Where do the children play?

Last week, I read a small news article, tucked away in one corner of Maharashtra Times. It said that the BMC is planning to ban Gulli Cricket on Mumbai roads.

BMC has done little so far to ease our lives in the city. The roads are in pathetic conditions, the traffic is incessant, the drains are blocked, the air is polluted, the trains are never on time, the buses are crowded, there are no green spaces, there is nothing in Mumbai that BMC can make a Mumbaikar feel proud about.

What keeps Mumbai going is its culture. A culture that is born out of the openess the city shares with its fellow travellers, neighbours, and even strangers. Why does an outsider fall in love with Mumbai? Its the culture - and not the infrastructure.

As a kid I played roadside cricket. And more than playing I have watched numerous hard fought 'underarm cricket' matches. The atmosphere was electric. While the kids played, mothers cooked 'mutton' and 'chicken' in the kitchen and fathers stood in the balcony cheering the players. There was no mention of caste, religion, rich, poor - it was just passion, and play.

Sunil Gavaskar has extolled the virtues of roadside cricket in his autobiography saying that its this cricket that instilled the discipline of batting straight. Gavaskar played his cricket in narrow lanes next to his building in Chikhalwadi, Mumbai. Since the ground floor windows had glass panes and any mishits would smash them, kids like Gavaskar were forced to bat 'straight' or what we call as the famous - 'V'. The eclectic cover drives, tearing the stadium grass, were born out of such childhood limitations of Gulli Cricket. Gavaskar also spoke about how each team had many players and once you got out, it was impossible to get another chance to bat for a long time. As a result, Gavaskar learnt to bat cautiously and not throw his wicket away at any cost. Several Mumbai players have attributed their 'Khunnas Style' of playing to Gulli Cricket.

Here is a beautiful song by Cat Stevens about how sprawl, congestion, and mindless development is impacting America's children -

"Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?"

If the BMC cannot build open spaces and playgrounds, it has no right to stop children from playing on the roads.

Pic courtesy: http://bobtoor.com/images/gulli_cricket.jpg

Sachin Tendulkar - What a wonderful life!!!!

He is 37 and has been a superstar for 20 years. Rare few, absolutely rare few, enjoy such honor. You can't even call the bugger 'lucky'. He toils hard for his success. As on date, Sachin must have run over 1000 kilometers across the wicket to score his 75000+ first class runs.

Every run he scored, every catch he pocketed, every four and six he hit, every boundary he saved, every match he won, every comment he made - there were over 1 billion people watching him.

Few women find him sexy, yet he has been the undisputed icon of last 3 generations of youth.

Sunil Gavaskar publicly touched his feet in a stadium - not out of admiration but out of sheer respect for his unending exploits in cricket....

...what a life!!!

When his father passed away in the midst of '99 World Cup, he flew to India, came back within 3 days and scored a blistering hundred - then looked up at heaven and spoke to his dad. I promised myself, that years later, when I sit with my grandchildren I would tell them how I saw all this live on TV, tears rolling down my eyes.

Einstein had once said about Gandhi - "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."

Its a privilege to be born in the same generation as you Sachin.

What does it take to live for 100 years?

According to Dan Buettner, people who live for 100 years have the following common traits:

1. None of them exercise. Instead they set up heir lives so that they are constantly busy with physical work - getting up and down, walking, climbing stairs...

2. They set up their life in ways that they can enjoy - they have a garden in front of their houses, go for walks, meet friends...

3. They have a purpose in life, if people know their purpose in life, they live 7 years longer...

4. They put their families first, play with their kids, look after their parents... and grandparents...

5. All of them are involved in a faith based activity, they have solid faith...

6. They surround themselves with the right people - people who are fit, who work hard, pray, moderately drink, enjoy themselves...

Buettner says, "When it comes to longevity, there are no shortcuts." He also adds that "the right genes" plays only 10% role in longevity!

What do we do with the time saved because of advances in technology?

What do we do with the time saved because of advances in technology?

1. We send the same Happy New Year as a SMS or a bcc.
2. Facebook seems for all those who want connect without ever wanting to meet.
3. We use GPS to find roads, but we don't know where we are headed in life.
4. We watch Barkha Dutt's debates on TV that makes participants raise their hands on issues when they need to raise their voice. We send SMSes on Agree/Disagree when we need to act.
5. We own big cars but are not open to pooling them with others for environment's sake.
6. We showcase Kindle, when we should be buying second hand books to read.
7. We shop online for better cellphones and useless technology gadgets, instead of sending a bunch of flowers or a nice cake to celebrate our favourite school teacher's birthday.

Time has come to rethink what we can do to our life with the various technologies that surround us.

I am enclosing a small para on what Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of worldwide web envisioned the internet to be in 2000:

"Some people point out that the Web can be used for all the wrong things. For downloading pictures of horrible, gruesome, violent or obscene things, or ways of making bombs which terrorists could use.Other people say how their lives have been saved because they found out about the disease they had on the Web, and figured out how to cure it. I think the main thing to remember is that any really powerful thing can be used for good or evil. Dynamite can be used to build tunnels or to make missiles. Engines can be put in ambulances or tanks. Nuclear power can be used for bombs or for electrical power.
So the what is made of the Web is up to us.You, me, and everyone else.
Here is my hope.
1. The Web is a tool for communicating.
2. With the Web, you can find out what other people mean. You can find out where they are coming from.
3. The Web can help people understand each other.
4. Think about most of the bad things that have happened between people in your life. Maybe most of them come down to one person not understanding another. Even wars.
5. Let's use the web to create neat new exciting things.
6. Let's use the Web to help people understand each other."

Think about it.