As spectators or lovers of the game, we don’t have any control over the outcome. More so when you are watching the game from a distance and your cheer can’t reach the players. The reverse is not true though. The outcome of the game can actually impact your day.
Test Cricket, however low attendance it might be having nowadays, is the closest sport to real-life as possible. There are no shortcuts in it. It is long, dull, scary, and entertaining if you know how to enjoy it. Sometimes it is just boring as nothing happens. But it takes a toll and toughness get tested thoroughly.
The concept of a Drawn match (be it Cricket, football, or even boxing) is amazing. Sometimes nobody wins or gets beaten. It just ends with nobody having the last laugh. It is sometimes about just survival. How more realistic can it be!
It might come as a surprise but the Data Scientists at FU News are humans too. It is their duty to present useful information to the world but they cannot be held accountable if the heap of utensils in the sink grows exponentially large. That’s because they cannot do the dishes if they have to dish out fishy stories week after week. So they outsource the cleaning part to Maids (as they are respectfully called in India as Bai which means Sister).
There is usually a cordial relationship between a house and the maid. The balance of power of course (due to the long history of Indian Culture which disabled the men to learn even basic chores) is towards the maids because they have the power to bring a peaceful house on its knees (literally). In terms of importance and usefulness in a house, the order is usually Maid > Missus > Kids > etc. > Men. Maids do hold the key to a successful household. You cannot and should not even think of arguing with them. No, please don’t. No.
But what if Maid takes unannounced leaves? What if the Maid (or cook for that matter, this blog doesn’t stereotype) bunks randomly? What if the sink overflows and the pile of unwashed dishes turn into a tsunami and engulfs everything?
Wide-angle shots. A vast expanse of barren lands covered with snow. The crime just happened or about to happen. Great percussion music in the background building up the scene. Characters who indulge you in hyping up the scene with great acting. Tense situation. A bullet about to go off. And then all of sudden, out of nowhere, something totally unexpected shows up and changes the course of everything.
Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world. A few days ago it was Jeff Bezos. A few years ago, it was Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet and so on. As one may notice, they all are still in the top 10 or so richest people in the world. And they have been there for a long time.
Elon Musk (as he is quite active on Twitter) showed amusement after the news broke about him dethroning Bezos. He commented that this was interesting. And within a few seconds, ‘Back to work’. Basically, unfazed.
It is only us, 99% of the population which discusses and shows amazement about who’s in the top 1%. Those who are actually being the richest have to keep working to stay on the top.
To be without a king is better than having an arrogant king.
Kautilya
One of the most brilliant inventions of the human mind is Democracy. It gives satisfaction to people that their own representatives govern them back. At least in theory. In India, democracy is something we all cherish and be proud of. It took us an enormous amount of time for establishing Democracy and with a lot of sacrifices. We love the fact that about 800 million people get to decide the fate of our country for 5 years. 800 million is such a huge number that even managing them to cast their votes is as difficult as reaching Mars.
Democracy is like playing a biased sport. The rules of the biased sport are known in advance though. Sometimes the ideals of democracy go for a toss as well. The rules on which we based our biased sports, get bent. That ensues newsworthy scenes. Some countries have Black days, some have White days.
This happens because Democracy is not the equilibrium state. Chaos/high entropy/anarchy and the survival of the fittest is natural. Democracy is actually the opposite of natural. All the other ways of governing have overtime proved to be difficult or have failed. We all know that Democracy needs patience. It is certainly not ideal and all forms of Democracies have tradeoffs. There is no 1-way Democracy has worked. It evolves, twists and turns, and churns out a new form from time to time.
Only in a Democracy, a Tea Seller, or a Reality Show Star can become the head of the state. We can always vote them out too. Often, we take our Democracy to be granted. It is far from being perfect but the best of what we have. Cherish it!
One time, my parents were coming from North India to Bangalore (South India). They boarded the flight around 9 AM and they were scheduled to land by 11.30 AM which they did. I lived in Central-Southern Bangalore then. So, I started around 9 AM from my place and I reached the airport around 12 PM. That’s how far the airport is from the city. It is so far that if someone asks you to come and pick them up at the airport, you can just laugh it out as if they were joking.
It is a tricky thing to achieve when nobody is willing to budge. Right Wing and Left Wing Supporters lock horns all the time. Government and the Opposition are always at loggerheads. Countries sharing borders are always in an argument about which side owns that particular amount of land. Unless the land is ‘Bir Tawil’. Coke and Pepsi can never come to the same table in a restaurant. Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan can never join the same party. Covishield and Covaxin, despite have Co in their names, are finding it difficult to co-operate against Covid.
