Two weeks, two books, two thoughts and walking


Took the last two weeks off .... read Five Point Someone, which was an engaging story, I have to say, and then The White Tiger. The latter was just brilliant.

Accomplished little else..... walked a lot .... today, I must have walked at least 2 + 2.4 kilometers, and then jogged another 4.8Km ..... so something like 9.2 Km on my feet walking or running. Yesterday I walked for 90 minutes straight .... even at 7Kmph its about 10.5Km. Realized that not running for the last 2 weeks (I suffered a pretty serious ligament injury in a cricket match) has really slowed metabolism.

As for the thinking part ..... My mind is trying to get its hands around two thoughts.... one of holy matrimony and the other of what the blazes to do about my career which methinks needs some challenges. So much for two weeks of rest and relaxation.

Ideas welcome ;)

I took the last two weeks off to ask myself some important questions ... and then I ended up watching some great cricket on TV, played a lot of cricket with my team, and ended up meeting some old friends.... time well spent I guess.

As for the questions, I guess the answers will come when they will. And there's nothing one can do in the meantime.

Whats everyone doing for New Years'?

Rahul Dravid and all that you can't leave behind

He sits there, padded up, reading a book, while a young 20 something in the form of Gautam Gambhir and a slightly rotund bald man with no respect for technique are making batting look ridiculously simple, smashing boundaries at will and playing with an abandon that he was told was simply counterproductive to the science of batting. The book in his hands seems like a self-help title. In this moment of failure, he seeks answers as he always did. In theory and education, when twenty minutes of bravado and batting without a helmet might just turn things around ... old habits die hard, not matter how cerebral the thinker.

Rahul Dravid stares vacantly, yet intensely at the pages which he is struggling to read. His attention is no longer his own, his mind hijacked by the thoughts of a string of recent failures that put even the celebrated law of averages to shame.

There can be a few logical reasons that explain this deviation from even this most agreed upon statistical principle... One ... he is no longer good enough at this level of the game .... Two... there is a flaw in his technique.

His record and statistics preclude his acceptance of point one. As for point two, he spoke to Sunil Gavaskar yesterday, and unlike Saeed Anwar and Saurav Ganguly before him who spoke to the sage and saw immediate results, this is not to be for him thirty minutes after he takes guard.

What is he to do now? Is he to entertain acceptance of point 1 at some point and give in to the abyss of self-doubt, to sink into a vortex from which few have found escape? For someone who has played cricket for twenty years with as much intensity as anyone else, I can tell you that batting is both the most fulfilling and the cruelest discipline of the game. You wait your turn patiently, watching others play shots that you know you can eclipse ... you wait till the bowler runs in, with hopes and great aspirations, only for everything to end even faster than it had begun.

There's little that anyone can say to help Rahul. From one Bangalore boy to another, I only hope he is offered a few lives before he gets to a decent score and begins to believe in the Fates that watch over this game. For the moment, his first mistake of his innings is his last, and no batsman has been as unlucky as he has been for so long.

I wake, I think
I work, I think
I eat, I think
I sleep, I think
I think, I think
I think, I think


Now time to stare at the wall and spend a few vacant moments :)

Khakhi: In the line of duty

Watched the 30 minute NDTV show "Khakhi: In the line of duty". Stories of unarmed constables, some of them the only breadwinners of their families who were killed by sophisticated weapons without so much as a fighting. That said, some of them died as they rushed to stop the terrorists, sometimes on foot. One constable was killed trying to protect his inspector. The most moving story has to be that of Tukaram Omble, who was involved in the capture of the terrorist now in custody. Tukaram rushed towards the terrorist who was still alive (the other had been shot dead moments before). Knowing that the other constables with their service rifles did not stand a chance, grabbed the barrel of the AK-47 even as the terrorist emptied rounds into him. He just held on to the barrel and wrestled the terrorist to the ground, in the process creating a shield for his fellow constables who then overpowered the terrorist. Tukaram had just been promoted a month or so ago to the rank of Assistant Inspector. Just bizzare.

There is a contrast to others in the force whom we usually encounter ... like the constable at the Koramangala police station who demanded money from me after he cleared my passport application. Or the stories of so many corrupt cops who are gangsters in uniform.

I have to say that the newer stories have simply opened my eyes to the world of the better lot.

As for the senior officers Karkare, Kamte, Kalaskar ... all names which have become legends in their own rights. Kamte was a Stephenian and a Xaveiite ..... Karakare was a scholarly Engineer .... Salaskar was among the few untainted encounter cops. ... all of whom who joined the force for ideals of their own.

The three senior officers were killed as they rushed to the scene of the crime at an hour at which most people return home to a dinner and a TV soap. They were killed in the same vehicle in which they reached Cama hospital, the scene of the second shooting. When I first heard about it and while talking to a friend, we wondered what the three most senior officers were doing travelling together ... couldn't they have sent others in... couldn't they have taken different vehicles for safety? In the first few hours of 26/11 when this news filterted in, my friend wondered if these three officers were trying to be heroes. In the light of all the facts and now knowing their backgrounds. ..... I feel humbled and ashamed at my armchair analysis... I did not deserve to be questioning their actions or judgements .... I just don't belong in their league... they were just so much better than me. As for my friend, he realises as well now ... they were not trying to be Heroes ... they already were Heroes, based on the choices they had made in their lives. Choices they knew would never bring them money or glory, just satisfaction of having believed and acted on what they *felt* was honourable.

They may have made an error of judgement that fateful night, but they reacted as they knew they should.... with bravery.

At last.... someone has woken up

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/media-may-be-restricted-from-live-coverage-in-emergency/79656-3.html