Blue vs Red

What a match…IPL final..Deccan Chargers versus Royal Challengers Bangalore!!!

Ranked last two for the first edition of the cricket contest clashed for the top two spots in this one….and the team which had no glamour but game plan, super performances and a purple cap winner clinched their hands on the golden India with a batsman driving the trophy. A deserving team all the way through slowly and steadily became the strong contenders for the plaque.

‘They-can Charge us’ (DC) is what they proved on to the Wanderers on 24^th May ’09 as they proved no wanderers but focused strongly on a crucial win.

Bangalore started hot favorites with lot of emotional backing for the two veteran players, who might be playing their last version of the short game.

Watching the cricketing bonanza live at the luxury of your home is priceless especially when family members are around, cheering every run by the DC and every wicket of the RCB. To cheer it up was the delicious bhel and some coke to quench the thirst (for a DC win perhaps !!)

But the most interesting part was all of my friends were watching the game at one of my friend’s place, while I was praying for the chargers at a fixed location at my home (some superstition I believe).

Tons of expectations from Gilchrist were shattered with the very first minute of the match when he unnecessarily stepped out only to be bowled by the opposition captain. By I was ‘bowled’ over by the temperament and stroke play of Gibbs, choosing sensible balls to hit and guiding the DC to a comfortable total. The cracker of an innings by Sigh-man-ds….gave a sense of sigh! coz those hard hitting shots proved match winners later on in the game.

The slow start of RCB gave a sense of a cautious run chase which proved extremely dismal at the end of the game. Wickets at regular intervals proved helpful to distance the chasers from the set total.

A sense of joy with fists pumping high in the air was the kind of expressional verb that can be used to describe the moment that made me proud of myself of the self belief that I had in the DC and the fact that didn’t prove me wrong. It was the similar feeling which rushed through my blood when I saw the Indians thrashing the Pakistani team in the T20 world cup finals two years back when the men in blue thrashed the men in green for a thumping win. I was assumingly joyful for my silent intuition since the start of the game was unfolding in front of my eyes and I was one cheerful spectator who saw a thumping win of the DC-ians in a clash of colour blue vs red. 

Kaun-t??

16^th may 09, the day India ‘counts’!!! Literally, India ‘count’-ed on for this day so that all those who ac-count-ed themselves will be stamped with a number. A number giving a meaning to their ‘character’ or the image in the people’s mind. Some loose, some win, but what stays them is this number that will be with them for 5 years, till the time they contest again (perhaps if the people allow him/ her to do so in that time span). 

Lot of speculation goes in, TV channels feature all these ‘role models’ (rolled up as models perhaps) as the next successor or failure for the next 5 years. Some go on to become ‘prime’ as ‘ministers’, some with the aspirations of being a ‘ ‘prime minister’, while most of them ‘prime-arily’  want to be a ‘minister’. 

Successors go on to win hearts of people??? with the added responsibility J of performing to save their ‘created image’ and failures retrospect to analyze which area (in the city / ward) did they spend less ‘ to build up a public image’.

Some surprises that spring up feel proud of themselves not knowing that its the money that has made them ‘surprised’ J. 

Some genuine persons who stand for the elections…are supported only by the genuine people, and are out numbered in every dept of the game that they wonder whether to risk being ‘genuine’. 

To add to the ‘fury’ is the ‘fuel’ in the form of astonishing number of voters that go on to vote. 50% is the average number of voters that go and actually vote for the country. Vote are the others doing? Take the luxury of ‘declared holiday’? 

People vote and forget, results are out and forgotten, what really rules the hearts of the people is the ‘trust’ that people have in the ‘cream of the crop’ and anticipation that these ‘creams’ who buttered them for the ‘chair’ deliver : deliver not only in terms of responsibilities but also by enhancing the city image and that of the nation at large…..so they can be a-kaun-ted.

A drop in the Ocean

    I was reading an article the other day regarding the excessive use of energy going on these days. While the world's destruction is prolonged by another 20 years to 2029 (due to excess in the energy output- source news article in the TOI), one has to find out ways of living where we can consume much lesser of the energy reserves that we have. 'Smarter use is the use' should be the motto.

            Even small changes in day to day life can create healthy and smart life. The need of the time is to use technology in a much effective and smarter way, rather than copiously spending money and time on doing things. Small gestures like replacing means of conveyance plays a crucial role in the total mechanism of energy saving. Using less of cars/ two wheelers...replacing them with legs, either on cycles or on roads for shorter distance conveyance is the smart solution.

            Even buying less / as per need makes sure that the reserves are utilized in a better way.

            After all, having an open mind to the solutions and thinking creatively about how we improve our communities and our lifestyles while we do it holds the key.

            Design has a crucial role to play in this process, for design is among the most important engines of innovation. Design is not only the final designed product--a table, building, urban plan or landscape--it is also the design thinking process itself, the very means by which a whole variety of plausible solutions are created, tested and transformed into innovations.

            Looking forward to the design innovations like the electric car, electric bicycles / bikes, energy saving flooring materials, blocks that absorb human energy and recreate it for alternative uses are some of the energy saving innovations which can excite the future generations. 

            Creative thinking and spreading awareness about it is the ‘in thing’ for the present generations. This will not only fashion a healthy lifestyle for us, but for the entire world.

As the world is made up of 70% water, let us ‘drop’ in the water and make the ocean a better place to live.

Lets us all be the ‘drop in the ocean’