World Champions

Truly exhilarating.

Happy for Sachin!!

Glacier

Standing on the glacier, I wait to slide. The expanse of white is numbing. My spirit is awakened by the jaw clenching cold.  Nobody is around, no warmth, no fear. Just the vapor from your breath rising towards heaven.  It is here that you find yourself. Frozen inside you know the depths that really matter. It never seems enough.  You strive for more, push harder and fight longer. the journey continues but your still standing there.

Suddenly, with a leap of faith you take a step. And that makes all the difference. You slide on the glacier, cold and hard but exhilarating. Watch out, your mind says but then the adrenaline takes over. You dodge the obstacles, a few knocks are fine. Your efforts are not in vain. The slide gets you on track.

The rapid nature of the event leaves you gasping, the air is rare in any case. The chill hits your lungs but the joy is evident and the pain is forgotten. You look up at the summit, think to yourself, this was worth it.

Theme 2011 - Reach for the Sky

The air smells a bit better, the fog has subsided a bit. One can see a bit further in the horizon now. 2011 provides an opportunity to be a more ambitious which is truly welcome. 

As I look around the world, the West still seems to be finding its way out of the hole it fell into. There are no guarantees of everyone getting out too. Moving to the East, things are reaching a point where you might feel nothing ever happened. Well there is still some caution in the air, and justifiably so. That caution has prompted me to keep the goal at the sky and not the stars.

I see the foundations in place, the base seems strong. Its now time to build while keeping one eye on the future. And if there is no catastrophe, there is no reason why the sky should be the limit.

Conform Or..

In the initial stages of our lives all we want to do is fit in. As we grow older all we want to do is be different. It’s a strange dichotomy for the same lifetime. That’s allowed of course, you can change your perspective towards life.  The reason behind the transition is what fascinates me. 

Let’s journey back to school. A bespectacled lady in the classroom tells you what good behavior is and that you are constantly being watched. The same saga is repeated during the impressionable years. Now different people react to this discourse in a number of ways. Some follow the path, some do the exact opposite, some differ but stay aligned when being watched and some accidentally disobey. This phase has a telling impact on the personality, sometimes lifelong. Toe the line or face the back of the hand. Now that’s hardly a fair choice.

Cut to the next phase, college. Ah the smell of freedom coupled with the rashness of youth. Brilliant!! A potent recipe for disaster or and a big or at that, foundations of a grand success. So which way does one go? Follow the path of conformity or break free. To be honest that’s not a real dilemma; in a country of over a billion even the rebels are fairly mainstream purely on the basis of absolute numbers. 

Statistics apart, as you grow up, there is a compelling need to distinguish yourself from others. This is sometimes driven by questions like, ‘what sets you apart from others?’, or ‘how are you different from the next guy?’, or ‘what difference will you make?’ Standard questions asked in various settings and perfectly relevant too. 

Now this gets me wondering, apart from the true rebels (don’t ask me to define a true rebel), are the others who are ‘being different’ actually different. They are in a sense conforming to the need to be different as expected due to external forces. So the next time you are asked to display you difference, you may want to ponder on what you as an individual really want.

New Age Stories

I truly enjoy good stories, both to narrate and read. Something to stimulate the gray cells is always welcome.

But these days the word ‘story’ is being used rather loosely. Every advertising hoarding, news paper article etc has the word story mentioned. We have the ‘India growth story’, ‘Infrastructure Story’, ‘Power story’. I can go on and list many more.

It makes me wonder if these are stories at all. Writing something which follows the straight line of rationality is not what I would term as a ‘story’. In the new age we are sold these stories. Rationality simplified, created on a spreadsheet and sold over the counter, bit cold too.

A story (fiction or real) must have some elements of irrationality, some unexpected elements. It must bring some zing into the reader's mind. It would be great if the words can create a strong visual appeal.

I think 'story' would be India's word of the year 2010, but I hope its not in 2011.

'Common' 'wealth' "Games"

Really...
Angry, hurt, disappointed...

Nothing more to say..

Premier League Preview

The start of another season of the BPL beckons. After the excitement of the World Cup, it will be fun to get back to the bustle of club football. It harder to pick a winner this season as the gap between the top teams seems to be closing. Especially when clubs spend $100m in the transfer market.

Liverpool under new manager Roy Hodgson will be a far more stable now. Having managed to keep Gerrard and Torres is a big boost to their chances.

Tottenham Hotspurs will look to build on their last seasons performance. I think how far they progress in the Champions League will be inversely proportional to how well they do in the Premier League.

Manchester City have almost purchased a new team. Significant additions include David Silva, Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, Jerome Boateng and rumuors of more on the way. They seem to be a team with a mission and I reckon they have a great chance of finishing in the top four.

Arsenal have under achieved for a long time now. Five years without a trophy is unacceptable for a team of this repute. In my view they may slide further this season, and a finish in the top four looks challenging.

Chelsea and Manchester United, the perennial toppers are my favourites this time too. Chelsea have not made any significant addition to their squads but look formidable. Manchester United have added a couple of young strikers to their team, adding some solidity to the attack.

I am going to go with Manchester United winning this season.