Modern Day Hare and Tortoise

Ages and ages after the Hare and the Tortoise had long gone to their heavenly abodes,  the next of kin met. Both had encashed in from all the popularity of the story. Both solidly rich on the royalties earned. But they were bored. They remained sore. Scores had to be settled. The Hare, with its ego hurt at the epic defeat. The Tortoise at still being called slow, inspite of the victory. They decided, maybe it was time for repeating history and having a race. Both shook on it.

They decided to meet again after a week to decide the nuances of the race. Both had meetings with their advisory and legal staff to understand the nitty-gritties. Strategists from the best B-Schools were called to understand the risks and how to mitigate them. After all the preparations, the meeting happened. Both sides decided on a 3-day long race. It was for a long distance. The Hare believed the tortoise would not be able to cover it, and the tortoise thought, it would set the record straight once and for all. PR agencies started rolling. The best trainers were flown in for both. A month long preparation ensued.

The D-Day came. Both Hare and Tortoise came prepared for the race, with a 100-member team of every known speciality in the world. The crowds were excited and sitting on the edge of their seats. Millions glued to their TVs and Phones (We watch multiple 5-day test matches too, so don’t be surprised). The media abuzz with analysts and ads. Memorabilia and souvenirs sold out like crazy.

The gun fired and the race began. The Hare trying to redeem its reputation, shot off at top speed. All the training helping all the way. The Tortoise, taking advantage of a loophole in the race rules, was on skates, this time. Day 1 saw them finishing within a few minutes of each other, cutting it too close.

There was a long jump over a valley on day 2, which the Hare planned to use to its advantage. He had planned special jet packs from Space-X to cover this chasm. The Tortoise on its side, had tied up with a Drone Start-up in to travel across the valley. The Hare on knowing this deployed another tech Start-up to disable the drones mid-air. The Tortoise, had started on the drones, but the drones stopped whirring mid-air, and he was about to crash. The Hare relaxed on day 2 and attended several fund-raising galas in the evening, assured of a victory the next day. The Tortoise had his own twist. He was about to crash, but was saved by a logistics company carrier, that helped him to reach the other end. The Hare was unaware of this. Day 3 was going to be fun!

On day 3, the Hare started after noon, to walk to the finish line, but was surprised to hear the cheering crowd a few miles ahead. His team, caught sleeping, realised that the Tortoise had sneaked past them in the morning. The Hare ran as fast as the wind to the finish line. But the sun was setting soon. The Tortoise was too close to the finish line. The chequered flag waved and the Tortoise won again. The crowd cheered uproariously. Their under-dog had won.

In the aftermath, it was learnt that, both the Drone and the Drone-disarming company had won millions of dollars in their fundings. The racers were seen in even swankier cars and bigger houses, wealth beyond anyone’s imagination. The sales of the old and new tales, had peaked to unprecedented levels. There was a fight for movie rights. All was well and order was restored in the world. Only one question lingers on - What exactly happened in that meeting before the race? Your guess is as good as mine.

  

Broken Heart

I was seeing the movie “Theory of Everything” recently. Besides the superlative grit of Stephen Hawking, the one thing that caught my eye was the fire and passion in the eyes of Jane. The struggle that she would have gone through. Stephen Hawking has gotten immense praise for his work and intellect despite the obvious difficulties, but what we often forget are the loved ones who carry the weight of your cross across the finish line. 

Years ago, when I had read “Atlas Shrugged”, I was shaken to the core. Most of us are. There are several aspects to pick from that book, but let me pick one for tonight. The incident where Dagny Taggart wears the bracelet made by Rearden metal, choosing it from a lot of other sophisticated options. It’s that kind of unabashed love and passion, that drives great men. Rather, I must say, these moments, drive men to be great, beyond all that is fathomable.

How exhilarating and liberating it is to love someone with the full heart. No inhibitions, no limitations. Pure ecstasy. But whether you find and lose our Dagny’s, or don’t find them for a very long time, keep the hopes alive. That’s what will drive you. The hope of finding that true passion in someone’s eyes, the fire in someone’s heart to do something for you, to do anything for you. When you feel like fighting the whole world for that person.

Not all hearts are as brave as Dagny’s to love without remorse. Not all of us are Hank Reardens to deserve such Dagny’s either. Life’s immense complications and constraints often deprive you of feeling this love ever, or worse still, Life itself forces you to walk away from your love. The trouble with walking away is that, you will miss it… all your life. 

Loving and losing is not the difficult part. The trouble begins when you love, lose and never find it again. People often blame others to dwell in their past and ruin their future. I actually blame the future. Had the future been even decently comparable to the exciting past, why would anyone dwell in the past at all? Far too many of them imply that you should live in the present, but it’s all blah. I think they never had anything in their past worth dying for. Nonetheless, the only complain I make in this scenario is that when God strips you away of your love, he should at least have the decency of stripping away the memory of having it as well.  

Everything that is broken can be fixed. Even hearts. Someone who walked away, maybe really wouldn’t stay around if the going got tough. To wear the metal bracelet instead of a diamond one, takes a lot of integrity and faith. My suggestion is to keep the hope alive. Its tiring I know, its mentally and physically exhausting, but egg on. The beauty of the image above is that its difficult to say whether you are assembling the heart or breaking it. Life, more of less, will depend on what you want to do with it.

Keep the bracelet ready, the right hand is just around the corner, just don’t go trying it on every hand!!

Dhoni and Kohli

At the onset, let me clarify, I am no cricket buff and this article isn’t about cricketing history, batting styles or records of the individuals concerned. This is to explore a completely different aspect of the 2 cricketing greats - their Captaincy styles.

I have never followed or played cricket. I never understood, how people can spend so many hours of their lives watching it. It seems to me to be a sheer wastage. But I don’t want to argue that. The first match that I remember watching was the India Pakistan T20 world cup final. I remember it very well. I have always liked Dhoni. His batting style, his captaincy style. I like the calm exterior with the mind running at a thousand miles an hour. My cricket seeing was tied to his rise and fall. He got more involved into leadership responsibilities and he started scoring less, thereby losing at least 1 spectator. On the other hand, is Kohli, a complete opposite in terms of leading the team. Where Dhoni is calm and composed, Kohli is more effervescent. 

Both lead from the front, but one shields the team and the other attacks on behalf of the team. Sports, all sports warrant a certain amount of aggression, but I find that the amount of aggression shown by Kohli is a bit OTT. What is more interesting is that they both play under each other from time to time. It’s like two alpha males caught in the same cage and co-existing. Its new. If not new, it’s certainly unique and refreshing to see two diametrically opposite personalities co-existing. 

I feel the media hypes a bit about the energy oozing out of Kohli. The Indian selectors too play a part. The opinions change too fast and they swing too much. I think, calmness is necessary to lead. Nature prefers stability at the end of the day. Natural balance is restored and the systems are in equilibrium and stable state only when all excess energy is thrown off. Kohli carries a lot of it. Dhoni had gotten equilibrium, Kohli has gotten disruption. But the nation is enjoying it and lapping it up with both hands. 

I think our teams have matured enough today to have such a great amalgamation. They are acting like professional sportspeople should. I am sure their egos clash from time to time. Both of them effectively doing the same job in different formats of the game. No matter how many nuances we would like to come up with, end of the day, the task is same to quite an extent. 

Will Dhoni prevail, since he brings stability? I don’t know. He seems to have gone recluse and accepted that his highs have already come and gone.

Will Kohli prevail with his gusto macho attitude? I don’t know. Captaincy is more a calm natured job. Maybe he will tone down, maybe the team will tone up. Only time will tell. 

For now, let’s enjoy the helicopter shots. We might have only a few left.