Great decision by great player

Considering Sachin Tendulkar’s current form and his back to back matching winning knocks for his IPL team, Mumbai Indians and also considering the fact that most of the young guns of our T20 Indian squad or either injured or out of form, a lot of debate and discussions are going on among the people in the press, the critics and everyone around India whether he should make himself available for the T20 world cup 2010?

I am a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar and love to watch him play but I think he should not be pressurised to reconsider his decision.Tendulkar is a chapion player and he knows best whether his body can bear the demands of T20 cricket or not and if he wants to pick and choose his matches in effort to prolong his career , we should respect his decision

No doubt that he is playing awesomely but still we need to look at the future and give our youngsters a chance to prove their abilities. Unless we give them a chance and test their skills and abilities by exposing them to the different and difficult conditions and to various aspects of international cricket (pressure, expectation etc ) we would not be able to find our next generation cricketers. True Tendulkars , Dravids , Kumbles are rare and are one in millions but the fact is we still need to find replacements for them as both Dravid and Tendulkar irrespective of their form are nearing end of their careers and before they retire we need players who can fill their positions , the new talent needs to be nurtured when these big guns are around otherwise it will become very difficult for them to fill in the big shoes of Tendulkar or Dravid immediately when these great men retire which inevitably and sadly will happen one day and that too in near future.

We should also consider the fact that though the IPL tournament is huge and very competitive but it still is a domestic tournament and there is a big difference between domestic tournament and international event s like a world cup. International matches call for huge amount of pressure, expectations, etc. Agreed, for 20years now Sachin has played under tremendous pressure, and has carried the burden of the expectation of millions of Indians, Single handily taken India to lot of victories but at this point of his career he should be given a chance to decide for himself as he is the best judge of his game and himself.

Hence I think we should support and stand by Sachin rather than criticising him since he has taken such a decision for the future of Indian cricket by giving a chance for youngsters to participate in the T20 and as he has been quoted saying that he "does not want to disturb the well-settled young bunch.”He is a true Indian who loves to play for his country and he must have thought a lot about it before taking a decision and we should be proud of the fact that he is standing by his decision irrespective of the pressure from all quarters forcing him to play the T20 world cup. I feel proud to be a Sachin fan and I have learnt a new lesson from him today that one should think a lot before taking a decision and should not reconsider after taking it and once taken, under any circumstances should stand by it.Well done Sachin.

Generous Rickshawala

On a scorching sunny day, when the thermometer was about to break due to the high temperature and all the clothes were getting wet as soon as one came out of an ac room, I took rickshaw from the Noida bus stand to HCL office . Unfortunately or fortunately there are many HCL buildings in Noida and I got confused and also confused rickshawala by giving him a wrong address. So for obvious reasons when we reached the place , we could not find the office I was intending to go. After confirming with people around I learned that the office was not here , but a walkable distance away (that is under normal temperature). I told the rickshawala that I will get down here since we were already at the place I had told him earlier and it would take time to search the other building, but I guess he understood that I was not sure of the address and will take time to search so he replied "madam aap itani dhoop mein kahan akele dhondegi , main aapko chodunga" and insisted on dropping me at the correct address.
Finally after asking at least half a dozen men and searching for around 15 min, I reached my destination.I got down from the rickshaw and offered the rickshawala 20 Rs instead of 10 which was decided earlier but he refused to take the extra money and said that,"madam ji, 10Rs hi theek hain".I told him that it was my fault and insisted but he refused saying "madam koi batnahi, apne jaankar to galat address nahi bataya na."

The rickshawala's helpful and considerate nature really moved me a lot .That day I realized two things, first there is still some humanity and those values we always boast about in movies and everywhere still exit somewhere and second not all rickshaw and auto walas are that bad and inconsiderate as we think they are.