Thoughts in general

You must be wondering why such a title for a blog post. Well, I feel that my son (now 8yrs) is slowly becoming a friend with whom I discuss sports, school etc with. Earlier, as his dad, I would tell him things to do, explain him why something is good or bad etc. When he was little (2-5 yrs), he would be play with his toys, as interested in music, dance and his small cycle + scooter. As a father, I was hoping he at least gets some interest in sports like cricket, football etc. Fortunately, I never pushed him to take interest in these sports. Something seemed to change after our visit to the US. He came back after having played baseball & football with his cousins. Suddenly, he now started watching cricket, football and any sport he could find on the TV. He expressed his desire to go for cricket coaching. From then on, Chhota Bheem, Doraemon etc have taken a backseat. The best part is that now he knows more players in all sports than I do. I can discuss the nuances of the game...

It has been seen that India fares poorly when they go outside subcontinent. Case in point is the last 4 tours in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand (EASN). If I were a selector, I would really start picking players who have a strong Ranji record and have done well in the India A tours abroad. India also needs to pick players who are mentally strong since many players like Raina, Vijay etc are easily dismissed over and over using their weakness against the short ball or ball that just deviates from the off stump. Rohit Sharma has been given innumerable opportunities and he really ought to be sent to the Ranji for 2 years. Players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, Gautam Gambhir etc who have played some test cricket but more importantly are mentally strong need to be in the side on overseas tours. Pujara really ought to be in the ODI side when India plays overseas as well. The more dire need is for India to find wicket taking bowlers in the mould of Bhajji, Kumb...

For the past few weeks, I have been itching to move out of Bangalore to may be a place like Ahmedabad. Bangalore has the most beautiful weather but it also has its mix of traffic, chaos and the like. Having lived away from Gujarat for so long (~25 years now), it seems like I want to go back and live there again. Those familiar sounds of the language of Gujarati coupled with sweet smell of fafda, jalebi, undhiu, khandvi and a chance to be close to my parents and my brother's family are probably are forcing me to think in this way. After being away from family for so long, in a way, I seem o be craving to live with them one more time. I don't know whether this desire is good or bad but it is there and I am just acknowledging it. I also long to be close to an ashram where I can go study Vedanta. "Who am I?" is a question I want to experience in this life time. Yes, I have jumped topics but then these are random thoughts. :)

Sing on the tune of "Hai preet yahan ki reet sadaa" from Purab aur Paschhim Jab sibal diya mere bharat ne Mere bharat ne, mere bharat ne Tab sab ko 2G samajh aayi Zero loss ki bhasha bharat mai Kapil ne pehle sikhlayi Deta na Sibal agar Bharat to Coalgate samajhna muskhkil thaa Adarsh aur CWG ki loss ka andaaza lagana mukhskil thaa