Someone and Anyone

Came across this ad yesterday. Take a look.

Pretty cool, huh?

But I heart Misbah-ul-Haq. Twice.

I don’t know just what in God’s name he was trying to do!

I found this passage from The Inheritance of Loss very profound.

The police had exposed the cook’s poverty, the fact that he was not looked after, that his dignity had no basis; they ruined the facade and threw it in his face.

(Emphasis mine.)

The fortunate cook was far from vanity, closer to reality.

When I had started writing this post, I had wanted to write a bit more of what I felt about this passage and why I found it profound. Somehow, now, I don’t want to.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition) defines politics as:

The art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs.

However, politics has long stopped being the art or science of government or governing and all that. Today, it is just about vested interests and selfish ends. I found a quote by Ambrose Bierce on politics, and couldn’t agree more with his definition:

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Reading news articles on politics these days depresses me no end.

I saw “Aarghhhhh!” written as a friend’s IM status message, and wondered what could be some of the most frequent spellings of this expression. So I decided to google “aargh”. The top result for this query turned out to be pretty interesting.

Oliver Steele has an interesting post on this topic here.

Steele has an interesting analysis about the expression hmmm too.

Okay, Indian cricket is one subject about which I get very romantic. Predictably, this post is about the captaincy issue. I was not shocked yesterday to find out that Rahul Dravid had stepped down as captain. Hey, it’s his decision. He wants to concentrate on his batting. I’ll respect that. Besides, I was never a huge fan of Dravid’s captaincy. The guy is a glorious batsman and an excellent overall cricketer. I’m a great fan of his batting. But he never had his own brand of captaincy.

I read here, and couldn’t agree more, that Dravid was more of an exemplar than a motivator. IMO, that’s a very good observation. A captain has got to be a great motivator. Like Sourav Ganguly. Even if you are out of form, you’ve got to be cheery and able to motivate your team to do well.

I gather from the news channels, who in turn claim to have gathered from “reliable sources”, that Sachin Tendulkar is going to be the next captain. Tendulkar is probably the greatest soul to have walked a cricket field in living memory. But again, he hasn’t proved to be a great captain.

About Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The guy is one of the most effective batsmen in the game today. And from what we saw in this match, he is a potentially good captain. The way he marshalled his team in that match was quite impressive. Particularly, his obvious emphasis in the nets that the team be prepared for a bowl-out was superb. How else do you explain Robin Uthappa coming out to bowl? Apparently, they had a sound plan for a bowl-out scenario.

Still, the romantic in me says, the next captain’s got to be Sourav Ganguly. With Dhoni as his deputy. Call me crazy if you like. Ganguly’s fire-power brand of captaincy was always something that calmed the nerves in the dressing room. His natural instinct is to attack. And apparently, he is also immensely capable of making a strong comeback from hopeless situations. So why not give him a chance again? That will also give the selectors good time to groom Dhoni into better captain-material than he already is.

I came across this beautiful passage while reading Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss.

Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Romantically she decided that love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love was the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself.

I like the way Desai tells a story in this book. Her way of asking searching questions is simultaneously joyful and melancholy.

Here is a powerful poem by Jorge Luis Borges. (Emphasis mine.)

Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.
The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.
Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them.
Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.
Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.
They speak of humanity.
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of that same poverty.
They speak of homeland.
My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,the willow grove’s visible prayer as evening falls.
Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to arrive.

After a long hiatus, I return to blogging.
Hello again, world!