To hell with Valentine's Day...

Valentine’s Day - a day they say is meant for love, meant for lovers. Celebrated on February 14, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, flowers, or offering other gifts. They say if you want to express your love for someone, today is the day. And before I properly get started, let me clear up one important thing. Here, whenever I use the term “love”, it is not just for one particular individual. It is for everyone whom we care for. The Mother Earth - in whose lap we were born; our country -which has made us a part of itself, not bothering about all our defects; our parents -who have made us what we are today; our partner/spouse - who believe in us, even if we have committed the worst crime; and also, love for the self: self obsession, some call it.

Now, as you saw in my first post entitled “ME!!!” (I guess with a certain amount of self obsession), I called myself “uber romantic”. Good enough. Does that mean I am going to going to celebrate today’s occasion with great pomp and show? NO!!! Why? Because for me, Valentine’s Day is nothing but another way to show how love has become commercial, and not just to show love. Why does one need a particular day to show and express one’s love for someone? Why can’t one do that the remaining 364 days of the year, 365 in case of a leap year which 2008 is?

Yesterday, I called up my elder brother back in Kolkata. He asked me what my plans for today were. I said, “Nothing”. He said, “Good. Intelligent people don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Why should I gift someone a rose which has been priced at 50 bucks just because it is V-Day, when I can gift her 5 roses on 5 different days with the same amount?” That was all said in good humour.

The thought that he was putting across was simple. For today’s businessmen, it has become another big-shot way to earn lots of money, on one single day. They said, “Love can never be bought”. But today it is being bought; the bigger the card, the larger the love; the redder the rose; the deeper the love; the sweeter the chocolate, more passionate is the love. And in this whole amalgam of bigger, redder and sweeter, and the many more ‘ers’, one has very very truly forgotten the real essence of love. One has forgotten that when new borns open their unworldly little eyes, all they yearn for is love, care, affection. They never ask for gifts or cards or chocolates or roses. That’s because they have come right from the lap of God, and all that they know is love, not gifts. When they grow up, with all the effects and defects that this material world lays on them, they ask for things. And this is all because somewhere down the line, love becomes materialized. They love the people who get things for them, and care a sh*t about others. This is how people love today.

I don’t know if you all agree with my thoughts, but according to me, Valentine’s Day is just another day. If you want to celebrate love, Celebrate it everyday.

You have one life to live,
So much to give,
So much to share,
There is love to be found,
Just look around,
There’s happiness there.

May love live forever!!! :)

The Champs were here...

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"

These are the lines from the movie “Troy”. Heroes come. And heroes go. And some just leave their marks on the sheet of history for ever. Since time immemorial, we have seen legends. Legends- who have shaped the future of this planet. Legends- whose mere presence gives their men a ray of hope, even when there is none. Legends- who give their opponents a reason to worry, a reason to time and again feel thwarted. These, are men of honour.

Now, let me talk of cricket in India. Here. Cricket is not just another sport. It is, well, as the cliché goes, a religion in itself. And like most clichés, it is a cliché because it is so very true. Each and every citizen of this nation is glued to their TV sets, come India playing. And the opponent? It doesn’t matter. Among all these citizens, the age group that is concerned with the maximum audience population is the one around 8-20 years. The school going kids mostly. So it is no surprise that I, being 20 years old, am almost done with my full-fledged, intense cricket viewing years of my life. For me, 1995-2007 were those years.

Let me get a bit statistical. Which batsman scored the maximum number of runs in ODIs? Sachin Tendulkar. In tests? Brian Lara. Maximum wickets in ODIs? Wasim Akram. In tests? Muttiah Muralitharan. Highest number of centuries in both ODIs and tests? Sachin Tendulkar again. Arguably the best fielder ever? Jonty Rhodes. The most invincible team? Steve Waugh’s team of 2000-’01, and Ricky Ponting’s team of 2006-’07, both winning 16 test matches on the trot. Highest individual score in an ODI inning? Saeed Anwar. In test matches? Brian Lara. Fastest ODI hundred, Shahid Afridi. And when we think about the subsequent records that follow, for both, the batsman, and the bowlers, we see the names of Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ricky Ponting, Saurav Ganguly, Md. Yousuf, Sanath Jayasuriya, Stephen Fleming, Kevin Pietersen, Gary Kirsten, Matthew Hayden, Chris Cairns, Mark Waugh, Jacques Kallis, Md. Azharuddin, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Anil Kumble, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Brett Lee, Alan Donald, Shaun Pollock, and the list goes on.

If we view this list properly, we see that most of these players played their best in the time span of 1995-2007. Now, someone has correctly said, “Statistics are like mini-skirts. They show enough to create interest, but hide what’s most important.” Yes, statistics do reveal that these have been the very best ever. But what they are hiding is the sheer manner in which they have played their cricket, the amount of dominance that they have had on their opponents. If one has caused the other to have nightmares of him, the other, if he loses his record of being the highest run getter in a single test inning, wins it back the same year. And as a matter of fact, the one who broke the former’s record also lies in the list. These are the men who have shaped the face of world cricket for the past many years. One doesn’t love or hate people like these, one respects them.

But they can’t keep on playing for ever. One day, all of them will retire. Some already have. But the world will know them, as the greatest to have ever lived. And it will be tough for any man to step into the giant shoes that these men would have left. Surely some great players will come, but I doubt anyone erasing the marks that these men would have left on the walls of time.

And as a cricket fan, not just an Indian cricket fan, I personally have witnessed the greatest cricketers ever on display. No one knows if such gems, so many of these together, on one stage, will ever come here again. These past 10-12 years, according to me, have been the greatest world cricket has ever seen. If they ever tell my story, let them say, I lived in the same world in which legends lived. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat. But these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the times of the great Sachin Tendulkar, untamed and undefeated. Let them say I lived in the times, of the great Steve Waugh.

The Three Principles...

1. Honour the Gods

2. Love your woman

3. Defend your Country!


"I have abided by three principles all my life".. so said the great Hector, prince of Troy, son of Priam. Great indeed he was.. a great son, a great brother, a great husband, and a greater warrior - one of the mightiest that mythology has ever seen, Greek or otherwise. He really was "the ideal man".. bold and selfless. He fought against the Gods, knowing that he would die, but still he fought. So when Achilles killed him, Troy fell. He died.. but not before establishing himself as one of the greatest battlers of all times. Yet whenever the story of Troy is told, Achilles emerges as the hero, the shining star, over the real hero, the true son of Troy - Hector.

Like Hector said, "Sometimes the Gods bless you, and sometimes they desert you when you need them most.."

Me!

Hi... I am Shashank, Shaz to many. I'm independent, emotional, and über-romantic. I'm good, bad, though not ugly. I'm confused and I'm confusing. I am.. a rebel without a cause. I want to be rich and powerful - the next big business tycoon of India. An ardent admirer of the two paragons of India's east - the two Dadas. For someone, I am THE best.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, people of all ages... here on this very webpage will you have the good fortune of feasting your senses on my observations, my inspirations, and a handful of my literary explorations... Hope you do enjoy! :-)