The Future of Cricket:Are the standards declining?

Cricket was, for a long time, primarily a leisure sport and a thoroughly gentleman’s game which was played in the spacious lawns in England. However, with the colonial rulers it has reached to all parts of the globe and turned out to be more and more commercial over the years. Perhaps no other game had so much of literature and science built into it.

Cricket has occupied the mind space of so many Asians that, people virtually breathe cricket. It is no joke that when two young men are asked about their favorite time pass on any holiday, they would prefer watching cricket on television rather than watching a Bollywood movie. In India, cricket stars are Divas and the public carefully scrutinizes all their actions.

For some important matches, people apply leave from their office duty, business establishments shut their doors early and the usually crowded streets become empty as most of the people sit at home glued to their T.V sets. Such popularity of the game has more to do with the desire of the people to find an easy escape from the daily monotony and troubles. So from the early seventies it has gathered momentum and with the Historic world cup win in 1983, cricket has finally replaced Hockey as the favorite sport of the Indians. Similarly, with the wins by Pakistan in 1992 and Sri Lanka in 1996, these Asian nations were gripped with cricket fever.

With time, cricket shed the leaning towards England-Australia axis and became more of a global sport. The consequence was that it led to proliferation of matches, introduction of new versions like twenty-twenty and modification of existing rules and inventing of new ones (which were a mixture of silly and very wise). Thus, those cricket boards in countries with large populations became rich and strangulated other cricketing boards into accepting their new ways of thinking. In the melee cricket lost its quality, poise and charm.
Decline of Caribbean cricket: -Since 1950s West Indies developed itself into a force to reckon with and by late seventies it became virtually an unstoppable one. It had a battery of fast, furious and intimidating bowlers and classy, bludgeoning and hard-hitting batsmen. The fielders were also agile and fleet footed. There was good team spirit and the captain was always considered numero uno and there was a perfect succession planning. All these resulted into the building of a powerful team that could not be grudged in public by the opposition players for the fear of intimidating bowling against them!

The Caribbean batsmen were perfect players against spin and pace alike. For the spinners they used their feet well by dancing down the track and lifting them continuously into the stands for sixes so that the opposition skippers were forced to fill their team with seam bowlers but they proved to be mincemeat as the Caribbean batsmen were adept at horizontal bat shots. However as the proverb says” all things are born only to perish after sometime”, Caribbean cricket reached its peak in 1988 and the decline started from then onwards with the retirement of players like Richards, Haynes, Greenidge, Marshall, Holding, Roberts.

Lack of supply of good players from the stables of the domestic cricket due to diversion of interest of younger generation from cricket to other sports like football, volley ball and a general shift in social conditions culminated in the decline of cricket and its decimation. The present team is a pale shadow of its former self as there is no fast bowler who can bowl more than 135kmph(in those days at 135kmph, he was considered to be the slowest of the fast bowlers and the opposing batsmen could have heaved a sigh of relief on seeing him with the ball in his hand) and no batsmen who can score more than one century in a series.

In its hay days the closest that any team could reach the Caribbean team was the Aussies under Greg Chappell and even that team used to manage consolation victories like a 1- 4 win. There was no rotation policy and match after match the fast bowlers pounded the batsmen with fast short pitched deliveries. Now- a- days, the scene has reversed and the teams all over the world hand over a consolation win to the Windies .It will take a miracle to replicate the team of 1980s.

Change in social conditions: - Zimbabwe became a test-playing nation in early 1990s.Before that it brought down on to the carpet teams like Australia, England and India in one-day matches. There were excellent players like Traicos, Kevin Curren, and David Houghton in the initial days and Heath streak, Flower brothers-Andy and Grant, Murray Goodwin, Neil Johnson, Henry Olonga etc in the modern days. However due to a sudden change in social and political conditions, some good cricketers have either retired prematurely or emigrated from Zimbabwe leaving the team in tatters. From being the dark horses they have now become the underdogs and the most promising test playing nation of the early 1990s with some exciting hitters and great fielders is slowly becoming a nondescript one.

Possibility of retirement of great players in Indian sub-continent in the near future: - The fabulous five of the Indian cricket, Sachin, Rahul, Sourav, Laxman and Kumble are in the fag end of their career. Though some possible replacements are being made ready it remains to be seen how they will adjust to the demands of stardom and excessive cricket. Stuck with nostalgia of these fabulous five, people may not show that much of interest until another crop of youngsters take center-stage and lack of patronage may be reason for the possibility of decline. This might already be happening in Pakistan with the retirement of Inzamam-ul-haq, Shahid Afridi, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and in Sri Lanka with the retirement of players like Jayasuria, Attapattu and the gradual decline of skill of Vaas and the inability of the new comers to grab the chances. If people do not throng to grounds in the same numbers as in the past, then it will be difficult to sustain the show.

Too much of cricket: - In the modern days teams in general play 12 tests, 30-40 one days and 30-45 twenty-twenty cricket in a year. All these lead to wear and tear to cricketers and overdose of entertainment to the spectators. The example of Dhoni taking rest from the Sri Lanka series was ample proof to this phenomenon. No rotation policy can restore the lost pride and spectators cannot fathom losses with ‘B’ Grade teams.

So the administrative heads should pool up their talents and see that cricket retains its charm forever without loosing out to football and other sports. They should also launch talent schools in Windies and Zimbabwe to help them retain the old glory and see that good players do not retire prematurely due to petty disputes. Better regulation of the cricket matches by the authorities to retain the spectator interest and unity among cricketing bodies and cricketers is the need of the hour.

Virender Sehwag:The New Run Machine of Indian cricket

Ever since the famed Indian middle order started showing signs of ageing and wear and tear, Indian cricket team required for some one to take up the responsibility of not only shielding them but also to slap the opponents’ bowling attack right from the word Go .It is really fortunate that Indian cricket could unearth a cricketer of the caliber of Virender Sehwag, who can not only make the best bowlers look ordinary but also blunt the attack for long duration and at a blistering pace.
Initial years: In the beginning, it appeared as if Virender Sehwag’s breezy style of batting would not be able to sustain against quality bowling attacks. When he made his debut in the one-day internationals in 1998 in the Hero Honda Cup in India against a new look Pakistan and an up coming Bangladesh, memories of failures of aggressive and hard hitting stroke players like Atul Bedade and Amay Khurasia were fresh. Fortunately for the team, unlike those two players, Sehwag was very young and had a powerful state cricket association to back his talent. His gait resembled little master, Sachin Tendulkar. He had a range of strokes similar to his illustrious opening partner like cover drive, straight drive and flick of the wrists. After grinding teams like Sri Lanka and England at home from 1999 to 2001 in one day internationals, he made his debut against South Africa in 2002.With a century on debut, it turned out to be wonderful debut although he was unfairly suspended for one match for excessive appealing. Very soon, it became clear that he was not a “rag picker” type of player, but a batsman to watch and fear for the opponents. Purists decried his batting technique because of absence of feat movement at the time of stroking the ball, whereas the connoisseurs heaped praise on his bat speed and incredible hand and eye co-ordination.
Boy turns into a man: After a reasonably successful world cup in 2003 in South Africa and graduating from one day cricket to test cricket, all eyes were on him when India toured Pakistan in an ice-breaking tour in 2004.In the Multan test, he slammed a triple century (309) and above all showed his selflessness with a six from 294 to 300.He could have easily surpassed Lara’s record of 400 on that day but for the fatigue and team’s cause of quick run making. As of now it appears that, he is the most potent threat to Lara’s world record and may be even to Sachin’s record of maximum centuries. He repeated the act of scoring a triple century again in 2007 and scored another big hundred (254) in Faisalabad. His 15 test centuries so far are an ample proof of his maturity into a fine test batsman from a swashbuckling, reckless and frenzied style of batting of the young blood of initial years.
101s of his career so far: His greatest asset is that he does not actually need a partner to take the team to safety and scores runs almost like a one man army, as his latest unbeaten double century against the marauding Lankan spinners proved. His strength is also his Weakness. Any slight and momentary dip in his prowess of hand and eye co-ordination due to various reasons, has proved to be fatal on occasions and teams need not have to plan for plotting against his weaknesses and this is the main reason for his going into wilderness for a brief while in 2006-07.Fortunately for him the twenty-twenty world cup and Australian test series in 2007 resurrected his career, although it appeared that, he started to increasingly like the open spaces in the field in test matches than the crowded field placing during the power play phases of one day cricket. For a bowler of his caliber, he is either being under- bowled or shielded from fatigue by his captains. He is an excellent close-in fielder and has a sharp throwing arm.
Possibilities in future: After the arrival of Matthew Hayden into the Australian team and his huge success, all the major teams have started to groom run machines like him. So the future definitely belongs to run machines like Kevin Pietersen of England, Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and Virender Sehwag of India. He is a serious competitor to M.S.Dhoni for the captaincy. If he does not slow down as his age progresses and continues with carefree approach at the crease, it will be a delight to watch for the spectators and a scourge for the bowlers. It will be an interesting sight to watch his battles in future against up coming stars like Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka, Stuart Broad of England, Mitchell Johnson of Australia, Umar Gul of Pakistan and Daniel Vettori of New Zealand and he is most likely to succeed. Experts will study at close quarters his strengths like bat speed and try to find out how he acquired that incredible hand and eye co-ordination just as Murlidharan’s Doosra was researched and discovered to be due to his unusual double wrist. Until such time, viewers will enjoy the unique combination of oriental charm and elegance and brute force of Sehwag’s bat. So let all the cricket lovers hail the arrival of the new run machine of Indian cricket and wish for the continued brilliance in future.

Down the Memory lane

Every child in the eight to fourteen age groups develops a passion towards sports, arts, movies or some other hobbies. So it is important for parents to monitor closely their child’s interests and to see that they do not turn into obsessions and thus damage their academic careers. Now-a- days viewing of cricket matches continuously on the Television and watching movies in the theatres is the single-most significant reason for a child’s drop in grade in the exams.
Negative aspects of the passion of cricket:-
I remember pretty well my childhood days, when as a young boy of nine years, I was extremely fascinated with cricket and aped the bowling action of my favorite hero, Kapil Dev, whenever I was playing with my friends and on occasions, even when I was not playing and simply loitering in the verandah of my house. I and my friends not only followed the test matches very closely but also went into lengthy discussions, about the various aspects of the day’s play like why the captain did not open the bowling with one particular bowler and what would have happened had one particular batsmen been sent one spot up in the batting order etc. Eventually we used to forget that there was an examination in our school the next day. Those were the days (early eighties), when there was no television and we had to depend on the radio to enjoy the live action and the occasional chance we had of seeing the test match in action was when we went to a movie and a trial part was shown, (before the commencing of the feature film), which consisted of the action that took place in a just concluded test series.
For most of us, whenever the cricket series and examinations coincided, our performance at the examinations dipped. We were able to tell very easily the itenary of the Indian cricket team but were not so convincing with regard to rendition of formulae in Mathematics. It was an altogether different matter that when there was no cricket match around we were able to finish our exams with aplomb.
Positive aspects of the passion of cricket:-
1) Notwithstanding the negative side, there were some positive aspects of this passion also. Most prominently we became very adept in Geography and especially when it came to pointing out some important places on the map in our social studies examination like Melbourne, Perth, Kingston, Manchester etc. We even remembered other important things about these places the names of the rivers on whose banks these places were situated, the important products from these places etc. Thus we were ahead of the students who did not have any specific interest in cricket.
2) By listening to the cricket commentaries by the famous commentators like Christopher Martin Jenkins, Brian Johnston, Tony Cozier, Ananth Sethalvad, and our command over English language grew by leaps and bounds.
3) Whenever there was a school vacation or a holiday, we played the game with great intensity and rigor and thus most of us became very muscular and healthy when compared to those who had little or no interest in the game.

Our Moment of truth about the passions:-
As years rolled by and as we were passing through our teens, some of us gradually realized that these passions (Sports and movies) were fast turning into obsessions and our academic lives were getting swallowed by them and that we should limit ourselves to watching the one-day matches on the television and watch only those movies which have run for at least one month. The rest of our friends who could not control themselves failed to perform in the exams. Thus many a promising career got nipped in the bud as they could neither flourish in cricket nor in their academic lives.
Disturbing trend of increase in number of cricket matches:-
Taking aforesaid matters into consideration, I became extremely disturbed on seeing the number of test matches, one-day matches and twenty-twenty matches that are scheduled to be played by the Indian cricket team in the ensuing calendar year and up to April 08. It is no secret that young people love cricket to the craziest extent possible and there were many occasions when the colleges and schools were found to be empty on the days of cricket matches.
Passion for watching the movies:-
As it can be seen from the above that, while some useful information can be drawn from the passion towards cricket, with the case of watching movies nothing important can be obtained. On the top of it, as most of the modern movies preach violence as solution to the problems in the society and also teach the teenagers the methods to engage in love at a younger age, there is a great danger that there is a possibility of the youth getting consumed with these imaginary solutions and temporary happiness.
Some remedies:-
It is now pertinent that all the people concerned evolve sufficient precautionary measures to see that these young people will be able to enjoy cricket, watch movies and perform well at the exams. Any evolution or revolution should start from home and then only it can flourish in the streets. So the parents on their part should
1) Make their children grasp the difference between the concepts of relaxation and entertainment.
2) Make their children become aware of the importance of academics and harness only the finer aspects of the sports in bettering their performance in the academics.
3) Restrict the children to watch the television only when those serials which are informative are being played.
Similarly the administrators of the sport and the producers of the movies should
1) Limit the number of test matches in a year to eight, one-day matches to ten and twenty-twenty matches to one tournament.
2) Limit the number of films in a year to a maximum of 60.
3) See that all the matches and films do not clash with the examination schedule of the students.

Today’s children are the future of tomorrow. So everyone should see that the commercialization of the sport and films should not become a bane for the Youth of the country.

Modern day parents: Are they too flexible or rigid?

It can now be safely assumed that the average age of the population in India is 35 years and now-a-days, due to several reasons like acquiring a minimum guarantee in life due to changes in economic situation and the job opportunities, most males and females do not prefer to get married until they crossed 30 years of age. The situation up to early nineties was a bit different. There were jobs in the offing in the Public sector undertakings and Government and marriages in the age group of 28-30 years were considered to be late marriages.

There has been a sea change in the attitude of newly wed couples towards becoming parents.
After marrying in the mid-thirties some couples are planning the parent hood. They are delaying the conception by two to three years because they argue that providing all sorts of stability to the new born is their motto. However old timers are rightly pointing out (more on the basis of assumption rather than on any scientific reason) that, these attitudes are the main reason for the couples finally turning out to be childless or the children born to the couples in the late thirties acquiring some congenital diseases and other life style diseases like diabetes. However, there is very little that the population can do on these aspects because, though the economic situation and the employment opportunities are finitely linked to each other, the policy matters are driven by the globalised environment and the wisdom lies in adjusting to the new environment and doing things correctly.

Due to the fact that both husband and wife are working is making miserable, the lives of the couples as well as their kids in some cases (where there is no proper support) and cozy in the rest of the cases (due to improved economic condition). In the modern times most of the Indian youth are employed in software, management and marketing sectors. The significant attribute of these three professions is that they demand long working hours and sometimes late night shifts also. These cause a detrimental effect on the day time behaviour of both sexes and their attitude towards welfare of their children. Some jocularly complain that it has been years since they last had a comfortable eight hour sleep at night. Most of them have forgotten how to relax as they left behind their favorite passions like painting, music or just playing a game of shuttle. Due to the mad rush in life it appears that even if one of the parent attempts to rekindle these passions, there will be heartburn for the other partner because the responsibility of the kid will fall entirely on her or him. Hence the parents should readily acknowledge that there should be an elbow space for relaxation in each others’ lives and should not attempt to spoil that. Therefore better understanding is the need of the hour.

The solution to this problem is that the Indian youth should try to develop better societal relations. Thus they should interact more with their neighbors and seek assistance from their parents and other family members and see that they maintain clean family relations. Then only they can carry forward their lives as well as those of their kids smoothly. Thus for a successful parenthood one should invariably follow the basic principle that” simple things should be done correctly and prioritization is the key.”


The immediate impact on the change in the attitudes of the parents: - Upon a discerning study of the new trends among the modern day parents with a wealthy background, it may be observed that there is little caning of children, more liberalized outlook, more space for freedom to the adolescent children, more exposure to new version of electronic gadgets and in some cases, extreme care bordering on obsession. Thus more and more children are getting accustomed to cozy and comfortable life and almost to the verge of not knowing the other side of the coin. This explains for the increase in adolescent crimes and perverted outlooks. On the other hand, the middle class parents are hell bent on seeing their children becoming successful in their academic life and therefore willing to spend whatever money is available at their disposable and on occasions they are not stepping back to take big and fat loans to the extent of becoming paupers. Thus it appears wealthy people are spending recklessly on their children and middle class parents are becoming debtors mindlessly. Lastly coming to the parents belonging to the lower strata of the society, it appears they are the real hard working people and the backbone of the country as they toil hard on the construction sites, garages, agriculturists and offer services to the first two sections of the society. However they are unable to provide anything substantial to their children because of high cost of nutritious products, inability to be away from vices and high mortality rates .Thus one can find most of their children attending government schools and colleges and petering out into oblivion or becoming real life heroes by sheer hard work.

A Journey to Wisdom: A story on marriage and morality

Prakash was retired defense service personnel who worked as an Airman. He retired at the age of 33 after serving a fifteen year bond. While in service; he pursued his academic interests and completed A.M.I.E. degree and developed software skills also. Thus he could land in Software Company immediately after his retirement. While in service, his daily routine included going to the office and staying back in his quarter after the office hours. He never ventured out and had no one to visit. Thus he remained aloof. In a way he did not know much of the world outside. Therefore he did not get married and did not feel the urge also. Once he was into the software company, he noticed that the world around him was different. There were young people around him and a lot of “socializing” was taking place. At the end of the day, he felt like an odd man out. So he gave his details in the classifieds section of a paper stating his preferences to get married and immediately there was a call from one of them but they asked him to visit them within two days for preliminary discussions. He rushed to the station in the evening and jumped into a heavily packed reservation compartment of a moving train. As the T.T.E got into the compartment, there was a lot of scuffle among the passengers and fortunately for him most of them alighted in the nearby station as they were daily commuters. Prakash noticed that the T.T.E was very accommodative as he allowed him to occupy the T.T.E’s seat for the time being after he showed his identity card which informed about his status as an ex-service man. In the nearby seat he noticed that there was a teenaged pair. He called the boy aside and asked where they were going. The boy replied “I do not know”. Prakash was surprised. Upon further enquiry the teenager whose name was Joseph, replied that he was eloping with his girl friend Padma, as both their families were against their love and they arranged a marriage to Padma.” Don’t you think you are doing wrong?” asked Prakash To this question Joseph took a big lecture on the joy of falling in love and the bliss and finally quipped ”Sir it appears you have never fallen in love”. Prakash felt stung and was left pondering whether he lived his life correctly or not and did not prioritize properly. In the next station, the families of both the teenagers came jostling into the compartment and whisked them away along with them. In the next station a couple boarded the train. From the hindsight it appeared that they were like an aunt and her nephew. They asked Prakash whether he could accommodate them. Prakash agreed because he himself was sitting on a borrowed seat. Slowly he noticed that the young man was making ugly overtures to the woman and was also trying to make indecent contacts in the dim light. The woman was also secretively responding. Slowly he recognized that they were not aunt and her nephew and lovers with a lot of age gap between them. He started conversation with the man in a low voice and soon he came to know that both of them were married and are having different life partners and that, they were working in the same office and hence “savoring this indecent relationship”. Stunned with this reply, Prakash vacated his seat and adjusted in a nearby seat with a man in late twenties, who was talking continuously over the cell phone and telling all sorts of lies because when one man asked where he was at the moment, he was replying that he was in a cinema theatre. After adjusting in the cramped place, he overheard the conversation. The man first said” So when are you going to come” and with the loud speaker switched on the cell phone , pat came the reply from the voice of a lady saying” once I get a divorce from my husband” .To this, the man replied. ”No, I cannot wait until that time; I want you to come immediately”. The man argued and told her that he will be leaving to U.S within a week and could return only after three years. Then the lady replied that she will come once her husband leaves for a camp to Delhi next week. The man agreed with a lot of discomfort and in the mean time bargained for a “meeting with her” on the coming Monday. Prakash noticed that this is another fishy relationship and vacated that place also. Slowly he moved towards the door and he noticed that a girl was trying to jump out of the moving train. He dragged her back and counseled her and then enquired her about the reasons for resorting to such an extreme step. The girl replied that she was deceived by her husband as he developed a live-in relationship with his colleague in the call-centre. She replied that it is the second time in two years of their marriage that she was getting deceived by her husband. Finally, the T.T.E called Prakash and told him that seat no 72 is ready and therefore he can go to sleep. Prakash felt relieved and went to his allotted seat. Without wasting any time he fell asleep as a terrified man and got down at his destination the next morning. For some period of time he was alone on the platform and hence sat down on the bench. He made a phone call to the people he is supposed to meet and they replied that they would send a car in 15 minutes to pick him up. In this time, he reminisced the eventful previous night and got engulfed in emotions. His view about the present day society underwent a big shift and the ideals of the previous generation are submerged .He thought that if a sample of four cases that he came across in the train is any indication, then the morals in the society are definitely on the lower side. He felt as if he was gripped with a fear as to what kind of a lady he is going to come across now in his life. ”Are the women of now becoming more provocative? “ He said to himself. He further opined” without the active consent and indulgence of a woman no man can press forward to indecent relationship”. He also recollected how nice the T.T.E was and that good nature is still left in the world. Finally the car arrived and he got into it. The girl he was supposed to marry was seated in front of him in a traditional way. As he saw her, he was pleasantly surprised. She was none other than his colleague, Bharathi, in the office and his most ardent supporter on the views on morality that he expressed during the lunch recess amongst his colleagues and for which he was booed by some of them. Thus she planned a surprise for him. Soon after the whole event was over, he forgot the previous night’s journey and felt relieved that he was indeed a lucky man as he is going to get married to an equally virtuous lady and that too a person whom he knew pretty well for quite some time. Finally he said to himself “what you get is what you are”. 

The Second woman

Sailarajan was an employee in a government organization. His wife, Nancy, was a administrator in a local Government college. Sumit, 14 and Suraj, 12 were their sons. He had no problems or issues to be resolved and life was moving on smoothly for him. His daily routine included waking up late in the morning and getting ready to go to the office very lazily. That ate up most of his mornings but once into the office; he was a real thunder and lightening in finishing off his jobs as he had an amazing knowledge and grip over his job. He was a good table tennis and Tennikoit player and spent his evenings by relaxing with these two games. His wife was very co-operative and allowed him to pursue his interests .Every thing was in place for a peaceful life for him. At that particular juncture, a 34 year old Pamela joined into his office upon transfer from a different place.

Pamela had a rollercoaster life in the recent times. She had to move to several places in her job as her husband Anthony was transferred to several places in his job as an employee in Newspaper office. Of late he started suspecting her for silly things and even caned her for a simple reason of coming home late from the office without informing him. In fact he started getting addicted to vices like alcohol. Another surprising thing about their relationship was that they were lovers from their college days. They had two children- a son aged 14 and a daughter aged 12.She also had a strong feeling that her husband was moving closely with Nargis, an up coming journalist, but he strongly refuted that by saying that it was part of his job.

Pamela was in tears in her room in the office and was almost sleeping on her table. Sailarajan entered into her room, knocked the door and said “Hello Madam what is the reason and why are you sleeping like that in the peak of office hours? “ Perturbed by this intrusion, Pamela was very curt in her reply and said” Please mind your business and leave me alone”. Her husband had a wordy duel with her over phone because she expressed her unwillingness to pickup the children from the school in the evening as she argued that she had to attend staff meeting and he is relatively free. Sailarajan noticed that she was not sleeping but actually crying for some personal reason and hence had to be rightly left alone. Pamela thus had a bad first impression about Sailarajan and later on as days rolled by she noticed that it was his nature to be intrusive with regard to the affairs of his colleague to the extent of boring them.

The year end Tennikoit and table tennis tournaments were to take place and the pairings list of the contenders were announced. Sailarajan and Pamela were placed as one pair. They started practicing together and this allowed for the developing of a strange relationship between them.

Every evening, after the close of office hours Pamela came to him and before starting the practice, she started to tell him about her problems and her uneasy and dwindling relationship with her husband. At first Sailarajan counseled her to be patient and not to spoil her health. Later on, one day, Sailarajan’s friend, Harish walked up to him and said in a low whispering voice,” Hello friend.. What is happening between you and that lady every day in the evenings-Are you trying to start a second innings? Do not spoil the life of Sister-in-law and your kids. I heard Pamela was previously a family-wrecker and that is the reason why her husband gets angry with her frequently.” Sailarajan got stung by these seemingly jocular remarks and had wordy duel with his close pal for years. He announced that he would not desist from strengthening his relationship with Pamela at any cost.

Finally the tournaments arrived and Sailarajan reached the finals in the table tennis singles egged on by the friendly encouragement of Pamela and along with Pamela entered the finals in the tennikoit also. The office started murmuring about their relationships and several rumors started making rounds that both of them were staying back in the office even late in the night. Both of them did not take steps to curtail the rumors and slowly they reached their better-halves.

An already incensed Anthony threatened Pamela that he had enough of her. He said “I saw you coming on the bike of your colleague, Sailarajan and you were sitting horribly close to him.” “No” She Shouted and continued “You either need Spectacles urgently or trying to further and legitimize your friendship with Nargis by taking this as a ruse.” Anthony threw a steel rod at her and walked away by shouting at her that she would meet her only in the court and that too with divorce papers. She wished him best of luck.

At Sailarajan’s house, a normally docile Nancy revolted. She asked Sailarajan to prove his innocence or else stop talking with her. She also took a unilateral decision to enroll their children in a boarding school to avoid any disturbance to them. Sailarajan argued that he did not have any ulterior motives and that he was just helping Pamela to come out through a difficult phase. Nancy refused to accept her husband’s version and questioned why he should only take interest and not others.

Amidst all these happenings Sailarajan noticed that he was indeed getting attracted to Pamela’s presence and whenever she did not come to the office, he felt bored and dejected. In fact he wanted to be with her all the time and he found it strange that the person whom he wanted to bring out of the crisis was attracting him like a magnet. As time progressed, he found her to be beautiful as he watched her closely from different angles. Rumors and allegations mounted on them but those did not deter them. Pamela enrolled her kids in the same boarding school as Sailarajan’s children upon Sailarajan’s influence and continuous urging. So whenever an opportunity presented itself he accompanied her to the boarding school and thus met his children twice-once with his estranged wife and secondly along with Pamela.

In between these happenings, one day, Sailarajan asked Pamela “why are you frequently attracting trouble with your husband what are exactly the differences between you? To this Pamela replied” See Sailarajan, I am a singer and I have the ambition of singing for the movies and that is the reason why I go to singing practice sessions in the evenings and some times they go on up to eight at night and my husband does not like my participation in such type of activities. This is the core issue between us”. To this Sailarajan replied “Why do not you tow your husband’s line.” On hearing this Pamela became angry and walked away by saying “All you males are of similar nature-why should I destroy my talent?” Sensing the brewing of trouble, Sailarajan said” Okay cool down-I will try to encourage you. My cousin is a famous music director in films. Though I met him a long time back and not exactly in touch with him, if you are really talented and if I recommend, you may strike a jackpot”. Immediately Pamela cooled down sensing that here is an opportunity for her to enact her childhood dream.

Soon a stage reached for Pamela that her husband would not reconcile to her and started having an altercation with his bosses over silly matters and got suspended from duty. Nargis ditched him as she noticed that he no longer wielded enough influence over the bosses to make up for her short comings. She developed friendship with a new young journalist and got her priorities settled with him. Pamela did not loose her stubbornness.

Soon the government organization announced that it would promote all worthy people and thus Sailarajan passed the promotion test and became eligible for promotion and posting to a different place. Along with him Pamela also passed and became eligible for promotion. The people in the office began rumoring that with his influence; Sailarajan would see that Pamela would get her posting to the same place as him.

Sailarajan also did try that way but for some other reason because he thought Pamela would be happy to realize her childhood dreams and his wife would recognize his absence as he would pass his time in his cousin’s house.

Once they moved out to their new destinations, no improvement took place on their domestic front. Nancy got accustomed to live as a single mother. Initially Sailarajan frequently visited his children’s boarding school and as they complained about their poor living conditions, unnecessarily strict rules, their longing ness to be at home and to see both their mother and father under one roof, he stopped visiting them as he could do nothing to influence a stubborn Nancy to change her attitude and also because he could do nothing to change himself.

As years rolled by Pamela attracted the attention of not only the cousin of Sailarajan but also other music directors and became a famous singer and career wise also she rose tremendously up in the organization. At first she was close with Sailarajan but later on switched loyalties and started being friendly and too close with the cousin of Sailarajan. Then Sailarajan realized his folly. He came to realize that he was ditched and all of his troubles were his own creation and no one should be blamed. But by that time it was too late.

In that way twenty years passed and he became a top executive in the government and was living in a place other than where Pamela was living. His private life was in tatters as Pamela left him and was almost rumored to be living permanently with the music director and Nancy and his children stopped communicating with him completely. Upon further promotion Sailarajan was posted to the place where Pamela was living. Nancy and his children were also living in the same place. Then suddenly he was diagnosed to be a severe heart patient and thus his health started deteriorating .He needed someone to look after him but there were none. His wife refused to take care of him. His sons refused to visit him as he ignored their frequent calls to take them out of the boarding school and also never took proper care of them ever since he developed countenance with Pamela. Finally Sailarajan visited Pamela. She was very busy with a number of guests and seeing him she called him to her private chamber and enquired about him just for the sake of it.” I thank you for your help. Presently I am very busy and I cannot be of great help to you. By the by why did you come?” she asked. Pamela “I have to visit the cardiologist. Recently he asked me to bring someone along with me. Will you accompany me?” “No”, she said “I have to go to a recording and all I can do is to send my personal assistant along with you and without wasting any time she called one of her personal assistants and asked him to accompany Sailarajan in her car.

While going to the hospital, he noticed that a meeting was going on and from the distance he could notice that it is in fact an election meeting of his old time friend Harish who in these twenty years rose from the ranks of a union leader in the office to being a contestant in the legislative assembly election on the Party for Social change ticket. He rolled down the glass of the car and waved his hand at Harish who was ready to give his speech on the Dias.

Harish quickly recognized that the car and the waving hand were that of his former friend Sailarajan and waved his hand in return and started his speech “Today the main problems are the taking care of increasing number of old people, improving standard of our education by promoting the cause of Government schools and colleges, educating people to desist from having illicit or and multiple relationships so that their children need not spend their childhood in boarding schools thereby spoiling their mental health. I still maintain that some of the problems of some of the old people- especially their children not taking care of them is an off shoot of them neglecting their children in childhood and their forcible admission into the boarding schools.” Sailarajan asked the driver to start the car as he noticed that Harish was indirectly referring to him in his speech. Some days later he noticed in the newspaper that Harish won the election with a resounding margin and that his two sons were the principal architects in the election campaign

The Great Comeback Man of Indian cricket

Any sportsman will have his share of ups and downs in his career and some just fade away into oblivion after facing a drop in form. This feature is more prominent in cricket, where one needs to concentrate on the game for much longer duration (than in any other sport) during the course of the match. Now-a-days, we label Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag as the great come back men of Indian cricket as these cricketers have resurrected their careers with wonderful performances against the Aussies down under in the recently concluded test series. However there were cricketers in the recent past who, not only made valiant come backs but also played a calm and significant role in javelining the Indian cricket to the present dizzy heights. Given below is a brief description of one such cricketer.
Indian cricket was in a fix in the early eighties because, for the first time, it appeared that it’s batting started to revolve singly around that genius, Sunil Gavaskar, as the other stalwart, Gundappa Vishwanath suddenly lost form after his valiant double century filled knocks against the visiting Englishmen in the1981 series. At the same time, another gritty player was rediscovering his magic touch in the domestic matches. He was tearing the bowling attacks to shreds in the Ranji Trophy matches. He was previously felled by a bouncer in a test match against West Indies some three years back and later dropped from the side. He was none other than Mohinder Amarnath.
Those were the days when radio was the only means of having first hand information about what is going on in a test match and so when India went to Pakistan in 1982 for a five test series, all young boys like me were depressed to hear about the way the Indian batsmen surrendered so meekly against Imran Khan and his men and the bowlers were flayed by Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar, in the first two tests. Though Gavaskar was our favorite, we wanted some one else to fire and most of us pinned our hopes on Gundappa Vishwanath, but suddenly, he lost his touch and was out cheaply to Imran several times. Imran took forty wickets in the series as he sent several batsmen scurrying back to pavilion with his ferocious pace, swing and cut. The tour was a big disaster as most Indian batsmen failed to negotiate the Pakistani pace men. One man stood like a colossus amidst ruins and he was Mohinder Amarnath, as one commentator after the other gave a vivid description of how he stood up and hooked and pulled (the two most romantic shots in cricket, which are an epitome of bravery and grit) the Pakistani pace men. He scored more than 500 runs in that series but more importantly, scored a hundred in his first match on his return and then followed up with several beautiful knocks in the innings that followed. Thus from being a doubtful starter, he became a saviour and an important member of the Indian team.
Next, the tour to the West Indies followed sans Gundappa Vishwanath and against the fiery West Indian pace bowling of Holding, Marshall, Roberts and Garner, the Indian batsmen failed miserably and again it was left to Mohinder Amarnath to salvage some pride. He again scored more than 500 runs in that series as he stood like a one-man-army against the West Indian Pace quartet. Again he proved that it is the hook and the pull which are going to be the answer to “fight blood with blood”. Though he was supported ably by Sunil Gavaskar in that series, the other Indian batsmen failed and the tour proved to be a disaster.
Mohinder, who was affectionately called Jimmy, had his most glorious moments in the 1983 world cup in England. He made an important 26 in the low-scoring final against West Indies and bowled beautifully to claim 3 wickets with his slow medium stuff in that all important win and whenever, the recorded match is shown in T.Vs one can relish even now, his slow, slumbering walk and run up to wicket and that slinging final swirl of his arm to deliver the ball. He was rightly the man of the match and pinnacled in his come back bid.
The next series against the West Indies at home proved to be a big disaster to both him and the Indian team. The very shots that earned him name and fame, the hook and the pull, deceived him very badly, as he scored a string of zeroes and ones and his series scores of 1, 0, 0,01,0 resembled more like a Delhi Pin code or a phone number. As the main pillar cracked the slab caved in and thus the series was won very easily by the West Indies. He was again dropped.
As it turned out that his career was about to end, he was selected to tour Pakistan in 1984, as the selectors might have thought of giving him one last chance. Now there was no Imran but the other bowlers like Azim Hafiz and Jalaluddin were deceptively quick. Again, when he took guard there was a big hush amongst our friends. He scored a laborious century but cemented his place in the Indian team up to the World cup in 1987.In the mean time, he played a key role in 1985 Benson and Hedges World Series cup win, the Series victory against England in England in 1986 etc. After the world cup in 1987, he was again dropped but later on returned to play significant innings in 1990 against the visiting Kiwis and was again dropped finally for the tour to New Zealand as the selectors preferred youth over experience and there could be no more come back after that as he reached 40 by then. Thus the sagas of one of the greatest come back man of Indian cricket ended.

A Providential Escape:A story of a small kid

Just like every morning, Raja, the shepherd, took his flock of sheep for grazing in the open fields on the outskirts of his village and after letting them loose, he was about to sit on the wall of the well which dried out long time back, when he heard a groaning sound from inside the well. First he ignored it out of fear and later on he started peeping into the well with a lot of hesitation. He noticed that it was a wailing for help by a nine year old boy. He slowly went down the steps of the well and brought the boy up on to the ground. Once on the ground, he asked “what is your name?” The boy did not respond. Soon he recognized that the boy fell unconscious and that he was badly injured. He took him home, cleaned his wounds and went out to bring a doctor from a nearby village and on not finding him, returned home dejected only to be told by his wife that she saw the photo of the child in the news on television and that he is the kidnapped son of a wealthy couple. So, after the boy regained consciousness, he took him to the police station to avoid further trouble. On seeing the boy in the hands of Raja, the police inspector, Suresh, heaved a sigh of relief and embraced Raja for his act of bringing the kidnapped child to the police station. An excited and dumbfounded Raja enquired the police officer about the story of the kidnapped boy. “Wait let me ring up my higher-ups and the parents of the boy to inform them about the tracing of the boy and then I will tell you the story”. So after doing this he ordered a cup of coffee for both himself and Raja and started narrating the story.
“Stephen and Sirisha were post-graduates in management. Both of them rebelled and married against the wishes of their family members. Their family members did not try to reconcile with this event and because of their wealthy and influential background tried to scuttle their relationship by exploring all avenues. I came to know that Sirisha’s family was more aggressive and tried to silence Stephen at least on two occasions, but he being a black belt Karate fighter and Sharp shooting pistol champion, proved to be more than a match for the henchmen of Sirisha’s father. I was told that on the third occasion, after a big fist fight with the goons of Sirisha’s father, he drove his Gypsy at hectic speed to his father-in-law’s house, quickly approached him and shouted at the peak of his voice by pointing a gun at his temple, ““I am leaving you just because you are Sirisha’s father”” .This enraged the joint family of Sirisha’s father with whom his younger brother Prakash also lived. Later, Stephen announced to Sirisha that they are going to migrate to a foreign country where they will be safe and secure. Sirisha readily agreed. So they migrated to New Zealand.
For some period there was a lull in their lives and both of them lived cozily .They had a son and named him Bright. After earning a huge fortune with their talent and hard work for ten years, they decided to return to the country of their origin and hoped that both their families would reconcile with new developments. Back home, their respective families increased their rivalries, incurred heavy business losses and started blaming each other for their woes. However, Sirisha’s father secretly opened a channel and blessed his daughter and her family after coming to know of the latest developments but soon passed away to heavenly abode. The mantle of hatred was taken up by his brother, Prakash and Sirisha’s younger brother, Aryan. Prakash harboured nefarious design of aiming for two birds with one shot-eliminating Aryan and gobbling up their wealth. So he deliberately continued the rivalry on one flimsy pretext or the other. Prakash planted in Aryan’s mind that both Sirisha and her husband were responsible for the present plight of their family and that he ought to take revenge.
Bright was frequently advised by his parents not to venture out of the flats that they are residing and go far away after school hours as danger was lurking around. One day, Bright did not heed the advice of his parents and wandered out along with his friends to play a cricket match. At this juncture a jeep came and he was whisked away by Aryan and goons in front of Bright’s friends who reported the matter to Bright’s parents. Two days later, after coming to know of the story of hatred between the families from Bright’s parents, the police have come to a conclusion that it was Aryan and his henchmen who kidnapped the child. My dear friend this is the story of the kid.”
Turning to the child the police inspector asked “By the by, how did you land up in the well and who threw you in?” The child replied that he fell accidentally into the well when he was trying to escape as he saw that Aryan was rebelling against the gang after a long fight and chase in the bushes, as he came to know through the messages on the cell phone to one of the goons that his uncle was plotting to kill him also. Aryan left him there to survive on his own depending on his luck and escaped into the jungle.
Immediately after finishing this story, the police inspector heard the sound of helicopter and a posse of cameramen and others. Bright’s parents and a host of important police personnel and people’s representatives descended on the police station as the case attracted the attention of many. The boy was safely handed over to the parents. The police inspector remarked that they now have to catch Aryan and Prakash.

Why Playing second fiddle is so crucial for success?

There is a famous proverb that “there is a woman behind the success of every man”. What does this mean? In simple terms it means that to achieve any goal what one requires is a good and selfless subordinate. Successful people pick their parents, better-half, fiancée, lover and so on as the reason for their success. Given below are some examples (both from History as well as mythology) where people achieved stupendous success because of the role played by selfless subordinates-
1) Lord Ram was ably supported by his brother Lashman and Hanuman in his conquest of Ravan in Ramayana.
2) Pandavas were guided and goaded by Lord Srikrishna in their fight with Kauravas in the Kurukshetra war in Mahabharata.
3) Chandragupta Maurya was guided and supported by his able minister Chanakya in his fight with Nandas and the subsequent establishment of Mauryan Empire.
4) Akbar was able to stabilize his rule after securing it from a group of warring nobles due to the able support of his mentor Bairam Khan.
5) Chatrapathi Shivaji drew inspiration and the trait of fearlessness from his mother Jijibai.
6) Srikrishnadevaraya defied several attacks from Bahmani kingdoms and Gajapati rulers due to the timely interactions of his minister Timmarusu.
7) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, was able to unite the country into one nation at the time of Independence from a group of 525 princely states and British ruled territories due to the untiring efforts of his Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
8) Cricket matches were won like in the case of India versus Australia match in Kolkata in 2001, when Rahul Dravid deliberately played second fiddle to a rampaging V.V.S.Laxman which finally turned out be an epic encounter and Indian victory.
9) The India versus Germany hockey match in Germany was another example where India was trailing behind Germany 1-5 and Pargat Singh, the Indian back, after defending the Indian defense valiantly for some time, launched himself into an attacking mode and scored a goal by dribbling it from his position in the back, which finally inspired the Indians to first equal and then overhaul Germany.

The list will go on but the most important thing to understand from the above examples is that when any project is sought to be completed successfully then someone has to play the second fiddle invariably. It is not that people will themselves volunteer to play second fiddle. It is either the circumstances or the role defined in the job or willingness of a superior to deliberately play the second fiddle in the best interests of the organization that will catapult any person to play the second fiddle. Therefore playing second fiddle is important for the successful completion of any project because
1) It ensures the timely achievement of the stated goals.
2) The jobs will be done with clinical precision as there will be two complementing heads thinking about a single task in unison.
3) Any thing in the universe needs a spark to ignite. So even though the mind is exceedingly sharp and intelligent it needs a spark or a catalyst to kick start the thinking process and widen the horizon and this can be done only with the help of a trusted confidante who is willing to play the second fiddle.
4) It gives ample rest and relaxation to the number one of an organization so that he can feel sufficiently recharged for the next part of the task.
5) It ensures a smooth transition in times of an emergency arising out of the sudden disappearance of the number one of an organization.

The above readings do not mean that all and sundry can play second fiddle to perfection and organizations should be wary of certain things like
1) The person playing the second fiddle almost invariably volunteers himself into that position and therefore it is very difficult to ascertain the motives. These motives include the fear of non-acceptance of his action of assuming the number one position by the majority of the people, possibility of leaving that organization in the near future and because of the unflinching love towards the organization a burning desire arises to see that some one has to be groomed. So it is necessary for the number one in an organization to ascertain the motives before starting to allow anyone to play the second fiddle.
2) The person allowed to play the second fiddle must have a calm temperament and sound health as both of them are essential attributes for a positive thinking.
3) As in any other situations honesty, integrity and a wise head are the other essential features.
4) In some situations the person playing the second fiddle must be reminded of his role very curtly and also to limit himself within that. So broad minded ness is essential and they should not be sensitive.
Thus it can be seen that it is a great thing to be number two also.

The Killer Banyan Tree

Ramesh and Arjun were bitter foes and both being real estate dealers had innumerable scores to be settled. Both of them maintained at least fifty persons as their henchmen. They fought several street battles and were just waiting for an opportune moment to eliminate each other.Arjun started gaining an upper hand as he could muster the support of the local politician and businessmen and earned several real estate deals. On the other hand Ramesh was slipping in the race. So he planned to eliminate Arjun and therefore called for a meeting of truce in a vine- yard situated on the road to Vijayapuri and almost on the outskirts of Maaghapatnam.The condition was that Arjun should come only with one of his close confidants and should not attempt to wage a battle. If the deal is agreeable to Arjun then Ramesh would sell his share of real estate business and would leave Maaghapatnam. Arjun thought this to be bait but the offer was ‘mouth-watering’ and thus could not resist and took the bait.
So he started for the said meeting at night and was supposed to reach the place in half-an hour but did not reach there and Ramesh and his gang waited and waited and finally left the place disappointed. For two days there was no news about Arjun and his close confidant. Then started the trouble as his family and gang started enquiring about him and finally after one week he was thought to be either dead or mysteriously missing. Arjun’s men became furious and as they suspected Ramesh and the local politician, they started destroying their men and property. On the other hand the police rounded up Ramesh who repeatedly pleaded ignorance. After one month, the politician and his assistant started towards Vijayapuri from Maaghapatnam on a two wheeler and they neither reached the destination nor returned home and they were also listed as missing mysteriously or dead. Again there was mayhem in the city as both groups clashed with each other. After one month another casualty occurred and as months progressed and with the status of several persons traveling towards Vijayapuri in open was stated as either dead or mysteriously missing, people started fearing to go towards Vijayapuri as they sensed that it is some unknown alien or ‘something’ which is consuming the people every month on the full moon day.
Viswajith was newly posted as the officer on special duty to investigate the mysterious missing of several persons every month on the full moon day in the city of Maaghapatnam. He rounded off all the goons in the town and found quickly that they had nothing to do with the disappearance of the people.
He kept few suspiciously looking sorcerers in his custody and left to his residence for having dinner.
Just while returning from his dinner he noticed that one of these sorcerers was trying to escape. He chased him. It was a mighty chase. The Sorcerer ran for a distance then slapped a slow moving motorcyclist and took away his bike and after traveling on it for a distance, abandoned it and then caught a city bus and alighted on the road towards Vijayapuri and when he found that Viswajit was still chasing him, he started running helter-skelter on the road on the outskirts of Maaghapatnam and was attempting to cross over into the thick wild jungle.Viwajith was a few hundred feet behind him, when he noticed something horrifying taking place in front of him. It was something terrible and a most unexpected sight. What he saw was that a big Banyan tree was swallowing the sorcerer as it spread its reeds like tentacles and surrounded him like a big Python and suffocated him and with a loud thud opened its trunk and into its cleavage went the sorcerer whose wailings and squeals for help vanished within a few seconds.
A horrified and dumbstruck Viswajith wanted to report the matter to all concerned but stopped and called the other sorcerers who were in his custody to his side and started enquiring them about the Banyan tree.
The Oldest of the sorcerers replied” Sir, this is a strange tree. Some forty five years ago there was a big earth quake in the city of Maaghapatnam and most of the trees were felled but not this one. After that, there was an outbreak of plague and some other related lung diseases. As one herbal therapist called Manu, accidentally stumbled upon the medicinal value of this big Banyan tree, he could make a fortune out of it as he prepared the required medicines from it by constructing a very big factory near it. So the tree has acquired the status of a goddess and therefore revered by one and all and even an annual festival takes place celebrating it and the next festival is in next month only”. Then Viswajit replied “Wait wait… what did you say? Is it revered by the local population? Then I cannot destroy it just like that. What shall I do?”
The next morning he wanted to trace that herbal therapist Manu. To his astonishment, he came to know that he settled in a foreign country after acquiring a big fortune and is very old and feeble now and that his sons are in charge of the big Pharmaceutical factory at the moment. Viswajith took the permission of the authorities concerned and flew to the foreign country and tried to meet Manu. But his three wicked sons did not allow that to take place. He was surprised .Later on; he befriended a female staffer in the mansion of Manu and sneaked into the bed room of the ailing former therapist. Manu was at once surprised and thrilled to see a face other than the regular staffer, who came into his room, after so many years. He revealed every thing about him in a long conversation and Viswajith came to understand that the people who were claiming to be his sons were not really his sons but the sons of his henchmen who were running the show globally and that Manu was a bachelor. He also came to know that he was a prisoner in his own house. Before he could reply to Viswajith, he heard the sound of footsteps of some one coming into the room and thus advised Viswajith to leave the room immediately and come again later.
After one week, he once again managed to barge into the bed room of the ailing Manu with the help of the same female staffer. This time he noticed that, Manu was on his death bed and extremely feeble.
Viswajith straight away asked the question about the big Banyan Tree. Manu replied “I knew someone would come to me some how at this time from Maaghapatnam to know about that Banyan Tree. Some ten years ago while I was in my chair as the emperor of my business empire, I called my three sons and told them about the story of this Banyan tree and asked them to destroy it. They revolted against me and imprisoned me in this manner.” Viswajith became anxious as he noticed that Manu’s consciousness was slipping. Come on friend, what you told those blokes about that Banyan Tree” he said. Manu’s voice became further feeble but he gathered strength and continued “I told them that in another eleven years, the Banyan tree would start eating away humans who pass nearby it every month on the full moon day, through its reeds, as it gathers its strength from the force exerted by the moon and after the end of the eleventh year it would explode like a nuclear bomb as it is simmering inside due to the energy that it absorbed from the massive earthquake that occurred forty five years ago. Its roots, which run for more than ten kilometers and stretched as far up to the lake adjacent to the factories, have absorbed from the lake, the radio active wastes generated from the factories. Have you not heard of the stories from the olden days when trees with big reeds used to gobble up the travelers in their final days to sustain themselves? All of them have died and this is the only one left. It has come to its end ten years ago and is in the process of dying. The only solution was to destroy it with a huge pack of ice and no one should fire on it as it would explode. But these three greedy people would not listen to me and wanted to continue with the business of plucking the medicinal herbs from it and making money out of it. They even glorified it to the height of making the gullible people believe it to be a goddess so as to whip up a sentimental feeling.”
Saying all these, the old man coughed, sneezed and became pale. Viswajith shouted “Old man you are a genius. Come on tell me the solution right now”. Manu replied “You should learn the technique of holding your breath for more than a quarter- hour. You should get into an ice pack in the form of a suit which would not melt easily and which should be in the shape of human body and as its reeds reach you they will drag you in. Once the reeds touch the ice around you, a crater will start forming around the tree and it would start sinking into the ground. Its trunk would open up and it would drag you in. At that time it would sink into the crater at a rapid pace. You should get out at that time only as it opens out at the top. The ice would cool the simmering heat inside and the tree would die its natural death by getting buried deep inside the earth’s crust” Completing this story, the old man passed away. Viswajith slipped out of the mansion meticulously and after two days landed in Maaghapatnam.
He briefed all the concerned authorities about the situation and quickly went to a Yoga expert and learnt the art of holding the breath for at least half- hour. He ordered for the manufacture of an ice suit with an inbuilt parachute like thing so that he would come out of it at the appropriate time. Before the D-day, he made several mock trials and on the D-day, he went like a hero to the place where the big Banyan tree was situated, as the entire nation was seeing him live on the vast number of Television channels and Press and a great number of city dwellers were also around the place .He knew that if anything goes wrong it will be not only his end but also the end of the entire area .So what started as a murder mystery turned out to be the solving of a once in a life time riddle.
It was nine at night and as Viswajith went near the tree, the reeds smelt the human flesh and advanced towards him like Pythons and surrounded him. But before that happened, he pulled the ice-suit, wore it and as he went into the trunk, he noticed the formation of a crater around the tree and its sinking into the ground and the opening up of the tree at its top. He quickly opened the ice-suit and ejected out in a jiffy through the parachute and landed some four or five kilometers away. The tree sunk and the crater got filled up with the mud and sand as helicopters and other aerial means rained mud onto it along with the natural earth. In the end Viswajith turned out to be the real hero-The world conqueror- as his name suggested.

The Lessons to be learnt from the big five of Indian Cricket

If there is one reason why cricket has acquired such a great popularity in India over the past decade since 1996, then it is nothing but the collective exploits of the big five of Indian cricket, namely Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and V.V.S.Laxman. Time is such a cruel thing that, it is going to end the careers of all these great men over the next three years, as these cricketing warriors have entered into the twilight of their careers with all of them crossing the age of 33, where, the careers of the peerless Gundappa Vishvanath, the stylish Sanjay Manjrekar and the resolute Ravi Shastri ended. Having grown with these cricketers, for most of the Indian fans, whose average age is 35 years, it is certainly very difficult to fathom that the careers of these cricketers are going to end sooner than later. If one goes down the memory lane, here are some nostalgic moments of each of these cricketers the lesson to be learnt for the common man from their attitude to cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar:-He made his debut against Pakistan in 1989-90 test series. Though he had some difficulty to adjust in the then star studded batting line-up, he started living up to the expectations of the Indian fans with centuries against a ferocious English attack led by Devon Malcolm in 1990 and against the deadly Aussies in the fast and bouncy Perth test in 1991.Thus he announced his arrival with a big bang. He won several contests single handedly like the Sharjah tournament in 1998 against the Aussies, the crucial world cup match against Pakistan in 2003 and the Hero cup against the West Indies in 1993.
India celebrates when he scores and suffers along with him whenever he is in anguish. The lesson that the common man should learn from him is “To be humble even after achieving all the things in life”.
Anil Kumble: He made his debut against England in 1990.Subsequently he was dropped but he returned and established a permanent place in the Indian team thereafter. Experts and the batsmen, the world-over are yet to sort out whether he is actually a leg-spin bowler or a medium paced leg-break bowler but he has already captured 598 wickets and is the country’s leading wicket-taker. His most memorable exploits include his ten wicket haul against Pakistan in Delhi test in 1998, century against England in 2007 and his bowling with a bandaged jaw against the West Indies. The lesson from him is “Do the job faithfully and it will give the required endurance and thereby people would themselves hoist you on to the top”.
Saurav Ganguly: He made his debut against England in 1996. Fondly called “Dada”, he has developed himself into an attacking player since 1998 with his promotion as an opener in the batting order. His innings of 83 against Pakistan in the Asia cup in Bangladesh in 1998, the defiant knock of 148 against the Aussies in Brisbane in 2003 and his magnificent slow-medium bowling in the matches in Canada in 1999 are his most memorable exploits. More than as a player, he will be remembered for his captaincy and forthrightness in calling a spade a spade. The lesson from him is “To harness the intelligence and understand one’s limitations and thereby contribute for the team’s cause”.
Rahul Dravid: He made his debut along with Saurav Ganguly in 1996.He is the most resolute batsmen Indian cricket has ever seen and is affectionately called “The wall”. He adapted himself to the demands of quick scoring limited overs version after being branded as a Test match material. He also took to wicket keeping for the team’s cause. His knock of 180 plus against the Aussies in the 2001 kolkata test, unbeaten 73 against Aussies in Adelaide in 2003, the images of his daring hook shots against the fiery South-African pace men in 1996 will be cherished forever. The lesson from him is “To be resolute in times of adversity patience is the key and if one follows this principle, no matter whom or whatever is the opposition, they will yield finally”.
V.V.S.Laxman: He made his debut against the South Africans in India in 1997 and was shuffled up and down the batting order to accommodate him. He was dropped for sometime and he harnessed his skills to perfection in Ranji Trophy matches. His most memorable innings have come Aussies only and no cricket fan would forget his epoch making 281 against them in 2001 Kolkata test. His run- a- ball knock of 160 plus against the Aussies in Sydney in 2000 will be talked for its sheer artistic brilliance. The lesson from him is” Be brave whatever may be the opposition because Fortune favors the brave.”

LIFE-Look Internally Forward Externally

From times immemorial, man has been toiling hard to improve the living conditions. Up to the late fifteenth century mankind was under the grip of deaths due to disease, war, famine and pestilence. However, the mortality among the high and middle class people was not that alarming. So Scientists, Scholars, Philosophers, Kings, nobles and businessmen were said to have lived long due to their obvious better living conditions and thus were able to contribute significantly to the improvements in the social conditions but as history reveals, the life of majority, that is, the people who toiled hard to make the lives of others comfortable, was miserable. Over the years, scientists researched and invented medicines to overcome death due to dangerous diseases like Small- pox, Cholera, Plague and finally eradicated them from the face of earth. Thus Man looked at LIFE as Look Internally and Forward Externally.
Scene from nineteenth century up to early 1980s:-
With the onset of factory system there was a change in the lifestyle of the working population. New classes arose and the work force was divided into several categories depending upon their levels of skill in discharging their duties. So again those in the higher cadres had a distinctly better mortality and morbidity rates. All said and done the life style of the people, including their food habits, ensured their decent longevity. People had self controlled mechanism as they did not take pressure to their heads. There were also instances of people having their lunch with heated gold foils! And it is said that gold increased the longevity. Now-a-days, it is virtually impossible to think of buying gold even for ornamental purposes .Besides this, there was no use of pesticides on crops and agriculturists relied mostly on natural elements like earth worms, cow dung etc to act as manures. So, unlike in the modern times there was no environmental pollution and life moved on at a relaxed pace, which allowed the people working in and for the factories and agricultural lands, to have a reasonably decent life. With the failure to meet the increase in demand and consequent increase in greed, the new concept of profit motive arose. This led to tensions and differences of opinion as to how best the work could be discharged and that too at minimum cost, because of which socialist movements and trade union movements came into existence, rocked the ruling governments and changed the course of history in Europe and Asia. So depending upon the convenience and public mood, the Governments followed a public sector driven economy or an economy determined by Private sector and the bipolar world coupled with cold war helped sustain socialist movements. Thus people in this period also looked at LIFE as Look Internally and Forward Externally.
Scene from the early 1990s:-
With the collapse of the bipolar world and a gradual shift towards univocal world, the economic concepts underwent a paradigm shift in all spheres as a result of which, people, for the first time did not look at LIFE as Look Internally and Forward Externally and threw caution to winds in pursuit of earning more and more money as well as to secure their jobs. This phenomenon gave rise to the concepts of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization of economies. So the new mantra for every one turned out to be work more, work for long hours and to earn money in an unbridled manner. The other side of the story is that with a growing demand to excel and expectations to be fulfilled, there are more and more reports of people in early and mid-thirties getting afflicted with life-style diseases like Hypertension, Diabetes and increased Cholesterol levels. In the Indian sub-continent, experts have blamed the ancestors and famine conditions of the 1860s for these life-style diseases because it is now assumed that due to the drought and famine conditions of the 1860s the people at that time consumed more quantities of carbohydrate based foods than required and this caused genetic code alterations and exposed the modern population to these life-style diseases. So the shift in economic policies, change in living conditions, urge to earn more and the genetic variations have all resulted in more and more people getting afflicted with these life-style diseases. Now that they have come to stay, people should accept the reality and evolve methods to grapple with this situation to live more peacefully. Some suggestions are-
1) To do daily physical exercises like a morning walk for at least for 30 minutes or to practice Yoga or to play a sport like shuttle badminton or Table-tennis as all these three can reduce cholesterol levels and lessen the pressure factor on mind and heart.
2) For the people working in software industry, it has become the order of the day to stay in the office late up to the mid-night. This has led to sleep deprivation and experts all over the world are pointing out that this is the root cause of all the diseases and deaths that are affecting the people of software industry. Some egalitarian heads of the software industry have rightly pointed out that there is a significant population in the software industry which is staying in the office late up to the mid-night quite unnecessarily and most of them were bachelors. Some of them are quite quick in counseling and suggesting to their employees to pack off from the office sharply at five in the evenings and enjoy their evenings by playing a sport like lawn-tennis or unwind themselves by enjoying with their kids or simply take a stroll in the park.
3) The governments and voluntary organizations should educate the population about the right kind of foods to be eaten and the concept of the balanced diet. Researchers should race with time to invent new varieties of food stuffs, vegetables and eateries that are devoid of the disease causing strain .So Potatoes should contain Insulin and Tomatoes should contain cholesterol reducing agents.

So unless everyone contributes towards achieving a population devoid of the above life-style diseases, factories, industries and establishments would be left with people suffering from these diseases and ultimately productivity would come down leading to recession in economies. There is a possibility that these life style diseases might even overtake diseases like AIDS in recording deaths.
Thus LIFE again should mean Look Internally and Forward Externally.