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.”
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Sunday, 6 January 2008
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.
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.
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