Rahul Dravid's Retirement Finally Sinks In

Rahul Dravid - My Idol
Image Courtesy: Google Images

Today, when the Indian Test Team takes the field against New Zealand, one player who has been an important part of my growing up years, the person who I have idolized and worshipped since the past 16 years will not take the field today. Rahul Dravid will not be a part of the Indian Test Team anymore. This will be a very emotional moment for me as I am not used to seeing an Indian Test side without my Idol. Dravid had missed only 3 Tests in his entire career, 2 against South Africa in 2010 and 1 against Sri Lanka in 2005 due to injuries. He was a part of each and every Test Match India has played since his debut in 1996, apart from those 3 matches. So technically, today will indeed be the very first time I won’t be seeing Dravid take the field in a Test Match for India. It has been 5 Months and 2 Weeks since his retirement but the fact that he has retired will finally sink in when India goes out to bat today and the first wicket falls but Dravid will not walk into bat at No.3, that will be very difficult for me to watch. Today will be a very emotional day for every Dravid fan.

I remember when Dravid announced his retirement on 9^th of March this year; I was going through the most devastating week of my life. I had to undergo an operation called “Core Decompression” on both my hips for my condition, Avascular Necrosis, due to which I was confined to a wheelchair for the next two months. The day when I got discharged, that is the day before his retirement, I had no clue about the announcement. When I checked my Facebook and Twitter; I could only see posts regarding Dravid’s impending retirement as he had called for a press meet the following day. I almost brushed it off as another rumor and didn’t believe it at first.

But Dravid had indeed called the press meet on March 9^th and announced his retirement as gracefully as he has played Cricket his entire career. Even when I heard the words from his own mouth that he is retiring, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even cry for the next few hours. I had no tribute post ready as I was not prepared for his retirement. It took me a few hours to compose myself to write one final tribute post. It was also my first day getting used to moving around the house in a wheelchair, so it became equally difficult for me to write the post, physically as well as emotionally. I couldn’t sit on the wheelchair for long as my feet would swell nor could I sit on a bed and write the post as my back would give away. In-spite of all the obstacles, I decided to write one final tribute post for my Idol.

I am absolutely proud of this post as I wrote it in the most extreme circumstances, it is the most difficult post I ever had to write, and it incidentally is also my longest post. It took me well over 4 hours to finish the post as I had to take breaks at regular intervals to give my legs some rest. But eventually it did take a toll on me, sitting on a wheelchair for that long isn’t such a good idea, that too a day after getting discharged. After I finished my post, my feet had swollen. I had to listen to a mouthful from my mom for risking my own health while writing that post, even poor Dravid was not spared by my mom. But such is my passion; I had to write that post, I had put in everything into that post but it did hurt me when not many people actually read the entire post. The people who read it and commented on it, I am always thankful but it didn’t get the kind of readership I expected.

Anyways you can read the post here: My Idol Rahul Dravid Retires - A Nostalgic Tribute. Please do take some time out and read this post. It will make me very happy.

Laxman and Dravid during their epic partnership in the Kolkata Test - 2001
Image Courtesy: Google Images

Apart from Dravid, another legend VVS Laxman will also not take the field today for India. He was an absolute magician with the bat, a genius who was part of the famous quartet which also included Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Laxman made his Test debut a few months after Dravid and Ganguly made theirs, in 1996. He announced his retirement a few days ago despite being selected for the Two-Test series against New Zealand starting today. It is really unfortunate Laxman had to bid a tearful adieu to International Cricket as he was hurt by some of the comments made by former Cricketers in a few columns. As he didn’t want to be a burden to the team and wanted to give youngsters a chance, he gracefully quit from the game.

India had suffered two humiliating series defeats overseas against England and Australia respectively in the past year. We lost 8 consecutive Test Matches. It was our worst performance in over 30 years. Although Dravid was in outstanding form against England, scoring 3 centuries, even though we lost the series 4-0 but Laxman was in dreadful form, managed to score more than 50 only 3 times in eight Tests. In what turned out to be their final Test series against Australia in early 2012, both Dravid and Laxman had very dismal series; it was heartbreaking to see such legends bow out from the game in that fashion. But it takes nothing away from the fact that those two will always remain two of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the game.

Dravid and Laxman bid tearful farewells to International Cricket. Two of the most well behaved Cricketers you would ever come across who epitomized “The Gentlemen’s Game” by being true gentlemen. It is an irreparable loss not just to Indian Cricket but to World Cricket. They will surely be missed. 

Raksha Bandhan

The greeting cover, personally made by Logu

I haven’t had much to cheer about in the past one year, struggling to overcome some serious health issues and various other setbacks. It’s been one hell of a struggle all the way. But there have been rare moments even in these dark times which made me truly happy. I had the privilege to experience one such rare happy moment on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

My best friend and my dear sister, Logu, whom I truly love and admire, sent me the most beautiful gift, a Rakhi, which symbolizes a sister’s love for her brother and his well-being. Being a doted brother to my beloved sister, I too have vowed to protect her for life. I was very pleasantly surprised when I received her beautiful gift in the mail; I was very touched to read the amazingly wonderful words she had to say about me.

(Click to enlarge the pics)

It is very difficult for me to describe in words what she means to me, she has been an integral part of my life since we became friends more than three years ago. Now, I can’t even imagine my life without her. Logu is the hardest working and the most dedicated person I have seen in my life and also the kindest and the most caring. She had to come up the hard way in life, overcoming each and every obstacle with grit and determination. She has also been my inspiration to fight my own obstacles, always encouraging me and giving me the strength to fight my battles.

Sometimes I feel like I have failed her as a friend and also as a brother. She has always been there for me when I needed it but I feel like I have not been there for her when she needed me. I know she would disagree to that but I sometimes do feel like I have failed her. 

Logu, I promise to be a better friend and a loving brother in future. I promise to take care of you and be there for you when you need the most. Thank you for this wonderful gift my dear sis, I am finally happy after a very long time. Your lovely gesture not only made my day but made my year.

Simple, yet beautiful. The Bond of Protection

India's Olympic Dreams - London 2012

2012 London Olympics - Official Logo (Clean)
Image Courtesy: Google Images

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games is scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom, from 27th July to 12th August, 2012. The Government of India has reportedly spent over Rs. 250 crores in preparation for the games, which also includes Rs. 20 crores on foreign coaches for various events, so says Wiki. Has the money which was supposed to be spent for the games has really been spent in the development, infrastructure and training facilities or has most of it gone down the drain? In other words, has most of the money which was supposed to be spent to develop and prepare our athletes to win medals at the Olympics, gone down a corrupt Official or a Politician’s dirty pockets? Whatever the case maybe, I have decided not to dwell much upon any controversies or corruption surrounding the games in this post. I will just concentrate on the athletes who will be our best medal hopes in the forthcoming games.

One good thing about this Olympics I have been hearing in the news is the number of Officials who will be accompanying the athletes to the games, the number of Government Sponsored Officials this time would be only 10 as compared to 166 in the Beijing Olympics. That is definitely a welcome change, now at least we can be assured that this Olympics will not end up being a paid holiday for Politicians and their relatives or anyone associated with the Sports Ministry in any way from the hard-earned tax payers money. The efforts of the IOA and the Sports Ministry are to be appreciated in this regard.

This will be India’s strongest and the largest Olympic Contingent comprising of 81 athletes in 13 different disciplines, there will be 54 Support Staff which includes Doctors, Physiotherapists and Coaches, 7 Contingent Officials, 12 Sports Federation Officials (one from each discipline in which India has qualified) and only 10 Govt. Sponsored Officials which comes to a total of 164 personnel.

As a kid watching the 1996 Atlanta Games, I used to feel very disappointed seeing the medals tally every morning in the newspapers. I used to get up eagerly to see India’s name in the medals tally but would only end up seeing the medals tally of US, China and other European nations grow. We did win a solitary Bronze Medal and Leander Paes became a National Hero. We managed to win a Bronze and a Silver Medal in subsequent Olympics but still the precious Gold Medal was missing from our kitty in an individual event. That void was finally fulfilled when three sporting heroes changed the face of Indian sporting history in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. By winning the gold in the 10 m Air Rifle event, Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to win the individual Gold Medal at the Olympics. Vijender Singh became the first Indian Boxer to win a medal at the Olympics when he won a Bronze Medal in the 2008 Games. And Sushil Kumar won a Bronze Medal in the Men’s 66Kg Freestyle Wrestling Event; this was only the second time an Indian Wrestler has won a medal at the Olympics, first since K D Jadhav won the Bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games.

The three Olympic heroes from the Beijing Games have made the cut in the London Games too, and we can definitely hope they would repeat or even better their performances (Vijender and Sushil can aim higher and go for gold) in this Olympics. Expectations are sky-high for India to win a record number of medals in this 30th Edition of the games. We can definitely hope to win medals in many disciplines including Archery, Shooting, Boxing, Badminton, Wrestling and even Tennis. Despite all the controversies and the ugly selection row, we can still hope for a medal in Tennis, both in Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Indian Hockey team would be making a comeback to the Olympics after missing the cut for the first time in history in the Beijing Games. Will the Hockey Team be able to leave a mark? Although the medal prospects for the Hockey Team is very slim, (well, its almost impossible) but if they spring a surprise or two and manage to get at least a bronze medal then it would be considered a great achievement.

Women’s Boxing will also make its debut at the London Games and who better than the five-time successive World Boxing Champion, Mary Kom, who will be the sole representative from India. She will be one of the brightest prospects to win a medal for us in this Olympics.

One of my most favorite athletes, the one with an infectious smile, Deepika Kumari representing the Women’s Archery Team in both Individual and Team Events will be a great medal prospect. She is currently the World No. 1 in Women’s Recurve Archery.

Saina Nehwal is again one of the most promising medal hopes for us in Badminton. Having won two back-to-back titles in the run up to the Olympics, she will be supremely confident and will be at her prime form and we can surely count on her to win an individual Gold Medal.

Compared to the previous editions of the Olympics, this edition will be our best bet to win lots of medals, the final medals tally may even touch double digits for the very first time.

Indian Bloggers League - The Phenomenon

Official IBL Logo

It was a lazy Monday evening on the 11th of June, my good friend Deepak Karthik of Whatever It Takes fame came up with an ingenious idea to host a IPL-like tournament involving the Blogging community called the Indian Bloggers League. When I saw his post on the IndiBlogger Family group, I immediately lapped onto it. We both started discussing the pros and cons about a tournament of this magnitude. I was eager to participate but Deepak insisted I work behind the scenes to organize the tournament with him, and so I got on board to be a part of the organizing committee of IBL and also as a moderator.

We didn’t know what to expect at that point but promptly created ‘another’ blog group on Facebook to annoy people with tons of notifications. We added few of our blog friends to the group, in the meanwhile me and Deepak were also brainstorming on chat about the format, rules, the number of teams etc. The idea was still very sketchy at this point. We posted whatever little we discussed about the tournament on the group waiting for the response from our fellow bloggers. An hour after the group was created, the group was unusually quiet, and there wasn’t much response. Deepak pinged me on chat, “Bro no response yet”. I replied, “Just give it a couple of days bro”. I was so wrong, should’ve said “a couple of hours” instead. What transpired in the next couple of hours was unprecedented; we were not ready for it. Within 3 hours of the group creation, there were already 200 members. The response was overwhelming; we hadn’t even decided how many teams we should allow participating or how many members in a team or things like that but already there were people forming teams for their respective cities. I was introduced to my fellow team members in the organizing committee by Deepak. Saravana Kumar Murugan of Few Miles fame and Binoy Karan of WriteUp Café joined us. The four of us took some time off from the chaos that was happening on the group to come up with some concrete set of rules and regulations for the IBL. Our brainstorming sessions lasted well into the night which continued in the succeeding days. And within a day, we had come up with some neat set of rules, a proper format, created a Fan Page, Twitter account, a Blog with a custom domain (thanks to Binoy for his self-less act of buying the server space for the sake of IBL from his own pocket). Also, we finalized the scheduling of the tournament in the coming days.

Official IBL Banner

Even though the tournament is yet to begin, we have already had our share of arguments, fights and difference of opinions. But we have stuck it out through it all and held ourselves together to work as a cohesive unit. This little ordeal has also brought all four of us much closer to each other, even though we have never met one another.

The greatest impact of IBL is, it has taken the conversations between bloggers to a much more personal level, and we all converse with each other as if we have known one another since the past many years. Earlier, conversations between bloggers may have been limited to the comment sections of each other’s blogs, but the advent of the IndiBlogger Family and IBL groups on Facebook has paved way for an interactive era for bloggers which was unheard of before. I am very happy to have played a small part in that transformation.

We, at IBL aim to promote the art of writing and the art of blogging and of course the competitive spirit. It will be a great test to all the teams to work as a team, gel together as one unit, to help win this prestigious tournament playing for their respective cities.

So who will take home the crown as the Champions of the Inaugural Edition of the Indian Bloggers League?

Will it be the cultural capital of Maharashtra known as the Pune Blog-In blowing their trumpets proudly in the end?

Armed with Dhoklas, Theplas and Phapdas, will it be one of the most hard working teams of the tournament, The Amdavadi Thadka?

Bombay’s Bloggywood - The superstars from the city of Bollywood are among the favorites to go all the way.

Maybe the best team on paper known as Bengaluru Bloggers’ Bistro from the Garden City of India which boasts of some of the best bloggers in the country in their respective genres. Who can bet against them?

The dark horses of the tournament from the land of the Chanakyas and the Aryabhattas – The Patliputra Wordsmiths have the potential to go all the way.

Known for their competitive and sporting nature, will the team from Chennai be able to emulate the exploits of their more successful counterpart of the IPL? The Chennai Super Bloggers are a team to watch out for.

The Kolkata Knight Writers team swears by the notion, pen is mightier than the sword; they are a bunch of talented writers whom no one can underestimate.

The spirited and enthusiastic bunch of bloggers from the Capital city of India – The Delhi Sutras are exceptionally talented. They may not be the most favored team but they are the team to beat.

The Battle of Blogs begins on the 1st of July. Be sure to catch all the action of this unprecedented blogging extravaganza on our Website, on our WriteUp Café Page, our Facebook Page and our Facebook Group.

136 Bloggers. 8 Teams. 4 Grueling Rounds spread over 3 Months. One Ultimate Winner. The phenomenon that is the Indian Bloggers League has arrived.