Thought for the Day - Finding Out What We Love

It's interesting but we normally end up ignoring the one thing we love. Normally it is also true that we are good at what we love doing. But we give up on what we love and start doing something else - in most cases to earn a livelihood. Once we enter our jobs we delude ourselves that we don't really love what we loved before. In the process we give up on a fine opportunity to express ourselves

Most people are also shy to admit to things they loved doing before. Some omit their greatest loves from their list - perhaps they have buried those fine memories deep in their mind. But if one wants to find out what one really loves - to pick a career (if one is young) or to find out what one is good at (to use at a career) - all we need to do is go back in our lives and see what we have invested our time and energy in - proactively. By that, I mean doing something entirely by our own initiative, sometimes even at the cost of antagonizing our parents. We do it because we love it. It is almost a natural impulse - something we have to do whatever happens.

If we have bought the cricket kit, the sports magazines, cut out posters, stuck them up, maintained records and statistics, played cricket all over and try to watch as many games as we can (I did that) then it is obvious that we love cricket! If we buy books, borrow books, talk about books, are part of book clubs, enjoy reading - then we have some expertise with books. If we have bought a camera and clicked hundreds of pictures even if meant going off at odd hours of the day, if we have cooked new dishes and got good applause for them, if we stitch well and have stitched several designs and clothes, if we watched tons of movies and remember lots of details about movies, if we listened to lots of music and have huge collections of music and memorabilia - it is obvious where our passions lie. But then we end up doing something radically different. In all the people I knew who did engineering, it was my cousin Sanjay who devoured 'Electronics for You', a magazine, right from his fifth class, who did what he really loved in engineering. He studied electronics engineering at IIT, Madras and went on to a successful career in Electronics.

Surprisingly most of us give these passions up and restrain our primary form of expression. Like Harsha Bhogle pursued his love for cricket through commentary even after a Chemical Engineering degree from Osmania University and a PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad, we could find professions that may be extremely rewarding which are built around our area of expertise. We would be getting paid for doing something we love and something we know well. Film journalism, film making, writing, cooking, photography, designing - the world now has many more options that are highly rewarding. The only criterion is that one develops enough expertise around it and is willing to stay on course for the long run. It could be a highly satisfying journey and rewarding too. For the young this could be one way of aligning what they are studying with what they love to get into more rewarding careers. For the middle and old aged it is never too later to start - even as a hobby or as a way to be happy. Or even a career if one is adventurous enough.

IPL Trivia

One thing that amazes me about the IPL is how the commentators do it. They are at it day in and day out, full of enthusiasm and energy, poetry and songs, laughter and dance. But how much can you do this commentary? I get bored watching the games after a while and I wonder how they analyse the game and the players and the pitches, match after match. What I find most stressful is how they answer the questions posed by the well meaning anchors who try to get the commentators to commit on highly entertaining stuff like which side will win, who will score, how they think the game is placed, whether the toss is important and so on. But the commentators keep at it gamely.

The anchors fill me with surprise. They engage in some of the most inane conversations with the players and the franchise owners. For example common questions to players are - what was your strategy today? As if the player will reveal it to the whole world. Or, how do you plan to get Viru out today? And the most difficult one after all - how do you plan to celebrate your win today? Of course the cricketers give deliciously vague answers - it is as if they have all undergone training classes.

The cricketers speak like this. 'We are here to enjoy the game'. 'I was told to just go out and express myself'. 'They played better cricket than us.' 'He is a fantastic player'. 'Our batting clicked, our bowling clicked and our fielding clicked.' 'We must believe in the process and do a lot of hard work.' 'We were looking to bowl in the right areas.' 'The pitch was playing well and it had something for the bowlers as well.' Beyond this they do not say too much. Some gag order on them perhaps.

I like the conversations between the pretty anchors and the franchise owners best especially when it comes to cricket. Everyone suddenly develops an accent all the Rs are rolled with gusto. 'It is a pressurrre game..and we must bat well, field well and bowl well'. The anchors end up with asking about the party plans for the night and what the team's strategy is for the next game. Everyone is deliciously clueless about what is happening in the middle but you see, they own the teams and the other lady has the mike so we have to endure it all.

I am all for a law against cricketers spitting. If spitters can be fined for spitting on the road, cricketers must be fined for spitting in the ground and on camera. Its amazing how much they spit.

It is also interesting to note that quite a few MPs are at the games. Some as commentators, some as players, some as Commissioners of IPL. A sporty lot. How does the government function is what I'd like to know?

The IPL Diaries - May 15, 2012

Deccan Chargers vs Punjab XI - An Honest Look Within Required for DC
Deccan Chargers loss against Punjab XI the other night was probably the low point of their campaign. In the last few games they have been getting awesome scores on the board what with the in form Dhawan and White getting runs consistently. And consistently they have been unable to defend to totals of 180 plus which is a shame. To say the bowling has not delivered is not right -   I suspect that there is something else at play here. It is about trust and everyone in the team being on the same frequency but I suspect that despite putting up a brave face, the Hyderabad franchise has some serious backroom issues that need to be sorted out. Just a feeling but that is what I think it is. Sangakarra is a nice man, Lehmann seems to be sorted out, the youngsters are really good (Dhawan, Veer Pratap, Ashish Reddy) and so are the Indian  players (Amit Mishra, Parthiv). The internationals are exceptional with Sanga, Steyn, White, Christian, Duminy, Harris. No reason for this team to lose so badly. Cricket as with any other sport or life, demands complete honesty and that is what the DC management needs to look at when it appraises its performance now. It's not about fielding, or bowling yorkers - it's what's wrong with the entire approach. For Punjab to pull it off the way they did - it speaks volumes of intentions and an honest approach.

RCB vs Mumbai Indians - The Mayank Agarwal and Ambati Rayudu show
Two brilliant games yesterday with RCB against Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings against  Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB in a must win game turned up in green. If I was the team manager I'd disallow that change in colour because your colour is your identity. You cannot switch from a fiery red to a friendly green and expect to carry on with the war in the same spirit. Luckily Kohli was in command which was good. But RCB was nervous right from the start and Mumbai even more nervous. To me the most nervous team and bench is the Mumbai Indians side. Anyway I loved Mayank Agarwal's brilliant batting and thanks to him the RCB's got to an improbable 171. Highly defendable. Mayank was sensational in the way he handled the much acclaimed Mumbai attack. RCB then had Mumbai by the scruff of their neck with their top gone and then gave it away to Rayudu and Pollard. What went wrong - the fifth bowler of course. Appanna's one over cost 19 runs with three sixes and Kohli turned to Gayle whose three overs cost 39 runs. Other options being Dilshan (not a bad choice, he is a street smart cricketer), Kohli (low on confidence). Anyway RCB lost the game in their minds in the last few overs and you could see there was no fight once Mumbai picked up momentum. Rayudu's tremendous talent was on display once again - here's a cricketer whose career has been decimated from his Under 19 days by some egoistic players, selectors and administrators in the Hyderabad Cricket Association and I am glad he has got a new lease of life to display his talent. For Mumbai to go into the RCB den and win this game (biting nails and all) it must be another case of living to fight another day. Still don't look convincing the Mumbai Indians but they are winning even if its by a hair's breadth.

CSK vs KKR - Battle of Beliefs
Another team that is winning by lesser margins is CSK. The match against KKR was odd - 100 runs coming up easily for both sides and then the loss of wickets in a heap. First KKR suffered a collapse after a 100 run partnership and ended with 158 which was chased with all urgency by CSK's Hussey and Vijay. One Sunil Narine over with two wickets and things changed on its head. Dhoni came, saw and then when they needed a big over in a drought like situation against the slower bowlers, targeted the quick Marchant for a brutal 6, 4 and 4 and brought CSK back from the brink. Rajat Bhatia bowled a brilliant last over, getting Dhoni out with a lovely slow  leg cutter and doing everything right until he bowled a thoughtless full toss to Bravo on the last ball. What happened Rajat! Bravo's desperate heave just about got the ball over the long on boundary and CSK handed KKR a defeat when KKR looked all in control. KKR fielded brilliantly though and got most things right except their team composition. Dhoni rad it right with three spinners and Gambhir read his own pitch wrong and played three seamers on a spinning track. But more than all that I think the difference was Dhoni's immense confidence and belief that his team will pull through which took CSK home. For belief and confidence lessons, please contact Prof. Dhoni. Even the way Dhoni strode off after getting out in the last over with 8 to spare was as if he had it all in the bag. That confidence is enough to make everyone think twice. Well done CSK and Dhoni. Despite all the criticism about leaving it for too late - Harsha Bhogle, Ajay Jadeja and even Gambhir - this man has the last laugh as he is winning you see. Come on fellows if you cannot stomach it its your problem. Captain fantastic is doing everything right!

As the tournament comes to the business end, its the guys who have the heart to fight who will win.

Thought for the Day - Living the Outcomes

In many books and videos of the nature of 'The Secret' I have found the mantra to receive what you ask for to be this. Ask for what you want with all the passion and experience of already having received what you asked for! What it means is that if I asked for a BMW, I ought to be asking for it in the present tense and feeling the exhilaration or feelings that accompany the actual act of driving my new BMW. When I first heard this and saw it on 'The Secret' my sceptical mind popped up and killed the idea totally. Asking for things is fine but behaving like I actually got them - how foolish I thought. What purpose does is serve anyway?

Pic: Beach at Mahabalipuram, courtesy Shobha

But when I was explaining this concept to an obdurate group, my best teachers, the other day, I found myself telling them that if we were looking at career advancement it pays to be in the state of living the outcome. Instead of cribbing about our life here and now, dressing sloppily, behaving casually and so on, it might help to start living the outcome of the promotion now. Dress as you would if you got the promotion, behave as you would if you got the promotion, work as you would if you got the promotion. (Of course one is hoping that the idea of a promotion means more responsibility and more responsible behaviour and better work ethics). Okay, so what happens other than a small change in wardrobe, one may ask.

Chances are that by getting into that state of living the outcome you set many things in motion. In your mind, by dressing up for the part, you have sent a clear directive to the subconscious mind that you are now ready to get that promotion. This is the first act of responsibility from your side. Normally this is accompanied by the environment respecting you and your intention instantly. You place more responsibility on yourself what with your new expectations. With all these things happening it is certain that your work ethic improves, your performance improves and most importantly - your deservability to accept what you asked for improves.  

Whatever it is that you want then, take the first step to living the outcome of what you want. It could be symbolic - as simple as dressing up for the part to more meaningful symbols of what the outcome means to you. A cricketer wishing to play international cricket ought to dress, behave, train, behave and carry the kit that any cricketer playing the next level would, and then the next level and so on. Those who think poverty thoughts could spend on themselves, by treating themselves to those things that make them feel prosperous (small things which get the meaning across to yourself - and not wild spending beyond your means.) By living the outcome now, you are preparing yourself to receive what you want. So get started and start living the outcome - with whatever it is that you want.

Johnny English Reborn - Movie Review

This 2011 Rowan Atkinson movie is a spoof on James Bond and all British super spy movies. Atkinson is Johnny English, the disgraced British spy who works for MI7, and who was chief of security when an assassination takes place in Mozambique as he is led away by a pretty young thing.

Johnny English is regaining his lost self esteem and power through some rigorous and rather unconventional training in Tibet when he gets a call to report to MI7 in London. Armed with the knowledge that he is not young but older and wiser, Johnny English meets Pegasus who assigns him a job of finding out a plot to assassinate the Chinese premier. Johnny uncovers the plot with his trusted  aide Tucker and the psychologist Kate Summers and after a series of episodes finally nabs the mole within MI7 - his colleague Simon Ambrose. All's well and that ends well for Johnny English as he is called to the Buckingham Palace to be knighted. But Johnny English finds that the killer who dresses as a maid is wearing the same clothes as the Queen and...we don't know if gets his knighthood finally.

There are enough gags to keep you laughing but still Johnny English Reborn is not as funny as it could have been perhaps. I liked the gag when he goes to meet the Prime Minister to brief him on the status where the chair keeps going up and down. Atkinson is fun and I do wish some of the gags were not as predictable as they were. Watch it for Atkinson and for some good fun. Not right up there but it has enough to keep you satisfied.

Nine Lives - William Dalrymple

And finally a William Dalrymple book! Nine Lives (Bloomsbury, Rs. 399, 284 p) did not disappoint and I could only marvel and wonder at the enormous patience, love and research that the Delhi based Scotsman William Dalrymple has not only for life, for his work and for India, as he reels off detailed and in depth information about an India we Indians would never know of. Living here in India we take many things for granted and somehow seem to live only on the surface (I speak for myself). Beneath it all everything is boiling and we try not to upset the equilibrium by sticking to our own space. But for Dalrymple and many of his ilk India is to be probed and explored and he does that in great fashion in 'Nine Lives' where he meets nine different people who live lives that are steeped in the many layered religions of India and the professions that go with them.Through these nine lives we see an India that gives a glimpse of the enormous complexity and knowledge that lies beneath ritual, custom, caste, profession - all culminating into the search for God

Dalrymple starts with a Jain Mataji whom he meets at the Bahubali temple in Sravanabelogala in Karnataka. The Mataji is a young lady who renounces her business family in Ranchi to take up diksha or renunciation of the world. From plucking out each hair by the roots to wandering around the countryside with no shelter on their head on foot, following the strictest rules and regulations, the tale of the Jain nuns is told in great detail through the life of the young Mataji. Then we move to Kannur in Kerala where we meet Hari Das, a  dalit theyyam dancer who performs the rigorous theyyam dances in season and is a prison warder for the other months in the year. The theyyam dancers who perform their dances all night, with their take on the caste system are patronised by the higher castes and they are seen as the mediums of the divine with healing powers. Hari Das considers himself a medium as he heals and solves problems for even the higher caste brahmins.

We move on to Saunditti in Karnataka and meet the daughters of Yellamma, the devdasis, where young girls are dedicated to the god as slaves of god. Though the girls are turned over into flesh trade they are worshipped as the daughters of Yellamma even by the high castes. The story of Rani bai who was one such devdasi and later sold off to a brothel in Mumbai and her dreams of retiring with a dairy despite knowing that she has AIDS is the third. From Karnataka we travel to Rajasthan and Pabusar where we meet Mohan Bhopa, the singer of Pabuji's epic, a version of Ramayana, which goes on for 5 nights of 8 hours each as he recites and performs the 4000 line poem. Coming from the lowly Nayak caste of cattle herders Mohan Bhopa is no more, but his tradition is being carried on by his family.

In Sehwan, Sindh on the other side of the border is Lal Peri or the Red Fairy, a lady with a club who inhabits the Sufi shrine of Lal Shahbaz. Through her life we know how the young Muslim girl ran away from Bihar to escape Hindu-Muslim riots and then to Bangladesh and finally to Sindh on a vision. The shrine has since been demolished by Wahabbi hardliners who believe that Sufism is not Islam. Then we meet Passang, the seventy year old Tibetan monk in McLeodganj, Dharamsala, who was driven out from his monastery when the Chinese occupied Tibet. He took up arms to fight the Chinese but had to flee as the Chinese intensified their search for him after killing his mother. He escorted the Dalai Lama as he sped into exile into India from Tibet to escape the Chinese and then joined the Indian army and fought the Bangladesh war. The warrior monk still feels guilty and restless for the killings he had to commit and has now returned to a life of penance, deeply unhappy at the thought that h has to live like a refugee when his own country has been forcibly occupied by the Chinese.

Then we head down South near Trichinapoly to the holy town of Swamimalai to meet Srikanda Stapthy, the 23rd in a line of idol makers for the temples. The sacred lineage has been passed down father to son for 700 years and the maker of Idols whose ancestors made idols for the Chola kings knows he is superior to other idol makers because he has been passed on the knowledge of the Shilpa Shastra which is followed by them to the proportions given. Srikanda believes that only brahmins can bring the divine into the idols as it has been said so in the shilpa shastra and that there is something in their blood which makes the idols what they are. From the puritanical idol maker we head to Tarapith in Bengal to meet the tantric Manisha Ma Bhairavi who shows Dalrymple how to drink from a human skull. The tantriks live in cremation grounds and are known for their tantrik practices which involve animal sacrifices, sexual rituals and all that is seen as ungodly by the higher castes. Manisha Ma lives in with Tapan sadhu after she ran away from her home in Calcutta where she would get into trances or get possessed by the Goddess. One such trance in a temple got her deified by the temple priest but Manisha made off from Calcutta, leaving her three daughters to find her calling.

The last of the nine lives is that of the blind minstrel Kanui, a baul, or a singing mendicant. All baulis meet at Kenduli near Shantiniketan in Bengal during Makar Sankranti for a festival. It was here that we meet Kanui and his friends Debdas and Panab who sing their songs and dance in a wild and abandoned manner of the baulis. In their songs are preserved old teachings on breathing, sex, asceticism, philosophy and divine inner knowledge. The bauls wander along with no possessions and are known to use sexuality to reach the divinity of inner self.

Dalrymple's research and his knowledge of the world at large makes this book all the more readable as he gives the backdrop of each of these practices, professions, rituals the proper setting to understand them better. He is not judgmental and speaks to both the sufi singer and the Muslim cleric who bans sufism. I ask myself one question - why has not such work been done in India before? And I think I know the answer too. It is easier to delve into an India that lies within from the eyes of an outsider than that of an insider. There is much we fear that we might upset of the fragile balance we seem to live in, be it walking into the mosque or the church or the temple, questioning certain practices and speaking to certain people who may or may not be accepted in that society. Fears that are needless perhaps but nevertheless fears that are true. But full credit to Dalrymple for doing that and for bringing closer an India that I would not have known, through these nine lives.

What amazes one is the method, the certainty that each of these marginalised devotees adopt while searching for the divine (except for the idol maker all else live hard lives with no or little money or comfort) in whatever they are doing. The tantrik drinker from human skulls is convinced of the divine just as the puritanical idol maker is, the Jain nun who abhors all forms of violence is just as the blood drinking theyyam dancer is - they all believe that they are the medium and that they are only allowing God to express themselves through their devotion.

These are but nine lives and India for sure has hundreds and thousands of such lives, each with a rich repository of knowledge, culture, song and dance, gods and customs, rituals and beliefs. And so we move on, wondering at the country that is India, at what it holds within in its unfathomable depths. To Dalrymple then who does a good job of writing well and making our history so interesting, a job well done.  Worth a read for all those who wish to know more about an India we normally do not encounter.

The Shatabdi Express - Pune to Hyderabad

The change in my Shatabdi experience since last December is marginal.  I have now moved into first class which offers more space and that is about it. The food is just about palatable - in fact I keep leaving out more than I eat, the overall cleanliness pretty ordinary (I had to dust my seat before I sat in it this morning to get some bread crumbs off it), the loos while going to Pune were atrocious, and the general service varies from unsmiling to rather intimidating at times. I do wish someone would train these people who serve food to show some semblance of a smile, of peace around them so the eating experience gets better. And not stare at the poor passengers as if they had made some completely outrageous demands by partaking of the food that they had paid for. The Pune-Hyderabad Shatabdi must be taken for sheer functionality and nothing else. All else is a bonus really - food, service, cleanliness.

One thing that is a constant feature on all forms of travel these days is the ubiquitous Telugu bidda (we are all over the world now anyway) armed with their loud cell phones playing raucous music or their laptops playing downloaded Telugu movies loudly. For some reason I have always had this experience with Telugu biddas only - they seem completely oblivious to the fact that there are other people around them. Give them a cell phone, a laptop and they are lost to the world and go about playing it loudly. Normally they operate in pairs and both seem to enjoy the loud rendition or the movie screening exclaiming to one another loudly. Today's special in the train was a Telugu movie that the two middle aged gentlemen watched at the cost of keeping everyone around them awake. Headphones my dear Telugus, are available. Please use them. I can also see why the Telugus get whacked wherever they go these days - I feel like whacking my fellow countrymen myself and knocking some sense into them sometimes. Well meaning chaps but you know - a bit loud sometimes.