Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Hai Na Maa....

"Main kabhi batlata nahi

Par andhere se darta hoon mein Maa

Yun to main dikhlata nahi

Teri parwah karta hoon main Maa

Tujhe sab hai pata

Hai na Maa

Tujhe sab hai pataaaa

Meri Maa"

I can't get enough of this song...and everytime I hear it...my eyes well up...I'm not alone...my friends have been listening to this incessantly and calling up their mothers long distance :)

You can't help but reminisce about the time when you lay all your trust in your mother, unquestioningly followed her advice...the word "rebellion" wasn't in your dictionary...she knew best, and wanted the best for you...you would go to any lengths to please her...and get rewarded with that "mummy" hug and peck on the cheek. You would do something small like getting her a small birthday gift with your saved up money, but she would reward you by cooking all your favourite food on your return from school, as though you had done the greatest thing in the world. When you had a bad day, she could sense it before you told her....When you got hurt, she cried...When you did well, she rejoiced for you...

She was there planning your fifth birthday as though it were your coronation...She sang to you when you couldn't go to sleep...She read out your favourite bed time stories a thousand times because you asked her to...She stayed up all night when you fell sick and did your work even when she was sick...Her world revolved around you...

But your world stopped revolving around hers after a while...She was the same...but you changed...You wanted to be treated like a grown up...when in her eyes you were still that newborn who looked up at her for the first time and gave a toothless grin...You wanted to be "independent"...when she still saw you as the baby who had to be protected from the big, bad world outside...You wanted to know the "facts of life"...when she still saw you as an innocent toddler...

After all the years of rebelling and fighting, you realize that she knows you best really...even better than you know yourself...She learns to accept you for what you are...and smiles when you come up with the next outrageous idea...because she knows it is only a phase...

You ARE still her baby...she has raised you as best as she could...she trusts you...as you trust her...and knows you'll be alright...

Mothers are the best....Here's a BIG *hug* to all of them out there :)

Musings

We go about living our lives at 1/100th of our potential…things don’t have much meaning any longer…life becomes a mere routine… habits...ours and of others… threaten to choke us…kill us from within. You desperately wish you could break the monotony…yet something holds you back from sitting down and identifying the real cause of your discomfort…you are waiting for something to happen…to make life seem worthwhile…yet you don’t lift a finger to improve things…If you DO lift your finger…it is to turn on the laptop or the TV, and lose yourself in some fantasyland, in dreams that are just … dreams…You watch a movie, hear some songs, and feel temporarily relieved of that dread you’d been experiencing. But now…you are back to real life…fantasyland got turned off the moment you hit the “off” button on whatever device you were using…and you are back to yearning for something special to happen in your life, lamenting the lack of excitement in your own life…forgetting that movies are nothing but our lives…with the boring parts edited out.

Idle mind is the devil’s workshop they say…but when you are overcome by that debilitating inertia…you start believing that even a devil’s workshop would be welcome to lift you out of the nothingness that you feel...you feel lost, cut off from the rest…emotionally and mentally….you no longer feel strongly about anything…you once again start envying even the jehadis…who may have lost all reason, but atleast are truly passionate about something!You are forced to open your eyes, get out of the self-obsessed mode, and look towards others around you…they did always seem better off…so what’s driving them.? Blame it on your mood at that moment…but you find that everyone’s just passing time…escaping life…trying to postpone that moment when they have to sit down and confront what they truly feel…who they truly are…and you once again go back into the cramped, self obsessed world of your own thoughts and feelings…having lost all hope in mankind.

It is in moments such as these, that Hitler, terrorism, imperialism, emergencies, earthquakes, do-or-die sporting events…all begin to make sense.I’m not a sadist…but can’t help feel wonder at what happens to mankind when such catastrophes take place.

It took a Hitler to wake up people to life beyond their individual routine existences, and stand up for what is right….It took being forcibly taken as slaves by a bunch of foreigners, for our country to unite as a whole….It takes an emergency in Pakistan to unite the people in an extremely fragmented country….It takes a ban on the press in Pakistan to finally hear the sane voices of the Pakistani middleclass…which always believed in the right things but loved to play it safe….It took a football match to unite Iraqis across the war ravaged country….It took a Tsunami to bring people together in the true spirit of compassion….It took a Kargil War to bring people across religions together in our country….It takes true hardships to bring out our heroes….It takes a curb on our freedom….to bring out the best creative forces in people….

Ironic as it is, it takes Hell…for people to realize that they can create their own Heaven.

Rain Rain Come Again...

It's raining.The wind blows...caresses your face...ruffles your hair...it's blissful to walk around in a weather like this. Unlike other times...the wind does not chill you to your bones...it just refreshes you...it's awesome!

The campus sports a clean look...the smog and dust has been washed away... it's easier to breathe...

And then you get back to your room...and snuggle inside your quilt...everything around you is quiet...except the pattering of raindrops outside...A few floors above, someone starts playing the guitar. I smile...that was all that was missing...

No Monkey-Business This....

I thought Symonds had taken it rather well..all the monkeying business that Indian fans had subjected him to. Guess I had over-estimated the Aussies...they have finally shown their true breed...uhh...colour...uh...is that racial?

For God's sake...you can cuss like a sailor on the field, go around saying the F-word as if it were a part of the cricketing terminology...but calling somebody a monkey is not done? Since when did white men get so racially insecure?!

Poor Bhajji...feel rather sorry for him...with his English...anything he says can be interpreted in 5 different ways...banning him would be abuse of sorts against him.

On a more serious note, everyone seems to be feeling rather let down by a team we looked up to for great cricket. Ponting, Clarke, Symonds...and sadly enough Gilchrist too...they are no longer our heroes. It is Cricket that has lost in the entire mess...the spirit of the game is just gone.

I don't know why it came as a surprise though...In the 2003 World Cup... the South Africans were quoted saying that the Aussies are nothing but a bunch of actors who've gotten down to playing cricket. Their extremely convincing and misleading appeals have been very much a part of their gameplan. The umpires however were not party to it earlier...unfortunately that's no longer true...The way Umpire Benson looked helplessly at Ponting as Ganguly stood his ground after being declared wrongly out, and then passed on Ponting's "out verdict" to our star batsman...he might as well have been a 12th man on the Australian team...it was ridiculous. Not to mention Bucknor (Last time it was Hair...sigh...endless torture).

And now Ponting has the guts to say that abandoning the tour would be "a little extreme"... Sure...Adding on 4 test losses wrongly to our record overseas would be alright, wouldn't it? Scoring centuries after being falsely declared not out a billion times and appealing like a maniac while holding the ball to the ground is perfectly alright, ain't it?

It kills me to see Ganguly walk out helplessly, mouthing "This is cheating" to a remorseless Benson, and Dravid grimacing "Not Again"...just when he looks like he's found his form...

Making dumb childish complaints against a bowler who you feel threatened from was definitely uncalled for from the so-called world champions. The ICC, having ignored our pleas, having overlooked evidence provided by India in the matter, having admitted that none of the umpires heard a thing and yet going ahead with the ban, and not having withdrawn the umpires who wronged us again and again...has proved that if there are any racists in the world of cricket...they will be found on their own Board...

Whatever the Aussies say and do is OK...they get verbal diarrhoea and talk crap incessantly...that's ok too...Is this some sort of immunity you win along with the World Cup or something?

Down with the Aussies and Down with the ICC. And hell with the tour.

PS: A certain Ms. Padukone does not seem to be having a very good effect on our Prince from Punjab....Amid all the controversies and wrong decisions...he managed to get out for a duck for real! Shame on him!