Its friday and its Indiana Jones... sorry but it turned out to be IPL weekend

I am going and watching Indiana Jones tonight. Review coming up tomorrow.... keep following up. At least they haven't released 'Sex and the City' here.

Sorry guys, Indiana Jones had to take the back seat in front of weekend full of IPL nights.

Indian Premier League

Harsha Bhogle once said "The most interesting thing to watch is Live Sport. Not only it has its own heroes and villains but its ending is unscripted. In 'Lagaan' we knew that 'Bhuvan' would win in the end. But in live sport we cannot predict. That makes it the most interesting form of entertainment."

It was Sunday night, according to estimates 40 million people were watching the final game between 'Rajasthan Royals' and 'Chennai Super Kings'. When we compare this to the highest watched live event ever, it was Soccer World Cup Final 2006, it had a viewer ship of 101 million world wide. Even the Super Bowl 'XLII' in 2008 had a viewer ship of 90 million. Very impressive for a new format and a new idea. This is in a sport that has traditionally been played as a inter-country events.

During last 45 days, in its popularity, IPL beat every possible events and entertainment in India. 'Saas-Bahu' serials to 'New movie releases' to 'Inflation numbers going over the roof' and 'Soaring oil prices', they all had to take the back seat. It attracted millions of new viewers to cricket. From 75 year old grannies to 6 year old kids, housewives to street urchins everyone was watching it.

New York times called it the 'Bright lights and big money in India' and BBC called it the 'New ambitions of an old country'. Jeffery Archer the master of surprise endings watched one of the IPL games called it the finest story of this year.

No one could have written the script better. 45 days of packed action coming down to the last ball. Who could have imagined even an year ago that an Australian and a Pakistani (India's two great rivalries) would be batting and Sohail Tanvir would hit the winning run in India. Over 60 thousand crowd which included Bollywood stars and industry giants and of course the great Sachin Tendulkar would stand up and clap for the victors.

Rajasthan Royals was the cheapest team in the league, everyone had written it off before the tournament. Bookies had placed it at the last position. Shane Warne playing IPL after his retirement from International cricket was chosen as their Coach and Captain. He took bunch of underdogs and created a unit which became not only the winners but the most consistent team in the tournament. Of course he owes it a lot to Shane Watson's MVP performance , Sohail Tanvir's brilliant bowling and the consistency of Yusuf Pathan.

Warne didn't get the chance to captain Australia, his colourful life and unpredictable character were always a hindrance. But when he got the opportunity he proved that he was always a captain material.

But IPL has thrown out a lot of questions:
1. Would international cricket remain the way we have known it?
2. Is IPL a result of BCCI bullying other nations?
3. What does success of IPL mean to other sports in India?
4. Would IPL make players greedy in such a way that they wouldn't like to play international cricket?

My ten favourite Indian Movies

A few days ago me and my friend were talking about our favourite 10 Indian movies. When I sat down and decided to list them I realized that its a very hard task. Another reason is that my list is predominantly Hindi. Haven't seen a lot of good movies in other Indian languages.

I think this would be an ever changing list and hence feel free to send me your list.
So here they are: (not in any particular order)

1. Anand
Hrishikesh Mukherjee at his best.
2. Pyasa
For it's philosophy and great songs and cuplets. Sahir Ludhaiyanvi at its best.
3. Pather Panchali (Bengali)
As Akira Kurusawa said: "Its Poetry in motion picture, if you haven't seen it you haven't lived a complete life."
4. Nayakan (Malayalam)
Maniratam's genius.
5. Teen Konya (Bangali)
My favorite of Satyajit Ray movies. Its poignancy and humour touched me to core.
6. Golmaal / Angoor / Chupke Chupke
Couldn't decide amongst these comedy classics and hence I had to put all three of them.
7. Sholay
A classic, everyone still remembers each character and each dialogue of it.
8. Guide
Not the best adaption of the book but yet a classic tale of a man's journey to find his destiny. 'Na-qabiley faramosh'. With Cannes honouring it this year as a world classic it has come back into focus.
9. Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam
Probably the best adaptation of the book in Hindi movies. Its acting, character and music stand out. My favorite Gurudutt movie.
10. Bhuvan Shom
One of the hidden gems and a classic, if you haven't seen it, please do. Utpal Dutt is brilliant.

Mars Landing and Islamic Schools

Two news items that attracted my attention today are NASA's new probe landing on the surface of Mars and a town in Australia opposing new Islamic School.

Mars Landing: One of my dreams for a very long time is to see human colony in space. We all know how important is that for human survival. Like all other species before us our days are numbered on this planet and if we need to survive we need to get out.

I guess it was 'Star Trek' which put this idea into my head when I was around 10 years old. As I started growing up, I was very attracted to Astrophysics. I used to save all my savings and subscribe to a magzine which used to be edited by Carl Sagan. The subscription used to cost me Rs. 1200 a year and $ rate hovering around Rs. 12 it was pretty difficult for a 10 year old to arrange that kind of money. Hence I gave up the idea after a few years. This was the same time Doordarshan showed the famous 'Cosmos' series by Sagan and the fascination in me kept on growing.

Coming back to the topic I really believe that we need to get out in the space. I know, in the huge thread of time we live for a very small spec of it. Almost half of my life is gone and to expect humanity to get out in the next half is pretty ambitious. But who knows, maybe one technological breakthrough would do it.

When we were kids we used to make these small walkie talkies like 'Star Trek' using match boxes and rubber bands. They looked pretty neat to us. But in last one decade all of us actually carry a similar device in the form of cell phones.

So I really hope that we find some traces of water on Mars. I hope that we get out and explore it.

That raises another question, is NASA or government funded organizations best suited for this job. I think we should let this whole thing get into private hands. The best exploration of our planet also was done by highly motivated and daring individuals and not by governments. Maybe we would loose some of them in process of getting to Mars but their lives would give us far more information on how to get there.


Islamic School in Australia: A city called Camden is opposing a Islamic School in its area, the residents are even going ahead and calling for total ban Islamic migration. I have two points to make:
1. I am against all religious schools. Even in India we have Religious schools, christian convents, madrassas and arya-samaj schools. I think its time when we as a society take religion out of our schools and classes. I think we end up breeding some kind of biases right there. These had a role to play during our developing years but now its time to seriously look into this matter and bring them into Public schooling system.
2. I am sure Australia has a lot of Christian schools or schools funded by Churches. If they oppose an Islamic School all those schools should be shut down too. There can't be two different system and standards in a good democracy.

Hazaree Lal Massaab

I have always thought of documenting lives of all those known and unknown people who have touched my life. These would be a tribute to them. This would also help others understand what they meant to me and what they meant to this world. I would try to be as honest as possible though sometimes we need to skip names to keep it non-controversial.

Let us start with Hazaree Lal Maassaab.

When I was 6 years old, I was sent to MHOW to live at my grandparent's place. Dad was in M.P. State services and he was posted in a place called Chhindwara those days. There were no good schools in Chhindwara so mom & dad thought that it would be great if I stayed with my grandparents and went to school there. I had always loved to live with my maternal grandparents. My Grandfather had just retired from Military Engineering Services and had moved to a rental place in the 56 number bungalows. Most houses in this premise faced the Mall Road but ours faced on the Bhayaji Road side. This gave us a lot of privacy and exclusivity.

It was an old dilapidated home, it was old British style bungalow and had two big rooms, the two smaller rooms, old verandah on either sides were converted into these rooms. One side was our kitchen. My favorite was the front verandah. With wooden pillars holding a tin roof, it looked very nice. We had a small garden in front of our home. Most of the time, the garden was in a state of constant over growth. The bushes the trees were always over grown. Then suddenly one weekend one of the uncles would get down to cleaning up and trimming these bushes and trees. The picket (which was always wooden rather than white) fence gate which led to this garden also always dragged along. It was small enough to get one scooter pass through it no more than that.

Our home was never quiet, we always had guests around. We always had many people coming and living with us. With two uncles and two aunts, living under the same roof it was always a fun place.

In those days in the early 80's MHOW used to be a real small town. It was very clean as was expected of a Military Cantonment. It had lots of open spaces and greenery. Mall road was the lifeline of MHOW, it had beautiful Gulmohar trees lined up on its side. MHOW had calmness about it. Calmness combined with great climate made it seem like a paradise. MHOW actually was an acronym for Military Headquarters of War.

When I moved to MHOW, I joined 'Army School, MHOW', which in those days used to be called 'Combat Central School'. I lived in MHOW until I graduated from school.

MHOW had characters, which have left indelible impression on me. I would love to come to all of them one by one. One of the characters which I cannot forget for a lot of reasons is Hazaree Lal Massaab as he was known. Everyone called him that, including the Massaab at the end. His actual name was Hazaree Lal Shrivastava but no one ever called him that.

He was old, very old, even in the early 80s he was a generation above my granddad. We all speculated about his age, but somehow we all have the impression that he was born around the turn of the century, around 1902 or 1903.

What I had heard from people was that he was a teacher of 'English Language' in the local high school in MHOW. To teach English in the olden days was a glamorous job. During the Raj, English was an elitist language. Only those privileged enough or literate enough would know it. Hence, I always got the impression that Hazaree Lal ji was very well respected. He had retired from his teaching duties in the 50s. So now, you can imagine how old he might be.

He was quite tall, broad shouldered though his shoulders had started to stoop a bit with age. You might misunderstand this statement, but, for his age he was very erect, looking at him no one could say he was over 80. He had a very distinctive face. His chin was pointy. Not very fair but not dark either. Sharp nose & small eyes, they had a certain attraction in them. He was always wearing a ‘Nehru cap’ and what is strange is that when I look back I do not remember ever seeing him with out his cap and hence I do not know what his hair looked like.

He was always dressed neatly, though always in a similar attire. He wore a darkish khaki baggy pants in the 50s style mostly algae green in colour. His shirts were mostly of white cotton. He had Nehru cap on with neat shoes. Sometimes they were brown canvas shoes, which the army ‘Jawans’ used to get for jogging. He used to carry a cotton bag, almost of size 12” by 6 “. I never got to know all the contents of that bag, it always had one writing pad, one pencil and a small tin box.

In the afternoon, we used to see him come home on his bicycle. Even in that age, he could ride his bike. Not only rode it, but also, rode it well. I had never seen him being under any duress because of it. He was never out of breath, his bicycle never wobbled. He used to let it lean over the hedge of our garden.

He used to come to our home in the afternoon to read newspaper. Yes, that is what he used to come for. My granddad used to subscribe to ‘The Times of India’ and he used to come and read it at our place. Diligently he came almost every afternoon.

In the open veranda, we had two reclining chairs; these wooden chairs had plastic netting in it. They were extremely comfortable. He always sat on that and read the newspaper.

Every time he read the newspaper, he took out that writing pad of his and started to jot down things. First, it was amusing and then one day he told the reason. This was his hobby. He wrote down the days headlines in his copies. He had been doing that for years; he had told once that he had around 100 copies filled with it. I was taken aback, somewhere deep down inside me this thought attracted me a lot.

My imagination went wild, I started imagining his house filled with old writing pads. Always thought it would be so cool to look back at those books. Whenever, I encountered a date from the past, I used to think that one day I would go to his home, search for that day, and see what he has written for that particular instance.

He and my granddad were friends of sort. I always got an impression that he used to like my Nana more than Nana liked him. However, Nana was always polite to him. Whenever he came by, they both had a cup of tea. Talked mostly about current affairs and rarely had an argument about things. Though one day they both argued about, which is the best English daily? , never reached a conclusion of course.

It must be winters of 1984 or 85, the Punjab terrorism was on its way down. Daddy was visiting MHOW. I remember he was sitting in the main hall and Mr. Hazaree Lal Maasaab was sitting outside in the veranda. Suddenly he turned to ‘Grandmother’ and asked her if she could spare some Razai and Gadde (Quilts and Mattresses). He said that some of his friends from Punjab are running away from the terrorism there and they were coming to MHOW to live there. Nani said that she would look for some of them.

As he left, Daddy turned towards Nana and Nani and said with a lot compassion on his face. (What's uncanny is that I still remember that face of my dad clearly). Gareebi ek achche aadmi se kitne jhoot bulwati hai, agar zayada ho to de dena, nahin to ek razai banwa dete hain. (What all poverty makes a decent man say and do; if you have extra please give it to him else we will get one quilt made for him).

Next day Nani had a set of quilt and mattress for him.

This instance came and hit me like a bullet, I had never thought of Mr. Hazaree Lal’s finances. Never thought that a man who is so well read and even in his 80s had a desire to know about the world couldn’t even afford a newspaper. Could not imagine what his world would be like in winters without decent mattress to sleep on or a quilt to lie under. I was distraught. I could never gather the courage to ask him or ask my Nana about it but it always stayed with me. Maybe that day I grew up a little and lost a little of my innocence. Now I started to look at people along with their finances.

There were a few times when he actually helped my friends and me with English homework too, but it was never formal, he never volunteered and we never asked.

Then in 1987 my grandfather and grandmother went to the US to live with my uncle. He stopped coming to our home after that or rather it became very less. It was April of 1988 when we found out that my Nana had passed away in New York itself. It was a shock to all us. The next day I and one of my uncles went to invite Mr. Hazareelal’s home for the ‘tairahween’ lunch.

This was the only time I went to his home and the occasion was such that I could not look around his home nor look at those writing pads of his.

It was a very shoddy home, I only saw the front room from the door, but it was as I had imagined filled with books. It had a bed on one side, which was pretty dirty as it had not been washed for a few days. We didn’t go in. We just stood at the door and gave him the invitation card.

Then uncle gave me his background. He had a wife whom I had never heard off. His relations with his wife were never good but they still lived together. I am not so sure about his children, I don’t remember clearly did he have any or not. Even if did they were not with him neither did he ever talk about that.

His father was some kind of a ‘Tantrik’. What I got from talking to a few old people is that he had a troubled childhood. His father used to believe in witchcraft and he always had people coming in and out of his house. His father used to sacrifice chickens to cure people’s illnesses and take alcohol as his payment. Therefore, the environment for his upbringing wasn’t good. But from there to get a degree in English in those a days and then to teach English for a real long time was a good achievement.

After my granddad’s death his visits to our home became very less. In around 1994 when my uncle from the US was visiting MHOW he had come down to our place. I think he was desperately looking for some money. He had many old coins from Raj’s era and was wondering if they could be sold. Uncle took them to the US. This was the time we started to see him back again at our place. Every few days he used to come to our home and ask “Mere liye koi khat aaya kya“ (Have you received any letter for me?)

Around 1996 I was about to leave for the US and I was walking through MHOW Main Street and I saw Mr. Hazareelal sitting at Saifie Mian’s shop. It was small shop selling plastic goods and he was sitting outside on a chair. He saw me and called me. I was very happy and surprised to see him after such a long time. His old faithful bicycle was with him that day too.

He was very kind and sweet to me. I had a big nasty pimple on my face. He suddenly saw that and took out an antibiotic cream from his bag. Took out the ointment on his finger and applied to the pimple himself. I was in a hurry and left him sitting there. I had no idea that this would be my last meeting with him.

I came to the US, he kept coming to our home looking for a mail from my uncle. Then one day around 1998 when I had called my uncle in MHOW I heard that he had passed away. But even in his last days, he was riding his old bike.

Somehow, my uncle not sending him money still hurts me. Every time I think of Mr. Hazaree Lal I feel a pang in my heart that someone I know didn’t pay him when he desperately needed money in this old age.

I think somehow he had tremendous influence on me as far as reading newspaper is concerned. I have been reading it for last 20 years and I would keep reading it in future. He is one of those who helped me understand the importance of reading and specially knowing what is going around us. Maybe at some level me writing these blogs is an extension of what Hazaree Lal Maasaab did in his writing pads.

Did I ever tell you what was in that little tin box which he used to carry in his bag? It contained small little lemon and other fruit flavoured sweet drops. They were probably of the cheapest kind, but every time he saw me, he used to offer one to me. Every time someone new visited, our home and he met them he offered them too. I still remember those drops and Hazaree Lal Maasaab.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found an old picture of Hazaree Lal Maasaab in our album. He is the right most in the picture. If I am not mistaken this picture is from 1984.
From the left:
1. My Grandfather 'Nana' in coloured checkered shirt,
2. Ratan Mama, my mother's maternal uncle.
3. Ramesh Pradhan Nanaji, my Nana's younger brother.
4. Hazareelal ji with his cap. Sadly in this pic we can't see his bicycle.

GOD, Buddha & Bertrand Russell

In last couple of years I have contemplated a lot on the existence of GOD. I have tried to read a bit on it. Though the material available is so overwhelming that one has to be a dedicated theologists to actually go thorough most of it. So let me put a caveat at the beginning that these thoughts are based on own philosophy which I have developed over the years and in no manner I consider myself an expert in it.

First let me say that I have deep regard for religious literature but thats not true for religion itself. I think that literature was written in a particular time with particular ideas in mind and hence I see it more as a historical material than religious one.

One the other hand religion in my eyes, (any religion) has killed more people than it has saved. From the early struggles Hinduism and Buddhism to Rise of Christianity in Rome to Expansion of Islamic world to Spanish Inquisition, we find immense atrocities and humans behaving in most inhuman way in the name of religion. Hence I dislike any kind of organised religion.

Closest any religion comes to my thoughts on it is, 'Buddhism' and that is because like me even the Great Siddhartha (I am using his name instead of Gautama or Buddha because I want to think of him as a fantastic historical character, who was living breathing human being) had distrust in existence of GOD.

Its very easy to preach in the name of GOD, a lot of people have done that. Some even went ahead and told the world that either they had either seen GOD or they were given some kind of special gift to be that one and only Prophet that world should believe in. Siddhartha did none of that, he questioned GOD's existence and based his prophecy or philosophy on real human grounds.

But I still dislike the existence of Buddhism as a religion, I would rather see Sidhartha as a great philosopher in the mould of Socrates or Russell.

Now I am a big admirer of Buddha but unlike him my ways of conquering this life's pains and sadness comes from fighting inside the system. I find his idea of denouncing desires a bit escapist. I would rather have desires and try to achieve them. May be I still have to learn a lot about life, maybe one day I would admire Buddha more.


But in this blog I just want to cover my thoughts on existence of GOD.

Now if we look at religions, I think there are two kinds.

One who make GOD that Supreme being, which is beyond question. This GOD governs everything. This GOD treats all if us with same compassion and love. This GOD is omnipresent and omnipotent. These are mostly monotheistic western religions.

Second comes where GOD can be questioned, some of them even do despicable things. Humans can rise against them and if we are good enough we can beat them. Ultimately we can become GOD ourselves. This is more Hinduistic idea. Hinduism and its millions of tributaries have this notion.

In my eyes the problem with the second kind of GOD is that they are too human to be GODs. They could be some special characters who transcend history. In this other problem is of Faith. Faith doesn't play an important role. Only our idea of its existence.

The problem with the first kind of GOD is very simple. If the GOD is equal to all of us why is GOD is unfair to at least half of the humanity. If this GOD existed how come he (she/it) is sitting silent in when humans are killing other human beings, how come he (she/it) can see such cruelty on display as in Somalia right now. How come this GOD can create Hell? Where is he (she/it), when I need it? I can never believe in such a GOD.

I can never believe in any GOD which sits on its throne in heaven and tries to govern the world. I would rather consider a striving human as my GOD.

I really believe that the existence of GOD stems from our FEAR. We fear something, maybe its afterlife, maybe its fear of unknown, maybe its the omnipresence and we would go to hell if we do something wrong. Most people do religious things for the afterlife, isn't that weird.

But anything that rises from such a fear can never be a good thing. Our belief in GOD should rise not from fear but from love and compassion. But I have yet to meet a rational individual who believes in GOD because of that.

Here this fear makes Pundits, Maulvis and Church officials important. Organised religion has exploited such fears and hence have exploited humanity.

So if GOD exists it has to show me some sign, sign which tells me that he (she/it) exists. Cum-on GOD show me some compassion, I need you in this time of real need.

Am I praying in time of need?, am I just challenging GOD? or am I being selfish like a lot of other humans & asking it to show itself in my time of need? I myself can't answer this question. But like Siddhartha, I do question GOD's existence.

One thing that we should do is to never leave Scientific thought. Its the most important thought. Pursue of Science to assuage poverty, ignorance and sickness is the true form of praying.

So what should we do, I think all we should do is to treat each human that comes into our contact with honesty and respect. We should be compassionate to others. Sadly I believe that the world still is not literate enough or intelligent enough to do that and our aim should be to get there. I really believe that compassion is the highest form of intelligence because it requires to shed our thoughts and personality and try to put ourselves in someone else's shoes. It requires us to imagine what the other feels and once we achieve that we wouldn't be bad to anyone.

I think we can rise and create a better world ourselves.

And that is not an easy task......

Funnier Side of life: I have put Me instead the usual word because this is too close to my present circumstance:

I found myself in serious trouble. My business has gone bust and I am in dire financial straits. I was so desperate that I decided to ask God for help. I began to pray..."God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the Lotto."

Lotto night comes, and somebody else wins it. I again pray..."God, please let me win the Lotto! I've lost my business, my house and I'm going to loose my car as well."

Lotto night comes and I still had no luck. Once again, I prayed..."My God, why have You forsaken me? I've lost my business, my house, and my car. I am starving. I don't often ask You for help, and I have always been a good to You and other people. PLEASE let me win the Lotto just this one time so I can get my life back in order."

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open. I was overwhelmed by the Voice of God Himself..."Dude, work with Me on this... Buy a ticket"

Tormented

Day two of blogging: First thought that has come to mind is: Would I keep counting the days when I write my blog. I hope not, the whole idea of my thoughts being free of all constraints would be lost.

From last few days I have been very depressed and troubled, life has come to a point where nothing seems to work, every step I take seems to be in the wrong direction. Does this happen to other people. I am not sure, maybe some people are smart enough to avoid these pitfalls of life. Though the sad part is that no one seems to be standing besides me. Everyone that I thought was with me seems to be finding ways out.

Here sometimes I feel that Rahul Dravid in IPL is going through a similar problem, everything that he does doesn't come off and Banglore looses. Life is tragic and as Buddha said, LIFE is all about PAIN.

On IPL: IPL itself caught on the Indian imagination, its unbelievable. I was always a big advocate of club level cricket because it would enhance the quality of matches, but I am also very surprised by IPL's popularity. I always thought that India - Bangladesh matches make no sense, no offense to Bangladesh's team but it doesn't attract even the most earnest admirers of cricket. I hope IPL improves and increases with time. I cant wait to see Indore's team in action.

It was a revelation to see Shoaib Akhtar bowl at his fierce best under the captaincy of Ganguly in front of 60000 people in Kolkata. Shoaib and Ganguly rejoicing Shewag's wicket together would be one of the classic moments of this IPL.

On the funny side of life: Just found out that the ex-CM of Madhaya Pradesh is actually now a minister in this government. I am not sure that's the norm our founders had thought of. If you reached a level why deplete your credibility and take a minor post. Something that I can't fathom. किस्सा कुर्सी का !

My first blog

This is my first blog. So hopefully from now on you will see glimpses of my life. I would share my likes and dislikes, my thoughts on current, historical and hopefully future events.
So keep reading........