Time Magazine On Sachin...

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

कृतज्ञता...

वाढदिवस हे साजरे करावे लागत नाहीत...केवळ एक कृतज्ञतापूर्ण स्मरण त्याकरता पुरेसे असते...आजकित्येक जण "घनश्याम सुंदरा ...श्रीधरा.." ऐकूनच प्रातःकाली उठली असतील..."वैष्णाव जन तो"..ऐकत बापूंना आठवणारी पिढी आजही कुठेतरी असेल....भक्ती गीते असोत वा पसायदान...जन गण मन असो व वंदे मातरम...गेली कित्येक दशके आपल्या राष्ट्राची दिनक्रमा एकाच आवाजाने सुरु होते....मग ती रात्री क्लब अथवा बार मध्ये झिंगणारी आणि थिरकणारी पावले असोत.. हिंद-चीनी युद्धात देशाला पौरुषत्व देणारी गीते असोत....पावसात प्रेयसी बरोबर "प्यार हुआ इकरार हुआ.." अशी धुंद गाणी असोत किव्वा एखद्या रेल्वेच्या डब्यात "अल्लाह तेरो नाम" म्हणणारा एखादा गरीब , गरजू असो.....ह्यापैकी कित्येकांना कल्पना पण नसेल कि ह्या आसमंताला भरून टाकणाऱ्या आवाजाचा आज वाढदिवस...पण काय फरक पडतो...? हे सूर तर आमच्या आयुष्याचाच एक भाग बनून राहिले आहेत....

Nostalgia...

wow...its been almost 8 months and now I am back to blogging...finally got a chance to spare sometime for myself...my first long weekend ever since last year, but this weekend I don't feel like going anywhere. Most of the places nearby or even farthest has been explored. All the cuisines have been tried. All the parks are visited and revisited. All the liquor in city is emptied.

Just sitting on chair on this lazy afternoon and found the book nearby..."Maharashtra desha..." by Uddhav thackrey. Going through all the fotos once again , re-finding the places I have seen and many more not even heard off.

Making me feel very nostalgic and homesick. I am deing to breathe air coming over from Sahyadri and want to drink water of Indrayani. Craving for the India trip break. Its been a while and I am counting my days till december.

omkar

Good Bye...2009..

2009 was the most memorable year of my life. I just did everything, been through all kinds of feelings over the year. There were breath stopping tensions, excitements, anxieties, hard work and as wells as hanging out with friends, travelling all through US; I had sleepless nights at work and days of all day sleep as well. I tried hundreds of new things; many were for the first time in my life. I pursued the things, which I always had a passion about and dreamt of.

There was excitement of graduation, then the pain of departing with closed ones. Strive for finding a job for myself and then the joy of getting one. It was maintaining deadlines for VISA status, pride of buying first car, chilling out with new colleagues, visiting new places, buying my first camera; it was just too exciting and fun. I agree that this year I lived for myself being little selfish. I cared more for my personal achievements. I became so passionate about my work. It gave me so much pleasure and enthusiasm like nothing else could give.

Overall the year was happening, but that’s how my life has been. I won’t say it’s always good or I am being lucky all the time. But it’s always eventful. Something or else will always be going on to make it full of incidents. Destiny does make me go through all the pain and hard work while achieving the things. Th year had been full of problems and finding their solutions. One thing I learnt is, the more you grow in your life bigger the worries became. This is the way I have convinced myself. So whenever I come across the same problem I faced before, I get worried as if my growth has been flattened, and the greater the problem I tackle, I feel myself proud for climbing ladder of success. Sometimes, I feel jealous for my friends coz when I call them and ask how things are going and all they say is, “same old sh***t…” because I have like 100s of good/bad things to share everyday and they all ahas perfect settled life. wow..!!!

Anyways, now the year is ending and I can see lot of excitement waiting at the corner for me. I wish Year 2010 has a lot for me to bring out. I pray to god, give me more and more big problems to handle. That’s the only measure that I am growing in my life.

Omkar

Team India....

सध्या आमच्या अंगात क्रिकेट चे वारे शिरले आहे...खर तर गेली ३ वर्ष...म्हणजे भारत वर्ल्ड कप हरल्यापासून अस्मादिकाच्या डोक्यात एक तिडिक बसली होती...पण कालच गैरी किर्स्तेन यांचा टीम इंडिया ला दिलेला सल्ला वाचला अणि क्रिकेट मध्ये आम्हा पुन्हा रस वाटू लागला....

झाला असा की टीम इंडियाच्या रडी खेळासाठी नेहमीप्रमाने प्रत्येकाने आपापले अनाहूत सल्ले द्यायला सुरुवात केलि..त्यात आपले गुरूजी जे की गैरी महाशय यांनी असा सिद्धांत मांडला की टीम इंडिया सगळ्यात जास्त गरज कशाची आहे तर सेक्स ची....झाल..अणि नेहमी प्रमाने आम्ही स्वप्नरंजनात बुडून गेलो....

म्हणजे जस hocky च्या आधी राष्ट्र गीत वाजवले जाते...किव्वा वार्मअप साठी खेळाडू तयार होतात तद्वत टीम इंडिया ड्रेसिंग रूम मध्ये तयार होण्याऐवजी आपापले कपडे काढू लागली आहे...११ खेळाडू अणि त्यांसाठी किमान ११ ललना यांना काही काळ एकांत दिला गेला आहे...प्रत्येकाचे चाहते स्वाक्षरी साठी नाही तर रूम च्या बाहेर काय ऐकू येते का यासाठी कान टवकारून बसले आहेत...अणि मग टीम इंडिया चे एकेक बहाद्दर गडी विजयी मुद्रेने मैच साठी बाहेर पडत आहेत...वाह वा.. अहो टीम इंडिया चे हे असला सौभाग्या पाहून विरोधी टीम ची भावना इतनी अनावर होंएल की ते मैच सोडून आपापल्या (?) बायकांकडे पलायन करतील....टीम इंडिया मैच जिंकेल ती अशी....काय नामी शक्कल आहे....?

Struggle for Excellence or Existence…..??

The only motive that brought me to US was to excel ethically in my professional life…like we all l also thought initially…I was disappointed with the Indian bureaucratic system, disgusting reservation system and unethical ways that people use to grow in their professions. I had listened to the stories in institutes like NCL (National chemical lab, Pune, where I completed my undergrad project), about how south Indian lobby supports southee’s (with few respected exceptions) and blah blah..!!! I had chosen my profession with some reason and was not willing to leave it upto certain system to decide fate of it.

US then became my dream land. The land of opportunities…!! I didn’t even try GATE or CAT…so possessed I was ; perhaps I might be the first one who was smiling when leaving my dearest ones and the country. But that dream was proved an ephemeral. Soon I reached the US, I realized that I am on my own and nobody has even a little concern about my presence here. One thing was sure in my mind. I didn’t come here to earn money. It was never and will never be my priority in life. I still strongly believe that money is measure of success and not that earning money brings success.

Success has to come thro’ several hardships. I don’t deny that. I did the same thing, worked hard, physically –mentally, on campus- off campus, gathered each and every dollar to pay off my fees, living expenses; consoling myself that these 2 years of hard work will bring me success after my graduation…simply when I will get a decent job. I made it. After few weeks of immense mental stress and endless efforts I managed to get the long awaited so called “dream job”..!!!

But am I really happy at this stage..? Is it really worth of what I am…? Is it like I have something very extra-ordinary thing that lots of other friends of mine doesn’t have at this stage (because of the recession)…a damn job….does it compensate for all I lost here…? Does success means possessing something that others don’t…? Lowering your benchmarks and then boast on achieving it, is a fools business. I lost my very first friends, I lost sole love of my life and more importantly I lost my self consciousness. I did illegal things, knowing-unknowingly I behaved unethical. I did the things for which I can’t justify myself in front of the mirror. This ‘struggle for excellence’ soon changed to ‘struggle for existence’, and I had no idea, I was haunted. It was like going back into our primitive stage of striving for survival with no thinking about its consequences. My regret is for these precious 3 years of my youth I wasted doing this.

This doesn’t mean I am nervous or have lost joy of life. Some people may think I am turning mad or on the way to become yogi. Nothing of that is going to happen soon. I am enjoying my life, I know it’s beautiful. It is just that I have started exploring myself that I didn’t do for last 3 years. And to my wonder, it is miraculous. There was so much into my soul that was popping to come out, And I didn’t had clue about it. So my earnest request is to everyone reading this blog. Be little introvert and find what you really want in your life. Don’t let someone else to decide what success means to you. It is your right to decide your destiny, use that….. Trust me “life is beautiful”..!!! And you just get it once…don’t waste it.

Omkar…

नायगारा...एक जिवंत अनुभव...

आयुष्यात काही गोष्टी फक्त ज्याच्या त्याने अनुभवायाच्या असतात....नायगारा ही असाच...सुरुवातीला वाटला होता की नेहमी प्रमाने अमेरिकन लोकांनी उगाच त्याच अति कौतुक केल आहे...फेरी राईडस, रात्रीच्या वेळी अतिभव्य प्रकाश योजना वगैरे...अगदी वरून त्याच अवलोकन करतानाही मला विशेष नवल वाटला नव्हता...कारण डोंगरदर्यातून खळाळत येणारया प्रवाहाची आम्हाला सवय अणि ओढ़....ह्या पोपकोर्न अणि चिप्स खात बघण्याच्या धबधब्याची नवलाई तिथेच विरून जाणार होती...

पण त्या प्रवाहाच्या पायथ्याशी गेलो अणि सगळे अपसमज बाजूला पडले...तो शांत वाटणारा प्रवाह डोक्यावरन पडताना किती भयंकर होतो हे ज्याच तोच जाणे...त्या पाण्यात मी किती वेळ उभा होतो हे माझ मलाच उमजला नाही...एखाद्या रौरवत्या वादळापुढे हतबल व्हावा तसा त्याच्या अजस्त्रपणापुढे मी नतमस्तक झालो...

असीम अनंत विश्वाचे रण,
त्यात हा पृथ्वीचा इवला कण |
घेऊन आडोसा कोणी 'मी' वसें,
क्षुद्रता अहो ही अफाट असें !

पण त्या भावनेत पण एक समाधान आहे...आपल्या सर्वांची क्षुद्र आयुष्य अणि त्यातली क्षूद्र दुःख्खे...त्यांना कवटाळून आपण जगत असतो...पण नायगारा बघताना काही क्षण का होईना आपण स्वतःला विसरून जातो...निसर्गाच्या ह्या उदात्त रुपात आपल्याला सर्व प्रश्नान्ची उत्तरे मिळतात...गाडगे बाबा म्हणायचे..." येकलेच हिन्डा...देवाने ह्ये निसर्गाच पुस्तक लिवालय...ते मस्त वाचीत हिन्डा..." त्या वाक्याचा मतितार्थ आज थोडा थोडा उमगयाला लागला आहे...

खरतर मी गेलो होतो मस्त फोटो काढायला....नविन dSLR च प्रयोग करायला...अगदी wide angle lense वगैरे सर्व अस्त्रे परजुन ..कैमरा पाण्यात भिजू नये म्हणुन protective बैग अशी जय्यत तयारी केली होती...पण पाण्यात उतरलो अणि भानच हरपून गेला....फ़क्त मनः चक्षून्नी बघायची गोष्ट मला तरी कैमेर्यात नाही बंद करता अली..."अनंत हस्ते देता दिवाकराने..किती घेशील दोन करांनी...." अशी अवस्था झाली...

मागच्या वर्षी पाचही जलाशय (Great Lakes) बघण्याचा अभिनव संकल्प सोडला होता...ती परिक्रमा आज पूर्ण झाली...अणि मनातली अनुभूति आणि समाधान अशी शब्दात व्यक्त नाहीच करता येणार...!!!

ॐकार..