Is Indian Cricket a mere sport or a religion?

I wanted to write this blog for quite sometime but couldn't resist writing it at this time when the nation is celebrating the glorified victory in the CB series on the Australian soil.But I am sure England and New Zealand wouldn't have celebrated in such a momentous way after winning the one day series against Aussies last year.

I do watch cricket.Not as much as I watch the K serials ;) . I take pride in being an indian when indian cricketers clinch a match, as much as I did when Viswanathan Anand,the King of 64 squares won the World Chess Champion title, when Sania Mirza created tennis history by becoming the first indian woman ever to win a Girls Doubles Grand Slam event...the list of indian sport achievers just continues...

A series of questions that always run through my mind : why is the common man,media, politicians and the business men giving so much attention to Cricket and its men in blue as compared to other sporting fraternity? Why is cricket surrounded by controversy that is batted and fielded along with the ball? Why have the cricketers become a commodity , on sale and bought by the rich at whopping prices? Why are indians so passionate about cricket? Why is the victory of indian cricket team a nations victory? Why is cricket a patriotism rather than just mere sport? Why are cricketers called the indian heroes? Do these questions hold good for other sports:Perhaps not.
Above all, why are cricketers given more honor than indian soldiers willing to sacrifice their life. They are not paid even 1/10th of what a young cricketer at the lowest level gets paid for selling cola or a tooth paste. May be this is one sporting event which unites all indians irrespective of their religion,caste and creed.

Looks like these questions will remain unanswered...for ever...or probably it is not wise to find answers for questions that do not have an answer.

Playing cricket is not easy.So are others.Among all, the one that I adore :Chess!!! A game of identical armies, with thought being the only weapon!

Final Dramatization...

Yet another dramatic presentation of the railway budget! The 5th railway budget under the UPA government is out and is termed the populist budget by most of the people.The budget seems to be pleasing everybody including the railway porters...they are not tired of singing the Laloo song :-). There are mixed opinions from people across the nation.Many are of the opinion that the budget is crafted to create a mighty wagons of votes for the forth coming elections.Whether the railway budget is an election budget or the common man budget,it does meet the social commitment despite being commercial.The rail budget directly touches the life of a common man. One of the key factors of this budget apart from a cut in the fares and increase in concessions for senior citizens/women/students is the big boost it promises to provide to sectors like Steel,IT,Manufacturing etc...in turn participating in the growth story of india which is the need of the hour.With a cut in the train fares,its quite possible that the aviation business houses might face a threat on the shorter air routes. The airlines can't be more generous than they are now giving away tickets at Re 1/- or at nominal charges. Thanks to the govt for the high airport charges,taxes.This too might become scarce!!!

Can the Finance Minister do a similar performance in the union budget on the 29th Feb? The wait is not too long...the count down has just begun ...

When Lalu took charge of the Railway ministry,observing his personality, educational and political background,like many others, I was of the opinion whether he deserves this office and can he deliver?He took the nation by storm within an year converting a loss making organization which was on the verge of bankruptcy with no solution left other than privatization,into a profitable one with surplus cash.The cash reserves continued to grow year on year.The question that almost every individual had on mind was "How could he make it profitable despite not increasing the fares".It was only one man who could answer this....Lalu!He is credited with "Engineering the financial turn around of Indian Railways".His vision and strategies have attracted a lot of B-schools to conduct a case study and many authors to write books on his achievements.He simply proves that one need not graduate from top B-schools to be a leader...to make a difference...