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...

It was a normal sunny day in the salubrious confines of heaven.Everything there was pitch perfect and the inmates were treated to the best of comforts and there was a blissful resonance in each face free from all sorrows and bonds.The select few who were there in the abode of gods had passed the tests of life with flying colours and had been chosen to enjoy the fruits of their good karma on earth.Every face looked calm,serene and replenished with spotless, pure minds.In a corner sat a frail looking man, with very minimal clothing.Bespectacled, and with a loving smile, he was an embodiment of all ascetic qualities.Slowly, as he opened his tender eyes from his trance, some of the other inmates of the celestial abode congregated in front of him and wished him with such fondness that it moved the man.Profusely thanking each one of them for the love showered on him, he gently stood up, held the walking stick in his hand and walked towards the chamber of a celestial God.It was October 2nd ...

There is an old fable of a deer which lost its young one through a disease. All the animals of the forest got together to console the grieving mother deer and shared their sympathies for a short while.Later, it was back to business for all the entities involved. Some animals started feeling the pangs of hunger, some were distracted by the other happenings of the forest and the rest just moved on with their own lives.The grief of the wailing mother deer had to be shared for a few moments and that had been done. Nobody expected the other animals to stay put there forever, it was left to the family of the deceased deer to fend for themselves after the brief niceties shown by the rest. This fable is quite similar to the massive protests happening in the state over the mysterious death of the accomplished IAS officer D K Ravi. The national media is up in arms against the politicians and the state government, the masses are in a state of disbelief over the way the case is being handled...

Watching the movie 'The Lunchbox', I was drawn into a different world sans all the clutter of modern day technology. The simplicity,the sensitivity and the pure emotions in the simple story of two strangers who get close to each other through exchanging of letters over the lunchbox was so delightful. It made me ponder over the complications that man has imposed on himself through his own intelligence. Technology was meant to make things easier for man,but the opposite is happening right now. We are moving into a complicated, insensitive world where people just do not bother about what's happening to others and relationships are getting more and more fragile by the day. There is a line in the movie "Most of the problems are not as bad as they seem"! Is this not so true? We find out ways to complicate every little thing and lose sleep over them. Most of the times,what we perceive as problems are just slight deviations from the routine and it's we who crea...

Oscar winning director Roman Polanski had said " Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater" and I have personally not seen many movies of such kind. The primary purpose of going to a cinema hall is to have some fun,munch popcorn, get entertained and the film would be forgotten ten minutes after walking out of the hall. But it is very rare for cine goers to come out thrilled at the end of a movie with a feeling "Wow,we just watched a terrific movie!". Such movies have a long enduring value and become the talk of the town for a long time. The Kannada flick Drishya was one such fabulous experience where I did forget that I was in a theater since the happenings on screen got me involved so deeply,and I am certain a majority who have watched it would also agree. There is nothing out of the world in the story,nothing that you would not have seen or heard before and yet the film managed to get into the viewer's psyche like no other recent film ha...

May 16th was a historic day in Indian politics,a day where a single man rewrote the records by defying all odds stacked against him. Though he was expected to get good numbers,the sort of thumping majority that he got in the end was expected by very few.Narendra Modi,the face of the BJP in the elections managed to get an overwhelming mandate from the people of India,the largest and most vibrant democracy in the world. Most of the opposition parties dismissed the Modi wave as mere media creation,but the results have made them eat humble pie,for it was not just a wave,but a literal tsunami and none was more affected than the congress party which had to settle for an embarrassing 43 seats,its worst ever poll returns. It was a strategically planned,clinical victory for the BJP and the major credit for it rests on Narendra Modi,who started vigorous campaigning almost 8 months ago itself. He toured the lengths and breadths of the country,provided new hope for the masses,used technology...