World Champions!

These were the scenes of jubilation in Hyderabad last night after India beat Pakistan in the T-20 finals...I have never seen so many Indian flags at one place (except if u count the number of small flags that we would have pinned to our shirts on Independence Day or some such occasion in school!). Was smiling for a very long time last night!

India - Pakistan - Bring it on!!!

"Glorified prostitution of the game" was just one of the many denouements I heard when the T-20 World Cup was about to begin. People said that the ICC was trying too hard to take the game to the US and this was purely a way to cater to the notoriously short attention spans of the Americans. And regarding the Indian team, it was supposedly a joke being played on the Indian populace...a team without any of the stalwarts full of green horns was never expected to win any matches at all.

Today, the final of the tournament is going to be played between two teams whose games put the legendary England - Australia rivalry to shame. The English - OZ rivalry has long been reduced to a joke thanks to Australia's domination - except for the Ashes series that England won a couple years ago, the other matches have been such non-contests that they are almost a yawn. India - Pakistan, on the other hand, is a rivalry that will never lose its sheen. Both teams are known for their legendary inconsistency, their eternal process of rebuilding, their internal squabbles due to which they never really reach their true potential. And the enmity between the countries (which is all hogwash going by the last time India went there) adds so much spice to the proceedings that the match becomes something much more than just a match. It is a fight to finish with the winner also winning the hearts of millions and the loser inviting the wrath of millions. That personal angle adds so much to this clash that today's match that it will set pulses racing and adrenaline throbbing through out the world.

That apart, this tournament has well and truly brought alive the age old adage that Cricket is the Great Leveller. The long drawn out and boring ICC WorldCup served to show that in the effort to spread the game far and wide, the ICC had brought in too many rookies and stretched the tournament to 51 games, even the most hardcore enthusiast of the game would lose interest over that long a period. T-20 on the other hand offers us a fresh perspective...the action is fast and furious, the game is over before an innings can end in a one day game. Inspite of the bowlers having a very important role to play and all that in the game,cricket, in the end is a batsman's game. Anyday, big powerful hitting, a century from their star player, this is what captures the imagination of the paying spectators. T-20 showcases some displays of unbridled aggression is the impression I was under, but the Indian team has shown over the course of the tournament that it is not all about brute force. The way India has worked to preserve wickets in the first 10-12 overs followed by some frenzied hitting in the final overs has proved to be its biggest advantage.

The margin of error in this format of game is extremely small, there is just not time for rebuilding. This is where India will have to score today...the smallest of errors - one big over, one dropped catch, one wicket thrown away to a moment of recklessness, any of these can prove fatal. So, Chak De! India, one more time. Just like the ad before the campaign went - WORLD CUP ABHI MANGTA HAI!!!

Om Shanti Om- Ajab Si ( exclusive song promo)

I'm waiting very very eagerly for this movie...Deepika Padukone's dimples are to die for and the song is oh-so-romantic!

Sunset - from Tank Bund

A picture of the sunset taken using my mobile phone while I was stuck in a traffic jam on TankBund (the old TankBund) road!

Ganapathi Bappa Morya

Wishing all of you a Very Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi!

The Kite Runner - Stunning!

I've been away for a while...did not go anywhere, just been tied down by work...from hardly working to hard working is quite a transition, u see! Neywayz, after all the things that happened in Hyderabad, the city is making a full attempt at going back to normalcy and the impending Ganesh Chaturthi is lending more than a helping hand to the attempt.

I have finished reading Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner in the mean time and I must say I found it quite stunning. A childhood in Kabul is not something that I quite imagined about.As far as I have seen, Kabul was always in ruins, always the war ravaged city wherein war was a way of life rather than an aberration. The description of the childhood of the author and his friend took me by surprise. There was a Kabul that existed before the war and Taliban, a Kabul that knew music, laughter and merriment, not one that was ruled by bearded suppressants.

The book was made special by the author's focus on the human element. There are very few moments that the human heart forgets...the mind might not be able to remember everything, but the heart seldom forgets. All of our life's events are stored in some corner of our hearts and at the slightest provocation, they come pouring out like they had been waiting for that moment. This is what I learnt from a lot of characters in the book. Amir could never forget his betrayal, Baba could never forget his mistakes, Hassan could never let go of his loyalty, Sohrab could never let go of his childhood, Soraya's father could never let go of his regal past...these and many more experiences in the book tell us that we will never be able to run away from our past.

The description of post war Kabul, the executions, the commodities (fathers) that war had made scarce was heart rending. It left me wondering if humans were truly capable of such barbarity. The book left a deep impact and made me say a silent prayer to my maker for having made me so lucky. There is not a soul who would impose on me the rules to live, rules for growing my beard, rules for listening to music, rules for talking or cheering loudly, rules about how to pray best to the god that has been imposed upon me, rules about who to be friends with...saying rules about everything would not even cover it. We live a free life and should be eternally greatfull for that.

One line from the book will remain in memory forever..."For you a thousand times over". Ask yourself if there is one such person in your life to whom you can say this line and be better off for it!