Born at the wrong time?

Words can't explain how bad my mood was since the day Sachin missed his much-awaited 100th International ton. But Virender Sehwag unknowingly packed up all my troubles and made me smile and smile and smile with his incredible 219 in just 149 balls a few days ago.

I find myself very lucky to be born in the era where great players like Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Virat, Yuvraj, Dravid exist. I thoroughly enjoy the game of Cricket and this interest probably developed only because of one or the other outstanding acts round the year by these personalities.The thrilling one-sided matches in the ongoing India v/s West Indies due to the impressive performances of youngsters gives birth to a new question in my mind; Are we ignoring the performances of these capable Indian cricketers in compared to that of Sachin Tendulkar?

I know and believe that Sachin is the God of Cricket but equally feel that due to his existence the others who are equally or may be a bit less talented have been neglected. I believe that it is their good luck because they play in Sachin's times, and bad luck because their achievements are often overshadowed by the master blaster's consistent evergreen innings. Looks like lady luck has done a good balancing act here.

The calm and matured cricket of the team India was seen at the World Cup 11 which made them snatch the Cup from terror teams like Aus-Pak-SriLanka. The contributions made by Yuvraj, Virat, Sehwag, Dhoni were truly remarkable but at the end of the game the picture was like 'all fame to Sachin'. There I understood the true meaning of the famous quote; Caterpillar does all the work, but the Butterfly gets all the publicity. I know that there are times when Sachin is not even playing, some other teammate has done heroics in the game, and the newspapers devoting entire page sections on silly things like "Sachin's batting tips to his little Arjun, or Someone saying something good/bad about him"....give me a break!!

One of the cricketers most badly hit by this Sachin mania is Dravid, whose career almost coincided with that of Sachin's. I sometimes feel that there should have been a proper allotment of such great players whereby the chances of injustice on few would have been reduced and each and every one would have got his share of appreciation and limelight. What that would have done to the team's fortunes is a separate question though ;-)

But at the end of the day even after I am fascinated by all other team mates' mesmerizing games, one corner of my heart, just like that of millions of cricket lovers all over the world, eagerly waits for that '100th hundred'.

The Story Of Milk Song

It has become so simple to promote any song or a film by appearing on some of the reality shows or some silly daily soaps which hits the idiot box all day and night. The film stars or the directors or the singers make  more such noise when they become aware of the fact that their song or movie is a real crap.

If songs or movies had gained popularity only on the basis of advertisements made then how come old songs are still remembered and chanted even by the young generations?????? The other day on the death of the legendary actor, Mr. Dev Saab my friend and I sang 'n' number of songs picturized on him. The best part was that those melodious songs came so smoothly without scratching our heads even once. It went on and on for more than 1 hour with our bad singing but the pleasure was just outstanding. Did those music directors or the play back singers or the actors take that pain to promote their songs or movies????? Nope, they only tried to give the best lyric, music and are still reaping the benefits in the form of more and more fan followers.

And there was this time when I was fully intoxicated by the melodious songs from Rockstar like Tum Ho or Kun Faaya Kun, or for that matter even the sensuous Vidya Balan with O'la la tu hai meri fantasy; and there came this 'Kolaveri di'. It was like a nightmare. I am pretty sure that the song gained popularity only on the basis of the criticisms made on it, otherwise with such ridiculous lyrics and irritating music it would have never been possible. Or maybe, it was the Rajani-Son-In-Law effect ;).

I was unaffected with the wave of Kolaveri di until when Neevan Sonu Niiggam grabbed my attention. His new version of the milk song drove me crazy. The modified lyrics have played wonders....and are for sure done by his Pa.

We all are acquainted with Sonu Niiggam's mimicry of top singers, and so it would have been surprising if Dhanush had escaped from all this with such a dull though hit song. But it would have been totally unfair on Dhanush if the great singer had pulled the newcomer's leg himself. So he took the help of his chote ustaad. And Chote did it extraordinarily.

I can conclude this post singing a para for Dhanush.......

Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di.....
Neevan.... future.... bright... u.... bright...u
Dhanush.... future.... dark...u...dark...u
Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di.....

Sachin Again......

Life is full of ups and downs and enjoying the ups and having courage during the downs is an art of living. Accomplishing a task is success and lack of success is failure. Success is followed by admirations and Failures lead to criticisms which thereby lead to depressions.

 As a common man we come across so many minor criticisms from time to time which are very difficult to swallow. Have we thought of  how painful it must be for the celebrities when they have to face such curses at National or sometimes even at International levels??? At times these celebrities may be worshiped as God and the very next moment they may be showered by curses. Yes, I am talking about Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Today our local news paper were full of criticism on the Master Blaster; the reason being Tax benefits on the advertisements. Every dumb person was given a chance and he could curse the Little Master irrespective of  having the knowledge that Sachin is worshiped as the God of Cricket. Some time back it was regarding the cutting of the birthday cake which portrayed tricolour and an opportunity for fools to open their silly mouth. We all are aware of the rejected FSI for home gym by the State Government and we even witnessed the greatness of Mr. Tendulkar by withdrawing the application. Sachin's Century always leads to India's defeat was another nuisance going in the minds of some morons during the World Cup 2011 when the truth is that Sachin has scored 13 centuries in India's losing matches and 33 centuries when India won. Sachin should retire and should be given Bharat Ratna are some more crappy statements made from time to time.

 When news papers have nothing else to talk about they just catch hold of a dumb crowd and try to fill their papers with non sense. And people too freak out on this. Such benefits he enjoys are a by-product of what he has achieved. Critics, can you even dream of achieving, even a fraction of what he has? If not, keep quiet.

Handling criticisms is not an easy task and when such loose talks are from such Tom, Dick and Harry it is very much depressing and irritating. I agree that Freedom of Speech is the fundamental right laid down in our Constitution but impure talk and that too against a man of such caliber only shows how silly a person can be.

And you never know; in future a bill may even be passed saying that every Sachin criticizer should be jailed :). So better stop all this.

Go India Go........

Does India deserve the 2011 ICC World Cup is the most common and annoying question asked by many of my friends in recent times. I sometimes feel that some people just wait for an opportunity to curse the Indian Cricket team which is totally irritating. I always try to change the topic when it comes to the Indian Cricket team as I can't convince them regarding the luck factor. Instead of saying, "May the best team win", I would rather put it as, "May the best and lucky team win".

Team India's performance against Bangladesh, England and Ireland was not at all convincing. In spite of a brilliant score of 370 against Bangladesh they had to satisfy themselves with a paltry 88 run win due of their horrible bowling and fielding. The match against England was a pressure cooker till the last ball and thankfully ended up in a tie. The Irish team too made the win extremely difficult by their commendable fielding. During these fearful matches Sallu bhaay always came to my rescue and would console my mind by reminding me " Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai".

Looking at the other teams' performance I won't deny that the efforts taken by them to win the World Cup are much more greater than our team India. But after watching the last 3 matches against India I can very well say that Mahi's team is totally blessed by Lady Luck, and looking at the current status I firmly believe that she will lead them successfully till the end. Without the Lady Luck's grace 2 wins and 1 tie out of the 3 games played till date would have not been possible for any team with such inconsistent bowling and messed-up fielding.

Make hay while the sun shines and so guys, with little efforts and lots and lots of luck go and snatch this World Cup from the so called 'deserving teams' before the Lady Luck changes it's mind.

Bajaa Ke Chutki Dhul Chataa De....
De Ghuma Ke....

Jai Ho Pune Warriors!!

Sahara Pune Warriors are now set for their first appearance as a team for DLF IPL T20. No one could expect a better team after the BCCI's (new panel consisting of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and M.A.K.Pataudi) decision of retention of up to 4 players of the previous season by the existing teams. The person who benefitted the most by such decision was Mrs. Neeta Amabani as she could retain her best catches like Sachin, Harbhajan, Pollard which led to shattering of dreams of other franchises and mainly the Sahara Parivar as they had decided earlier to get the master-blaster at any cost.

While watching the live telecast of the Auction I was persistently feeling that Pune and Kochi teams had to make selections between the leftovers which was very annoying. Basically, there was not much excitement as it would have been if all the players were once again put in the pool. It was very unfair on the new teams as the best players were owned by the old franchises.

Every dog has its day and so there is no meaning and need of frustrations of Bengali babus in Kolkatta. It is useless creating any drama or hype by various franchises or fans or even by other former cricketers regarding the unsold tag put on their favourite players. Every new event needs publicity and so Pakistani cricketers not included is one more method of building the IPL 4 fever.

Now coming to my home team, a warrior does not complain about physical dis-comfort and so I wish Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Graeme Smith, Ashish Nehra and other Pune warriors to portray the best of their cricket in the IPL 4 and make the most of representing Punya-Nagari.

JAI HO SAHARA PUNE WARRIORS!!