First Love

Love is a beautiful feeling in this numb world. Here I will talk only about first love as after all that happens is an agreement of love in which is made up of lots of terms & conditions. First love is like a season of spring, it blossoms happiness in your life. It starts with friendship, then it gets converted into an attachment & then that attachment will get converted in to that thing called (first) love.

It is such a blind thing that it doesn't see factors like religion, caste, age etc., now a days it doesn't see even a gender under the act of 377 of Indian law. Its best part is that you will never know that when did you fell into it; It will form a chain or flow where you will just go with that flow without worrying about the world. It binds two persons together in such a way that both of them get addicted to each other. Whether it is a good news or a bad news both of them will share it with each other before the remaining world.

Now a days people has defined love till the limits of physical intimacy but I still beleive in traditional love. I still beleive in soulmate kind of love. I think its more of being there for each other in hard times, standing by each other in hard times & celebrating each & every happiness together throughout the life time.

Lucky are those who people who get their first love as their life partner. God bless very less people with such fortune whose first love lasts forever. I beleive love stands on the base of four pillars & those four pillars are: 1. Transparency, 2. Expectations, 3. Trust & 4. Loyalty. So couples having all these pillars strong tends that their love lasts forever. If any of these pillars are weak or missing then love will end at some point of time.

Now what if first love doesn't last forever. One thing is for sure that you will never forget that for the rest of your life. It will stick in your some part of your heart like someone has applied fevi qwick to it. You will never have same feelings for the other person coming in your life. If any other person comes in life for whom you are his/her first love & you are most important person for him/her in the world & if he/she rates you above the rest of the world then never ever let that person go out of your life. Never ignore or hurt that person on the grounds of practicality.

I always beleive and rate human values more than practicality. For that person you are the world & you can't hurt or ignore that person just because you are too practical. Atleast I can't because I know that that person will do everything possible to make me happy always. For the time being my only love is cricket. I keep lots of expectations from it & it never lets me down. It will be with me forever whether I get my soulmate or not.

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Trip to Chennai

On 18th july 2013 MRF interview was conduced at Park Plaza in Ahmedabad. I got the mail that I am shortlisted for it on 11th of july. It was a big opportunity for to start a career with India's no 1 company with the revenue of over 13000 crores in 2012-13. I went to give the interview it consists of 4 rounds & it took around 4 hours to get finished. In the end I came out with the letter saying that I am qualified for the last round of interview which will be held in chennai on 30th of july.

28th july
5:30 a.m
I was off for railway station as train to chennai was at 6:40 a.m. I was confident that I will reach there by 5:50 as there won't be any traffic. I was at the gate of railway station by 5:45 & then I faced one of the heaviest traffics of my life from the gate of railway station to platform no. 1. I reached at platform no. 1 at 6:10 a.m then I got into my seat & train 'took off' at 6:40 exactly.

29th july
1:02 a.m
I by mistake dropped my mobile on the lower berth. My seat no was 9 & it was a lower berth but a tamil uncle asked me to sleep on middle berth & the worst part was they made me asleep by 10:30. So I was trying to search network from 10:30 but all efforts were in vain then I started reading 'Dork' & read it till 1:00 that's when I was searching my mobile to check the network & I dropped it. I went down & started searching over tamil uncle's head & he was in deep sleep. Soon I realised if saw me like this he will think that I am a sri-lankan & trying to kill him. Moreover I didn't knew tamil to explain him what I was doing. So I waited till 3:00 a.m that's when he got up & went into washroom & finally I searched my mobile & came back & slept. Phewwww.

29th july
4:30 p.m
Train 'landed' at Chennai central. After all that chaos in the night everything went smoothly till I reached chennai. Then I got out of station which was awkwardly designed having entry & exit gate at platform no. 11 rather than at platform no. 1. After reaching there I was ready for all the tamil language, the lungis & all the related stuff. Next task was to get an auto to hotel, as I came out I got an auto, I showed him the address he told me Rs. 120 which was double of what I was instructed by a chennai localite who was gujarati. I said to that autowala 'Anna this is too much' in half south Indian accent. He came down to Rs. 80 that was the impact of that statement. Wonder I have said it twice more he would have taken me to hotel free of cost and finally I reached hotel.

30th july
4:30 a.m
I woke up to a terrible nightmare & checked the time it was 4:30. After that I knew I am not going to get sleep now so I killed the time till 6:30 then was off to get ready for interview. I was at MRF's corporate office half an hour before the given time & was introduced to 39 other candidates from west & north India mainly. MRF's corporate office was at 8th floor of the building. Before interview my expectations were high may be on 6th floor of 8 floors of building as we were told in Ahmedabad that going to Chennai will only be a formality & we came to know that there is an elimination at that time my expectation came down to 2nd floor. Then we were divided among 2 panels & mine was no. 15. When it started I was nervous as the pressure was piling on. After I thought of my experience of giving interviews my nervousness was converted into an excitement. My turn came at 11:00 a.m & after 20 minutes of grinding interview, I came out with an excellent remark from Vice President.

30th july
2:08 p.m
Result time! My expectations were at top most level after the kind of interview I had given. I was pretty sure that my name was going to be in the list of selected candidates. The names were announced & after the last name an awkward silence fell into the surrounding atmosphere. There were celebrations & condolences from fellow candidates from Ahmedabad that I am fresher & I have a lot ahead & all that but I knew one thing that I was rejected. After some time all of the sudden music of 'keh ke lunga' started playing in my mind then I told myself that this is Chennai not Wasseypur. So they won't understand 'keh ke lunga', they will only understand 'nagamuka' & will leave snakes behind me if I said anything like keh ke lunga to them.

31st july
6:34 a.m
Woke up to another dream & that was like there are only 2 people in MRF's office me & VP (Vice President) & he has that devil horns on his head. He took me from 8th floor to the basement of building & told that 'this is your place. Hahaha' & went off. That was enough to disparage my efforts for being selected for the last round despite being a fresher.

31st july
8:40 a.m
Back to Chennai central for 9:30 train to Ahmedabad. It was on time as it left for Ahmedabad exactly at 9:30. This time there was one tamil family & one rajasthani old couple with me. That rajasthani lady came with some sort of mantra like 'eat, sleep & fart'. She didn't do anything else than these 3 things but she farted a lot. In the evening I came across one 60-65 years old man with spikes on his head. I don't know whether they were real or they were his hair but they were straight as darts. They gave me inferiority complex, I clicked his pic & put it on twitter. And I reached Ahmedabad at 7:10 p.m on 1st august. Overall it was fartful experience filled with disappointment & dejection. Once again in my life I was kicked for keeping expectation from something or someone. This is the way life goes accept it, improve yourself & move on.

Spot (fixing) less era of Indian Cricket

Spot fixing or fixing of the match is not new to India earlier also the players like Mohammad Azharudin and Ajay Jadeja has been involved in match fixing. In the year 2000 Azharudin was a captain of India and was caught by CBI on the allegations of match fixing. As per the CBI report Mohammad Azharudin confessed to fixing games with the help of Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia. At that time I was just 9 years old so didn't even understood what match fixing is?

At present the level at which I am passionate about cricket, I find it as big thing as selling its own nation for some amount of money. When you don't like spot fixed naturally on the face then how can you like spot fixing in the match. As we go out in the market to find spot removal cream to remove spots from the face, similarly we need to find out some pretty strong punishment to remove spot fixng as I feel life ban is not enough. Some more strict actions needs to be taken to remove fixing with its root.

After Azharudin and other players' life ban, reins of team India was given in the hands of Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly along with Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Srinath and Laxman put the base of world champion team India since 2000. These players had such a strong personality that if anyone tries to raise a finger on them then their finger used to get burn automatically. So these players made a spot (fixing) less team with their discpline & professionalism. They set an example for youngsters that nothing matters more than playing for India.

Players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sehwag, Gambhir etc. came under Ganguly, Dravid & Kumble. Under them these players also learnt the lesson of India first. So overall it was a spot (fixing) less decade or you spot (fixing) less era of Indian cricket. During that decade we won world t20 as well as the 50 over world cup.

It was the high time to put India's dominance over the world cricket then IPL 2013 happened and all those fixing scandals came out. And big names including players, team owners & even BCCI cheif were involved in it. All politicians and cricketers turned politicians came into it by saying to stop IPL to gain political advantage. I would like to say them that it has also been done in international cricket so that too should be banned right. Now everything is hid under the champions trophy win as the big names were getting involved. I feel proud that IPL as an Indian brand has grown so much but it equally saddens me that it was created in such a corrupted country.

Now its time to clean the dirt from Indian cricket as the trust of the people towards the fame is on stake. Its time to bring back those spotless legends of Indian cricket & allow them to control the board. If it happened then I am sure with likes of Ganguly, Dravid & Kumble India will be back in that spot (fixing) less era again & the dream of Indian dominance on world cricket will come true.

A Revolution in Cricket Industry

Twenty 20 format of cricket was introduced in English County Championship in 2003 by ECB. Since the introduction of this format of cricket, it has created revolution in its industry. It is getting popular very quickly as compared to other formats of the game. Twenty 20 cricket is fast, entertaining and adds new color to the game. Twenty 20 normally ends within three hours so it is fast. We see the most attacking form of the game as we see more 4s & 6s plus dance & music makes it entertaining. Music, cheerleaders & dances adds new color to the game. The first twenty 20 international was played in 2005 since then it has never looked back. Soon after that first twenty 20 world cup was played in South Africa which was won by India & the current champions are West Indies as they won the fourth twenty 20 world cup recently.

Now let's go back in 2008 the year in which Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) launched Indian Premier League (IPL). IPL changed the definition of club cricket. For the first time in any sport players were auctioned to play in IPL. IPL invested huge amount of money in this format of cricket. IPL offers such a huge amount of money to players that they have started prefering to play in IPL instead of playing for their country. IPL teams were bought by great Indian tycoons such as Vijay Mallya, Shahrukh Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Preity Zinta etc. So it became second highest paid league in the world beating English Premier League (EPL) in that matter. This entire star studded event became a huge success & it gained lot of popularity over its five seasons. With its success Champions League T20 (CLT20) was launched in which champion teams of twenty 20 leagues around the world competes to become the champions of campions.

You might be thinking that why am I writting about it as every one knows about it. I am writting about it because I can say that with start of IPL, revolution speeded up like a fire in the forest. With the advent of IPL cricket became popular in non playing nations like U.S and China with its shorter format, star studded nights, music, dance, exciting games etc. By witnessing the success of IPL many countries has started their own t20 leagues like Cricket Australia launched Big Bash League (BBL), last year Bangladesh cricket board launched Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Sri lankan cricket board launched SLPL & Pakistan Cricket board West Indies Cricket board is about to launch  Pakistan Super League & Carribean Premier League.

At present the situation is that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is doing changes in the longest format of cricket to keep people interested in that too as tests are finding it hard to survive. The condition of test cricket is because of T 20 cricket as people are getting the result within three hours rather than waiting for five days for the result of match. Popularity of T 20 cricket has reached to a level that it is on the verge of becoming an olympics sport. By seeing its popularity even players are diverting themselves towards it by retiring from test cricket to concentrate on the shorter formats of the game.

Twenty 20 format has won advertisers also along with its fans. Advertisers are always ready to advertise where viewership is highest and twenty 20 cricket generates viewership and high involvement. Moreover its unlike soccer and tennis, here much longer duration is available for advertising. So it offers several opportunities for branding and communication. Be it celebrity endorsements, commercial time on television, contest and promotions, team and umpire uniforms, cricket bats and stumps, boundary ropes, sight screen, and just every imaginable space is being used as commercial medium.

Twenty 20 cricket is like the grand son of test cricket, but here it is like grand son kicking his grand father out of the house. Its one way of looking on other hand Stuart Robinson, the former marketting manager of ECB said it is "intended as a stepping stone for people to watch longer version of the game." In the end I want to say that launch of twenty 20 has helped the game a lot as it has started matching the popularity of football, basketball, etc. twenty 20 surely ha created hysteria among its fans but it has also attracted many new fans. So twenty 20 cricket has definately been a revolution in the cricket industry but a good one.  

The Wall Became Immortal

If you think there is only one great wall in the world in china then think again even India has it's great wall named Rahul Dravid. Rahul Dravid one of greatest batsmen in the history of the game has retired from international cricket on 9th march 2012.

Rahul Sharad Dravid made his test debut against england in 1996 along with Saurav Ganguly. He scored 95 and prepared strong base of the wall. With his technique he slowly became the back-bone of Indian cricket. Many expert has said Dravid has the best technique to play test cricket.

Dravid made his ODI debut against sri-lanka and had disappointing start to his career but he proved his worth in ODIs too. He went on to make 10000 runs in ODIs. He played his last ODI against england and scored 69 runs.

Rahul dravid has made 13288 runs in test matches at the average of 52 with 36 hundereds and 63 fifties with the top score of 270. He has scored 10889 runs in ODIs at the average of 39 with 12 hundereds and 83 fifties with the top score of 153. He is only second batsman in the world after Sachin Tendulkar to score 13000 runs in test matches. He has taken highest number of catches in test cricket at present.

He also has made many other records such as Dravid is the first batsman to score a century in all test playing nations, he was invovled in 2 highest partnerships in ODIs 318 with Ganguly & then 331 with Sachin Tendulkar is still a world record & many other.

Dravid got his nickname 'THE WALL' because of his consistency, his technique and his ability to stay longer on the crease. He had very strong defence. He is very calm and composed every time he comes to bat. He is equanimous personality and it plays important role in his batting. You won't see him getting frustrated quite oftenly while batting. He acheived almost every record in his career if he missed something was only a world cup.

He served indian cricket for 15 years. He began an era with his arrival in international cricket and ends it with his retirement. No one can replace him in the team or can match his ability. He is going to be remembered forever in the world of cricket. This is small tribute to his service to Indian cricket. We will miss 'The Wall of Indian Cricket'.

The Unforgettable Tour Part - 3

India beat England 5-0. No i am not talking about football match. I am talking about cricket India white washed England in ODI series as India beat England in 5 match ODI series 5-0. As expected India was dominating in India. It was most awaited tour not only because India didn't won even single game in England but it was also awaited because of all those comments on Indian Cricket Team off the field by English ex-cricketers. Indian cricketers were also eagerly waiting to payback to english cricketers what they got in England.

As England came to India has just witnessed an awesome Champions League T20. India welcomed England by beating them by 126 in 1st ODI. Bounce on the pitch was low & through out that match English bowlers danced like shakira around Dhoni & Raina. While batting Jadeja made English Batsmen dance like Anil Kapoor.

In 2nd ODI also India dominated throught the match as India beat England by 8 wickets with 80 balls remaining. In this match Indian bowlers put English batsmen under shock so they were not able to do anything & similar kind of thing was done by Indian batsmen to English bowlers so they were in shock so in this way they lost the match in shock 'shock laga shock laga shock laga lagaa'.

In 3rd ODI India beat England by 5 wickets this is the only ODI in which England dominated with the bat. On the contrary English bowlers started singing(sledging) as they didn't get early wickets Indian batsman were so frustrated by their singing that they started hitting them all over the ground & won it comfortably. In this way India won the series 3-0.

In 4th ODI where India was playing for clean sweep on the other hand England was searching for a win. India was so dominating in Indian conditions that it didn't gave England any chance to come on top of them at any point of the game & again India beat them by 6 wickets. India was 4-0 up.

In 5th ODI India was ready to make it 5-0 but England was also ready to stop India from winning.England didn't play for winning the match but they played to stop India from winning. That's why they sung (sledged) & danced on the field but niether their singing nor their dancing impressed India & again they were badly defeated. In this way India washed England with white in the ODI series. India would have allowed England to win one or two matches if Cook have begged in front of Dhoni in a way Hoezaay do in 'Please Daddy Please' ad of lenovo Laptop.

In this way India made this tour unforgettable for England. As i mentioned in my earlier posts that nothing went India's way in England but this time India made it worst for England. Now all ex-cricketers of England are hiding their faces. I just want to give them one advice that think twice before speaking from now onwards. In England they tried to prove that India wasn't deserving to win the world cup. In India England have framed their own perception in front of whole world that they can't perform well on the turning pitches. India put that much pressure on England that they were fielding like real donkeys. They were droping easy catches & fumbling the balls from the hands. Overall India made it worst for England & they deserve so.

At the end every Indian cricketer should ask a question from themselves 'Have I made it large?' as people didn't turned up to watch the matches. Throughout the series stadiums weren't full upto its capacity even in single game. What should be the reason behind that? as its very rare to see half filled stadiums in India during Indian team's matches. Is it overdose of cricket in India? Or something else. Whatever it is BCCI have to work on this & have to find a solution for this.

The Unforgettable Tour Part-2

Its not over yet after test series lot has happened during T20 & ODI seires after test series also India's failure continues during t20 & ODI series. It wasn't only about poor performance on the field but off the field also happened a lot, where Nasser Hussain & Geoffery Boycott commented about Indian players. We will come back to it, first let's take a look what happened during rest of the tour.

T20:
India started well during T20 with Parthiv Patel & Ajinkya Rahane. Rahul Dravid made his first & last international T20 memorable by hitting 3 consecutive sixes before getting out but at the end of there was great Indian collapse & India was restricted to 160 odd runs. England had long batting line-up it proved so Indian bowlers were not up to the mark. India lost T20 match.

1st ODI:
India still looking for its 1st win of the tour once again Parthiv Patel & Ajinkya Rahane gave an excellent start but Rahane departed for 40 odd runs & Patel played his career best innings of 95. With the help of Patel's 95 & Raina's fireworks at the end. India reached the respectable score of 274 of 50 overs. England in reply started shattering after 6 overs they were 27/2 when rain saved them. In this way India was restricted from getting its 1st win.

2nd ODI:
This match was reduced to 23 overs due to rain. India was put to bat first by England. Rahane & Raina gained fighting total but Indian bowling fell apart once again in that match & we lost the match

3rd ODI:
In this match India didn't got off to a good start. India was going down at 58/5. Dhoni & Jadeja rose to the ocassion & gained respectable total of 234. It was the match in which Indian bowlers were enjoying bowling but here English batsmen got an edge over Indian bowlers & won the match.

4th ODI:
India got off to a good start then few wickets fell quickly. Raina & Dhoni showed their class & took India to winning total. England gave a hard fight when they were 270/8 in 48.5 overs. Once again rain came in to play & match was tied according to D/L method.

5th ODI:
In this game India crossed 300 mark for the first time in the tour. Dravid made his last appearance in the ODIs memorable with his 50. Kohli & Dhoni also played formidably well but Indian bowlers didn't had potential to stop England from winning.

According to me who really shined throught the rest of the tour were Rahane, Patel, Raina, Dhoni & Jadeja. Rahane made his debut count & played well in his debut series. Parthiv was like a new born child who has no fear in this series. Raina played to his potential in the limited overs which was lacking in him during test series. Dhoni was the only one who was with the team through out the tour. Jadeja without any match practice performed very well as allrounder.

Now let's come things happened off the field. Nasser Hussain called Indian fielders donkeys. If you look at his records under his captaincy England were beneath the earth. After Nasser's comment Micheal Vaughan tweeted I saw 4 donkeys on the field. Now his records were ok but then also he was forced to retire & when he announced his retirement he cried like a child during the same press conference.
The last one was Boycott ya the one who looks like a swine. He said in the pre match show that i have seen some dogs practicing while Indian team was practicing. I don't know much about him other than he looks like a swine.

This was a unforgettable tour for every Indian. Hopefully next time India will make the tour unforgettable for England.