Rumbling Reflections

The lockdown has thrown life out of gear as one has to be closeted at home 24*7.   There is a barrage of information flowing all along on the COVID-19 situation. Newspapers, news channels and social media are stuck on only the virus from the past one month. Where can anybody find respite in such times of anxiety, fear and gloom? Many have found solace through the streaming platforms; some have rekindled their interest in reading and a few other hobbies. But one of the most therapeutic remedies in this lockdown is watching highlights of sports. Whether it is a team game or individual one, the efforts, perseverance, skill and finesse the great sportspersons of the world display is a lesson for these times. Indian cricket aficionados can never forget the epic Kolkata test match against an invincible Australian side in 2001.   Following on, with all hope lost, the turnaround that was witnessed by the heroics of two men Laxman and Dravid with their never say die spirit...

Good, old commercial movies are built on the premise of a hero who battles against all odds and comes out trumps at the end. Commercial potboilers in India and the world over are solely dependent on the strengths of this 'hero' who is unconquerable though hundreds of obstacles are strewn all over his path. He is that iconic figure who the common man in the film's story looks up to for deliverance from all troubles. The maximum whistles and hoots have always been reserved for the 'hero' who turns up just at the most immaculate time to bash up the villains mercilessly and save the heroine or the other characters. It's not that the other characters in a cinematic story are incapable of defending themselves, but they are so oblivious of their own strengths that they are always looking out for a saviour, a messiah who would do the needful and signal their victory. This has been the template right from mythology where the Gods descended on earth to protect the ...

There are a few songs that I listen to every time irrespective of the mood and the time of the day. Despite an umpteen number of hearings, they do not seem to fade a wee bit or even set in boredom. Each time, these songs unravel a bit of themselves like how peels of onion come out one after the other if you start peeling. There is never a feeling of completeness that I have got till date listening to those songs even though I may have probably listened to them hundreds of times. I stay astonished as I keep discovering a new, unheard beat every time or a specific line in the lyrics that strikes a chord on every listen or find out some new patterns in the structure of the song. In spite of such deep analysis, they have never left my psyche and keep auto playing in my mind in the most random situations as well. It's as if my mind is programmed to play these special songs as soon as it detects changes in the mood!  To my bewilderment, I started noticing that I was undergoing...

A few days ago, I was stuck in a huge traffic jam with the signal never changing its color to green. It was a wait that was truly testing the people's tolerance. What should have normally been a delay of maximum five minutes had already taken close to twenty minutes on that day. The patience of those waiting there was already wearing thin and totally exceeded the threshold pretty soon as they started honking deliriously, but to no avail! The wait continued for ten more minutes and finally we could see an entourage of cars passing on the other side of the road led by police jeeps. Well, you may have guessed it right. It was apparently a minister passing by, and to make his journey smooth, traffic was halted on both sides, for as long as half an hour!   My mind quickly recollected the ban on red beacons imposed from last year. The respected Prime Minister had tweeted that with the red beacons on vehicles gone, every Indian was special and every Indian was a VIP. Yes, the b...

“Necessity is the mother of invention”- this adage hold true for the remarkable advent of humanity from a nomadic tribe to the most advanced species on earth. With rapid strides in the technological field in the past few decades, mankind has seen tectonic shifts in the way things have changed around. There are an abundance of technologies today and the list of new frontiers being breached is ever growing. In the initial stages, machines were created to ease man’s burden or in many cases to completely take over the task from human clutches. The argument put forth was that it was essential to move from complication to simplicity and soon enough, technology brought fortunes and started globalisation where the whole world started virtually shrinking. The discovery of electricity totally galvanised the technological era. The industrial revolution happened and later a slew of new technologies like televisions, computers, internet, embedded devices, mobiles, social media to name...

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. ...