I believe in Team India, Do you?

Thank god that final the misery for Team India is over. Mahendrasingh Dhoni must have had different feeling where he was on the moon for after World cup and IPL championship wins than today. He was immediately dragged on to the ground and into the dust. As Sixty per cent of his team back to the home country, he must be very eager to see his new home in Ranchi. In this blog there are references of the today which are happened in the past, but pardon me for that as this blog is in the making for last 1 month. I have almost finished it but did not publish it so…

Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni

It was really good for me to be busy this week as I did not get the chance to watch the TV. Like me there were not many so fortunate and had to watch it. It’s really been the heartbreak to all Team India fans as there team performed miserably on the field. This was really the shocker of the performance as Team India did not looked like number 1 ranked team in the world. Even though there were good performances, they were never consistent. Is this really the end of the domination or is there another story to it.

I got the chance to watch it for full day and India has scored 300 score after 7-8 test matches. It’s good to see that with little bit of fight from the Wall and the tail, it reminded me the old Indian teams in the past. Whenever they visited the foreign soils, this is what India always performed there. I have seen great India collapsing in the past but somehow I or we forgot that. Once upon time India were called Tigers at home and hapless visitors, so now you know why that was.

English Press going GAGA..

English are on the moon with this performance, everyone new that India is not the number one Team in the Test cricket. Truly, they are not. They have earned that position with the good performance to the home. This was achieved with the dismal performances of the other team.  It was an open secret that India is going to struggle.

England winning test matches 4-0

I was really surprised to see the India Vs England advertisement on the TV directly challenging India. But that proved right and that only added fire to the always aggressive English Media. English team had so many bad memories against country that they ruled for so many years. They finally got the opportunity and they capitalized it. Once in their life time they have got the opportunity to be proud of their Cricket team as in the past there performances were really pathetic.

My view on this is that this is just a passing phase for English Team, they going through a purple path. It’s easy to be go to number 1 position but very difficult to stick to that position. India has learned that in a hard way and England’s time will soon come. At least India stayed there nearly 2 years. It is really a great feat if we see the Indian bowlers.

Past performance of team India in England

India always played well in England. In fact on last tour they beat English with some gritty performances by two left handers i.e. Zaheer and R. P. Singh. We actually got lucky last time when we some drawn first test match, of course with help of wrong Umpiring decision. It was 1-0 win for Indian’s but they knew how they achieved it.

Previous to that there were many good performances or I even can say that, most of our outside India wins were from England. All Indian batsmen scored tones of runs in English environment. I actually thought that our bowling was better than the English but fitness was only thing which separated two bowling sides. There were much fitter and quick than our bowlers.

Our record outside India

I have seen many worst performances of India pre Saurav ganguly captaincy. India used to lose matches to Zimbabwe that time. We had to fight it out for Test and One day with lesser ranked teams. It was infusion of some players like Sehwag, Gautam, Dhoni and Zaheer with that prime form of 5 Pandav’s cricket that propelled India to number one ranking.

Even though with the much improved performance on Team India, they record hasn’t improved outside. Wherever they have won the margin is only sing match i.e. 1-0. There hadn’t been a convincing win on the Team India’s CV. It’s true that they haven’t won convincingly and don’t have smashing record outside like Australia and South Africa has. Somewhere we forgot the old Indian performance and hence got this shock.

India with World cup 2011

Post world cup complacency

This could be related to world cup fatigue, as they have been playing relentless cricket for 5-6 months. Immediately after the world cup, they even did not get the time to soak up all the excitement. They played that 1.5 month of cricket continuously. If you have seen the actual team, most of the key players are outside the team due one or another injury.

We can give thousand reasons when we loose but Team real looked tired and uninterested in Cricket and on the other had, England team was rearing to go so this has to happen.

What are the positives?

Only positive I can make out from this is that we cannot fall below this. As this is been the worst performance in present generations mind. At least for the newer generation, I thought India didn’t played that bad but lower order Englishmen played well, especially Stuart Broad. This could be little redemption for Stuart Broad after getting depressing 6-sixes by Yuvi. One fact which I have learned from my experience and watching TV is “Make your own mistakes”. It’s sometimes good if we do it first time but it not possible every time.  On more thing that might have come out of it as we could see all the weaknesses in this Team India which will surely be helpful for building future Indian team.

At least our ODI teams played well, it’s just that they could not perform on crucial moments.  Otherwise most of the matches went to the last over of the match. As we are been the better run chaser, which we proved by winning world cup at too chasing. We could not bat once in the Twenty-twenty and ODI’s. They will surely play well in the future so this team is to watch for.

My Final view on this team

England ODI Win

India has vast reserves of players. The country line India who has 1 billion plus population it should not be hard. We have excellent one-day and T-20 Team but current Team India is not as bad as it has been made out by English Team. They have beaten Australia in Australia where not many teams can boast of that record. English team is really playing well in England but we need to watch their performance in India because ‘beating India in Indian Condition’ is the actual Test. If English Team can do that they I can accept them as number one Team.

We should not write of Team India as we have an able leader. This man has really changed the face and stature of Team India to a different level. India is now one of the most dangerous teams in the world and with Dhoni, this team will surely be one of the best team.

At least for this moment where Team India is down, we have to support our team. They have given us so much joy, now we have to tell them that ‘hey guy, we are with you’. This will surely make them feel better and boost their confidence. One should always remember that after all they arealso human beings, as we go through bad phases they also are in one. For me these bad phase come quiet often but that’s the different subject for the future.

I still see this team fighting hard and dominating in the future. Key to that will be fitness because neither we Indian are not physically fit nor we have culture of fitness. One more thing about the captaincy issue that we will be having an aggressive captain in form of Virat kohli, so that issue has been already got settled. I agree that I am seeing lot of positives from the team who just lost everything. I am an optimist and will like to be like that, I have seen this team performed lot better and surely will see that again 

so I believe in Team India, do you?

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गणपति बाप्पा मोर्या - आम्हा सर्वांना अक्कल दया

I have been bombarding you all with these blog but what can I do. There are so many things are happening in our lives and I have hundred opinions on each of them. Whether it is directly related to me or not, I will always have an opinion.

One thing which I haven’t mentioned in my previous blog is that I have got new Laptop, the DELL Inspiron. I am still waiting for my internet connection but this is really exciting that I am working on 3 blogs at same time. Not getting time to publish them could be the reason but it’s better than only watching TV.

LalBaugcha Raja

Today only I have seen one of the lavish and grand decoration made at home. This is the faith and dedication of the people in Lord Ganesha. We all celebrate this festival with lot of faith and eagerness but do we really know about Ganesha celebration from the past. We know about Ganeshostav that it has been started by Lokamanya Tilak but what used to happen before that.

Ganeshostav is one of the several festivals we celebrate in India. We are a chaotic society so these festivals to please our gods. How it’s been celebrated in this ancient land in the past but is this important to know it. May be not but when you learn to ask “Why?” question everywhere then one has to know so did I.  As usual I did some research in my spare time for my dear and loyal readers (ha ha ha). Following is the story about it and it’s really interesting.

Previous history of Ganeshostav

It is not known when and how Ganesh Chaturthi was first celebrated. But according to the historian Shri Rajwade, the earliest Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations can be traced back to the times of the reigns of dynasties as Satavahana, Rashtrakuta and Chalukya. Historical records reveal that Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations were initiated in Maharashtra by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja, the great Maratha ruler, to promote culture and nationalism. And it had continued ever since. There are also references in history to similar celebrations during Peshwa times. It is believed that Lord Ganapati was the family deity of the Peshwas. After the end of Peshwa rule, Ganesh Chaturthi remained a family affair in Maharashtra from the period of 1818 to 1892.

1857 was a landmark year for India and moreso in the context of Indian freedom. It was the year of Sepoy Mutiny, an armed rebellion against the ruling British Empire by the Indian soldiers. This was the first war that India waged to gain back her independence from her white rulers. Though unsuccessful, this battle marked the beginning of the Indian struggle for independence. Many orators, leaders and freedom fighters all over India teamed to put up a united resistance to the British domination. One of these eminent leaders was Bal Gangadhar Tilak, an Indian nationalist, social reformer and freedom fighter. Greatly esteemed by the Indian people, especially of Maharashtra, Tilak was commonly referred to as "Lokmanya" or "he who is regarded by the people". It was Tilak, who brought back the tradition of Ganesh Chaturthi and reshaped the annual Ganesh festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event.

Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati (Pune)

 Lokamanya saw how Lord Ganesha was worshipped by the upper stratum as well as the rank and file of India. The visionary that he was, Tilak realized the cultural importance of this deity and popularised Ganesha Chaturthi as a National Festival "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. He knew that India couldn't fight her rulers until she solved the differences within her own. Hence, to unite all social classes Tilak chose Ganesha as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule because of his wide appeal as "the god for Everyman".

It was around 1893, during the nascent stages of Indian nationalism, that Tilak began to organize the Ganesh Utsav as a social and religious function. He was the first to put in large public images of Ganesha in pavilions and establish the tradition of their immersion on the tenth day. The festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of learned discourses, dance dramas, poetry recital, musical concerts, debates, etc. It served as a meeting place for common people of all castes and communities, at a time when all social and political gatherings were forbidden by the British Empire for fear of conspiracies to be hatched against them. An important festival during the Peshwa era, Ganesha Chaturthi acquired at this time a more organized form all over India largely due to Lokmanya's efforts.

Since then, Ganesh Chaturthi has been celebrated throughout Maharashtra as also in other states with great community enthusiasm and participation. With the independence of India in 1947, it was proclaimed to be a national festival.

My view about these festivals.

For me these festivals are part of our lives but the real motive of this festival has lost somewhere. There real intensions where to bring the people on one platform. As India been a spiritual society, there is a preference for religion so people come together easily. By coming together, they are supposed to share their views and discuss the real issue. 

Large crowd for Ganesha immersion

What we see in there festival is people gathering in large numbers to see the decorations. The real motive of these festival was never been that. It has really become the instrument of cheap entertainment. When the festival was started at that time, the population wasn't an issue but now days it has been a real concern. Millions of people visiting to particular pandals and for what to pray. There are these politicians who spend their money collected by unethical or corrupt means. We see more pictures of these modern gods than the real god. They have exploited this festival for their individual gains.

For these gatherings also Lord Ganesha has set a great lesson by "Encircling Mother and father as they are the manifest universe". This shows the importance of parents in once lives. This story also shows that we are not giving the importance to people which are real important. Instead of wasting our time visiting these pandals we should thank to our parent by taking their care.  If we are hurting our parents and seeking the blessing of Ganesha, then it’s of no use.

All above text is to remind us all that, we are not doing the things we are supposed to do. The real motives of these festivals have been lost. These seen we will again see in the नवरात्रि festivals but we are a lost society. We have stopped asking the really questions and doing things for just an entertainment. It’s really a shame that the great teaching of our Lord Ganesha have been forgotten by the very own people who queue up for his  दर्शन so.....

गणपति बाप्पा मोर्या - आम्हा सर्वांना अक्कल दया

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