कसाब की फांसी: भाग 1

पापी कौन?

मनुज से उसका न्याय चुराने वाला?

या कि न्याय खोजते विघ्न का सीस उड़ाने वाला?

आज कसाब की फांसी पे सर्वोच्च न्यायलय ने मुहर लगा दी . इस बात से मुझे उस दिन की याद यकायक आ जाती है, जब मैं रात को तीन बजे उठा था। 26 नवम्बर 2008, मेरे चाचा ने 3 बजे फ़ोन किया और कहा  टीवी चालु करो और देखो क्या हुआ है।

समाचार देख के आँखें सन्न रह गयी।

फिर नींद कहाँ। मेरी माँ भी जागी, और एक फ़िक्र शुरू हो गयी, क्या ये अंत है? क्या ये अंत है उस संविधान का जिसके लिए हम रोज़ स्कूल में प्रतिज्ञा लेते थे? क्या ये अंत है उस भारतवर्ष के अभिमान का जिसके लिए हम हर किसी के सामने घमंड में सर ऊंचा करते हैं?

हाँ ये अंत था उस नासमझ और अंधे घमंड का। वो घमंड ही तो था। सैंकड़ो निबंध लिखे होंगे मैंने भारत की तारीफ़ में। कई बार 26 जनवरी पे देशभक्ति गीत गाये होंगे। 'जन गन मन' ये गाते वक़्त मेरा सर अभिमान में ऊंचा रहा होगा, भारत कितना महान है, उसकी महानता के लिए क्या क्या नहीं कहा होगा। लेकिन उस एक दिन की घटना से मेरा विश्वास भारत की महानता से उठ सा गया। क्यूँ?

कुछ आतंकवादी भारत में घुस आते हैं, हत्याएं करते हैं, लोगो को बंदी बना के रखते हैं तीन दिन तक। कहाँ? देश के सबसे प्रसिद्ध होटल में। शर्म की बात थी।

तीन दिन तक एक पूरा देश उस होटल में क्या हो रहा है उस से जलता रहा। कभी बम फटने की आवाज़ का समाचार दिखाया जाता चैनल पे तोह कभी गोली की आवाज़ का। कभी आग लग जाती किसी गुम्बद पे तो कभी किसी के मारे जाने की खबर आती। शर्म की बात ये नहीं थी की मैं या आप कुछ नहीं कर सकते थे। शर्म की बात ये थी कि हम ऐसा होने दे गए।

कौन ज़िम्मेदार है कौन नहीं इस पर कसाब के मरने के कई सालो तक बहस चलेगी। आज तक पाकिस्तान कहता है की उन्हें इस के बारे में कुछ नहीं पता। आज तक हमारे आदरणीय राजनीतिज्ञ कुछ नहीं कर पाए। कसाब की फांसी हमारा उद्देश्य नहीं थी। लेकिन वो उद्देश्य बन गयी जब हम भूल गए की कसाब अकेला ज़िम्मेदार नहीं था।

क्रमशः

वो सुबह कभी तो आएगी

वो सुबह कभी तो आएगी..
आज शनिवार के दिन मेरे लिए सवेरा कुछ जल्दी ही हो जाता है, सवेरे सवेरे क्रिकेट खेलने का शौक हमें मैदान की ओर ले जाता है। वहाँ कुछ देर खेल के चूर हो जाने के बाद, ऐसे ही एक पिक्चर देखने के लिए निकल जाता हूँ, बिना पसीने से तर कपड़े बदले, बिना घर वापस गए, जेब में पैसेके नाम पे कुछ नही, टिकेट का ठिकाना नही, और क्या देखने जा रहा हु उसके बार में भी कुछ ख़ास नही पता था।

हाँ इतना पता था, की एक पिक्चर आई है, गुजरात दंगो पे, नंदिता दास ने बनाई है। वहाँ इस बंगलोर के ट्रैफिक में पहुंचना वो भी टाइम पे, एक चमत्कार ही समझा जायेगा, मेरा एक दोस्त पिक्चर का इतना शौकीन है की वो आज शनिवार के दिन जिस दिन वो सामान्यतया २ बजे उठता है, सिर्फ़ पिक्चर के लिए वहाँ तैयार हो के पहुँच चुका था। और बार बार कॉल कर रहा था पूछने के लिए की हम लोग कहाँ तक पहुंचे। खैर हम लोग तोह भटकते हुए, वहाँ पहुँच ही गए, थोडी देर तोह हो ही चुकी थी। पर ठीक ठाक टाइम पे पहुँच गए। वहाँ जा के सबसे पहले कुछ खाने के इन्तेजाम किया, टिकेट लिया और जा के बैठ गए हॉल में। वहाँ गिनती के १०- १२ लोग पिक्चर देख रहे थे। नाम था फिराक ।

पिक्चर देखते देखते ख्याल आया की उन लोगो पर क्या गुज़र रही होगी इसका अंदाजा पिक्चर में लगाना बहुत मुश्किल है। हर पल खौफ में जीना किसे कहते हैं यह शायद हमें पता नही, और न कोई ये जान ना नही चाहते। जब इंसान इतना डर जाए की अपने घर जाने में भी डरे तोह समझा जा सकता है की वोह किस मुसीबत से गुज़र रहा है।

वहाँ गुजरात में हिंदू मुस्लिम ऐसे लड़ रहे थे जैसे एक देश के वासी नही किसी जंगल के दो जानवर अपने अपने वजूद के लिए लड़ रहे हो, और दोनों को ही एक दुसरे को खाने के लिए भगवान् ने बनाया हो। लेकिन गुजरात में सिर्फ़ एक ही जानवर आपस में कट मर रहा था। किस बात से क्या शुरू हुआ ये सब लिखते रहेंगे। क्यूँ हुआ ये सभी को पता है। लेकिन क्या किसी इंसान को मारते हुए एक ज़रा सा भी ख्याल नही आया दुसरे इंसान के दिमाग में। क्या हम इतना गिर चुके  हैं की एक दुसरे की ज़िन्दगी की ज़रा भी कीमत नही रह गई? ऐसा क्यूँ?

शायद इस सवाल का जवाब देने की बजाय हमारा सर शर्म से झुक जाए। पता नही ऐसा होगा की नही क्यूंकि हम तोह सर झुकाना भी भूल चके हैं और सर कटवाना भी.. हमे अगर याद है तोह सिर्फ़ सर काटना। किसी कमज़ोर का सर काटना।

किसी का पक्ष नही लेना चाहता यहाँ पे। लेकिन क्या राम और अल्लाह एक साथ नही रह सकते? क्या चर्च की घंटियाँ और मन्दिर की घंटिया अलग अलग आवाज़ करती हैं? क्या गुरुद्वारे में और मंदिरों में लोग माथा नही टेकते? तोह क्यूँ फ़िर हम इंसान साथ रह कर एक खुबसूरत विश्व का निर्माण करते? एक ऐसी सुबह के इंतज़ार में जब भाई भाई को न काटे, जब इंसान सौहार्द से जीवन व्यतीत करे एक ऐसी सुबह की तलाश में , मैं यह स्वप्न देखता हूँ , और चाहता हूँ  की ऐसी कहा का कभी न कभी अंत हो जायेगा। फ़िर उस विश्व मन्दिर का स्वप्न भी याद जरता हूँ  जो  कभी हमने स्कूल में पढ़ा था लेकिन कभी उसे असलियत बनाने  की कोशिश नही की।

आज के लिए इतना ही। अभी काफ़ी लिखना है

How to Fix a Cricket Match?

So, India is in Semi-Final of this edition of World Cup Cricket, and as a fan you are having your plates full because not only by winning this match India will reach the final of the coveted trophy, but also, they will beat their arch-rivals Pakistan. Now what is more important is a different comparison altogether, because some think that beating Pakistan is much above the World Cup Trophy. People say that we don’t materialistic approach, just beat Pakistan and we will be satisfied. But after beating Pakistan, the real emotions will rise and people will start dreaming for the final. The build-up is huge,  we have beaten Australia in QF, Tied with England, lost to SA in a close encounter, so this world cup has already given many reasons to believe that next two matches of India will not only be Mouth-Watering but also be so thrilling that Doctors will advise their heart patients to not watch these matches. People throw their TVs in anger after seeing the result of the match, some die, some kill, some stop watching cricket, some bring out the posters of Cricketers and burn them on street, some harm cricketers’ homes and others just simply blog like me about the aftermath of the cricket.

But this is not the reason I am writing this blog, the reason is a philosophical approach which I am going through since yesterday, I saw some News Channel showing news on India-Pakistan Semi Final Match of WC 2011. Yes the very next match, they are showing a person from IT Department saying “Since there is huge amount of money involved on India’s win, Mafia has reached the Indian Cricket team’s dressing room and they have ‘fixed’ this match.” Now, It wouldn’t have caught so much attention if it was said by some Street guy or if It was about some other team or some other occasion but world cup. But since this is ‘India-Pakistan’ match and it is a ‘World Cup Semi-final’, it is a juicy news scoop for the channel, not only it is giving the publicity to the person who has said these words of wisdom but also it will put the channel in a win-win situation. If India loses, they will say that we already told you. If India wins, the answer will be because of our news players performed their best. In worse condition it will affect the players’ mental strength and make them weak on the field, and they won’t be able to perform, since their concentration will be on this wise media work.

So, just for the sake of testing my imagination, I started thinking, if the statement is true and if ‘Mafia’ has really fixed this match, how it would be possible? The representative of Mafia or some bookie might have reached Indian Dressing room; he would have met n number of players’ to help him fix the match. How many of them would have agreed to him? At what terms? Suppose I am a bookie and I reach Indian Cricket Team, suppose I meet Munaf Patel and ask him to bowl badly in the match and field lethargically, also drop some catches and bowl some wide balls. How many? I say bowl 10 wide balls. Give away 2 runs whenever u get to field for single. Drop all the catches u gets. And in return I will give you say a Sum of Rs 100 Crore. Is it possible? Munaf may think and say ok, I don’t do any ads and I don’t appear on TV that much, 100 Crore is an amount which will take care of all my generations. (I took example of Munaf because he is not into earning too much money through other sources like ads and sponsorship like other players are. Sorry if somebody is feeling hurt. ) But on the other hand he sees that this is his 2^nd world cup and if he bowls well he will become one of the legends in Indian Cricket like Madanlal, Roger binny, Sandip Patil or Mohinder Amarnath. And he will get enough money to enjoy his oldage and to support his family even if he is not doing anything. I am not counting the Ads and sponsorship he will get after world cup, and the IPL money he will get, and the money given by government and BCCI as reward. So, after contemplating, Munaf says No because he knows he will be putting his image, his career, his family, his country in jeopardy for a sum of 100 Crore. If he performs even average (Not too well) but puts everything on the line (trying to give his best) to win this match, and even if India loses, he will still be satisfied in his heart that he did the right thing. He will be a hero for himself at least by not putting country on the stake. He will say to himself that I didn’t lie to myself. And if he puts everything on line and performs his best, and still India loses, he will say that at least I did the right thing and I did not get sold out for such a small amount of money. So I feel that Munaf will choose to give his best performance instead of going for the money. Similarly all the team members, they have enough money at their back and in the future there is enough money in the store, which they might have not even dreamt of, the glory which they always wanted, (they are already treated as gods, god knows what they will become if they win the world cup), IPL money, respect, everything.

I always believe that even if u lie to whole world, but you should never lie to yourself. You should not live in a myth that you have done your best. For instance a team having a player like Sachin who didn’t stay at the wicket after he felt he is out and simply walked out without umpire’s decision, you can say that this team is mentally strong. Sachin believes that there are people who can win this match even if he walks out. He has trust in people surrounding him. He will go and watch the match from dressing room rather than being a liar and trying to win the match on his own on the pitch knowing that he is out. That will always haunt him that u cheated in a match. He will lose his sleep for entire life. His career will soon be over. And legacy he will not be proud of. He will start losing interest in games. And top of all he himself will feel each day of his life as a nightmare even if he wins the cup knowing he was out. So, to me he and his teammates are the honest people who are giving their best on the field to live up to the expectations of Indian people.

We, The people don’t think twice before saying that “Ohh, Every match is fixed yaar, I don’t like Cricket. They all play for money.” I always think, why if they are playing for money, if they are playing for IPL, they have every right to appear in ads, they have every right to endorse products, they have every right to get the luxury and money they are getting. If they get all this, there is very less chance that they will ‘fix’ the match. Isn’t it good for you? Don’t you want that they should have all the facilities in the world but just win this world cup for us? Don’t you want to say ‘We are the Champions!’? They travel 80% of the year, they don’t see their families too often, and they get very less time to get healed before a match. They have to give 100% in the match and if they get enough money for that what is wrong in that. Now if you start comparing with an army man here, it is the responsibility of Government, they should give enough money to defence people. But that is a different thing. We are talking about the game. And also, the players go into the field each time under a pressure which we cannot even imagine.

But even with all that, in worst case scenario, if a player has to FIX a match he has to do it with so much drama that even Academy award winners will see it in awe. Suppose I am playing the match and I agree that I will bowl some No Balls, and I will not bat properly. I will not score more than 25 runs and help other team win the match. Is it enough to lose a match? Because there are 11 players in the team and they all must be in sync if u want to win a match or lose a match. If 10 players want to win the match and 1 player wants to lose it, I don’t feel it is going to happen. If all 11 players want to lose the match and opposing 11 player want to win the match, then again they must require some rehearsal.

Remember the match Ind Vs SA in 2000? Hansie Cronje fixed that match and he apologised to the fans later when he got caught. But do you remember what the outcome of the match was? SA won it. How? Why? Becaue Hansie was not in sync with his other team mates. He persuaded Gibbs to play badly but he didn’t know what Lance Klusener has in mind. After Hansie got out, Lance came and made his team reach a position from where SA couldn’t lose it. Even after that Hansie got caught and Gibbs also never came to India fearing of the arrest.

So, my point is, it is really tough to ‘FIX’ a match without getting caught. You would rather want to give your 100% even in a losing cause. I just want Indian Media to be responsible and trust the players little more. Some things cannot be bought by money, for everything else you have BCCI, Indian Government, Fans and the World Cup in your name!

I wish Indian cricket team all the best in their upcoming match against Pakistan. Go guys, give your best shot. I trust you and I feel you have the best combination who can win the world cup.

16 MB to 16 GB

In 1997 January, we were so happy when we got our first computer. My Papa bought it for us, me and my brother. We were so proud that we stopped going out, for us playing video games became a childish thing. I and my brother used to fight for playing games on it. We had to take permission from Mom every time we wanted to play games on computer although there was no one except us who would even start the computer. Papa used to bring VCDs to watch movies on computer, I still remember, I watched Movies like Star Wars, Lost World, MIB so many times before returning them to the library. At that time I was completely unaware that CDs can be copied on to the hard drive. We used to run every EXE file which we found on computer, just to see what it does. We were free to do anything with it. No parent gives this much freedom to children of age 12-14 years. Yes I was 14 years old and my brother was just 12. And we were like owners of our own computer. Papa used to boast to his friends about what we were able to do on computers. At that time for us Operating System meant nothing. We took Windows 95 for granted. On one of my friends' Computer I saw Windows 3.1 and felt jealous just because it was different, we thought Windows 95 is back dated since we were in 1997. We tried to make windows 95 like windows 3.1 in various attempts and couldn't succeed.

At that time Floppies were so big thing for us, bigger than CDs, because we didn't know CDs can be written, we thought floppies are the only way to transfer data from one computer to another. At that time having internet connection meant just mail checking. There were two types of modems, External and Internal. External was a luxury and Internal was cheap. But for having internet connection we waited for 7-8 years. And rightfully so, because we didn't had any work with it. Everything was going on smooth till 1998 when first major crash happened in the computer. The Windows 95 was not able to start, we got the message "Verifying DMI Pool Data", and after that nothing, it used to get stuck there. We asked so many people, what happened, what is the cause, what is the cure, no answer. One of my relatives told you have to give computer to your vendor, everything needs to be re-installed. Re-installation is OK but Data Loss? So many games we had. So many word files we created, PowerPoint Slides we created during fun time, and those cool themes? Ok, we thought let's give the vendor a chance; he will install everything for us. So our computer went to the vendor for the first time. But came back without any programs, no data, just Windows 95 Plus. And it got one disability too. No sound. We were sad.

To Be Continued…

Sometimes.. when you get everything.. you think its a dream..

Why does this happen? When you get what you dreamed of, you start feeling its a dream? Why? I mean, instead of enjoying the reality, we start dreaming more and more. Instead of celebrating win, we start dreaming about celebration of win. I hope I am making some sense.

But even if I dnt any sense today, its ok. Cuz m dreaming about celebration of my win today :)

I want to wish myself.. CONGRATS SHARAT!! U DESERVED EVERY BIT OF WINNING..! CONGRATS ON ACHIEVING YOUR DREAM..! :D

It may sound ego-centric, but why can't we congratulate ourselves?

Try doing this you will feel the greatness of Wishing and Winning both.. together!!

Quant: digital sum of 4444^4444

What is the digital sum of 4444^4444 ? Ans- 17

Solution:

Digital Sum implies that we keep on adding the digits of the result of 4444^4444 till we get a single digit number and that single digit number is the digital sum of the given number.

So, to find the digital sum of a given number, all we have to do is find the remainder when the number is divided by 9 and the remainder will be the required answer.

So, we find the remainder when 4444^4444 is divided by 9.

4444^4444 = (4446 - 2)^4444

Hence the remainder when 4444^4444 is divided by 9, is the same as the remainder obtained when 2^4444 is divided by 9.

2^4444 = {(2^3)^1481}*(2) = (8^1481)*(2) = {(9 - 1)^1481}*(2)

Hence the required remainder is: {(-1)^1481}*(2) = (-1)(2) = - 2 + 9 = 7

Thus, the digital sum of 4444^4444 is 7

Enjoy Maths.

Bananas and Monkeys

Original source unknown.

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Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done round here.

And that, my friends, is how company policies are made.