Why I named my son Vasisht..

Vasisht, as per mythology, was a sage considered as Maha Guru (Master), a master for all the humble who are ready to accept divine knowledge and who are true to their motives and intentions. In fact, the epic Ramayana identifies sage vasishta as the mentor of Rama and Laxmana. One of his greatest philosophical statement was that the habit of laziness is a disease that is responsible to bring unhappiness in a man`s life.

Around India, we could find a lot of temples with embodiment of the great mythological characters that have lived through the golden epics of Ramayana and Mahabharatha. But there is only one temple in India , which has the deity as the embodiment of the divine potential of sage Vasishta.  This temple located in Arrattupuzha, kerala and is dated back 3000 years old. There is a very popular temple festival called Arattupuzha Pooram, associated with the temple,  and as per tradition it is believed to be a conglomeration of gods where in Deities from the neighborhood shrines appear on caparisoned elephants lined up in a row. Their staging resulted in a spectacular show along with the fireworks. The tradition puts it that the deities appear together to commemorate sage Vasishta, as respect to the most privileged master and has been a part of the temple activities  since its formation.

I come from arrattupuzha. I have wondered on the effort taken by the villagers to ensure that this age old tradition is maintained for all the 3000 years the event is celebrated. Irrespective of the religion, the event has also become a source of living for many in form of festival lighting in the area, drama competitions that has become a part of this festival, small scale industrial units, caparisoning the elephants and the embroidery work associated and much more. One could feel the immense respect of human beings to each other to celebrate a festival , which neither has any historical importance like the victory day in France or geographical importance like a formation day of a nation. It is just a village event nothing more and it is the group of villagers’ responsibility to make it successful.

I named my son Vasisht, as a commemoration to all the people who had contributed to the success of this traditional event that was effervescent and resplendent during the 3000 years of its history.

India and World cup 2015...

Let me tell start with a story. A crow was sitting on a tree, practically doing nothing. A rabbit passed by under the tree. He saw the crow sitting on the tree and asked the crow “ Well, I love the way you are sitting doing nothing. Can I do that too” . The crow replied” Why not. Join me . You can sit under the tree relaxed”.  Rabbit sat there for a few minutes , when a fox came by , and one look on the rabbit under the tree, pounced on it.

Moral of the story: In order to sit simply, you should be sitting at the top.

Recently,  Virat Kohli and Steven smith has come up against the pitches in Australia. The pitches were flat and hence the bowlers had a very tough time in those pitches. The test series is followed by a one day series with England and definitely the pitches shall be once again under scrutiny.

Fist thing, India should understand is that Australia really needs to come back into the cricketing proficiency and this is possible only if they win the world cup. After 2007 world cup, Australian cricket saw some of the great legends that have ruled the pitch retire one by one. This includes Ricky ponting, Adam gilchrist, Mathew hayden, Symmonds, Macgrath and this really created a dent in Australian cricket for some time. This was clearly obvious in the 2011 world cup exit to the ultimate winners India in the quarter final,  although Australia had defeated India previously when they had played in the sub continent in 1988 in spite of a strong , rejuvenated Indian team.

The Sheffield Shield, Australian domestic cricket, has long been considered the best domestic competition in world cricket that produced champions such as Warne, Steve and Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Mark Taylor, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath in the 1980s and '90s. However, the ailing format of the game and declining interest in cricket in Australia is a serious concern for the board that is in fact eroding Australia’s status as a cricketing superpower.  The reason why Australia has sticked to injured Michael Clarke to lead the team shows the desperateness of Australia to bring back their lost glory or spell doom to cricket in Australia.

It is also to be understood that MCG (melboune), Adelaide Oval and SCG (Sydney) are the grounds where the final, semi and the quarter finals of world cup 2015 are scheduled. Australia will be putting their 100% effort this 2015 to bring the cup back to their showcase.

Looking in a broader point of view, Australians really wanted to know the depth of Indian batting in the recent concluded test and going to start one day series thus providing flat pitches. However, I am sure the relaxed attitude of Indian batsmen will not be there the day the world cup matches start for the pitches will definitely give surprises and nightmare to Indians as well as rest of world batting giant. I hope India does not sit comfortably as the rabbit in the story above to be devoured. Hope the 2007 World cup exit in the first round be a lesson for them.

Cristiano Ronaldo

How could a jury say Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world.  Just because he has won UEFA championship league for real madrid. That’s not fair cause the Real Madrid has Karim Benzema, Rodriguez , Angel di maria all world class players to support him. What Ronaldo is doing is just finishing the business.

The so called world class player has played three world cup and has scored just 3 goals. A world class player need to be identified by the way he brings the team through the qualifying stages to ultimately the pinnacle of glory i.e the world cup or even the Euro cup. Achieved by Diego Maradona in 1986 or to an extent Roberto Baggio in 1994 world cup (although Italy lost in the finals), or Marco Van Basten for Holland in the 1988 Euro cup, such examples need to be set as the benchmark while  considering  the question of a world class player. Cristiano Ronaldo has not reached up to the expectations of such genuine gems of world football.