THE QUESTION OF THE YEAR !

During the so called press meet of Dr Manmohan Singh with the editors-in-chief of the electronic-media on 15.02.2011, one of the editors-in-chief ( a lady, I don't know which channel she was representing) asked the question of the year(!) to Dr Singh :

"Sir, the cricket world cup will start very soon. People of India desire from heart that Indian team should win the cup. What is your wish?"

Did she expected Dr Singh to reply he was wishing some other country should win the cup? (that too in a open press-meet!)

She deserves .... what?

Jay Ho !!!

ALL THE BEST FOR FORTHCOMING EXAMS

ALL THE BEST FOR FORTHCOMING EXAMS

USELESS EMOTIONS ….. GUILT AND WORRY

Can we get the lost time back? Certainly not. Surprisingly, many of us frequently trying to get back the time already passed. Not believing?

What we are doing when we are feeling guilty for what we have done or not-done in past? We are trying to get back to the moments, the time, we have already lived.

Surely no one can change one’s past, however capable/powerful one may be. Then what we are getting by just wasting our present in feeling guilty for our past. Yes, we can definitely learn from our mistakes and DO something now to minimize the loss. But just feeling guilty does not pay any dividend. On the contrary it paralyzes our present.

So, my friends, just forget what has happened in past and make your present more fruitful.

Can anyone has even slightest idea what will happened to Mahatma Gandhi or Mrs. Indira Gandhi, just before few minutes of their assassination. These are just examples. You can recall so many happenings, good or bad, in your life which you or no one had ever expected. What can happen very next moment in any one’s life is not certain.

Again, surprisingly, we are spending our precious present in worrying about what will happen if…..

This IF is very dangerous and useless. Life if full of surprises. In fact, these element of life makes the life more livable.
The fact is we are equally helpless for our future as we are for our past.

I am definitely not meaning that we should stop thinking about our future. We must, and also put all efforts in present to make our future better. But at the same time, just worrying about what will happen if “A” is happen or “A” is not happen does not helping in building concrete base for a sound future. Put all your efforts now, without bothering about what will happen tomorrow.

I remember a sweet short story here …

Once there was a king. He had everything then what he has wanted. A large kingdom, wealth, health, loyal ministers. He was very happy.
He once heard about saint who was said to be very knowledgeable with high spiritual power. So the king went to the saint to pay honor. King requested the saint to give him advice for ruling his kingdom more effectively. The saint said that since the king is already doing well and has everything what a king should have, there is no need any advice. However, the saint wrote something on a piece of paper and gave to the king and said him to use the message when he was in dire need of some assistance. King put the paper in pendent he usually wearing.
Time passed, and as witnessed in the history, some of the near and dears of the king rebelled. The king lost all his powers and wealth. However, somehow he managed to escape with some of his family members. They continued to hide themselves in a forest to save their life. One by one, by one or other, the king lost his family members. A time came, when he was alone in the deep forest. He has no one with him. A wealthy, happy, mighty king just before a few days was not striving for like. Since there was no hope or reason for life is remained, he decided to commit suicide. He decided to hang himself on a tree. Just at the time of fixing the knot of the rope on his neck, his hand touched the pendent. He remembered the words of the saint and opened the pendent and unfolded the paper.
Only one sentence was written there. “This Time Will Also Pass”.The king shocked. The saint has written this sentence when the king was a mighty, powerful king of a large wealthy kingdom. If that time did not lasted, why this one will last forever?
The king decided not to surrender to the circumstances which were always changing. And thereafter the story is as usual. He met some of his loyal supporters, gathered weapons somehow… and of course regains the power.

Moral of the story is that The Time Always Keep Changing. Let the preset moment, if not desirable, be passed.

So my friends, just not feel guilty for what has happened in the past or worry about what will happen tomorrow, and just use present moments as you want to use. Passing exam or getting excellent grade is just one of the activities of life. Failing in any exam is not failing in life. There is always other chance.

Just put all your efforts to achieve the target. Whatever result may come, life is still yours.

All the best….

(In view of the forthcoming exams, I have reposted this article.)

THE NATIONAL SHAME

After post-Godhara riots, in the year 2002 in Gujarat, the phrase “National Shame” was coined by many politicians. I agree that what was happened in Godhara was wrong. What happened immediately thereafter throughout the state was also totally wrong. And what has been happening thereafter, in relation to post-Godhara riots, is even worse. But I do not want to go into this politically painted/tainted issue.

Today I was waiting at a traffic signal at Ellis bridge crossing. (Ellis bridge square is one of the most busy traffic crossings of Ahmedabad city.) The time was 10.00AM. I saw a young boy of around 8 to 10 years defecating on the footpath. And the once very dear phrase of politicians “national shame” struck my mind. Those politicians who want to see what our real national-shame is, should travel in any train reaching New Delhi railway station between 7.00 to 8.00AM. They have just to wake up at 6.00AM and sit on any of the window seat. They will find uninterrupted line of national-shame on the adjoining railway track itself. After 60 years of independent rule of our own people, we could not provide even toilet, leave alone a home, to more than 40% of the population.

If you look around, you will find, other than politicians, many national-shames like …

1. You order a tea on a road side tea stall and the national-shame will come to serve the tea with tea-cup in one hand and water-bowl in the other.
2. Go to any government department and you will require to grease the hands of national-shame for moving your paper from one table to the other. And the other side of the same national-shame will also be there, paying bribes for getting the illegal work done.
3. Want admission in a good school? National-shame is there asking donation.
4. Leave alone the young children, you will find many adult national-shames standing on road side releasing water-pressure, i.e. peeing. (Before a few years  a head line was appeared in a leading daily in New Delhi  - “Are Women Bladderless Creature?”.)
5. Throwing garbage or spitting anywhere is never a shame for us though it is really a national-shame.
6. Is it not a national-shame that the finance minister of a country declares that he has no magic stick to bring down the inflation? (He had many to let the prices of essential commodities doubled in just few months.)
7. And latest one, the chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) of the country says that why can’t he be on the post of CVC even though he has been charge-sheeted for malpractices in past, when there are so many charge-sheeted members-of-parliament? (It is CVC’s duty to ensure that such unscrupulous persons do no remain any more in the parliament!)

The list can go on and on.

But, let us, you and me, decide NOT to contribute to the list.

BEYOND CRICKET

We are facing a hell of the problems. Steep price rise of essential commodities has made the life of common man difficult. Tax-payers’ money is siphoned off by unscrupulous politicians by way of variety of scams like CWG, Aadarsh, 2G-Spartrum and so on. Common man is living in hand-to-mount, even worse, situation. Terrorism keeps on threatening our national security and integration. China is, as usual pushing India on border issues. List is infinite. And of course our elite media is keeping the fire burning by telecasting all these problems as news, discussions, interviews etc.

But come 19^th February and all problems are solved. Because ICC cricket World Cup will starts on that grate day. Once cricket is there, no problem can sustain against the importance of the cricket. We will forget everything and will start bothering who will get the cup.

Cricket news will be the only news, breaking or regular, for all the news channels. Each run scored and fall of every wicket will be updated on all news channels during the match is going on and after the match is over detailed post-mortem of the match will be served to the viewers. And we will happily watch all this silly stuff by roaming from one channel to the other. Newspapers will not remain behind. If BCCI team wins, front-page news item. If they loss, even bigger news with worry of what will happen to this country. (The team playing cricket as Indian team is not selected by any government/public department/body. It is selected and being maintained by an independent body called BCCI. Unfortunately we attach our national pride with these  11+ persons who are on pay-roll of a private profit-motivated commercial entity. In addition now these persons are ‘purchased’ by business houses via auction.)

Pakistan continues cross-border terrorism, no problem. China eyes Arunachal Pradesh, not a big issue. And inflation… what is that?  The core issue is the ICC world cup. All discussions/expressions will be directed to cricket, may it be on TV, news paper or at “Nukkad”. All other things are patty and can be think about( if to think about at all) after 2^nd April, i.e. the last day of the world cup.

News channels’ or news papers’ owners are no fools. They will go after any news either if it has TRP/circulation value or monetary value. And the cricket has both. Average Indian goes mad after the cricket news and BCCI is there to add monetary value for each telecast/publication of cricket stuff.

Sometime I wonder that BCCI is working as a “pacifying agency” for the Indian government. It keeps on producing cricket “tamasha” on regular interval to ensure diversion of average people mind from their day-to-day problems. Cricket is a toxic material being sold without any license to even minors. And world cup is a heavier dose. All will use this toxic material and forget about all the problems. How many marks were obtained in last prelim-exams? Don’t remember? Not a problem, but run scored by Sachin or even Bhajjee must be on tongue-tip. Otherwise you are an ignorant, useless creature and got a big zero in GK.  Budget will come and go. But you need not to bother what taxes will cut your pocket to size until you know the date of next match of BCCI team. But government wants this. Cricket is a big tool for the rulers to divert the mind of common man from the ‘state-sponsored’ problems to something where government is not involved. You can’t blame any politician if so called Indian cricket team run-out of the tournament even in league-round.

Definitely I am not against the game of Cricket. But it should be a sport only. It should not become our national issue. (I will not discuss here about the loss being suffered by other genuine sports because of the unauthorized ‘national-game’ status of cricket.) It should get coverage and our attention only it deservers as a sport. We must remember that cricket world cup will not earn anything for the country. All profits will go the BCCI and will be at disposals of “Lalit Modies”. (Name may differ from person to person, but act will not.)

We, as responsible citizen of the country must come out from this cricket-mania. Enjoying the game is not a problem, but it should not be allowed to command the situation and take all our attention to the extent that the real issues go sidelined and the culprits escape comfortably.

 Please, keep on thinking BEYOND CRICKET during the ICC World Cup too.

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