And the WINNERS are.......

Hisar is a small town in Haryana which rarely find itself in news in broader scenario of Indian politics. But for past one month, This dusty and humid town  bordering Rajasthan constantly gained the attention of political observers. By election for parliamentary seat was held on 13th October necessitated due to death of Ex. CM and former union minister Bhajan Lal. As expected, Kuldeep Bishnoi (Son of Bhajan Lal) trounced Ajay Chautala (Son of another former CM Om  Prakash Chautala) although by a small margin of 6323. There was always a tought fight between Ajay Chautala & Kuldeep Bishnoi and Congress was already tipped  to be on third position. But the matter of surprise was that Congress candidate Jai Prakash (JP) lost his security deposit. Although he has frequently  swithced his loyalities to different parties at different times, Jai Prakash (Who is a former union minister, 3 times MP from same constituency and an former MLA as well) was never considered a weak candidate. People who are unaware of equations of Haryana Politics might contribute his defeat to 'ANNA' factor,  but truth is something else. There are a lot of factors which accounted for such a big loss of Congress party in this historical town. Below are some facts which pushed JP and Congress party in such position.

• Whether somebody agrees or not, But CASTE is the biggest parameter in India for electorates to choose the representative of their constituency. Haryana is no different and here also the caste factor finds itself enjoying the top slot. This election also saw the consolidation of dominant Jat voters in favor  of Ajay Chautala (Although JP also belongs to same community) and Non - Jats throwing their weights behind flamboyant Kuldeep Bishnoi. Traditionally the Jats of  this bagri belt always had their inclination for Devi Lal's family but for past one decade their vote bank shifted to Congress party. But lack of development and increasing count of jobless youths in Hisar (As compare to CM's strong hold of Rohtak and Sonepat) have changed their mind again in favour of Ajay Chautala. For consolidation of Non - Jat vote bank in his favour, Kuldeep Bishnoi can owe to a number of factors. His father was branded as the tallest and  most acceptable Non - Jat leader and had enjoyed a good rapport among various communities. The violence against dalits in Mirch pur village by dominant caste members (Whatever be the reason) had also resulted favoring Kuldeep. BJP as the new ally of his party had also contributed in swinging the upper caste Non - Jat vote bank in his favor.
• 7 years of anti-incumbency factor both at state and central level, the revelations of scams, the increasing prices of petrol and house hold items have also made the voters to dump the ruling party's candidate. 
• During Bhajan Lal's tenure as CM, Hisar had seen the most progressive phase for the district. His demise created a sympathy wave in favor of Kuldeep  Bishnoi. 
• BJP has never been a key player in Haryana's Politics. But it always have enjoyed the support in urban areas. Election result also shows the urban voters hugely favored HJC candidate indicating BJP's impact in his victory.
• Team ANNA also camped against congress party in Hisar. Although it didn't create much (any) influence in mind of rural population, It certainly impacted  the educated urban voters by adding fuel to already burning fire. 
• Infighting within Congress party may also be responsible for the fate of Jai Prakash. Congress has fared very badly in constituency of Birender Singh (Uchana Kalan) and Sampat Singh (Nalwa) who enjoys a considerable influence among voters of this area. Birender Singh (Who has history for taking on CM) sought ticket for his IAS son and Sampat Singh for himself. 

In all possible cases, JP and congress party found themselves at receiving end. Although the result didn't impact the strength of congress party in any way but the ruling party have got a number of reasons to worry for. Despite having six MLAs in constituency, their candidate slipped to third position in all of nine assembley segments. They need to do introspection to find the obvious reasons for their defeat and work on them to avoid this kind of lose in future. Technically Kuldeep Bishnoi won the seat, but the mighty Chautalas also found various reasons to cheer for.  They apparently have got back the confidence of people of powerful community which may work in their favor in next election.   

Lucky

It was summer of 2000 when the monster of match-fixing arrived on Indian soil. It costed the cricketing career of some big names of world and Indian cricket. That included the all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar, classy and wristy Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja (Who till then was the blue eyed boy of Indian cricket). But more importantly it gulped the career of Nayan Mongia, who undoubtedely till then had been the best bet for India to keep the gloves behind the wicket (Although his consistency as a batsman was under severe criticism). BCCI started the experimentation to try all wicket keepers available in domestic circuit. Likes of Ajay Ratra, Sameer dighe, Parthiv Patel, Deep Dasgupta, M S K Prasad, Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Dahiya all were given ample opportunities to settle themselves down. But all of them wasted the golden opportunities one by one. 'The Wall' was also tried for some time particularly around the 2003 world cup. As he was not a recognized wicket keeper and his batting was also getting affected due to fatigue, He couldn't hold the important post for long time.

It was the season of 2004-05 when a dusky and long haired boy from Jharkhand was selected in Indian team as WK for Bangladesh tour. He debuted in ODI with a duck and was unimpressive as a batsman in his initial innings but again got chance for Pakistan series. It was his fifth match when he left his mark on map of Indian cricket with a score of 148 (Highest by any Indian WK in ODIs) against Pakistan. His Inning of 183 not out (the inning rewrote many records) against Sri Lanka in Jaipur made him a house hold name in cricket crazy nation. Then started the time of good fortune for the young man. He got a reputation of a good WK and a batsman capable of towering huge sixes. Young generation of India started emulating him especially for his hair style and the small town guy got praise from all sections of societies and high profile people all around the world. Even Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf praised him for his cricketing skills and advised not to cut short his hairs as that suited him very well. He was flooded with endorsements and the brands promoted by him were doing very well. The spree continued till 2007 where a mega opportunity was waiting for him. He was appointed captain of Indian cricket team for inaugural T-20 world cup. In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, he was preferred over the likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. Midas touch continued and he did what no body was able to do since great Kapil Dev. He lifted the T-20 WC trophy and got a splendid welcome travelling from Mumbai airport to Wankhede stadium. His journey of great fortune didn't stop there and inevitably he got the charge of Indian ODI and test team after Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. Over the next 3 years he achieved so many successes that none of captains in history of cricket were able to do. India became top ranked test team and lifted the ODI world cup trophy after a gap of 28 years. His club 'Chennai Super Kings' became champion of two successive IPL seasons and even won champions league T-20. He was declared the highest paid and earning cricketer on the globe by forbes. This is indeed the fairy tale epitomizing the captain kool Mr. Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Unlike soccer where captain has little role to play on field, Cricket is a game where captain has a crucial role to play in situation of strategy failure. Unless until he have a great team or leadership qualities, Captain has to take a gamble or depends on luck to favour. There has been a great debate over LUCK factor. But it is acceptable that this accompanies certain people and people are born with great luck. Some people are born to be leader. People have proved themselves by leading in exemplary ways, No need to mention the names.

Now what is the secret behind Dhoni's mega success. Is he indeed an intelligent man with great cricketing skills or a lucky boy? All the top cricket analysts , former players and captains from all around world have praised him for his leadership qualities. But the recent debacle of Indian cricket team (In the absence of top players) on England tour in all three formats  and performance of his club in champions league doesn't go along with any of the titles bestowed upon him. Fact is that he is indeed a lucky man and big gambler who till recent had enjoyed the splendid performance of a great team. Some facts are below:

• He was made captain of T-20 cricket team on recommendations of master blaster (Not a natural choice of selection committee) and over Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh (Both were tipped to be captain of Indian team after big guns). Sehwag was going through the bad patch as a batsman and Yuvraj was advertised having attitude problem. Also all top guns like Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly had declined to play in T-20 cricket. This was a matter of sheer luck and had nothing to do with his credentials as batsman or a player that time.
• In the T-20 WC final, he gave last over to Joginder Sharma instead of Harbhajan Singh. Misbah played the stupidest shot by scooping the delivery and not going for straight shot which surely would have earned the winning shot for neighbor country. This was indeed a Gambler's choice & opposition player's mistake and nothing to do with the leadership qualities as no wise captain would have done this.
• He has been a big failure in terms of batting. A big opportunist who never will come up in batting order in difficult situations but prefer to when all things are going smoothly and in favor of India. And forget the test matches, no body think he deserves to be in playing eleven of Indian team.
• He was awarded man of the match in WC final 2011. No body will deny that it was Gautam Gambhir whose innings of 97 brought India out of crisis. But again luck favored him and his name was written in history. 
• Above all things, He has got a great team. He got young players nurtured by Sourav Ganguly and a test team fully confident under Kumble's leadership. In Dhoni's tenure as captain, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Zaheer khan had been in best of forms. All of them had won the matches for India single handed and had been instrumental in India's many wins. Dhoni's leadership qualities had no effects in grooming or nurturing the talents of these great players and giving confidence to them. They would have performed in the same manner under the captaincy of any other player.

Some may agree and most will not agree with points mentioned above. Fact is also that i have always adjudged him critically and for me he had been highly disappointing as a batsman. But i am firm on the fact that he is overhyped by media. He is neither a good batsman nor a great captain. But it is also true that history can't be ignored and that will always go against my views on MSD.

Moving On

When last month a veteran crusader named Mr. Anna Hazare went on for indefinite fast to get his version of 'Lokpal' Bill passed, People irrespective of differences in caste, community, region etc raised their voices in his support through various platforms. A large gathering of public was seen at his fast venue of  'Ramlila' ground and it was almost evident that this movement is not run in nexus with and sponsored by any corporate or political organisation (Against the claim made by some prominent members of ruling party). People contributed with money, voluntary service at venue giving the sense that the so called  'AAM AADMI' (Common man) is really moving on and instead giving importance to petty issues raised by politicians, they really want the system to be clean, accessible and supportive to general public.

But are our politicians moving away from the issues of caste, region, community,regionalism etc. Answer is a big No. Instead these things are repeatedly highlighted and kept alive through various communication mediums. Last one year had been a nightmare for ruling parties both at states and central level. The incessant revelation of scams have caused spinal injuries to their top leadership. These issues are infact the most important weapons in their arsenal to distract everybody's focus from real issues. Most politicians still reminds of the fundamentalist mindset that is a big hurdle achieving universal brethern. Everytime i hear a senior general seceretary of ruling party making any statement on any political scenario, he is conscious enough to bring in the word 'RSS' in all of his utterances. And as the statement progresses, All events started from demolition of Babri mosque, 2002 Gujrat riots and Malegaon blasts will be recalled repetitively. To more or less extent, Same thing goes with the main opposition party whose leaders whenever get a chance, always try to cash on the aftermaths of Operation Blue Star, Boforce scam, 'Ram Mandir' and endless list of issues. This is not just the case of two main political parties, but this kind of vote bank politics on caste, creed, regional etc basis can hardly be varying from the cosmopolitan environments of metros to parochial villages.

People in villages are deprived of the quality education. They still are very much attached to their roots and culture which unfortunately doesn't allow them to think beyond a particular mindset. But atleast they candidly accept that they are not yet moved on. General sense of public in metros (Captured through electronic and print media) inkled the feeling that they have started understanding the real issues which can benefit them and their future generations. Whenever there is any talk on politics in general gathering, People comes up with very innovative and philosophical thoughts. But election results and the supporters count turned up in election rallies indicates that these thoughts are infact limited to social circles only. Whenever its the matter of casting the vote, First thing a common man look at the CASTE of the candidates and will favour one who is closest to his 'VARNA'. These very facts indicates that majority of politicians and the general public are still reluctant to brace the idea of "Moving On".

System of India is highly inaccessible, unsupportive and unresponsive to a common man. People discuss these things with their companions and criticize the system and those who are enjoying the privileges of it. But they won't make efforts to change the hurdles within the system. After all they have elected the law makers to do this job. But onus of changing the system doesn't lie on legislators only. Law makers needs to be communicated these things with strong messages like 'Team Anna' did. People of our country needs to have a change in their taste for system which should be reflected in their approach and life style so that this whole concept of 'Moving on' doesn't seem a distant dream.

That Last Over !

Night cricket tournament in NITK was like the festival time for cricket lovers perhaps even better than the “CONFLUNCE” time. The time when we felt supremingly confident, continuously enjoyed every moment likewise academic toppers must have felt during exam time. We were winning all the league matches but we knew that the next match is going to be a special one. That night we had our contest with “SIMPLY SOUTH” whom the non-cricket playing cricket analysts of our college described as “SIMPLY THE BEST TEAM”. They comprised of the best cricket playing talent from south India studying in NITK. Tomer lost the toss and we were forced to bat first which we had disliked throughout the competition. But our team had some good batsman like Major Saab, Tomer, Gaurav Yadav and some part timers like me, Rakesh and Dahiya and we were able to put a decent 59 on score board in 8 overs.

During the 5 minutes break, every member of Aashiq – 8 (Yes that was the name of our outfit) thought of easily winning the match but we didn’t had idea of the fierce competition we will be put in by those simple guys.

They started their innings and Rakesh & Dahiya captured their couple of initial wickets easily therefore boosting the morale of team as well other members of our group who unconditionally cheered for Aashiq – 8 throughout those 2 weeks. We were on a high but now their biggest asset Gowri Shankar was on the pitch. He was a complete southpaw therefore giving him advantage of scoring runs on his on side.

Over the next 3 and half overs he hammered me, Rakesh and Dahiya all over the space in between A,B and C block of Hostel Number – 4 thereby leading his team to 49 in 6 overs. Their team members who stood near the batting end were on a super high. They lead by Vishwanath were continuously raising slogan in favor of their team in their vernacular there by boosting the morale of the batsman on crease. On the verge of losing the match, every member of Aashiq – 8 except Tomer was frustrated and deeply annoyed by their morale booster voice. The hardcore supporters of Aashiq – 8 comprised of Makkar, Ankur, Shakul, Guru, Rana, Gulia and lead by Raja realized the low level of our morale and started rhyming their slogans like

“COCA COLA PEPSI COLA HU HA HU HA”.

Standing near the bowling end, they all were continuously bucking up the bowler. Obviously we felt somewhat up by their support. By that time situation was so tough and tense that we all were thinking of wining the match anyhow.

Now only two overs were left and simply south only needed 11 runs to win. Rakesh and Dahiya were over with their quota. Our tensed but super confident captain/WK was revising his options. With ball in his one hand and brushing his hairs with other, as he was heading to me, I confusingly stood and was contemplating the future of the match.

Suddenly I realized that captain kool is standing before me and said “What to do Bro? Would you like to go for this over?”

I hesistingily replied “Then who will bowl the last one?”

As we were in a discussion, Gaurav Yadav came and asked “I will go for this one”.

Tomer bemusingly said “What?” 

Yadav authoritatively said “Yes, I will be bowling this over”.

Me and Tomer saw eye to eye and without uttering a single word asked each other “Will he be able to do the trick?”

We both were quite unsure of Yadav’s bowling skills. There were two reasons behind it. Firstly he was not a rated and recognized bowler in fraternity and secondly we have seen him bowling a few times. But I and Tomer both were not able to get any name for this kind of situation. Yadav didn’t give us enough time to think and he again asked

“What happened?”  While asking this, a sense of annoyance and anger could be seen on his face as he had got a reputation of being short tempered.

Left with no choice and seeing the oozing confidence of Gaurav Yadav, Tomer handed the ball to him and made his way to behind the wickets. I tensed and nervously headed to boundary line.

Calm and composed, Yadav started bowling and contrary to everybody's thinking, he bowled five non scoring deliveries to Gowri. With each dot ball, we were bucked up and praising him continuously for his pressure tackling skills. I ran to him 1 or 2 times to pat his back and buck him up but he was in his own world and didn't pay attention to anything except bowling another dot ball. But a part timer is committed to do a mistake on assignment and proving this perception right, he full tossed the last delivery to batsman. Gowri wasn't a part timer and taking full advantage of the bad delivery hammered the tennis ball over my head to maximum. Everybody was stunned and heard Vishwanath and his team raising his voice again to push our frustration to zenith. Yadav made an eye contact with Tomer who ran to bowling end and deservingly said "Well Done" and patted his back.

"One over and simply south needs only 5 runs to win"

As the commentator's irritating voice struck my ear drums, i saw Tomer coming to me.

He handed the ball to me and said "Bro, now onus is on you."

I took the ball and amid all the tensions grooming in my mind, headed to bowling end. As i reached to umpire to say "Right arm, Round the wicket", Rakesh suddenly came and said

"Don't be in tension bro, just concentrate on the 'KUTTI'(bitchy) bowling and match will be ours."

I and Rakesh had mastered ourselves bowling on leg stump therefore making it difficult for right handed batsman to score run on their off side. We termed it as "KUTTI" bowling.

Without speaking a single word, I just nodded in yes to him. Raja, Shakul, Guru, Makkar, Ankur, Rana, Gulia who were all standing near to bowling end, once again cheered for us in ear bursting volume.

Prepared to bowl, standing in the 2 feet run up box,  i suddenly saw upwards and all around. Oh My God! each balcony of hostel number - 4 was packed and had an eye on us putting more pressure on me.

"What to do" was going in my mind continuously and i was stuck at my position. Umpire indicated that i was taking too much time and signaled me to go for the over.

"No we can't lose this match" i thought this for a few seconds, had a look at Shakul who gave a thumbs up to me and bowled the first delivery. Facing batsman hit the ball hardly and colliding to A block wall, it went to offside therefore adding one run to their scoreline.

It was neither an outstanding delivery nor the batsman hit the ball to maximum but both the teams clapped for their players.

Rakesh ran to me and once again repeated "Well done and concentrate on the KUTTI delivery." I again replied in Yes.

But now it was altogether a different story as southpaw batsman Gowri was on strike. Again "What to do" occupied my mind taking me to totally confusing world. Totally into an uncertain state, i headed to bowl the second ball and pitched it in between off stump and wide mark. But Gowri who was superbly confident in earlier 36 balls, looked bit apprehensive this time and couldn't hold his nerve. He became so vulnerable as he too awkwardly tried to defend a ball that was more or less a perfect meal to hit the maximum. And the next moment was ours. Ball edged into middle stump leaving him and his team members red faced. Every team member and the hardcore supporters of Aashiq-8 run to middle of the pitch and hugged each other. Everybody was appreciating me and suggesting/advicing me for the rest 4 balls. Amid all the well dones and come ons, i felt somewhat relaxed. After a few seconds celebration, everybody moved to their respective positions once gain. I specifically adviced Tomer to stop single run behind the wickets.

As 4 balls left and as much runs needed, Tomer's favourite Ganpathy was on crease. He was neither a recognised bowler, nor a batsman and pressure was clearly reflecting on his face which leaded me to feel more confident.

"No he can't score on my bowl" i thought and bowled the third delivery of the over. Not sure whether it were the Ganpathy's apprehended moves around the crease or my confidence, i ended up pitching the ball at perfectly good length. It bounced slightly higher and headed straightly into Tomer's hand.

"Bowling Yaar! Bowling" Tomer appraised me in his soft voice as i got many kudos from team members. Now confidentally i headed to run up end as Raja and Guru patted my back. Overconfidently as i tried for a yoreker, Ganpathy hit the next lower full toss ball very hardly straight to the Gaurav Yadav on boundary line adding a single to their score. I heaved the sigh of relief as ball wasn’t hit for the boundary.

 “What are you doing man” I scolded myself and committed not to do the experimentation for the rest couple of balls.

As I heard “Take it easy”, “Don’t worry” and many supporting words, I turned back and reached the runup box.

The batsman on crease was one who haven’t been on strike for many times. Vishwanath reached and adviced him something. I was in great dilemma and didn’t know where to bowl. I called up Tomer and asked

“Where to bowl bhai, I am not getting anything.”

Tomer replied “Don’t get confused. Just concentrate on leg stump. Maximum they can get is a single.”

I thought for a second and nodded in yes.  But truth is that I was baffled and was quite unsure of where to bowl.  Prepared to bowl as i saw at batsman, he was looking quite confident. As the tennis ball left my hand, I realized it may go all the way to add one extra run in their score without subtracting the ball count by one. But batsman on crease had some other plans and he moved 2 inches away from leg stump to do a Tendulkar and ball hit on his leg.

Batsman tried for a single but they couldn’t as Tomer was quick enough to grab the ball and in a position to run them out by a distance of almost 20 yards. Another dot ball and match reached to the most exciting stage.

Two guys sitting in the balcony of first floor of C block doing Arun lal and Maninder Singh in hindi, Speaking of the situation like “Exciting match”, “1 ball and 3 runs required”, “Let’s see who wins” were trying to be funny by adding the ‘F’, ‘L’ and ‘C’ words which surely was irritating the crowd.

As Vishwanath gave some advice to the batsman again and I was about to bowl the climax ball, Rakesh came to me and said.

“Bro, now everything is on you. We can’t lose this match. Remember, if we lose, for rest of our stay, Public will irritate us by remembering of this match. And don’t forget how these guys have continuously annoyed us by those “Hu Ha, Hu Ha”. Go and show them what we are capable of.”

Although situation of “1 ball and 3 runs required” was more favorable to us, the sense of “Losing the match” was overpowering my confidence.  Now that’s the time I prayed to ultimate savior “Bajrang Bali Hanuman” and mumbled few lines of “Hanuman Chalisa”. Prepared to bowl, I recalled the Rakesh advice of “KUTTI” ball and “At leg stump” by Tomer.  There was pin drop silence in the ground and everybody was waiting for the fate of the match. I closed my eyes for a second to concentrate and bowled the climax delivery.  As I saw heading it to the leg stump, batsman tried to hit it too hard and by making the contact with bat, ball hit the lower portion of the A block wall and went towards the fence of Hostel number 5.  I, Tomer and Major saab ran to pick it and we saw batsman running on 22 yards strip. I never saw Tomer running so quickly and as batsmen tried to run for a 2nd, he grabbed the ball and put all the three stumps down to ground.

Everybody who was watching that contest was stunned and I remember very few guys in audiences clapped for us. Perhaps they didn’t expect us to win or they didn’t want us to win. Most of them left the ground and balconies as soon as result was in our favor perhaps didn’t want to see our celebration. But we erupted with joy and that too loudly. We hugged each and every member of the team and celebration continued almost for 4-5 minutes. That was perhaps the best feeling I ever had in a cricket match. We were on top and felt like we had passed the biggest hurdle of B. Tech. A sense of anger could be seen on the face of most of the members of opposition team and they were clueless on “How to react to that situation.” They all were standing at the same position and seeing us celebrating.  As we moved towards ‘Eklavya Bhawan’, Raja stopped us near the small entry gate and once again we did

“COCA COLA PEPSI COLA HU HA HU HA”.