Triumph Of The Spirit

Life is funny. Just when you think the grass is not so green after all nor the light as bright as it should be, life hits back at you with funnily wierd moments.

One such moment happened with the rescue of the two-year-old kid Vandana who was rescued by an army team from a 45 feet deep pit. A two year old kid trapped in sand and gravel till her shoulders survives, if this is not triumph of the human spirit, there is nothing else that can classify to be a heroic moment for life.

Ofcourse the same thing keeps happening in our country. Just a couple of years back another kid was rescued, a year earlier one kid perished. These are ofcourse just the cases that get highlighted but there are so many more cases which go unreported and nothing is ever done to bring any change to the lives of our common man. Its a harsh reality of our country and its as real as those flashy figures thrown at our face by the finance ministry about our GDP growth or a forbes rich peoples list having Indian citizens. There is a grave divide. Most of us are fortunate to be on this other side but if we turn a blind eye, we might soon be back to the other side. This post is not about the reasons why no action is taken against the guilty but its about the human spirit.

Of course everyone played their part well, the technical advisers, the rescue teams and the army and the doctors but what would have been their worth if the spirit died? The kids spirit not only kept her alive but the rescue men as well. Its not a ordinary thing to happen. Its such an occult like phenomenon. We just ned to open our eyes and see the reality. When someone like Lance Armstrong beat cancer and came back to win the Tour De France it was considered such a dicey thing and then to justify that the doping controversy which will sadly never leave him lone because we do not belive in the triumph of the human spirit anymore. That triumph can work more than any miracle. We are the miracle and we are the gods. Each one of us is a god. The best gift we can give ourselves is to realise our spirits and then walk on our paths with that spirit. Ofcourse some will loose and some will win but the end result would never matter in the broader sense. Just the walk is such a high that the failure or the sucess would be a by product which will not be of much significance.

One thing i value the most is the spirit. Its triumph in failure or victory. The end result never really matters, just the effort of the spirit. That is the only thing heroic in man and worth living for. Thats perhaps a subset of my Ayn Rand’ism but thats how i see life and i don’t care if its the right way or the wrong way.

heh

X-Ray Eyes

It was just a routine day and as i was about to take a 5 minute break for half n hour, heh i happened to look at those two eyes. I call them X ray eyes. Why x- ray, you may ask… cause they are trying to see through…yeah see through all the pain and the suffering, see through the insult added after injury, see through to the harsh reality that we tend to ignore but this could very well be my eyes, your eyes, or eyes of anyone under the sun, heh.

It all started at a beach in Goa, the place where you would expect Purple Haze but this was cold blood instead. A teenage girl Scarlette Keeling dead under mysterious circumstances. The case was which has still to reach any logical conclusion sans the girls life is dragging on and least i may add that it would drag on till the hype dies and no one is interested and the family of the victim left alone to walk their long roads. I am not getting into the technicalities of the case and if for some reason anyone would want to follow it, they can follow the link above.

The fact is that India is not safe for tourists, it never was but i guess thats one of the things that makes this country a great place to travel with all its marvels. There is a lot of exploitation but still there is a lot of tourist inflow especially in Goa which is a sort of poor man’s Bali or a freedom for Purple Hazer’s or simply the sun, the sand and the sin associated with it. Sin? lmao. Anyways

So this kid who was prolly trying to get a high and got it all wrong and was sadly killed near a famous beach. Her family and her mother have been trying to find justice in this dark time and for now the media is helping along. For how long is anyone’s guess…

As if the murder wasn’t enough and to add insult to injury, the mother of the British teenager, who was raped and murdered last month in Goa is now worried at the possibility of police charging her with neglect for leaving her daughter alone.

After Scarlett’s death, police said the teenager had drowned after taking drugs, but changed their statement after her mother complained and a second autopsy suggested she had been raped and murdered.

So you see the police is only trying to follow the Law. The law which does not care a hoot for anyones lifes or the lives of anyone, the law who cant stop a teenager to fall trap to drug peddlers. Yeah but if you ask a question you can surely be countered by the law.

This is the Indian way. It wont change with this case as it never changed with a lot of other high profile cases. Indians live on Auto pilot and anyone who comes to India should be ready to live life in an auto mode unless ofcourse you have a bag full.

I was just amused to se those eyes and hence i posted this. I dont know if anyone would read or see what i mean or would even care but thats ok.. Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words…

Black And Blue

I know this post has got nothing to do with me in a way but in a distant way it reflects my feelings watching the recent developments involving one of my favorite sport personalities Leander Paes. To me, its not always been about the sport but more about the spirit and the heroic trait of that being, in victory or in defeat.

I still remember that Davis Cup tie between India and Pakistan in the Asia-Oceania Zone Group 1 play-off which was tied at 2-2. I remember how everyone became restive as he began to tire and commit less towards some points. He gave the impression that he had lost it. His regular conferences with doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi made people wonder what was up. He received medical aid that made people confirm to themselves that not before long, he would be finished and Pakistan would win.

Paes came alive in the fifth set, started to chip and run and outgun a younger but now tiring Aqeel.

And after it was all over, he submitted to all the physical punishment he went through to crumble to the ground and cry with joy. “It was not about tennis today. It was all about head, heart and patriotism,” he later said.

Patriotism Leander, Yeah and look at the reward for all the tears and the commitment.

A reward for being honest and outspoken.

A reward for playing for the nation rather than opening up a sports academy for people.

A reward for being passionate for the thing you love which is playing for India.

This is just a case of jealousy and greed overpowering any honest introspections. To underline my facts, Amritraj and Bopanna have said that the captain(Leander) was trying to hog the limelight by playing those matches, which they could have won easily.
The fact is that same Rohan Bopanna had lost his first singles (against Pakistan’s Aisam Qureshi) and was not high on confidence at all. To say that Bopanna could have defeated Qureshi at that point is BS.

Mahesh might be a better player than Leander at the moment but its always been Paes who has played for the pride of the nation.

There might be some inside stuff which is not Public Knowledge but a lot of stuff is Public knowledge including the facts that Mahesh Bhupathi made Sania Mirza skip the Tournament in India recently as his globo sport company lost contract for the Bangalore open. Prakash Amritraj – The US returned NRI who was disqualified from US , wants to now play for India as he is kicked out of US circuit. Only achievement being son of great Vijay Amritraj. Rohan Bopanna – another boy from Bhupathi tennis academy.

Every time he is pushed to the limit, Paes rises like a phoenix from the ashes. No doubt he rose from a near fatal disease to play at the international circuit for India. Few people in professional sports can put country above self-interest and Leander tops the list of such proud Indians. I don’t care if he never plays with Bhupathi again. Leander is and would always be the ONLY sportsman India has produced whose passion for the sport increases million fold when hes playing for the nation rather than when he plays for himself in ATP’s or Grand Slams.

Leander You are a champion, No matter what…

Another Day

Ive got no reasons to give for ignoring this space for almost a year. I was just writing whatever i had to on my personal page. But now i feel like reviving this space. Reason being? Well no apparent reason but just as the tide falls to ise again and to fall yet again? I donno. I dont think anyone cares and i dont care if anyone cares so i am gonna revive this anyways.