Be Happy Singh!

We live in a world today which waits for Valentine’s Day to express our love for our beloved and Mother’s Day to extend our affection towards our mother. We are generally always on a lookout for ‘false’ reasons which denote happiness. We keep running after the worldly pleasures considering they are the sole means to the eternal happiness. But the truth remains that even in a 100-room villa, one needs just a single bedroom to sleep. The true happiness comes from enjoying each and every moment you live on this planet. One must do what he likes, or start liking whatever he is doing.

Here are my simple fundas to be Happy Singh:

Stop Thinking what Others Think of You

Thinking what others might think of any of our actions is simply getting into somebody else’s shoes. If we even think about what others think of us, then what job do we leave for others to do. As a hindi quote goes, “Duniya ka sabse bada rog, kya kahenge log!”, get free from this highly infectious disease about what people think about you.

One should do things not to please others but to please the inner self. It’s certainly fine to be stupid, childish at moments.

Smile

Laughing Budha brings Luck, Smiling Sardar spreads Smiles!

When feeling stressed out or when your mood is low, just SMILE, yes smile, because the brain often gets fooled and ends in making one HAPPY. Smile is a simple curve that gets many thing straight. You might not notice how the life is happy and cheerful, when you are smiling, simply because you spread an aroma of positivity and optimism to your surrounding environment, and that is what majority of the world needs these days being stressed out between striking a good balance between personal and professional lives.

Practice a Hobby

Don't Move, else I will Shoot You!

An empty mind is said to be devil’s workshop. A vacant mind houses all the evil actions. Its good to keep the mind occupied in something one can feel happy about. So, here’s how your hobby can be a tenant in your empty mind. Do something that makes one feel good. It may not always earn you more money, but will render a sense of fulfillment and achievement. For me, it’s either photography or writing my blog. Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog gives me one more. :)

Expect Less

Being a finance professional, I tend to convert the routines into mathematical expressions and here is the simplest formula to be happy in life. Happiness from any event is just the difference between the actual outcome of the event and our expectations before the outcome happened.

Happiness = Actual Outcome – Expectations

So, in order to increase our happiness quotient, either the outcome should be higher than usual or what we expect from the event should be the minimum. While generally the outcome is dependent on several other factors than just our actions, what we can do is keeping our expectations low. If we can minimize our expectations, even the minutest thing occurring in our life will make us happy. Further, by practicing to keep our expectations low, we tend to relieve pressure from others as well, which makes them happy and that will make you happier as well.

However, there are always some exceptions to the general rule. Once you have checked out Ivy Estate by Kolte Developers Private Limited in the video for which I am also sharing the link below, it is tough to keep the expectations low but the video also assures me of a great outcome, certainly one more reason to be happy. :)

#CelebrateLifeAtIvy by owning a dream home at Ivy estate, an 85 acre estate with 34 acres of greenery and open spaces. Join the 1600 happy families already living here. Check out this walkthrough video and decide for yourself.

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A Sneak Peak into Mythology - ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Book Review of ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Author : Shubha Vilas

Publisher – Jaico Publishing House

Genre – History/ Mythology

One sentence for the book

The author tries to narrate and portray the Ayodhaya scene and beyond revolving around Rama’s exile, and moves on to connect the centuries-old tales to the modern day relationships.

About the Author

Shubha Vilas, a spiritual seeker and a motivational speaker, holds a degree in engineering and law with specialization in Patent Law. His leadership seminars are popular with top-level management in corporate houses. He also helps individuals deal with modern-life situations by applying the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana and other dharmic traditions.

Author’s Writing Style

I have not read Shubha Vilas earlier, but this book’s narratives were not what I will really forward for in my next book.

The Title and Book Cover

The book cover is eye catching and shows Rama sleeping with a troubled yet so soothing expression. The chariot with Dashratha is shown in the background, but with a donkey in place of horse driving the chariot. Based on the historical facts, one can indeed guess what it can expect out of the story.

The title indeed is interesting and already being aware of the Ramayana story, it surely helped me connect with the book even before I read it.

About the Book

This one is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series - Ramayana - The Game of Life. Even though I have not read Part 1, yet I was able to catch on with the sequel and there were hardly any missing gaps. The story captured in this part is the time after Rama’s marriage with Sita, Dashratha’s tough decision to send Rama on exile and the time thereafter. However, a particular thing which I really liked about the book was the way Keikeyi and Bharatha have been portrayed. Keikeyi is often considered to be the bad queen but Rama has been portrayed to be the loved one for her as well apart from for the whole kingdom.

The way practicalities of life have been threaded along with the story of Ramayana is what stands out to be the best part of the book. There is lot to learn in the book, provided you are ready to willing to.

Thumbs Up

While the history is very much known to us, what I really liked about the book was the words of wisdom in the footnotes. It really changes the way you approach the book being read. The reader not just ‘reads’, but learns through the book.

Thumbs Down

Book has portrayed the mythological characters at some place in a drastically different manner in how we perceive the main characters of Rama and Laxman. Rama is portrayed to be content and enjoying the exile while Laxman gets portrayed as someone with no regard from Rama and Sita. One who does not know Ramayana history out of this book will have a completely different perception of the Ramayana.

Rating

3.5/5

History, being a subject of the past, does not leave much scope for creativity for the author, still linking it up with modern day lives was what kept me hooked up but at times, it got me into the ‘bored’ mode.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

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An Experiment can Change your Life!

Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog post gives me one more. :)

Sometimes in life, we feel like experimenting with ourselves. I too got this thought once around 10 years back. And that’s when I ventured to fill an application for a National Level science show 'Hum Honge Kamyaab'. Though this might not sound an experiment at first instance, it definitely was, for me who was pursuing Commerce stream. I got called up by my principal who asked me to attempt to clear the prelims for the national level science competition. It had already been a year for me in Commerce and I was surprised why I was being asked to go for the competition when the bright lot in Science stream was also available. However, notwithstanding my initial reluctance, I along with one of my friends in Medical stream, filled up the form. However, once the form was sent, we both really forgot about it.

However, after exactly a month of sending, in the first of March, 2005, I received a call from the organisers that me and my friends’ name had been shortlisted among 200 students across the country and we were now to appear in a written test which will enable the organisers to select the 36 students who will finally compete in the national completion. We both accompanied by his grandfather went to New Delhi to appear for the test. It was an exciting journey for me, as the sense of thrill was biting me. What if I get selected? How will I even make my participation felt, considering I was from non-science stream. Still, there was something within which kept me pushing.

A week after the test, it was a moment of happiness when I received a call from New Delhi informing me that I was one among 36 students selected across the country. But yes, I was told to bring a team mate with me to participate in the competition which will happen in a week long camp in New Delhi. I approached my friend from Medical stream which expressed his inability to come with me, since he would have to sacrifice his classes for that duration. I was in a fix now since I had to go with a team mate and I was required to intimate the organisers at the earliest. And then one of my seniors came across my mind. I conveyed him the idea and yippee, he agreed to accompany me. The best thing about this was that he also had his Commerce stream and we were now a team of Commerce students in a national level Science competition.

It was a week long camp and our team was there in New Delhi with my elder brother as our team’s guardian. As we reached the camp, we also got to know that the competition will be shot with one celebrity anchor and would later be telecast on DD National Channel. So, we were going to get on the ‘idiot box’. We were handed out the scheme of events and honestly speaking, those eight days were amongst the best days I had. We were given the task of creating a keyless door and when the judgement was going on for our model, one of the judges also made a remark that we were close enough to the victory. However, after knowing that our team was a purely Commerce team, he was surprised that how could we manage to come so far. And yes, that simple expression has made me believe that anything is possible with sheer determination and belief in self.

Gaurav Gera, our anchor for the Show

The day of our Shoot

This one experiment surely did change my attitude towards life, and I started believing more in myself. The interaction that happened in the camp with other students, the organizing team and the team behind the production of the show was really something that has brought a drastic change in me. My school friends who left the school in 10^th also tell me the same that the ‘Simardeep’ we know was a quiet studious guy and the one who we see now is a different one altogether.

The day I am writing this post marks exactly 10 years of the day I got back from the camp. But with pride I say, I am still in touch with most of the friends I made there.

This experiment filled me with optimism and taught me to always look up. Housing.com’s latest ad campaign reminds me of the all those glorious days since it always wants me to look up and look optimistic.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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A Day when we Re-United!!

We realize the importance of the school life, generally only after we have passed out of that phase. It is the time when we generally do lots of stupid stuff and still have no regrets about it.

It has now been 8 years since we left that phase and entered the college life. We school friends were not that much in touch for almost 4-5 years and then thanks to Facebook and Facebook, we were back in touch. Finally, we thought to plan a day to School at a time when 20+ friends were back in Amritsar, while generally they were dispersed in different cities. So, after lots of WhatApp group chat, we got our plans right and finalized a day. We were so very excited about meeting the old friends and also meeting our guides/ teachers. And the day arrived but the weather God was not with us that day. It was raining like there was no tomorrow. Still, we decided to go ahead with our plan since the next time we would be together, it would be another year. One of my friends picked me up from home and it was lots of chit-chaat still being in car and enjoying the weather outside.

When we reached School, the friends gang was already waiting for us at the gates to enter together. As we were entering the lane, a nostalgic feeling started getting over me. We were all just talking about how much we wanted to get out of these lanes each day in school and now we were so excited to enter those lanes. The rain had got transformed into a drizzle now.

As we entered into the School, since it was still some time for the final bell of the school to ring, we thought it better to first meet our teachers and then hang out in the empty classrooms and remember those lovely days. It was a great experience when few teachers still recognized us, few could recognize with little hints and the rest of which who could not recognize were the ones who joined the school later than we left. We also noticed that the school had recognized our contributions and there were life-size photos of each batch since we had left. It felt great seeing that picture. We felt quite proud within ourselves when a couple of our teachers introduced us to the ongoing class as the ‘honhaar bache’ who are now settled into their lives.

But the real time for us began when we lived that life again after the school time had got over, as the classrooms were all for us now. We sat on the wooden benches, chatted about how our lives have changed, used the blackboards to write our heart out and lot many other things. And yes, not to forget the times we used to really desire all the days during school, the sports period, we relived that as well. We played basketball, volleyball amidst the drizzle and it was great fun. The day brought back so many loving memories for me and I really wish we do have another re-union at School. Leaving you with a couple of pictures of the day for you.

Sitting on Wooden Benches was Fun!

A Groupie with Teachers

Sprawling Sports Ground in a Lovely Rainy Weather

Yaar Anmulle - Re-United Friends

That day definitely made me more closer to the glorious days of my life, my school life. But not forgetting about the past time, we should always look up to our high ambitions and make our guides and teachers more proud of us.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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Eliminating Classroom Hunger

Blogger in me loves doing different things, loves experimenting with different topics and what better do you want than knowing that a blog post will make a difference to someone. That’s exactly what it would.

From little Satish who throws the newspaper to my balcony to the tiny chhotu who serves me hot tea in office, we all come across a number of little kids who cannot go to school, just because they need to work to earn a bread for themselves and their families. That is what you call ‘classroom hunger’, a typical scenario we often notice in our daily lives but still choose to ignore, probably since it is not within our own lives. With God’s grace, we have been lucky enough to have an availability of basic facilities in our lives.

While I write these lines, I would like to share with you an incident which made me ponder over the topic I am discussing with you. A couple of years back, I was in Mumbai with 2 of my friends. We were enjoying the serene atmosphere and having fun at the Marine Drive. It would be around 9.45-10 when three kids came to us and started selling some children books. While the books seemed of no interest, we still got involved in asking rates of various books just to pass time. But at one moment, while one of the kids was telling us the rate of Nursery rhyme book, the other chhotu started singing those nursery rhyme. This indeed touched us, since they were selling those books to collect some money to get into a mid-day school itself so that they could learn. They told that they learned whatever their customers taught them through their own books and they were very eager to learn more. But they could not since they have a family to support and they are the ones who are feeding them. Their dedication to education was what inspired us to purchase few books from them, just because we wanted to help them but they refused to have anything in charity. Another thing that touched us was that while they seemed so helpless to us since they could not even learn, they had learned the art of being happy. I also clicked a pic of them to inspire me to be happy unconditionally.

Lets Learn to be Unconditionally Happy!

However. this incident also brings me face-to-face with a reality that many kids suffer from ‘classroom hunger’ and there is a great need to eliminate this classroom hunger. Children in poor families are often made to work to act as a helping hand to the main bread-earning member of the family. Lesser do they realize that educating the children will sow more sweet fruits in the future.  These days, a new serial is also featuring on Colors TV titled ‘Udaan’ which also highlights the need of education to the poverty-ridden families and shows the transformation in the life of a village girl and her family after she is exposed to formal education system. So, the need of the hour is spreading awareness about the importance of education and discouraging the child labour practices in the country.

So, lets eliminate classroom hunger and instead let’s join hands to see in them ‘hunger to learn’. Proud to be associated with Bloggers’ Social Responsibility Initiative.

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

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Lucky 6 – Its not all about Being Lucky

www.fatcatgaming.com has come up with an innovative gaming app called Lucky 6. The app has not yet been launched commercially or over Google Play Store. However, I got an exclusive chance to preview the app before it goes live and well, I was pretty much impressed with the concept of the game.

As the name goes, Lucky 6, its about choosing 6 brands for a day. Was it too short? Let's go a bit in detail. The game is basically a simplified version of a virtual stock market game. All a player has to do is choose six brands from a big list of brands. The brands are listed not only from Indian markets but several other markets as well. Hence, one can also invest in US and other international brands. Further, the difference between a virtual stock market game and Lucky 6 is that in this game, the player does not have to perform complicated calculations to construct a portfolio of stocks. The value of stocks/ brands does not matter in this game and only thing that matters is the performance of the brand on that day in real stock markets.

If the bands/ stocks chosen for the day perform the best, the player wins. Prizes also range from cash to luxury holidays which are surely catchy enough to put our mind and brain into choosing our 6 brands. The name 'Lucky 6' might indicate to you that it is just about choosing a random 6 brands and then waiting if they emerge as the winning bets. But the game is surely more about that, you need to calculate and anticipate which stocks will be the best performing on that particular day and then you select the brands.

The app has also impressed me with the ease and convenience of using the app and moving from one option to the other. The registration process is a simple one page form. Once the user is activated through the link, the user can simply move on to select his 6 brands for the next day's game. A timer in the app shows the countdown to the start of the next round. And if you are facing a dilemma of choices between different brands, the app has a solution for that as well. A user can select three different sets of brands as his three entries for the day.

Further, unlike other referral scheme, where the referrer gets a one-time referral bonus, this game has a unique referral reward scheme wherein if my referred player strikes the jackpot, the referrer also gets 25% of it.

As I am writing this blog post, I am already playing my first round of the game. Fingers Crossed for the results. 

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An Accident by the Road – Help or Ignore

This Children’s Day, our friends’ gang was just discussing the childhood memories and we had a great time creating some wonderful moments. One of the friends shared his great memories about the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’ and ‘Jack & Jill’. Before you really scream over your wish to listen it once again, here are the videos:

He interestingly shared some common features of these nursery rhymes:

1.    Both the nursery rhymes have two central characters.

2.    The creators of these nursery rhymes have been very cruel with these lovable characters. In both these nursery rhymes, the characters fell from the height.

And last and the most important,

3.    These characters were not offered any first-aid after they fell.

While we had a great laugh when he made the third point, it also made me ponder over this bad state of affairs on Indian roads. Providing first-aid to an injured on the road is a basic courtesy, which can be pull a person from close-to-dead to being alive.  First-aid is the medical assistance to a person suffering sudden injury to prevent the condition from worsening.

The Indian janta often seems to ignore to provide this basic courtesy. However, since this is not exactly what Indian values advocate, one is forced to think why Indians behave so. This might be possibly due to the reason that people are willing to help the injured strangers on the road but they are afraid of the medical and legal issues which occur in India when one helps an accident victim. Hospitals are not cooperative, they insist for blood relatives. Police isn’t cooperative either, since they have a long list of queries before leaving you with a promise to cooperate with police as and when the need be. Hence, despite having an intention to help, these external factors too contribute in lesser instances of medical assistance to the injured.

In this regard, I feel it important to let all know that Supreme Court has ruled in a couple of its judgements that an injured brought for medical treatment should be given medical aid to preserve life first and only then procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate. However, this helps only once the injured is brought to the hospital for medical aid. There is still no law in India which fixes a responsibility on its citizens to help the injured on roads. Accordingly, the need of the hour is creating a law that offers protection to those who help the injured strangers in road accidents. A strong law will surely go a long way in creating first-aid friendly and helpful society.

And before I end this issue, I will also like to share about an organization, which works for this cause. A few days before this discussion, I came across SaveLife Foundation, an NGO which was formed for improving road safety and emergency medical care in India. As I researched for the roots of the organization, Wikipedia gave me some interesting information. SLF was founded on 29 February 2008 following the death of Shivam Bajpai, Piyush Tewari’s 17 year old cousin, in a road accident in 2007. Piyush soon discovered that Shivam’s death was due to delayed care and that he may have been saved had he not have had to wait for 45 minutes for someone to rush him to hospital. Following thorough research that lasted several months, Piyush Tewari understood the gravity of this problem on a national scale and how prevalent were accident fatalities due to missing emergency care. He then invited his friend and mentor Krishen Mehta to join him in setting up the organization with a mission to enable Bystander Care – the immediate life-saving care that trained Police and community persons can provide road victims. Know more about the organization at http://www.savelifefoundation.org.

And next time you see an injured on the road, don’t hesitate to help him. You might be the difference and help save a Life.

This post is a part of Kids Hut activity at BlogAdda.com.

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Honda is Simply Amaze-ing

Starting its journey on 15th September 2014, Honda's 'Longest Drive through Amazing India' in Honda Amaze, entered the Guinness World Records, registering the longest journey by a car in a single country. The campaign was initiated to celebrate the success of Honda Amaze in the country which reached 1,00,000 units sales milestone which was the fastest in the history of Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL). The car covered a total of 23,823 kms through mountainous terrains, coastlines, flag highways, congested city roads and the interior of India in the 55-day journey crossing over 400 towns. The drive transversed through mountainous terrains, coastlines, flat highways, congested city roads and the interiors of India showcasing the durability and reliability of Honda Amaze through ‘Amazing India’.  

I got an invite for the Guinness World Record Presentation ceremony which was to be held at The Grand in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi on 9^th November, 2014. Being a Sunday, it was easy for me to decide if I will attend the event or not. However, besides the event being a presentation ceremony, I had no clue on what surprises it had for me.

I had reached the hotel well within the time and I was quite happy to see some known faces there. As we spent a bit of time there, we were told that the renowned author, Chetan Bhagat, was also turning up for the event. This got us more surprised and excited. While we were waiting for the event to start, we also collected more information about the Guinness World Record for which we were there.

The World Record Holders with the Certificate

Bunny Punia and Shantonil Nag, in association with Honda Cars India Ltd., had got a Guinness World Record into their names for covering the longest journey by car in a single country. The team working behind the scenes was as below:

·       Rajender Singh Negi - for capturing exciting visuals.

·       Deepak Dhojia - for editing and making live videos.

·       Kanika Sood - for being the multitasker in the exciting journey.

·       The Gaadi Web Pvt Ltd team (including Abhishek Chaliha, Shivank Bhatt, Jeo George, Siddharth Motu, and Kanupriya Bhatnagar) - for handling all the other tasks.

  (Info on behind the scenes team courtesy: Rahul Prabhakar)

We got an intimation from the Honda team that the event was about to start. We moved towards the hall to occupy our seats and just then, we noticed Chetan Bhagat entering the scene. We, the Blogger Gang, quickly stole an opportunity to have a Selfie with Chetan.

Selfie with Chetan and Blogger Gang

Video : Bunny's Jourrney through Visuals, Image : Bunny Narrating His Record-Breaking Amazing Journey 

When Bunny’s video narrating his experience over the entire journey came up on the screen, I was clearly jealous of him of having experienced India so close. Being a lover of India’s scenic beauty, Bunny’s slideshow got me utter a ‘Wow!’ each time the slideshow changed its image. Just have a look at India and its incredibly amaze-ing beauty!

Images of Incredibly Amazing India

After the award presentation ceremony, we, the Bloggers Gang, also had an exclusive privilege to interact with Chetan Bhagat for his association with Honda Amaze.

You don't get such an Opportunity so often!

It was surely an amazing interaction, and Chetan was quick on every question we put before him, be it related to his experiences with Honda and what he felt of the Honda Amaze-ing Drive. Chetan also shared his upcoming campaign with Honda Amaze with us.

The #AmazeLongestDrive will be followed by a series of ‘webisodes’ on 'Drive through Amazing India' to be hosted by Chetan Bhagat, who, after his search of #HalfGirlfriend will now be discovering the #AmazingIndia. In the upcoming compaign, Chetan Bhagat will travel to unexplored locations in India. No wonder, it is an interesting campaign designed by Honda, which will also surely add to the India’s Tourism Quotient and encourage road trips. What an Idea, Honda Ji! The webisodes will also be interactive with its audience in the sense that people will be asked to post stories or photos about unexplored places of Amazing India and the short-listed candidates will further get a chance to travel and explore remarkable places of India.

Chetan's First Destination, Rosary Church

Chetan then shared with us, his first destination on this interesting campaign. His first destination is going to be ‘Rosary Church’, located some 200 kms from Bangalore. The church is submerged in waters during monsoons and as the waters recede, the Church shows its holy appearance. Still an unexplored arena, the place surely seems interesting due to its exciting location and no wonder, Chetan was also excited to be able to experience the place up, close and personal. When he was showing us his first destination, we asked him on a lighter note whether he will like to stay there for the night as well. As expected, the answer was a straightaway ‘No’ given the solitary location of the place. With that note, the interaction ended and we were up from a group picture with the author.

Well, with this interaction and lovely lunch thereafter, the event was officially over, but the memories of witnessing a Guinness World Record Presentation Ceremony live and interacting with Chetan Bhagat will remain with us forever. 

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A Day of the Cricket, by the Cricketers and for the Cricket

- A day when the great Cricketing Legends and World Cup Winners, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Arjuna Ranatunga, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting were under a single roof to share their experiences

- A day when Yuvraj Singh opens his heart out with his fellow team mates on his fight with the deadly cancer

- A day when India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry displays a friendly face off the field

- A day when the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Aamer Sohail, Mohd Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja share their journeys to glory

And there it is, a day to salute the game and the legends, Salaaam Cricket!

Yes, I experienced it all up, close and personal and the day was 18^th October, 2014. The event was a cricket conclave organized by India Today in New Delhi. It was really a great experience hearing them outside the commentary box and seeing them live off the field.

India Today conceived the idea of this Cricket Conclave interestingly 100 days before the World Cup 2015 and surely to set a stage for the ever-enthusiastic Indian fans to cheer for their Men in Blue. Obviously, a biased Indian fan will think it’s only about Team India but a Cricketer within the fan might well believe that Australia will the favorites and South Africa too have a good chance as well and a feel amongst the legends as well was that New Zealand might turn up as a dark horse in the World Cup, given the fact that the tournament is going to be played at their home soil.

A day before the event, West Indies team had abruptly called off their tour in India after some payment issues and the media was all negative about the West Indians. Clive Lloyd made a Gentleman’s gesture by rendering apology towards this abrupt call from his team during the event. He surely earned a fan in me due to this little gesture.

Session with Yuvraj Singh

The event was divided into several small sessions featuring different legends. One of the sessions with Yuvraj Singh was quite inspirational because not only did he talk about his fight with cancer but more so since he knew of it while he was playing in WC2011. Still, he put his country before himself and continued playing in the World Cup while he was fighting something he had read about in his reports. This truly emerged as a true Salaam Cricket moment.

There was a session on ‘Pressures of the World Cup’ where we managed to see the coolest lot of captains we can ever get together, Ganguly, Ranatunga, Lloyd and Border and then there was a session on ‘Thunders Down Under’ wherein the Australian Trio, Border, Waugh and Ponting, shared their personal views on how the Australians just dominated the cricketing world for over a decade and three consecutive world cup wins. I still remember getting heartbroken when Ponting just thrashed India in WC 2003 final.

Indo-Pak rivalry surely deserved its own exclusive session and the players shared their anecdotes on how they felt more pressures before Indo-Pak match. They shared that a night before the match, everyone they talked to behaved like a cricket expert and would only say, ‘Jo marzi karna, par kal jeet kar hi aana hai.’ All the cricketers sharing the stage agreed that those games were high-pressure games, no matter what the present situation was and they just could not afford to lose. On being asked that who was better poised for the WC, India or Pakistan, Aamer Sohail, on a lighter note, marked the question as not applicable, just because Pakistan’s playing eleven were yet to be frozen and this marked the end of the session.

Perfect Testimony to Indo-Pak Friendship Off the Field

However, I believe Indo-Pak rivalry was just on-the-field and they shared some great bonds off-the-field. I managed to witness this on stage as well.

Vikram Sathaye posing as Saurav Ganguly

In between the sessions, we had a Silly Point refresher, wherein standup Comedian Vikram Sathaye who managed to tickle our funny bones and imitated the players on stage, and Haq has always been famous among the mimics.

However, the Session of the Day was the last one, wherein the Seven Captains were supposed to share the same stage. Imran Khan could not turn up, and we had six World Cup winning captains on stage. Surely, it was a photographic moment but what made it more exciting, interesting and lively was the way they entered the arena. All the captains were made to dance on the beats of dhol while the audience enjoyed the winning moments on the screen. It was an experience of a lifetime watching these legends to the desi dhol beats.

Clive Lloyd Dancing to the Desi Dhol Beats

Getting to meet all these cricketing legends, the heart still craved for more. Sachin's presence in this mega cricketing event was surely missed.  Nonethless, it was a great time for me at the event, not forgetting that I managed to click selfies with few legends.

I cheer for the Men in Blue for the WC2015. What about you?

Lets Cheer for the Defending Champions, Team India

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