AB De Villiers autobiography: A fan review

In more ways than one, AB de Villiers would come closest to be described as cricket's very own Lionel Messi- extremely talented as an individual and yet the dream of winning honours playing for his country remains elusive for some strange reasons.
Yet, the journey is nothing but inspirational. And it's always the journey that's most beautiful, isn't it?

It's a journey of an eleven year old kid who wears the famous Jonty Rhodes' cap and drops a catch while playing with his two elder brothers only to have his cap removed and thrown in the dust by his brothers and friends. A humiliated AB then continues to bat and bat to seek redemption for dropping the catch. And yes it's the same youngster a decade later who is now taking some spectacular catches in the field in national colours who forces Jonty himself to say- ''He's my boy!''

It's a journey of a prodigious youngster who is floundering his way out of indiscipline and mediocrity and then all of a sudden wakes up one fine day and decides he wants to be the best in the world. How many people would say they want to be the best and then eventually go on to become the best?
Very few.
AB is one such rare player.
A once in a lifetime player.
A player so talented at various sports like rugby, tennis and cricket that even in his high school he is not sure which sport he is going to pursue.
Thank god, he chose cricket.

Speaking of god,  AB describes how he is a firm believer in god and that on couple of occasions he has even heard god speak to him, to his inner self and it continues to motivate him, to appreciate the little joys in life, to stay grounded and to acknowledge how privileged he has been to pursue a sport which he would play even without money for fun as a profession which now gets him to travel all across the globe.

AB also makes it clear that such a journey would not have been possible without the great friendships he has developed on the field. He writes at length how he cherishes his friendship with Faf Du Plessis who was his best friend and captain at school and about a fast and furious bowler who made his domestic and test debuts alongside him and had an almost similar journey to become the world's best, albeit with the ball, Dale Steyn.

From not being able to defend properly to playing one of the slowest innings in the history of test cricket to ensure a draw, he talks about the sheer exhilaration of batting with Faf Du Plessis on that eventful day at Adelaide when the high school friends who were once suspended for lack of discipline decided to grind it out in a battle of sheer attrition.

He writes about the team bonding and the willingness to take up any job for the team and setting example as a senior player now. He writes in detail the importance of having great seniors and mentors in the team and he particularly writes about the big three- Smith, Kallis and Boucher and how Kallis was the person who actually made him understand the importance of playing defensive cricket.

There was a time when his career appeared at crossroads. Then the fateful tour to India happened. Ahmedabad test happened. A transformed and more disciplined AB took centrestage as a brilliant double hundred helped South Africa defeat India at home and the juggernaut rolled on from there- a journey of dizzying personal highs and demoralising lows as a team while representing at world cups. He acknowledges how India and IPL in particular has played a pivotal role in the making of this beautiful journey. He writes how humbling it has been for him to receive so much love and adulation from Indian crowds even when he is playing against them and that the cheer: ''A..B.. D..'' from the stands will continue to reverberate in his memory forever.

There is also a dream that AB talks about which keeps waking him up every so often- that of him affecting a run out to win South Africa a world cup and how he desperately wants it to come true some day before he hangs his boots.

Don't expect AB to be like Kevin Pietersen. There are no startling revelations. No conspiracies. It's a honest account of an equally honest boy from Bela-Bela who has now made Bengaluru his second home.
Those who have watched AB only on highlights or only in last few years or only in IPL seem to have an opinion that AB was a born genius, a player cut from some different cloth. However, AB puts all such flattering notions to rest as he describes the process of how a player who averaged a mediocre 37 in tests in 2008 goes on to become the best batsman across all formats by staggeringly improving his stats. But, AB clearly mentions very early into the book that cricket is a game beyond just stats and that stats don't always do justice. AB writes about the emotional aspect of playing the game, of the grit to fight it out in 46 degrees heat of Chennai or the chilling cold of Wellington which adds so much flavour to cricket as a sport.

All in all, the autobiography brings out the human side of a batsman who has been described by cricket fans as a superhuman for his genius. Read the book and fall in love with this genius and if you love him already, read it and love him more. Get inspired because that is the underlying message- anyone can become the best in their field, all it takes is just a proper method and dedication.

Happy reading.

On FEAR and TRUST

ON FEAR AND TRUST..

At some level, we have all been broken- at some point in life.

Broken by swords.
Broken by words..
Broken by TRUST.

Not all wounds have a visible dressing, not all fractures have a plaster.

But, we are broken.

Broken by the demons in the outer world...
Broken by the demons our mind conjures up every night..

And in the process we have lost small fragments of us..
We have become the pieces of jigsaw puzzles on a chess board..
It's really complicated..
We want to find other pieces that we can fit with to make a complete picture but we are afraid since we are always treading on a chessboard, unsure and also sceptical of someone's next move, unsure whether to embrace or to checkmate.
We have lost the art of identifying people!
Oh but nobody possessed that art!
 Even history is a witness- a witness to friends turning their backs on each other, of strangers shaking hands for a cause, of benevolent sacrifices, of malicious conquests, of cold non-alliances..

We have maligned the meaning of that word-
TRUST..

Patients don't TRUST their doctors.
Citizens don't TRUST the government.
Neighbouring countries don't TRUST each other.

We live each day in each other's fear..
In the shadows of the nuclear bombs that we all secretly possess..
We know we can hurt someone.  But we also we know we can be hurt ourselves..
But we still play with the fire.
And the fear.
Because FEAR is a great thing..
A force stronger than TRUST itself..
A force so strong that can unite us or divide us..
So, we cling on to those who we think can protect us or can share with us- our FEARS!!
So, smaller fish will form a school, the cattle will form a herd, and men will form a crowd.. We are united by FEAR..

But our FEAR looms nonchalantly alone-
The Shark, the lion and another man with something beneath his shirt!
Often they will come alone and yet break us down. Because we are United by FEAR and not by TRUST..

We are together and yet we are FEARFUL..

The men came together and formed civilizations in the FEAR of wild animals, ghosts, demons and  natural calamities..
And then when there was no FEAR to be FEARED, we started to FEAR each other.. Because too much power, too much acquaintance only makes us more vulnerable.

Yet, we are pieces of jigsaw puzzles on a chess board- wanting and yet FEARING each other..

But, as my college professor Dr. Somashekhar Nimbalkar sir said when I WhatsApped him the draft of this blog- ''Be Abhih! Be fearless!''

After all, as it has been mentioned in one of our Sanskirt verses-
''Abhayam mitrad-abhayam-amitrad abhyam-jnatad abhayam paroksat*
*Abhayam naktam-abhayam diva nah sarva asa mama mitram bhavantu*''
Atharvaveda 19.15.6

Meaning:
 May we be fearless from my friends and from those who are not my friends. (Gyatat abhyam) may we be fearless from known persons and (yah puraha abhyam) and from those who are in front of me ( Naha naktam abhyam) may we be fearless from night (Diva abhyam) as well as in day (Mama sarvaha ashaha) all our desires and all the four directions (Mitram bhavantu) may become our friends.


- Devashish Palkar

Is FAITH the ultimate PLACEBO?

Is  FAITH the ultimate PLACEBO?

Medical fraternity is a much divided landscape when it comes to matters regarding faith. When confronted with scenarios which have thin line of demarcation between life and death, some medical practitioners stick unflinchingly to faith, to that governing supernatural force that drives the winds and rotates the earth while some rationalists turn into disbelievers and doubters and a few become outright atheists- trying to find the very essence behind the functioning of human life and its subsequent decadence leading  to death by the power of reasoning rather than leaving the burden of unanswerable questions on a figment of somebody’s imagination. 

In medicine the placebo effect plays a very important role. A placebo is a non medicated substance that has no therapeutic property but provides psychological benefit to a patient when prescribed as a medication. Studies have shown a remarkable improvement particularly in conditions involving pain management, gastric ulcers and irritable bowel syndromes when they were prescribed just placebos in the guise of a medication. The patient consumes it thinking it to be a drug, thereby tricking his brain to believe that it is a medicine and it works in helping relieve the patient’s symptoms without causing any measurable physiological effects on the body.

The American Cancer society in its article on placebo calls it the expectation effect. This means that the person taking the placebo may experience some effect as per his preconceived knowledge of what he or she expects to happen. If a person expects to feel better, that may happen. The placebo does not cause any of these effects directly. Instead, the person’s belief in or experience of the placebo helps change the symptoms, or changes the way the person perceives the symptoms.

Some people can have the placebo effect without even getting a drug or pill and may just feel better from visiting the doctor or doing something else they believe will help. This type of placebo effect seems most related to the degree of confidence and faith the patient has in the doctor or drug.

The placebo effect underlies the two most valuable lessons in the field of medicine- firstly that a human body has a natural ability to heal itself to a great extent which is highlighted even in the ancient Indian system of Ayurveda and secondly, how putting faith even in a non-pharmacological substance can go a long way in affecting the prognosis.

In theory it is often presumed that the patient always has the faith on the consultant and the medication he prescribes but in practices, a truly compliant patient is a rarity. Thanks to google, patients are becoming smarter and now have information at their fingertips but as they say, “Half knowledge can be dangerous”, to which some of my professors would spontaneously add, “...and at times, annoying!” Requests are often made from patient’s side for an X ray or a Sonography or any other investigative procedure which the consulting physician might find totally irrelevant but chances are high that the doctor might get himself labeled as ‘bad’ if he doesn’t pay heed to the patient’s demands. And thus many a times unnecessary investigations are conducted for patient’s satisfaction and to ensure that he doesn’t lose faith in the doctor.

In rural set ups as I have discovered during my rotation, it is a common practice to at least prescribe multi vitamin tablets when patient comes with a condition which has no anatomical or physiological relation with the body but rather is purely psychogenic in nature just to ensure patient that the doctor is not a fool and can prescribe medications! The whole idea is that patient’s faith should not be lost.

This is precisely how the profession works. Treating the patient is important but ensuring that his faith in the system is maintained, that he doesn’t become a doubter and atheist when it comes to following his journey from a hospital ward to home, is perhaps more important because it would usher into a more fruitful doctor-patient relationship which would ultimately lead to faster recovery from illness. So, google all you want but please have faith on the medical man and his drug! Perhaps, faith is the ultimate placebo!

THE SUMMERS GONE BY..

THE SUMMERS GONE BY-
The sweet aroma of the unripe mangoes and the pleasant sight of the crimson gulmohor are enough evidences to herald the beginning of summer! ! Add to it the cool evening breeze and the melodious notes of cuckoo that it brings along and you can't resist yourself from drifting back in time to those years when you were still a little uniform clad school going kid, anxiously waiting for your dad to bring home the  'Aam ki peti' (box full of mangoes)!!
The season is still the same.
The mangoes still delight me.
The cuckoo still mesmerises me.
The evening breeze still enchants me.
Even as a wave of nostalgia grips me.
Life has moved on a bit too quickly, hasn't it?
And we have forgotten to celebrate the moments and believing in the magic that we used to when we were 6 year old kids.!!
And then the layers grew up and we buried that kid with our new found sophistication,  ego,  whims, the pseudo-etiquettes and culture  that we met on our way to manhood!! Wait! That kid is still alive in the deepest recesses of our heart! !
Let's open up,  can we?!
Another summer will have ended quickly even before we realize and the first rains will come pouring down again to invite us to dance and make those little paper-boats (kagaz ki kashti! )!!
Do we have the courage to meet that 6 year old kid,  again! ?
Or was growing-up an April fool joke that life played on us? ?

#NIGHTMARES

*#NIGHTMARES*

A kid just woke up with a start, his heart is racing; pounding almost. He had his worst nightmare. In it he saw his class teacher tearing apart his notebook for bad handwriting. Tomorrow in his school he has to submit his assignment.

A teenager too woke up, sweat all over his face. He had his worst nightmare. In it he saw he had failed to get admission to his favourite course. Tomorrow is the day merit list comes out.

A girl woke up too, gasping for air. She had her worst nightmare. In it she saw herself being tortured by her in laws. Tomorrow is the day, she is going to get married to a stranger whom she has met only once.

A soldier woke up too, he had his worst nightmare. In it he saw himself being killed by an enemy from behind. Tomorrow is the day he gets his marching orders on a new covert mission.

A footballer woke up too. He had his worst nightmare. In it he missed a simple penalty shoot. Tomorrow is the finals of the tournament. 

A surgeon woke up too. He had his worst nightmare. In it the surgery he performed went horribly wrong and ended up with fatal complications. Tomorrow is the day he is going to perform his first independent surgery!

The kid, the boy, the girl, the soldier, the footballer, the surgeon, all check their clocks. It says 2:00 AM. 

Their 'tomorrow' has already begun. In that moment of horror, sleep has eluded them and the fear has taken over. The fear of failure and guilt of not living up to expectations- in all probability bigger than any other failure known to man.
Growing up doesn't help, nightmares will continue and get worse, the kid will soon realize, neither do they stop even if you are the most well trained or the most skilled person in your field as surgeon and footballer will eventually realize. 
As stars twinkle and moonlight does a lonely dance, some people are awake, fighting their nightmares, their inner demons! It's just a nightmare, their brains try to trick their pounding hearts.  ''Soon the morning will overpower the night. The sun will mask the moon. And so they must too get up, face the world and mask their fears. They need to appear confident or else someone will take advantage of their fears. The darkness needs to be conquered and not surrendered to.'' Their brains tell them. If they are to be successful 'today', their brains must overpower their hearts.
Now you might wonder what is the need to write this up?
Well, there is something beautiful about the human heart in conflict with itself!!

- *Devashish Palkar*

THE SUPERHUMAN ARJUNA

'THE SUPERHUMAN ARJUNA!''

It is 3016 AD. 
Arjuna stands there atop his chariot, the legends like Drona, his mentor and other senior statesmen stand in front of him.
Krishna, his charioteer and the god incarnate himself, is waiting with bated breath for Arjuna to flinch so that he can teach him the important philosophical lesson.
Arjuna looks at Krishna, guilt and fear building in his eyes and Krishna seizes the moment. 
He doesn't teach him the karma yoga and it's principles. He simply asks Arjuna to close his eyes and FORGET the past memories which are weighing him down and FORGIVE himself of the emotional burden of guilt that lies ahead! 
Obediently, Arjuna does as told.
And to his utter surprise, Arjuna draws out an arrow and unflinchingly aims at his opponents.
Mahabharata is over.
In one arrow, Arjuna has slayed both his opponents and humanity's biggest fear- to not be burdened by the emotional memories. He has now become the first SUPERHUMAN on the earth. 
Bhagwad Geeta was just about one thing- FORGET and FORGIVE.

Back to 2016 now.

I know what I just wrote above was a piece of fiction, a figment of my imagination.
But that's how i think Mahabharata would unfold if it were to be fought 1000 years from now.

In the latest episode of The Permanent Roommates titled, 'The Memories', Asrani who plays an old, ageing grandfather confesses that he always makes things difficult for those around him intentionally so that nobody remembers him fondly or cries for the memories when he is dead.

This forces me to wonder how we find it so difficult to forget things which no longer exist but keep playing on a loop in our brains and mostly these are things we should not keep reminding ourselves.
Are memories a blessing or a curse to homo sapiens? Of course, without memories we wouldn't have come this far in our evolutionary cycle and would have never established ourselves as the most supremely dangerous beast of the world.

But it has also had a deep impact on the way we look at life and the way we always keep  looking back and forth rather than the present, like the original Arjuna of the original Mahabharata.
The moments become memories and we become prisoners of this memory cage.
I am sure if superhumans are to arrive in the process of evolution, they will be robotic beings, with ability to erase the selected memories from their brains as per their own volition, like a computer does.
Of course, emotionally they will be far inferior to us, but spiritually, they will be far ahead of us, for they will know the true meaning of 'detachment' as Lord Krishna preached thousands of  years back in the original Mahabharata.
But, it might so happen that they will look back at us through our writings, movies, arts and wonder how amazing it would be to keep carrying some unwanted memories in the brain and yet live so meaningfully.
 Perhaps, they will not be able to express themselves as succinctly as we do; playing with the subtle emotions and flash back  of memories.
Will that existence be worth it or will it be too difficult to accept?
Given a chance, would we not want to be the emotionally detached super humans like the Arjuna of my story who can delete the emotional memories which bind us and weigh us down?
I think this must have been the same question which the apes must have ruminated(FORGIVE me for playing with theories of evolution!)- Would they want to give up their life style of playing and jumping around all day and risk going to schools and offices just for the development of what we call- the brain, to be the highest in the pecking order of evolutionary genetics?

Will the superhumans arrive and how different will they be from us, humans?
I think they will have minds like computer with an easy access to all the vital information and yet, the ability to delete negativity from weighing them down..
But hang on, can we be the superhumans today, in this same body?
The question is tough to answer, but we can give it a try.

''Focus on the present. This moment- now, has all the power!'' - Swami Vivekananda

- Devashish Palkar

''Like the unseasonal rains!''

''Like the unseasonal rains..''

In my parched existence,
You came like an unseasonal rainfall.
Riding on the pregnant dark clouds on that stormy day in May.
Poor peacock in my heart danced wildly thinking the rains had come early.
But you went, just as you came- Unheralded.
And left me drenched around the fresh scent of the very dust that I hated.
You came and I loved myself for the first time.
You left but I continued to love myself ever since..
With you was an affair that didn't last long but I will patiently wait for the seasonal rains in June..

- Devashish Palkar