Captured by Henri Cartier

A picture by legendary photographer Henri Cartier Bresson in 1948 captures Kashmiri women praying on Kastur Panjie near the shrine of Makhdoom Sahib.

Out of action!!

Friends, I will be out of action for a few more days..
Reasons: No accesss to the NET.. Not even mails
Promise: Will be back soon!!

Last Day at work - Bittersweet

Today’s my last day at work…

Today is bittersweet.

Clearing my desk, Consolidating my emails and documents.

Days like this always feel weird and sad.

Weird because you’re leaving your base you’ve reinforced so well to a territory somehow unknown and unexplored, sad because you’re leaving behind a load of memories and mainly because you know you’ll be missing the people, you actually were in constant touch most of your days for over 3 years.

I guess it’s always the people you get to know, how they touch your life, the different relationships you build with them, the good times, and even the not so good ones, that gets onto you.

Why did I take this step? Well, I guess, I just felt the time was right to move on, all the omens were right, maybe the stars were in place too or whatever else you believe in.

It just falls into my basic strategy of trying to set clearer goals for myself in life and to take the steps I see necessary to reach them.

Moving on to something else in my life was simply one of those steps.

My time here at this company has had its fair share of frustrating moments. However, the people at this company have always made the work bearable if not enjoyable. Actually, the work itself can be enjoyable – the joy of hunting down the root cause of an issue can be frustrating but solving a problem and uncovering a root cause is an experience equal to watching Cricket Australia decimating Zimbabwe.

I’d like to thank all the teams throughout the network for the great ride. It was great getting to know you all and to get a chance to work with every single one of you. I hope that we’ll get to carry our connect well on into the future.

I’d like to thank 2020 for having me as part of the team. I’m proud of these years that I spent here, the role I had and the work I did. I’m very happy to see the company diversifying especially going Social inturn going on to higher grounds.

I wish you all the best of luck.

Today is bittersweet indeed.....

Life Clock

Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. - William Faulkner

 

Clicked on my Fujifilm Finepix S7000. (Specifications on request)

Ball-Biting Ain’t Cricket

Color blind Pathaan took it for an apple... Tried to chew it!! Mr. Khan Shame Shame!!

Seems like everyone who should have been a role model is becoming a symbol of shame. An endeared sportsman is biting cricket balls to cheat his way to victory.

Yes, that is exactly what he did. With his side on a losing streak, having lost the first four one-day games and well on its way to losing the fifth, Shahid Khan Afridi took the cricket ball and actually started biting it, even as the television camera was squarely focused on him doing so. And why would Shahid Afridi indulge in this illegal, and rather disgusting, form of ball tampering?

Here is his response, in his own words:

I shouldn’t have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match… There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed, I shouldn’t have done it. I just wanted to win us a game but this was the wrong way to do it."

Is he actually missing the point?

Read the statement again: “There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong.”

What is he trying to saying? That tampering is OK but his “methods” were wrong? Then what would be the “right” method for tampering a cricket ball!

Shahid Afridi, a cricketer so dear to the whole world, indulging in such an activity is unacceptable. He has been slapped with a ban of two international games. Is the punishment enough? The governing bodies should look into the matter and provide sterner punishment.

A Hiss or A Bite?

Recently I read this book Getting Control of Your Anger by Robert Allan. I was touched by an example where the author narrates the sage-and-the-snake tale. As you may know, there was this snake that lay on a village path leading to the temple and bit people passing by. A saint advised the snake that it was wrong to bite people, and the snake obeyed. Finding the snake passive, the village boys dragged it and stoned it.

While passing by that way again, the saint found the snake bleeding. The snake blurted out how it had been abused ever since it had promised not to bite. “I told you not to bite,” said the saint, “but I did not tell not to hiss.”

Knowing the difference between a ‘hiss’ and a ‘bite’ might be the best starting point in managing anger effectively, writes Allan. Good anger management is “the challenge of learning when, how, and under what circumstances to effectively ‘hiss’ — that is, to stand firm and issue a warning that certain behaviour is unacceptable.”

A hiss might include a clear statement of what the consequences will be if the unacceptable behaviour continues. This tactic is very different from lashing out with an aggressive bite, explains the author. “A hiss is a warning sign; it says, ‘watch out, pay attention!’ whereas a bite is any action intended to inflict pain.”

He quotes Aristotle thus: “Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not easy.”

There are a few more examples explaining different scenarios. This book is a must to have in ones library.  

Clicked on my Canon EOS 1000D. (Specifications on request)

IPL bosses talk Cricketing Logic: an egg on their face!

"This talk that we decided together not to bid for Pakistani players is plain rubbish", claimed Mr Mallya through a pair of astonishingly bad shades. And one franchise owner went beyond bizarre, proclaiming there was "cricketing logic" in the decisions made. Parnell over Umar Gul? Roach over Aamer? Martyn over Umar Akmal? Get real guys, it is turning out to be a display of pure idiocy.

IPL bosses and team owners have egg on their face because they are spreading a canard when they didn't have to.

Lalit Modi appears on prime-time television and claim "he knew nothing about this". Come on Mr Modi, and here we thought not a pencil sharpener changes places in the corridors of the IPL unless you approve it!

If there was indeed "cricketing" logic in the decisions, why weren' the cricketers allowed to offer it? I would have accepted if Sourav Ganguly told me that he preferred an ageing and injury-prone Bond over an up and coming Aamer. Or if Anil Kumble told me Morgan was a better choice than Umar Akmal. Both were at the auction, why weren't they fielded? Instead, Shilpa Shetty told us how the man who won her Royals the first IPL, Sohail Tanvir wasn't really worth it. Instead they went for the might of Damien Martyn who is pushing 40 and has no T20 credentials to shore up their batting order. Preity Zinta went on about how Yusuf Abdullah was the bowler they needed and not perhaps Rana Naved ul Hasan who can bowl yorkers at will in the death overs. "Cricketing logic" doesn't become so just because it emerges from the mouths of the beautiful.

Australians weren't the hot picks this year as well. Point taken. But Australia are involved in a cricket series at the time. What are Pakistan doing? Nothing at all. Their players are available for all six weeks and can certainly play T20 cricket, they won the world cup, remember?

So it was the presumption that they might become "unavailable" that led to this decision. And since the team owners are pumping in the money, they have every right to put it where the investment returns. If they choose not to risk it, that's fine too. All we ask is that instead of skirting the issue and hiding behind shallow words, they let us know. What's that line about honesty being the best policy??

The auction was about several happy stories. Kieron Pollard and Kemar Roach, made richer beyond dreams. The tag of "rebels" finally being shed from former ICL players with three of them landing contracts. And the franchise owner, one in a stunning blue dress, another in dimples still dazzling a room full of cynical men.

Ahhh, if only they wouldn't have taken us for fools!