Rumbling Reflections

It was around the fag end of 2004 and a rookie cricketer with a free flowing mane was making his debut in international cricket against Bangladesh. The young man had created quite a buzz around the cricketing circles with his exploits in the India A side. Naturally, there was a faint hype around this wicket keeper batsman when he had made the progression to the highest level. Unfortunately, his first few outings in the national side had nothing to write about. But what caught the eye of many pundits and cricket aficionados was an ugly technique which was just not seen or expected from a proper batsman and that too in the international level. As a mad cricket buff, I used to gobble up every small article and feature on cricket and a major chunk of our conversations in school used to be about the game! We were the budding cricketing analysts and dissectors of the matches. Conversations used to veer from what and what not a player ought to have done in the match of the preceding day. ...

January 26th 2016- An air of patriotism pervaded the atmosphere all over the nation. Most places of New Delhi were cordoned off due to the Republic Day parade and it was a good experience to wake up in our capital city on that historic date. Though I had to catch an early morning flight, I could sense an aura of pride in the air in the biting cold morning of Lutyens Delhi. The media was abuzz with glimpses of the freedom movement and the drafting of the Indian Constitution. Happy Republic Day was trending on social media with lakhs of users updating their statuses with patriotic messages and eulogizing our nation in glowing terms. It was a glowing day in no small terms and it felt great to celebrate "Being Indian". India is great, Indians not great conundrum.. While having a free flowing, open discussion on various issues a few days later, a friend remarked that despite all the gargantuan problems plaguing the nation, we still say "Mera Bhaarat Mahaan". Thi...