Forgotten Heros: Aravinda Desilva

"ARAVINDA DESILVA"

If at all you remember this name I'm sure you would have started following cricket prior to 1996.. The first time I saw this batsman called "Desilva" was way back in 1994 when SriLanka met West Indies in the Hero Cup in India..(yeah! Hero cup! remember Kumble 12/6?). In that match Windies conveniently won over the Lankans who were then carrying a  minnow tag. Though the result of the match was not surprising one batsman particularly caught my attention not for for his shots but for a peculiar reason of breaking his bat into two pieces.  In the series further Desilva was the major contributor with the bat for his side and many times was the only contributor.. I consider Desilva as the Abhimanyu of Srilanka who was all alone in the enemy lines fighting hard without giving it up.. thats when I started respecting first and admiring later!
He was not as stylish as Lara or a Sachin. however, he is tough, rigid and always tried to attack bowlers.. He was the one of those players who made Sri Lankans believe that they can make it big at the international arena.. His test highest of 267 was against Kiwis at Basin Reserve way back in 1991. It was in this phase from early 1990s to 1996 that Sri Lankan team went through painful defeats learning the "Art of Winning" and finally they declared their arrival as a strong team in 1996 permanently shedding the tag of minnows. In this process of building a winning team out of nowhere Aravinda's contribution was enormous and unforgettable.. he is their first stalwart who went after opposition bowlers.. He is the man who taught the young bunch to go after the bowlers.. thats precisely the reason why Jayasuriya calls him as his all time favourite player.  
Aravinda made his debut against England at Lord's in 1984 and played cricket till 2003 world cup which means a career spanning 19 years.. In any sport playing at international level for such long tenure demands an exceptional commitment coupled with very high degree of passion. It is with this passion for cricket that he has hung around the Sri Lankan cricket and now serving as an administrator..

Finding an aggressive captain like Arjuna Ranatunga was a certain boost for an attacking player like Aravinda. 

The 1996 worldcup:
If at all there is a list of golden moments for the Emarald's Isle, the 1996 world cup would definitely have a place in them. No one considered them as a potential candidates for the world cup.. Whole world was euphoric about the Indian chances of world cup, South African strategies and the Aussi jauggernuts but in the end it was Sri Lanka who emerged triumphant... Aravinda played a big big role in this achievement.. starting from his quick fire century against Kenya to the unbeaten ton in the final he was just unstoppable! In both semis as well as the finals it was Aravinda who took the game away from the opposition but I fail to understand why Jayasuriya is credited as the fire of the world cup instead of Aravinda.. All the champions are co‌ined so because they deliver in the big moments, they come to party at the critical junctures, they handle the "big" pressure in their own way.. Now lets see Aravinda's performance in 1996 WC final: 3 wickets, 2 catches and 107*.. can you expect anything more from him? and that too two of the wickets are Mark Taylor, Ricky Ponting and the catch is of  leading edge of Steve Waugh's bat..
On a personal front also Aravinda was never in any controversies.. I remember Sachin mentioning Aravinda's cordial help to the Indian players in the need of the hour..   Aravinda's last test was in 2002 where in he made a double century and took a wicket with the last ball of his career.. can there be a farewell better than this? one can find his whole career stats here
Aravinda made his debut against England at Lord's in 1984 and played cricket till 2003 world cup which means a career spanning 19 years.. In any sport playing at international level for such long tenure demands an exceptional commitment coupled with very high degree of passion. It is with this passion for cricket that he has hung around the Sri Lankan cricket and now serving as an administrator..

Overall, I salute Aravinda for his services to the beautiful game of CRICKET..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavatu

-Karthik

3yrs @ Bgl: contd

As I mentioned in my last post that the last one year had been very eventful and evenly exciting. one reason why it is so exciting is that I started living alone and for the first two months I neither  had a computer nor a TV. Given the kind of "modern lifestyles" we have it sounds little weird to lead such a life. However, in those two months I never felt I was missing something. And regarding staying alone, people ask me "Dont you get bored?" I reply "bore! how does it look like?"..  I sound little arrogant but I have rationale behind it. My sister gifted me a book and there is a question in that which goes like "If you get bored being with you, how boring you should be to others?".. How true!!

And in the month of August I happen to do the YES+ course of "Art of Living Foundation". After this, time ran so quickly that I didnt even realize how fast it was! Regular practice of the "Sudarshan Kriya" increased my energy level to a new high and I feel like I'm going back to engineering days.. As I always say my engineering days witnessed my best performance as a human. Having said that I  have no hesitation in claiming that my complete potential is yet to be unleashed. In the latter part of 2009 I had a tough time in the office because I could not solve the problem at hand. But even this failed to make me suffer because by that time I have crossed the barrier called suffering. So I had a bindaas time during the new year as I went home and enjoyed with my two month old nephew. 

Meanwhile some thing amazing happened in my blog life! By an unbelievable coincidence I have met a group of creative mavericks and there started a group called "prapisasa". We started as a group of 4 and already reached 20. By far, in the history of telugu blogs we enjoy undisputed popularity with all the records in our bag. we have completed 100 posts with a whopping 17000+ comments.. thats what creativity can attract!! Do join us if you want to have unparalleled and healthy comedy. I should write a seperate post if I have to write about the creativity of our group. Though we started as to mock a Mr. Stupid of telugu blogs we soon became best of friends and are enjoying a lot.. people from different backgrounds, different professions, different geographic locations and yet ready to stand by each other. Sounds strange but thats whats happening! We share a profound bonding and aspire to do something good for the society apart from our funny stories/songs/poems. Lets see how it would go!

On the professional front, early this year I planned a job shift and with divine grace I cleared the first company which I had attempted. At the same time SMS(my earlier organization) was sold out to Genpact which proved my job shift decision to be correct. In April I joined HP and so far didnt do much of the work apart from taking a couple of transitional activities. I'm looking forward to do much in this space!!

In April our family is blessed with a baby girl and thats again a fantastic development in my life.. and because of that my parents finally came and stayed along with me for a month. 

Overall this one year of "STAYING ALONE" had been quite eventful on all fronts.. As always ZINDAGI ROCKS!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

3yrs of Bangalore life

by last week i have completed 3yrs of my bangalore life.. another amazing episode of my life with many great people adding a lot of value to me and made my stay a dream..

first year of my Bangalore life  was with my 3 other friends and it was only a logical extension of my hostel life.. the only thorn in the flesh was that some people whom I trusted as my friends let me down with their behavior but then its only human to make mistakes.. on the other side there were people who gave me lift and ended up as my family members..life rocks!!! the specialty of this period was staying as  neighbors to burial ground. I wonder how agitated the ghosts would be for having been victimized by our stay.. we had an excellent house owner who would be boozing at 9am everyday. I never understood whether he starts afresh in the morning or could not complete the one started last night.. however he gave us complete license to make as much noise as possible until and unless other neighbors complain.. and about my roomies, all are unique in their own way! one staunch believer of anything traditional, another who claims to have understood Osho's teachings (admittedly Osho never has a place in my popularity list) and the maverick Alchoholic sharp stupid.. yep!! all the words refers to same person.. isnt the combination great?

the second was with my Kanpur senior who used to completely take care of me.. we used his carom board for bothering neighbors, computer for my resume, TV for watching IPL and him for making fun ;) after his marriage when I said him time is running real fast he says we actually spent gud time in our bachelorhood so we feel like that.. everybody used to get surprised to see our combination because its not often to find a gult hanging out with a bihari.. and we had an amazing cook whose knowledge was to fry the dal and then boil it in the cooker.. b/n i had my bike as well, nothing helped me as much as bike did.. i love it.. its a pretty simple one with no circus looks still very efficient and suits a pollution weary being like me.. the rides me and my roomie used to take from koramangala to KR puram at 10PM in the night were awesome and really miss them..

these are all on the personal side, on the professional side also life was evenly eventful and amazing.. as I'm positioned in a gr8 team.. i had the opportunity to learn a lot of things and learn them quickly.. all the SAS,stats and many other blah blah blah came into my life in this period..

and regarding my last one year life I think its better to write a separate post about such a great time..

An Editorial from Dawn

Dawn is one of the international newspaper which i read everyday (WSJ,telegraph being others). Despite some of the anti India/hindu articles many articles deal with the problems faced by Pakistan.. I particularly like the articles of NFP.. Now, this article is something where the real roots of terrorism are touched.. As of today 8/10 thinks terrorism is caused by Islam/muslims.. and thats what makes this article even more interesting.. please go through it:

US Congressman Howard Berman’s argument is simple enough. Addressing a meeting of US physicians of Pakistani descent, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated the obvious on Sunday when he said that democracy cannot prosper if civilian governments do not enjoy complete administrative control over the armed forces.

He pointed to President Barack Obama’s recent decision to change his top commander in Afghanistan, and seemed to suggest that a similar move would not be viable in Pakistan. Mr Berman may be right on this count, nor can it be denied that the democratic process in Pakistan has been repeatedly derailed by military dictators. The Congressman’s comments, incidentally, came a day before the 33rd anniversary of Gen Ziaul Haq’s coup against the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a move that many believe could not have taken place without the tacit support of the US. That was a defining moment in the country’s history and we are suffering from its fallout to this day. Would Pakistan in the 21st century be wracked by militancy and terrorism if the US hadn’t supported Gen Zia and pumped millions into the Afghan ‘jihad’?

The point here is that America has long been hand in glove with military dictators and varied despots, not just in Pakistan but across the globe. In Central and South America it has even engineered coups to oust democratically elected administrations. Bloodbaths followed but that did not deter the US from throwing its full weight behind regimes that were answerable to no one but Washington. US foreign policy inflicted grievous harm on countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Chile and Nicaragua in the Americas and Indonesia and the Philippines in the east. Then there was the generous support for the likes of Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran and of course every single Pakistani dictator dating back to Gen Ayub Khan. A lot of this had to do with the exigencies of the Cold War. But the fact remains that the US itself has derailed democracy throughout the world.

In our case America’s response to military coups has followed a strikingly similar pattern: initial condemnation or criticism, then endorsement and finally whole-hearted support for the junta in question. Mr Berman is no doubt sincere when he says that the US wants to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan. But what guarantee do Pakistanis have that the self-styled champion of democracy will not play the same old game if the tide somehow turns? Can the US confirm in no uncertain terms that it will never support a Pakistani dictator again irrespective of circumstances?

the original can be found here 
.

Again, the old Biblical fable stands true : "A man with a sword will be killed by the same sword".

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

Jai Ho Ratan Tata!!!

A. The Tata Gesture

1. All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed.

2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed

3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav- Bha ji” vendor and the pan shop owners.

4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order.

5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help.

6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided.

7. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility.

8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required.

9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.

10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks.

11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.

12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.

13. Whatg is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.

14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her.

15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts.

16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.

17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible.

18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs [One lakh rupees tranlates to approx 2200 US $ ] in addition to the following benefits:

a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents;

b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world.

c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life.

d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount.

e. Counselor for life for each person

B. Epilogue

1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?

2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs

3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organization has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority

4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.

5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.

6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?

7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

This is not covered by any news channels