5 Ways you can be Mahedra Singh Dhoni

Can you recall anyone who wasn't done playing and had a commercial movie biopic?? There may have been documentries on lives of many but not a commercial movie. The movie, I am sure will be a grand success, shows a simple life of Dhoni and grips you through it nicely...

There is a pinnacle moment in everyone's life, something that he was made for... something that he dreams and works for throughout his life. It may be a grand prize, a win at a trophy, charm a girl, or even marry the girl he likes... But it is important to know what you want. Looking at the movie you should realise few things that should inspire you to be MSD... What can one do to be Dhoni is what I am thinking upon. Here are my thoughts...

One is knowing what you want. What is really your passion. It is easy for youngsters to say, I don't like studies, I want to play and their parents will definitely not want that as it is much easier to study, develop yourself professionally, get a job or maybe even start a business but being a player requires even more determination. Determined you only get when you have passion. If you really can be great of a game then pursue it with all your hearts. Don't live half heartedly...

Second is the fact that never get bogged down by your failures or circumstances. If you have determination, then mere failures or circumstances should not bog you down, your moment will definitely come if you keep pushing. Dhoni everytime came up with a smile on his face and a much mature attitude after every low point... It may be due to the sport authority's personnel, accidents, work pressure, even rejection in team... And he never showed his weakness to anyone... (His sister like most did figure out at an instance though that he was bothered).

Third is to understand the situation and then act. This is what makes one a great and humble vs an arrogant person who is more likely to have a steep fall off summit. MSD understood the necessity of a job when he was getting opportunities, he understood the moment to leave Yuvi behind and face Murli (I am a big Yuvi fan and still I believe that was the perfect decision, Yuvraj himself accepts Murali was most scary for him as a batsmen), he understood that life will not wait for him...

Fourth is to learn from anyone and everyone, be it anyone... If they can teach anything of value learn... Like the famous Helicopter shot (Slap-shot as per the movie)

Fifth is to be youself! This brings us to the point where you all will be like why am I saying you to be you if the post is "5 Ways to be MSD".. Being a cricket lover, it was shocking to see about the first encounter between Yuvi and MSD. Yuvraj is a stylish player from young age and the moment where Jharkhand loses a match not on cricket field but on basketball field" is truly what tells you a lot. Greats are great. You should always look upto them. Learn what is the best in them. Develop yourself to be like them but "Sachin is Sachin and Dhoni is Dhoni". What is inspiring you develop yourself like that but you should not become them. What if Dhoni also looked upto Yuvraj that night? Or what if he started to play like Sachin... He wouldn't have been the MSD we know... None of the two greats are alike... Pick anything... Pick anyone... If you follow a great path you will end up in the foothills... Make your own path, follow it with jest and just.

I would like to thank a special person with whom these thoughts took words today...

India vs Pakistan : The water war...

In continuation to the post on this blog where I shared views on the future where water wars will be increasing... Merely ten days into the future we see ourselves at another such and a more larger world recognizable issue of water.

Responding to Uri attacks on its soldiers, India has addressed that they will utilize water of the untapped Indus river and its tributries to the full limits. This is probably the first signs of water being used as a weapon in international word wars.

The story is amazingly and quietly written and bought to our notice by BBC. Here's the link : Why India's water dispute with Pakistan matters

This should make countries use the resource more wisely now! We should learn when we have chance... Don't waste water, every drop count... save it!

Is diversity a strength?

Religion, Region, Gender, Race, Rich & Poor are something we hear frequently these days... Some days we see them presented in a manner that unity in diversity, most days we see it being the reason behind every crime. All news media can be categorized into these. This post is to share my views on this diversity and explain my views on whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

As an Indian, our history books are filled with British rule of India. All of us must have heard that the Britishers' used 'Divide and Rule' tactic to manage a stronghold in India. But they were helped that India wasn't one at the time... It was already divided into regions under kings. Why do then we say that Britishers divided us? They just made use of the opportunity and grabbed their chances of ruling. Who wouldn't...? Even we grab any fortuitous opportunity with both hands. Since history is a testament and the best thing to learn from... Is it safe to assume diversity led to British Empire and thus is bad? We have seen fights between Black and White; Muslims and Hindus; feminism protests and civil wars and a pessimist can show how bad it is.

But I am not one. Move into the Gandhian era of freedom struggle... He knew that we need only unity and freedom will be ours. Along with the slogans like "Angrezo, Bharat Chodo" were the slogans "Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaayi; Hum sab hai bhai bhai"... But we got freedom with probably the worst effect! The partition and the war of religion and region led to so much bloodshed that its not accounted for.

Why was it that we fought for something as one unit that we fought amongst ourselves as soon as we achieved it? I have a simple understanding... The more pressure a group is put under, the more likely they are to work together as a unit. They are not focused on the differences but on the similarities which bring them together. Its just like when you are not friends with someone in class but you have to do a project together. And there is a probability that the outcome will be much better than what others managed. It may be because you want to overdo and show the other person... It brings a positive fight among the team.

So diversity is a great thing as it brings the best of different worlds provided they have a common goal... So what should we as a world be looking at? There are plenty of issues to start with... Terrorism, Global Warming, Depleting resources! Humans can work around any of these if they see the amount of pressure these are having on us as a living being on this planet. This pressure needs to be oppressed into us instead of making us understand who we are in childhood and the results can be beautiful.

Is PINK the new BLACK?

Firstly unlike my previous post where I got to the topic like a road going around the mountain... Here I am sharing thoughts over the newly released Hindi movie PINK.. So spoiler alerts..

So the movie is basically about a night where three girls get along with three guys and things go awry and includes political influence over police (which is now easily acceptable to Indian public). But the rest of it is all about how Indian society treats women.

The movie raises all bits and pieces of everything in the society... How girls are judged if they drink, come late, have boys as friends, wear wrong dresses, get frank and everything that will come to your mind... Even the treatment of northeastern girls... And I am very pleased if I was expecting this from a movie hyped so much by the media and public... But its a weak story. Even the end argument seems like just a mere formality.

I still am unsure why was the movie made. If it was for awareness among the masses of what the girls face in the society then the focus should not have been on Amitabh Bacchan rescuing them. The intensity wasn't even building up with him sure to come around and save the day. His sarcastic lessons or rules of safety manual where neither laughable nor thought provoking. There are movies where you connect with actor who is being oppressed and you want to lend him/her a hand yourself to stop their suffering which wasn't there... Some might say that it was to make women aware and self empowered then the only thing a women learns from the movie is that "you can get a bail for a non-bailable offence on a Saturday'. The characters were building up but before they could they were all sobbing. Even Meenal who was shown as most confident of the lot looses it only for Amitabh to drop her hoodie cap down. There was a brief phase where society and its views were targeted but that was only a matter of a second. And lastly it may be a correction lesson for boys who are gone rogue... But I don't suppose any guy who thinks like that will go for such a movie and those who do already believe the issues are basic etiquettes a man should have.

I would love to see a movie on such a sensitive issue made true to the core. Where they need not point to every issue but raise and justify the ones they pick. I would even have thought if it was a sad end where the girls are charged guilty because that is the sad reality these days. But in PINK they have just jotted down all they could and tried to create an essay kinda like this blog builds up. The end never got me something new to think.

A woman deserves all the respect and the movie is made with a good mindset and should be a good beginners guide for boys. But the current society yearns for change of the current mindset as well where the movie for me doesn't pull any string.

Is this the future?

Developed countries led the world into the present and the developing countries will lead them into the future...

Whatever we see in our current world is mostly from the developed parts of the world and then there are countries like India are getting better nowadays. But all this development has its effects. We have been made to understand since schooling that we are using natural resources at a rate more than the earth can replenish it. Coal, Petroleum and other energy producing resources are highly debated and fought over! Middle east, South China Sea and what not!

But this isn't about what we are seeing, its about what India is leading into and along with it the whole world. What the humans see but dint value are the most important things and such is water. Already we have an understanding that there is already a shortage of drinking water and it is getting worse for the future. But we saw a glimpse of water war in the last week. As soon as the Supreme court announced its verdict, we saw Bangalore, the city considered as one of the most peaceful cities burning. Was it a way of showing what the world is getting into? It wasn't a war between countries... Wasn't even a war in the entire country... It wasn't even a war... But nevertheless it was violent.

I know many will give it political angles and what not... But whatever it may be... It was a reason enough for a mob to get violent over. I hope this incident is seen as a sign. Maharashtra already face droughts almost every year even though having rains and water logging in Mumbai. Last year only Chennai had the worst floods it has faced. Offices were closed down for week and over to get the balance back. Yet it has water shortage within a year. This year itself a lot of areas faced lots of rains but still there will be definite shortage of water.

I hope this incident is not overlooked and taken as a stepping stone for encouraging water saving, rain water harvesting and help make every state, city self efficient. I am not looking at a immediate solution but only an initiative. Atleast making sure that the resources we are getting are not wasted. It isn't a way which should have been waited for but it is here and should be taken seriously.

SAVE WATER... Aware Others... Lead by example... Small efforts count and A drop saved actually means a lot...

What is success?

With the olympics over, a new set of winners among some previous winners. In India, we are celebrating our girls winning proudly all over on their return. Though there is a gradual uprise in other sports of the audience, soon enough though the focus will shift to Cricket: We have dropped down to No. 2 in test rankings afterall! That too to our arch-rivals! Soon the facebook walls will be flooded with posts about it and so I begin this post with the idea from a cricketing point of view. Was it a failure for Team India that they are now number 2? Was it a success for them that they had beaten WI 2-0 in the series? These questions can be answered in both ways and I am sure the comments will have that sooner or later but those will be what we percieve success as. We tend to believe what success is for us should be same for everyone out there. But it is the view point of the players that actually matters. I am sure they were itching to go out and win specially with no rains after the first day. They cannot think and believe it is a failure. Yet one can say they failed and that is when it gets confusing. That is where the resolve of the team, their support staff and their families comes to fore.

We always face failures ever since we are a child. We don't know how to walk but learn it failing to do so. Same is with cycling or rather learning anything. But what keeps us going even after all these failures? Is it the motivation and the efforts of people around us? The support they put in? Or is it the knowledge that we know failure wont take anything away? But then we should stop after falling once or twice getting bruised up. But we don't. What keeps us going is the desire to relive the happiness that we had while learning. I am sure none of us would remember their time when they learnt to walk. But you sure can recall a moment when you learnt anything. No I donot mean in those classes. I for one learnt riding a bicycle very late. I was somewhere around 10 -12 when I tried doing so and it was the same. Started slowly slowly with the fear and then turned up the speed only to fall at the first corner. But even after the fall and the bruises it was the gleeful feeling I felt when I rode it that I wanted to learn it. With every sport you play, you definitely get bruises but you keep enjoying and playing those. This happiness is what keeps us going. 

And this happiness is our success. If you try to be successful in life in anything but don't feel happy learning it, you may keep doing it but you won't feel successful. However, even if you persue any goals but you are happy in pursuit of it, you will feel successful in every moment of life.

Now I don't mean to create a wave of youngsters who say we are happy sleeping and so we will do that. The rapidly increasing engineering colleges provide a very good set of youth who will not be interested in learning any thing about engineering but want to earn money. Most of them don't have a way of interest and thus no happiness. Sometimes you know what will bring you happiness but then there is a path to it. There is NO SHORTCUT to success afterall. If you want to be a Kalpana Chawla then you have to start from learning the basics. No one will directly put you into a space shuttle and launch you.

So in simple, success for me is just finding your happiness and doing it. Achievement may be anything and it may be easy to achieve or difficult. It may be short termed or take a full life. But the path to success can never be boring. If it is, you might be on the wrong path becuase if it ain't bringing you happiness, it won't lead you to the top.