ACCEPTING THE MISTAKE

Recently I had been waiting in the lobby of a corporate hospital. It looked very chaotic with people looked restless, some in sober mood, some looking cheerful, some anxious faces, among them I noticed a gentle man walking restless in the corridor. After few minutes he called up an assistant and asked her when he can get the report and how long he should wait, he got an confirmation as ten minutes. By hitting his fore finger on his watch he said “I will wait for ten more minutes, not more than that, enough of this agony” . From their conversation it is understood that he was waiting for the last one hour and he also waited for 2 hours day before to collect the lab reports.

As I was absorbed into the surroundings around, 15 minutes passed away, I was wondering how the gentleman would react now. He looked at the watch and called up the same receptionist and with a controlled aggression he said “can I meet your boss”. She got puzzled and with a blank face she said “Please wait for ten more minutes”. He was in no mood to listen to her, with a red face he shouted at her “call your doctor!!!”. With in a minute she called up the doctor out, gentleman explained his problem and enquired what exactly the issue was to give back the reports. To my surprise doctor listened care fully and with no hesitation accepted it was his mistake and said the reports were misplaced day before evening and requested if he could wait for another 10 minutes. The moment doctor accepted his mistake the entire episode has calmed down and what could had been blown to proportions became normal. Immediately gentleman said “that’s ok, please do the needful asap” and allowed the doctor to go ahead. After 15 minutes he had the reports in his hand.

I was wondering how things turn out once one accepts his mistake. Many a times nobody wants to take the responsibility and blame everybody else to avoid the pain of owning the mistake. I walked out of the hospital thinking that after the doctor apologized, the gentleman would had waited even for another one hour with out any complaint. That’s the power of accepting the mistake and with this learning i would like to be in doctors shoes when ever i need to correct my self....

TURN AROUND DECADE FOR INDIAN CRICKET

I was watching the post cricket match presentation ceremony after India had won the fourth one day match and series, the Man of the match awardee Gambhir in a fine gesture called up Virat Kohli to hand over the award. This was an amazing team spirit from the young lad to show such a camaraderie to another young lad. For my remembrance this was the second time when a senior Sachin did the same to another senior pro Yuvraj. What these incidents are telling us is that the team has immense confidence in each one of them. India finished the year and the decade on a winning note but made me to think what really transpired India to come on mountain top is nothing but this blog.

Any teams win either in sports or in business are the ones which play as ONE team in all conditions. Either home or away, snatching victories from the clutches of defeat, converting small window of opportunities into big wins, coming unscathed from the jaws of defeat are the hall mark of great teams. This decade from 2000-2009, India had progressed from the second last to No.1 in Test rankings. This could be possible only after started believing that they could win in any conditions. The way stroke maker Gambhir played for ten hours to save a test match in NZ May 09, the way Sehwag turned the match in Chennai in Dec 08 with a blistering knock opened up the victory for others to take on

If we observe any of the previous overseas tours, Indian Teams were submissive and hardly played for the win. Except few wins to be remember like the win in NZ in 60’s the first ever overseas win , win in ENG and WI in 70’s and win in ENG 80’s are the few remembrances. India was always seen as Tigers at home and Lambs at overseas; the reason could be pitches, system, quality of players, conditions, mental toughness etc. But things have changed in this decade, India went on to win 40 odd Test matches out of that 20 are at home and 20 in overseas in all Test playing countries. India has been playing Test Cricket from 1930’s , after playing for seven decades only last month India reached 100th Test win, out of this 40 Test matches had been won in this decade. This sums up the story of the Indian cricket journey in this decade.

This is a remarkable achievement for a Team that was at the bottom of the table. Thanks to the shift of the epicenter of the game from northern hemisphere to the southern. The quality of young talent that got produced after the 1999 youth world cup win in Srilanka. Establishment of National Cricket Academy in Bangalore made the system more robust. In this decade Team has been led by some great leaders like Sourav, Kumble, Dravid & Dhoni,. Some of the glimpses here mentions their leadership qualities like in case of Sourav, , the way he led in the Steve Waughs 2001 Last Frontier Series set the path for the decade,he pushed himself above Sachin in Brisbane 2003-04 to face chin music and match Aussies mental toughness, Kumble when he gave the famous statement in Sydney that only one Team is playing in true spirit and the way he handled the following fiasco and Perth Test is a perfect example, Rahul Dravid declaring a Test Match in Pakistan when Sachin was 196* was an example of how team is more important than an individual score, Dhoni, the current captain is the most shrewd and calm, just an example I would like to mention his post match conference in Hyderabad after India lost the match against Aussies inspite of a greatest innings from Sachin, I was expecting him to go over the top for the way Sachin fought but he mentioned his name along with other team members and showed his disappointment how the Team lost from a winning position. Business means Team win for him. These leaders had lead the path for India to be in No.1 position.

Definitely there will be a cat and mouse game for the top position in Test Cricket in the coming months but it is the time for us to celebrate and bid farewell to memorable decade for Indian cricket and hope we continue the same in the coming one as well…..

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

ANGEL IN CAB DRIVER

I could find my one of my recent angel in the midst of green hilly terrains of Madikeri.When ever i go to any new place, I have a problem in sleeping. Twice I had been to Madikeri and mesmerized by the beauty of this place. The greenery, coffee plantations, culture, peoples affection had just made me to visit again. The lack of sleep and driving back made us to hire a Cab second time. As usual, I could sleep for only few hours and got up early in the morning and started taking few dawn snaps with my Nikon D60 capturing beautiful colors. I did spend an hour or two, ordered the break fast and went to up to wake up the cab driver.

It was a chilly cold winter morning with lot of fog around. As I enquired with the cab driver the previous evening, I knew he was sleeping inside the vehicle, I dabbed on the vehicle door but could not hear any signs of movement from inside. The windshield and window glass of the vehicle are covered completely by dew and could not see anything inside. I almost yelled but in vain. Waited few minutes and dabbed once again, this time a bit harshly. As I was wondering for sure he might be sleeping some where else because of the damn cold, slowly I could hear some sounds and door was opened. It was a shock for me, he just pulled his seat back, put the seatback flat and slept in the driver seat with such sound sleep. It immediately shook me with the reality that with a room with four walls , bed, fan, blanket, bed sheets, my sleep was half where as he with a very bad weather outside, single digit temperatures, had a very sound sleep.

I went on thinking what could be the reason, in the end could found a reasonable answer which satisfied myself. Sleep comes when both mind and body are in rest even if ones body is tired but without minds rest seldom one can sleep. The only way to make the body relax is by relaxing the mind first, once thoughts are kept out , the relaxation comes which is the first step for sleep. The sleep is always in sync with rest, when body needs rest, we need to relax, for the body to relax we need to relax the mind, to relax the mind we need to put our thoughts off.

It is said that if the last thoughts before sleep are good thoughts a sound sleep is guaranteed, but what is important to know that the nonstop thoughts puts off sleep. Found my personal angel in the form of a cab driver and made me to think beyond what I could had thought about ‘thoughts’. These angels come in casual contact with us in personal lives in many forms, from which few lessons can be picked.

MERRY CHRISTMAS:HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

MEET THE GURUS

Hall mark of any great personalities is the simplicity. This faith re-affirmed to me in witness as one of the invite to a program last week. This is the first of such experience which prompted me to put it as a blog.

We had an opportunity to attend a program “Meet the Gurus” which was attended by few hundred other invitees to listen to the gurus. In Sanskrit the word Guru is, ‘Gu’ means darkness and ‘ru’ means dispel . So the word ‘guru’ simply speaks of one who dispels the darkness and brings more understanding and light”.

This function was conducted as a part of felicitation to Prof.Mahabala and Dr. Mitta. As an organization we had been associated with Prof for last ten years, who happens to be the first person in India to start Computers. It was an honor to be one among the invitees for a glittered function with stalwarts from industry, academics and technology who were honored with highest civilian awards in the country. Our association with Prof. is for many years now, many of his lectures on the technology, innovation, product development; product testing is part of our learning’s.

We also had the opportunity to witness in person one of the most respected personalities in the country. For the last few years I had been collecting his speeches and thoughts over the net or following his rare interviews on the television, the most admired by many people in India and many other countries in the world, who rubbed shoulders with many prime ministers and presidents of the countries, who is seen in comparison with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, the most respected man in the industrial circles, whose name come like a flash when somebody talks about corporate ethics, who has been an icon to millions of people like me, he is none other than Mr.NRN Murthy. He remains an example for many generations to come. The amount of value his company has provided to the customers, employees, stake holders, investors, share holders and promoters is immense. He was one among the students of Prof. in IIT Kanpur. Now looking at the icon from such close quarters in person with whom we have been associated with, is a life time moment for me. These people have been grown from stature to stature but their simplicity, down to earth personality, humbleness remained intact.

I also witnessed an inspiring speech by Dr.Mitta, how he pursued his dream of becoming an electronic engineer from the age of seven and went on to become one of the renowned names in the field of Information and Technology in the country. From his presentation it shows how a kid from a small town connect his dream to become what he want in life , even though his family did not understand what he was doing. A lot about him was written in inspiring book “Go Kiss the World” by Subroto Bagchi. One of the chapters “Learn to Listen” is totally dedicated to him .As per the author, he was treated as the god in his division who had all the time in creation, big and small, and he knew all the answer for every question. He was a friend, philosopher, guide to every one and people knew that he was the man in charge.

I started walking out from the auditorium thinking that it was a dream come true to be in live of such wonderful event to listen, learn and get inspired from the GURUS who had inspired many a people in their life time…

MACKINAW BRIDGE OVER LAKE MICHIGAN

SUNSET IN WESTERN GHATS

ISLAND OF BIRDS

LEADERSHIP INSTINCT

Read in a column that the fast bowler who played in Kanpur Test against Sri Lanka was picked up by the captain’s instinct. He was always in the news for all reasons other than cricket, but on a flat pitch the same fast bowler bowled India to 100th sweet cricket Test victory. Leaders do take the decisions many a times instinct and back them to the core.

One of the charismatic captain and all-rounder from across the border led his country to victory many a times by backing his decisions. He picked up a 40 yr old left arm spinner in 1987 tour of India against criticism and fulfilled his dream of beating India in India in the last Bangalore test. Similarly he picked up a 19 year old lanky batsmen in 1992 world cup and with the same batsman’s contribution in two crucial matches went on to win the world cup. He picked up a fast bowler from a club level and played him in the Test level, who went on to become a “Toe Crusher”.

The point is, the Leaders weigh their options and go with their instinct and umpteem times it proves right than wrong. One is taking the decision and then backing it up all through the process. These kind of decisions are taken on intuition which is backed by experience and gut feel. It requires no data.The recent indian cricket skippers are giving away from the traditional paths and the results are shown on the field and the statistical data. In many other domains too similar kind of leadership is being shown and probably this is what it is all about Next Gen India...

FIVE LIFE LINES IN AN (MY) ORGANIZATION

As I was walking in the alley in my office on Friday , I noticed the food committee meeting in the conference room, which gave the birth to this blog. In the knowledge economy the main assets of the companies are people, to maintain and run these assets at the optimum levels, organizations has to use some life lines which are as important as other functions.

These life lines which takes care of the employee from the time he enters into the office to the moment he leaves. Read in an email, though the companies are a non living entities, there is lot of life in them apart from the people. Off course people are the main life lines in an organization but in my organization five such life lines which are helping people to do the intended tasks. This looked as perfect example of how companies provide these life lines to the employees to make them better professionally and personally.

First and foremost is the ‘intellectual’ which is the main life where the knowledge is shared across the people in the form of Monday meetings, Friday Discussion Forum, Project meetings, Project discussions, Game changer series on wide varied topics, Web conferences with across the world, these have become an integral part of the organization. They allow in understanding the innumerable points, weigh the options, identify the problems and arrive at the actions.

Next life line is the ‘body’ for which food is the fuel, we are served with an hygienic food constituting salads,fruits,curds and carbs in the afternoon and snacks in the evening. A food committee is constantly looking at the opinions of the employees and keeps changing the caterers to suite the taste buds. Diet is an important element for a human body which allows to think better to perform better.

Next life line is the exercise and yoga, this has become a life of few engineers. I fear if yoga stops, they may stop feeling better. For last four years very few Mon-Wed-Fri days are left without a yoga class. Breathing and stretching makes wonders to individuals. As the company is spending time and resource, lot more people need to participate in this program.

Next life line is the mind and thoughts, we had four-five IP skill programs conducted in last four years, given by different personalities with the backgrounds varied from the Defence, HR and Spirituality. No doubt these skill sets have changed some of the lives forever for producing better thoughts, better discipline and better equipped to face all kinds of challenges.

Last life line is the soul, which gives the mission, vision and values in our organization. Every six months either from the chairman, VP or MD will give a corporate presentation showing the vision of the company its objectives , achievements and forthcoming challenges. This puts all on the same board to have one common objective.

In my view these five life lines have become panch koshas in the form of Vignanmaya ( intellect),Annamaya ( body), Pranamaya (Breath and Yoga) Manomaya ( mind) and Anandmaya ( soul). Company has provided access to each of these levels to perform better.

There are another five important functions in any organization they are HR, Admin, Finance, Quality and System Admin. The above panch koshas will not function properly without these support functions. These guys just relentlessly serve the organization to a team which is bigger than any other team within and many a times their services needs more appreciation than they are.

WALKING IN WOODS

TEACHER: A TRUE LEADER

Yesterday we attended a training program from one of my favorite teacher on topic “Effortless Manifestation”. This blog is not what it is all about, it is about the PASSION, the ENERGY and the COMMITMENT shown from the teacher to impart the knowledge, which simply can not be put in words.

The moment he entered into the room saying “Hello Friends”, reverberated the surroundings which is occupied with a mix of age group, mix of expectations and mix of mindsets. For next 3 hours, he CONNECTed the audience in a subtle way and putting the things across, only the way he could do it, this shows his passion for his altruistic service.

When all of us took a break for lunch, he declined wanting to be fresh for himself to deliver the rest of the lecture. Cris crossing the country for 18 hours to deliver a 3 hour powerful lecture in a very lively, mimic and animated manner, shows the way he channeled his energy.

No communication will be effective until and unless it is put in a way where participants relate to it easily. The way the live examples were taken to make the things understand in a very obvious manner, is amazing. He reckoned to bring in a considerable systematic change in people lives, as though bit like peeling an onion. He had volunteered himself for many years to change the hundreds and thousands of lives for good, shows his commitment to himself.

This is a small note on a remarkable leader who could be honored with many titles as in corporate world, but continues to lead with out a title …....

BAY OF BENGAL in BLUE

TRYING OUT PANNING

CRICKET IN NETS

MINI COMPUTER: APPLE GIZMO

ROADLESS TRAVEL

CAN'T RESIST LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

WAITING FOR SOMEONE...

ANGELS OF WHITE SPACE

While I was reading a book by name “The Professional” by one of my favorite authors Subroto Bagchi who pulled out 3 books in as many years, I came across an absorbing chapter named as “White Space”. What SB writes here is “In our professional lives, white space is a train or a bus ride to work, it is a time waiting outside a client’s office, the time spent on long flights. We all have been given huge white spaces and we simply let their power go to waste”. As I was reading this I remember one of the moments which happened in this summer.

I was transiting through HYD from my native place back to BNG, I was having a three hour transit time and called up one of my friend if we can meet. He picked me up from SEC’BAD station, it was longing reunion happened after 5 years. He was not only an ex-colleague but also a cheerful personality and true friend. We immersed into an absorbing conversation as we were driving without even knowing where we were heading. After 10 minute drive we were on Tank Bund traffic, then he suggested why don’t we go to EATOUT STREET on Necklace road. This place transformed tremendously since few years. With Lumbini Park, IMAX theatre, metro station on one side and Hussain Sagar with Boat Club, Water rides on the other side. We sat on the banks of the lake sipping a soft drink over looking the Monolithic Statue of Buddha which is far away in the middle, i could remember one of his says "if you dont help atleast dont harm". The conversations and the surroundings made us to forget the scorching summer heat. As the sun moving down to prepare for dusk, I realized my time is running out. I could not resist my self to cherish those moments over see Birla Temple and click few snaps.

Just got a thought to bring over my family here next time when I am in HYD, a reason to come back to this place . At last I bid good bye to him thinking that I had made time for myself set for a beautiful Summer Sunday evening which now looks as my own Angels of white space..

HAPPY THANKS GIVING !!!

BOSS;MANAGER;LEADER ???

Few years back I was deputed in US on a business trip when working with my
ex -organization.

The day I was in office I came to know the gentle man to whom I was supposed to report has been transferred to take care of Japan business.

After few days later our entire team was meeting with new our VP in the office. Even though we knew him earlier, he introduced himself and was gently questioning each one of us on the status of the product, the business and it's growth. One after the other was giving him a positive jibe until something strange happened. One of our fellow colleague who is shrewd and highly competent categorically replied "I don't know". Entire room became silent and then VP asked him again "that's ok, what best we can do to see that we do something better". The answer was same and in turn he replied it was his old VP who was looking after the business growth and not him. This conversation has turned the room temperature hot. Every other person was wondering what will be the outcome, there was an uncanny silence in the room. VP's face was red and he went out of the room,

As we were holding our breaths, he just came in with a bunch of papers and supplied to each one of us. It was written as BOSS, MANAGER and LEADER and its meaning against each one, then what followed has been etched in my memory for a long time, "let me know how do you want me to work with you, I can be a boss, manager or a leader, I don't mind in doing that, at the same time if you have million dollars at home don't work me". Perfect! he left the room.

This episode was an eye opener for me to all the jargons of leader, boss.. etc more importantly got exposed to some of the early lessons in professional career. The best part was the gentleman and VP worked closely for next 3 - 4 years and had a very high regard for each other. That's really professional.

MAGIC LIGHT: GOLDEN HOUR

WALL OF COLORS

SACHIN @ 20: SAGA CONTINUES

Twenty years back a day after the children’s day , a child prodigy made his debut in cricket facing the first ball from one of the fiercest bowling attacks in Test cricket. He is none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. As said by Harsha Bogle in one of his cricket’s columns that he is most the analyzed cricketer ever in the game of cricket.

Now after 20 years there are two opinions divided based on his contributions to the world cricket, one community agrees that he is one of the greatest cricketer ever played in the game but not a match winner where as other community says he is "the greatest" cricketer ever played the game. I belong to the latter one and in this column I try to bring the some of the data to the table even though we trust in GOD.

When Sachin started playing cricket West Indies domination was on the decline and Australia started becoming one of the most formidable sides in World cricket. South Africa coming from apartheid ban joined the cricket nations and went on to become the most competitive side. As Sachin himself said the level of South African cricket was so high in 1992 tour were India has a disastrous tour except few innings from Sachin and others against the Donald Company. The countries where Sachin played Official International cricket are India, England, Australia, WI, Pakistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Bangladesh, Zimababwe, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Holland, Canada, Kenya and some Arab countries He played cricket against all these nations as compared to Don Bradman who played only in England and Australia. Sachin has toured Australia on four occasions, as many times as Bradman toured England. Like Bradman, he has never gone home without a Test hundred to his name.


If we take his career it can be put in five phases, first is the one he came into the team with a huge expectations, remember there was the print media and the only one national tv channel. He proved himself that he is on the course of becoming a legend which includes his histrionics in Australia, England, NewZealand, South Africa more in Tests than in one dayers. He scored his first one day century after playing 2 months short of five years for Indian Team. That is almost one fifth of his carrer is without a one day century.

Sachin’s second phase starts with already proven expectations he went on to become the hightest score in the 96 world cup, England tour, his elevation to captaincy in the home and west indies tour. In this phase Team was looking as a one man army where he could achieve many mile stones but not the team wins.

Sachin’s third phase started with losing the captaincy and his contributions in Aus series and his histrionics in Sharjah 1998 and a series of Cup wins from Bangladesh, India, Sharjah , Srilanka. No discussion on Sachin completes without Sharjah and Australia 98 series. He plundered the runs all over the world during this phase. His third phase includes the unwilling captaincy , match fixing rocking , Sourav’s captaincy and the Last frontier series. This was a bit a roller coster ride from him except his contribution in Chennai test for the decider with Aussies and ball tampering episode in South Africa.

Fourth phase was the Nat West Series win, World Cup 2003 contribution, his injuries and the emergence of quartet in the form of Laxman, Sourav, Rahul, and Sachin. This period subdued his aggression as he played a marathon innings 248* without playing a cover drive in Sydney. This phase includes Indias win the historic series in Pakistan, tests have been won in South Africa, England, Australia, Zimbabwe, Srilanka, Bangladesh. There was an article written by Ian Chappel asking Sachin to look in the mirror for the former self. First time he was booed in his home turf and one of his ex- team colleague compared him the big fat Elephant in the dressing room.

During the fourth phase there was a talk that he may be retired after 2007 world Cup. But just after the disastrous world cup tour, his fifth phase has started and blossomed like anything which includes his contributions in Aus, against England, South Africa, Pakistan and right until his magnificient and marathon 175 in Hyderabad on Nov 5th 09.

I don’t think any cricketer played cricket spanning over four decades 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s. For the coming generations it will be a hot topic to know whether Don Bradman has been tested as much as Sachin facing the bowlers of four generations right from Kapil, Hadlee, Imran, Botham and Marshall who were at the fag end of their careers when he entered the arena. From their on he faced the most hostile bowlers like Akram, Donald, Waqar, Dermott, Hughes, Walsh, Bishop, Vaas, Mcgrath, and wily guiles of Warne, Murali, Saqlain, Mustaaq etc. Played on the different coninents and different conditions. More than the data and Stats, there is a hope of billion people which carries on his shoulders and I hope Sachin Saga continues…

HAPPY CHILDRENS DAY

KIDS ARE LESSONS

WALK: If we obsereve kids, they walk, they fall, walk again, fall and again walk. Upteem times they keep falling and walking untill they learn walking. They don’t care any pain. It was told that they spent 7 to 8 hours every day to learn walkng. By the time they walk learning, they will be circling as much as 20 cricket stadiums, they almost climb eight thousand stairs. They have only one vision, the vision is walking, walking and walking. It is never treated as punishment or like an exam and they don’t relax once they learn. Then moment they learn walking, they start running, playing, climbing, sliding, cycling, swimming, skating, etc. These are indeed lessons!!

Where as for us one small obstacle either in personal life or the professional life put us very much down as if all is lost. All we need is to take a cue from the kids.

WORDS:The number of words kids learn, their pronunciation, tenses, genders, nouns, sentences, is amazing. They listen to other kids carefully, pick the words from tv and elders speaking. It is really important for us to be careful to speak in front of the kids.
Kids know that they cant speak well, they know that they cant pronounce well ,they know that others will laugh at them, but they do speak bravely. Until they get the enough words the words they keep on talking. Right from the age of two to fourteen every day right from the morning to the time they sleep, they learn two new words in every half hour.

SOCIALIZE: If we make ten kids to sit in one place and ask them who will sing better, all ten raise their hands. If we ask them who sings better all ten of them raise their hands. The same if we ask who dance better, its the same outcome. In case of us it is reverse, even better singer or dancer will be hesitant to raise the hand. Lack in self confidence and fear of failure will play a major role in us.

HAPPY DOTS: If we are asked about our most happiest moments, it will be very few like when we got married, got a kid, got a job etc. we struggle to pick from a span of 30- 40 years. Where as kids , each and every step is the most happiest moment watching a movie in IMAX, playing in rain, eating an icecream, watching a rainbow, eating bhel puri, trying to catch a butter fly, playing cricket, catching somebody in pool, playing volley ball, playing Need for Speed on computer, reading Birbal comics, watching Harry Potter on TV, playing with Uddhu the friend at home, a birthday gift etc. Countless

LAUGH:If we see kids laughing it comes from their heart with lot of love. For us we need a reason to laugh, whats the gain in it as if we take a credit card of our purse. Only in need we spend in laughing. We cant laugh like kids.

Kids don’t spend their time brooding over the past or thinking over the future, they spend the time in the moment. This is an art and it can be learnt only from them. They don’t care of the past and fear of the future. They neither worry about yesterdays failure nor think about tomorrow success..


Indeed Kids are Lessons…!!!

GENIUS KEEPS ODI ALIVE

Yesterday i got a chance to witness one of the best cricket matches i had ever seen. Most of the times i do miss the best matches in live. Australia vs India matches are getting better and better in last one decade, but it can go all the way back to the 1986. As I was watching it reminded me the reminisces of India vs Australia tied match in Sep 1986 and the World cup matches in 1987 Reliance and 1992 Benson Hedges. There are two other Test Matches which comes closer to this are, 1987 Bangalore Test and 1999 Chepauk test match , both played against Pakistan. In these two test matches it was the individual brilliances which had brought India closer to winning the matches , one is Sunny Gavaskar and other is Sachin Tendulkar. Ironically in all these matches India went on to loose or tie from the winning position.

Coming back to the yesterday match , who said that one day cricket is dying. To be true, an ardent fan like me started getting bored of too much cricket. My cricket interest started with One day cricket in 1985 and moved on to Test cricket, of which i am big supporter even today. It all started with Kapil Dev untill i saw in a news in Illustrated weekly in my college library in 1988, that two school kids have made a partnership of 600 odd runs in a school shield match. One of them involved in that partner ship has made more news than the other. The moment he came on to scene there was a huge uproar in the print media that he needs to be selected for Indian cricket. Barely he was 15 years old and made a debut in Ranji Match with a century and continued scoring the centuries in all the tournaments including Deodhar, Irani, and Duleep. Cricket Body had broke all the rules to made him an entry to cricket club of India in Mumbai. There was a criticism when he was not selected for the West Indies tour in March 1989 under Vengsarkar, but the days were not very far to see his brilliance on the field. On this very day 6th Nov 1989 exactly 20 years back, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar got selected in the Indian team for the tour of Pakistan along with two other rookies Vivek Razdan and Salil Ankola. I still remember Sachin's debut match in Karachi in mid Nov of 1989 listening over the radio which happens to be the 100th Test match of Kapil Dev. First over he played was from Waqar Younis who also debuted in the same match. He ended up scoring 15 and i remember he telling in many interviews that he thought that he was may not be able to play this level of cricket after playing against the likes of Imran, Akram, Jaffer and Waqar. Now everything is history.

So many cricket journalists have written a lot about Sachin right from Harsha, Peter Reubock, Rajan Bala, R. Mohan, Tony Cozier, Ted Corbett etc.over the years. And the cricket pundits like Chappels, Gavaskars, Borders, Waughs, Khans, Davids, Greigs,... had dissected his contributions left and rights to put their opinions. There were many instances of debate that Is he the greatest ever cricketer played on the planet? ,Is he comparable to Don Bradman?. There were reports that Don himself saying to his wife that Sachin batting style looks very similar to his and sending an invitation for the celebrations of his 90th birthday in 1998 along with Warne. He has been compared a lot with the contemporaries like Lara, Ponting, Jayasurya.. and always rated above them based on the way he conducted himself on and off the field. There was always a criticism that he miss on the big platforms had proven his crictics wrong when he single handled brought India closer to almost winiing the world cup in 2003, made a century and 90 in the two finals which india played and won the cup in March 2008 in Australia and fought alone to win a Test match against England in Dec 2008 to wipe out the memories of Chepauk haunt.

The way he played yesterday, facing may not be best attack but the best fielding side, is amazing. In the words of Robin Jackman the commentator describing his innings during the match " all the superlatives words had been used to describe his inninngs and it is just a privillege to watch from the box such brilliance unfolding" , Amarnath saying in the TV studio " /it was like watching a bollywood movie and how the saga unfolded/", Laxman Siva saying /Nothing gets much better than this" . The score of 175 out of 347 does not say all the story, he carries the hopes of a billion people when ever he walks on to the field with his bat. Ironically his score of 175 matches with 175 not out scored by the another greatest all rounder this country has ever produced, who happens to be my favourite cricketer. Fortunately that score helped the cause of winning the only cricket world cup India had won but not the last night 175....

ASK MORE

As mentioned in my previous post that last week end we had been to innovative film city, i did forgot to mention one incident.As we seven of us went there including two elderly couple we found that the entry ticket is not allowed. We were told that only package tickets are available which is 10times costlier than the entry. As we are accompanied by elderly couple, they cannot walk for around the city to cover the museums and events.

I requested the sales lady, but she did not budge saying they had removed the entry ticket format. I waited for few more minutes and was planning to go ahead buy the package.Then immediately thought to try last chance , i requested her if i can talk to the Manager. She politely pointed me to the Manager, I explained him my problem and to my suprise he just said it is ok to issue only entry tickets.

Here is a big learning for me, to get anything we need to ask more. Nothing happens until we ask. People are not our mind readers. They need to know what's meaningful to us, and if we ask nicely, they just might say yes.. All my life i was hesitant to ask. Thanks to RS.

NEW PERSPECTIVE

We had been to Innovative Film city yesterday. This was the third time visiting this place in as many months, were feeling bored of it but compelled. I did took my camera and took some pictures. I had clicked around 200 odd shots but i could more favorites than the last two visits. This time tried to view the same place from different angles and capture. The more i look into the surroundings, different perspectives were flashing.

To start with i was bored to go on this trip but in the end it turned out to be fruitful and satisfying. This could be achieved when i put in positive frame of mind to look for something new.

PROBLEM vs SOLUTION

Few years back, in my car arm rest(one between two front seats) lost it's connections to the floor and was thrown all over the place right from the luggage space to the cabin space. It was a new sense when ever people get in or get out, as it was a small car it was occupying the space where it should not be. The moment it was out of the floor, my thought was to take it to a near by shop and get it reconnected. I was lazy in doing this and got it procrastinated.

One day when we about to go on a drive, my kid asked me to just look back and see, the arm rest was perfectly sitting in its place and I could place my arm over it. His eyes sparkled and look very proud and as he found a solution to an unattended problem. He just used his common sense to solve and made a perfect (car space) world.

It was a simple thought missed from my side the day it came off, the reason may be I was looking it as a problem not as a solution. Thought process has taken a back seat and dependency has taken the front seat.

HOW DID I MISS DALAI LAMA

I was reading a book by Dalai Lama (DLA), Spirit of Peace. It is so intriguing that I just loved to finish it off, but I am reading it slowly to digest more. I came to know about DLA probably two years back, his life and struggle. I vaguely remember when he was conferred with Nobel Peace prize in 1989, not even for GK purpose. I was wondering how did 1 miss and started thinking a lot about it. When I looked back myself , my interests and my hobbies, some interesting facts have come out. My main hobbies right from the childhood to the age of mid 20's was Movies, Cricket and Politics

Coming back to crux of this article, if we connect the dots from my hobbies SH(SHOLAY)-AB(Amitabh)-NTR-IG(InidraGandhi)-CHR(Chiranjivi)-KD(KapilDev)-RG(Rajiv Gandhi)-YSR-RGV, what I can understand was my focus on movies with lot of stunts, angry young man who fights against the system, Mass actor, Daring Leader, energetic hero, Dashing blaster , dynamic leaders who broke many norms, maverick director etc… Now in these dots it is sure that a figure like Dalai Lama, who left his country in 1959 living in exile in India, will be naturally missing. Fighting for the cause of his freedom in a non-voilent way similar to Mahatma Gandhi (MGA). Now all these years the chronology of events above on which I focused are on the other side of the coin and hence the outcome…