Anyone care to make the necessary changes and give it to the Coach of the Indian Cricket Team? (The ‘official’ BCCI XI, of course!)

Wait, do we even have a coach?

Well, anyway, here goes:

सत्तर मिनट.
सत्तर मिनट हैं तुम्हारे पास.
शायद तुम्हारी ज़िन्दगी के सबसे ख़ास सत्तर मिनट.
आज तुम अच्छा खेलो या बुरा,
यह सत्तर मिनट तुम्हे ज़िन्दगी भर याद रहेंगे.
तो कैसे खेलना है, आज मैं तुम्हे नही बताऊंगा .
बस इतना कहूँगा की जाओ,
और यह सत्तर मिनट जी भर कर खेलो
क्योंकी इसके बाद आनेवाली ज़िन्दगी में
चाहे कुच्छ सही हो, या न हो,
चाहे कुच्छ रहे, या ना रहे,
तुम हारो या जीतो,
लेकिन यह सत्तर मिनट तुमसे कोई नही चीन सकता, कोई नहीं.
तो, मैंने सोचा की इस मैच में कैसा खेलना है,
मैं तुम्हे नहीं बताऊंगा, बल्कि तुम मुझे बताओगे. खेल कर.
क्योंकी मैं जानता हूँ की अगर यह सत्तर मिनट इस टीम का हर player
अपनी ज़िन्दगी की सबसे बढ़िया hockey खेल gaya
तो यह सत्तर मिनट खुदा भी तुमसे वापस नही मांग सकता.
तोह जाओ. जाओ और अपने आप से, इस ज़िन्दगी से, अपने खुदा से,
और हर उस इंसान से, जिसने तुम्हे – तुम पर – भरोसा नही किया,
अपने सत्तर मिनट छीन लो.

{Thanks a ton to Google Indic Transliteration. They always manage to surprise me… :)}

Just in case you couldn’t read that, here’s the entire thing in Roman characters.
Sattar minute.
Sattar minute hain tumhare paas.
Shayad tumhari zindagi ke sabse khaas sattar minute.
Aaj tum accha khelo ya bura,
Yeh sattar minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahenge.
Toh kaise khelna hai, aaj main tumhe nahi bataunga.
Bas itna kahunga ki jaao,
Aur yeh sattar minute jee bhar kar khelo
Kyunki iske baad aane wali zindagi mein
Chahe kucch sahi ho, ya na ho,
Chahe kucch rahe, ya na rahe,
Tum haaro ya jeeto,
Lekin yeh sattar minute tumse koi nahi cheen sakta, Koi Nahin
To, maine socha ki iss match mein kaisa khelna hai,
Main tumhe nahin bataunga, balki tum mujhe bataoge. Khel kar.
Kyunki main jaanta hun ki agar yeh sattar minute iss team ka har player
Apni zindagi ki sabse badhiya hockey khel gaya
To yeh sattar minute khuda bhi tumse wapas nahi maang sakta.
Toh Jaao . Jaao aur aur apne aap se, iss zindagi se, apne khuda se, aur har uss insaan se, Jisne tumhe – tumpar – bharosa nahi kiya, apne sattar minute chheen lo.

Translation:
Or something like that….

Seventy Minutes.
You have Seventy Minutes.
Maybe the most special seventy minutes of your life.
Today, [it won’t matter] if you play good or bad,
These seventy minuteswill stay with you for the rest of your life.
So, I am not gonna tell you today, how to play [your game]
All I am gonna say is, Go!
And play these seventy minutes to your heart’s content.
Because in the life that is about to follow, [irrespective of]
Whether things are right, or wrong,
Whether things stay, or go,
Whether you lose, or win…
Nobody can take these seventy minutes away from you. No one.
So, I decided that I will NOT tell you how to play [your game] today.
Instead, you will show me. By [actually] playing it [out].
Because I know that if each player on this team
[manages to] Play[s] the best hockey of her life
Then no one, not even God can demand these seventy minutes back.
Go. Go and grab these seventy minutes from yourself, from God,
From all those whom – who – wouldn’t believe in you.

Quite good, is all I have to say.

Note:
The additions in square brackets are to aid better English and create a semblance of Proper translation.
Or so I believe, anyway.

I am lovin’ it!!

There’s nothing to tell. No direct or proximate cause. You just wake up one day and you aren’t a part of your life. You know this. Your life doesn’t belong to you. Your body is not, I don’t know how to make you feel the force of this, yours. There’s just life, living itself. You don’t have it. You don’t have anything to do with it. That’s all. It doesn’t sound like much, but believe me. It’s like when you hypnotize someone and persuade them there’s a big pile of mattresses outside their window. They no longer see a reason not to jump.

– Quoted by Kryzstof “Dubdub” Waterford-Wajda in “Fury“, by Salman Rushdie.

I no longer see a reason not to jump. And I haven’t even been hypnotized yet. No, not even self-hypnosis. What’s more, I even know for a fact that there are NO matressess outside my window. Yet, I no longer see a reason not to jump.

I read -no, make that devour- books or listen to music to pass my time. I drink insane amounts of coffee, and spend crazy money clogging up my system with carcinogenic substances.

I have a great job and a fantastic boss, and extremely supportive co-workers. I have great friends who are pursuing knowledgeable pursuits.

I talk to people who know what they are doing, who are masters in what they do. I learn from them, more than I ever learnt at the University, more than I could ever expect to learn. Heck, pretty soon I am gonna even become one of those people.

Yet, I feel incomplete, somehow.

There’s nothing to tell. No direct or proximate cause. I just woke up to-day and I ain’t a part of my life. I know this. My life does not belong to me. My body is not -I don’t know how to make you feel the force of this- mine. There’s just life, living itself. I don’t have it. I don’t have anything to do with it. That’s all. It doesn’t sound like much, but believe me. It’s like you hypnotized me and persuaded me there’s a big pile of mattresses outside my window. I no longer see a reason not to jump.

Should I jump?

Sorry folks, no story right now. In a tearing hurry and equally tired… Just wanted to get this line out of the system.

Another question I wanted to ask is: Should I shift my blog to something else? I am beginning to hate the pathetic offerings of rediff…

Any comments anyone?