Time to Repeat History!

24^th March 2010, a day so important for more than 1,400,000,000 people to witness whether their chosen 11 were at their best or not to make it special for the rest. Playing against Australia, 4-Times World Champions; it wasn't going to be a cakewalk every one of us knew....Sometimes, I just look in awe & wonder that a country, whose population is less than the double of Mumbai, has achieved so many milestones in cricket and on quite a very few occasions other teams have been successful in stopping them.

We Indians are very emotional when it comes to cricket, we want to win, and just win, no matter what. If our men fail, we always show it every way possible that we are upset. Now if someone who is off the field feels so depressed in witnessing these things; think of those on the field, what must be going through their minds. ‘Aaj agar haar gaye toh, sab khatam’. They say, History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. 23^rd March 2003, World Cup Finals, the story was 8 years old but still wasn’t an easy one to forget. This fear was always on our minds & at such moments you aren’t really fighting the opposition, you are fighting with yourself. Whether it creates history or it doesn’t, you don’t really give a damn.

A lot of us have raised eyebrows about how good Dhoni has been to the team as a batsman, as a captain after losing some ‘easy’ games in this world cup. But you must agree that had it been not MSD, we wouldn’t have been able to restrict the Aussies to 260. Unlike the other times, we didn’t concede a lot of runs in the last overs of the game. And Boss.......You gotta have a lot of guts when you decide to start the mandatory powerplay with a spinner, especially when you have the likes of Shane Watson, Brad Haddin at the crease. That 'Sticking to a Plan & Intuitive Strategies' makes him what he is. He hasn’t been able to do much with the Bat this time, but he at least has ensured every now and then that we sail through and that’s what matters!

When you have someone in his career best form, there is nothing you can do about it than to just watch him play with his heart, soul & with the blessings of Billions. Sach(in) was becoming the pain in the A(u)ssies. He placed India in a good position with his half century. His fall was a crucial moment of the match because we all know that most of the times; Sachin is followed faster to the Dressing Room than on the Ground....! We all just hoped that this just wasn't one such day. We now had ‘2 Dilli de Munde’ on the ground. They kept going, slowly but steadily. Virat fell eventually; Yuvi walked in, knocked the first ball to the boundary! Yuvraj has been on a dream run in the world cup. He has scored for India in crunch situations in the past. Though the miscommunication and the poor run out of Gambhir almost silenced the Nation, Yuvraj didn't seem to be losing it. Raina, had just played one game in the world cup, but the way he vouched on to score was amazing! The master piece was when he hit Brett Lee to a Six straight down the ground on the very first ball of his over. If I am not exaggerating, at the end, Yuvi and Raina looked as happy as the soldier who hoisted the Indian flag on peak of the Hill in the Kargil War. And why wouldn't they be? It was the 4-Times World Champions that they had forced to Surrender.

But wait, this isn’t The End; Pakistan is waiting to be washed out by us! They completely realize that they might have had wins followed by wins till now but Men in blue are the biggest gatecrashers! At this point of time, nobody gives a damn if we don’t go on to win The World Cup. ‘You Beat Pakistan; we’ll love you for it!’ This is an emotional wish we all have which even Dhoni agreed to after beating Australia. This is what happens when we see ourselves in a battle against Pakistan.

But think again……..Is it really just that now? The God has waited long for this moment; Sachin deserves not just a win against Pakistan, but holding on to the world cup as well. We owe him a lot and there can’t be anything more magnificent to thank him with. Dear Men in Blue, it’s time to repeat the history, it’s time to bow down to the master in respect, it’s time you give him what he truly deserves, its time you put an end to the test of his patience; so that one day, the whole country will remember you because on 2^nd April 2011, no one can be happier holding the world cup but him! Let’s play for a cause, let’s play to rewrite History in Passion. Go Team India, go! :)

A Journey Home, Almost Through Hell...

20^th Jan 2011; Start of my 10 days leave after October 2010. I was really looking forward to it. Thanks to the Maoists who caused the trains on the route through Kharagpur, Rourkela to be delayed, due to which my train which was scheduled at 8.15pm on 20^th Jan, was going to start at 5.30am on the next day. It was difficult to get a transport late at night so we decided to reach the station at 1am and then wait till 5.30am; didn’t have a choice. After the party on a night before I had spent a sleepless night packing up my luggage; I was going to have another sleepless night on the platform and it was going to be followed with another one such night since I would reach Dhamangaon around 2-3am. I absolutely loved this thought!

Finally the train arrived at 5am. I and Bhavik got in; we had seats in the different bogies. The moment I found my seat, I slept; that’s what I needed. Don’t know when the train started, all I remember is that I got up at 1pm, looked around to check where the train was and sat back in my place hoping some ‘Chaiwala’ would come. Finally I got one and the train continued. The journey was really boring and the thought that I had lost a lot of time due to the delay in departure from Kolkata added to it.

After having dinner, I was thinking that within a few hours more, I will be in Dhamangaon and from there in an hour at Home. God knows if I was cheering myself up or whatever, I just wanted to get home. After Wardha passed at 1.30am, Dhamangaon was the next station. I and Bhavik were standing at the door waiting for it. I had told dad not to come so late at night so I had to look for a transport to reach Yavatmal from Dhamangaon. In the happiness of reaching there, I had forgotten that I won’t be able to meet Bhavik for a long time now as he had taken transfer to Pune. After giving him a big hug, I got down from the train. Mission was partially accomplished, home was just hour away. An hour was like going to Hinjewadi from Karve Nagar in heavy traffic via bypass. It sounded very comfortable looking at it that way.

“Haan Bhaiya Yavatmal hai kya?” shouted a man; probably the guy who owned the Maruti Omni that I was looking at. I nodded and got into the car. Now I just had to wait till a few more people come in. They came…..off we went. When we started, it was 3.00am, it was dark and cold like it was 9-10 degrees. Just after we left Dhamangaon like after 15-20 minutes, the driver stopped the car in the middle of the forest and got out to look at the left sidewala front tyre. “Tyre baith gaya (punctured)”,  said the driver……."Kya kismat hai", "Iski Maa ki", "What the fuck", "Lag gaye"……….Choose whatever line you like the most….but the feeling I had can be expressed in none. We all got down as he searched for the carjack and all that only to realize that he didn’t have the carjack. Now my frustration had no limits……3.20am….all we could do was wait for some car to come and take the carjack from them.

A car in the middle of the forest, 7 men and a punctured tyre which wasn't gonna be repaired until we find a carjack….thankfully, after 5 mins passed, a car came. The driver took the jack and I took a sigh of relief….it was going to be done and then we were going to start. He started taking out the screws and was at the same time setting up the carjack to support it. Soon he realized that the jack was not of the height to support the tyre. He told us that and we realized that we were at the same position that we were before we got the carjack. Now the driver said, you all lift the car and I will take out the punctured tyre and replace it with the better one. For the first time I took a look at people who were in the car to find out how much efforts were required from my side. Everyone looked equally eager to get home & that’s what was required. We lifted the car with all the power we had, he took out the punctured tyre. When he tried to put the other tyre, he wanted us to lift the car a bit more, we gave it a little more push and he said a bit more….after 2-3 such pushes, he was finally able to put the tyre and tighten the screws. After that was done I took a bigger sigh of relief hoping that nothing else can go wrong now. After he tightened the screws of the tyre, we all sat in and started once again, 3.45am…..In between lifting the car, dad had called twice, so I called him back saying that I will be home in an hour. An hour would be enough to get home and relax. But wait....what was happening? Things had got even worse now....When the car gained some speed, all of us were feeling like we were doing belly dancing. "Gaadi lehera rahi hai" that’s what the driver said. "Ajab leher hai" I thought ……….."ab sach me phat gayi thi". I asked the driver to please check if anything can be done, he got out and checked once again if any screws were loose. Bhaiya dheere dheere chalao koi jaldi nahi hai……Mujhe ghar zinda pohochna hai…..it was me who said this…..Me……who was probably the most eager person to go home…..we didn’t go beyond 40kmph…crossed the ghat at that speed and I was feeling like we had achieved something really huge.

Throughout the way, I was praying for nothing else to go wrong, for God’s sake. After I saw my town emerging out of the woods, I probably had the same feeling that the Indian soldiers must have had when they conquered Kargil. The car came to a halt and I got down, looked at the watch which said 5.30am…we had taken almost one and a half hour to reach Yavatmal. On the way back home in the auto, I decided to write this post to narrate this experience. It must have sounded a bit usual or not very scary to some of you who have experienced bigger things than this…for those who thought that way, here’s something to shut your mouth…..( I would like to thank the dialogue writer of ‘No One Killed Jessica’ to have written this dialogue that suits my situation)…… Waha Hote Na…..

My Wish For The New Year!

                31^st Dec. 2010, the last day of the year; I was at Mani Square, Kolkata. With no ‘New Year Celebration’ plans in mind, just walked in to watch a movie and have dinner; like I did almost every weekend. The place was over crowded with hardly any space to locomote. Friday Night, 31^st December and most importantly, Salaries were credited to the accounts of Private Company’s Employees like me....Everyone had at least one reason to Celebrate...

                Movie was seen & dinner was had; 11.30pm. Absolutely clueless of what to do next, I walked around. Sometimes, when you have a thoughtless mind, anything you spot out of the blues can change your plans, because you have none at all. This time, it was the ice-cream; One Chocolate Thunderstorm. At 11.50pm, with ice cream in one hand I walked out of the mall thinking I might witness some fireworks. People still kept coming in. At 12.00am, I felt like God was doing a bit of leg-pulling by saying, “You wanna see some fireworks? Here you go!!” And one tiny rocket went up in the sky. I was like ‘Wow’!!! All that could have been done was done; so I walked towards the parking lot to head home. Just when I was putting my helmet on, the security guard walked towards me and said, “Sir, Yeh aapke jeb se gir gaya tha udhar.” He pointed to the place where I was standing before sometime with the ice cream in my hand and gave me a Rs.20/- Note. I knew it didn’t belong to me. I took and gave it back to him saying, “Bhaiya, yeh aapko mila hai, aap hi rakh lijiye, Happy New Year.” I smiled and shook his hand; he smiled back in return and walked away to his position! While he was going back, I heard a man on his walky-talky wishing him Happy New Year. The time when I was getting out of there, the guards I saw were wishing each other a happy new year on their walkie-talkies.

                Every now and then, be it some celebrations, religious or political Rally, Protests or be it some abrupt activity of destruction or attacks; the only people who stand for us are these guards. We always let this fact fall between the cracks saying that it’s a part of their job and they have to do it. Some of you may even go on to say that they are also a part of the corrupted club of people, right from a simple Hawaldar to the top most ranks. But on occasions like these, they are doing their job and the rest of us are enjoying. At such times what matters is not whether they are corrupt or any such thing, they choose to stand in there and keep an eye on the unwanted and malicious entities, thats what matters. They have families too. Think how he convinces his family to go and celebrate when he is on duty, perhaps they are used to celebrate it without him now.

                Half of you have already stopped reading before this line saying what crap to start off with, in this year. If you are still reading, either you are a really good friend of mine who is reading since I wrote this or you have a really good heart which is also true in the first case. You know what words like dedication and sacrifice mean. I hope next time you see someone like this; you would at least smile at him and make him feel better! If you know someone who has a heart like yours, please share. Happy New Year!