I cut my finger (right index) today while wiping off blade of a knife..
I realized one thing few moments later...
Upon cutting one's finger, if the first reaction comes - "shit! How will I be able to complete the project and office work on time now?", know for sure that you are working too much!
From last 2-3 weeks, everyone seems to be writing blogs/articles on Sachin Tendulkar. Thanks to his continually bettering performance in Cricket world cup 2011. Recently he hit 99th century in international cricket and looking at his current form, it's just matter of few more innings before he completes century of centuries. He will be the first cricketer to have achieved that milestone like many other achievements on his name.
I am not going to write more words about Sachin's greatness or contribution to cricket or his ability to inspire. Instead I want to use this post as a compilation of better articles written on him by people knowing cricket better than me.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (Marathi: सचिन रमेश तेंडुलकर; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket. In 2002, just 12 years into his career, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. In September 2007, the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne rated Tendulkar as the greatest player he has played with or against.
Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, the most prolific runmaker of all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known. His batting is based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses: anticipation. If he doesn't have a signature stroke - the upright, back-foot punch comes close - it is because he is equally proficient at each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will. In a nutshell Perhaps the most complete batsman and the most worshipped cricketer in the world, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs, and most international runs.
TIME nominates Sachin Tendulkar one of the HEROES: Link
When he's in form, which is often, Tendulkar can rout the world's best bowlers with ease. Just ask Australian leg-spinning great Shane Warne, who once joked that he had nightmares about bowling to Tendulkar. India's "Little Master" has scored a record 75 centuries in test and one-day internationals and helped revolutionize the speed at which runs are made. But statistics only hint at Tendulkar's greatness. It's the way he scores all those runs that is the most thrilling thing about his game. Tendulkar waits for the bowler's delivery like a martial arts black belt ready to parry an opponent—moving quickly into position, flashing his bat to guide the ball where he will. It's a rare combination of textbook classicism and the inventive violence of modern one-day cricket.
Tendulkar's greatness is not in those outstanding numbers which are by the way 'the most outstanding in this world'. The secret lies in something much more basic & preliminary. It's about the love for the game and passion to pursue it. Basic values like truthfulness, sportsman spirit & keeping your head at good/bad times have been skeleton of his highly successful career. - A fan
Widely rumored as TIME article on Sachin (but no evidence):
When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.
When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to “open” the Nehruvian economy.
It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.
TIME - Cricket Star Breaks an 'Impossible' Record: Link
The build up to 200 was exhilarating. When he reached 199, the home crowd in Gwalior waved Indian flags, and roared, knowing they were about to witness history. The diminutive Tendulkar, dubbed "The Little Master," slapped a single past the South African fielders. The world's 1.5 billion cricket fans had a moment they'd never forget. Tendulkar removed his helmet, and raised his arms toward the sky. "Take a bow, master," said television commentator Ravi Shastri, himself a former cricket star for India. "Aw, you little champion," his partner, former New Zealand cricketeer Danny Morrison chimed in. "If there was ever one deserving to break this milestone, this Everest, it is certainly Sachin Tendulkar."
Sachin Tendulkar First Interview:
The Confidence in young boy promised trajectory of the career he has had.
The Little Master truly was little when he made his test playing debut at the tender age of 16 in November of 1989. And he couldn't have had a tougher induction: in Karachi, Pakistan, he faced the fearsome bowling attack of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis (also making his debut). While his 15 runs can hardly be considered memorable, the way in which he withstood the numerous blows to his body was an instant indication that the boy was quickly becoming a man. Sure enough, Tendulkar scored his maiden test fifty a few days later.
Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right. He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people. And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged. Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.
Sachin Centuries where India Lost: Link Sachin has hit his 48th ODI hundred yesterday and India has lost the match. Tonight I would like to look into all those matches which we lost and want to bash the Sachin bashers who do not consider Sachin as the world’s best ODI batsmen. - A Blog
Harsha at IIM-A on talent vs attitude: Harsha Bhogle ace TV commentator in a lecture at IIM (A) ,very nicely points out that passion to perform ,commitment and practice are far more important than talent alone.
An open letter to Sachin from a fan: Link Even today while you yet again proved your class with a 111 the others around took it easy. You chased the ball in the outfield and ensured that your throws landed on top of the bails. Others preferred to drop catches or go back to the dressing room for a ‘rest’ while a substitute fielder came in. Sachin, the current Indian cricket team doesn’t deserve you. They don’t know what it is like to give one’s blood and sweat for this nation of a billion people. For them fame and money has come to easy and undeserving – not commensurate to the ’supposed talent’ that they posses.
He was 16, had almost curly hair, curiosity in his eyes, and steel in his wrists. His treatment of Abdul Qadir is part of folklore now. Sachin Tendulkar played only because it was not an official one-day match, and Kapil Dev was nursing a stiff neck. At that stage there was no plan to play Tendulkar in the one-day tournament at all. But after that he couldn't be denied. Eighteen deliveries changed everything. In that time he made 53 (unbeaten), hitting Mushtaq Ahmed for two huge sixes, and then Abdul Qadir for 27 runs in a single over, with three sixes in a row. There was no wild slogging. When Qadir dropped one short as Tendulkar stepped out, the batsman had the arrogance to go through with his shot anyway. The bat made a lovely arc, and for all we know the ball is still travelling - no one could find it. At the other end was the captain, Kris Srikkanth, no slouch himself. Later that evening he said, referring to the one-day series, "The little bugger must play now." The little bugger has been playing ever since.
An American writer new to cricket experiences the first couple of weeks of the World Cup, navigating the madness of a billion fans and chasing the soul of the game. - Wright Thompson.
He's not a big man, but he's got a big aura. Fans climb the stadium wall, cheek to cheek, pressed against openings to catch a glimpse. The player looks up at the apartment buildings crowding the other side of the street, like a zoo animal in reverse, all the residents leaning over to get a peek. He waves his bat at the kids on the wall. The kids scream with joy. I grab a photographer and point.
What might mean even more to him is the frank adoration and love of his team-mates. Indian cricket was long marked by personal rivalries and parochial jealousies; if that seems now to be behind us, this is the handiwork of a generation of gifted and selfless cricketers, among them Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Anil Kumble, but perhaps Tendulkar most. One image captures it all. A cake was being cut to mark victory in a hard-fought one-day series in Pakistan several years ago. The first piece was offered to the player of the tournament, Yuvraj Singh, who immediately turned the plate towards his hero and said, "Pehlé Sachin bhai ko": the first one is for our elder brother, Sachin.
It is a short short life, why not spend it doing what you love?
It is a short short life, why not live it to the fullest?
It is a short short life, why waste time in regrets?
It is a short short life, why not give it your best?
It is a short short life, why refrain from trying?
It is a short short life, why give up?
It is a short short life, why not go for it & make impossible possible?
It is a short short life, why limit yourself? why cover up?
I vividly remember the lines of my favorite App-Mech teacher back in the days of first year of engineering -
"सुबह नल खोला तो पानी आना चाहिए, That is called engineering"
When Prof. Dixit said this in his (in)famous mechanics class, what he meant is that an engineer's job is to make things work! However trivial they may be, however unimportant they might sound. It takes engineering to make things work in this world.
Rotate lever of a door knob & give a gentle push to your heavy door, it opens smoothly! Not many will notice this right away, but it takes clever use of appropriate fulcrum point to multiply the mechanical force which moves your door like it's a small drawer.
Press few switches on the wall, whole room gets illuminated with bright light, temperature of air gets controlled, your favorite music starts playing & what not! Correct use of electrical engineering to wire up your house connecting all kinds of electrical gadgets & instruments makes this possible.
Open a tap, water should start flowing out of it at next instant! Sounds simple? but it takes careful study & flawless design of pipeline system - fluid engineering!
A couple of clicks on computer and the knowledge of whole world is at your disposal through internet! A revolution brought to you by computer & communication engineering.
And the list could go on & on & on.... giving much more significant and complex examples from everyday life. These small to big examples from our daily lives prove beyond any doubt that we live in a world full of engineering marvels. We take their help to ease our life, we rely on them, we need them, we survive on them. It is near to impossible in current times to imagine a life without any engineering involved in it. I think we were meant to discover all this, learn from nature it's basic rules and ways of employing them to solve our problems.
I often wonder if these rules of engineering also apply to human behavior? to our actions/reactions? to our instinct? I guess they would..
