Chet's day of Reckoning

Graeme Smith literally called Bhajji a wanker. He stopped short of calling the Indian attack useless and claimed they could not take 20 SA wickets. He warned Amla would shoot thuderbolts thru his arse and spit fire when he batted (well he nearly did).

In short he insulted the entire Indian team which has been No 1 in cricket for the past year or so. This he did after the first Test match. This is unusual.

A captain is usually required to provide his reading and insights off a game. He is not supposed to sledge in a Press Conference.

Yesterday India got them out for 131 and took a 74 run lead. They had a opportunity to rub his nose into dirt. Conclusively shut his filthy mouth and probably get one or two back at him. He ha been Zaheer's bunny for past one year or so. They should have made him eat his shitty and condescending words and provided some respite for their bowlers who broke their back again defending a meagre total.

Instead they were 84/4 by end of play.

Bloody arse wipes.

I have seen SRT and RD play better attacks with better application. If you claim to be No 1 batting unit then for God's sake play like one.

Now all hopes rest on Chet Pujara and VVS. Hope they have a gem up their sleeves. I am usually good at predicting and I have a feeling Pujara' got a big one coming.

He needs only to score 60-70 runs for India to win this one. 60-70 in SA is equal to 150 in India. With a bit of luck he should do it. What makes me believe in Pujara against world's best bowling attack? After all it's his 2nd test and he didn't fair all that well in first innings.

He is a quiet, unassuming young man brought up in a middle class family with budget strings. He is not flashy and has been looked over quiet a few times in team selections despite big runs and the credentials for test cricket. The flashier and more unworthy ones (Like Raina, Kohli and Yuvraj) have often got chances. He has been waiting 2 years. He had the best CV in business but never really landed up the job.

This probably happens to 90% of deserving cricketers. Its really his response which is interesting to watch.

After every selectorial snub he's went back and piled on double centuries. He was accused of being good only of flat decks, so he went and scored a double on a Bhubhaneshwar ripper and nobody else crossed 50. The anger and injustice he felt were channeled on hapless domestic bowlers. He toured with A teams, scored in India, scored outside, scored in Baroda, scored out of Baroda.

It happened more than once that news of another of his tons filtered in when a selector was busy explaining his absence. He didn't knock on the door of opportunity. He bloody brought it down with a sledgehammer.

In Durban sometime today he will meet his destiny. He will face a severe test of skills and application and some rib cracking bouncers. But the good thing is mentally he won't be afraid. He has faced enough abuse /pain of people ignoring his achievements and being looked over. Durban in comparison is a walkover. This is all anybody who devotes his life to cricket hope for or fight for. A chance on the big stage. A chance of glory. A chance to smite your detractors on their smug piggy faces. This is your show and the mere thought of going back to the dust bowls of Ranji should egg him on. Playing before 20,000 is better than 20 people. And never let the bloody selectors decide your fate again.

He is way too modest to think like what I wrote. In all it's probability he will remember his deceased mother, pray to the God and go apply himself best. And this is what champions generally do apart from silly Hollywood movies. Make no mistake he is one in making.

Go Chet go. I will have beer on you...

काली घटा घट रैन अँधेरी
बरस डरावे बादालिया...

प्रीतम मत परदेस पधारो...

Sanam Marawi

Balls of Steel

The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but that they know so much that ain't so. ~Josh Billings

When I started a blog, I vowed that it would never refer to anything related to current affairs. This was how I aspired to be 'different' or how I wanted my blog to be percieved.

It is not to earn money, neither fame nor to attract attention. At best it allows me to peer deeply into my life, connect dots and be a moving repository of my life. More importantly it allow me to write. Life takes us to strange places and mine is no different. In an ideal world I would be a writer and I'd be perfectly happy just getting by with whatever meager earning potential I might have.
But it is not an ideal world and but the good thing I can still do what I want to. Also being in a profession might force me to write on a specific set of subjects which are 'commercial' in nature and can be monetized. World is replete with examples when the best works have been produced with carefree and uncluttered minds. So the situation here is not that all bad.

Or so I console myself.

Sometimes this dreary world throws up individuals who jolt your thinking. The ones who move out of the herd and 'THINK'. They jolt your consciousness and shake your beliefs. You wonder at their recklessness, their brashness, free spirit and the strength of their beliefs. Their is a strong tendency of people to follow such people. They are called 'Leaders'.

Julian Assange


You have made me break one of my vows. I am mentioning you.

This calls for clearing up certain facts.

I do not necessarily agree with his beliefs. Nor do I believe that releasing some sleazy diplomatic backdoor Page 3 masala necessarily defines truth.

OK so a few army guys fucked up. They killed wrong guys. They sometimes had racial intones in their acts. The world is full of such psychos and I am not shocked. Tell me one war in the history of mankind which was 'clean'. Releasing such videos did no one good other than causing grief to their already bereaved families. Sometimes things are left best unexplained.

I have encountered more instances of regionalism and professional fuck ups my life to believe otherwise that it is rampant. So why expect Army to be any clean or be better? People get all worked up because it involve lives and futures of people, especially the near and dear ones of the affected.

..so is the case when you deny the rightful opportunity to the most deserving based on your prejudices for anything in this world, a job, an accomodation, insurance or an business opportunity.

Then what makes me a fan of this man? Here's is what his mom says:

Ms Assange, who bought Julian his first computer at age 13, said her son had been a curious child, raised to believe evil flourished when good men did nothing.

"Whether you agree with what Julian does or not, living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing," she said.

"He sees what he's doing as doing a good thing in the world, fighting baddies, if you like."

Living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing

No Mr Assange you deserve a mention because of your guts. You became a father at 18. You left college to take care of your son at 18 when his mother left him. You were mature beyond your years. Not many people at 18 have that kind maturity or balls to take that kind of decisions in life. It would have been easy to panic or think you've been done for. I get a shiver when I imagine myself in your shoes.

You and your son studied in the same college. It's hard to study at that age and to cope with all those young turks and all the advances that education has made. And now you have caught the most co-ordinated and savvy nation in the history of mankind with it's pants down.

Living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing

Not everyone is right or right all time. But this world be a far more better place if everybody did that. See most of the most evil things we have been responsible for as a species or culture got on unchecked because collectively we did not do what we should have. Nazis, eugenics, Hiroshima, Dark ages or the recent financial meltdown are good examples.

It took some very brave and enterprising individuals to turn the tide. They frequently had to part with their lives because their were not enough people standing up with them. For Julian Assange this is a real threat right now. Most of the shameful things wouldn't have grown bigger if somebody had called their bluff earlier. For the examples I quoted the German proletariat, the literati, Oppenheimer, and the general populace are to be blamed.

US has unwittingly involved itself in the biggest war after the Cold war era. It is still in infancy but I reckon it would get bigger. You could argue the effect is not direct on the economies or day to day life. But that is only because it still hasn't grown bigger.

There are probably thousands of computer nerds and kids with misguided or no sense of purpose in life waiting for this. Suddenly Assange is the leader they have been waiting for. Suddenly now they have a purpose in life. Purportedly millions of dollars have already been spent or wasted thru hacking or financial and political machinations in the past few weeks depending on whether you are US govt or the anonymous group of hackers who have taken it on themselves to represent Assange.

I doubt if Assange would approve that. If he's got his priorities right, he wouldn't.

Every dollar could have been better utilized to reduce hunger or provide schooling or any of the million good things you could do in the world.

All of this for a bunch of Diplomatic Page 3 cables.

The stupidity of us as a culture continues to stump me. Rightly Einstein said once that Human stupidity is infinite.

He's been branded as a twisted person, a loner, rapist (by a bunch of females who can't seem decided on whether they want it done with or without a condom). Recently some hacker released a video showing one of the rape victims applauding and generally appearing moonstruck at one of the hotels where Assange delivered a press conference right after the night of purported rape incident. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't proud of being labeled so and derided generally. To put an entire country shivering and purporting to such feeble intimidatory PR tactics is commendable. I mean you have loads of shit faced PR and spin doctors on your payroll. They love opportunities when they can earn their salaries.

"I'm concerned it's gotten too big and the forces that he's challenging are too big."

You are right Mrs Assange. Now that US has gotten into a tangle and it will pull back and do the right thing, which it should have done earlier had it been smart. They will lock Assange and wait for the all the cables to pour out and wait and wait till the media gets bored and then wait some more.

They will imprison him or keep him locked up till he loses his mind, influence and public interest. Then they will destroy his beautiful and free mind.

I just hope Assange has something really shitty and important in those bloody cables. Something so embarrassing and dirty that it may have ramifications beyond reckoning for US and the world. Something which will help him avoid the destiny he seem to be destined hurtling into. That will be the only thing he can trade in order for his freedom.

If he has a trump card I do not want to know it. The world does not need to know it. That is the only way this man can ensure his freedom and not rot away in some cell in some non descript high security prison. He has done enough. A lot of governments have been shaken from their comfortable perches. I hope he ensures his freedom and trades his last hand.

The world will miss out on the knowledge and it may never come to light. But then we never deserved it, have we?

The Professional

"A bad boss is a disease of the soul"

Jack welch

How true is this? Very...

And if you are interested in the movie by the same name, I would recommend it. it's a beautifully scripted movie coupled by splendid acting.

You spend 1/3rd of your adult life in a job. So all those poseurs saying that their job is just a means for subsistence are actually frittering away their a third of life. I'd be alarmed and I'd stay away.

Equally important is the role of a 'Boss' in your life. Anybody who has achieved anything in this life in a sustainable and long term manner would attest to that fact. We do need a role model, don't we?
I spent an afternoon getting my ears traumatized hearing the travails of my friend.
He went on and on about how fucked up his job was, how painful his life and on and on...

I normally hate spending my time like this. But he is a friend and I had to help, but sadly I couldn't. The fact he is my friend doesn't mean he' got his priorities right. I know his tendency to shrink from work, and be on the lookout for the next big opportunity. He lacks focus and doesn't love anything in this world at all.

The fact I wrote that doesn't absolve / indict his boss or make my friend a lesser person in my eyes. He daily drove freaking 20 KM to pick me up for tutions which normally he'd have bunked during my college days. I love him to bits.

However this bit is for people who don't quite get the meaning of 'the job'. Since it is nearly 1/3rd of your adult life this piece is also a bit about 'The Life'. People don't quite get it. The ones who get it don't spread it. It is a world's best kept secret that you reward behavior not talent in case you had to pick one of the two. In a ideal case you'd expect both from a person.

Look at Steve Jobs if you don't believe me. He got thrown out of his own company.

People don't realise that they THEY and only THEY are responsible for the up and downs of their life, including their professional life.

So if you feel your boss is bad and the job sucks its because you chose to be within this mess. If you are not smart enough to bail out or if you have not managed to build a productive environment with your boss it's your fault. It would be worthwhile to look inside yourselves too!

The world' a tough tough place. At every level there are people stuck in their jobs, unable to figure the 'what next' and 'how' of life. You need to be able to deal with these types and if you can help them. Be sure they will help you too.

'Professionalism'. People take ages to learn it's meaning. This is something which people or your boss would never teach you. You have to figure out yourself. And once you do, you have to see if the environment where you work, promotes it and rewards it. I didn't write 'The company' or 'the HR' simply because they really don't matter. it 'The Enivorment' meaning your boss or whoever you feel is the stakeholder.

I love what I do, whatever it is. If I don't, I usually bail out quickly (even in the matters of the heart!). Often I am derided when I feel frustrated with it. For me the entire point is stupid.

There are people I love. How many time have I not been cross at the same people? Does that mean I start hating them now? Similarly my job frustrates me, challenges me and sometimes drives me mad. It definitely doesn't mean I don't love doing it. In fact it simply make it more humane for me.

Very often people don't get this.

This brings me to the topic of the day: The Boss. Being a boss is very much akin to being an entrepreneur. It involves having vision, taking risks, growing people, getting performance, ability to put your own ideas into place and being responsible for your own people.

The last one is a tricky one.

People often (esp newbies or fachhhas) often mistake their bosses for their parents. So if there's an issue with their cab, or if they have issues with finance, or if they want a nappy change they run to him.

You must realize that the only thing a boss is expected to take care of is your career and mentoring. For the rest HR is specifically created for such things.

Being a boss also means being a leader. His job is also to groom people, recognize your aptitude and to mentor his wards appropriately. Most of the conflict arise when your Boss fails in the above mentioned aspects...
or...
you dont have grip on your own capabilities and temper your expectations. A majority of people do not have an idea of the path they wish to tread. Mostly they do things because the rest of the world is doing the same and they are mainly driven by herd mentality.

If you don't trust your Boss with the career path he elects for you then it is time for change. If you find yourselves changing job every other year, then stand on your head till you figure whats wrong.

No matter how unpleasant a person is, I have found that if you make his life easier he is bound to reward you. Lots of people are shit at reading people. Personally nothing' more fascinating to me. It comes with practice, experience and some falls.

I am bored now and hence (thankfully!) I am going to summarize.

If in general you can't understand or trust your boss or have any inclination to do so, stop working. You are not going to make it far. Note: Trust does not mean 'Not challenge' or 'Don't Ask'.

If you don't have an idea and do not care about where you want to head professionally stop working.

If you in general hate being in a job and the monotonous (it' only monotonous because you are not brilliant) routine, stop working.

If you are not proud of what you've done (Of course you dont have to shove whatever you've done under people's noses) stop working

I have theory. Anybody who's not good at having good relationships in office must also suck in his personal life. Because the main pillars for any professional life is being patient, being selfless and understanding people. I can't believe you could be good at one and not at another.

Of course that how you make your bonus.

Lover, I'm on the street
Gonna go where the bright lights
And the big city meet
With a red guitar...on fire
Dessssiiiirrrrrrreeeeee....

U2, Bono

"It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute..."
Aung Sang Suu Kyi