India Victorious

India wining the Border-Gavaskar trophy 4-0 was a proud moment for every cricket loving Indian fan, though I must confess I was startled, was it wishful thinking on my part or was it a sweet dream that every Indian would like to see come true? I had every reason to feel the same since India has never been so ruthless on the cricket field in recent times.

I was more than elated to see the men in blue annihilating the Aussies and their inflated egos. The Indian juggernaut was too much for the Aussies to handle and they were blown to smithereens.

Indian team has always been the nemesis for the Aussies, be it in India or down under or elsewhere. Team India had out classed them on many occasions in recent past; Aussies always feel the heat when they play India in India and they called it the last frontier to be captured, which eventually they managed to, few years back, but we have been tormenting them time and again, compelling them to confess of getting night mares wherein they have been thrashed by Tendulkar or that India is the only team who can win against the invincible Aussies.

The current series was special for us since we manage to beat them 4-0, which has not happened for more than 4 decades in Australia’s cricketing history and the current Aussie team had to face this ignominy.

The thing to notice about the current Indian team was, they were ruthless and wanted to make it 4-0 once they won the 3^rd test. Earlier, Indian team used to get complacent after a series win and hand over a consolation win to the opposition, but not this time.

To add to the batting and bowling woes of the kangaroos, was the Mickey-Michael gate, which was a severe blow to the team which was low on morale and finding difficult to get a footing. Indians took good advantage of this fallout and butchered the depleted Aussie ranks.

Everyone in the Indian team contributed to this success, but some names call for special mention, R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara the rock in making, Captain Cool, the man with the Midas touch MSD, unlikely hero Jadeja and of course the new Delhi Daredevil Shikhar Dhawan.

Aussies displayed some sting and gumption in the last test under the captaincy of Shane Watson but they were blown away by the Indian blitzkrieg. They showed some form of their old aggression (???) sledging and hurling abuses at their Indian counterparts but to no avail.

In the end the best team won and Aussies had to bite the dust. With this ignominy the Aussie media tore them apart and stalwarts like Richie Benaud commented, henceforth before the start of match, involving Aussies, there will be a 2 min silence observed in remembrance of the death of Aussie cricket. This was indeed a telling statement.

It’s imperative for the Aussies to regroup and ready themselves for future challenges, for their old foe, England is waiting in wings to take them on in the ashes. The English should be happy at the current state of the Aussies and would fancy their chances in the forthcoming Ashes, but at the same time they should not be complacent for the battered and bruised Aussies might come back hard at them, with their pride at stake.

For team India lot of positives as the team is in transition phase, but let’s not jump the band wagon and declare the new Dravid’s, Ganguly’s and Laxman’s for they are big shoes to fill in.

The current lot needs to perform in foreign conditions where they will have to deal with fiery pacers on bouncy tracks, before they are called the mainstay of Indian lineup.

They have got the much needed impetus and they need to capitalize on it, wrest the initiative and take Indian cricket to new glories in years to come.

At the moment lets savor the Indian win to the fullest and wish them luck and success for the future.

Men in Blue here they come…

Happiness Decoded

It was a beautiful morning, bright sunshine, cool breeze, trees swaying in rhythm, the aroma of flowers intoxicating; it was surreal to say the least.

Raghav was pre-occupied with thoughts, torturing himself with endless chain of thoughts which otherwise were useless, thinking about them was not going to help him in any way, but he relentlessly continued with the ordeal, almost tiring himself and inducing nervousness and depression. At one moment he tried running away from them but in vain.

That entire day was wasted in cribbing for various reasons, bad traffic, boss’s whims, not getting enough hike, mundane life, the list was endless.

It was a beautiful evening sun was about to set, birds small and big were merrily chirping, flying back to their nests, there was slight chill in the weather, cool breeze blowing, out n out a beautiful evening worth enjoying.

Raghav’s mood was no different as compared to morning, he was complaining, cribbing, and sulking. He vented his frustration on his family, making the entire atmosphere gloomy.

Day 2

It was a beautiful day again, cool breeze, bright sunshine, everything about it was invigorating, but Raghav being a hardcore pessimist was in no mood to enjoy nature’s gift to him, and he continued with his barrage of complaints perennially. He was not happy with the mundane life that he was leading, and was yearning to achieve more success, money, power….

The same old story of pessimism, anger, frustration continued for many days to come making him an epitome of negativity and cynicism.

Don’t we do the same thing again and again? Complain about trivial things, this is not good, this is worst and not going to get any better, we simply continue with our tirade no matter what. This has become our nature, and we have allowed our mind to drift apart and not notice small things in our life which bring joy to us.

One day the worst thing happened, Raghav fell ill and was bed ridden for next few weeks owing to bad health, thus adding to his woes and pain. He couldn’t do anything but rest. He was desperate to recover and get going, at that very moment, he felt the need to be fit and do work as usual, he was longing for the mundane lifestyle which he otherwise hated and cribbed about.

He did not think about the bad traffic, pay hike, boss’s behavior or any other thing that he always thought, and which allowed negativity to creep in. He was just eager to get rid of this illness and start his work as regular as he can.

To every body’s surprise this illness brought about a positive change in him almost immediately. He repented for not enjoying the wonderful day to day simple moments that were in store for him, instead he plunged himself in doom by cribbing, complaining all the time. He realized that his life was smooth enough and there was nothing to complain about. He corrected the mistake almost immediately and started enjoying his work, the surroundings. He would spend some time in the office garden inhaling the aroma of the flowers, the trees; he started taking adversities in his stride and not complain, he had a benevolent attitude towards his colleagues and was joyous all the time. He would spend time waiting at a playground while returning home where kids would play whole heartedly. He would spend quality time with his family and enjoy every moment. He derived happiness from these moments and he thanked almighty for this change. His outlook towards life completely changed from being negative to positive. He started looking at the adversities as a challenge instead of cribbing and complaining. He was full of optimism now and started believing in “there is no better emotion than optimism”

We all have some percentage of Raghav in us. We crib all the time about various things time and again forgetting to enjoy simple moments in life which come our way. In doing so we are robbing ourselves of positive energy and feel good factor, which are very important in our hectic and stressful lives. Its human behavior to feel sorry for things when we don’t have them, and when we have them we overlook them, waste our energies in crying, complaining over other trivial things.

Let’s not crib and complain about things, instead let’s enjoy the moments, be it spent with our families, friends, colleagues or nature, having said that lets not stop ourselves from thinking big in terms of our careers, aspirations, but at the same time enjoy the moments fully without getting bogged down by surrounding things.

One of renowned Marathi writer N C Phadke said; let’s not lose the child in us under the burden of being an adult. Let’s bring out the child in us whenever possible, this is going to make our life beautiful and pleasurable.

Let’s forget all the worries, concerns and spend some time to stare at the sky, trees, birds and all that nature has to offer. These small things will do world of good to our life, and give courage, confidence, and peace of mind to achieve higher goals and be successful.

So what are you waiting for, throw all your worries, complains out of the window and soak yourself in joys of life, unleash the positive person in you and get ready for a joy ride.