Nobody is Indispensable

Even the most modest of persons must have felt sometimes that he/she is the best in a particular area and could not be replaced. But, believe me you may be Amitabh Bachchan or a Sachin Tendulkar in your field, you are not indispensable. Off course Amitabh and Sachin do not have matched replacements, but there will be times when they are no longer doing what they are doing best now, and people who believe today that these personalities are indispensable will get adjusted to the fact that life goes on without them also. A very bitter truth to digest, but still, its a fact of life.

God has its own way to teach us lessons. I remember one such incident of my childhood. We all friends had joined a summer cricket camp for which we had to get up at 6 in the morning and be at the ground. The coach used to make us do rigorous exercises and fielding practises, a bit too long for our patience. The real thing i.e. the batting practise started only after the rigorous training. I used to be the only wicket keeper in the whole camp and I used to get really tired as I was involved in all the fielding sessions. Getting a batting session, the thing which was of real interest, always tested my patience. One fine day I got a bit agitated and asked the coach that whether we will at get a chance to play a match. He responded, that as a player you need to enjoy practise as much as you like to play a real match and he said that he will select the team for a match only based on our performance during practise. I was always sure that my place in the team is fixed as there is no other wicket keeper. Team selection never worried me. But, these practise sessions took a toll on me. One fine Saturday, I decided that I will skip the Sunday practise session. I was completely sure that in case there is match the coach will definitely send someone to call me at my home as they would need a wicket keeper for the match anyways. So, I skipped the session and got up late on Sunday morning. Since I missed the practise session I went late to the ground to check whether I can get a chance to play a Sunday cricket match.

I went to the ground and saw a match going on. I was surprised to see that it was a match of our own camp team. I was shocked to see someone else keeping the wickets. People among the spectators threw questions at me as to why I am not playing the match. I had no answer. It was so painful to see my team playing the match and I was not there. I was not even informed about the match. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind that I had been overconfident of the fact that I was indispensable. I realized that God has its own way of teaching lessons to us. God chose cricket to teach me this lesson. All my pains vanished and I had a smile on my face. I had learnt an important lesson of my life that day. Nobody is indispensable. The sooner you realize this fact the better it is. I was fortunate enough to learn this at a very tender age.

Since then I have always tried to grab an opportunity with both hands. Because, that day I realized that if you are ignoring an opportunity, it becomes someone else's opportunity. You might be the best in business, but you are not indispensable. Cricket has been a great teacher for me in this life.

A Masterpiece !!!

Sanjay leela Bhansali(SLB) is known for putting more than 100% into whatever he does. He has seen success and failure in his works (how can one forget Sawaariya?). But, its amazing how he has created a different genre of movies through his work. Khamoshi, Hum Dil De chuke sanam, Devdas, Black, Saawriya and Guzaarish are all different movies but have one common thing about them. All the movies have been created with a lot of passion. A lot truly means a lot.

Guzaarish is truly a masterpiece. Its not just a movie. I have never cried through out in a movie. Possibly, that could be because I could connect with it. People may find it stupid, but those who have seen similar sufferings from close quarters would understand. I really felt and believed, always that we should thank the almighty for everything that He has given us, but my belief and feelings have grown that much more stronger after watching Guzaarish. Hritik was marvellous as Ethan Masceranhas. Portraying someone who had seen so much applause and fame through his life, and then confined to his bed and being dependent entirely on his servant and nurse, he is just wonderful. Aishwarya seems to be a dream girl as always. Even in the dream of dreams the character played by Aish does not seem true, but still everyone watching would instantly fall in love with her. And please, I am not talking just about her looks here. People must take Aish seriously. She is a fantastic actor and a great dancer toooooo and she did do total justice to her talents in whatever limited scope she had.

With Guzaarish, SLB has started his career as a music director too, and boy! did he do a wonderful Job? All Songs are mesmerising and each one of them is a wonderful creation. After Black by SLB, and Tare zameen Par by Amol Gupte (Aamir Khan), this is one movie that seems to be just perfect. Guzaarish is not just a movie. For people watching movies just for entertainment, I would appeal to them to please stay away from Guzaarish. Guzaarish is a display of human emotions to the extreme. Did I say I cried throughout the movie? Yes, off course I did. Its painful but it still makes you smile. Its truly a masterpiece.

All I can say is

Life is good, Life is wonderful, Life is pain, It's all part of that game !
(A song from the movie, Guzaarish)

Sincere thanks to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for creating such a masterpiece.

Diwali 2010, A wake up call

When we all were kids, we used to look forward to Diwali as a grand festival. Specially for our gang it was big, really big. In ONGC colony Ankleshwar, there were only two places where Diwali was celebrated at its best. One was off course the Multi Storey buildings. Yes, around 20 years ago in a small town of Ankleshwar we had three 10 storey buildings which were called Multi Storey buildings. The second best place for Diwali was the lane where I used to stay. The RH-1 lane. This lane was decorated in lights for the most part of Diwali (for a total of seven to ten days) and appropriately this lane was called the Chandni Chowk of ONGC colony Ankleshwar. All the popular people (yours truly being no exception) were staying at this Chandni chowk. We played cricket the whole day and soon as it got dark, we used to celebrate Diwali by firing crackers. There was a competition as to who has got the most no of crackers and people used to do stunts with the crackers. Our Diwali never ended without firing the crackers at out school ground in ONGC. And then the whole gang visited everyone's house to have those amazing Diwali delicacies. We literally used to empty everything that was served to us by our Auntijies (Moms of our the gang members). Those were amazing days. Nostalgic really.

Diwali 2010 has been so very different. It is really true that as the age catches up we tend to think differently. Diwali celebrations has not been an exception. Its a complete contrast now. The only way to wish the friends on Diwali is sending SMS through mobile or writing on someone's wall for wishing him. Facebook has made things even more simple by allowing us to write what's on our mind and share it with all the friends. Just one line and we wished all our friends. So simple isn't it? Technology has changed everything. Huh !.

Well, I tried to connect to a lot of friends by calling them on the phone. That's only because I was in a very cheerful mood (I did this for the first time this Diwali). And believe me it really made my day. I spent around 3-4 hours talking to all the friends from school, college and my colleagues from ealier and current offices. It felt really nice. And by the time I was exhausted, my Diwali was over. What a strange way to celebrate Diwali one would say. But, believe me, I really enjoyed it. I connected with few of my friends whom I called after so many years. We enjoyed talking after such a long time. I had stopped bursting crackers long back when glory came into our life. (Glory is our 6 yrs old black lab dog and I have another blog post dedicated to him). We have stopped having too much of sweets now just to keep and eye on our calorie intake. No question of visiting anyone's house to have Diwali sweets as that tradition has died completely now a days.

There were certain things which really were of concern for me. I believe this is only because now we are grown ups and mature and we tend to think more rationally. when in the night I looked out of my balcony I could not see anything at a distance of even 50 meters. Reason, there was abundance of smoke in the air. So much smoke as if there was a snowfall. I felt choked. I really started cursing people for bursting so many crackers that the whole atmosphere got smoky. Just a few days ago winter had started in Pune. The Pune weather was getting better and now we ourselves are trying our best to spoil it completely. It was really painful to see all this. The second thing that really shocked me was the amount of electricity being wasted in the name of Diwali. On every floor of my building, people have not spared to illuminate lights in every possible way to attract Goddess Laxmi. So much was the wastage of electricity, that I wished that there should be a total blackout in pune to save wastage of electricity. In the age where global warming is an alarming concern, people are not ready to shed their age old superstitious belief. It was really shocking and painful to see all this from an educated class of people. How can educated people behave so irresponsibly, and that too in a place like pune where there is shortage of electricity. When I discussed this with one of my friends he said you should stop thinking all this. Its not going to help you. People those who can afford will always waste things and they will never care. I had to give up as I knew that common sense is not so common. You can take a thirsty horse to the pond but can't force it to drink the water. Education does the same. It can help you only when you use your common sense with it. I felt frustrated and helpless. But, I decided to write about it in my blog so whosoever reads it at least can give it a thought. Think about it the next time you waste electricity and pollute the environment by bursting unnecessary crackers.
Off course people will say you are the same person who used to waste electricity and burst crakers during Diwali in your childhood. But, my point is, now, that I can understand and can think rationally, I have given up on it completely. At least people who are educated can minimize it if not completely give it up. It would be through our efforts only, that the generations which are following us, will get to see and utilize the natural resources. We have already seen so much imbalance in our atmosphere why are we still not alarmed. Together we have to make an effort and jointly only we can fight to keep the environment healthy. Its all for our good health and for our comsumption only. Its really a wake up call. I hope and wish to see a better Diwali in the year 2011. Smokeless and without wasting too much electricity.