Rest In Peace, Tiger

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi

A great cricketer, an excellent captain and a man who changed the Indian cricket. These were the first things that came to my mind when I read that he passed away. Later that night, when I was watching the news channels, i remembered my father recalling some of the stories about Pataudi when i was a school going, cricket crazy kid. My father fondly recollected "Tiger's" cricketing acumen.

To him Pataudi was a genius. He was one of the earliest people in Indian team who changed the way how fielding was looked at in the team. Prior to him, fielding was always the last priority, and the fielders used to do a lot of chasing rather then intercept the ball based on the speed and direction. Tiger brought his excellent anticipation to be at the right place when the ball was hit. He was also one of the best fielders in his time and brought this aspect to the team.

Pataudi was an inspirational captain as well. Under him, the spin quartet blossommed. He was instrumental in making our bowling a strong point in our several overseas wins in the years to come. He had the instinct to back the right players and give the confidence to the players. His batting was a delight to watch. My father used to quote several innings of Pataudi which were real gems. He recalled how stylish a player the Tiger was and especially his ability to come back to top level cricket despite his accident when he lost an eye. With just one eye, it becomes very difficult to get the depth of an object. But here was the guy who had to get adjusted to this difference in the normal life and then went on to excel in the field which does not spare anyone with a weakness.

He was a gentleman on and off the field. An aristrocratic behaviour did not put him off with his team. Post his cricketing days, I always felt that the Indian cricket could have utilised his cricketing brilliance better. But unfortunately it was not so.

Goodbye Tiger, RIP.

After writing my previous article, i was interested to read some of the thoughts on happiness.

I came across an ariticle on "Man's search for meaning" a book by Viktor E Frankl published in 1946. One of the quote from this book " Happiness cannot be pursued but must ensue, as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself. Happiness must happen and you need to let it happen by not caring for it". Profound thoughts from a Dr from Austria. A point to expand on the statement - you cannot pursue happiness but must become a consequence, a consequence of our thoughts, deeds and actions. A lot of times, i feel this very true. There is no silver bullet to find happiness. But is this not something our indian philosophy has told us? Going back to our roots, we can find the path to pursue which will lead us to experience happiness.

So, I went back to the Hindu scriptures and found several reference to being happy. Happiness does not come out of possessing enormous quantity of welath, being surrounded by the best things life, having no problems in life etc, but it comes out of realisation on our purpose in this life. We have seen someone like Dasaratha a very learned man and a great king suffer from the pangs of being separated from his son. On the other hand, King Janaka was a great man who was not affected by any of the wordly happenings. He was a person who followed the ideal path of "nishkamya karma" and was a "stithapragyna". While nishkamya karma is all about doing your duty without the attachment to it, stithapragyna is about not being affected but any emotions. One of the best examples of nishkamya karma is Lord Krishna. In the Gita, He tells Arjuna that despite being the God of the Universe, he still continues his duty. Our best bet to the path of happiness is to be detached to our actions and be not bothered about the results of our actions. This can help us in keeping our minds free.

These were great principles for us to follow but have become very difficult in our present day lives. We tend to think too much on what we want to do, what we did rather than focussing on the present. Living for the present without attachment to our actions with clean thoughts and deeds can lead us on the path to happiness.

Pursuit of happiness

In the recent few week, I saw the movie "The puruit of happyness" twice. As a movie, it was well made - good screenplan & editing, Will Smith in a good performance and his own son Jaden acting as his movie son did a fantastic job.

But the movie made me to think, going beyond the boundary of the script. As a continuation of my previous blog "happiness is a state of mind", I wanted to explore more of my thoughts.

But before that, did you know - The US Declaration of Independence states the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. This is the earliest indication of a nation trying to bring in "happiness" into the purview of the state and this was signed in 4th July 1776. Much later in the mid-1900s, Japan and South Korea amended their constitution to bring in the right to pursue happiness and Vietnam added this in their declaration of independence. Bhutan was one of the other countries which started measuring the "happiness index" of its people in similar terms like GDP.

On reading this, I found it a bit of a surprise. To me, happiness is "a state of mind". It depends on the individual and can country guarantee it as a "right". Also, another interesting point that struck me was the nations did not guarantee the "right" to happiness but the "right" to pursue happiness. To me, even the "right" to pursue happiness solely depends on the individual and the state of his/her mind. As in previous blog, while I had a lot of things going great for me, but still I was not in the right frame of mind to pursue happiness, leave alone being happy. Whereas the people whom i met / saw definitely were in better state of mind to pursue happiness and probably be happy.

Thinking further, if happiness is a state of mind, what makes it easy for some people to be happy or pursue happiness while for others it is a difficult task and for some it is impossible? Is it something to do with what you have and what you do not? I doubt it. If that is the case, then I would have been better off during my bus commute when I saw the two young people (refer to my previous blog). Sometimes, it is simple. If you like what you do, you will feel happy. I have observed that whenever i am travelling to the temples, my mind is very light and i am very happy despite the discomfort of irregular food or sometimes painful journey. But what happens when things are not so simple. That is when the trouble start and the pursuit of happiness becomes difficult.

So, can we the task of being happy easier? Of course yes and our own scriptures show us the path to be happy. (to be concluded...)

happiness is a state of mind

I always felt that happiness is a state of mind and nothing can give us happiness. This was confirmed to me again last week by an incident.

It was a Monday morning and i was travelling to work by bus. It was already hot and humid ( i live in chennai, india). It was getting uncomfortable as I did not get a seat and had to carry my laptop bag as well. In one of the stops, two young people - a guy and a girl (mid 25s) got into the bus and went past me. From the first look, it was evident to me that they were in the middle strata in the income group and were friends travelling together. The conductor asked for ticket and the guy showed an-all-day ticket. After sometime, i noticed something different. The 2 people were conversing in sign language, it struck me that both of them were hearing and speach impaired.

Over the next 20 minutes or so, they were conversing pretty happily, with several bouts of smiles exchanged, probably sharing a joke or two. During that time it became very evident that despite all their problems, the two young people were happy (they had this minor inconvenience of not getting a seat). They were oblivious to the world around them. Just then it struckme. Here I was sitting in the bus, and was thinking of the troubles that I had in my mind as well as some issues that I would face at work that day. All this did not stand near to what these two people face on a daily basis. But still, they were happy..

As i continued on my commute, i was reminded of a second similar incident. This happened during my divyadesam trips.

I was travelling to the divyadesams around mayavaram. During a visit to one of the temple in a village which apart from the temple, had only a small shop and about 25 houses across 4 streets, we reached after it was closed. We were told that the bhattar (priest) lived in the same street and we can go to his house to get the temple opened. This was around 3 pm in the afternoon. When we went his house, he gave us a warm welcome, offered us something to drink and eat. Since we had completed our lunch, we declined the offer. He then offered us to drink atleast water. The water was pretty hard with a tinge of salt. He explained that this is "well water" and ground water is pretty hard in these areas. He went on to tell us that he generally takes his two wheeler ( an old tvs 50) to the next village about 5 - 6 kms to bring his family's daily quota of water for drinking / cooking and that day there was no supply. We then went to the temple which was not so well maintained and that he had to spend some of his salary for the upkeep. Despite all this, he was extremely happy. He said that the God has taken care of him very well - "Perumal enna divyama paathukurar" is what he said. He added that he was getting about 2000 Rs a month and was more than happy with that.

These two incidents reaffirmed that happiness is a state of mind and cleared some of my own "troubles" by the time i got down from the bus.

Mahabalipuram

The town of Mahabalipuram - Mammalapuram as it was original called after Narasimhavarma Pallava who was a great wrestler, is about 60 kms from chennai. There are several buses from chennai and it is easily accessible.

While I have been several times to Mahabalipuram since my childhood, I have never stopped my fascination for the place. The Sthalasayana Perumal Kovil, the shore temple, the rathas, Arjuna's penance all have caught my fancy. But none could match the shore temple.

For once, I thought I would visit the town only for the shore temple, spend a couple of hours there and try to hone my skills as an amateur photographer with a handy digital camera. Armed with my Sony DSC and additional batteries, I started on a saturday after lunch to mahabalipuram. I reached the town around 3.30 pm and went straight to the shore temple.

After I bought the entrance ticket and went in, I was really fascinated on seeing the shore temple. Even though Lady Time casts her shadow on everything, here was a structure standing for more than 1300 years now. What a show case for talent.



The temple was built on the shore, was able to withstand centuries of ravages from wind, water and the salt air. What an amazing work of art. The ASI has done a good work in maintaining the whole area.

I could observe a few commonalities with this and the other temples. The temple, build in a typical saivite tradition had nandis adorning the wall. While some of them are disfigured, a lot of them are still in good shape.




Several times, I stopped closer to have a look at some of the intricate carvings on the stone. I could not stop myself from shooting more photos than I would have wanted to. Such was the effect of the structure on me.

After having taken several photographs of the temple, I moved to visit the Arjuna's penance. Another extraordinary piece of work. A huge bas relief depicting the scenes from Mahabharatha. Another piece standing the ravages of time.

I spent the whole evening on the hillock over the Arjuna's penance and walked all over the place. Fascinated by several facets of the sculptures, I could only be thankful to our fore fathers who had left us such a great legacy.

After spending more than 3 hours, I started to walk to the bus stand. And as usual, none of my visits to Mahabalipuram is complete without a visit to the Sthalasayana perumal kovil. Having completed the darshan of the Perumal, I boarded the bus to chennai.



All they way to chennai, I was fondly remembering the shore temple, the beach whose active inroads the temple had resisted, the whole ASI protected complex of structures. I was proud of rich culture and heritage which has been passed on to us.

Autorikshaws & Chennai

I am lifetime member of the Madras club. Even though it is now called Chennai, the name Madras will stick to the city.

I am native of chennai and have worked in Bangalore & Mumbai (Bombay) for a few years. In all these years, I have travelled a lot in autorikshaws (auto as they are called in south). In Bangalore or Mumbai, travelling by the auto is just another mode of transport. Normally, you will flag an auto and tell the driver where to go and you pay the fare as shown on the meter. Some how the experience in my hometown is totally different.

Chennai auto travel is completely different. As a first step, you need to find an auto driver, who is ready to take you to your destination. Once you find one, the next step is the biggest one - haggling for the fare. I do not remember when an auto driver put on the meter to get the fare in the last 15 years. You will have to haggle and you will get all reasons for the fare - petrol rise, too long a distance, the driver might not get the next fare from your destination, one way / circuitous route to be taken, sometimes even your luggage. The rates will border from normal (do not assume that it is as per the metered fare) - as per the usual rate fixed by the auto drivers to exhorbitant (sometimes double or triple the 'normal' fare) to even daylight robbery. If you do not know the local language, then the haggling becomes all the more interesting (difficult). Even if you are a localite, the drivers will still take you for a "ride" (pun intended).

Once you have agreed upon the fare, do not rest assured that your travel will be smooth. As you get closer to your destination, the driver might start questions like how much longer he has to go. It gets interesting, especially when you return home in the late evening. If you stay off the main roads, the questions will start coming fast. Some times the driver will start cribbing that it is a lot farther than what he was told, or he will have to come back all the way to the main road after dropping you and so on and so forth. You need to understand that all this means there is going to be further haggling of the fare once you reach your destination. After all this, once you look back the journey will through a lot of interesting discussions.

More often than not, I tend to indulge in small talk with drivers and that throughs a lot of insights in the current trend especially politics and way of life of the drivers. I have heard from some of the drivers, that they make good money whereas the others just want to get a few fares a day, make money and while away the rest of the day in the auto stands. I have also heard a lot of interesting thoughts on the politics - including some of the gimmicks that are carried out by our politicians. .

Finally, the autos in chennai are given a free hand by subsequent governments due to which they run a cartel. This has come to situation now wherein it has become very difficult to curb them and their 'rates'

Sabarmati Ashram

During my visit to Ahmedabad to attend my brother's convocation, I visited the Sabarmati Ashram. I have read about Gandhiji and Sabarmati Ashram and had seen photographs of the Ashram. I had planned for a short trip before the convocation, but later decided to go to the Ashram at a more leisurely pace. What a decision it was...

The road outside the Ashram had its own share traffic, noise pollution etc. But once inside, I could feel the peace and 'hear the silence'. I was astounded by the simplicity of the place. Here I was standing in the same place as the Mahatma, from where he took on the British. I went around the entire photo exhibition, learning a lot about the Mahatma in the process, trying to understand his thoughts and what went in his mind. Mahatma had the support of Kasturba and what surprised me was that it took him some time to convince her about untouchability, one key thought which changed the way India was.

I went around the photo exhibition, till one photo caught my attention - it was of the Mahatma. I could not refuse to take a photo of the same. Here was a man who was fighting the might of the British and had so many issues to contend with. But the peace in his face belied all that worries. I could not imagine if any other man could have been so peaceful but still shouldering the burden of an entire nation. No wonder, we call him Mahatma.

As I went around to see his house, the place where he used to meet people, take rest etc. The simplicity of the man reflected in every stone, every grain of sand in that place. His house reflected his thoughts - clean, clear and simple. The 3-monkey statue so aptly implied his philosophy of life.

I spent a few hours trying to understand the Mahatma and his life. It was great eye-opener to me. After I came out of the Ashram, I had a lot of thoughts. In the city of the Mahatma, so many things have happened which should have never happened. I think it is the time for all of us to realize the true meaning of his life, his teachings of ahimsa and satyagraha and practice them.

We need not leave the world a better place than what it was when we came. But at least, let us leave it as the same place it was, when our fathers and their fathers gave it.