My young days..at Kaikamba

Tulasi Bar.. The Bar and restaurant near Nitte was the first place where  I took a sip of wisky in my life. The year was 2001 and I  have just finished 5^th Semester exam, first in mechanical specialization. I used to drink beer at times before, but this party ended up drinking both and thereafter omitting fully on the road on my way to paid room by walk. There were a group of 10 including seniors helped to in this accomplishment..

I started with an odd incident, but sweet memories of my young life are still lingering now.

Playing sport was my hobby. Unlike my brother James who is very much focused on sports activities, I was playing for fun after learning the game. The dedication and focus to improve my game was not in my agenda.  The first game learnt was obviously Cricket being in a cricket loving country.

The two months holidays during high school tenure made my cricket fundamentals strong and I was a kind of valuable player in my team. I became famous in the Village cricket for my typical leg spin bowling. It was very hard for me to get control on the leg spin. I was following Shane Warne style of bowling. But when I was given to bowl, I never used to try leg spin in matches in the fear of uncontrolled release of the ball  from my hand  which end up in wides. This fear came to an end when I chose to bowl when opponent team was about to win. If I remember well, they were in need of less than 10 runs from 3 overs. On that day, I turned the game for my team, taking a fantastic hatrick and changing the game. The batsmen never faced a quality spin till then were in no clue when they were getting out.. Since then, I used to bowl leg spin quite consistently and successfully. But I could not keep the same consistency when I left to Dubai in 2003. As far as the batting was concerned, I was aggressive but inconsistent.

We had different locations of playing cricket throughout the year at Kaikamba and every location was meant to suit each season. The “ Abutam Stadium Salmara” was the first place where  our group of youth started playing in 1995-1996. This ground itself was split into two playing modes.  Fullground and halfground. The decision to play full ground or the half ground was done based on the number of people. Usually Manu used to take the lead in decision making. This ground was used between March to May till the monsoon arrives. We used to play at Church ground. There are total four different places we played cricket at church premises.

During Monsoons, the number of  guys will be less, specially during the week days. So, The cricket was played in front of the Church bell structure with a funny rules determined by Manu.Myself,James, Manu,Naveen, James Pinto, Ozzy, Goddy,Santhu, Roshan were among regular  players.

The second location was in front of the church itself. We used to play at this place usually on Sundays when number of people is more. Cemetary in front of the ground was termed boundary for Six.But the ball hits the roof  of the school at the right side, will be termed as out. If the ball lands in to garden in front of school, it was a 2- declared. Another six  point was PYC Rangmanch at the far right end. If the ball reaches Convent, it is termed out. And if the ball  falls onto the solar panel on the Convent, then it was out +permanent ban on playing.!!

PYC stage was another place to play when there were 5-6 people. Can you imagine a cricket match on a dais of 16 X 16 ft. It was lot of fun because of the peculiar rules again created by Manu. If  the ball does not get connected 3   times, then it is out. It will be termed out also when the ball hits on a particular painting on the wall. If the ball slides down the ground 3 times when you are playing, it is out. Some time, even one bounce catch will be given out…The rules were plenty and  they were funny as well. We had once requested Manu to note down all the rules for the younger boys to play in the future.

The same group of people had the chance enter to swimming pool at Kajila  at Richy mam house. In a particular monsoon season, we went to learn swimming and all learned the art of swimming in a matter of 2-4 days. Once we learnt, it was fun to  have competition and also  to have a shower at the  Kajila falls. Whenever there was an opportunity, even there were 2-3 people, we  used to go and swim.Naveen’s Hero Pook  two wheeler has served us for this short travel.

During Monsoons, we also kept a habit of playing cards inside the club’s room. The famous game “ Donkey” was getting played with full of fun. Most of the time, we used to fix the looser and arrange the play accordingly. Thevart of match fixing  was learnt!.

As I grew up,  my interest and involvement in  youth activities increased. I became a founder president of young Christian students of our  parish in 1997. I did not do much as a president due to the  new church building construction during my tenure. The activities were limited and the focus was for completion of new church building. Later Pompei Youngsters Club provided me the platform in terms of public speaking, writing, even organizing, Master of ceremony and in leadership.

Point of view on religion/prayer

God has created us. He has given us the knowledge and wisdom to decide good and the bad. We grow,influenced by our parents and surroundings. We follow the rituals and prayers as directed to us. But when we get into independent thinking, some questions do arise and answering them becomes difficult.

All the religions are good and have the common purpose within it. None can claim  the superiority over another. Because, none of the religion cannot prove 100% that a) what exactly is  life/soul becomes after death.b) the real form of god.  The religious books give us the  guidelines. At the end, all the scriptures come to one point- We have to live a truthful life.Love each other and help each other.Think good for another. When we follow this, I believe that the gods expectation on the human being will be fulfilled.

God does not ask us to pray in a particular fashion. God does not say if you do not go to Church on a Sunday, it is a sin.God does not ask you to follow certain sets of rituals as per our religion. We need not attend big prayer ceremonies to get more blessings. We need  not give 1/10th to the gods/gods worshiping places.

 What god needs is the our good heart to help each other and live a truthful, honest life.

It is our ancestors created these guidelines to pray and follow certain sets of rituals.This  reflected the  lifestyle. Religion emerged from this. Temples, churches and Mosques came in.  Mankind started praying to god and tried to live a good life as per the directions…

Time changed.Over a period of time, the people started forgetting the true purpose of their religious existence. The popularity in following “ my god” initiated. Human being was ready to die for the sake of religion. Which means, instead of providing broad visioned mind to live with god as per his expectations, mankind s mind became narrow and narrow in justifying his religion. Offlate, some of the business minded organizations/people are trying to take the advantage of peoples mind and making money out of it. It is slowly becoming a business opportunity. People are forgetting the fact that, the god is the same and he wishes us to be good always. God will listen our prayers and shower his blessings if you sit on the compound wall and also pray. God does not have any hard and fast rules to pray to him. It is not actually praying.It is requesting god to enlighten us to take right decision in our life. Afterall,god expects us to do the same as he has already given the wisdom to decide our life.   I always pray to god asking for good health and pray to take good decision in my life. And it is I who take the decision.

Off late, I understood that there are 38,000 forms of Christian groups existing in this world. One bible and 38,000 different views on the same book.. Is not this telling us the severity at which peoples mind got restricted.

I feel, the religious border need to be removed slowly. I know this is a difficult process.. But if this happens at least 10 generations down the line, I will be a happy person as this will give only one great thing to the world-  PEACE.

Survey-Alcohol

Average age of an Indian consuming alcohol first time in her/his life is 18.
Average age of an Indian consumed alcohol first time in her/his life during 1990's is 28 
Business India-Index

Corruption and black money

Off late we have found various movements against corruption and brining out the black money in. But the Indian government has been stubborn on this matter. The revelation of the various scams like 2G, CWG, Coal crimes, Adarsh,Crime at the defense ministry says that the corruption is penetrated across various functions and areas and there are no boundaries hence.

What is the solution for this. How we can come out as corrupt free country.

I would say that day will never come. Because we are human being and the corruption is not only a problem of India. It is a problem across all over the world. Media here in India is projecting this in a big way and hence we feel too cheap about our government.

The people who have reached the top positions at various sectors have worked hard and also used the money for getting such positions. The politicians think that It is their time to get their benefits and end up in making the most of it. We sit here and talk about their cheap mind , but given an opportunity, we would have involved in the corruption too.  When BJP is talking about the corruption happened since independence and it blame on congress as it served for most if these independent years, it can be understood now that given an opportunity, the BJP would have also done the same thing. Little more or could be less.

Coming back a common man, we are also involved in corruption OR black money in some way. Look at the below examples.

·         We give money as tips to the waiters- may be 10 Rs, 100Rs or even 500 Rs. This money is not taxable and hence  it will become a black money to the waiter and will get unnoticed. In big hotels, if the salary of a waiter is 15,000 Rs and if he earns 10,000 Rs per month on an average taking tips, then he will pay tax ( if applicable) to 15,000Rs only and not for money earned as tips. Hence the money converted itself to black and he will use for this expenses and keeps the salary intact.

·         We wanted to get our work done. Specially at the government offices. We know the speed at which the government offices works. We give some money as bribe. Black money again plus the corruption. Corruption and blackmoney here can be interrelated.

·         You get caught without having proper documents  by the police or you have drunk while driving. According to the rule, you will have to pay fine. But you pay less than the penalized money to Police man and get way with a problem and feel satisfied with your accomplishment. Both police and you as a responsible citizens of India are doing this crime for  your benefits.

·         Commissions at various levels. This is another big time balckmoney.We act as a agent and get the commission for our service.Mainly as real estate agents. No bills. Only cash deposited.100% taxfree money.

·         Have you seen any small time shoppers give you the bills. No.If you ask the bill, then the tax extra. This means you have to pay more money which  no body wanted to pay. He creates fake bills and pays the minimal taxes.

I feel we need to correct our fundamentals before trying to clear the corrupted society. Corruption should have a topic in social science at the school levels to understand  it impart our children to be positive right from the childhood. If you do so, we can hope that the corruption will reduce and the like minded young leaders will initiate action at the society , state and national level to get rid of corruption. We can only work towards it….