Andheri

You silly suburb
Of eventualities!
Your derelict streets,
Betrayed bars,
Your rotten corners
Of loss and dismay,
Your ephemeral love stories,
The escaping smoke
Layered uncomfortably
Over your malls and markets
Scream for justice -

That died with the death
Of your truest lover.

A Hundred Hundreds and a Million Salutes

When Sachin Tendulkar scored his first international hundred, Nelson Mandela was in jail, liberalization was yet to dawn on India, Croatia was not a country, and the internet was a captive of a few computer labs. 

The world has changed since then. Sachin has journeyed to the age of 39 years. The body is not as swift on the pitch as it used to be. The back foot punches, the pulls, the hooks have reduced in number. What remains unchanged, however, is the hunger that Sachin walked down to the pitch with, his flawless technique, and his Cricketing genius that is rarer than the twenty-ninth of February. And yesterday, as all of us know, Sachin created a record that wasn't even thought of till the last decade. A hundred international hundreds are a record second only to Bradman's average of 99.94. It will survive the test of time. It will last for years and years together, through different ages of Cricket, just like Bradman's has.

Over the most illustrious career in the history of the game, Sachin has climbed several heights, some of which are so high that nobody knew of them before Sachin reached there. He has ruled the game, and ruled it like nobody ever has. Not only has he been the greatest Cricketer of the modern era but he may also be the greatest sportsman of his time, for nobody has dominated a sport for more than two decades. 

Yes, Indians have a habit of glorifying the ordinary. The nation is known to overdo things. We are fanatic about India and Indians. We are never objective, we fail to believe that we could be the best in the world. It took some of us years to accept that Sachin was the best  because they had almost given up all hope on anything Indian being the best in the world. We needed that to be told by the others. We read the Sydney Morning Herald in 1992, we read the Daily Telegraph time and again in the nineties, and then we saw the cover page of the Time magazine. That was when even the most cynical of the Indians accepted that Sachin was the best in the business. 

Now it has been 23 years since he batted for India for the first time. All the discussions about Sachin's greatness are over and done with, the world knows that he is the best. Sachin is someone who has given us, as a nation, a reason to believe that we could be the best in the world. He is an inspiration to me, to my city, and to my entire country. As the youth of India, rather than looking for some virtually non-existent poor sections of his sublime career just for the sake of some specious arguments, let's stand united in admiration for someone who has deservedly been the best in the world in what he does, and remains as one of independent India's priciest possessions. 

Cricket is as lucky to be played by Sachin Tendulkar as Sachin Tendulkar is to play Cricket. He is one in a million or more, and nothing can change that. Take a bow, Sachin, and take more.

Art and Artists

Nothing can define art - nothing. And that's the beauty of it. 

Art is an uncertainty that lingers in all sorts of by-lanes in the walk of life. Art goes beyond all the worldly jazz. Art is free, art is courageous, and art is boundless. Art is divine. 

Art surpasses the barriers of cultures, traditions, and time. Art knows no limits. It could exist in anything from the extravagant to the mundane. Art is omnipresent yet esoteric. 

Art is a friend one could fall back on in abject loneliness. Art doesn't betray its lovers. Art is what remains when all else fades.

Art is an interpretation. Art is an expression. Art is a perception. And again, art is divine.

Art is not skill. Art is not craft. Art is only art.

An artist is he who can create. 

An artist thinks differently from everyone else, and that is what allows him to create. An artist is often insane and eccentric. An artist understands individuality, and always upholds freedom. An artist is often a narcissist for the fact that he is the source of his art, and art is his only pride. 

An artist is a rebel, for he feels the need to create a world of things that does not exist before him. An artist is an observer, an analyzer, and an expressionist. 

A bastard is the last thing an artist could be, for he is free of societal expectations, and is usually unbothered about the world's perception of him. An artist may be indifferent but never resentful. An artist is extremely honest about life, and is always a gentleman at heart.

An artist often faces strong disapproval, for the world around him is not as quick as him in accepting and acquiring his creation.

An artist is married to struggle since forever, and the marriage lasts a lifetime. An artist is never content, and that instability fuels his art.

No two artists think alike, for every genuine artist creates something that has never been done before.

An artist is he who journeys through life like a roller-coaster, befriends discordance and animosity at regular intervals, is possessed by tragedy for long spans of time, yet refuses to trade his art for a happier life.