Ganpati, Yuvraj and Morality checks...!

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

The 10 day long ganesh festival marks the beginning of festival season in India, and if you happen to be in either of Mumbai or Pune these 10 days are undoubtedly the most happening, colorful and chirpy 10 days of the year. Ganesha being the lord of knowledge and the one who is at least remembered before the start of any new task, is undoubtedly the most popular deity across all faiths. And by my good fortune I again happened to be in this part of the country this time too and got fully soaked up in the Ganpati spirit. Though being away from my native home has its own disadvantages, primarily that I unable to be a part of the Ganpati festivities at home, especially the delicious 'modak treat' twice a day for 10 days straight, all this apart from being actively involved in decorating and lighting up the entire house, but being in Pune you sort of make up for not being at home by enjoying an altogether exhilarating environment all across the city. Huge Ganesh Pandals in every 50 meters throughout the city, and literally every single of them unique in their own way be it their size, be it their shape or be it their theme, another interesting thing about Ganesh Pooja is the fact that the atmosphere is not heavily clad with those religious mantras and shlokas; the mood is very joyful and in a sense its a period to enjoy and celebrate by all means, so one hardly gets to hear those religiously poised devotional songs sung by Anuradha Podwal or Anoop Jalota, in fact the entire town transforms into a virtual disco-theque with each of the Ganesh Pandal playing the latest bollywood dance number in full venegance; Munni Badnaam being the flavor of the season in almost all the Ganesh Pandals this year. Luckily enough for me my very close cousin who stays in the city celebrated the 10 day Ganesha worship cum celebration at his place and I tried my best to be a part of the festivities at his place as much as I can. But amidst all this fun and frolic the most touchy moment came on the day of idol immersion when I accompanied my cousin on the banks of the local river, and the moment we arrived at the banks a group of fully drenched lads came to us and offered that one of them will swim till the deepest part of the turbulent river and do the immersion right there, it was obviously in lieu of some monetary incentive but we found the deal quite alluring and exciting and were about to finalize that before being interrupted by three school guys, probably from the nearby DAV school, as there uniform read so, who told us not to go with those local swimmers but to immerse our idol in the municipal corporation water tank constructed strategically on the river bank with an objective to minimize the river pollution and contribute towards various other benefits arising from such a step. Though the other gang of boys were swearing ominously against those school lads for directly hampering their business prospect but we were so moved by the dedication and intent of those little school boys that there was no second thought about going ahead with the idol immersion in the water tank. I literally hugged those guys for devoting their time for such a valiant cause and congratulated them for their efforts, and what I got in return from those three ebullient guys was a loud chant of - Ganpati Bappa Morya!

Yuvraj Singh tu laukariya...!

From the cricketing perspective and in India's term we are about to play one of the most sought after, interesting and competetive series in recent times which involves playing 2 test matches along with 3 ODIs against our fiercest competitors, Australia. The mercury will drop technically in the coming few weeks but certainly it will trace the opposite path for the hard core cricket enthusiasts. And amidst such an exciting setup if the Indian selectors don't pick one of the most mercurial and flamboyant player of the current decade, Yuvraj Singh for the 1st test match between the two top sides, it is bound to fetch varied reactions. Infact the man himself reacted very strongly to this piece of news and openly expressed his displeasure with his omision and so did most of his fans and some cricket experts. But I don't see any injustice in this move, no doubt Yuvraj is one of the most talented batsman we have today, arguably one of the best finishers in the game,he has one of the best timing in game, he posseses a choreographers footwork, he hits the ball really hard and easily clears any boundary convincingly on a regular basis, he has hit six 6's in an over in the International arena which not many have even dreamt of doing, so what is that which holds him from being a regular name in the Test squad? Consistency? Attitude? or Temperament? I guess all three of them. But the irony is he posseses all three of them and still lacks all of them, he has been a consistent performer and most of the times the sole match winner in both ODIs and T20s, there is no denying on his credentials in either formats, but is he able to replicate the same in THE format i.e the Test matches, sadly NO. Its not that he hasn't got chances, he has been around for over 10 years and has played as many as 34 test matches but he still averages a meagre 35 odd runs per innings, which is way below the acceptable mark and also way below what he is capable of, so these long string of failures have to eventually cost him his place in the Test squad some day or the other, because not many get to play even half of what he has played without performing exceptionally well. Temperament wise, he has got the coolest head on his shoulders when it comes to finishing those humdinger ODIs and nail bitting T20 contests, but temperament in THE format (read Tests) means converting those 50s and 60s into big 100s and virtually batting the opposition out of the contest, hence unless you do so, howsoever big a star you might be in other circuits you are a NOBODY in this arena. And lastly Attitude, well not many risk the chance of confronting Yuvraj Singh on the field and whosover has taken the risk of doing so have paid very heavily for this, ask Flintoff and Broad about this. But there is very thin line between being positive and being rash or aggressive, which probably this guy crosses more often than not and is pretty clear from the fact that every time he scores a 100 he makes it a point to celebrate in a way that it seems he is literally abusing everybody present on the ground, which ultimately creates a very sorry picture. But when will this prince of Mohali understand that the likes of Sachin and Bradman have succeeded in the long run not just because of their talent and hard work but more so because of their humbleness, conduct and ability to handle success in the most graceful way. No doubts Yuvraj will make a comeback and in all certainity a strong one, but that should be by the virtue of his changed and Sachin-esque attitude and a string of strong performances in the domestic circuit and not by the means of his laurels in the ODIs or T20 format and certainly not by his 'I don't give a Damn' attitude because for India to a be a potent power in the world cricket we definetly need a very strong, grounded and flamboyant Yuvraj Singh!

Morality checks against an Investment Banker!

By virtue of my odd office timings (UK hours) I normally leave for home after 11pm and the normal mode of transport happens to be the office provided cabs. Naturally I am not the lone warrior working in this insane shift, there are many others of my breed, some being from the other gender too. But what compels me to put this particular incident over here is the latest directive which was being passed across to all the employees working and commuting in these shifts. The directive reads - every woman employee working in shift and commuting through the office cab will be provided with a security guard in the cab. The new rule seemed absolutely fine until the part B of this directive came into picture which said or which meant even if there are other colleagues in the cab, the so called private body guard will still accompany the woman soldier( read employee). So if the part A conveyed a message that this directive is being brought with a motive of providing safety to the female employees against the mischievous cab drivers in the odd hours, the part B very soon clarified that this directive is probably passed on with a motive to safeguard the female warriors against the atrocities of their male colleagues. I don't know what misdeeds some of my fellow male bankers did which led to the implementation of this new rule, but to see that security guard sitting on the front seat beside the cab driver every night while going back home makes me feel a little ashamed and also very furious that my character and morality is being questioned every single night. Though the employers are doing the righteous thing by implementing such a directive which eventually goes on to provide the much needed security which is very essential in creating a fear free environment of working for the fairer sex but they could have also done this by thrusting this responsibility on the shoulders of their male colleagues, which would have made this process seamless and wouldn't have created an awkward situation for the male colleagues too. Because by this logic all the woman employees should also be provided with a private security cum body guard inside the office premises at the work desk too, but since this is not done the employers probably assume that the carnal desires of an Investment banker shoots up after 11pm, thereby its imperative to safeguard the female employees by means of security guards after that time. But unfortunately for the employers the security guards also happen to be the male souls:).

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