The ritual of watching Cricket World Cup

Yes, you read it right. It’s not about playing cricket, it’s about watching cricket.

Dale Carnegie says ‘Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something’ in his bestseller How to win friends and influence people. Hary A. Overstreet in his illuminating book Influencing Human Behavior said ‘Action springs out of what we fundamentally want’.

This is about the people who specialize in human behavior. One of our colleagues was also preaching one day ‘Nobody in this world, does anything unless until they have some personal interest in it.’ We, in general also know that our time is very precious, especially in busy world like today. But I really wonder what power this cricket beholds? How come it can manage to let so many busy souls out there throughout the world, particularly in India, stay glued to their television screens, while their team is playing. Despite the fact, that a plenty of variety of cricket tournaments are there now. But the World Cup fever doesn’t even seem to fade, let apart die.

If you have some urgent work on a day when India is playing, don’t worry, go out hurriedly and you can come back within half the time it usually takes. There is no traffic on the road on a match-day (this is obvious, but still tried and tested ).

One of my friends even posted that “Facebook should be renamed to cricket-book…Ppl like me who hate 50+50 overs match should leave it for a day”.

Movies still allure a particular age group or interest-group, but cricket…it can charm all categories: whether they are school-going lads or matured busy people of my father’s age. My father – he’s very particular about time, doesn’t waste it in watching television or movies. But even he can manage to leave aside or else complete his important work in advance, so that he can spare some time to see India playing. PVRs prefer to play cricket match during the World Cup than movies and people do buy tickets for the same.

And the best of all is: everyone has a piece of advice for every player and every ball-how should the bowler throw the ball at a particular situation, how the fielder should avoid boundaries, how the batsman should hit hard, or any other important playing strategies during the whole match-everyone has a fair idea/suggestion for those professional players too.

Is that funny? Is that crazy? Is that too much? I can not say, I don’t have an idea. But yes, people forget to see friends, people forget to call families when it is the question of a cricket world cup match. I am not too fanatic about cricket, but I also, enjoy the last few decisive overs. I too, don’t shy away from saying ‘abe catch pakad’ or ‘abe chauka rok’. This excitement is unparalleled. Just a few minutes ago, I saw an outstanding cricket match, although we lost it.

I never thought I will write something about sports (as I am least interested in the same). But the whole cricket season is so overwhelming, I couldn’t resist writing this post.

Seven Husbands…Are you kidding?

I assumed “Susanna’s Seven Husbands” might be a story written long back by Ruskin Bond, the famous writer, whose creations, we have gone through in our literature classes at school (that’s how I knew him till date). But it was today only, that I read somewhere, this book has been published in Feb 2011. And the next impulse was a swift Wikipedia-surf to know a little more about him. The movie based on his novel Saat Khoon Maaf had already kept me preoccupied for the whole day ever since I saw that (by now, it must be very clear that I haven’t read the novel).

Apparently, the acting as well as the story is superb. But the best of all is, you know explicitly it’s a fiction – it is not true, nor it can be true. I mean, nobody can have such an ill-fate. Falling in love for seven times with the wrong person and even getting married too, to all the seven. After going through such a dreadful experience with one, two, or even three of them, nobody will even think of marriage. Hence it is very clear the story is absolutely a fiction, but still why my intellect is being challenged by the stupid thoughts that are arising (perhaps I am thinking a lot about it).

1. How much, we human beings need some people around us, whether family or friends, those who love us. How lonely otherwise, a person can be and how it can turn him/her hopelessly hopeful (may be this time, it’s going to work).
2. Situations may seem tough or even impossible, but when you are actually into it, you don’t have any other option than getting out of it, by any means. And that’s what she does, every time she falls prey.

Somebody just asked me, why she doesn’t get caught even after murdering seven people (husbands). And my prompt reply was, “just go and watch the movie.” Although I am convincing myself that it is a fiction, but back of the mind, I also know I am thinking all this just because the way this story is written and the way it is enacted on-screen by Priyanka Chopra & other characters, it is simply powerful, it is contagious.

If you don’t act on life, life will act on you

“Why do people work?” a text message I received from one of my close friends. He was actually doing his college assignment in Human Resources and was taking a poll with his free text messages. I simply replied ” To make their lives better (which never happens actually)” I had no idea whether he was asking generally or in some particular context. So I also sent a general reply only.

Later on, it made me ponder for a while, it’s true. We all dream of a perfect world for us. We even plan for a beautiful house, a fulfilling job, a complete happy family and a comfortable life. But with each attempt we make and each step we trudge, comes some new problem, some new complication. We strive and resolve one problem and the other one begins. Like, when a friend of mine joined her office, she found it difficult coming by rickshaw as it was too much of trouble negotiating with them just when you begin your day. So she went for a scooter. But then started the issue of safety while riding two wheelers in the maddening traffic of Gurgaon, then pollution, extreme weather etc. So she finally purchased a car on EMI. With that started the concern for fuel consumption, its maintenance, long queues at traffic lights and much more. This is just a mere example of how things keep progressing and with them, their problems too.

So this is the real world where nothing is even close to the Fantasy world. As we keep on living more and more, many of us accept the things and get used to them. They adapt themselves and start moving with the flow. And many others, keep struggling against the wicked ways of this world, trying to alleviate the things but finally end up frustrated. In such a scenario, all the philosophies and theories related to life seem too clichéd.

No one can hurt you without your consent.

Your attitude determines your altitude.

Live in present and stay happy.

You are responsible for whatever you are.

I had heard a lot about the book by Stephen Covey “7 habits of highly effective people” ever since I started working. And last year, I somehow managed to read that complete book (there are very few books I have read till date, because frankly speaking, reading was never one of my interests). Many of us, those who have read it, might be knowing that it is all about promoting ourselves from dependence to independence to interdependence. The very first habit mentioned there is “Be Proactive”. And somehow I too feel, perhaps this is something that can help us in this uncertain world where we are so vulnerable.

It states that all that comes to us is only 10%, the rest 90% depends on how we respond to the things. There is a short story I read somewhere that can further explain this statement. A man is getting late for his office, he has a very crucial business meeting today. He heads fast for his breakfast so that he can leave and suddenly his little son, who is having his breakfast too, accidentally spills his milk over his shirt. Madly, he slaps him hard and rushes to change his clothes and in the meanwhile, the son starts crying and misses his school bus too. The wife is busy persuading the little kid and angry with the man for behaving so impulsive. Now he has to drop his kid to the school and then go to the office. He gets late, gets a scolding from his boss and with all his upset mind, ruins his presentation at the meeting too. Now whom he should blame-his son, his wife, his boss or himself?

Our basic nature is to act, and not to be acted upon. But here he’s being acted upon by the sequential incidents. Had he not slapped and scolded the kid badly and went in fast to change his dress, he could have saved his whole day and could have avoided the things from getting aggravated. This ability to subordinate his impulse to a value, could have made him proactive and the First Habit could have worked.

The issue is not how others treat us or how much problems they cultivate for us, the issue is how we choose to respond and what we actually do. Our days are our life in miniature. As we live our days we create our hours, so we create our years. Hence, as we live our days, so we craft our life.

Bigg Boss and the real life…

I am not going to talk about the pros and cons of Big Boss, nor am I going to write anything about its authenticity or methods used to entertain people. It might be a big commercial investment and business for some people but after being regularly observing the Season 4 of this popular reality show since past 2 months, I take this as a very practical mode to understand human behavior readily. The way the contestants are supposed to stay in a single house for about three months, with no connection to the outside world and being overseen by a mysterious person known as ‘Bigg Boss’, whose only presence in the house is through his voice, it seems to be the whole world for them during the period they are inside. He seems to act like a God who puts them into adversities of tasks and then rewards too at times when they perform well.

And the process of nominations gets even more interesting when they have lesser choices to evict their housemates. It gives a glimpse of choices we generally make in our daily life towards the people we deal with, how some of them turn into our favorites and how we start abhorring others. Hence even a little incidence within the house turns into nominations now. And only those who can compose themselves and get along with people well even in negative environments of competition, scarcity and punishments have better chances to survive through.

We have seen often people bursting out due to anger or emotions on the show, because of the adverse atmosphere there. And actually these are the means (like back biting, fighting, flattering etc.), we all adopt in our daily affairs to coexist with other people in this world and keep moving along our own ways. That is where our personality and values come into picture and play their significant role in shaping the things and also deciding our stance too.

But in the end (it’s totally my personal opinion), it’s your patience and intelligence how you behave in adverse situations that lets you survive a little longer. And perhaps that’s why most of the people are speculating Samir Soni to win the show as he has been the most intelligent and poise person within the house till now. Let’s see what happens ultimately.