"I wanted you to see what real courage is....."

Ah! The pleasure of reading a good book. There are books and then there are books. Of those that I have read, there have been a few which I simply had to finish once I had started - Freedom at Midnight, O Jerusalem, Shantaram. Without doubt, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' belongs to that list along with many other lists, the Pulitzer Prize of 1961 being just one of them. For the record, Harper Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year(2007).

To Kill a Mockingbird is Lee's only published book and I think I can see why. It is very difficult to write a book as good as this one. My opinion is corroborated by the fact that Lee started writing a couple of books but did not publish them since she was not satisfied. A movie based on the book was released the very next year after it was published and is deservedly considered a classic.

Lee explores the America of 1930s by creating a microcosm called Maycomb and exploring it through the eyes of young Jean Lousie, lovingly called Scout. A wide range of subjects are touched upon. The prejudice held by whites against their colored fellow-citizens; Ladies' preoccupation with ensuring that other ladies behave in a lady-like manner; A few upright men and women who live in the same society but rarely meet with success in their endeavours to bring about change and justice. The innocence of children who do not hold any prejudices on the basis of color or social rank but on the basis of smell and looks.

Centered around Atticus Finch - Scout's father, Jeremy Finch, Scout's brother and Scout herself, the novel's main story lines are the mystery of Arthur Boo Radley, who seldom comes out of his house and Tom Robinson, a black man who has been wrongly accused of raping a white women.

Atticus is protrayed as the "Raymond Man" - the complete man. He is a liberal father and reasons with his children rather than asking them to follow his orders without questioning. He gives both his children their space. He is a principled lawyer who fights Tom Robinson "nigger's" case tooth and nail. A case which he loses, a case he was expecting to lose. It is heart-breaking to see the jury pronounce Robinson guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence and despite the light of evidence to the contrary. Though, it displays the white man's deep rooted prejudice against the blacks.

Jeremy is in the process of growing up - trying to realize his calling and getting answers to seemingly simple things that are going wrong in the world. Scout, precociously intelligent, provides a novel and refreshing take at things.

A few gems in the book that you should look forward to: Atticus' concluding speech in defense of Robinson, Lee's criticism of the hypocrisy the ladies (not necessarily of the 30s) exhibit - during Aunt Alexandra's missionary meeting, a lady who oozes with sympathy for the low people is unable to understand why they do not accept white people as their savior, Scout's teacher goes red with rage when Hitler is mentioned but is overheard deriding the blacks and angry that blacks have the galls to consider themselves at par with whites -, Miss Maudie's insistence that there indeed are good people left in Maycomb though they may not be more than a handful. I really like the way she proves her point.

My favourite part- Atticus' word to Jeremy on courage.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what". The context in which Atticus says this is equally inspiring.

One of my best reads in recent times. Looking forward to watching the movie tonight.

Stopping a ritual this year

Sunday, the 18th of November, 2007. Hordes of students, around 2.5 lakhs to give you a ball park estimate, descended on schools/colleges which were bereft of their own students. Occasion was the "Mother of all Indian Exams" - Common Admission Test 2008 conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management.

Before going further, a small introduction to the IIMs. Conceptualized during the socialist days of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, these institutes had a mandate to produce world-class managers who will build the "India of Tomorrow". There are 7 of these institutes currently, the youngest one being IIM-Shillong. I am not very sure how profound an effect IIM-ites have had on nation building but yes, they have done well. They have brought name to the country and their alma mater. These were the bland facts. Now for the place that the hallowed portals of these institutes hold in the Indian Middle Class Psyche. I do not intend to use Indian Middle Class in a derogatory way or to allude to bourgeois behavior. I use the term only to define a class of people.

The "Government ki Naukri" mentality took deep and firm roots after independence and during the socialist days when "Profit" was a cuss word. This was a time when celebrating the fact that the richest man in the world is an Indian would be considered blasphemous. This stifled the entrepreneurial instincts of most of our grandparents and their parents. The little drops of business acumen that seeped through this drought, evaporated when it came in contact with the frying pan called "License Raj". Graduation from IIM, like IIT, provided freedom from vicious cycle of middle class life. It reminds of electrons, in an atom, gaining energy and moving up to the next higher orbit around the nucleus. IIMs, thus, were a sure and for some the only way to get to the promised land.

There is a very common group of students which writes the CAT exam. The average student at college, primarily engineering colleges, who was as good at extra curricular activities as he was bad at studies. He has better than speaking skills. I belonged to one such category. Why "Belonged", you ask ? Well not because I cease to have these traits but because I am not going to write CAT anymore. Every Diwali in the last 5 years, I would celebrate CAT. It did not help that even my birthday comes sometime before the D-Day.

It has been a humbling effort. Seeing thousands and thousands of boys and girls vying for the coveted few seats. Even though I still harbour ambitions of MBA, I do accept that the glitz of management may have forced many a people like me to brush their true calling under the carpet. Finance and I-Banks are the hot things today. Marketing was THE thing sometime back. Preparing for CAT has truly been a back breaking effort. Nights and Nights of Quant/DI/English. Mornings starting with Geometry and Word meanings.

I remember the 10 days preceding 19th Nov 2006. That was my best shot at IIMs and the closest I got. It is a wee bit difficult task to capture the moods, expectations, bouts of hope and despair that a person goes through when preparing for CAT. Every time you hold the book you see phantasmagoric images of cracking the exam, destroying other candidates in GD and getting a call from all the six IIMs. Now 7. It is every parent's dream to see their son/daughter in IIT/IIMs - won't hurt if you do both. But then as I say, there are few things in life bigger than life itself.

Anyway, I am going to bit adieu to the "Har Diwali, Ek Billi" ritual. Enough. Now I am searching for people who can buy the three sets of TIME material that I have. Anybody dreaming of a glamorous life selling glib talk?

Damn these termites !

Lost quite a few of my prized books to termites.

- Mediocre but arrogant
- Train to Pakistan
- Speeches by Swami Vivekananda
- Freakonomics
- Hegemony or Survival
- Book on Business Communication (Shabnam's :-))
- The Dilbert Principle

I thank my friend Badhri for saving the rest of them and preserving the affected ones as vestiges of a great tragedy of the termite kind.

Cricket @ Pramati

Well, I know it comes out as a poor joke but then there was no other way in which I could kill two birds with one stone - which are, point A: make up for the lack of actual photographs of Martians playing cricket and point B: start this post with something attention grabbing (though it seems to have turned out on the yucky side:-)).

To be sure, I am talking about the the game and oh one more thing, it is supposed to be Pramatians and not Martians. What did you think - you found a mistake? So the schedule is - every Saturday morning some of us play cricket and cricket we play. But every Saturday, we get new stories which are grist to the mills for our office gossip mongers.

Like the week before last, or was it the week before that: Rishik, a self styled all rounder, was going into "recursions of sleep". At least that is what Abhishek heard when he tried to wake up the gentle giant. Recursions of sleep - I am thinking C but then I realize I need to pattern my thoughts on Java. It could be that just when Rishik was waking up the call for the next round of sleep was getting called. Whatever?

The same week, we got kicked out of our favourite playing ground at Hockey Stadium for "not following the protocol". Some attribute this unkind "kick-off" to we not paying the so called groundsman; but as Sandeep confirmed it for us "He doesn't accept money". Well it is also possible that the groundsman mistook Sandeep for the Director of the establishment and when he realized his mistake, all of us had to bear the brunt of his frustration.

Moving on, one of the matches at Parade Ground also involved a heavy altercation between Abhishek and Rishik, though it was Anant who bore the brunt of the sledging. Expletives were traded freely as chivalry hit a new low at the moral stock exchange.

----Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport contested by two teams, usually of eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field, roughly oval in shape, in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called a cricket pitch. A wicket, usually made of wood, is placed at each end of the pitch. This is what wikipedia says (Unless it got edited agaaaaaain !!) It is also hailed, especially, in England as a gentleman's game.

----Cricket(er)s are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can do; male wings have ridges or "teeth" that act like a "comb and file" instrument). This is again from wikipedia. Well, the world is so full of contradictions.

Our Saturday cricket lies somewhere between the above two definitions though showing a definite and resurgent propensity for the latter. To start with we share the ground with other crickets. Second, we chirp a lot, which is a gross understatement I have to make in interest of our future games. Our managers would definitely not want to witness our idiosyncracies and thirst for each other's blood in contrast to the camaraderie and team spirit we display in Whitehouse.

Check this incident. Struggling to find his rythm, Fazal bowled three no balls in a row. Needless to say, we were all standing in the baking sun. But all of us tried to keep our "thandd". Not all of us but. Suddenly started Pavittar's tirade in Jat from point "Abey, !@#$%@^& *++ =#, saara din dhoop mein khada karvaega kya. !@#$%^&*". Well, I am not sure of the side effects but it sure got Fazal bowling correctly. Earlier in the game, Pavittar asked Fazal for his fielding position. Fazal asked him to stand at Deep Point to which Pavittar replied in negative citing "lack of minimum hygenic standards". (It was full of cow/buffalo dung - Not sure of which one). He refused the alternative accusing the sun of shining too brightly. In the end Fazal realized that Pavittar had already selected his fielding position but just wanted to go through the motions.

Vishwas is a Johnny Lever style cricketer. He laughs before, during and after every shot he plays. Last time he also got a chance to bowl and earned some rave reviews. I am not too sure, though, if it was the high bowling standards of the bowler or a case of batsman facing a "deer caught between the headlights" situation. Anyway, riding his luck and tongue he has been able to maintain his place in the team.

An unlucky case has been that of Aishwarya (disclaimer: who is also the author). His reputation and career have been put at stake because of baseless accusations regarding his suspect bowling action and charges of the bowl spinning "only in the air and not the ground". In his defence, Aishwarya states that his action has been cleared by leading biomechanists and that he will let his bowling do the talking. For the record, his "running between the wickets" skills are legendary not to mention his claim to fame as the only spin bowler with bodyline capabilities.

Sarvesh following the footsteps of his idol, Sachin, bats Tendlya style. His batting actions are technically sound and replete with text book shots. His nemesis has been his tardy running which reminds one of a thirsty man in a desert running towards the mirage of an oasis.

Saving the best for the "later part"; Abhishek Khurana - the lone crusader of Team Pramati, religiously turns up in shorts every Saturday and that too, much before the rest of his brethren. Experts' advise to this captain has been to shuffle his wardrobe. They suggest clothes that command respect - which currently is the last thing on his players mind when they see him in shorts.

Kunal Chowdhry - The Kaluwitharana (I hear him cringing "Jayasurya") of the clique is every bowler's nightmare and someone you should avoid. "Har kaptaan, ball ki bheekh maangte hue gendbaaz se kehta hai, 'Beta, short pitch mat karna warna Kunal Thakur backfoot pe aake leg par six maar dega'." But just as every Gabbar meets his "Kutte main tera Khoon Pee Jaoonga" toting Dharmendra, Kunal too has a Aadi. Aadi has accepted the perennial lack of form in cricket. People say he runs behind the ball like a farmer trying to catch a hen which has escaped from its coup. But when it comes to completing catches off Kunal, well the transformation is comparable to that off Cringer to Battle Cat. In case you are not getting it, I provide an illustration.

Cringer













Battle Cat














Mukul is to fielding what ATBs (All Terrain Bikes) to cycling. Gravelly ground, Grassy ground, Marshy Ground, Dung filled ground. If there is a ball to be caught, it will be caught. This lanky - Batsman? Bowler? - let us say sportsperson initially shot to fame with his last ball six off Kunal which snatched victory from the jaws of definite defeat. Experts feel he has not been able to capitalize on this dream finish either on the field in the endorsements arena. People who have been following Mukul's Pramati stint closely make it a point to mention that the now-famous six followed a ball which hit him at his anti-sweet-spot.

Just when I thought I was finished, I realize there is a gaping hole left wide open. Sandeep. The star of the last match of the pre-Diwali 2007 season. This also brings mention of Anant who was the rotund star of all seasons. Needing 15 runs off the last over, our team was looking forward to the breakfast buffet at YATRI NIWAS. Fazal thought Anant could pull off a Joginder Sharma. Little did he realize that Misbah Ul Haqs are not found at every corner. First ball of the over, Sandeep takes a run and is now facing Anant (nicknamed Raging Bull because of his obliviousness of the match, specifically the umpire and batsman, once he starts his run up). Anant to Sandeep - Sandeep pulls it towards leg and that's FOUR. We are more excited than hopeful. Anant to Sandeep again - we are cheering Sandeep trying to make for the lack of actual cheerleaders- T20 ishtyle. Anant to Sandeep- that's a four again. Now the match looks ours. Sandeep looks like a man possessed Anant looks like dispossessed. Anant to Sandeep - no run. Quiet in the crowd. Anant to Sandeep - another dot ball. Everyone is tongue-tied. Anant to Sandeep- the ball connects damn well and goes straight --- for a SIX. Guys are jubilant. Yatri Nivas suddenly takes a close backseat. It has been a historic day for Team Pramati and Sandeep has left an indelible mark as Pramati's man Friday. His repertoire of bowling skills need special mention. As in the words of a close friend, "Sandeep is a thinking bowler. He has his eyes on the batsman's movements as diligently as Sauron has his on The Ring". Brings to mind what Frodo said about the ring "The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing"