Travelling Times

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious. "      Initially he was appreciated for his golden mane, unorthodox batting and flamboyant nature. As time went by, his batting lost its bite and so did the length of his hair. After India's disastrous World cup exit in 2007, Dhoni was handed over the captaincy of the men in blue. It didn't take long for the selection to be justified. A few months later, India won the inaugural T-20 (Shaz referred to as T-T champions - ICC refused to accept Shaz as a part of them) and the rest as they say is history.       Dhoni's publicity mounted the charts while his batting average finally seemed human-like (it had started off Bradmanesque and dropped down to Hussyish before resting at Tendulkarness, maybe a tad higher). The subse...

"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." Dear God,       I’m 27 years old. As if you wouldn’t know that. I have watched 4 world cup finals (1 of them had India in it) and waited 16 years for this moment, a moment of reckoning. Will the boys in blue (darn, both teams are in blue), the ones sponsored by Nike, and have their life like structures in every city in India (and every dream of Indians) mature to level-headed opportunists?       Quite recently, I read an article about successful sportsmen. The Jordans, Nadals and Bolts of sport (sadly, the writer had to remove Kournikova’s name from the list because she isn’t a sportsperson any more). The reason why they shot into fame, and remained there. The reason why Beckham would never be the greatest ever footballer. Perhaps Rooney too. Because when the moment went by, it wasn’t acknowledged.     ...