A random conversation and the conundrum of religion

For most of the regular office goers, Friday evening is often synonymous with eternal bliss. Whether that holds true for you or not, what do you reckon as the most interesting aspect of your office life? Is it the technical and managerial hurdles posed, for you to tackle, letting you challenge yourself, in the process? That sounds good, but now that your boss is not listening, you might as well tell the truth. Is it the lunch break?

I would like to give the random informal conversation, more credit than it generally gets. Those help you release stress, and make offices more bearable. I get to listen to, and participate in many, but I be a good listener and keep myself from interventions unless I feel strongly about making a point. That way, I get a great deal of new information, and more importantly, I don't let people know how stupid I am. Recently, I happened to barge into one.

A few colleagues were discussing how the corporate environment treats the employees only as resources and not as individuals with emotional, physical and sometimes even existential issues that each one might be going through. By the time I got myself a steaming filter coffee, discussion had taken a completely different path. Someone had mentioned a temple that was being built in one part of the city, and subsequently, places of religious worship, and religion itself, had come under the scanner.

“Do we really need more places of religious worship, that too in our cities, which are already smothered for space?"

Remarked someone.

“They could just plant trees in that piece of land. A green patch in the middle of a city is not a bad idea, considering the kind of summer we just had”

I put forth my point, in a typical armchair philosopher’s fashion, despite not having planted even a single tree in my life, so far.

“But do you think people will make it a priority to visit your green patch, without any persuasion, and deposit money in your boxes?”

“I guess we should. Taking care of the place should be a collective responsibility. The concept of donating money in favour of places of religious worship, is the same. We are actually contributing towards the maintenance and welfare of it even though modern man, has found the commercial benefits, just like anywhere else"

"If you want people to care about the so called green patch, and make them nurse trees and plants, the only way again would be to impart any kind of religious significance, on it."

At this point, my mind drifted away from the conversation, and I started thinking about religion, as a social institution. Organized religion has more to do with money, power and politics, has very less to do with spirituality, and if it has to stay in power, it should make more people follow.

By the time I started listening again, topic had moved on to the historical accuracy of a religious text. The debate had heated up. Having their religious faith questioned, is one situation when you get to find out how aggressive speakers your friends are. As arguments and counter arguments were flung incessantly, I started feeling that it could go on for ever. You could argue about belief and faith for days, and yet you will not be able to prove anything, unless God himself appears and tells you, and unless that happens, the whole act would be utterly meaningless. You never confront faith with logical reasoning, instead, you just learn to respect it, however absurd it sounds to you. Your own faith might be entirely different, but then you just keep it to yourself. Faith is like art. It’s value is only there in the eyes of those who can fathom it.

How religious faith influences human lives is a vast topic that needs to be discussed in much more depth. Even if we do, I don't know if we'll ever have any more clarity on it. That was the most up to which a coffee break discussion could go, but I got a lot from it, to brood over later.

What hurts most for Pakistan and so on

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - 2

(Want to know how it began? Read this)

India have begun the campaign with an emphatic win over their arch rivals, Pakistan. The contest was indeed, high voltage. It did provide the glimpses of drama and action that every India - Pakistan match promises, but the result had become obvious far too early in the game. 

Team India is going to take a whole lot of positives out of it. It's a breath of fresh air for them, after a series of defeats in the Australian soil, and a vortex of criticisms surrounding it. Now, this game has suddenly turned the tides. Or at least it looks so. Shikhar Dhawan, who was having a poor run, has come out of it and played a brilliant knock, just when the team desperately needed him to. The more re assuring factor is the way he played that innings. He looked composed, he was curbing his instincts, and he picked the right balls to score boundaries. Right from the start, he was announcing that he meant business. 

Kohli was as prodigious as he is always. His drives look poetic, his pulls look as solid as a brick wall. Raina did what he does best, by shifting the gears swiftly. And our bowling rose to the occasion, being within their limitations. Umesh Yadav generated good pace which would have been effective if not for the wayward line. Mohammed Shami ran in hard and bowled in good areas. 

On the other hand, Pakistan had them in trouble, right from the word go, or even before that. They made a mistake by handing over the keeping gloves to Umar Akmal rather than opting for a specialist keeper. None of their key players failed to fire when it mattered.

But for Pakistan, more than the fact that they lost it, it is about the way they lost. This Pakistan team had nothing to flaunt, nothing to boast of. It was a much weaker side compared their avatars in the previous world cups and the absence of Ajmal and Hafeez was just like rubbing salt to the wounds. 

Pakistan have always been a good bowling side. They used to have at least two genuine fast bowlers who could bowl at high speeds consistently. They would always create apprehensions in the opposition's minds, even before going into the game. Well, this bowling attack was nothing like it. Wahab Riaz hit good speeds in his second spell and curbed the run flow in the death, but he was no match for the greats they have had in the past. 

Batting looked thin, crumbling like a piece of paper, in front of just an average Indian bowling. Misbah was the only one who looked solid but there was no scope for solitary heroics. Their fielding was also below par.  

Pakistan lost the game, but more hurtful than that is the psychological hit that they have taken. Their team has nothing menacing. They couldn't even bring in the fight. This could prove very difficult for them, while Ireland and Zimbabwe would be eagerly waiting to convert the slips from the major teams into their gains.  

As for India, I would say, this game is more of a reminder on what work needs to be done, as we progress. Lots of improvement is needed in the bowling department, and the performance against Pakistan could give us a deceptive picture. Death batting needs to improve, that is, we desperately need Dhoni to find some form. 

Now, for the conclusion, I have a question. How different would this game have been if it was on a green top? 

We had very short square boundaries yesterday. What if the game was played on a bigger ground where the boundaries were pushed back to 90 meters?

Do you think the result would have been any of different in any of the above cases? Let me know.      

A preview of sorts, may be?

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - 1

(Want to know how it began? Read this)

It's game on, already.

New Zealand and Australia have done justice to their favorites tag, in their opening matches and the high voltage clash between India and Pakistan is set to start in a couple of hours.

As for the Indian Team, there are two options in this world cup. If they want to come home without stones being pelted at them, they either have to beat Pakistan in the first match or have to win the world cup. Beaten by Pakistan could end up making the fans go mad, which I believe, can be neutralized by nothing but bringing the cup home. But things aren't that bright for us.

People say, we have a very weak bowling attack. I strongly disagree. We don't have a bowling attack at all. And as for all all rounders, we do have Binny and Jadeja. The best thing about Binny is that his front teeth will remind you of the egg headed Brazilian footballer, Ronaldo. Jadeja has got a back up in the team, as Axar Patel. They are practically the same thing. 

They might not comply to the generally accepted criteria to be considered as all rounders. An all rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well in both batting and bowling. But in India, whoever can somehow manage to do both are called as all rounders. 

Anyhow, I expect Australia, South Africa and New Zealand to make great progress in this tournament. My prediction is that any one from these will win it too. But People are all going to get shocked at the presentation after the final, because there won't be a world cup to be given to the winners. BCCI would have already bought it. 

Let the best team win!   

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - The beginning.

Writing has always been fun for me, however lame the content that I created was. I have always been a prose person, but there were different types of writing that highly appealed to me. I write non fiction articles infrequently, with rare success at getting published. But fiction writing always seemed to be the greatest challenge, and hence, the most exciting. Writing in English and Malayalam is something that I have enjoyed equally. Writing screenplays is what I love most, even though all that I have written in that category are a couple of good for nothing things, which as of now, are lying in my bookshelf in the form of a bunch of dusty loose sheets of paper.

So apart from all these, there is something that I have always wanted to do. Sports writing. I have tried it once in a while, but not as much as I would have wanted to. (I think this one which got published in The Hindu might be the best that I wrote).

So, here's the deal.

The cricket world cup is here, and it is a sport that I have been following right from my childhood. So I think, I should write. Witnessing the mega sports events like Olympics, Commonwealth games or the Cricket or Football World cups and writing about it has been always a dream. 

That is exactly what I want to do. I am going to watch as much as cricket possible (On television, of course), during this world cup, and I am going to write as much as possible about it, here.

Generally, when I get an idea to write to something, I keep it in my mind, think about it during all the free time. When I am sure I've got enough of it, I write a rough draft and then leave it for two days. Then re write it once or twice. That's how I write most of the blog posts, and the other stuff that I have published. And generally, my first draft is just crap. And after all this, whatever I create never end up as Booker prize worthy stuff. But this time around, it's all going to be spontaneous. I will try to write as much as possible during the course of this world cup. So, the quality of each post might be really, really bad.

Other than this, there are a few points that I want to put across in the beginning itself.

What I write could end up as crow shit. (I think I already conveyed that, but just emphasizing)

I might swear and use some indecent language

I might try to be funny at times. But I have never been spontaneous with humor. So the jokes might fall flat.

Above all, even after all this build up, I might end up without writing even one piece. It happens with me. I always over promise and under deliver.

So here it begins. Or at least I hope so!

Happiness and hardship of losing a smartphone

As my thoughts were getting entangled in the anger, disappointment and the
agony of losing my phone, I slowly opened my eyes into the realization that
my phone was getting smarter and smarter in the past years, while I was
heading exactly the opposite way. I couldn't remember any of the contact
numbers, my social media passwords, not even my bank account details. My
phone had it all. I could only sit and sulk in pain.

Cursing myself for getting into that crowded bus, which eventually led to
the pick pocketing of my phone, slowly gave way for the attempts to figure
the extent of my loss. No matter however hard I was trying to believe that
I could easily manage without it, my mind wouldn't just budge.

When I looked back, it was hard to believe that a small rectangular gadget
had a ubiquitous influence on my life. I was starting to feel disconnected
from the world, without it. The feeling that a whole lot of information was
evading me, kept on lingering in my mind. I terribly missed the
conversations in the group chatting applications, the frequent social media
updates, and the live bits of news and current affairs. The heinous
monsters from temple run made guest appearances in my nightmares.

Days passed by, and I recuperated from the emotional snub, gradually. Even
more importantly, I started not to miss my phone anymore and also, started
enjoying the extra little time that I had everyday, which, otherwise would
have been spent on poking the phone. I could watch TV, read for some time,
or even go for a jog in the morning. The tendency to look at the phone
while eating, died out slowly, and I started enjoying and appreciating the
food even more. Conversations never got interrupted with the sudden burst
of a ringtone, and life, altogether seemed better. I put brakes to my
research on which phone to buy, and started thinking, why I needed a
smartphone, in the first place.

All this, was not even the best part of having lost the phone. I discovered
how I could use it as an excuse on numerous occasions. I forgot friends'
birthdays and escaped the firing line, by giving a melancholy description
of how I lost the calendar events, with the phone.

I didn't have to remember anything anymore, I could always give an excuse
that I didn't have my reminder lists with me. Whenever I went out with
friends, I always got to be there in each of the photos taken, because I
didn't have a camera phone, and so I never had to take one myself.

The absurdity of my excuses crept up several levels and I started blaming
almost everything upon not having the phone. I hid my incompetence and
carelessness, and enthusiastically bluffed how a smartphone could solve all
of my issues. I vouched that I would get one very soon, while laughing
inside, thinking that I was never going to do it.

One day, when I was coming out of a movie hall in one of the prominent
shopping malls in the city, I saw one phone being displayed there. I had a
look at the specifications. Having a look was never going to hurt. It had
great a configuration, and some really cool features. It was then, that the
most enticing advantage of losing a smartphone, struck me. You could get a
new one!

From that day, it was all poking, and less of everything else, once again.