Life is a river and Career Plans Volatile

Mom always taught us that our life should be like a flowing river if we want to be successful. What I want to add to it is that Career Plans also follow the same course, atleast that's what my perception is. I once wrote in my Book Club assignment we can learn a lot by observing the nature.

The mountains, rivers, gorges, canyons, forest all tell us one thing sure - change happens. And ones who survive are the ones who survive the change ie, adapt to it. Taking the example of a river. A river, in its course, encounters numerous boulders, crevices and rocks, but it finds a way around it every time. However, if the river isn't able to find a way it forms a lake or a pond where the water is stagnant. And staganant water is the breeding ground for germs and bacteria. Drawing a comparison one's life should also be like a flowing river so it keeps flowing and moving. When we become stagnant, we start to rot. Career plans, in my mind, follow the same course of action.

As kids in a playgroup we all aspired to become ice-cream wala, pop-corn wala, balloon wala and hawa mithai (read cotton candy) wala. Then, we reached Primary and Secondary school and we were fascinated by each profession and our career goals changed every time we learnt about a new profession - Defense, Medicine, Engineering, Law, Public Service etc. We reached 10th standard and now we had to narrow down on the stream we were interested in - arts, commerce or science. We all say that it is this choice that determines which way we are headed because this is the point of no return. This choice is governed by a vague idea of what we want to study in college. Once we reach college we are asked to decide what we want to do and set it in stone. This is where I disagree, I believe just as our career plans are getting shaped by each new information we recieve in school and college; we should be able to continue with this practice even after we join the workforce. We should be able to make changes like going from being a software engineer to Defense Officer or Bureaucrat. In my mind, we shouldn't really keep a secret ambition always a secret, rather we should try our best to take a shot at it as soon as possible so that we don't regret it later. Speaking of which here is a piece written on Regret, by my good friend Deep.

2 out of 3 & Sachin is back

What a match!! Yes, I'm talking about the 3rd ODI played between India and New Zealand. An absolute treat for the eyes. Over 600 runs scored with maximum number of sixes in a cricket match ever and Sachin coming close to breaking his own record for runs made in ODI by a player.

Sachin, I'm sure, has shut up his critics and news stories that were suggesting its time he should focus on other aspects of the game. One thing all these so called critics need to understand is that as far as us Indians are concerned Cricket is the religion and Sachin is the GOD. Just because he hasn't forayed into T-20 full flegedly or got out on a low score in a match or two, one can't rule him out of cricket. There is still a lot of Test Cricket and ODI left in him. He showed his true calibre and reminded everyone why the opposition can never take India easily if Sachin is batting.



With Sehwag and Gambhir out cheaply, Sachin seem to easily slip into his usual role of seeing India through. His batting was a treat to watch, 6's, 4's in every direction. I was slightly tensed as Saching headed towards his century and he was also taking precautions. Once, he crossed his century, boy he came all out for next 50 runs. Watching him raise his bat after his 150 was quiet over-whelming. I think Sachin played his ususal game because he didn't have to worry about the players on the other end. He knew that he could pace his innings and doesn't need to get runs in a hurry.



Yuvraj and Sachin put up quiet a show and made sure that Kiwis start to miss Daniel Vettori. Later, Dhoni and Sachin consolidated the innings. Unfortunately, Sachin had to leave the field when his score reached 163 because he pulled a muscle in his stomach. Kiwis couldn't heave a sigh of relief because Raina in his short and crisp innings reminded the black caps that Indian batting line up isn't over. India's batting reminded me of the Old South African team and how I used to dread watching those matches till the last wicket partnership and well we do have the opener from that team as our coach. As the match unfolded, Kiwis seem to get dis-heartened more. However, the batsmen were able to salvage back the pride for the black caps.



McCullum and Ryder came all out. They didn't seem to have given up on the match. The Indian fielding was quiet lax with 2 dropped catches, dear Mahi leading the way for this one. It seemed as though they were missing Sachin's pepping them up all the time. I know I missed him during the fielding and the balling. And then, I believe a little pixie sprayed some magic dust over our dear "Men in Blue & Orange" and we struck gold.



Just as a house of cards falls even if you move one card, the black cap line up seem to fall apart as soon as the first wicket went down. And we thought that the match is over. Then, came Mills and Southee and Dhoni looked as he has never looked before - worried that an easy win was slipping out of India's reach. As far as I was concerned, there was only one culprit for this botch - up: Munaf Patel.



Definitely felt like killing Munaf Patel after every ball he bowled. What a mess - 6's raining in his overs. And then if that wasn't enough, major insult - Munaf removed from the over just after 2 balls in his over because both of them were waist high no balls. Yusuf was brought in to finish that over and salvage our pride back.



India proved that they are a well gelled team now and Yusuf and Zaheer took revenge of their fellow bowler brother. Zaheer took a brilliant catch of Mills of Yusuf's last ball when he was finishing up Munaf's left over balls. Zaheer's agression was phenomenal when he completed Mills catch, it was like hey umpire now you can't do anything Mills is out. Praveen Kumar came for his next over and finished the game by taking a caught and bowled of the last batsmen.



In conclusion, I would like to borrow the reaction of Deep and say that the match was WOW. I know I couldn't have asked for a better weekend hungama and excitement after a few busy weeks at work.