What starts with a Bang, doesn’t have to end with a whimper! Not at least with KP

He has been a star! One with most astonishing shine and glitter!

He is distinct; one noticed almost immediately – thanks to his broad stance at batting crease, his stylish hairstyle, tattoos on biceps which stare at every bowler when he pulls sleeves of his half sleeve jersey as if getting ready to launch into an attack. His aggressive eyes which are not altogether bereft of boyish mischievousness are as expressive as his candid encounters with media.  He has the best gift anyone in any competitive arena wants, gift of standing out of the lot, raising the standards and inspiring many in process of doing so!

Right from the time he debuted for his county team, there was no second opinion on the fact that he was a gifted sportsman.  He is right at the top of that niche and rare lot of cricketers who have lifted the cricket to new heights by defying its traditional, accepted and orthodox ways.  The way he swivels his entire body while playing switch hit is inexplicable, it is hard to describe the amount of amazement such a stroke brings to a cricket lover.  His contests with greats of game like Murali, Warne, McGrath and Steyn are cricket lovers’ ultimate delight.  He is just as good at playing unorthodox shots like switch hit; reverse sweeps and short armed jabs as he is at some of the most classical strokes like straight drives, cover drives and square cuts.

 

As a fan of game and of KP the news about the end of his international career for England came as a rude jolt.  Agreed that he was not the easiest guys in dressing room, past bruised with similar altercations, strained relationships with team-mates and a team going through one of its roughest rides but even all of that put together was sufficient reason to stab a potentially great career like this midway. Was there no way out of stalemate between ECB and KP?

Wasn't one of the finest ethics of any sport is to stand by one another and not against one another in tough times? Wasn't it KP who contributed a lion’s share in regaining Ashes after a long draught of 18 years in 2005? Wasn't he instrumental in beating India in India in recent past? – a feat that few international sides would be able to boast of.

He deserved better, no doubt. And perhaps that’s the reason it hurts to see him go like this. One more reason we feel hurt is that the treatment dished out to KP is a more extreme version of injustice all of us face almost inevitably in everyday life. In our interactions with bureaucracy in private of public institutions we often find ourselves at one end and the entire organization on the other. In this case, ECB and the English cricket team ganged up against KP.  Weak as most of us are we often resign in confrontation of this kind – we believe in toeing the line, not KP, he has come back once from a duel like this and I am hopeful he will come back again too.

Book review - I am Life by Shraddha Soni, reviewed by Dhruv

As an aspiring author, I am always interested in other people’s first books. It is this first book that transforms normal people like me into “Authors”.  

Recently I got a chance to read a book titled “I am Life”, it was the first book of the author and in paragraphs that follow, and I will try to convey my view of this book.

This book deals with an ambitious topic, philosophy, meaning and purpose of one’s life. For a first book, this is mighty ambitious a topic, but to author’s credit it is nicely justified through the micro level story of its protagonist, Siddharth Khanna.

Book starts like any other first time thriller initially but soon turns into a dense and heavy read because of the inquisitiveness, tensions and turmoil experienced by Siddharth.  Siddharth loses his job, wealth, home, family and every other possession overnight, when his wife separates from him through divorce to end an unhappy marriage.  He is shown to be extremely upright and individualistic, in the beginning, not caring about anyone but himself. The sudden loss shatters his veneers of strength, he wants to find god and ask him why such a thing has happened to him.

In his quest, he goes back to India; he roams in various Ashrams and visits many Gurus in order to find the mental equilibrium, the poise which can help him understand purpose of his life.  However nothing seems to be helping.

The more he tries to question life and expect answers in return the more complex and messy it gets. His struggle seems to be reaching nowhere, he even thinks about suicide, and then he meets Myrah. Myrah, initially, seems to be one of the women with whom Siddharth will eventually share bed and move ahead, part in regret part in fun.  

However, later readers realize that Myrah is a figment of imagination from the author. She teaches Siddharth to open up to life, to let life take control and steer his way through.

The message that book gives out is really good one, all of us at times try to control life way too much by focusing either on past or in future  - this approach can steer us away from life way too much. In times like these we must connect to life, surrender to the plans it has for us rather than fighting with it.

There are some parts where this book doesn’t really live up to expectations. Names of characters, turns of events, their psyche and way of thinking is too stereotype and lacks freshness. There are lots of threads which are left loose and author really has to conclude everything in last few pages using summary of end results. Ideally it would have been wonderful had the end been woven into the story and not separately.