Friday, November 28, 2008

26/11 Mumbai on War!!


I finished my meetings at the World Trade Centre in South Mumbai and I came out to find my cab had been towed away from cuffe parade. The driver perplexed, requested we went to church gate to get our cab back. Finishing the formalities I asked the driver to drive me around South Mumbai. It is always a pleasure to see this part of Mumbai, tall buildings, iconic structures, and million dollar business happening, may be with very tide lashing the marine drive.  From structures and property worth billions, to road side shopping at the fashion street, to the iconic cafĂ©’s or a sandwich walla’s, or our own dabbawalla’s it is a pleasure sight and hustle bustle around this place is very enjoyable.

But who knew the fate of this place in another couple of hours, when it transformed into a battlefield. The lashing waves bought some unwanted people to the city, who took over this place, its buildings, its people, held up guest at Mumbai’s most prestigious hotels and created chaos and rampage for the last 40 hours and still counting.

It was in the morning, when I started from my hotel near the international airport for a meeting in South Mumbai, and spent most of the day around here and headed back to my office at Prabhadevi and then to the airport for a late evening flight. I left the city, with fond memories of a family function, some good meetings and an eagerness to be back with family after a week, only to know about the horror that started in Mumbai once I reached home. The feeling of being there just few hours before, was itself scary imagine the horror innocent people and our braving soldiers went and are going through even when I write this!! My family is happy to have me back home, but I fail to get answers to how? why? & what for?

The answers to this may be a long silence, but what we lose in midst of all this is reputation as a nation, innocent people like Maloy Banerjee, who happens to be a known face to my inlaws and was getting married after a week & above all few brave sons of the soil like Karkare, Salaskar & Kampte, one of the best men we had in our ATS & police forces. These brave men stand up and face the music when it comes to real war, and sadly, they are same men who gets bashed, condemned and humiliated through our dirty politics when ever these men do their job honestly.

Today the brave of the brave politicians are numb. Where his Raj Thackrey and his band wagon of goons, always standing up for Mumbai and its people, or is it that since its foreign nationals, they have shoved up their bravery. With country facing one of the worst terror strikes, with operations happening over 40 hours, the home minister Mr. Shivraj Patil has not opened his mouth. Is he waiting for some kind of a political agenda to speak up, and I guess his time for speaking up is over, he should own up and resign immediately. I have lost count of terror attacks in last few months.

I fail to believe that such a large scale of activity from teens terrorist is not a one day affair. It is a planned activity and carrying it out in such secured place and in such iconic buildings is sheer lack of negligence or involvement of people within. It is a planned attack. I was surprise to find the Maharashtra CM giving excuse that people could come from sea route is because they do not have speed boats to do vigilance around the dock area. He claims it is under approval. I fail to understand such security issues being “under approval” status co.

Today we all are wishing, it comes to an end, but is it really the END. Have we become so used to such events or become so complacent that today we only wish for our safety, our family, our state, our caste, our religion and hindsight to problems at large. I am sure; our media will unearth more masala out of this issue, and our politician will try to gain mileage and point fingers at each other, but do we realize that all this points at Us, after all we are still democrats, remember By the People, For the People, Of the People.

May Peace Prevail and payers for all affected in this unfortunate incident. 

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

“Dada, we’ll Miss you” …



If Anil Kumble was the colossus, Sachin Tendulkar the champion, Rahul Dravid the craftsman, VVS Laxman the sorcerer, then Ganguly was the inspiration. These were the words described in an article I read in CricInfo and so true are these…

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, proudly know as “Dada” by Indian fans “Maharaj” in Bengal and “the God of offside” in the cricketing fraternity took a bow yesterday from International Cricket. This mans greatness and hunger for success reflects in his own way of loving the sport. With a fine gesture from MSD, who allowed him to lead the side the very last time in the last minutes of the game, still reflected that this man is not over yet, and he responded to the gesture with same passion as he captained India in his prime.

Dada, in his career has been loved and hated by so many in the same breath, and in this cricket fanatic country, with so impatient & ungrateful fans, and amongst the political clout of BCCI, having played 113 test match and scoring 7000+ runs with an average of 42; is a great career for any cricketer who aspires to play for India.

I have been a Dada fan, from the very beginning, and he was the one who raised the bar of Indian cricket as a team, which at one point was dominated by individual performance, to a level, where these boys were hungry for success, and just not playing to gallery or record books. He infused that passion, that killer instinct, and the conviction that India could take bold decision and live up to it.

There were many, who misunderstood “dada”; be it his team, critics, selectors, or we as fans. It was disheartening to see people commenting and writing him off every time his bat did not click or his game plan back fired. I hope we as fans where so impatient and fanatic with our government machinery and politics, rather than just Cricket. I remember taking “dada’s “ side every time discussions came up, and the funny part was people always spoke about cricketing averages and numbers for all players except dada, who basically ran into an emotional quotient of his fans and critics which oozed out emotions which may or may not be logical!!

For everyone’s clarifications, here are some of his stats, you may like to revisit.


These figures were the least referred figures probably in his charismatic career, while speaking in context, and his antics were more popular all through his life. Be it his “shirt off” antic at Lords, or his “not so good running between the wicket”, or his “fitness” or his “dadagiri” as a captain but end of the day it was this man who taught us how to win abroad, and a great person like Kumble approves of that. It was this man who believed in his few good men and groomed them to be pillars of Indian cricket today. It was this man, who led a team which came so close to repeat the heroics of 1983.

Today when he goes, he leaves a vacuum in the international cricket, he may not leave too many records behind for people to chase, but he surely leaves a legacy in cricket and is an inspiration to many individual from various walks of life, not just cricketer with his fighting spirit and never say attitude.

For me he was an enigma who shall be missed on the international cricket, and I salute this great man of Indian Cricket and wish him the best!!

“Dada, we’ll Miss you” …