Why India should NOT win the world cup

         Cricket is a common religion for all Indians and the world cup is its biggest sporting event. To win the world cup is similar to a Hindu having a bath in the holy Ganga or to a Muslim going for Haj. Even before the world cup started or let me put it in this way, even before our stadiums were ready for the world cup matches there were people all across media on why India should win the world cup. We are the strongest team, home grounds and Sachin's Last world cup so let us win it for him and bla bla....All reasons on why we should win the world cup. Just thought of sharing the other side of the coin and my thoughts on why India should NOT win the world cup!!!

         Let us start with wining it for Sachin. I completely agree that if Cricket is religion then Sachin is GOD. Ideally we would have read in all holy books that how GOD wanted us to be a Hindu or Muslim or Christian. Realistically we created these religion and named GOD in different words and gave him different forms. The concept here with Sachin is same. Ideally it should be Sachin who should make India win the world cup. But we humans have become so practical and realistic that like we made religion for God we now want to win the world cup for Sachin. I agree he is one person who deserve to have the world cup trophy in his hand, but then let him win it for India. Alas it is a team game though we may have examples on one person playing extra ordinarily well to get the team the cup but still one man cannot do it.

     They say we are the strongest team. Lets smile on this. Are we not always the strongest team on papers, but realistically we have a bowling attack that is not capable of taking 10 wickets in a match. lets keep Zaheer as an exception, we do not have a second seam bowler we can rely on to put in 10 overs. Munaf has become a medium pacer and may get injured even as we read this post. Nehra is not match fit and Sreesanth will never be economical. Even the spinners for that matter are not doing too well. You cannot rely on the top order to make enough runs every time and the margin with which we are winning matches is a proof of that. Not to mention we do not have a good middle order and lower order is a waste of time including Dhoni. I know my elder brother who did not play for any club would be able to spend more time on the crease and make more runs then the lower order batsman.

     Lets talk about the peoples fav Dhoni. He may be a good wicketkeeper and batsman though I have my doubts since I have not seen him play a match wining innings for a along time now but I am sure he is not a good captain. He is just a lucky gambler. He does not have the capability to read the game like a captain should and relies solely on his gambling tactics. Its time his gambling would stop paying off and his luck will run out. I have not seen him lead the team or think 10 overs ahead of the game like Steve Waugh or Saurav Ganguly did. He has failed to get the right 11 in the team because of his constant favouritism on certain players. And it will not be long when some captains might start pointing out how he has used Raina for fielding in all the games played so far.There is no end where I can stop giving examples of his mistakes as a Captain. I know a plenty of people will support him and to counter them I would give these examples as a response to the comments.

     If you are wondering how losing the world cup is going to help, then you are not aware of the Indian mentality that goes with the cup.We lose and only then will we realize that we need to correct some mistakes. I strongly feel Dhoni doesn't deserve to lead and if we win then he would be the captain for long which is not good. Cricket is not gambling.IPL might have brought a lot of entertainment and money but only if we NOT win the world cup will we realize that we need batsman who can survive 50 overs. ODI s are not hit and miss. It is the next best thing after test match cricket. ( I know that sentence is funny cause we just have 3 forms of cricket but I just want to emphasize the point)

    So these are reasons why I feel we should NOT win the world cup so that we come up with a better captain and team which may be capable of wining the world cup on talent and not luck. You are free to comment your thoughts on the post and world cup. I do not ensure to convince you but I assure I will answer your doubts :-)

Cheers!!

Traits of a true MUMBAIKAR

        They say USA is the land of opportunities. I say, Mumbai is the land of opportunities in India. With a population of 21 million and still growing by every day, it is a city that gives food , clothing and at times shelter to everybody who comes up. Just less than one third of the population would be natives in a metro like Mumbai. People keep flooding in Mumbai, some with an intent to go back and some do not.My dad was one of those who came to Mumbai 33 years back with an intent to get his job transferred back to his home town soon. Such is the city that he could not leave Mumbai and that is how I became a Mumbaikar.

          Now for those who are unaware, Mumbaikar is a term which is used for the people staying in Mumbai for more than 15 years. It means you are a person staying in Mumbai and gives no clue if you are a native Marathi or some one else. I said 15 years cause that is the official time required to get a domicile.The people we term Mumbaikar have a different caste, different religion and a different class in its own. In this post I would give you a few common traits that will help you identify one.

1) LOVE WADA-PAV
    It is a snack that portrays the life in Mumbai. Life here is fast with hardly any time to waste. So Wada-pav is a food that you can hold i one hand and eat it on the go. Like the place, it also comes in different rates and would satisfy the hunger and ego of all the class of people. Someone who does not like it , is not truly a Mumbaikar. And mind you all, we do not take anything negative on wada-pav lightly.We will fight back and abuse you like no one else has ever done before.

2) Time is Money
   If you want to know the value of time, ask a Mumbaikar. A 7:42 train comes at 7:42 and a Mumbaikar will catch it for more than 350 days in a year. We value every minute. We would come at 7 PM on a 7 PM party and not 10 PM. A minute used well is a penny earned for us. With the fast and hectic lifestyle of the city, a person who does not value time, will never be valued in Mumbai.

3) Prefer trains over Car
 Again since time is money for us and we are a bunch of modest people , a person with an annual income of a million would also be travelling by trains to avoid the traffic and to reach his destination faster. We hardly believe in showing off.

4) Think of Parking when we buy a car
 In a city that is crowded and cramped the biggest trouble in the life of a Mumbaikar buying a car is to find a parking place. This is the biggest concern for any place that we go. This does not happen often but there are cases of Murders because of fights started with parking places. the selling point of certain malls or societies is that they have ample parking space. We value space.

5) Least MTI in English
   If compared to people all over the country, Mumbaikars are the ones who would have the least mother tongue influencee in their English. We will not have a thick accent nor will we pronounce English words in our mother tongue. So this is also one of the criteria to distinguish a Mumbaikar from the rest of the country

6) Impure Hindi
 A Mumbaikar's Hindi would be comic and the worst in comparison. The term uses is Bombaiyya Hindi for the Hindi we speak. It is a mix of many languages and terms. This was not commonly know to people from other parts of the country before some very hit bollywood movies made it famous in the other parts of the country

 These are a few common traits that will help you identify a Mumbaikar from the crowd. There are few others like we will be least likely to complain about crowds and that an hour's journey daily for work would be very common.
I am sure you would have some more too. Feel free to add them. After all Mumbai and Mumbaikars are very accommodating :-)

Cheers!!

Valentine's Day Special!!!

       Thanks to Archies and many other companies, these days we may not know our Republic Day but we all know when Valentine's Day is. And you truly cannot blame the young generation for this. They are just learning with what they are exposed to. No greeting company or any shopping site makes such a propaganda for our national language Hindi Diwas or for any other day for that matter. So very frankly it is we who are creating the culture that is been created.

 Anyway this post was not to blast on the day. After all it is a special day. This day makes even a person like me to write about Love. The last year on this same day i wrote my post 'Love is all about you'. Maybe the more popular post 'That One Person' was not timed perfectly but that was just an example that guys do think about Love even without the Valentine day being near.

 I have always liked the day. It just forces you to express your love towards your loved ones. And for most of the common people who spend 364 days earning their daily bread and getting no time neither the motivation to show their emotions, this day gets the better of them. I still remember my first Valentine. She lived in the flat below ours. We called her 'Laksmi Aunty'. We shared Valentine cards and gifts for many years. Later We left the place and could not even keep in touch. I guess I will see her again either when I get married or if her daughter gets married earlier than me. For those who did not understand she was a lady with a daughter as old as me. She was my first Valentine.

 I cannot exactly remember how it started but I do have a faint idea. I and my elder brother used to play cricket at home when my mother was not around. Ya, that's right, guys do everything when parents are not at home. And the sound of the ball and we running used to disturb auntie alot specially cause she had a newborn kid as well. She kept complaining about us but we did not stop. So one day to please her I decided to send her a Sorry card. That never happened but when I was still 11, my mother gave me the idea to send her a card on Valentine's day and that is how it all started. Those years were fun. What was also worth noticing if you are a college going kid that every year on this day all the single guys and gals would try to look their best. Best clothes On. And all the committed people would bunk the college. So this day actually tells you if the girl you like is single or committed ;-). As for me, I always liked to create a mystery, so on this day I used to attend college only for half day. lol

 Later also Valentine day gave the unromantic guys like me an opportunity to express our love through gifts. Now I do not want to go into details that I do not feel Love is only about romance. And the reason why I don't want to start on it is cause I already have a full post on this topic on last year V day. I and my brother also started forcing my Dad every year to get Mom a gift on this day. Later it became his habit. So however busy he would be he would still get a small gift for my mom. At times a single rose but that would still make my Mom's day. And this is the reason why I like this day. It gives us an opportunity to express our love towards all our loved ones. Though a few people do not understand that V day is celebrated among all the loved ones and not just a single relationship.

 And for the politics behind it, it is more fun. The same guys who oppose this day forget that it is because of this special day alot of farmers in the village earn alot of money. The demand for roses in this week supersedes the demand in the entire year. The poor farmers grow roses and get a chance to make a good living. So all those corrupt politicians trying to save them should rather make a point to propagate this day even more.

 With this I would like to urge all to use this day as an opportunity to tell all the people who love you and take care about you that you love them too. Your parents, your siblings , your grandparents and even your teachers everybody who cares or loves you, go to them, wish them and tell them that you love them.

Happy Valentine's Day!!
Cheers!