Time to Win

This week has been full of upsets so far(Despite the fact that I left early than usual all these days and was not asked to stay back in office). It all started last week, when India lost to Australia in the first test at Adelaide by a rather close margin. Virat's heroics and an attempt to send off another flying kiss to Anushka seemed futile as he had to weep the tears of other cricketers(Basically, India lost and Kohli was the captain) and he had to lead from the front to march towards victory(which he did very well without doubt) but after the result, had to convince the boys to pep up for the second test, by which time he will turn deputy to our Brigadier Dhoni, who will lead the team. So amid the scratching-the-wound-just-when-about-heal comments by the critics, few(including me) tried to look at the positives from the game(very few though). India batting was solid like never before with almost all the batsmen carrying the good form they had been in. Bowling was below par and blaming them on a lifeless pitch, Australians themselves seemed hopeless, is not a matter of concern. Half way into the second day, people knew that this was a match which will be decided by the Batsmen. Either they can lead their teams to victory or in the worst case, they will be cause for failure. It happened to be true. Fifth day, first session dominated by Indian Juggernauts, Vijay and Kohli anchoring and at the same time having an eye on the target, kept taking the game away from Australians and then came the magical spell of Lyon(or rather, the curse of Indian batting began).

Despite a brief stay of Rohit and the vital partnership with Kohli,wherein we still had a chance, but Rohit thought probably "let me step up the gas a bit" and the result, in an hour, the hopes of an entire country turned into a gas and in turn was no where to be seen. Yes, it was a collective failure despite a singular heroic innings from the captain. Who is to be blamed? The Indian bowlers, who were lifeless or the Indian middle order, which never seemed stable or the lack of application from the tail-enders to even get close to the total. Blame game began, people were shocked, no one could believe what they saw, as Kapil Dev rightly said "If India is to lose this match, only they can make it happen" and there it was, Kohli losing the first test as captain, despite his wonderful knock in both the innings.

Coming back to the present day, the scorecard reads 2-0, India had lost the second match at Gabba. The herculean knock from Vijay on the very first day, knocking the opposition bowling with a splendid hundred on one of the world's fastest and bouncy tracks, Rahane on the other hand lending a support, we seemed to be in control, witha bit of hiccups in the late middle order(not to talk about Rohit's yet another failure), we managed a 400+ total in the first innings. Australians came in, attacked, played an aggressive game with all including the captain(who continued to daunt the boneless attack of Indian bowlers) by scoring a fine century. Meanwhile, Rohit thought his mouth is powerful than his bat and he could cement his place by sledging the Australians(Johnson in specific) and the result, an almost-hundred from Mitch, it did not stop there, the last four wickets added 250 runs and the bowlers went on a leather hunt. Indians tried to pull off a Lord's, by sending down a series of short balls, but the Australian bowlers(apparently batsmen) hammered them all over the park. Though they swung their bat and they did drive and cut when the length changed. Lets not add spice to the wound, as it was yet another long wait to rap up the tail. With a 97 run lead, India were left with more than two days, to make amends to get back into the game. By the time, they got into the game, it was lunch in the fourth day and the result was already before us. 128 to win, Aussies gave us false hopes and Ishant, the lone performer on the fourth day, did give us a bit of hope, which of course never lasted long. Once again, the batting failed, this time, every single batsman failed and collectively drafted yet another overseas loss and very well took the possibility of winning the series along with them to the dressing room. 

So, being an ardent follower of cricket, just like anyone, having turned tired of cursing out of frustration, got up today morning, read a few articles and you would of course know, what they would write. But somewhere down the line, I took a step back, looked at the match, at the so far concluded series, with an eye like never before. When I thought about the positives, there were so many, Indian batting improved, we finally saw 300+ scores and fifties and hundreds. Batsmen applied here and there to build the innings, but the same was lacked in second innings. Everytime, we see a collapse, we feel they are little complacent, but they are not. More than us, they know the seriousness, they are playing for their country and one can never looked relaxed. Am sure they are pretty serious than we think.

The bowling department has always been a cause of concern, that is why the captain feels it is the batting that can boost the chances of winning abroad, but again, that is possible only if bowlers reciprocate with 20 wickets to get a result. Often, both these departments never go hand in hand, when in the first innings, Indian batting put up a good score, the bowling though seemed good for quite some time, lost the control the first instance of match getting slipped, could be seen. Whereas, in second innings, when the batting failed and left with almost nothing for the bowlers to defend, the bowlers gave their heart out and ended up picking all the batsmen's wicket and it was only Marsh and Johnson who saw Australia home. 

My point is, there is some severe lack of link between the batsmen and bowlers. As a unit, one has to collectively step up, to see a positive result. It is indeed a fact that, one player can change the course of the match, but it is the team, as a whole, which can see the victory. Australians performed because of Steven Smith's excellent hundred and some fine knocks by Rogers, Johnson, Starc. But eventually, they knew the bowlers were the trump cards, which could decide the match and it indeed happened. Johnson, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon, all stepped up to the occasion, they knew the onus was on them, they welcomed it, they took responsibility and honored the captain. This is team effort. 

Now, I'm not saying Indians never had such instances before, they did, probably better than what I told, but right now, that is what is missing. When India's bowlers were given a task to give it all in the second innings, for me they did a pretty good job, exposed the middle order and tried everything, but not fruitful. It is for this reason, one must talk to the players, get their opinions, get clarified and fire all cylinders from the next match. I feel, when they collectively perform in one innings of a test match, the rhythm will be back. Once that is back, players will not think of 'Loss' as a result. Optimism is missing, it can never come on its own, we have waited enough. Time to speak out to the players, groom confidence, nurture and shape their brains, fine tune their thoughts, correct the way of approach. All this is possible by only two people in the team, The Team Director and Captain. 

Ravi Shastri has seen it from commentary box, now from the dressing room. He knows what is missing, Dhoni has seen it all, he knows what is expected and needed. Together, they both should speak out and let the team know what is it out there for the million fans, who wake up with an alarm to cheer for their team, to follow the scores despite office hours. Time to speak, time to lead. Time to Win!!

One fine day..

Seven days have gone by, nothing has changed, of course yes, the current posture of mine as I write another episode of my life. December is the month that usually is considered as the lazy month, fairly true owing to the look that one has throughout the day, the eyebrows tend to be curved in a way that even when someone screams at you, you tend to turn slowly, only to check the noise that disturbed your otherwise calm brain. So basically what I'm saying is, I'm one of those lazy guys who does not bother, even in the worst of catastrophes, especially if it happens to be during this month of the year. Wow! What a way to end a year which we started with, having a resolution to wake up early, to follow a strict routine, some people even took resolutions to wake up at least once in the year to witness the sunrise(those people apparently failed to see the sun the very next day, I mean, they did not get up in the time-frame wherein we categorize into as 'Morning', my bad English, can't help it). So leaving apart the resolutions part(which I myself have never followed even once, either because I lost the book where I noted down the set of resolutions or three hundred and sixty five days were not enough for me to narrow down the set of choices I had). One hell of an excuse, ain't it? 

One such day in the week, wherein I got up late and failed to switch on the geyser and had bath(Let's not talk about the experience of an ice-bath, you know). Having managed to somehow beat the trauma early that morning, I managed to enter second into the shuttle in three steps as some extra-ordinarily brainy women were thinking which foot of theirs to place first into the bus, I managed to sneak through and just when I smiled at the fight near the door of the bus, Boom! My brain had witnessed a situation, a massive blow to the skull, either because of some strong rod or a Hulk smashing my head and leaving a wild roar. Except that this time, it was me who gave the roar, cursed the one who had caused it, opened my eyes to find a spectacle wearing guy saying 'Sorry' which I heard in a female voice. I couldn't understand the logic, all I wanted was a place to sit. Finally managed to sit, closed my eyes and wondered when the day would get over.

Upon reaching my desk, surfing through the world news and trying to debate over a lame topic and meanwhile managing to complete the assigned work(I avoided the word 'stress' before work assuming it is a common phrase associated with someone from my world). So there it was, last minute rush to catch the shuttle, all I wanted to do was send a mail, opened the world's most fastest browser(we were asked to use that over the world's powerful browser) and all that popped up in ten minutes was "Not responding". Thanks to the important twelfth standard one mark question, I could use a shortcut to open the Task manager(proud moment for an Engineer when navigating without using the mouse but with just the keyboard) Just when I stopped smiling over my achievement, I witnessed the worst nightmare for someone who deals with a computer. They usually refer to that situation with a phrase 'The system got hung' . We will be helpless, pray to the oldest of Gods for a miraculous resurrection as the entire screen will stare at you without blinking the eyes and all you will have is the poker face and a sound from inside the CPU that gives a fake noise to make us believe that it is working hard. I kept staring. Few minutes later, my boss pings me, urgency, fifteen minutes to board the bus and on the top of it, something very important for a human, is supposed to be done. My poker-faced look turned into the alter ego of Dr. Bruce Banner and I guess I turned into one when I hit hard on the table(The trick of making something work by threatening even a non-living thing does come true) and Gods responded, the system functionality restored and sent a mail and ran towards the shuttle only to find the bus had not come. After my gasping got over, I got into and found a window seat(Haa! Like a child who has no idea why he/she prefers window seat). I thought "One hour to go! Just one hour before we reach home G! Hold on!".

A day which though not being fruitful so far, made me re-think about the purpose of..(Let me stop there, because the philosophical part, not needed) A voice "Excuse me! Is anyone coming here" pointing to the empty seat next to me. I think I did not even reply, but she said "Thanks" and sat down. A regular practice in this city is to have an earphone whenever you travel, not because of a style quotient, but just to make others know that you are not deaf(which people think you are, looking at the behavior). To share my part, I took a JBL earphone and plugged in and played the music at high volume(She gazed a quick look at me, probably thought I was deaf literally) and I slowly reduced the volume. A two-seater in a bus is built by the brains of the world as they have ensured no extra inch of space, leave alone for two, not even for one. So just imagine the way how cramped we were seated. Half way through, her soft shoulders touched mine, I was alarmed(No! No!! Just kidding) I didn't bother to spoil by giving a wild shake. I sat still thinking she might move into another posture sooner or later. It did not happen. Signing on an attendance sheet(in a bus, Mind it!) is our customary procedure, which of course nobody follows. It came to me, I marked mine, offered to her. She did not get it. I called her, she did not respond. There was no light inside the bus near my seat. I did not see her face. Then a bright light from a street lamp from outside lit her face. I saw her. Her eyes were closed(Sleeping! Chill) I didn't want to spoil her sleep(possibly the best in the day) and gave it to others. I smiled and started playing my favorite playlist and kept having that extra smile. Her stop came, she got up and she was in a hurry, managed to get her bag, adjust her hair(Very important to be presentable in the city, especially in the night) and took the earphones and was about to get down. As in movies, I expected her to see me once before getting down, luckily she did, she smiled and waved her hands. I couldn't believe it, I saw behind me if there were anyone else(Nobody). I smiled(this time the smile crossing the threshold), she got down. Then I saw, there were two girls in front of my seat. I laughed at myself(they were her friends, probably) and thought "Not that bad for a day".

Welcome to the Real World!

Almost five months since my last post, it is pretty evident that I have let down most of my fans who were following me, not that I had some die hard fans who use their almost-on-the-verge-of-getting-over-data pack in mobile for viewing my posts, but upon me going over their head by pestering and torturing them via Whatsapp for having a look at my posts, at one point, they would have definitely(at least hopefully) thought where this G went?! Well, for them, I would like to say 'I was little busy' . Read that again! Yes, you heard it right. Do not think I was pre-occupied with some work that I had no time to blink my eyes even to avoid losing a look at the screen or monitor, it is just a common phrase in this city of busy professionals. So yes, I would not want to be alienated by saying I was doing nothing, although I did nothing, still for the sake of not bringing the reputation of this city down, let me stick with the notion that I am busy. Now, enough of this. I messed up badly the last ten lines(Oh god! That is all I've written). Pardon me as my thought process has totally faded owing to the climate(Best I have witnessed, wish Sunday could go on forever, I am love with my bed). As I try to sit properly and type the next set of sentences(Remember, you cannot run away quickly from this boring piece yet!) I have a big yawn on my face. That is the hundred and fiftieth yawn of this day. More to come.

           Bangalore is where I'm currently staying. Five months into the city and still no where close to my heart. Reason being, one second(Another yawn coming up!!) You know what, chuck the reason! I never planned to write that line. My first experience with this city after getting into the company, after a series of rigorous training, came when I went to my office, few yards from entering the office, I suddenly lost my trajectory of the visuals as instead of looking at the door, I was looking at the sky(What a clear sky! Beautiful it was). What I'm trying to say is basically, I fell down! Slipped from the staircase. Though immediately got up and looked around, nobody even cared to even smile(leave alone a pair of hands to help) People usually laugh(I clap and point and laugh when someone miserably slips down) but here, on a busy morning, pretty crowded place and nobody knew that a living being even existed. I realized that I'm part of something that will make me lose the very nature of being human.

Every day used to be the same, routine life of waking up, rushing to catch the shuttle(office bus basically, but shuttle is what these people call, sounds cool right? No, it is not for me!!) The cunning nature of humans will be pretty evident in the manner one would like to catch a seat in the bus(Pardon me, couldn't control this time, Yawn!!) A girl in my bus usually catches five seats(excluding hers), places her bag in one, a handkerchief in another, mobile in one, headphones in another and tries to cover one more seat with her hands. A guy who overtook me to sit, apparently sat over the headphones and she was like, I'm not going to say that as even the driver closed his ears over those pleasing words. Wow! What a start to day, poor chap just saved me.
I ended being part of the last row wherein the world is always bouncing and is always energetic and high and so much of curse associated with the row that, three of us had to hold our back while getting down. So much before having stepped into my office. A monster in the making(I thought). This is one episode of the bus saga in my five month career at office.

Still, a city which I feel can make one very much competent in nature, owing to the standards of different kind of people one comes across with. Among the thousands in the city, who are always in a hurry, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day, the rush in which one catches a bus or the hurry with which one walks, or the speed at which one speaks over phone, despite the gloomy energy that this city gives, here I am, walking with a whole new pair of shoes, specs, watch(the old ones got damaged, nothing much) with a new job, walking down the lane of my road to catch the bus, sorry shuttle, as the very politely speaking girl, runs past me, all I have is a smile, thinking of one famous dialogue from a famous sit-com "Welcome to the Real World, it sucks, but you will enjoy it!". All those who can associate these lame incidents with their life, keep smiling, for there is more to come from this "new-guy-part-of-the-corporate-world" and meanwhile, do search for the sit-com dialogue.