakistan inning. I was expecting that the match would go till 49th or final over but 260 was too much for Pakistanis. Pakistan team also deserves some claps as no body gave them any chance before this world Cup yet they managed to destroy Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Afridi looks like a man on mission but you can not win a cricket epic if your team does not perform. Yunis Khan, Razzak looked miserable yesterday and Mohammad Hafiz shot was suicidal.

Sri Lanka is more formidable foe than Pakistan and they have enviable top and middle order batsmen, and bowlers. Greatest bowler Muralidharan will play his last match so this final is destined to become a clash of legends, Sachin on one hand and Murali on  other. May the best team wins. Amen.

P.S. Somethings never change. Sun rises in east, India defeats Pakistan in world Cup, capital of Singapore is Singapore etc etc..

Cometh the hour, cometh the team

And India knocked out mighty Australians from its legendary campaign. It is a sort of coup d'etat and now the onus is on India to win the Cup. I have been following world cup since 1992 and i have only seen India loosing matches against Australia. I have faint memories of 1992 defeat by 1 run but 1996 World Cup defeat of 16 runs still gives me bad odor. That was the last time when Sachin massacred the mighty Australians by scoring 90 runs of 84 balls although India lost the match by 16 runs but it was a match to remember. Since 1996 India had been not able to give fight to Australians and was defeated convincingly in 1999 and 2003 World Cup matches. The World Cup final of 2003 will always make Indians cry specially to those Indians who were students during that time. I was in 2nd year of my engineering and i can easily remember that many of us were not able to eat on that day and it took almost a week to come back to normality.                

It was a more difficult match for India at Ahmadabad than for Australia. Australia has won the World Cup three times on a trot and in total 4 times in last 24 years so the hunger to win the cup was not the same for them. Things are different for India, here winning world cup means you are adding yourself to a very limited set of immortals of Indian cricket. The Neo-Indians desperately need a world champion tag and no sport is better placed to provide that than cricket. Australia started well and match was well balanced until the coming of David Hussey to the crease. Ponting was magnificent and  his century had shades of 2003 World Cup final hundred. Indian bowlers gave 10-20 extra runs in the end but still 260 was a gettable total. Sachin and Sehwag started well, Sachin was not at his best but he managed to give a decent start to India. Gambhir, Kohli played well in middle and Yuvraj-Raina brought India home just after the dangerous wicket of Dhoni "The Helicopter". It was great to see the awesome hug of Yuvraj and Raina in the end. It was a revenge of 2003 world cup final and just like all bad things come to end similarly India managed to shrug of the tag of losers against Australia. This is a new beginning of Indian cricket and Dhoni and team should not loose the golden opportunity to write the history. History remembers the winners. No one will remember who was Man of the tournament in 2003 World Cup but people will always remember the defeat of 2003 world cup final against Australia.

                                        Team looks very good to me. Dhoni, Harbhajan and Munaaf have still not performed and lets hope that they have saved their best for the last two matches. Its the time to bring the cup home. Its the cup that can join or break more than a billion hearts. Lets pray for the former. Amen.

Knock them out

World Cup 2011 is reaching its most exciting phase after filtering off superb team of Ireland. Ireland came to this World Cup without a serious fan in India but after a month they have more fans in this subcontinent than the entire population of little island known as Ireland. This World Cup has been more democratic than any other World  Cup played after 1999 and has more close matches than in any World Cup. The teams that have qualified for  Quarter Finals are the expected ones but i still think that Bangladesh and Ireland are unfortunate. They should have been in the Quarter Finals in place of England and West Indies. No offense to England but frankly speaking they do not deserve any a place in QF. I must say that they have played well in patches and they emit the same vigor (although in small proportion) as emitted by Australia not so long back. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have  looked pretty well and are strong favorites to win the Cup apart from South Africa. India and Australia are not too far behind. Indian team has played in extremes and they have dominated almost all the matches more than 50% of the  time but their death bowlers and death batsmen have let them down. Ideally they should have been playing New Zealand instead of Australia in QF if they had batted few balls more against England and South Africa.
                   Sachin, Zaheer, Sehwag and Yuvraj have performed exceedingly well for India. Kohli and Gambhir have performed well in pieces. The other half a dozen players have yet to find their form. India can not win the cup if  half of its team does not perform. I still believe that India can win the cup but now my favorites are Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa. Lets see what happens in Ahmadabad. May the best team win. Amen.

On a serious note, I offer my prayers and condolences to the people of Japan who are fighting hard to survive and to do things that they do best. May God give you courage to solve out things. You are the light of Asia and beyond.

Indian dream can crash if they continue to play like this....

And World Cup has now started little more than a week later its official opening ceremony in Bangladesh. India - England match will remain one of the most exciting matches of ODI history and the only ODI match that i watched more than 75% of its duration. It was a match of dwindling fortunes in the first and and last 10 overs of each inning. Sehwag started blindly and was beaten comprehensively by Anderson and Co. in the very first overs. The partnership of Sachin and Gambhir produced one the cleanest and elegant art of batting. Sachin started slowly but after reaching in his 20's, he started batting like batting virtuoso. An artist painting his Monalisa in the midst of a world war, such is the aura of Sachin. Yuvraj played a good inning but would have loved to see Kohli coming before Yuvraj. It was shameful to see India bundled out within 50 overs.
You can not afford to give an inch to your opposition else they conquer your country. England is famous for this. Strauss was excellent and he was aided by the wayward bowling of Indian bowlers. When Harbhajan will learn the real Doosra? The entire Indian bowling hinges around Zaheer and Harbhajan and if India has to perform well in this World Cup then these two bowlers have to best their best in every game. 1983 World Cup was won not by batting but by bowling
while 2003 World Cup was lost not by batting but by bowling. Ian Bell was clearly LBW even by the review system still he was given not out. Zaheer produced one the finiest spell of bowling he has ever bowled but there was no one to finish the game for India. It was pathetic to see two tailenders hitting 28 runs of last two overs of regular Indian bowler. India should have won the match with an ease and this Tie should be taken as a warning by India. They desperately need to pull up their socks specially their bowling department else even million dips in Holy Ganges wont be enough to wash the sins of giving up the World Cup.

Some thoughts on Valentine Day

Happy Valentine day to all of you, after all 14th Feb was the day when St. Valentine attained his
martyrdom and on this day we "celebrate" the import of his legend to India. I don't understand the logic of importing St. Valentine to India when we have our own Lord Krishna, Meera, Heer-Ranjha. Why we need an occasion to show love to our dearest? Din ho Holi Raat Diwali, Roz manati Madhushala. Like no one has a monopoly over truth, love and morality similarly no day can have monopoly over love and by extension of the same logic no "Sena" has a monopoly over "ethical" and "moral" bedrocks of a society, culture or civilization. No film industry produces more films on Love theme than our own Bollywood and still we need Valentine day to practice love. The same logic applies to the concept of Father's day, Mother's day, Friendship day blah blah blah. The highest selling "item" is the index of the "psyche" of a civilization and in a country where Infant Mortality Rate is 50 per thousand we can do better by contributing something to those unfortunate infants than to give those costly roses to beloved ones. Even if 1% of our population celebrate 14th Feb and if they consume 100 Rupees by most conservative estimate than we have 100 Crore Rupee contribution on this day only and by this i think we can build atleast 100 good hospitals in remote and underdeveloped corners of India. Revolution is not only about blogs, facebook or tweets its also about going and working where no one has gone or worked before.  St. Valentine will be very proud.

And the Sphinx roars

I have always loved Egypt and i will always love it. Egypt to me means a nation with superb mythology, great pyramids, great history and great culture.Pyramids are almost 5000 years old and are more gigantic man made structure than any structure produced by any other Neolithic or Chalcolithic civilization. Egypt was known as bread basked for Roman empire and the mighty Julius Caesar and Mark Antonius used to pay their obedience to the sheer beauty of sensuous Cleopatra. The Pharaohs were so great that they even forced Moses to part the Red sea. Every conqueror in the history of mankind had tried to conquer Egypt (and almost all were able to conquer it)) and that list is tectonically impressive with people like Alexander, Julius Caesar, Saladin, Ottomans, Napoleon, Britishers, Hitler and others. The pride of all conquering Mongols were broken by Egyptians only.
Alexandria was the capital of human intellect and its library was the saturated solution of human civilization. Almost all the major empires of world enriched Egypt and also got enriched by it. The golden period of Indian commerce, from the days of Hellenistic kingdoms to the onslaught of Europeans depended very much on the ports of Egypt on Mediterranean and Red seas.

The situation has changed a lot in few decades and once again Egypt is attracting attention of entire world in their struggle for "Independence" and "Prosperity". Nothing is more worth than fighting for a just cause and all Revolutionaries have a duty and a moral obligation to make sure that their revolution is not hijacked by opportunists. I am praying for well being of common Egyptian on one hand while at the same time i wish this revolution should not result in further restriction on freedom or anarchy. Mr. Hosni Mubarak should step down and should propose a framework for the orderly transfer of power to the people. Revolutionaries should have patience of Mahatma Gandhi and courage of Che Guevara. Some times its better to retreat and wait than to become fodder for the anarchists and counter revolutionaries. Let Truth and Freedom prevail. Amen

Now Kashmir, Tomorrow what?

Is Kashmir a part of India? This is a very emotional question and answer varies depending on whether you are an Indian, a separatist, a "Secular" breed of Left Liberals, Media or a politician or an ideologue et al. So let me clarify my stand here, I am an Indian and i don't belong to the self rightist breed of left liberals. For a nation state to survive its essential that its territorial integrity remain sacrosanct and it should follow an uniform principle in all the cases and that principle should remain subject invariant. 

Last summer we saw a very unfortunate volatile situation in Kashmir and more than 100 lives were lost. Media says that they were fighting for their rights democratically. Can stone pelting be a part of peaceful demonstration? The Kashmiri leaders are more responsible for the death of these 100 odd young Kashmiris than the Indian security forces. Why people don't see that no prominent politician get hurt in case of any demonstration? These 100 odd deaths don't include even a single Kashmiri Politician.

When Geelani, Arundhanti Roy et all assembled in New Delhi to do a "Tamasha" and openly asked for freedom from India, our Breed (i will call self rightist left liberals and "seculars" as breed from now on) did not speak a word, they even advocated and endorsed those statements of Roy and Geelani after all they were all using Right to Expression granted by the constitution of very country(they were trying to disintegrate). Our honourable HM did not do anything. But now when Now another party is trying to unfurl Tiranga at Lal chowk this same breed and other parties are seeing "Divisive" politics in it. Can unfurling of Tiranga be a divisive issue and if it indeed a divisive issue in Jammu Kashmir then we should stop saying that Kashmir is an integral part of India. Kashmiris openly unfurl Pakistani flag at Lal Chowk without any issue, our great PM and great Breed don't speak any single word of protest against this heinous act but they go all out against the unfurling of Tiranga.

Any one who has a problem with Tiranga is free to go to Pakistan or to Hell. I don't believe in forcefull occupation of any part of India and if Kashmiri people do believe in seceding from India then India should give a serious consideration to it but remember one thing it can open a pandorra box. Today is Kashmir, tomorrow it can be UP or even Tamil Nadu. In all this drama we are loosing the agony of innocent Kashmiri Pundits who were driven from their homes in the worse possible case of ethnic cleansing. They were raped, murdered in huge numbers but our Breed don't see any issue in it. They will go all out for the case of so called Indian tyranny in J&K but nothing for poor Pundits. If we keep on doing this again and again the day is not far when India will consist of many Independent Republics and Kingdoms and we will be responsible for that tragedy.

We have a right as well as duty to India as well as to our coming generation to pass them a safe and peaceful India and we should be better ready for this Crusade.