What A Treat It Was --- Listening To Sachin's Farewell Speech !!!

Aah...Finally the Great man bids adieu....It feels so poignant and hard to believe that.
And what a final speech that he delivered...It was just fascinating and awe inspiring...
His speech included all and left none. The speech exemplifies why he's a great man and will always be.

Speech's points in the same order said by him:
-First of all he expressed his thankfulness to his late father. He reiterated what he had advised him during his speech.
*Never take shortcuts.
*However hard the times may be, don't you ever give up.
*The most important thing in life is to be a good human being. Bad times will come and Good times will go, but what should you always be, is a good person. Try to become a good human being first and rest will follow.

-He thanked his mom for his proper care, upbringing and tolerating all his mischiefs.

-He told that the longest partnership that he has had, has been with his wife Anjali and he made it a point to thank her for withstanding him all over years. He also said that she has taken the responsibility of the family when he was not there. Last but not the least, he expressed his love for her and there you could see Anjali, who is rather shy of showing feelings, crying.

-He thanked his children Saara and Arjun and told them that they are special to him, admitting the fact that he couldn't devote much time to them, but the coming times would all be theirs.

-He then thanked his in-laws and all his family, starting from his sister, brothers, aunt and uncle.
Sister, who presented him his first Kashmir Willow bat. Brother for making what he is today, a cricketer. Aunt and uncle, with whom he used to live for years, for stadium was quite far from his home. He thanked his aunt for treating him as his own son.

-He made it a point to emphasize the importance of having a strong family. Family that supports you during ups and down, good times and the bad.

-He then thanked all his childhood friends, his teammates, old and young with whom he shared the dressing room.

-He thanked his coach for everything and made it a point that all the years Achrekar never praised him fearing that could make Sachin complacent. And said humorously that now he could do that.

-Then thanked Mumbai Cricket association and BCCI and all the people there.

Then he reiterated the brief message that he gave to the team when he was given his last match's cap by Dhoni to him:
-Play with right spirit, right values and bring laurels to the country, because you all are the chosen ones.
-We all are like stewards to this game, pay respect to the 22-yards because this is something that gives you all.

-He then thanked his doctors and physios for treating his illness and maintaining his body.
-Then he thanked his Late manager(Mark) who died in 2001, his current management team and his current manager.
-Media that gave him all the attention, photographers who have given him precious moments to cheer all through his life.

Then he thanked all the people for all the support and belief shown in him; people who have fasted for him, done crazy things for he could score more and many others.

What a scintillating speech it was, if and only if you would have listened to it Live. He left none and emphasized the importance of following your passion, family and friends, and by far the most important thing in life - Being a good human being.

Thanks for all the great moments that you have given to the country and been the reason for bringing cheers to many. You are an epitome of Talent, Integrity and Humility.

Thank you great man. You may be short but truly a 'tall' man.
#That_Sinking_Feeling !!!
#Legends_Never_Retire.

Words that must remain unspoken...

What Not To Say !!!

It was a just a simple talk with someone that made me cogitating about the  importance of unspoken words or simply say that at times we must know what not to say. Not only because it avoids offending the other person but also to make us act more humane.

We are social animals and aren't we ?? We grow up with kids, live with family, work with colleagues and enjoy with friends. We thrive in society and it sustains us too. And thus, we should be very cognizant of our words and actions. Mentioned below are a few situations where we should control our words.

# Avoid bragging about yourself #
Don't be of the type who keep gasconading about themselves, their achievements, their extraordinary feats. These kind of people keep blowing their trumpets like horns in the traffic that make ears go deaf. Don't be hungry for appreciation.
At times, the situation demands us to put forward our achievements and we must do that, but there should be modesty and graciousness. We must work hard for ourselves, for our improvement, must help others in need. It gives us a sense of fulfillment, a sense of satisfaction. And, if we have done something 'good', appreciation comes on its own from friends and family. Appreciation is something that is given not asked.

# Avoid saying words that make people feel disheartened #
Put yourself in shoes of someone who has failed miserably despite continuous efforts. Would you like being treated as a loser ?? Or would you like something that boosts your mettle and revitalizes you.
If you go near someone who has faced defeat and is disheartened, utter words that make him regain the lost strength, re-energize his mind, body and soul. I feel that sympathizing with him/her does nothing except reminding the person of his/her loss. So, don't you utter a word that makes him realize his defeat.
Choosing words that infuse a sense of enthusiasm and perseverance can do hell lot of good for the crestfallen person.
Words can be morale boosters. Choose it wisely.

# Avoid saying words that are critical of others #
Some people tend to be more critical of others, finding faults in each and everything of others. If you really have found some, keep it to yourself. No one asked to give a pompous speech about it. And then, there are a few people who just enjoy picking faults in others and when they find themselves in a group (all of fault-finders) they just relish it.
First of all, we must scrutinize ourselves before scrutinizing others. When there is a plethora of blemishes within ourselves, do we deserve to be judgmental of others.
Should you need to tell someone anything, tell him in a way that he recognizes and realizes them but not get offended. Put yourself in others' shoes before criticizing/commenting on others.

# Avoid telling a friend of yours of his disability #
If a friend is in anyway, disabled, don't make him feel pity by using words of sympathy. Don't tell him that he is considered different. Just let him blend in the group as others. But don't forget his problem. Treat him, tell him and enjoy with him as any another person in the group. This way he would, at least, for sometime, not feel biased, not feel cheated by God.
We must be thankful to God that we are good and abled. And then, I have met people, who are abled yet so 'disabled'.

# Avoid making fun of others #
Now this is very subtle. In no way, I am saying that we must avoid cracking jokes with friends and having fun. But what must be taken care of, are words that may hurt someone. Sometimes people tend to get much personal and start commenting vehemently in a way that could lacerate someone's feelings. People should desist from commenting in this fashion. When someone starts doing this, the onus is on others to stop this happening.
Sarcasm in words should be strictly avoided.

# Avoid making promises which u can't keep #
Promises must be kept. If we can't keep our words, we should not give our words also.
Once we have promised something, we must try our level best to achieve it. Words do matter and people would definitely judge you seeing whether you kept your promise (or at least tried to achieve it) or not.
The best practice would be to avoid making one, if you can't keep it.

# Avoid saying "No" to people asking for help #
Helping others in no way will weaken, impoverish or belittle us, but on the other hand, might support  the one in need. So, if we are not very much busy, we must listen and try to assist the ones who need our help.
Helping others give a sense of contentment and peace. Also, good deeds would definitely return to us with good omen, in one way or the other.

# Avoid saying words that are disparaging of the fairer sex #
In a society like ours, where discrimination with women is still prevalent, our women have to face many prejudices and discrimination. From female foeticide to discrimination, from illiteracy to illegal trafficking, from facing eve teasing to lewd and sexist comments, our women actually have to face more than what meets the eyes. Despite all the odds being faced, today they are playing an important role in the development of our society and country.
Avoid doing something or uttering words that exemplify the above. We should give them an environment free of any disparity and bias.Treat them with respect, protect them and give them their worth. Rather we should be thankful and proud of them because they are not only beautiful but are strong too.

Above are a few situations where we must exercise control over our words and select them with utter care.
You can be a very successful person but if you don't keep these small things in mind, you can never be a good human being !!!  

Throw Ego and Forgive !!!

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eyes. 
One morning, when the boy was around two years old, the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked the wife to cap the bottle and put it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter. The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to it and, fascinated with its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned; she was terrified. How would she face her husband? When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words. “I Love You Darling.” The husband’s totally unexpected reaction is proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he had taken time to put the bottle away, this would not have happened. No point in attaching blame. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her. 
Sometimes we spend time asking who is responsible or who’s to blame, whether in a relationship, in a job or with the people we know, and miss out on the warmth in human relationships we could receive by giving each other support. After all, shouldn't forgiving someone we love be the easiest thing in the world to do? Treasure what you have. Don’t multiply pain, anguish and suffering by holding onto forgiveness. Let go of all your envies, jealousies, unwillingness to forgive, selfishness, and fears and you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think. If everyone could look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be fewer problems in the world.
(Read this article somewhere, and it made me realize that forgiving really is so easy. It eases our heart and gives peace to the mind. It strengthens human bond and enriches it with love.)

What I Saw And What I Felt !!!

It is a trivial incident that I witnessed a few days back, that I am putting forward in my words. It really was a petty experience, petty to the extent that some might scoff at it, but for me it was as subtle as it could be, strong enough that I couldn't desist from pondering over it.

I was standing in my balcony, looking at the hoard of people emerging and disappearing in the milieu. As it was morning time, people were rushing to their offices and few were returning home. (After the rush in the office.) Rush both the ways !! Startled and lost at the sight, suddenly something gravitated my attention and I was forced to come out of my self-imposed coma. 

What I saw was a pretty sight of two kids, who emerged out of nowhere and were hand in hand. Of course, one looked the elder brother(around 5 yrs.) and the other one small but cute sister, around 2 years. They started playing on the road, unruffled and unfettered by the movement of the automobiles. It was not that they were unaware of the perilous situation they were in, but the sole cause of playing and most importantly enjoying life, in whatever you have got, won over it. 

The kids were playing and suddenly the elder brother approached his sister. He went near her and whispered few words into her ear. She listened to the words with gasp attention. It vividly reminded me of the time I used to trick my sister into playing hide and seek, made her the thief first and used to hide in a place, which I was certain she could never figure out. I could sense this happening now.

And the same happened, the sis went near a wall, closed her eyes and started mumbling something, which I couldn't understand. Her brother started running on his small naked feet, made himself comfortably poised and hid himself behind a car which was far away from the place, where sis was still leaning over the wall, and mumbling.

Sister after a while opens her eyes fervidly, moves around in a circle, with twinkling eyes, searching for her brother. She moves here and there, to look for her brother. She goes near the bushes and small plants. Behind the wall and behind the pile of bricks. She tries again but fails. She tries again but ultimately the colour of her face starts fading. She starts treading quickly, going left and then right, straight and then back.. All this while her brother is able to see all his sister's movements and her failed attempts at finding him.

And ultimately, the thing happened. The thing that I was fearing to happen. The cute little loses her patience and starts crying badly, yearning for her brother. Small drops of tears start trickling down her cheek that made her look even more cute and lovely. She could sense that her brother was missing. She knew that she had tried whatever she could but could not find him and that made her poignant and gloomy.

What made me more amazed and moved, was still to be presented before my eyes.

After seeing his sis crying badly, the bro becomes happy, kinda the same happiness that we/I used to be, after fooling our little sis during childhood and feeling on top of the world. This happiness seemed to be offensive but was really sweet because it was wrapped with the foil of love and care. The guy runs a long distance to catch hold of his sis, whose face was, by now, drenched in a pool of tears. He runs, pulls her and hugs her tightly. Consoling her, he tells her that he was not far away but near only, pointing to the place where he was hiding. She too holds him tightly after winning him back, knowing that he has not left, he has not gone, he has not deserted her. The sight was very touching, emotional and thought provoking.

I have seen many people who are well to do, have all the means but still lament, are still unhappy and discontented. Problem lies in their attitude towards life. People tend to forget that there are many people who are happy with less than what we have. So, whatever be the situation, whatever be the condition, don't you ever forget to celebrate, with joy, this little span of time called Life. Fill it with happiness, fill it with people who love you, swell it with fun and swell it with vigour and let go of what you can't control !!!

I was swarmed with ambivalence, mixed feeling of bitter and sweet. Bitter because of the guy who made his sis cry but sweet coz he still cared and loved. And the cute sis, oh I just adored her !!! The instant ramification of the incident was far reaching. It started a chain reaction of thoughts, one after another. I was inundated with thoughts, and lost, thinking of the present day life where people don't care, where people are cozy in their lies, where there is mutual distrust, where there is pretentious display of affection and where there is less love and more hatred.

We are wealthy, still we are poor !!! Empty from inside, hollow, because we don't have the feelings as the duo had... Who actually were the kids of a destitute labourer-couple. And the kids despite having nothing, no proper dress, no proper footwear and probably no proper food too, had the most important prize of life called Love.

And, I continued my perusal of the environs with a silent but satisfying smile on my face......

Uttarakhand Disaster - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly !

The Uttarakhand catastrophe has brought to the fore, more things than just inability and spineless attitude of the so called government and the meanness of the political class.

During the time when thousands of lives have been lost, many are stranded, many made homeless and kin-less, we can find our politicians doing mud slinging over each other and politicizing the matter. There have been cases where these debauched people have fought over claiming sole rights for 'carrying'  the rescue operation. Allegations were made, bombastic claims were raised despite the fact that the 'real-saviours' , the class of people who risked whatever they could, played its role as godly and as humanely as possible, without losing its calm and composure. They are the Army personnnel, ITBP jawaans, who have and are still doing their part without stopping, unfazed by the terrain, unfazed by the weather condition and unfazed by death.

The political class of our country, of which we all know, how much they are capable of, in fostering scams, misappropriation of public money and many sinful others. But, when it comes to real task, real job, real show of courage, they unleash their real self, real character, real disposition. Knave, unapologetic, callous and churlish, that they are. Had it been a test of something like embezzlement, I am more than sure, that our politicians would outclass anyone.

When thousands are still missing and dying, politicians are making it a matter of pride for themselves that 'they' have actually 'led ' and 'carried'  the rescue operation. Some want to emerge as a Rambo in this sombre time, some 'want'  to donate a hefty amount, so that they can claim later on that they played a pivotal role in the operation. Some want to elicit political profit out of this grim situation. Some are claiming that the team from their states saved so many people including 'those from other states'  too, as if disaster struck people, seeing the states to which they belonged. 

There have been several cases were the stranded people were persecuted, thrashed, looted and left to die by the locals. There was a case where a family was forced to give a ransom amount in return for a small child who was abducted by the locals. Food was sold at a price that was just unjust. The time that demanded rising to the occasion and lending a hand of help, people made  this an opportune time to pacify the mammon inside, to hurt the already aggrieved and to debilitate the already languishing souls.

The only silver lining and a matter of pride that came, was in the form of our jawaans  from Army and ITBP, who worked with mammoth perseverance, courage and will, to rescue the stranded ones. They worked despite the environs filled with trepidation, fear and dread. These gritty guys made people cross the gorges, rivers and mountains, more often than not carrying old, weak and small ones on their backs. It must have been an ordeal for the jawaans  to carry out the operation, but they never made tall, exaggerating and pompous claims as our politicians, who are still fighting for their claims in rescue operation.

Making grandiloquent claim, while sitting in the cozy comfort of the sofas of home is very easy, whereas it takes a big heart to jump into a precarious, dangerous and grim situation like this and be of any help, risking your own life. Army is still in the last stage of its operation, trying to rescue hitherto stranded people. Still has it not given its hope; because it is something they thrive on. My sincere symapthy to all those families who have lost their kith and kin. My heart goes out to the jawaans who were killed in the helicopter crash that occurred while rescuing the people. 

They are the people who need to be exalted, eulogized and celebrated rather than the politicians, who are just a class of depraved people.

They are the ones who really have walked into the battle field, defying death and risking everything. They are the ones who have risen to the occasion. They are the ones who have given life to others. 

And, they are the ones who have rekindled and restored the faith in humanity and benevolence.

Theirs not to reason why, 

Theirs but to do and die”

                                 ― Alfred Tennyson