My Musings on Life, Poetry and Short Stories

In these days of Multi-Crore scams, phishing, credit card frauds etc one would shudder to think of losing their Wallet, especially when it is containing three of your priced credit cards, expensive cell phone with all the private addresses and good amount of cash. Well if wishes were horses even fools would fly, right. Imagine yourself going on a Family Vacation with the entire Family including 2 kids, load of baggage and 4 flights to change. Yes we went to Florida, Disney World, in June from Texas for a week of fun at Disney Land. While we enjoyed the visit so much we were little prepared for the incident that took place on the last day of our visit at Animal Kingdom. After watching a film in the Auditorium we left the place and when we reached the Bus Terminal, we realised that we had lost our wallet with credit cards, money and cell phone. Despite a dash to the place and searching it thoroughly again and again we could not find the wallet. We approached the Lost and Found office at the gate and lodged a formal complaint with very little hope of getting it back because 3 credit cards, money and a pricey cell phone is too good a haul to douse any tinge of honesty in a finder's mind! We totally forgot the incident and were getting back to our chores in Texas. A week after we returned we received a manila cover containing the Wallet, with all the contents intact and a sweet little note from the Lost & Found office wishing us all the best and enquiring about how we liked the visit. We were overwhelmed by their courtesy and the exemplary act of Honesty shown by the faceless finder of our Wallet.

It has become the favourite subject of everyone nowadays to talk about and voice their "Expert" opinion on the subject! It is like a virus and has its presence almost everywhere in this vast universe. The interesting thing about this despicable disease is the fact that both the exploiter and the victim are equally responsible for its existence. Those who speak so much against it are the ones who would not mind resorting to it in their day-to-day activities for getting some of their jobs done either expeditiously or economically. Many of us indulge in it just because we donot have the patience to wait for the normal processing time or fear of delay from a greedy official. If every one of us decide not to resort to this pernicious evil, come what may, the chances are that this poison ivy may begin to wither slowly. There is an old Adage in Tamil, which runs as follows:

திருடராய் பார்த்து திருந்தாவிட்டால் திருட்டை ஒழிக்க முடியாது!

Which means that "Unless the Thieves choose to reform themselves and become noble, no Law can eradicate thieving". We should learn to stick to our principles and stand firm against any form of extortion and fight this demon. Just making speeches or cursing will be of no avail in dealing with this monster. Take a vow today that atleast you will not be a party to propagate this evil and abide by it.

After the triumph against Australia in the Quarter-Final and against Pakistan in the Semi-Final everyone was eagerly looking forward to the FINAL. Somehow I was feeling very disappointed with the way our team played in both the matches. The bowling was lacking the bite and the fielding was at best mediocre. We could win thanks to our long tail and the mistakes of the opposition. MicroSoft (just an Adjective!) Dhoni was looking clueless while wielding his willow and was far from the MSD we knew. Fortunately the great thing that I admire in MSD is his total awareness of everything that is going on around him, including his pathetic personal batting performance and his ability to address the weaknesses with total confidence besides the uncanny skill of changing the bowlers and field placements.

When the indomitable Zaheer Khan lost a bit of his bite when he conceded those extra runs in the dying moments of Sri Lankan innings and the total stood at 274 everyone must have really felt butterflies in the stomach. No team has ever chased a total as high as 274 and won in any world cup final before. I am not sure if MSD was also nursing a fear because even if he did he was not showing it. His expression was a "dead pan" as ever.

More was to come when we started our innings. When the illustrious Shewag perished in the first over for a duck  and the Legend followed him with just 18 runs our hearts fell and one could almost hear the Heart Beats of the Indian supporters at wankhede stadium. Any other Captain would have felt safe to send an "in-form" batsman and pray GOD that he delivers! Not our MSD. He forgets the poor form displayed by him, the run of low scores in the previous innings etc and decides to hold the match by the scruff and pull it away from the SriLankans inch by inch with sheer determination, controlled aggression and an ice cold mind while egging on Gauti,Virat and Yuvi to perform. It was an excellent example of "Leading from the Front" and it silenced all the critics who were breying for his blood if India were to lose. He was concentration personified! Never indulged in any indiscrete stroke. He hit his first six of the innings when India was almost there and then again to finish the Job! He is by far the BEST CAPTAIN that India could ever ask for. It will not be wrong to say that he conducted the entire journey, from the league stages to knockout level, with such exemplary manouvres that it looked easier than it really was. Yes, he is Made of Steel, Dhoni.

Those who watched the match between England and Bangladesh on Friday were in for a treat! Boy! it was full of twists and turns and contained a few valuable lessons for our not so impressive cricket team. Determined to restrict England to a modest total, which Bangladesh direly needed to have any chance of remaining in the hunt, the bowlers and fielders of Bangladesh performed the task to perfection. At times the celebrated English team looked so helpless against the minnows that they were on the defensive. Sensing vulnerability, Bangladesh pressed home the advantage and restricted the English team to 225. Having achieved their primary objective, the minnows set about their further plan of action in such style and manner that the viewers witnessed a fabulous batting performance that created doubts as to who were the "minnows". Their inexperience did show up in the hasty attempts they made to keep the score board ticking resulting in some runouts and the tumble of 4 quick wickets. However it is the manner in which they came back into the game with the resilience, composure, determination and disciplined performance that provided a few lessons to every other team. Boy, did Shafiul Islam and Mahamudullah paint an exqisite picture on the World Cup Cricket canvas with such painstaking effort. Win or Lose, their triumph on the fateful Friday will remain etched on our memories for a very long time.

As I had mentioned earlier, the Indian team continues to languish in the bowling & fielding departments of the game as evidenced by the manner in which they struggled to record their win against minnows like Ireland, Netherlands and Bangladesh (If you dare to call them so!). Dhoni’s  continued persistence with Piyush Chawla instead of trying Ashwin is beginning to worry loyal Indian supporters. Even the mighty Tendulkar is finding it difficult to play a long innings, which is over due. The match against South Africa will be a lot more difficult than the previous matches and I hope MSD marshals his resources and men to put up a better show than the four earlier outings! Sachin and Shewag should bat with a lot of composure and stay long enough to ensure victory. Otherwise this may well be the Requiem for the “Burial of our World Cup Dreams”. Wishing our team all the very best for this crucial match.

As predicted in my earlier post, given below, Dhoni needed to rev up the fielding department and some fine tuning of the Bowling skills prior to facing England. Alas, it was not done and the result was an excruciating "Tie" despite a very strong score of over 300. Tendulkar crafted his yet another beautiful TON on the International cricket canvas ably supported by the belingerent team mates Schewag and Yuvaraj. The complacent bowling and fielding lapses that followed enabled Strauss and Pieterson to hammer the bowling at will!. When it looked as if they were cruising towards victory at ease, Zaheer's exquisite magic of a spell hit the English juggernaut like a ton of bricks and made them struggle to save the game. Again when India's victory was almost certain, the unimaginative bowling of Munaf Patel failed to clinch the issue. He lacked the tenacity shown by his little colleague Piyush Chawla, who despite being hammered by the batsman kept his cool and clean bowled him with a beauty of a Leg Break!. I hope Dhoni corrects his approach and show the grit and determination of the erstwhile super leader that he was earlier and bring home the World Cup. Good Luck.