When God speaks

When God speaks, you don’t hear anything! You only see – magic!

And when God of Cricket speaks, well, you still see magic :)

It was pure magic to hear Sachin speak with Arnab, frankly! Every word an “inspiration”; every sentence a “quote”! It was incredibly enchanting to watch two of my favourites chat with each other, and, frankly :)

Watching Sachin answer to Arnab’s probing – sometimes provoking – questions, yet reverential and friendly, took me more than two decades back. I was in Bombay – yes, it was called Bombay then; not that i call it by any other name now; Sachin Tendulkar had become a big name by then; and it was in the grapevine that he had met his love of life, his future wife Anjali Mehta.

It was a Sunday afternoon and we were at the Dadar Club, enjoying snacks while enjoying a club level tennis match between Ashok Mankad’s son Harsh and his opponent (I don’t remember his name).Befitting a cricket crazy country, our talks veered towards cricket and soon it got concentrated on Sachin. Imagine: we were watching a tennis match and talking about cricket! A friend of ours, a born-&-brought up Mumbaikar, who happened to personally know various sportsmen including Sachin, seeing the group’s enthusiasm extended his “generosity” and promised to take us to meet him at his home; he only needed a couple of hours to fix up our meeting for the coming weekend.

Wow! We spent the seemingly never-ending week counting days! And came the day when we were to go and meet Sachin Tendulkar. Yes, the same Sachin Tendulkar, who today is referred to as the God of Cricket!

We gathered at the Dadar Club, got into our friend’s car and started towards Sachin’s home. Excitement was at its peak! Unbelievable! And indescribable! And then the disaster struck! A dear friend of ours who had suffered from heartbreak recently went into sudden depression and refused to go anywhere. In sympathy, we friends dropped the “idea” till next weekend, which, of course, never came.

I too did not try to cheer up my friend or insist upon rest of us going ahead to meet Sachin as I too had recently suffered a personal loss – assassination of my most beloved personality, Rajiv Gandhi uncle, and I too was in not so cheerful mood. Then there was the hope that there would always be a ‘next time’ – next week – with our Mumbaikar friend being around. Today, I cannot believe it myself! Not even my family, who rightly think that I have been the biggest fool to have ever walked the planet Earth!    

Soon our days in Bombay came to an end and it was time to go back to our campus – without meeting Sachin, of course. And as the fate would have it, within months we got the tragic news of the death of our Mumbaikar friend and the link to Sachin Tendulkar was lost, forever. May his soul rest in peace. We miss you, Kamlesh :(

Since then I haven’t been able to understand God’s design in not letting that meeting happen with Sachin. I have regretted the lost opportunity every time I see Sachin; and will continue to mourn it even post my death. Once up there I am going to ask the God that why He not let us meet the then future God of Cricket! Was the God himself feeling threatened about this “imminent” competition?!

The regret regressed little bit when I got the God sent opportunity to watch Sachin play live.

The day was 7^th February and the year was 1999. The venue was Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi. The occasion was the second test between India and Pakistan. It was the 5^th day of the test match. Pakistan was batting in their 2^nd innings. The advantage was that India was fielding and thus all players were visible on the field! And, yes, it was then that I first saw Sachin Tendulkar live! In flesh and blood, from so near that I could touch him! Yes, the God of Cricket was in front of me, playing, and I simply could not believe my luck! That day too I rushed back to Bombay of 1991. The memories of that day are so vivid that I can narrate in all details even after 13 years!

It was indeed a special day in my life! Not only for the fact that it was my first meeting with Sachin Tendulkar in person but also for the fact that Anil Kumble single-handedly demolished Pakistan with his historical 10 wickets haul in an inning! What a match it was! And what a meeting it was with the God of Cricket! And, that day too, I regretted deeply for having missed out, yet again, on seeing Sachin for four more days during the first four days of the test match; believe it or not, i did not go for the first four days of the test match as i was so-called busy with routine office work whereas actually I was wasting my cricket passes and the God’ sent lifetime opportunity!

I wonder if Sachin would remember this fan of his in red pullover and blue jeans :)

Many years have passed since then. Cricket has evolved further in India. We are the world Champions for the second time! T20 is the most popular format today. IPL is a big brand globally. India has become the super power nation as far as this sport is concerned. We may not have remained the No.1 in various formats of the game for long but India surely dominates – and dictates - the world of cricket!

In today’s times of too much cricket, I do not watch matches always. Not even when my country and my favourite players – Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni – are playing. Watching cricket matches live has also reduced drastically for me. But watching Sachin speak about his “imminent” retirement and his doubts about his availability for the next world cup gave me goose bumps! Indian cricket without Sachin? NO! The thought itself is frightening! Watching Frankly Speaking I prayed to the God for letting the God of Cricket be a part of cricket as long as possible – always, actually. I am sure even the “cricket atheists” will join me in my prayers …

And, thanks Arnab, for your wonderful chat with Sachin! You could bring out so far unseen dimensions of his personality with your superb interviewing. I especially liked your introductory comments and your concluding remarks. I am sure even Sachin is going to remember this interview for ever, when he spoke Frankly :)     

  

Imagine a "Shut Up" World

Watching the 67^th session of the UN General Assembly come to a close with their promise of assembling again the next year for their annual talk fest, I wondered how the world would sound without humans having the ability to talk.  

We have the power of speech which we use the most amongst our humanly faculties but many a times we use it for no use. ‘What?’ ‘No!’ ‘Don’t believe this.”… could be some of the predicted responses of many a humans on this earth to this accusation but a peaceful analysis of our own habit will prove the same.

Take a look around. We find ourselves talking, almost always. Be it at home or in office or elsewhere. Seldom have we witnessed ourselves keeping quiet, sometime not even in sleep! Humans want to be surrounded by fellow humans not because they are scared of feeling lonely but because they feel that they will not have any one around to talk to. Being alone per se is not such a big deal in today’s era of mobile phones; access to people’s voice anywhere anytime has solved this problem to a large extent. It is a different matter altogether that mobiles have also separated actual beings in real life setting with both being busy most of the times on their respective handsets talking to people invisible in the surroundings but being oblivious to the person in the vicinity. 

Many people talk just because they have to talk; unfortunately we all been subjected to the merciless symptoms of verbal diarrhoea! Others sentiments and frame of mind are of no relevance when they are on a roll; so what if others around are feeling like fainting or punching the talker! These talkers are almost always suffering from i-know-all syndrome! Then there are free advisers; so what if they themselves lead a messed-up life! The regard for a balance in any conversation is hardly maintained; almost in every conversation there is a talker and there is a listener; talks between young friends are altogether a different proposition where everybody is talking and nobody is listening! Even scarcer is somebody walking his talk!   

So ‘talking’ is our prime hobby, undoubtedly!

However, a sincere appraisal of God’s gift of gab to us humans leaves me wondering. That how have we managed to remain aloof in a conversationalist world; that if historically we have been talking then how come the world is still so ignorant of everybody and everything else. Why even after living in a universally-connected world through the internet we humans have failed to connect with fellow humans all across the globe. Why is it that in spite of talking always we have sustained the mentality of “Us vs Them”?

We all have continued to survive in our cocoons since ages. We have created boundaries all around us. There are countries and communities and regions and religions and all other reasons to divide the world and humans repeatedly. Though we share the same DNA sequence as human beings but we have remained separated by our self-created shared beliefs in our own superiority over all others. It is quite amazing!

I am sure in a moment of honest reflection John Lennon must have composed his memorable ‘Imagine a world’ song!

Imagine, we keep talking all the time – in place of living, in place of work and everywhere else. Still we find people as parents and children not understanding each other; companions – husband-wife/girlfriend-boyfriend  -still being apart after years of living together; whether it be siblings or colleagues or neighbours, everyone is a stranger to everyone else around. Incredible, isn’t it?

Then why do we indulge into so much of talking? Are we scared of being alone and lonely? Do we don’t know anything else to do and, thus, as a time-pass, we do nothing else but talk aimlessly and foolishly? Well, I haven’t really understood the necessity of talking all the time when we cannot understand each other through our words and also gestures.

If conversations could help, there wouldn’t be so many humanitarian problems plaguing the world. If only like crumbling talks, we could witness crumbling boundaries! In today’s times also we see numerous crises continuing unabatedly. Millions of refugees scattered all around because of inter-nations conflicts; religious fundamentalism thriving and slicing the world; ambitious nations bombing other nations in order to expand their territorial boundaries but in effect narrowing human hearts and minds. We witness the world flare up with scant so-called provocation in terms of a film or a book or an art piece or an innocuous comment, contradicting the age-old beliefs on a particular subject – the most inflammable being the one of a religion. If millennia of existence with the power of speech haven’t been able to make humans know each other, then would the world have missed human talks if we were born without a tongue?

Imagine a tongue-less world!

Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General of the United Nations once commented famously in defence of his organization that “It is better to Jaw-Jaw than to War-War!” And “Jaw-Jaw” was at its liberal display – like always - at the recently concluded UN General Assembly! Imagine a UN without endless political speeches! If only these speeches were a bit less hollow.

Similarly, imagine an India without its own share of political gabfest in the Parliament! (Talking with ‘forked tongue’ is still a tolerable trait in our ‘honourable’ politicians but talking with fists and chairs and tables and microphones and all that is ‘handy’ is … Well, I am sure you must have understood my words on ‘mute’ here :)

Well, in the same breath, if we imagine a world without being able to communicate, the scene is pretty scary. I see ourselves being silent always as animals, busy fending for ourselves and being with each other just like animals, wandering aimlessly. No sounds, no words, nothing to hear, nothing to say; no songs, no poems, no stories, no lullabies; no love talks, no quarrels, no gossips, no time-pass talks; no cinemas, no plays, no dances, no theatres; no lectures, no speeches, no debates, no arguments; no television, no radio; no sound of life, no sound of death; not even the sound of silence … 

Therefore, let us Keep Talking! However, while talking, let us also apply ourselves in understanding ‘others’.  Then only our tongues will serve its purpose and the world will be a better habitat.

No, today is not the World Day for Talking. I just felt like having this heart-to-heart chat with my fellow humans all across the earth, and beyond, if my words and voice could reach to the life blossoming in the outer spheres of our Universe … :)