Lessons learnt from "The Wall"

This article was published in the March 2012 Edition of our company's Newsletter.

The great Rahul Dravid (Indian cricketer with a moniker of 'The Wall') announced his retirement from Test cricket in March, this year. His illustrious career comprised with 164 test matches and 344 one day matches in which he was a top order batsmen, scoring prolifically for the Indian cricket team. There is a lot to learn from his professional career and following are the five things that we can learn from Rahul Dravid as professionals.

Technical genius
Rahul Dravid was a technical genius when it came to batting in test match cricket. Any youngster wanting to learn batting, watches Rahul Dravid bat in a test match. Such was his genius that the best of the bowlers in the cricket world would learn new techniques to get him out. But, his brilliant batting technique is what made him still standing on the field. We can learn from him to keep ourselves technically very sound in whatever field we are in.

Humble nature
Even after being recognized as a technical genius, Rahul Dravid was always very humble. For what he had achieved in a small age could have made him haughty, but he never talked with anyone in a harsh tone. He always was ready to help anyone when it came to cricket or otherwise. In his entire career, he has never ever been a part of any controversy. Being humble earns you respect from one and all. One thing Rahul Dravid has earned apart from everything else is the respect of his team mates, the media and the fans. Rahul Dravid teaches us how to be famous, earn success and still keep your feet firmly on the ground.

Team spirit
If one has to learn team spirit from someone in the cricket world, then Rahul Dravid is the best example. He was a wonderful team person throughout his entire career. Famous commentator Harsha Bhogle once said "If Rahul Dravid was asked to walk on water for his team, he will ask how many miles?" Even when asked to bat a step down in the batting order, he happily agreed to bat at any number in the batting order for his team. When he was asked to keep wickets in the 2003 World Cup by his captain, he did not give it a second thought and did not let it have any effect on his batting. Such was his team spirit. Rahul Dravid teaches us how to keep team before self.

Being a wonderful student
He was a wonderful student of the game. He always prepared well in advance. Whenever he went on overseas tours, he always prepared more than a month in advance. He kept learning new things from the game as he knew that bowlers around the world were always learning new techniques to get him out. He used to work harder in the nets before playing against them. He used to learn from the tour and also implement the new things he learnt into his batting. We can learn how to be a wonderful student and that virtue is a rare thing to possess in any profession. If one has to have an eye for learning, there is a lot to learn personally and professionally, every day.

Hardwork, focus and commitment
I have not seen anyone who has worked harder than Rahul Dravid. He has worked very hard for whatever he has achieved and his efforts never stopped even when he achieved a niche place in the Indian cricket team. He was always committed and focused on his job. He was very good in academics and had a great personality. Nothing stopped him achieve his ambitions to play for India. When he was criticized for his slow game in one day cricket matches, he worked very hard at it and made it a point to be one of the best players of one day cricket. Even after being a genius batsman, he was never short of commitment when it came to fielding. He is holding the record for most number of catches by a non-wicket keeper in test match cricket. Now that is some commitment! Rahul Dravid's career teaches us how to work hard, be focused and committed towards everything we do in life, professionally as well personally.

Sir Rahul Dravid

Dear Sir Rahul Dravid,

All I have for you is one word; Respect. If I have to award someone the title of Sir in the game of cricket your name comes first in my mind. I have been following your game right from the day you played your first test match at Lords, the mecca of cricket. And right from that first game to your last game in Australia, I have never seen any change in the committment you have shown towards the game and the way you approach the game. You are one team man who could do anything for the team. Your individual batting talent was always larger that the world. For that very aspect of your game, if you would have been a poor fielder, people would have accepted you and you would have still played those many number of games that you played in your career. But, you did not choose to give any less commitment when it came to fielding. You were always a brilliant fielder and the kind of catches you took in your test career, a normal cricketer can only dream of. Your were never after personal milestones but your commitment towards fielding have made to the fielder with most number of catches apart from a wicket keeper in test match cricket. The kind of team man that you are, any team for which you played was so much honored to have you in the team. Harsha Bhogle once said that if Rahul Dravid is asked to walk on water for his team, he will ask how many miles. Navjyot Sidhu's quote about you is so famous, "If Rahul's team asks him to walk on broken glass, he will happily walk on it." Such is your team spirit. You have sacrificed so much for your team that no other player did in his entire tenure. Whenever you have been asked to open you happily agreed. Whenever you were asked to bat at no. 6 you accepted it with a smile. Your acceptance was exploited to such levels that they even made you a wicket keeper in the one day team. But, you never budged, and you gave your 100% in everything. Had you not sacrificed so much for the team, I am sure your career statistics would have been far far ahead than that of the Laras and the Tendulkars, the Kallises and Pontings. For me you are one single man who has taught every youngster playing cricket, how to respect the game and how to be a team man. Your commitment has never been doubted and in a career spanning more than 15 years this is a tremendous achievement. You were one of the fortunately unfortunate whose entire career was always in the shadows of the Tendulkars and the Gangulys and the Laxmans. But, for me and I am sure there are thousands like me who believe that you are far far better then all those big names. The technique that you possess is by far the best in cricket. There is, never was and never will be another WALL. Yeah, thats the name given to you by the media and you in true sense showed the capabilities of a WALL shielding Indian Cricket behind you from all those deadly bowlers. Your hardwork throughout your career was immense. I have heard that once when the entire team was out shopping on some tour game, you were the only person who was knocking in his room. Such was your commitment towards the game. Very recently you had shown once again in England, when the entire team was falling apart, you were the only player who was fighting it out for the country and the team. Below is an evidence for the same.


True to your name they have built a wall in Bangalore's chinnaswamy stadium. Here is a pic of that wall.



Makes me very emotional as a true fan of yours when I see such gestures from the cricket fraternity for you. Because I have always felt that for whatever you have given to the game, you have not got back your due. You have always given your heart and soul and you always deserved more from the likes of BCCI. For me you are a role model a youth icon for the fitness you have maintained throughout your career and I have hardly ever seen a bad patch for you in test cricket. Something was worrying me off late when I saw you getting out in England and then Australia recently. The manner in which you were getting out was showing some flaw in your ever so great technique. I was very sure that something is coming from you when it happened for more occassions than 3. And the inevitable happened. You announced your retirement yesterday after returning from the tour of Australia. I felt bad at first but then I thought that for a man who has done so much for his team, there must be something he must have thought which made him take such a decision. To move away from a game that you loved so much would not have been easy. But, have you ever done anything in your life that is easy? Again as a true fan I respect your decision that time has come that you make way for the youngsters. It takes great courage and a self less attitude to do something like this. Your greatness is such that you have never played for any personal milestones, always played for the team, but still, you are a prolific scorer in both forms of the game. Let me make it very clear, when it comes to test match batting skills, there is, was and never will be anyone better than you. If anyone deserves the title of Sir, that's only you. Once again I only want to say that all I have for you is one word. Respect. Period.

Your Ardent Fan

HOLI Ankleshwar Di.

"PC,PC,PC", they all were shouting, much to the inconvenience of my parents. I was changing into old clothes as fast as I could and rushed outside. Within seconds I was pushed down by the crowd of my friends and for the next couple of minutes I laid still, till I was allowed to move. I could only stand once the storm had completely passed by and I was covered in innumerable colors of Holi. It was difficult to identify who all did it from the colorful faces and already soaked clothes of my friends. There was no trace left on my face or my body which would help someone identify me. It would have been difficult for me to identify myself at the point in time, even if I was in front of a mirror.



Before you rush to any conclusion let me rest the matter by informing you that the above introduction is of a Holi day celebration during our childhood days in the ONGC colony of Ankleshwar where we used to stay. No one was spared on this particular day. Everyone was coloured from top to toe in the Holi colours. This is how Holi was celebrated in those days. One by one we would go to everyone's house, get our mate out of the house throw him down and color him black and blue and maroon and purple. Ours was a big gang and it would take about 3 to 4 hours to bring out everyone on the Holi day.

Once we were done playing Holi with the traditional colours, the next step was to find out who all can get a two wheeler. Everyone used to partner someone or the other who owned a two wheeler. Luckily, I was always allowed the two wheeler from my dad. The destination was Narmada river at Kabirwad which was about 25-30 kms from our ONGC Colony. It used to be a wonderful ride always. Together we used to go on about 10 to 12 two wheelers with minimum two riders on each one. Reaching Kabirwad would take another hour or so. We would take one halt for having some junk food and cold drinks and then reach Karbirwad for enjoying the bath in the Narmada River. It used to be an amazing experience and we would only return when we were thoroughly tired and there was no energy left. Hardly ever we reached back home before evening.

Holi in Ankleshwar was so much fun in those days. It seems like just yesterday and all the scenes of ONGC colony still are very much alive in my memory. Remembering the Holi of old today on the Holi day 8th of March 2012 is nostalgic. Today we celebrated Holi in our office and the way some guys were hunting in groups took me back to my old memories of Holi. Here's wishing all my old friends from Ankleshwar a very Happy Holi. Those days will never come back but the memories of those days have been stamped in my mind forever.

Dada

From the early childhood, Dada for me, meant maternal Grandfather. We called him Dada (and not Nana or Azoba) because that’s what we had heard others call him. Dada for me was a wonderful personality. I was afraid to talk to him in my first few encounters with him, as he was a strict old man. But, eventually, I realized that he was loving and kind when it came to dealing with his grandchildren. I remember of him as a very hardworking and a disciplined person. He must have been in his late 60s when he used wake up early in the morning daily, did lot of physical work in the garden to the extent of cutting wood for using them as fuel in the kitchen, feeding the cows, milking them, cleaning their place and an innumerable physical activities. I used to wonder how much energy an old man can possess to indulge in all these activities. I remember asking this to my mom a number of times and all she answered was that she has also witnessed the same since her childhood.
Dada was an English teacher in school before retiring. After retirement apart from all the physical activities that he was involved in, he used to teach English to the students of primary school as tuition. There were a lot of poor students also who were unable to pay his fees whom he taught without charging anything. He was a strict teacher and had his own ways of teaching the English language to the children who were predominantly speaking a dialect of Hindi in the small town of Handia in Madya Pradesh. I still remember few of his rhymes prepared for the students to cram in Hindi so that they can use them to make a decision in English grammar.
One goes like this: "Thou yaani tu ke saath, 's' pratyay ko rakhna yaad". Another one "He, She, It aur Ram, saath mein inke kriya mein pratyay nahi lete". These were few of the mantras he had given to his students for the use of 's' with verbs. He had his own method of teaching English which the students enjoyed and had fun while learning. I used to spend time with him during his tuitions as I liked his conversation with his students. I still remember when he used to encourage us read the comics as kids when my parents were against it. He used to say, let the child read, any kind of reading will always help him. He used to get very excited every time we visited his place. Out of all our cousins visiting, we (me and my brother) were the most fortunate ones as per him as we were studying in English schools. I remember him asking me to translate a Hindi story into English and he used to be very pleased and praised my efforts when I did that. Off course, he used to fix my mistakes and teach me, but, that was his favourite activity with me. He used to ask me to tell a story in English to his students and to all his visitors in the small town. People there used to be surprised at how a small child can speak in English. I knew I was not a very fluent English speaking child, but when the audience does not understand what you are speaking, your confidence grows many fold. :) Same was the case with me. If I am able to build up my confidence in English, Dada is one person; I would like to give the credit to. I used to write a daily dairy during my school days and Dada knew about it. I remember him suggesting me that you should write daily what were the good deeds you did and what were the things you should not have done. I did not understand at that age why he wanted me to write all that. But, now as grown up, I can realize that it was his way of passing me the wisdom. If at the end of everyday we look back and ponder over what good we did today and what we should not have done, it definitely helps us in improving things the next day.


People must be wondering, why suddenly I thought of writing about Dada. Well, I was reading the book "Chicken soup for the Indian Golden Soul", and reading the stories in it inspired me to write about Dada. Dada has indeed taught me so many lessons of life. A true teacher that he was, I am sure he must have touched and improved lives of so many people in his life time. Dada is no more with us today, but, I am sure he is reading this from up there and feeling so proud that his grandson, me, can really write so much in English. :)

15 minutes of (De)fame :)

There was a gentle knock on the classroom door. “Kambli, tell us if it's you?", "Otherwise the door won't open". A loud laughter broke out when someone said this in a classroom of about 15 guys. Another knock and this time someone started making some animal noise. The door kept being knocked and the students in the classroom kept making strange sounds and others kept laughing at the situation.

It was a Saturday in class XIIth science in our school K.V. ONGC Ankleshwar. We used to have a couple of C.C.A (Co-Curricular Activities) periods on every Saturday. We were about 15 boys and 10-12 girls in our class. All the boys hated the C.C.A periods where they forced us to participate in any of the cultural programmers, be it song dance or dramas. We being the senior most students of the school were not easily spared. This particular Saturday we decided to bunk the C.C.A. periods and stay in the class. We planned it in such a way that there were only boys in the classroom and we would lock the classroom from inside for these two periods which would give us about an hour and half of boys only time in our own classroom. Somehow, one of us whom we called Kambli had some urge to go out of the classroom (probably for drinking water or going to the loo). We did not want anyone to know that the whole gang of boys of the class is inside the classroom which is locked. But, Kambli didn't listen and he had to go out. Soon as he left, the mischievous gang of boys had a plan. They wanted to teach Kambli a lesson for breaking the rule. We decided not to open the door when Kambli comes back. So when the door was knocked we did not open it and the whole mockery started. People who were avoiding the C.C.A. period for avoiding being forced to participate in any of the activities on the stage were showing all their mimicry skills by making the noise of whatever animal they knew of whenever the door knocked. We had decided that we would finally open the door only when Kambli says it’s him.

The drama continued for about 15 minutes. Finally Kambli requested to open the door. Having heard Kambli's voice one of the most sincere guys named Dhiraj, opened the door. To our utter surprise in came our class teacher Pandey sir fuming with anger. There was a pin-drop silence in the class. Pandey sir was one of the most feared personalities in K.V. ONGC Ankleshwar. "Slap!!!" He relented his anger furiously on the first person who came in his way after the door was opened. Dhiraj, it was. "Why didn't you open the door?” No one replied. We were all equally responsible for the crime that was committed. The punishment was also equal. Everyone was given the same treatment. A tight slap! After having done his part of hitting everyone, Pandey sir left the class as fast as he had arrived.

It was about 20 seconds of silence after he left and then a unanimous thunder of laughter. People tried to remember what all rubbish they did during the 15 minutes of the drama when Kambli and Pandey sir were standing outside, and the laughter continued throughout the two C.C.A. periods got over. All of us had forgot the slap. People did not repeat any such thing on subsequent Saturdays, but the memory of that incident still brings a big smile to all of us. Whenever any of us get to meet each other we do remember this incident out of all the funny incidents that had happened during our school days.

First impression is NOT the last impression.

How often do we judge someone in just the first meeting? I strongly believe that first impression has a biggest impact about a person or any other thing on human beings. How often has it happened to you that you met a person for the first time and you make an impression about him/her in your mind? I would say, it happens every time. The behavior of the person in the first meeting is the first step which generally decides how we would treat the person whenever we meet him or her the next time. There is a lot to do with the first impression. For an author he can be a sought after author only when his first publication gets accepted and meets or exceeds the reader’s expectations. For a film actor or director, it’s the first film they work in creates an impression in the viewer’s mind. For a player it’s his first performance that can help a great deal to his chances of making it to the team. For a job seeker, it’s his first impression during the interview that would help him get the Job. For a cricket batsman, it’s the first ball that he receives from the bowler which decides how he is going to treat the bowler.

So, there are a lot of firsts in life which are really very important to create a lasting impression. However, first impression should never be treated as the last impression. There a various examples that can be cited to support this argument. It has happened so many times in my life that the person with whom I was not very impressed in the first meeting turned out to be very impressive in subsequent meetings. I have various examples of my friends, who have been helpful to me in the time of need, which I never thought would ever turn up when required, based on their first impression. If I talk about cricket, when I first saw Gautam Ghambhir play for India, I was not at all impressed. I felt like he would not be able to stay in the team more than a couple of tours. But, to my surprise he completely changed my impression and became the spearhead of Indian batting. The 20-20 world cup and then the test matches and finally even in the world cup, his display of gritty and never give up attitude had a large role which helped Indian team achieve the improbable feats. Same goes with Virat Kohli. He came on the scene as one arrogant spoilt youngster. But, when you see his performances, he has made me change my impression of him as a player. The great legend Amitabh Bachchan was written off after his first film Saat Hindustaani. But, his performance in Zanjeer as an angry young man completely changed is first impression. When we saw Ajay Devgan for the first time, who would have thought that he has got such brilliant acting talent.

If everyone is judged only on the basis of first impression and there would have been no second or third chances of improvement, we would have never seen such individual brilliances. So on a closing note; I would like to repeat that first impression is NOT the last impression. We should give it enough chances before we can get completely convinced about the impression of a person or anything else in life.

Seven Dum Aloo Kashmiri

Childhood has its own fun. Sometimes, when each one of us look back and remember the golden days of our life, there are always so many funny incidents which have innocence attached with it. Those were the days really.

In a small town of Ankleshwar which was the world for all of us, we used to spend our entire time in the premises of ONGC colony. If we had to come out of it for any reason that used to be a special occasion for us. One such special occasion was my birthday when everyone had asked for a treat and I somehow convinced my mom that I need to give a treat to my friends in some hotel. Mom was surprised; saying how you think you will pay for that. I replied that I had saved enough money to be able to throw the treat. Reluctantly, she gave me the permission and asked us to return home early otherwise dad will get very angry. In those days 10 PM was our deadline.

I decided to invite a few friends (seven of them to be precise) for a Birthday treat at Shalimar hotel. In those days Shalimar was one of the most prestigious hotels in our hometown Ankleshwar (and I believe it still is). That was a first of its kind all boys treat at a hotel.

We all were excited for the treat and we reached the hotel at dinner time. The waiter served us water, gave us the menu card and waited on us anticipating what kind of order these little boys are going to place. We all browsed through the menu as if it was the biggest task that we had. And it surely turned out to be the toughest task at hand. Our task concluded with someone saying that he will have a Dum Aloo Kashmiri. Soon another person also joined him saying he will also have the same. Finally, it turned out that every one of us wanted to have nothing but Dum Aloo Kashmiri. Some of us were like should we order seven? Do we really need that much? But, then I said everyone should eat to his heart's content as it was my birthday. It was kinda stupid, but I wanted to get rid of the hovering waiters soon so when everyone wanted the same, I ordered 7 Dum Aloo Kashmiri's and 7 butter Rotis. The waiter was confused. His face changed many colors. But, I repeated the order in a firm voice. We will have seven Dum Aloo Kashmiri's and seven roti’s. The waiter had to finally oblige.

When the order finally reached our table, we all started looking at each other’s faces. Each one had his own plate of the delicious Dum Aloo Kashmiri. We were embarrassed at our stupid order when none of us could finish it. But, after the grand treat we did have a big laugh about the whole incident.

Whenever we meet we still discuss about our first grand treat and the Seven Dum Aloo Kashmiri's @ Shalimar Hotel. :) :) :)