VVS: Where The Bat Was A Brush, And The Cricket Field A Canvas

Laxman was not just one of his kind, he was the only ONE

VVS Laxman got it all wrong. He thought the cricket field was a large canvas, the bat a brush and the ball a solidified form of paint. Instead of dogged defence, he presented a light touch, instead of hitting the ball hard, he caressed it, as if not to cause pain, and instead of placing the delivery in the area of its arrival, like an artist does with a paint brush, he simply changed direction and placed the ball where it could find greater relevance to the divine cause of expression.

Laxman was more of an artist, and less of a batsman. He simply expanded the vision of being a painter to a dimension which required a vast space like a cricket field. The artist in him needed a much larger canvas to pour out the genius within. Fans like me did not watch Laxman bat just to see him score runs or bail India out of one more tight situation. We watched him bat because in the pretext of a willow in hand, with his artistic strokes, he provided perspectives about life which only a person with artistry in his soul could. He maneuvered the cricket field as an artist maneuvers through various creative ideas.

Just as you thought the delivery was now going to be inevitably delivered to the cover fence with a copybook swirl of the bat, with the left foot in tandem, the TV camera suddenly shifted towards the midwicket fence, focusing on a hapless and bewildered fielder fetching the ball. Just as an artist gets an instant inspiration to change the direction of his brush, Laxman often suddenly used to bring the wrist into play and dismiss the delivery to another corner of the large canvas called the cricket field. This aspect of his game was so unique that it can never ever be replicated on the cricket field. New batsmen taking his place in the middle order can replace the name in the batting order, but cannot replicate his talent, for he was not just one of his kind, he was the only ONE.

In terms of pure cricketing contribution, Laxman gave Indian cricket and India self belief. His 281 at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in the 2001 series against Australia was not just an extraordinary or unbelievable innings, it was an example of poetical destruction. Pace or spin met with a treatment which sunk the opposition into a `despair of admiration`. It was an example of grabbing the opportunity to etch his name amongst the immortals of the game. It is not that the innings manufactured Laxman, he manufactured the innings.

Whatever Laxman did or did not after that innings is purely a matter of academic discussion. In that innings he had scripted the future of Indian cricket. He started the journey of India years later being anointed as the world's No.1 test playing nation. To my mind, his innings in Kolkata and his mammoth partnership with Rahul Dravid (is it any coincidence that the two shared many great partnerships!) in that test is one of the great events in post-independence history of India. Though purely a great sporting event, it had ramifications for the entire nation's psyche, as India draws so much of its joys and sorrows from the happenings on the cricket field.

Laxman's retirement from the cricketing canvas marks the end of artistry in a game which is based so much on technique and temperament. Laxman battled hard all through his career to balance his inner urge for creativity as well as the situation he found the team in when he went into bat. But in the past few months, the artistry seemed to be deserting him; perhaps, the bat refused to be treated as a brush any more. Maybe, the bat could not reinvent itself any further. Maybe, Laxman finally had to accept that cricket is a game between bat and ball, the cricket field is not a canvas, and that he now needs to paint his future on a different pitch of life.

Artists change their canvas often, and maybe VVS, after sixteen long years, has done just that!    

I Have Turned `3` Today

I Have Turned `3` Today
For the record 43, but life begins at 40!

I write this in the morning hours of the day and this birthday is already coming through as a special one. We had a spot celebration at Barista past midnight with my wife's cousins, followed by a decent number of SMSes and phone calls this morning. And of course the facebook messages are already swelling up. I thank God from the bottom of my heart for all the lovely people I am blessed with in my life.

No doubt, life in the last three years since I decided to start out on my own has been tough, but fascinating to the core. It has opened up a whole new set of opportunities and brought me in contact with an incredible number of wonderful people. And the most important thing is I have never felt more young.

The reason for this is that somewhere along the journey of life I realised that life in a substantial and clear way begins only at 40. It was in my fortieth year (June 2009 to be precise) that I decided to quit my well paying job with a respected profile and attempt to recreate myself. The premise of my first book `The 20 20 20 20 Formula For Success` (co-authored with my friend Samuel Talari) was that a life of great purpose takes shape once you turn 40, as it takes that many years for many people to understand life from its depths and shape their role on this planet. In the first forty years, in slots of 20 years each, life shows us both its comfortable and uncomfortable sides. By the time we turn 40, a greater sense of perspective and maturity sets in, thereby placing us on the path of a deeper purpose.

Nature has gifted us with automatic physical growth. We play no role in how our face and physical structure evolves. Therefore, our primary responsibility is to acknowledge the power of being born as a human being and make it count. God has given us a mind and intellect, and he expects us to utilise them effectively to evolve as better life managers. When we touch 40, we reasonably outgrow viewing life from a predominantly physical perspective and start looking at it from a larger sense of consciousness. The true turning point of life is when we start seeing life with a purpose driven perspective, and not just from a paradigm of going through the motions.

Looked at in this way, age appears to be just a number. Age actually presents an opportunity to reinvent yourself and is definitely not a roadblock to your success. I tell people above 40 not to feel disheartened if they have not achieved anything substantial thus far, for `we are born` at 40 and they must count their age from thereon. If you look around, you will find that many people have achieved great things after turning 40. So, rather than feeling a kind of midlife crisis, this is the age when our youthful energies should manifest with renewed vigour and take us to heights like never before. For those who are under 40, I tell them, life has not even started, and many more enriching experiences are in store.

It is far better to succeed a little late in life and stay that way till the end than acquire success early and see it slipping away. In today's world we see too many people succeed too early and then struggle to hold on to it. This does not mean that people below forty should not strive for or achieve success earlier than many, but it helps to understand that success once attained also has to be sustained. Therefore, with early success also comes the responsibility to sustain it. And in any case, success is a continuous journey and not a destination.

All in all, life has so much to offer. All we need to do is keep our mind young always and allow the process of life to shower its unlimited abundance on us. Rather than feeling that every birthday is a step closer to death, create the feeling that every birthday is a more mature step towards fulfilling our life purpose. That way, you will acquire a bounce in your steps that will elevate you to a different level in life – each day, each year.

I have just turned 3 today. What's your age?

Remembering Sachin – My Best Friend!

Remembering Sachin – My Best Friend!
On this Friendship Day, I dedicate this blog to my childhood friend
Sachin Pradhan, who passed away on March 4, 2006

I was for sometime searching for an opportunity to dedicate a blog to Sachin, and what better day than Friendship Day! For all the extroverted personality I carry, I don't have a social circle as such, which essentially means over the years I have made friends mostly from my professional life. As I moved on, my friendships too have kept moving on.

But for a long time there was one constant friend – Sachin Nandakumar Pradhan, my childhood friend (langot yaar, as they say in Hindi). Our respective parents were great friends, naturally leading us to bond deeply. We grew up together, ate at each other's home, absorbed each other's culture (he was a Maharashtrian, while I am a Tamilian), played together, chatted, exchanged notes and loved each other's company.

Yet, we were quite unlike each other. He was a more withdrawn personality, measured in his words and deeds, whereas I was more boisterous and loud. We drifted into different paths (academically there was no comparison. He was an MTech from IIT and me an MA), operated out of different cities, but always felt and stayed connected.

The greatest common ground for us of course was our spiritual connection. In the year 1989 he acted as a perfect medium and took me to meet our Guru Dadaji in Pune. Dadaji initiated me into meditation (he already was initiated), and life never has been the same for me since then. Besides the great memories we share about Sachin, my greatest gratitude to him lies in taking me to our Guru. Somewhere, my Guru also gave me the strength to bear the loss of Sachin, who succumbed to a painful battle with cancer.

An incident that highlights his affection for me is when he specially flew down to Calcutta (now Kolkata) from Pune to meet me and my wife, as he was abroad at the time of our marriage. When he too got married, a close bond was forged between our respective families. Every time I moved out of Mumbai, whether it was Kolkata, or later Bangalore, he made it a point to visit us. But when in 2007 we moved to Kerala, he was no longer there in the world, and my wife and I kept telling each other how Sachin would have visited us there too if he had been alive.

A great quality he had was concern for the poor. If I remember correctly, he used to contribute in some way to help poor children for their education.

It's been over six years since he left us, but he still occupies a very important place in our hearts. Sachin lived a short life, but left behind a lifetime of memories.

Miss you my friend! And Thank You for being there in my life.

Rajesh Khanna: Won Through Subtlety, Lost To Context

Rajesh Khanna: Won Through Subtlety, Lost To Context
He got attached to the results of a context he had not created,
and unlike Amitabh, failed to recreate and reinvent himself.

Handsome looks, his mannerisms , an infectious smile and a subtle dialogue delivery style are what defined Rajesh Khanna. His phenomenon has come alive in the past few days since his death. Life is a great leveler and holds its cards close to its chest. While life takes back what you want the most in life, it returns it on death, when you were expecting none of it. Rajesh Khanna got it all when he least expected them, lost it all even as he desired to hold on to them, and regained them just for a brief period when his eyes had shut forever.

Cinema offers a very interesting paradigm of life. It imitates life, and then creates an illusion which life – seemingly almost deliberately -- struggles to keep up with, forgetting that it was the creator of the illusion in the first place, and so has the power to recreate rather than hold on to an ephemeral passage of time. Personalities in the form of stars and superstars mirror this play of the real and the illusory, resulting in a roller coaster ride for them. Much before the information revolution made the previous day's success irrelevant in the morning, cinema had already provided a deep perspective on the success-failure equation. It had made actors realise that you were just a hit away from being a phenomenon and perhaps just a flop away from being discarded.

Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, who replaced the eternal romantic as an `angry` superstar, in that sense are not just personalities, but case studies in their own right. While one rose to superstardom on the back of charm and subtlety, the other rose to superstardom on the back of intensity. Both actually were simply pawns in the script of life, which wove a context and placed its two best protagonists on centre stage, for they, with their immense talent for expression, were the two most suitable boys of Bollywood to enact the role life had envisioned. The terms `pawns` and `suitable boys` should not be seen as being disrespectful to Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, for when you see it from the perspective of life being a master, both Khanna and Bachchan were the chosen ones, and it is a tribute to their immense talent and charisma that they found themselves in a period of Bollywood history which is one of the most discussed. They both exuded just the right kind of talent and `reel behaviours` for the prevailing context.

If Rajesh Khanna brought alive like no one else the undercurrent of romance of a young India in the late '60s and early '70s, Amitabh Bachchan became the demolition man of systemic ills once it became clear the country could no longer afford to live in romantic solitude and had to find ways to resolve its real time issues. Thus, context was the backdrop in which both succeeded, and change in context was the backdrop in which Rajesh Khanna found his personal decline.

The reason Amitabh has managed to come back from decline and stay on as an enigma for so long is because he found ways to reinvent and express himself beyond a limited context. He managed to operate beyond the `master social script of life`. He found a script which was not necessarily linked to the social milieu and revolved more around his own limited contexts as a human being and a professional.

Rajesh Khanna perhaps lost this perspective when the context had changed course. He got attached to the results of a context he had not created, and unlike Amitabh, failed to recreate and reinvent himself. But there is no taking away from the fact that he shaped a critical period in the evolution of Hindi films and laid the foundation for the emergence of `The Superstar` designation in Bollywood.

Rajesh Khanna is gone, but his phenomenon will live on, kyun ki `Anand Mara Nahi, Anand Marte Nahi` .   

Sunil Gavaskar – Playing It As Straight As Ever

Sunil Gavaskar – Playing It As Straight As Ever
In every way, he set the tone for the threads to be picked up and built upon by others.

My idol Sunil Gavaskar turns 63 today, and there is none of the drop in guard that you would associate with an ageing person. It is remarkable that even twenty five years after he retired from international cricket, his passion for the game and his engagement with the sport is as infectious as ever. From an opening batsman, post retirement, he has flowered as a commentator and columnist. In both these roles what has not changed from the days when he held his bat in an elegant stance is the `straight drive`. Even now, he plays it as straight as ever and says it as it is.

My brother and I grew up in a generation which worshipped Gavaskar as India's first true sporting icon. He was also India's first commercial sporting superstar, who showed the way to cricketers how to leverage themselves as a brand and create financial security while still playing. In every way, he set the tone for the threads to be picked up and built upon by others.

It was only in the latter part of his career that we could watch him bat ball by ball, as much of cricket before the TV boom in the early '80s was followed through radio commentary. Avid cricket players in our society compound, we picked up the nuances of Gavaskar's batting through the description meted out by radio commentators. While the commentary was good, the commentators too seemed to get inspired by the way in which he met the fearsome rising ball in front of his nose, or ducked a bouncer, or left a ball alone outside the off stump.

More than the runs that Gavaskar scored, what he brought to the table with his attitude, technique, temperament and class was a pride of being an Indian. He was India's first truly global sporting personality – even though he represented a sport which only few countries indulged in -- and guarded his wicket not just for the hunger of runs, but also for ensuring a fledgling India -- with a weak sporting philosophy and evolving democratic framework -- held its head high on the international stage.

Gavaskar, through his sporting achievements, made Indians believe in themselves. He was the first to go past Don Bradman's 29 test centuries and the first to scale the incredible 10,000-run peak, which is now an accepted benchmark to be recognised as a top batsman. He played in an era when the West Indian fast bowlers brayed for `blood` and not just wickets, and he faced them more with his mind as a protective gear than with a helmet. Concentration formed the cornerstone of his efforts at the crease. Though more talented as a batsman than what he allowed the world to see, he etched out risky strokes so that his team, which depended heavily on him at the top of the order, did not have to suffer.

The importance of the legend and legacy of Sunil Gavaskar can be understood from the fact that it took India a number of years to find a stable opening test batting pair. The value he brought to the art of batting is a legacy in itself, which was later mirrored more by Rahul Dravid than anybody else. The classical nature of Gavaskar's batsmanship is sorely missed by connoisseurs of cricket, and by those who learnt the fineprint of batting from the way the legend operated at the crease.

The greatest aspect of Gavaskar's craft was that batting became synonymous with him and he became synonymous with the word copybook. The copybook nature of batsmanship is what will put India back on top of the test rankings, and nobody knows this better than Gavaskar himself.

Happy Birthday Sir! And wish you many, many more years of health, wealth and prosperity, as well as service to Indian cricket.

Thank You Mr Gavaskar.

This Day, Last Year

This Day, Last Year

On June 19, 2011, my life changed forever, yet again!

June 19, 2011 was a momentous day for my friend Samuel Talari (Samee) and me. We launched our book `The 20 20 20 20 Formula For Success` -- 25 Life Changing Principles For Health, Healing And Happiness -- at a well attended function in Mumbai University's Kalina campus. Renowned scholar Mr Asghar Ali Engineer, with whom I worked years ago, was the Chief Guest and released the book.

The irony of the book title is that by the time you finish reading the title, you could have completed reading the book itself, for it is that small, with the main contents being smaller. The feedback we received was that we need to write more substantial books for it to carry better salability, but yes, we received good feedback about its contents and the way the launch program was organised.

But be that as it may, the important point is that after years of struggle, because of the book, the writer in me came alive, and for this I will forever be grateful to Samee, who put it all together and inducted me into the world of publishing. That day, my life changed forever for sure, for in the past year I have become a voracious writer, feeling incomplete if I don't pen something on a regular basis.

Writing was a hidden passion, which I think for lack of substantial content and intellectual maturity had to wait for a real long time before it exploded. Even as a kid and in my growing up years I used to try and write. But it took deeper roots in the six years I spent my life as a journalist, and I am very grateful to that profession for instilling in me a basic understanding of the nuances of writing. I always wondered why I became a journalist. Maybe I now know why!

The reason I say my life changed yet again is because that's been the story of my journey ever since I met my spiritual Guru Dadaji in the year 1989. The day I met and received initiation from him in Pune certainly has to take precedence over any other event in my life. He changed my life forever. A simple man and a spiritual stalwart, he will forever remain the most important person in my life. Though no more in his physical body, his grace and blessings guide me till date and will for the rest of my life, and beyond too.

In late 1993, I learnt Reiki from Dr Sudhir Gesota in Mumbai and my life changed again, forever. I am immensely grateful to Dr Sudhir for the way he taught me Reiki and for the way he nurtured me. Reiki ever since has been the basis of my existence. It resurrected me physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. The desire to spread Reiki is a life long quest.

I met my to-be wife Rita, one of the most amazing souls to inhabit Planet Earth, in 1995, and we got married in early 1996, yet again changing my life forever. Her unconditional love for me and her unconditional acceptance of my personality – which keeps changing with every passing year – gave me an emotional support system which keeps me going despite newer and newer intellectual, spiritual and emotional challenges being thrown at me by God from time to time. She has supported me despite she carrying an almost opposite personality and irrespective of not always being able to understand my behaviour or actions.

In late 1998, our daughter Diksha was born – God answered our prayers for a girl child – and yet again my life changed forever. The sheer process of seeing her grow up has been fascinating to say the least. The fact that we share similar behavioural patterns is just a welcome bonus. Poor wife! she sometimes has to deal with two Hariharans and that too at the same time.

I changed my career to training in the year 2001 and joined IMS, and my life changed forever once more. Here I must mention the year 1987 when my brother Ravi pushed me to undergo Mr Pramod Palekar's public speaking course. Surely, at the end of the course, my life changed forever, and the seeds of a future career in training were sown.

In 2004, I joined Max New York Life Insurance (MNYL), and my life changed forever, as it was in the five-and-a-half years that I spent there that I truly discovered my talents and grew up as a person. Before joining MNYL, I lacked career orientation and professional maturity. I will forever be grateful to MNYL for the contribution it has made to my life.

On June 30, 2009, I spent my last day at MNYL, and from July 1, 2009, I embarked upon a journey to try and set up my own training organisation. In the last three years, the book launch has been the most significant milestone. In this period of struggle to realise my dreams, I have continued to grow as a person.

I have come to realise that many more `forever changes` are waiting to embrace me. After all, change is the only constant and growth the only sensible choice.

They say nothing is forever. But for me, life simply seems to be a series of `forever changes`, each one institutionalising within me a certain growth process, adding more meaning, depth and purpose to that particular space in my persona.

May you too get enriched daily and grow constantly. Do keep visiting this space for more updates on the `forever changes` in my life.

Being A `Gandhi`

Being A `Gandhi`

The problem of being born to an iconic parent may not be Harilal's alone

It is said that comparisons are odious. But there are many people in this world who wish they were born to rich or famous parents, thereby ensuring a smooth and easy life. But little do people realise that it does not necessarily have to translate into a smooth ride for children born to rich and famous people.

A case in point is Harilal Gandhi, son of Mahatma Gandhi. A wonderful film that captures the `burden` of being born a Mahatma's son is `Gandhi My Father`, a 2007 release, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. While India catapulted Gandhiji to the status of `Father Of The Nation`, his problem was his own father. Harilal held diverse views about life from Gandhiji and couldn't quite fathom the `discrimination` his father meted out to him in the name of universal love and justice. While Gandhiji committed himself to a process of internal evolution, thereby leading him from a barrister to a Mahatma, Harilal wanted to lead a normal life. The film depicts Harilal as openly expressing his displeasure against his father. He undergoes a deep identity crisis, gets into harmful ways, and despite the best efforts of his parents to align him to them, suffers a lonely and painful end.

While it seems fascinating from the outside to be born into the household of a Bachchan, or a Nehru-Gandhi, or an Ambani, the process of coming to terms with expectations of people, or from their own selves, cannot be easy. God has ways of placing various types of problems in people's laps. While the children of the not-so-rich and famous have to grapple with the daily struggles of life, the children of the rich and famous have a different kind of battle to deal with.

As a teen, when Amitabh Bachchan was at the peak of his career and rose to become a integral part of the nation's consciouness, I always wondered how Shweta and Abhishek would cope with their father's status when they grew up and understood the dynamics of how the country viewed their father. Amongst common people, those with their first name as Amitabh must be inviting interesting reactions the first time they mention their name to somebody. While some might say what's there in a name, ask the people who have to contend with it!

An article on the Internet titled `Stardom yet to happen`, dated March 21, 2012, brings about the predicament of Abhishek Bachchan. It says: “Abhishek Bachchan has yet to experience the pinnacle of success. Till date, his glory is being questioned by many movie trade analysts. Before his every release the discussions amongst the movie trade analysts about his career and his dropping graph has become worrisome. He has always been compared with his father’s work and experience. Hence his individuality and performance get overshadowed if we take a clue from his twitter where it is clear that father and son will always be a senior and junior Bachchan.” -- (source: http://tinyurl.com/7xs6g5g).

The article adds: “For Abhishek, being born to father like Amitabh Bachchan is the most fortunate event ever happened but at the same time it is the tragedy when it comes to his career. People who don’t know him feel that increasing popularity of Big B is over shadowing Abhishek’s individuality; which they feel can be indirectly affecting Junior Bachchan’s persona.

But people who know him closely vouch on the fact that Abhishek respects his father’s work and popularity. He feels proud talking about his father’s success and achievements. He also knows that his father's achievement and popularity are not something that he has inherited. He has to put in his best effort to make a mark in the film Industry.”

Thus being born to a socially respected and admired person presents a double edged sword. While it is a privilege, it also comes with its share of pressures of being somebody's son or daughter.

This problem need not necessarily be only of children of celebrities. There can be conflicts in homes where a successful parent wants his/her child to follow on his or her path. Or, children could feel a complex within as they naturally start comparing themselves with their parent. The problem and complexities of human identity reveal interesting aspects of human psychology.

While this is a subject in itself and can unravel fascinating aspects about human behaviour, the lesson from Harilal's life is clear – and that is, whether you are born to the rich and famous, or to ordinary parents, the shaping of one's identity is an individual responsibility. More importantly, every individual must take responsibility for his or her life.

At the end of it all, we all will be judged solely by how much we contributed, rather than by how much we received.