The Power of Dreams

I am not much of a movie watcher, but thanks to my children I watched two outstanding movies during the past week. Both these movies are well made, have powerful scripts, and have a wonderful message, delivered with amazing clarity.

The first one is a Hollywood movie called "Rudy". It is based on a true story of an American boy called Rudy, who by all accounts, was a complete misfit for the sport of American Football. He was small, with limited athletic ability. Size, strength, and great athletic ability are almost mandatory to be able to play this brutal sport at any level. However what no one saw was the size of Rudy's heart. He was determined to play college football for Notre Dame - a college reverred for its football program, and a household name in all of the US. His dream was laughable, and almost everyone around him did laugh at him.

Rudy's story is absolutely unbelievable. So much so that I searched the Internet after watching the movie to verify if it was indeed a true story. It is, and it almost made my cry. And it taught me a great deal.

The second outstanding movie I watched with my kids was "Rock On!". Bollywood movies are usually nothing to write home about. However "Rock On!" is different. A touching story, told well, and with a great deal of sensitivity, backed by superb performances. It is the story of a young rock band that breaks up, and then comes together again after the four young men had gone their own separate ways. Again, the key message of the movie is - Follow your dreams, it is never easy, but can be extremely rewarding.

Great movies to watch with your kids. I highly recommend them.

I am innocent because I was Ignorant and Incompetent

The sordid off the field IPL saga came to a head yesterday, and resulted in the suspension of the high flying IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, ostensibly to ensure a fair investigation into his alleged misdeeds.

While I don't have a view on whether Modi is guilty or not, and whether his suspension was fair or not, I am quite amused by the complete abdication of responsibility by the entire IPL governing council. The IPL governing council is obviously a body that has the responsibility to oversee, question, facilitate, and approve major decisions of the organization. It is composed of many senior BCCI officials, high profile cricketers, and politicians. A group of this caliber is obviously capable of, and empowered to keep things on track. For 3 years they turned a blind eye to proceedings, and when the shit hit the fan, their best defence turned out to be ignorance! And of course incompetence by implication.

I would have been delighted if a few of the governing council members had also put in their resignations, owning some of the responsibility for the serious charges levelled against the league. I do not expect the BCCI officers or the politicians to take this high moral ground. However people like Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, and MAK Pataudi lost a great opportunity to demonstrate their strength of character because of their public silence and continuance on the council. I am a huge fan of Gavaskar and Pataudi, and would have put them on a pedestal had they taken responsibility publicly and resigned.

No one is perfect I suppose, and great cricketers are not necessarily great leaders.