An Era retires.

Throughout his mega career of 24 years, he silenced his critics through his bat. It’s a known fact that he would  like to speak more through his bat than use words and phrases, but when he put his bat to silence forever and used words to speak, he soaked billions of eyes across the globe. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, on his farewell speech spoke straight from his heart as straight as his straight drive on the field where you will not require a scale to draw a straight line, just follow the path of the ball till boundary and one would have a straight line.

As a keen cricket follower and lover, to be very honest, SRT did not fascinate in his early days, I would have debates and arguments with friends over Sanjay Manjrekar and SRT (I still feel Sanjay Manjrekar was the best batsman with his shots just picked up from Cricketing Text book and his technique par excellence) It was only during Coca-cup in Sharjah .where I experienced the power of this genius, he single handedly fought the last two matches and won them for India. He looked like a bull dozer on a demolition drive, where he was throwing anybody and everybody on his way, around the park and sometimes even on the roof. He had his ups and downs throughout his career, his personal losses, not able to cope up as a Captain, his injuries and at times being out of form, but every time surrounded with problems he appeared like a Phoenix bird, which would rise from the ashes with more force and velocity. 

I have never termed him as GOD, because for me GOD is a power which is felt and is not visible, but here I had a complete Human in flesh and blood, where I could see him and feel his power as well. He himself has never ever, been even a millimeter above the ground due to the fact that the entire cricketing world was describing him as GOD, such a grounded personality. This 5’4” human, first because of his performance on the cricketing field and then finally on the day of his retirement just multiplied himself into a GIANT figure because of his humble, down to earth attitude and his thank giving speech. After his speech, when he touched the 22 yards for the last time, I am sure he touched millions of hearts simultaneously.

I may not watch this game anymore, because the equation that has formed in last few years was such that Cricket means SRT and will be very difficult to imagine a squad without SRT. I know it may sound queer to many, but I am also sure there will be quite a few who would agree with me. Take a bow Master you have inspired the nation through your game and will now continue to do so by your humble approach of Being Human.

" पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या "

. As an Indian we boast about our culture, traditions and values across the world. Today I feel these cultures; values are on downward spiral, thick and fast.  Not long ago, may be just 15-20 years back, moving along the streets during any festival was fun, joy and would give a sense of happiness. Today the same has changed to worry, fear and sadness, be it any festival, an average citizen is not at all comfortable in participating. So be it Holi, Gokul Ashtami, Ganeshotsav, or Navratri. Little over  a decade ago, it was fun to watch the Govindas moving along the streets, hunting for the handis and forming the human pyramid to break one, but today one is scared to watch these Govindas moving along the trucks and bikes, violating in all possible manners the traffic rules in the city in the name of festivals and an average citizen prefers to stay in-door, rather than stepping out of his residence.

Welcoming the Elephant lord home was and would continue to be my favorite of all the festivals, the feeling is completely different during the presence of the Lord at home or in your society. The void that is created for couple of days after his departure cannot be expressed in words. Lokmanya Tilak had a different vision and purpose when he brought this festival on the streets. Today we have successfully commercialized the entire festival and made it a money making business. The way Ganesh Mandals market themselves is just beyond imagination, it would actually give professional business houses run for their money.  I happened to read, one of the so called famous Mandal who serves the RAJA for 11 days, are offering whooping amounts in crores for celebrities to visit there mandals. Isn’t this amount paid from the donation that is received from the devotees who queue up, anywhere ranging from 15 mins to 2 days to take one glimpse of the RAJA. I am not an atheist, and am no way trying to send out opinion that one should not visit a particular Ganesh Mandal, but the atmosphere that has been created is something I am against, today visiting the RAJA is become a matter of social networking pride. Some of the updates that I receive really makes me wonder with what purpose have they visited this Ganapati.  Uploading pictures, updating status about being with RAJA sounds so hilarious, if the purpose of your visit is to take Darshan of the Almighty, then why are these guys busy updating their social networking sites status and pictures.

The immersion process a decade ago was fun to watch, today the entire path of immersion is covered by huge political banners and pictures of all the jokers, who are forcefully advertising themselves on us and then the procession itself is stooped to such a low level at least in Mumbai, that I really feel if Lokmanya would be watching it ,  he would surely be regretting his decision today. Having a DJ, cheap young shirtless boys drunk having no control on their body movement are part of this HOLY procession, playing item songs during the procession, only gives a feeling what has happened to the rich heritage culture of Abhangas, bhajans and kirtan’s that were a part of these procession few years before. Even the Lord himself would have a million dollar question to return next year amidst such atmosphere.

Time has come that as citizens we start differentiating between good and bad. Stop un-necessary promotion, just because someone else is doing the same on his social networking website. Time has come where we question the authorities why is there no walking place during Ganeshotsav on the streets and footpaths, Why are streets and footpaths handed over to these Mandals, who are mushrooming every year, and with whose permission. What happens to all the money that is being collected under the pretext of donation. Why are such expensive immersion procession taken around. If everyone of us takes the responsibility, authorities will have to answer and only then we can ask the Elephant lord " पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या "