I Thought I Was Moving Forward

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I still remember the moment I decided not to learn Sanskrit. I was in seventh grade in Bangalore, choosing between Sanskrit in the State Board and Hindi in ICSE. I asked my father what he thought. His answer was simple: “Why do you want to learn Sanskrit? It serves no purpose.” That was enough. I dropped it. It felt like a smart decision. Hindi seemed more useful. I even convinced myself I was choosing the “national language”—not realizing India doesn’t have just one. Looking back, the decision wasn’t about language. It was about how I was thinking. I chose utility. Whatever moved me forward faster. And for a long time, that worked. I moved to the U.S. Finished my Masters. Found a job. Built a life. There was always something more urgent—visa timelines, work, responsibilities. Life ran on schedule, and I stayed inside it. But something else was happening quietly. Distance was doing its work. When I visited the Kanchi Mutt in Malleswaram, ...

What a wild swing

I am not talking about the elegant backhand crosscourt winner from Federer's racquet. I am talking about the discussion I had with a bunch of guys here. It all started over a plate of bhel puri and pani puri. We started with the serials - Ramayana and Mahabharata about how the country used to come to a standstill during these episodes. There were other serials that caught our attention - Chandrakanta, Mungeri Lal, He-Man(Remember! Masters of the Universe), Reporter, Superhit Muqabala (DD Metro) and others. We also wondered how DD Metro was launched amidst a lot of fanfare. At a time when we were living with only one channel, it was a great relief to get another one. We then went on to the advertisements - Nirma, Pepsi, Coke, Wheel, Zandu Balm, fevicol and so on. The Pepsi advertisement taken in a rustic outlook with street children playing cricket and drinking pepsi from the cyclewalah selling pepsi, and wearing Sachin masks was voted as the best pepsi advertisement till date. I also remember when I saw the advertisement for the first time, as the children were removing the masks, at one point of time, Sachin reveals his identity by removing the mask. That got me out of the chair. It was superbly done with fantastic song rendition by Raghuvir Yadav. This then took us on to the state of affairs of the Indian cricket team, with discussions on Tendulkar's current form. Is Tendulkar a match winner or not? Why he could not be a good captain? Whether Rahul Dravid had got the credit he deserves? Ganguly's sad position today though he was the best leader at one point of time was discussed. Why we have Yuvraj, Kaif and Bhajji in the team? Obviously, Thanks to Ganguly! Then it went on to movies, and how Lagaan was truly an entertaining movie thanks to the cricket in the movie. We then decided that we would watch Lagaan and then wind up for the night!

So, the bottomline is that if you sit back for a discussion, you just have no idea where it starts and how it ends!

Comments

  1. 'khol ke bandhan thod ke thaalein yeh dil maange more...'

    good enough to be made the theme song for the NEW INDIA

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