Love what you do or do what you love?

They say if you want to excel in life, love what you do. But how many of us actually love what we do? For that matter, how many of us actually know what they should do. Interestingly, the common answer is not many. I still remember when I was a kid I had such fancy ambitions for my grown up days. The normal ones ranged from being a movie Hero to a Cricketer and on some rather outrageous phases it also ranged from being a Terrorist (for being able to use the gun at will) to being a cashier at a bank (who can take home whatever sum he wants at will). Unfortunately, none of this happened and the ambitions transitioned to some rather boring alternatives.

Engineer or Doctor was the decision to be made, dad being a surgeon stakes were high to opt for the medico route but common sense prevailed and I smartly opted for the engineering route. Not because I was exceptional in maths but more so because I was smart enough to gauge that I don’t have the dedication and the appetite to slog for at least 10 more years to be a professional doctor J. But in this age being an engineer hardly secures you a blooming career, unless of course if you have been a high flyer all along, which not-so-surprisingly I was not. So it was again the time to be at the cross roads, MBA or MS (M Tech)? I opted for the former as I found the latter to be too technical and former as the key to the supposedly wonderful management world. So once again it was a case of opting for what not to do rather than what I should do. And where on one hand I could have been a cricketer probably playing IPL for one of the franchises, here I am not so glamorously donning the hat of a pre-sales consultant. Not that I hate what I do, but I would be lying if I say I love what I do J. But I certainly envy what few people are doing in their lives.

I envy Harsha Bhogle. I envy him for being able to make a living out of what has been his love of his life from his childhood. I wish I could sit back, relax and enjoy commentating on my favorite sport for ever and make a living out of it. He is neither a professional cricketer nor a certified sport journalist but he excels in what he is doing and is seemingly enjoying it to the core. Not discounting his hard work or his elite academic credentials, nevertheless I still envy what he does J.

I envy Taran Adarsh. How could you not envy someone who makes a living out of watching every damn movie that hits the theaters and then rates it based on his views on the movie. Agree, it takes a degree in journalism and lot of insight to be in that position to critique a piece of art. But compare your daily monotony with this rather exciting avenue, do you need anything more to envy this arrangement? Certainly not J.

I envy Sanjeev Kapoor. He comes, he cooks, he tastes and in turn teaches you on how to cook an exotic dish and earns a bomb out of it. And in cases his work day just involves critiquing  a bunch of amateur chefs on how they have cooked. Who wouldn't yearn for such a fancy life. Being a hotel management graduate or a God gifted person could be some probable arguments behind this success story but that hardly lessens the imminent envy J.

I envy Chetan Bhagat. His English is probably as good as most of us and he writes simple, no brainer stories (some rightly call them as soft porn too) that even you or me could write but his popularity and craze in the commercial Indian literary circuit  is unparalleled. And with all his books being made into Bollywood movies he is certainly among the all-time best selling Indian authors. Now people may credit his IIT-IIM academic combo as the key contributor to his success but I still envy his work life more than his academic prowess J.

I envy Arnab Goswami. He hogs the prime time limelight every night and bashes and screams over the top politicians like nobody does. He may be a laughing stock for his over the top theatrical mannerisms but who wouldn't cherish doing what he has been doing for some years now.

I envy Miss Malini. Yes, Miss Malini, the elegant Bollywood grapevine queen. How about making a career out of gossiping? I mean can there be anything more exciting than that J. Not many around mind a dose of gossip here and there, I for that matter love it day in day out, so how can you not envy someone who makes a living out of it. That’s so damn fancy J.

In hindsight, it might seem I envy all those who sit back and merrily advocate or profess gyaan in some way or the other and make a flourishing career out of it. But probably these guys would also be lamenting about their respective trade suits. How I wish there was an option to pick and choose and adapt to a career of your choice anytime in your life and seamlessly transition to another favorite career choice of yours once you are done with the previous one J. But that couldn't be a possibility, so for those like me who couldn't do what they love, love what you do is the only enforced option left J.

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P S- For now, if not for ever, if I can just don the hat of a travel junkie who does nothing but trots the globe year long and makes a living out of it, I wouldn't complain for anything else in life J.

  

Well done Team India, you have still made us all proud!

On April 2^nd 2011, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit that memorable six to help India clinch  their 2^nd world cup title the entire nation erupted in joy and went into a festive frenzy that continued for days. Many (including me), also claimed that now that we have seen our heroes achieve this momentous feat, there is nothing more that we want from them and even if we don’t win the world cup again for a long time we would go on to cherish and marvel over this momentous feat for the rest of our lives. But public memory is short lived and appetite for more is atrociously greedy, hence as the 2015 world cup approached the excitement and the nervousness to retain the cup turned overwhelmingly imminent.

Though, India’s dismal show in Australia both in the test series and the tri-series dampened the spirits and expectations to a good extent but promotional campaigns like ‘wontgiveitbak’ and ‘maukamauka’ did well to keep the general euphoria among the masses intact. Given the friendly format, I personally felt India would reach the Quarters but due to their not-so glorious recent form would struggle to proceed any further. In a nutshell, my expectations from team India before the world cup were not very high, not just because of our on field form but even due to the fact that we have fairly recently won the cup. And I didn't expect our team to be so good to have clinched back to back world cup trophies, some might term it as high degree of pessimism but I consider it as being realistic to what we are truly capable of doing J.

Till date, 92’ world cup happens to be my favorite world cup, although India did miserably in that edition but the memories of that edition are still fresh and edged out in my mind. Waking up early (mostly to see India tottering J), the excitement of newly introduced colored jerseys and the amazement of watching then greats in the action, well and truly made that world cup very very special. India has gone on to perform much better than that in almost all subsequent editions, barring 2007 but statistically none has been as prolific has 2015. Although, we won the trophy in 2011 but we have never been so clinical in our performances as we were this time around. 100% win record in the league stages, our bowlers bowling out the opposition every single time and an unmatched, impeccable record in the power play overs. These feats talk volumes of our rare consistent performance on the field and it shocked one and all as our performances leading up to the world cup were very contrasting. So this in all ways was a remarkable turn around and gave over a billion people a strong sense of HOPE.

Despite these string of surprises every Indian fan somewhere had that inkling that it won’t go on forever and inevitability will certainly strike sometime soon, though later the better was the unanimous hope J. In fact, I was literally praying for a loss sometime before the knock outs so that we stay in check and avoid such a debacle in the knockouts. Howsoever weird it might sound but I always had this strange feeling in mind that we are not the Australia’s of the world to lift the world cup being undefeated throughout the tournament and neither are we so strong to have won back to back world cups like the West Indies’ and Australias’ of the past. Nevertheless, I was hoping that all my negative thoughts go wrong and we go on to do the unexpected and with Dhoni around that feeling of anything is possible was ever so imminent J.

So what had to happen happened and a billion prayers and streak of superlative performance failed to take us through to our second consecutive world cup final. It was very sad to have lost the way we lost and there was an expected sense of frustration and angst against our heroes of the last 6 weeks. With electronic and social media being so very powerful and emphatic these days, people went on to indulge in high degree of Team India bashing, almost as if we have been knocked out in the first round itself without giving any fight. Given our passion and love for the game, to an extent this outrage is justifiable but burning effigies, bringing in personal lives of the cricketers and targeting the WAGs is utterly stupid. Nobody plays to lose, certainly not those who are on the field representing India, in fact nobody wants to win it more than guys donning the Indian Jersey. So if we can’t give them their due respect and support while they lose we don’t have the right to go gaga over their victories either.

All in all for me it was an engaging and an entertaining world cup that made me feel proud of my team despite its semi-final exit. The excitement and the euphoria that started building up from the 1^st match just kept on rising with every match. To top it all the maukamauka ads and following every match by waking up early in the morning and rejoicing/lamenting every moment over the whats-app with my best pals just made it all the more thrilling and memorable. A world cup win would have been the perfect icing on the cake but nevertheless for me the heroes of those six weeks continue to be the heroes despite a bad day in office in the semis.

Well done Team India, you have still made us all proud!

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