ASHES

After numerous attempts to restart my blog, I am finally feeling like I am there. 26/11 was a big day in my life, actually the three days after that also. Not because innocent people died the way they did. People die in every corner in this country, heck the whole world. I was frightened by ease with which the whole thing happened and I felt insecure. And then I introspected to realise that I am the problem. I never realise that small actions of mine transpire into mindsets, which transform into habits and then take the camouflaged form of a culture which is collectively disintegrated. I had been writing about how I should rise from my laziness to make a difference, when that ugly weekend came about. I realised that I still not able to leave my comfort zone to do anything, the least I could do was to stop writing and take a break.

Now, as a celebration of my shamelessness, I am back to writing. I thought of changing the blog title, but i guess now more than ever, the name Ashes fits the bill.

A lot has happened in the last six months, generally things have been positive. The major parts have been the elections, IPL and my vocational paradigm shift (true story!). When I was in class 9 our teacher was discussing elections and how it turned out that time. i had been following the news, reading papers lately and as is the case in any discussion i stood up to talk. i said something that nobody liked. i said that people are responsible for the state of affairs in the parliament today because they have given a fractured mandate. "Ye kya baat hui, jo jisko vote dena chahe usse de, how can you blame the public?" was a popular response. But i stuck to my guns because i was convinced by that idea. Although i didnt quite understand what happened last time and how it happened, this year people have vindicated my belief.

Perhaps this election was not about Cong/BJP/Left/3/4/5... This election was of sailing through because the current situation is pretty much unprecedented in independent India. And a horses for courses approach justifies the sentiment of the Indian people who are refreshingly aware of the situation. I must confess that I did not vote for this government for many reasons, but as a second best choice I will take it. There is need to reasses important issues and focus on challenges at hand, but by no means can we dissolve the big picture in this patch work. There is a time and place for every issue and we as a country have to "wait for it".

The other thing that has been happening, is in the world of cricket - the IPL. It goes by many aliases, but I will stick with Indian Premiere League. The only good part about this year's IPL was the fact that it was in South Africa and so there was an even contest between bat and ball. Apart from that its been a drab tournament, with poor quality of cricket, reckless batting, suicidal bowling and the fielding, what can i say, well it sucked. I got so bored of watching cricket after a while that I was working in office, late. I never endorse the thought that match fixing exists in cricket, and i stand by it. but my belief has gone through some rough times this IPL. Its not about the catches. you can't drop catches on purpose and get away with it. Sometimes the body language of the players was so uninspiring that it got me off cricket. One of the reasons i can think of is the sheer volume of matches. Not cricket, just matches. Players may well have been feeling, 'never mind, we'll win the next one'. This was the second edition of the IPL and youngsters were expected to be more confident and valuable this time around. Instead they were edgy, stressed and just not performing. The oldies came to party which was nice to see. But that does not help the cause of the Indian team, which was looking at this IPL as a practice session and it has turned out to be a dent in their confidence.

And finally the vocational paradigm shift. I will be moving to Lucknow within a month from now to join an MBA program at IIM Lucknow. Its perhaps the biggest news in the last three years i have had for someone. Whenever someone asked me 'whats up?', i'd say 'nothing much, the usual'. Atleast now i can say something to interest the other person. The sad part is that i have to leave my dear car behind. I hate this part. But the good part is that I am off the job, its always nice to lower the stakes for a while. At work your are probably handling a lot of pressure because its not just about you, its about clients, their performance, companies performance, global impact etc etc. You can't afford to make mistakes, unless you are as rich as i am (smile). At a b school you are responsible for yourself, perhaps a couple more, so the stakes are less and you can chill. In fact that, i just realised, is the best reason to do an mba after some professional experience because it will give you a cool off period before you jump in again to start the second part of the innings. The mba is then your, now proverbial, stratetic time out.

Labels: Cricket