A day that has two noons - Sachin

This is the cricketing career of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Twenty years long career that will forever remain a bible not only to the cricketing fraternity but also to every individual who seeks excellence and strives to stay at the scaled heights with all his heart. His life is a source of inspiration for the youth. He is God for all those who respect their profession, love every moment on their job and try and dedicate their lives to work. His approach to cricket is worth emulating in every profession. The was he handles commendation and criticism is a lesson that has to be taught in every college.
The ageless wonder, the little master has been doing the impossible all these 20 years. Thirty thousand runs in the international cricket, 90+ centuries in both the forms of game and a 200 in the shorter form of the game at an age of 37. At an age when most of the cricketers struggle to keep fit, this maestro has batted for full fifty overs and scampered like a hare in his 190s. Sachin's career graph has two plateaus and two peaks.Forget about the peaks, the plateau lines itself pass through the peak points of some of the best all time cricketers in the world. The first plateau began in 1989 and ascended a peak after 9 years in 1998. Sachin has scored 9 ODI centuries in this year alone and recorded 3 test centuries during this season. If you look closely most of the one day openers spent all their careers to score 9 centuries. That is the peak I am talking about. This was the first noon of Tendulkar. He tore the opposition down, scored back to back centuries at Sharjah against the deemed and feared Australian attack. In 1998 every time Sachin went out to bat it was a rain of runs, fours and sixes. He sent the ball rolling and flying all over the park. If he got out, he got out scoring.
In the following years he descended the peak and returned to his usual best to remain there till the year end of 2003. In the 2003 world cup he scored the highest number in runs. From 2003 to 2005 it could be described as shadow period by Tendulkar's standard but this shadow was bright enough to make a cricketing career for some batsman. Then comes begins 2009 and the tiger has matured to kill the prey with a single blow. He walked out to score hundreds. He hit them at will and wish. He started scaling yet another peak. The second noon of this son of India. In the past 12 months he has scored 3 out of his 4 highest scores. In the last 4 tests he has scored 4 centuries and more is just to come. I do not know what is running in Sachin's mind. But, I would wish and hope India wins the 2011 world cup, before this sunsets on the cricket ground.

What Alan Donald said about Sachin

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At Chilka - Part 2 ( last )

... I knew this will probably be my only trip to Chilka. I wanted to see what it mattered the most. I wanted to see how this lake merges into the sea and changes its tender,delicate watery dance into a lively,aggressive jump and dive of tidal rhythm. I decided to walk the shores of the island. It would be a long, heavy walk on this beach sand but it did not daunt me. I wanted to reach the tip of the island "The Sangam" before it was sunset but I could not hurry with my pace as I had company.
We started our walk to see the lake-sea confluence. I walked close to the waters to see how the character of the lake changed. The tender ripples in the green waters, which,earlier, settled for kiss of the banks, now, asked for more. Half way down, the once gentle ripples metamorphosed into puissant currents and started the touch and go game. Each time these currents touched the shores, they teased the shores to follow their trail into the apple green waters. But the shores wouldn't. Close to the tip, having failed with the taunts and entreats, the currents assumed the form of of waves and came ashore. They flattened the sands and etched their memories on those defiant shores, only to be dried to permanence by the sea breeze.
At last, I reached the tip of the island before the sun sank and left those sands.
Here, the sea swallowed the green lake into its azure vastness. The dying twilight bathed the no-longer-green waters in orange hues. The waves basked and roared in this golden glow.And, these waves are what the waves are meant to be. They jumped high into air and dug into the shores with a thunder clap and formed huge dunes facing the sea. I had to descend a meter high dune to get my ankles wet in the Bay of Bengal. Never mind I did it. It was close to sunset and I had the whole sea before my eyes. This was not the first time I had seen sea, or Bay of Bengal as a matter of fact. But I felt something for the first time - I felt my heart to be empty. I had nothing before me. The tip where I stood was the present, the sand I walked was my lovely past. The future laid unknown and enigmatic as that blue sea. The azure on earth before my eyes was empty without a visible speck of life on it. Not a ship, not even a bird was there. Could be that aquatic life laid camouflaged in its blue belly. But to a naked eye it was a blank unending eternity with blurred horizon in fading light.
For an hour and half I was riding the crest of my life and was waiting to see the Bay gulp the lake. When I reached the tip, my intended destination, life seemed empty in the aftermath of success. I did not know what I wanted to do after reaching the sea-lake confluence. But I knew one thing, I wanted to be there again in all the hovering improbability, because I wanted to feel empty again.I wanted to hit the ebbs and lows of emptiness. I wanted to feel my emotions drain into those blues just as the green waters did. I wanted the sunset to silence my pounding heart for a brief moment. A moment in which I could spend a lifetime.
When you strike a guitar chord, it vibrates, it moves left and right. In its moves the chord breaks off all the dust that settled on it and finally returns to where it belongs and waits for another of such movements. My soul is like that. It bears the millstone weight of emotions and when struck by a musical note or a nostalgic whiff, it rides the crest, hits the ebb, dumps the load and returns to where it belongs refreshingly empty, of course only to wait unconsciously for the chords to be struck once again.

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A ride on Chilka lake - Part1

Most might consider this post and the next as ravings of a nostalgia maniac. However, I will still try and evoke emotions from the past.
Now I am all set to talk about the ride of my life – the most memorable 3 hours of my life. These 3 hours, even in the autumn of my life and twilight of my day will remain fresh in my memory. Every then, when I hear pleasant notes played on a musical instrument; every then, when I smell the sun baked summer earth sizzling at the caressing first monsoon drops; every then, when my hand feels the dew wet petals of a tender rose on a quiet foggy winter morning, every then those three hours flash and play back, vividly -though for a split second, in my mind. This was the ride on the lake Chilka. At this point if you jump to a conclusion that it was a romantic ride with my girlfriend then you have grossly mistaken, though she was with me. It was not her nor was it any of my friends on the boat. Though I journeyed on the same boat as they did and visited the same place as they did, my thoughts transcended the human planes. I transcended the three dimensions of human life and entered the fourth dimension of time - a dimension of constant flux if you are outside it and a thought arresting dimension if you enter it. I entered this dimension to preserve my thoughts and emotions that were engendered in this ride, forever and ever.
It was afternoon of Diwali in 2007. I was in Bhubhaneswar for my initial training with TCS. Now, when I close my eyes for a brief moment, I see a motor boat anchored to the embankment on the lake Chilka. The motor kicked to life as soon as the last of us left the ground for the boat. I occupied one of the benches parallel to the sides of boat.A quarter of an hour into the boat ride, I changed my seating location to the gunwale of the boat to let my legs feel the lake waters. I could also feel the bright sun warm on my back. It was water in every direction as far as I could see. I hear people gossip, play a silly game and entertain themselves in whatever manner they could, on this boat. I felt a sudden surge in my heart. I know it is all blood and adrenaline that has got on to me. And, I also know that blood in my heart has hit a frequency to etch something permanently in my heart. That is how bonds are formed with me.
The blue seas that do not have a trace of green on them, the wild seas that jump up and down to swallow anything at the slightest of hints are one thing and these placid lakes with interspersed greenery in and around them are another. My eyes see the sun bathed golden lake waters and floating sparse green vegetation. These serene lake waters are there to carry my weight without a wince or retort. These waters are there to rejoice in my joy and to titillate my soul with unknown emotions.
The lake ripples like a delicate creeper in cool evening breeze. It is a dancing maiden’s waist whose movements go uncaught at the blink of an eye. Now I understand why poets compare sea to a man and lake with a lady. Sea is a savage. It is aggressive and querulous. It is open and warns you of its true character. But lake is slow, serene and surreptitious. The placid superficial veneer of a lake hides the powerful undercurrents. I watch this watery dance and wonder its magnificence till I reach the island, the place where Chilka flows into the sea. On reaching the island most of my fellow troopers settled for coconuts and prawns. But I knew what I wanted. I knew this was my …. To continued in the next post

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A race with the dawn

On Saturday evening, Feb 20th I have decided to capture the daybreak at the bay with my new Canon A1100 IS camera. I noted the Sunday sunrise time to be at 6:29 a.m IST and set my alarm to 5:00 a.m. It is usually unusual that I plan to get up so early. Even if I plan, I fail 90% of the times unless and until my parents are around.And, today the chances of me not waking up doubled as I went to bed as late as 1:00 a.m yesterday.
The alarm cuckooed at 5:00 a.m. Half asleep and with contracted pupils I took a look at my cell phone - the source of the sound. Involuntarily my hands responded to silence the sound and I fell asleep again. But, you know when you are really determined about a thing, it haunts your subconscious - asleep or awake, alive or dead. This thing( to reach the beach before daybreak) in me took 45 minutes to fight my sleep and at about 5:45 a.m forced my eyes to open. I got up at 5:48 precisely, went through the required ablutions and got on to my bike with camera tightly tucked in a turkey napkin, which was tightly packed into a camera bag and which in turn went into a backpack- safety purpose, my cam is hardly a month old baby.
It was 6:05 before I hit the road and all I had was 15 minutes. The coast I planned to reach is along Thiruvanmiyur which is 22 km away from my place. 22km in 15 minutes is a improbable equation, while I was musing thus a realization dawned upon me that made me feel stupid. I could go to beach on ECR which is some 10 km nearer and is as pristine as I wanted a beach to be. To reach ECR, I had to go straight from Sholingnallur junction instead of taking a left turn here.
With this realization I headed for ECR at my top speed.
The connecting road from Sholingnallur to ECR a 4 KM drive is a real pleasant drive. A six lane wide road which goes up a small mount and smoothly descends towards the beach. The road would have been even better if it offered a direct sea view, but phew not so lucky. Nevertheless I liked the road and crows did share the same view. Why I say crows and exclude all other avian species is I see only crows squatting in the middle of the road. It could be pollution or it could be any other factor that made other species stay away.However, I get to disturb the tranquility of crows alone. At the sight of my bike approaching them, the murder of crows flew away. The instance reminds me of pigeons leaving their green ground at the sight of an approaching cricket ball in Lords cricket stadium. After a 2 minute drive along this 4 KM stretch, I reached the the ECR road. It was only once I had been to this beach and had to stop over, briefly, to inquire the directions to the shore. I got the directions from early customers of a tea shop in the ECR junction and sped away to the shore. It was 6:20 when I reached the beach. I hurriedly got down the bike, loaded the camera with batteries and off I went to capture the dawn.
Find those pictures in the below post. Happy daybreak !!

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Sunday Sunrise @ Chennai ECR

Click on image for full view

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On Valentine; For Valentine

Three Cheers on this Valentine
Which cheer is for the day,
and which is for my girl.
Which cheer is for my girl,
and which is for the day.

Read on, you will know...

I saw a damsel with a radiant face,
and gazed at her if just in case.
She went ahead at a gentle pace
leaving in my heart an empty space.

The crescent moon hides away,
to see the beauty amidst the way.
The sun tries to bar the way ,
her brilliance clears it all away.

The moon over there craves for a glance at her.
The sun is here for a glimpse of her.
There they starve for her gracious presence
Here I am for the eternal essence.

Her lips resemble petals of rose
that shattered me from head to toes
Her un-knotted hair flows so wild,
just as petals in breeze so mild.

Her face is cheese and creamy white,
her smothered smile makes it a delight.
Her dreamy looks took me beguile
And lo! before I realize she is ahead a mile.

She made her presence felt,
so I searched for the place she dwelt.
Startled was I for what I smelt
for I whiffed the dreams that melt.

Oh! Rippled the dream,
Morning was the stone in this stream
Since, morning had been a ghastly nightmare.
and my life was a wait for the sweet nightly air.

I woke up from dream, every morning of the year,
in wake of loss, in shiver of pain and fear.
But the day I told you, I love you
this was no dream but very much real and very much you.

Now, I see you my valentine, every day, every night.
Now, I have you my valentine, every day, every night.
I adore you and this day Oh! Saint Valentine,
for, on this day I made this girl my life time valentine

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Peace is for sale...

Today, when I went to our regular dining haunt, I happened to see this pamphlet which said:
Fish Available
1 Peace - 30.00
As soon as my eyes rolled across the laser jet ink words, a crazy notion entered my head and the following is the result of it.

If peace is for sale,
who are the buyers.
Even, if peace is for free,
who are the takers.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the strong,
to let live the weak.
It would cost the rich,
to let alone the poor.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the man,
to let live the dumb,
it would cost today,
to leave something for tomorrow.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the loath,
its very own soul.
It would cost the revenge,
it very own pride.

Peace would not need nothing,
it would need the man,
to curb his greed.
It would need the man,
to end war for peace.

Peace is for sale,
trade it for wars.
And, peace is for free,
if you welcome these costs.

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Love and Hatred

Most know not what it is to love,
for never they tasted bitter of loath.
A few in the past did taste it,
and penned their vengeance for it.

Hatred stands strong and tall,
between man and man, and heaven and man.
Love is a cleft in the wall,
a hope to heaven for all and man.

From the human world till this wall and cove,
the path is the least walked upon ,
for not it is route of roses ,
but a bed of thorns till infinity on.

Those lured by the heavenly grove,
did walk and bear thorn and woe.
Reach did them the grove of love and dove.
And, stay still them, where we would not go.

I read those, who made it there,
into the heaven of peace and gay.
They say, “Allegories of peace everywhere,
truant were the signs of disgust and dismay”.

It was joy to read what they said,
And would be splendid to do what they did…,
But deprived and declined we are of this dream,
as coy are we to leave this human realm.

Need is for those who care not the fate.
Need is for those who can make the cleft a passing gate.
Need is for those who can fight the hatred vice.
And, need is for those who can unveil the paradise.

For man and beast and every mole,
for those who dream the lovely garden,
but cannot stand the foe and woe with their soul,
let them clear this path, the one scarcely trodden.

Let them break the hatred bind,
Let them form the human bond
Let their pluck light coward and blind,
Let them help all see the paradise beyond.

Honey is found in flowers alone,
love is present every around.
Tender hearts and noble souls can alone
dream and dare world to be bound

Love not anything except beloved.
Hate not anything except hatred.
Beloved is everyone to someone or the other.
Condemned is everyone by the one or the other.

Hatred makes hell of life,
Love carves heaven of it.

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