Bhagwad Gita – As lived by Dhoni

Dhoni has taken everyone by surprise by announcing that he might not play the world cup 2015. This statement comes from him at a time when veterans in the game like Rahul and Laxman are still going strong and Sachin is showing no signs of his retirement.

This announcement also comes at a time when Dhoni has successfully captained the Indian team winning the world cup, only for second time in history. Except for the recently concluded series in England, his career has been a very successful one as a batsman, as a wicketkeeper, as a captain, as a player and above all, as a human being.

So, why retirement now, when he can go on for a lot more years? This has something to do with his attitude, which has always been entirely different from others. Though his acts, deeds and words, one can make out that he is an epitome of an enlightened person in life.

For a person, who started his career as a ticket collector on Ranchi railway station, he has indeed come a very long way. He has taken life in its stride and played every moment as it came. Let us look at some of his acts which demonstrate profound lessons hidden in the Bhagwad Gita.

Do your work without expectation of results

This is perhaps the most famous shloka of Bhagwad Gita which says, ‘Karamanye va dhikaraste ma faleshu kadachana…’ This means one should do his duty without any expectations of the results. Because, the moment one’s mind thinks about the results, his efforts get distracted. And that may not bring the desired results. After all, one can only make efforts. It is in god’s hands whether to yield fruits or not. One has no control over the results. Sachin does not score a century every time he goes out to play, though he puts in the same efforts every time.

Every game played by Dhoni has been with a focus only on the efforts without any worry for the results. During the most nail biting finishes, he was calm and cool in handling the pressure, which earned him the title ‘Captain cool’. And this has resulted in his amazing success ratio.

Act like ‘Sthitapradnya’

Bhagwad Gita says that a person should try to remain same in happiness and sorrow, appreciation and criticism, victory and defeat, good times and bad times. This state is very difficult to achieve and is called ‘Sthita Pradnya.’

If we see recordings of only the post match presentation ceremonies at random, we will not be able to confidently say, which match he had won and which won he lost. This is because he appeared in the same mood almost every time. A win never made him ecstatic, nor a loss made him gloomy ever.

Trust others

Bhagwad Gita suggests that one should trust others unless there are reasons not to do so. He trusted all his team mates and made several experiments with them, most of them resulting in a match winning move. He became known for his unknown strategies, which proved to be decisive in the end. Some of them were risky too, but then bigger success required bigger risks.

The last over of the final match of first T20 world cup shall always be remembered for Joginder Singh. It required a lot of conviction, courage and confidence to give the last over to a relatively unknown Joginder, when one more over from the established Harbhajan Singh was still available. Even the world cup finals saw some strange moves from him, which were successful.

Have ambition but not greed

Dhoni has achieved many things in life in short time. If he wants, he can still continue to play for many more years, endorse for dozens of brands and rake in huge money. Today he has some amazing collection of bikes, which continues to be his passion. But he knows that there has to be a limit to everything. One cannot go on and on, in pursuit of only one thing at the cost of other things in life.

There is a family life, which he wants to enjoy. He wishes to fulfill his obligation towards his family as a son, as a brother, as a husband. If he continues to play, he would not find time to fulfill those obligations and it would be too late when he would eventually find time. That is why, often he hints that he is ready to handover the mantle of captaincy to someone else and blissfully retire into oblivion. 

Detached attachment

This is the most virtuous quality in an enlightened person. One should not take his position or power, his status and his image for granted. One should be ready to relinquish it at any time. Because, nothing is ever guaranteed in this world. It does not mean that one should not enjoy the power and give up the perks just like that. It only means that one should be always ready to give it up. This is called detached attachment. The best example to show the fickleness of the status is the fate of some Arab leaders the moment they are convicted, the moment 2G scam leaders were caught, the moment Osama and Gaddafi were caught.

Once a person reaches this stage, the life becomes lot more easier. The goals become clear, the path becomes simple and life itself becomes meaningful.

Dhoni may not have read the Bhagwad Gita as yet, but his life has been an open book for people to learn the values of Bhagwad Gita.

Treat everyone equal

Bhagwad Gita suggests that the soul is same in every living being.  So, every soul should be treated equally with same respect and divinity. The soul only changes the outer physical body with every incarnation.

Dhoni always treated all his players equal.  He was never charged for favoritism in the team. He needed every one to perform in his respective department of bowling, batting or fielding. In fact, he often brought in changes to the team composition, thereby keeping many of them ‘warm’ as the same time.

‘Yada yada hi dharmasya…’

This is perhaps an exaggeration, but I am sure the Dhoni fans would like it. In Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna says, whenever there is no righteousness in society, whenever the evil forces start dominating the world, I will appear to annihilate the devil’.

Dhoni entered the international cricket scene when Australia under Ricky Ponting was going great guns. They were almost invincible for around two decades. Every match, every tournament was won by them.

And slowly their merit was getting overshadowed by their arrogance. Which Indian cricket fan can forget that infamous cricket series in Australia, when the Australians went to the extent of cheating and fraud to win the games?

And Dhoni appeared like Krishna on the International cricketing scene to annihilate the Australians. They are now down and out. It may probably take them years to bounce back and regain their past glory. But Dhoni has done his job very well.

After all, his name is Mahendra, which means King of the gods. True to his style, he came, he conquered and he ruled majestically all these years. His charisma can be gauged from the fact that once even Parvez Musharraf was tempted to favorably comment on his erstwhile hair style.  

One may read Bhagwad Gita 100 times, but to live a life as described in Bhagwad Gita is always more noble.

Then it really does not matter whether you even read it once or not.

When Rahul sang ‘Kolaveri Di…’

One day Rahul was humming the popular song ‘Kolaveri Di’ in his leisure moments. It was incidentally heard by some journalist and soon it became a major discussion point in all political and media circles. Some of the news channels reported this sensational news like this:

Star News: ‘Why was Rahul Gandhi singing Kolaveri Di?’ See the INSIDE STORY at 9 pm today.

India TV: ‘Shocking incident… Yuvaraj sings Kolaveri Di…’ Watch full report at 9 pm today.

Live India: ‘See the KISMAT CONNECTION of World ending… with Rahul singing ‘Kolaveri Di’.

NDTV: (Barkha Dutt): ‘We all need to know the reasons why Rahul Gandhi sang Kolaveri Di…’ Join us for an EXCLUSIVE DEBATE with the people from Delhi at India gate today evening at 7 pm.

CNN IBN: (Rajdeep Sardesai): Watch for the first time on CNN IBN, HOW and WHY Rahul sang ‘Kolaveri Di…’ Watch complete analysis… with verification of the audio tape authenticity.

The real ‘meaningful debate’ was obviously arranged by the stage master Arnab Goswami on Times Now at prime time. As usual, Arnab started the debate with his explosive opening remarks.

Arnab: The nation is outraged. India needs to know. The people of India need to know. Why in the times of such a crisis anyone can sing a song like Kolaveri Di. For that matter, we ask, ‘Why Kolaveri Di only? Why not ‘Sheela ki Jawani’, or Munni badnam? Or even Jalebi bai for that matter…Today the nation will know the impact of Times now’s exclusive discussion on this subject. Joining me are Ravishankar Prasad, Renuka Chowdhary, Manish Tiwari, Jayanti Natarajan, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sushma Swaraj, Kapil Sibbal, Sharad  Yadav, Baba Ramdev, Arun Jetly and Sitaram Yechuri.

Arnab continued,” Let me start the discussions with Renuka Chowdhary. Renuka, please tell us what is the real intention behind Rahul singing this song.”

Renuka who appeared smiling all through said,” Arnab, now what can I say? I am surprised. I mean, there is a limit you know! See, these BJP people are becoming so impossible, what I can comment?. It is truly amazing to see the way they behave. It beats my imagination and logic.”

Arnab interrupted her,” But Renuka, we were discussing about Rahul singing a song..”

Renuka again giggled and said,” That is what I wanted to say. He just sang it. That’s all.”

Arnab turned to Ravishankar Prasad,” Mr. Ravishankar Prasad, please react to Renuka’s views.”

Ravishankar Prasad,” See Arnab, I have been telling this from beginning on your channel that there is a big conspiracy being hatched here and these Congress people want to take it easy. There should be an investigation carried out by none other than CBI to probe in this matter. A person projected to become the Prime minister of India cannot sing any song just like that.”

Arnab asked Baba Ramdev to comment. Baba Ramdev said,” See, this is not correct. We will protest against this in Ramlila maidan from next month onwards. Instead he should have said, ‘Why this Kaalaa dhan, Kaalaa dhan, Kaalaa dhan di’. Then we would have got a confidence that the government is truly willing to bring back the black money stashed abroad.”

Arnab now asked Jayanti Natarajan,” Jayanti, please tell us whether there is any special significance attached to this…”

Jayanti said,” See Arnab, Rahul Gandhi is our youth leader and his every action has a deep meaning and message for the society. Actually he sang this song just to bring North and South Indian masses closer. This was also a tactics to improve our poll performance in Tamil Nadu in next elections. Actually he sang,” Why this Kanimozhi, Kanimozhi, Kanimozhi di…” And because of that we sent her free on bail. Earlier also, after his intervention we had increased the poverty limit from Rs.32 upwards and also we had set free Anna Hazare from Tihar jail, when he was arrested at the behest of Chidambaram and Sibbal.

Arnab seemed puzzled and turned to Sitaram Yechuri,” Mr. Sitaram Yechuri, please tell us what do the left parties think of this.”

Sitaram Yechuri had been patiently waiting for his turn in studios. He said,” See, this whole exercise is only raked up to divert the attention of people from the FDI issue and the petrol price rise. The country is suffering because of inflation and how can people have the luxury and comfort of singing any song for that matter?”

Arnab now asked Sharad Yadav. “Sharad ji, please tell us your opinion about this matter.”

Sharad said in his characteristic style,” Arnab, this only means that the boy has grown up now and Sonia ji should seriously think about his marriage. Other than that I do not attach any importance, as Rahul does not know anything about politics.”

Arnab now turned to Sushma Swaraj. “Sushma ji, please comment on this matter.”

Sushma said in her usual attacking style,” Arnab, this is an old habit of this government and the UPA. They always keep us in dark about any issue till it gets exposed. At least they should have informed and consulted us before. I would have danced to the song, just as I did few months ago at the Raj ghat.”

Arnab then asked Abhishek Manu Singhvi for his opinion. Singhvi said,” See Arnab, if Team Anna wants that the right of a person to sing a song is to be included in Jan Lokpal bill, then I am sorry, they are asking too much. It is for parliament to decide what rights are to be given to the people, not for anyone outside it.”

Arnab was getting disillusioned with the discussion by now. He asked Arun Jaitly. “Arun please advise us what do you think about this.”

Arun Jaitly said,” See Arnab, the constitution is very clear about all such cases. A person cannot sing a song unless he has good voice. And it has not been conclusively proven earlier that he did have this quality. In these circumstances, notwithstanding the international stand on global warming and European fiscal deficit I strongly condemn this act and demand an unconditional apology from the government.  

Arnab then asked Manish Tiwari his reaction. Manish Tiwari said,” What can we talk about Rahul ji. ‘Woh to uppar se neeche tak sangeet me lipt hai.  He has music in his breath. He lives music. He eats music, he drinks music and he sleeps music. It would be very unfair to doubt his intentions over music.”

Arnab then called Digvijay Singh. Digvijay singh said,” Arnab, Rahul ji has been singing this son since his childhood. In school, Rahul only sang this song whenever he got any opportunity. The RSS is now misleading the nation in believing that this song is sung by Dhanush. In fact, Dhanush has stolen this song and popularized it. We are planning to take suitable action against Dhanush for plagiarism.”

Lastly, Arnab called Kapil Sibbal. He said,” This song has been immortalized by Rahul by humming it. We are soon going to delete all the versions of this song from the internet sites and also have copyrights of this song. No one can sing this unless they take permission from the government. This song is special because it is sung by Rahul Gandhi.”

After 7 days

Rahul was attending a party with Digvijay singh . Suddenly some journalists caught the duo. They asked Rahul on his opinion on this raging topic. Rahul started,” For how many days more will you go and beg in Maharashtra? Till when will you do majdoori in Punjab?”

Suddenly Digvijay whispered in Rahul’s ears,”Sir, we are not in UP. The rallies in UP are now over.”

Rahul said, “Oh, I see. Sorry. “

And facing the journalists he started,” I am here to solve your problems. I fully understand your problems. Your lands have been grabbed and when you ask them back, you are showered with bullets. Where is Kalavathi’s hut? I shall spend a night in her hut.”

Digvijay again murmured in Rahul’s ears,” Sir these are journalists, not farmers in Bhatta and Parsaul.”

And Rahul looked at them in stark silence. He had no words for them. He had no answers for their potential questions. He signaled Digvijay to follow him and left the scene.

And the people were left wondering, was it really an issue that Rahul sang ‘Kolaveri DI..’.

Or was it REALLY an issue of significance, when he attended Kisan Mahapanchayat, or rallies in UP, or protested in Bhatta Parsaul?

It did not seem so. But the media had glorified all these events.

The truth eluded everyone.

The starving fish...!

A person has an aquarium, which has variety of fish. These fish lived in harmony and peaceful co-existence as they were properly fed and taken care of. One day, the person had to go to another town for some urgent work, and he did not make any arrangements to feed these fish during his absence, as it was a short visit.

Few hours after he left, the fish started getting restless. They were looking for their food. But it was not coming through. They were hungry. They started getting violent. At that moment, the person came back and he saw the situation. He threw some food into the aquarium. All the fish went after that food. He was surprised at this unexpected behavior of his trained fish. They had forgotten all their ethics and were now lapping up at anything they get hold of. As soon as he threw something in one corner, all fish would gather around that. Next moment, he threw something in opposite corner, and they all went after the new food.

The political situation today resembles that of this aquarium. The politicians are starving for publicity. They know that there is a huge opportunity, as the credibility of entire political system is at its lowest. The opposition wants to utilize the low confidence of public in ruling party, to its favor, while the ruling party is comfortable to see that the opposition is in bigger disarray. The situation is so bad that the ‘aam admi’ is forced to choose the lesser evil, rather than looking for someone good.

As a result, the politicians have forgotten all their ethics, manners and protocol inside and outside the parliament. They are just looking for any issue to corner the other party / other party’s leader.  The benchmark has suddenly changed from publicizing ‘good deeds done by one self’ to ‘bad deeds done by someone else’.

No wonder, we are seeing the headlines in media about non-issues. The impact of ‘a slap’ gets debated for days together. The statement made in lighter vain of ‘only one slap?’ gets dissected to levels putting the microbiologists to shame.  The people demonstrate no qualms whatsoever to take hard stands on TV debates. The public is forced to watch this sordid tamasha in the name of news.

The levels of this ‘one-up-man-ship’ have risen to such dangerous levels that this may well augur the extinction of corrupt politicians from the scene.  The opposition is trying to corner Chidambaram for many months now. First it was the involvement in 2G case. Now, it the ‘conflict of interest’ case. The charges against Anna Hazare do not seem to stop anywhere. His every word, his every movement is being seen closely to find faults with him. Why do people give more weightage to ‘misappropriation of travel allowance’ and ‘alleged tax evasion’ than the multi-crore Commonwealth games scam and Adarsh society scams? Why have we reduced ourselves to such levels that we take pride in finding faults with others?

There is an interesting scene in film ‘Mohra’ in which Sunil Shetty brings two under world gangs in front of each other and sparks a fight in between them by shooting from a hideout. The result is that both the gangs get decimated. Something similar is happening in political arena today. The only mythological comparison we can make is that of ‘Samudra manthan’.

Let us hope that some ‘Lokpal yukt’ nectar comes out after this lowly exercise. 

Review of the new book ‘Revolution 2020’ by Chetan Bhagat

The latest offering from Chetan Bhagat, ‘Revolution 2020’ is definitely a readable book, which forces the reader to think at times. The book very well fits in the category of his earlier successful books.

The Plot

The book deals with the real problem existing today, about the ugly nexus between politics and the education system in India, in which focus is more on making money from the system rather than imparting quality education. After reading the book, the reader is bound to look at all the educational institutions associated with politicians, with a kind of suspicion and doubt.

The book also brings out the psyche of society, which blindly considers a student brilliant and successful if he clears the entrance examination of top brand universities for admission into the Engineering and Medical courses. This is a real menace in Indian middle class homes, which creates unbearable stress for the children and high tension levels for their parents.

The book demonstrates that a person need not be an engineer to be successful. However, the means adopted by the character Gopal to become successful are not really adorable. Similarly, the character of Raghav, who is a brilliant engineering student having passion for journalism, is a bit exceptional case, and we may not find many of that category in real life.

The main characters

The story revolves around three childhood friends, Raghav, Gopal and Arti in Varanasi. Raghav cracks the IIT and gets admission in a Premium College. Gopal tries twice but is unsuccessful, in spite of taking special coaching in Kota during second attempt. Arti’s character is only to add emotions in the story.

Gopal accidentally meets the negative elements of the society after his failure in entrance exams and rises in material life. Unfortunately, the story portrays that a person, who failed in engineering entrance, becomes a director of an engineering college at young age of 24. This could be a reality, but then, it should not be glorified, as it hurts the ethics of the system we live in.

The pace and climax

The story picks up real pace in later half and climax comes when Gopal meets Raghav to tell him about his winning over Arti from him. The story for building up this scene has been very good, but the actual scene when it happens could have been narrated in a better manner.  Much is left for the reader to assume, rather than putting the thoughts down. This could be a strategy from Chetan Bhagat, considering that the book would eventually be made into a movie and acting abilities of the actor portraying Gopal would be able to describe the feeling well. This is the difference between a book and a movie.

Also, the pace of the story till this scene is really fast and so, even after the climax is over, the story continues, which makes the reader to expect some more twist in the story. Unfortunately it does not come. So, in a sense, the climax is a bit wrongly placed and it would have been better to shift it a bit later in the story.

The Movie

The book is written with an intention to facilitate making a movie inspired by the book, some day. That is why there are many scenes of flashback, dream sequence and an open end to make a sequel. The story ends without a proper message and it is for the reader to assume things. It is unclear whether the author criticizes the negative character Gopal or eulogizes the good qualities in him, which come from his apparent transformation towards the end. This concept is very much like the film Raavan starring Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, in which the spectator is asked to judge whether a good person doing bad things or a bad person doing good things is Raavan in true sense.

If made into a movie, the characters suitable would be Akshay Khanna for Gopal, Akshay Kumar for Raghav and Priyanka Chopra for Arti.

The alternative climax

The story could have had an alternate climax. When Gopal meets Raghav and tells him about his winning over Arti, Raghav shows him a piece of a story he was working on. That story is about Arti meeting Gopal secretly in hotels and his bunglow. He says he is already aware about it.

And towards the end, MLA Shukla pressurizes Gopal to do anything possible to make Raghav keep quite. So, Gopal reaches a secret understanding with Raghav that he will leave Arti provided Raghav leaves his investigation on Shukla. This way, Gopal loses Arti, Raghav wins over her and Arti feels like a commodity in the power struggle between her two friends.