Saturday, October 18, 2008

वो कहती है...



[Given below is a short Nazm by my favourite Shaayar, Saahir Ludhiyaanwi Saab. I don't exactly remember where I had read it first but for some strange reason, it has stayed in my memory. How I wish I had even a fraction of the eloquence that Saahir Saab possessed ! Take a bow, Saahir Saab !]


वो कहती है ......
बताओ बे सबब क्यूँ रूठ जाते हो ?
मैं कहता हूँ ...
ज़रा मुझ को मनाओ ...... .अच्छा लगता है

वो कहती है
मेरा दिल तुम से आख़िर क्यूँ नहीं भरता ?
मैं कहता हूँ ....
मोहब्बत की कोई हद ही नहीं होती ....!

वो कहती है ....
बताओ ...मैं तुम्हें क्यूँ भा गई इतना ?
मैं कहता हूँ ...
मेरी जां हादसे तो हो ही जाते हैं !

वो कहती है ...
अचानक मैं तुम्हें यूँ ही रुला दूँ तो ?
मैं कहता हूँ ...
मुझे डर है के तू भी भीग जाएगी ...!

वो कहती है ...
बताओ ..बारिशों की क्या हकीकत है ?
मैं कहता हूँ ...
के ये तो बादलों की आँख रोती है ...!

वो कहती है ...
तुम्हारे ख़्वाब सारे क्यूँ अधूरे हैं ?
मैं कहता हूँ ...
मेरी जां तुम इन्हें तक्मील दे दो न ...!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

In praise of Abhinav Bindra

Finally.

After over a century and more than TWO BILLION births ; an Indian has managed to win "The Gold" at the grandest stage of 'em all -The Olympics !

Oh ! What a sight it was to see a fellow Indian at the top of a podium*, standing tall, chin up, receiving the top honor at the Olympic ! I am sure atleast a billion hearts must've swelled and fists must've clenched simultaneously with a pride unfelt ever before in the collective utterance of a passionate "Yessssssssssss ! We DID it !" ; mine for sure did.

A truly Unforgettable moment in the otherwise lamentably barren sporting history of the nation !

Thank you & take a bow, Mr. Abhinav Bindra. You, dear Sir, are most truly THE pride of the nation.

What is most satisfying about this triumph of your's for me, personally, is the fact that it came in an INDIVIDUAL competition and not some team sport. This clearly means that the credit lies with the victor alone unlike in a team sport where it gets shared by the entire squad. With due respect to team sports, any individual sporting competition is anytime more demanding than a team sport for there is absolutely no chance of your bad day at the office being made up for by the rest of your team mates collective good days at the same. Here, the participant is all by himself. No team mates, no team. This is why I, for one, taking nothing away from similar triumphs at team events, shall always rate a triumph in an individual event, such as your's, much much higher than any similar feats achieved in any team sport ever.

And to think that you managed this feat despite the hurdles posed by the governing body of your sport in the country makes it all the more special.

Hats Off to you, once again !

* Doffs the Hat *

Sincerely hope this groundbreaking achievement of your's proves to be a trendsetter and can spur the rest of our contingent at the ongoing Olympics as well and can make this edition of the Olympics - THE most successful one for the nation in terms of medals.

Amen.





[*- The link to the video might not work as it's highly probable that it will be taken off youtube due to third party policy issues sooner than later.]

Sunday, July 27, 2008

REMINDER :Got to read this 4-5 years hence.

[ Following is the transcript of a dialogue I recently had with an online acquaintance of mine. The subject of the dialogue was - " greatness" and "should it be a necessary criterion in liking someone ? "

The reason I am posting it here is that the person with whom I had that dialogue had asked me to
Not delete my replies to his queries. Instead, save them somewhere and read them 4-5 years hence. The idea appealed to my senses so I decided to entertain it. Now, what better a place to preserve a dialogue for eternity than this virtual space. After all, hard discs aren't so reliable these days and the traditional medium i.e " paper " doesn't seem that durable an option to keep such dialogues intact for such a long period as say, 5 years. Posting it as a blog entry on my blog seemed to me to be the best available option. So here's the dialogue as it happened..]



TH*-Glad to see you here,Mr.Eastwood** :)

( *TH- The Highlander= Profile name of the person I had the dialogue with. )

( **I had the picture of Clint Eastwood as my display pic. on my profile at that time. )

SS*-Same here, Monsieure Iconoclast** :)
* Doffs the Hat *

( *SS- Sudeept Shrivastav= Your's truly. )
( **Iconoclast is the "handle" The Highlander uses on Orkut. )

TH- So you like Chankakya ? What is so great about him ?

SS- You mean Chanakya ? Well, I do like Chanakya-The tele-serial. I have the entire serial in DVD format. It was one of the best historical tele-series I've ever watched on small screen. Very well directed technically,as per the existing technical standards in those days. Equally well acted. An honest and sincere attempt on the director Dr.Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's part.

As for Chanakya- The person..Well, not too sure if I actually "like" him in that sense but yeah I do find him pretty interesting and fascinating. As far as his "greatness" is concerned, history establishes him as THE finest prime minister any Indian King ever had, besides being the second finest politician & KINGMAKER in the entire history of India after Shri Krishna ( of course, assuming he actually existed & Mahabharatha actually took place. )

I personally consider him as a good teacher, a knowledgeable economist, an able administrator, a ruthless politician and above all -A foresighted visionary.

Having said that, L'emme make it clear that I don't endorse all his views. Particularly his Neetis regarding women.

On another note though, Is "Greatness" a necessary criterion for one to like someone ?
The way I see it, it isn't.

In any case, I don't like a person because he is great. It's actually the other way round i.e. He is great because I like him ;-)

TH- If "Greatness" ( in one sense or the other, to some degree or the other ) isn't a criteria to like someone for you, then what is?


SS-First things first- Pray pardon me for being so late with my replies. I am a l'il busy with some work these days and hence haven't been able to be online as much as I would have liked to.

Coming to your question, I beg to disagree with the way you structured your question-

-"If "Greatness"(in one sense or the other, to some degree or the other) isn't a criteria to like someone for you, then what is?"-

Sorry but you can't just put it as nonchalantly as that ( re:portion in bold ). The whole cache, the whole point of - Greatness not being a necessary criteria to like someone for me - lies in the "sense" of it only.
Greatness is a subjective term. It depends upon how an individual defines "Great". What looks great to me might not look so to you. And viceversa. For instance, my Ma could be the greatest cook in the world in MY eyes but that doesn't mean the world, too, should agree with MY view regarding her culinary skills.

So..what's the point of talking in terms of something as subjective as greatness ??

When I used the term "greatness" in my previous scrap, I obviously meant it in the popular sense of the term OR, in other words- as the world in general defines "greatness". And it's this popular sense of the term greatness which I don't consider important enough to deem it as THE criterion for me for liking someone.

And frankly speaking, I don't have very lofty standards when it comes to likes and dislikes. There's absolutely no need for anyone to be "great" ( in the popular sense of the word ) in order to be liked by me. Just being "good" will do. I can certainly manage with just a l'il goodness only.


I hope I've made myself clear THIS time round :)

TH- Don't delete these scraps that you wrote to me. Save them somewhere and read them 4-5 years hence.

SS- Done.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Royal Mess

[ This piece, as per my diary, was written on Thursday, the
15th of May'2008. It's primarily a rant, a rant against the commercialization of the game of cricket and it's ill effects in general and Mr.Mallya,the embodiment of this curruption , in particular. IPL was on and Royal Challengers Bangalore, led by Rahul Dravid was staring at the prospects of finishing at the bottom of the league having lost 7 out of the 9 games it played at that stage. This had infuriated the businessman in Dr.Mallya- the franchise owner and he went public with his grievances regarding team and team management. He even sacked Charu Sharma, the CEO of the franchise mid way through the tournament. I had been listening to his nonsensical whinings for a few days and this rant came about when I couldn't take it anymore. Here is it how it went..]


"So what? No one died."

-Lance Klusener, reflecting upon his suicidal run for glory at Edgebaston in WC'99 Semi final against Australia.

Well, I am fully well and truly aware that it'd be futile to expect a hardcore businessman like you , Mr.Vijay Mallya to be able to even comprehend, let alone agree with this most philosophically profound of observations about the game. Still, I wasn't expecting the man behind Kingfisher- the best damn beer in the world- to be so stupid & cricket illiterate as you've shown yourself to be over the last few days.

It's simply pathetic the way you, Mr.Mallya have gone public about your grievances over the poor performance of your franchise RCB. I mean come on man !..Just because you have churned out a big amount for buying a certain franchise doesn't mean that you've bought the very game of cricket itself. It's a sport for pete's sake. You win some you lose some. If all the teams were meant to win then what's the bloody point in conducting a tournament ?! It's just a game after all and at the end of the day some one HAS to lose. Some teams are bound to lose more than the others. Agreed that the franchise owner, by the virtue of his investment, has a right to express his dissatisfaction in case of repeated failures of his franchise but making a public TAMASHA of it !! Sorry Sir, it's just not on. You should realize that all that your
disgruntled whining in media about your team's failures is gonna achieve is some further demoralization for an already beleaguered side & nothing else. You should learn something in this regard from the owners of Deccan Chargers, who have shown tremendous class while dealing with disappointing results of their franchise-Hyderabad Deccan Chargers. Or for that matter, Mr.Mukesh Ambani-the owner of Mumbai Indians who remained calm personified while his side was losing match after match, besides facing other off field problems like the prolonged absence of it's icon player and the banning of another key player as a result of a shameful slapping incident. Hell..even Shahrukh Khan-The owner of Kolkata Knightriders has proved to be more classy & graceful in defeat than the self proclaimed 'King of good times' !
It's hardly a surprise then, to see that 2 of these 3 sides blessed with a compassionate, supportive & understanding owner have been able to stage an inspired comeback in the competition from a stage of utter despair and are now competing for a spot in the semis.

And what really gets my goat, Mr. Mallya, is that you are trying to justify your stupidity under the garb of the ‘corporate side of IPL.’

Let's see..In the business you've invested upon for a period of ten years, you sack the CEO and go public with your dissatisfaction with the Captain and Coach after merely a fortnight or 20 days of disappointing performance !! Is this a ‘corporate’ manner of building a team ?

Make no mistakes, I am all for a result oriented approach and I, too, believe that accountability is one of the pillars of any corporate undertaking. But applying these yardsticks on a mere 20 days performance of your enterprise, that too, in the middle of its first season !!
What kind of corporate leadership is that ?

And while we are at "accountabilty", L'emme ask you a simple question, Mr.Mallya- if Charu Sharma was sacked for selecting the wrong men for the job, What 'bout the person who chose Charu Sharma and Dravid for the job of chosing the team in the first place ???
Is he above accountability ?


No one can deny that whoever picked the players for RCB at the players auction made some big time blunders. For instance buying a geriartic like Sunil Joshi & some clear cut T20 mis-fits like Shivnarine Chanderpaul & Waseem Jaffer etc.(though Jaffer's performance till he was ruled out due to an injury had been pretty decent as compared to the other openers in IPL barring Haydos,Gambhir n Veeru). But then..getting a positive result in a T20 game is not just about picking the right set of players during the player auction. If that had really been the case, a team like Hyderabad Deccan Chargers boasting of some of the most feared hitters in the business like Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symmonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma etc. wouldn't have been languishing at the bottom of the points table giving constant company to RCB.

There's much more to winning regularly in IPL T20 than mere smart squad selection during the players'auction. If anything,a smart squad selection is just the preliminary stage of the process of winning, certainly not the be all and end all. Positive results can still be achieved despite a not so gr8 squad and one doesn't need to look any further than Rajasthan Royals for a proof of that.

There are so many variables that play a role in deciding the final outcome of an IPL T20 game like the toss, the pitch, the weather, availability of foreign recruits, fitness n form status of the key players, bonding between the local & foreign recruits, commitment & intensity levels of the foreign recruits etc..And last but not the least, Luck.Whether we like it or not- Luck does play a big part in the eventual outcome of the game-positive OR negative, more often than not. One close look at the 9 games that RCB has played so far in the IPL will confirm that out of the 7 matches that they've lost so far they could've won atleast 3 of 'em had a l'il bit of luck gone there way at some crucial moments.

But it wasn't meant to be.

So in such a scenario, it's advisable to move on with it. No use crying over spilt milk. There's always a next time, as the saying goes. And it's certainly not like this failure alone is gonna turn YOU into a bankrupt overnight or anything like that. Is it ?

Then why to resort to such cheap antics like washing your dirty linen in public ? Such cheap behaviour doesn't befit a mature n successfull person as you, Sir. So..Plz Stop whining and be a sport. And if you can't then it'd be much better that you stay the fuck away from sports cause as it is, in order to succeed in sports one requires a Sportsman spirit and this spirit is very different than the "bottled spirit" you specialize in manufacturing. In any case, as it is, with due respect to your business acumen, it (your business acumen) appears to be shit (to put it mildly) as far as your sporting ventures are concerned, be it the Royal Challengers Bangalore Or The Force India team that you've invested in.

It's sports for fuck's sake, not your pet liquor trade where the profits are assured !


Oh and by the way, extremely sorry for addressing you as just "Mr." everywhere in the post. I forgot that you have the honorary "doctorate in philosophy in business administration from the University of South California".

Sincerest apologies, "Dr."Mallya.

The strange nature of online debates related to Cricket as seen through the eyes of a self proclaimed Neutral observer.

[ This piece was written on Wednesday, the 20th of February'2008. It reflects my thoughts on the strange nature of online debates in general and those related to cricket in particular. What brought about these thoughts was, infact, my own involvement in one such rather heated debate with a one time close online friend of mine. Ironic ? You bet..]


It's been over one and a half year since I've joined the addictive world of cricket related communities in the domains of the most popular social networking site of our times-Orkut. In this span of nearly 18 months or so, I've observed quite a lot of interesting facets about online acquaintances but what fascinates me the most is the nature of debates related to the game.

What I've observed regarding the nature of cricketing debates during my stay in various cricket communities spread across orkut is that no one..absolutely NO ONE ( & that includes your's truly as well ) seems to be interested in any kind of objectivity at all. All that the involved individuals ( or for that matter, parties ) focus upon is the effective voicing of their personal opinion regarding the topic of debate at hand.

It should be noted here that I have deliberately used the word- DEBATE -instead of the word- DISCUSSION - even though, ironically, majority of this supposedly intellectual jargon gets passed off as "Discussion" only.

There's a very distinct difference between a "debate" and a "discussion". A "discussion" is a dialogue between two individuals or parties wherein both the parties needn't necessarily be at odds with each other but are trying to reach a conclusion regarding some issue ; together.

While a debate, on the other hand, is a dialogue between two individuals or parties wherein the involved units have already taken a stance upon some issue and are now interested only in the establishment of their personal stance regarding that issue as THE ultimate truth, anyhow.

And debate is what we keep witnessing every other day in any & every cricketing community anywhere and everywhere in the virtual world.

Now, coming to debate, I'd like to make it clear at the very onset here that I don't have anything personal against it. Hell, I've myself been part of some very lively ( & if I must add, heated ) ones at that. I am in total agreement with the notion that a healthy debate is a pretty stimulating and arrestive form of mental exercise and can be a very creative time-pass. But the basic drawback of a debate, in my opinion, is that the probability of it staying "healthy" till it reaches it's climax is extremely low. The involved individuals tend to get sucked into it to such an extent that they cease to view other person's opinion in it's objectivity. Instead, they begin taking even clearly impersonal comments, personally. And this happening is the sureshot recipe of disaster. As soon as this starts to happen, the debate ceases to be a healthy one, loses it's objectivity and is eventually turned into a nasty verbal tussle between the two involved parties with a distinctly apparent personal angle.

Unlike a discussion, a debate is a competitive exercise to prove one's intellectual superiority over one's counterpart. And like most of the competitions( "love" and "war" being the prominent ones amongst them ), everything is considered fair in the quest of an illusion victory. The only rule that's followed by both parties is - Everything goes. From sarcasm which is deliberately in bad taste, to personal taunts, to jibes about the mental level, to one's upbringing & background & what not.

And the most amazing part of it all is that seemingly cultured, civil, literate, knowledgeable, well mannered and learned people tend to fall prey to this tremendously alluring trap of debate more often than the not so learned & cultured ones. Perhaps it's their high level of intellect only which makes them intolerant and dare I say, insecure when faced with a strong counterview to their opinion.

The situation becomes even funnier when one such highly knowledgeable person finds himself squaring off against one of his own tribe i.e. another highly knowledgeable scholar of the game.
The fireworks that emanate then from such a titanic clash is something which is to be seen to be believed !

One of the intrinsic characteristics of a debate is that it is capable of turning friends into foes and vice versa. Such is the might of one's attachment with one's own ego that even impersonal countering is viewed as an attempt to encroach upon one's ego. And the response to such an attempt is somewhat similar to the anti-encroachment drive, i.e full fledged attack to destroy any traces of that encroachment. Sample this

Every tom, dick and harry in such cricket communities claims himself/herself to be a great follower of the game- Cricket. But strangely enough, very few seem to imbibe the sportsman spirit associated with this great game. A spirit to forgive and forget, a spirit to let bygones be bygones, a spirit which preaches one to be mature enough to distinguish between on-field tussles and off-field bonhomie & most importantly - a spirit which preaches that at the end of the day, it's just a game.


Why can't we, just like the cricketers we so love and admire, keep all the bitterness that might have developed as a result of a heated debate, aside, separate from our personal equations or the rapport that we share with each other off the community ? What's so bloody difficult in that ? All it requires is a bit of maturity and level headedness on one's part.

But then...expecting those two virtues from a cricket fanatic is, perhaps, asking for too much.



Friday, July 25, 2008

बिस्मिल्लाह !

[ This monologue is recorded in my diary as having been written at the dawn of Sunday, the 6th of April '08. I was staying at Nagpur in that period and it was a norm to have a "party" on weekends, preferably on Saturday nights ( needless to say what kind of a "party" as guys all over the globe have the exact same idea of "party" ). It's pretty obvious that I must've been really high that night otherwise I don't normally deal in so much of Urdu. Felt like posting it as my debut blogpost, so here it is.]




दिन-इतवार ,
तारीख -06' अप्रैल ,
साल -2008,
बस ..कमबख्त इस वक्त का ही कुछ मुक़म्मल पता नहीं चल पा रहा है ...

Terrace पर आकर देखता हूँ तो ऐसा मालुम होता है जैसे शाम है ..
लेकिन ...यकीनी तौर पर कुछ भी कह पाना मुश्किल है ।

होने को सेहर भी हो सकती है ।

गौर का चश्मा लगाऊं तो शायद तय हो भी जाए ..
पर न जाने क्यूँ ..आज किसी भी चीज़ पर गौर करने को दिल नहीं करता।
आखिरकार ...आसमां के रंग तो वोही रहने वाले हैं ..
फिर चाहें वक्त-ऐ-शाम हो या वक्त -ऐ-सेहर ..
क्या फर्क पड़ता है ?

सुनता हूँ ..दूर कहीं से ..
कुछ पंछियों के चेहचेहाने की आवाज़ आ रही है ..
मानों क़ुदरत ख़ुद उनकी ज़ुबां में अपनी ही कोई नज़्म गुनगुना रही हो ..

और ये क्या ..ये गीली मिट्टी की खुश्बू !!
-बारिश !?

आह ! बस इसी की कमी थी..अब ख़ुमार पूरा होगा।

लेकिन..इस तरह से आज अचानक बिन बताये क़ुदरत का ये पुरखुमार शक्ल अख्तियार करना बे-सबब तो नहीं हो सकता..इन सब चीज़ों का एक साथ होना बे मायने तो नहीं हो सकता।

देखो न..यूँ ही अचानक आज फिर एक बार...
ये अल्फ़ाज़ों की बंदगी करने का मन बनना..
ये शाम और सेहर के बीच के फर्क का मिट जाना..
ये क़ुदरत की नज़्म कानों को फिर से सुनाई देना...
ये April में बारिश ...
और इन सब से बढ़कर...कहीं बढ़कर...
ये तुम्हारा ख़याल !

हाँ..तुमने सही समझा..मैं तुम्हें ही सोच रहा हूँ।

अल्फ़ाज़ों की इस भूल भुल्लैय्या में ख़ुद को उलझा कर भी...
मैं सिर्फ़ तुम्हें ही सोच रहा हूँ।

क़ुदरत की मीठी नज़्में सुनता हुआ भी...
मैं मेहेज़ तुम्हें ही सोच रहा हूँ।

ये शाम हो या के सेहर ..क्या फर्क पड़ता है ?
मैं तो बस तुम्हें सोच रहा हूँ

गैरों से ही नहीं बल्कि ख़ुद से भी कट कर ..
कहीं दूर ...अलग हट कर...
अपनी तन्हाइयों में अकेला...गुमसुम...
मैं फ़ख्त तुम्हें सोच रहा हूँ।

वक़्त जैसे खो सा गया है...
मानों..बे-मायने हो गया है...
और मैं हूँ के तुम्हें..सिर्फ़ तुम्हें..सिर्फ़ और सिर्फ तुम्हें सोच रहा हूँ ।

यकीनन ये सब मेहेज़ इत्तेफाक़ तो नहीं हो सकता..कोई ना कोई सबब ,कोई ना कोई वजह तो ज़रूर होगी।
वो सबब क्या है,वो वजह क्या है..मैं नहीं जानता ..मैं सिर्फ़ इतना जानता हूँ के आज फिर तुम मुझे याद आ रही हो बहुत याद आ रही हो ।

टूट कर याद रही हो


लेकिन इस बार इस याद आने में एक बुनियादी फर्क महसूस करता हूँ।
फर्क ये है के इस बार तुम्हारी याद अपने साथ कोई दर्द, कोई रंज, कोई गिला, कोई शिकवा, कोई शिकायत या कोई कड़वाहट लेकर नहीं आई है बल्कि इस बार साथ लायी है तो सिर्फ़ एक मीठी सी मुस्कराहट..एक मुस्कराहट जिसमे जो ना हो सका, जो ना मिल सका उसकी कोई शिकायत नहीं बल्कि जो हुआ, जितना हुआ, जो मिला, जितना मिला उस की ख़ुशी है, उसका शुक्रिया है।

शायद..ये एक नई शुरुआत है।
दुआ करता हूँ की ये एक नई शुरुआत ही हो..क्यूंकि बा-ख़ुदा..ये ख़लिश जो मैं अपने सीने में लिए पिछले आठ सालों से जिए जा रहा हूँ..ये ख़लिश अब मुझसे और बर्दाश्त नहीं होती।

ख्यालों के दायरे से बाहर आकर देखता हूँ तो पाता हूँ कि आसमां पर से धुंधलका हौले हौले छंट रहा है और बजाय अँधेरा गहराने के, रौशनी छाती जा रही है।

ओह..तो मतलब वो सेहर रही होगी ।

सो चलो..इसी बात पर आज का आखिरि जाम..तुम्हारी अरसे बाद आई इक मीठी याद के नाम,इस यादगार सेहर के नाम,आने वाली इस नई खूबसूरत सुबह के नाम और इक नई पुरउम्मीद शुरुआत के नाम..

Here's looking at you, Kid..