DOMBIVALI FAST


This blog gets its title from a Marathi movie I happened to see over the weekend... This movie has been remade as "Evano Oruvan" in Tamil... Madhavan has acted in the Tamil version...


Before the title of the blog starts to confuse my (very very few) readers, let me explain it...

The town of Dombivali is a suburb of Mumbai and it takes abt 1.5-2 hrs by train to reach Dombivali from the heart of the Mumbai City...


Hundreds of Thousands of ppl travel daily from Dombivali to Mumbai and they spend abt 3-3.5 hrs every day commuting in the train(to and fro)... These commuters prefer Fast trains (which skip smaller railway stations and stop only on important ones) to the Slow trains (which stop at all the railway stations) to save abt 20-30 minutes every day... No wonder the trains are jam packed and getting a place to stand in this train is difficult... So, getting a place to sit in the train is like a luxury and a window seat is an achievement... The nomenclature followed for such trains is "#DESTINATION#-#SLOW/FAST#"... So a SLOW train to CHURCHGATE would be called a "Churchgate Slow" local and a FAST train to DOMBIVALI would be called "Dombivali Fast" train... (Hence the name of the movie, and my blog)...




Travelling in one such Dombivali Fast local is the protagonist of this movie...


This person is someone who believes very strongly in his principles and is very staunch about not compromising with them, at any cost... At every crossroad of his life, he has to undergo lot of emotional turmoil due to his beliefs but he refuses to bend... He stands firm for his moral values inspite of all the problems he has to face...


Slowly, his whole world turns against him... check out each of the scenarios...

1 -- His wife is not happy because she has to stay in a rented apartment... They have booked an apartment, but cannot move in yet because he is not ready to pay ridiculous amount to the builder for the upgrade options in the booked apartment... his wife questions his sanity for this act...


2 -- His son has failed in 3 subjects... The teacher asks his son to join special tuitions and promises to clear him in those subjects... But, he is not ready to pay for special tuitions as he considers this as a bribe... the son ridicules him for this act...


3 -- His daughter cannot get admitted to a good school because he refuses to pay Rs. 35,000 towards donations to the School Development Fund... the principal of the school calls him insane for this act...


4 -- He works as a loan officer in a bank and his manager is cross with him because he is not ready to pass a huge loan to an applicant who has submitted false documents... The applicant is one of the biggest account holder in that branch and the manager is very well aware that the loan will certainly default... But the applicant has promised handsome "rewards" for everyone who will help him to get the loan cleared and this irks the protagonist to the core... his entire bank staff makes fun of him... The applicant gets his loan and everyone in the bank staff gets a hefty Diwali gift...


5 -- The company which provides water to his apartment complex sends a water tanker everyday and the tanker guy does not release water until someone pays him Rs. 100 (over the stipulated pre-paid water charges)... When he questions the tanker guy, everyone else his in apartment complex asks him to mind his own business because his act is causing unnecessary delays...


Eventually, at every point in his life, he turns out to be a loser... Everyone makes fun of him and no one thinks, even for a moment, that he is doing the right thing... His frustration builds up every passing day, hour and minute...


One day, the volcano errupts (over 2 rupees at a col-drink stall) and he takes on the entire system head-on... Seeing that his sincere pleas are not making any effect, he resorts to violence... Anything and everything that does not meet the true ethical standards he has set for himself is destroyed... Cops, Doctors, Drug peddlers, politicians, the tanker guy -- one and all feel the brunt of his ire...


Soon, the ever-hungry media takes note of his activities and he is termed as a psycho, a maniac and a lunatic by one and by all... Since he has exposed political leaders, the government is at task... Since the government is scared of losing their power, the Police Commissioner is threatened of a transfer out of Mumbai... Since the Commissioner's position is at stake, he asks his cops to "Encounter" the man...


The only person who can understand him is this police inspector who has been assigned to his case... He questions everyone who questions this man... He asks everyone about the protagonist's crime... The cop has the right intention -- to arrest the protagonist, counsel him and release him as a free and an innocent human being...

But, by then, the protagonist has lost faith in everyone and is unable to visualize the good guy in the cop... The cop, even though he approves of the protagonist's actions, is helpless and has to shoot the protagonist... He is shot through the heart in the encounter killing...

The protagonist's last wish -- to have a window seat in his last journey in the Dombivali Fast train -- is fulfilled by the cop...


The movie shook me to the core... What was his fault? Just that he was ethical and was not ready to succumb to the monetary desires of this world? And that he tried swimming against the current? How many times have we compromised and done something that we know is unethical? And, how many times have we forced someone else to do something unethical...

How many times have we travelled in Dombivali Fast?
My 2 pence worth...


About the monkey-gate scandal... And about the Sydney test which India lost in the last 5 minutes... And about all the bad decisions made by the umpires in the test series...

I do not know if Bhajji really taunted Symonds, but I know one thing for sure -- Sachin will not lie... not to the extent where the Indian team takes a stance of pulling out from a tour... He is a cricketer of integrity, and for him, this integrity will be much more important than saving Bhajji from a being termed a racist... If Bhajji had indeed passed a racial slur, then there is no way that Sachin would have been so adamant and supported him at the cost of his values, his dignity...

I am not saying that Symonds or the other Aussies are liers... No way... They are great sportsmen and men with great talent and performance... They too live and swear by a set of ethics and values... "It" might have happened...

But - in some scenarios, it is important to give that due respect to the senior player... I remember one test match recently in West Indies... Dhoni was going berserk by hitting a WI spinner (Dave Mohammed?) for 5 consecutive sixes... the next ball was a dubious decision with the fielder (Darren Ganga) having taken the catch just on the boundary... No one, including the third umpires, were sure... But Dhoni just took Lara's word and walked away... Dhoni did not believe the fielder, the umpires never declared him OUT and there was really no conclusive evidence to prove that he was OUT... But, one has to give that respect to the player of stature of Lara... The aussies should have done that to Sachin...

Such moments make a player out of you... Statistics will never tell everything about the player -- but these moments will... These moments are never mentioned in any website, these are etched on everyone's hearts...

It doesnt matter whether the game is won or not, whether the series is won or not or whether the team wins the world cup or not... What matters is, whether the respect is earned or not... Thats of prime importance...

Today, Dhoni has earned Lara's respect for life... Lara will never hate Dhoni for hitting 5 sixers in a row, never... And, if Bhajji has lied, he can never go and greet Symonds by looking at him in the eye... If Symonds has lied, he has lost all the respect that Sachin had for him -- and with that everything is lost...

Same applies to the umpires... The amount of guilt one feels after giving a incorrect decision cannot be described... A couple of months ago, Sangakkara was playing an innings of his lifetime in Australia and umpire Rudi Koertzen gave him out incorrectly and robbed him from realizing something improbable... The first thing that Rudi did as soon as he came off the ground was to apologize to Sangakkara... I dont think Rudi could have done anything else, because speaking any other word other than "Sorry" would have meant that Rudi has lost any right to talk to Sanga for a long long time...

Another such instance -- In August last year, we were playing a local team and it was really a very close game... we were defending a decent total and the captain of the opposing team was going great... a couple of overs more and the game would have gone from our hands... One of our senior players took a great one-handed catch, but just on the boundary... No one, other than the player himself, was sure abt the catch... Even though his entire team did not like it, their captain took the word of our captain, purely as a gesture of respect towards the word of a senior player and walked away... They lost the match, we won... But their captain (Siddharth) won our respect... Even today, whenever he meets us, we think about that day and admire his act... (For more details abt this incident -- http://durhamcricketclub.net/match11_2007.aspx)

Let me give another non-cricket instance here... Recently, assembly elections were held in Gujarat... During the campaign, Rahul Gandhi and Lal Kishen Advani met, by chance, at the Ahmedabad airport... During that meeting, LKA proposed to RG that -- lets contest like political adversaries and not like personal enemies... lets not get down to a cheap level where individuals and their private lives are attacked... -- RG agreed to it and gave his word... In 15 minutes, RG said to the reporters -- "Its his view and his prerogative and I am not obliged to follow it..." A clear snub to an assurance given a few minutes ago... Now, if RG meets LKA in the near future, where does he have the face to meet him?

If you have lost your respect with the opponents, pretty much, everything is lost... A gallant performance in the field cannot win it back... An apology can limit the damage, but a tarnished image is like a broken glass artifact -- its broken... it may be repaired, but its still broken...

And even after that, there is the biggest test of all -- when one sees oneself in the mirror at the end of all of it, one knows that he/she has cheated... That guilt can kill... One will not be penalized for it, but still, the guilt is worse than any fine, any ban or any penalty... How can one overcome it?

Everyone knows it very well... But still this whole affair happened... And many similar instances take place in everyday life...

Only one question intrigues me more than anything... What can be more important than one's self respect... How will one face himself in the mirror?

HISTORY MADE... ALMOST!!!

The Patriots slipped at the last lap... After playing (nearly) flawless football for the whole year, they faltered at the last hurdle... They had a chance to create history -- to be the first team to go undefeated in the entire year... The Giants played party pooper and ended victorious via back door entry...

Its just a game - one team has to win and the other has to lose... To be fair to the Giants, they were the better team on the night... They deserved to win the game...

But this blog is not abt the worthy-winners Giants or the unlucky-losers Pats... This is about the perception of Pats in the average Fan...

But I was kind of disappointed by what I heard from a few friends / colleagues abt the game... Few said "I want the Pats to lose... I am tired of seeing them win..." Others said "Its too boring to see the Pats run over the other teams... They should lose now..." Some even went to the extent of "I hate the Pats... Their domination is bad for the game... They should lose..."

A few of these detractors changed their view -- they said "When they were losing the game, i felt bad for them... They should have won..." But others were still adamant and were happy that the Pats lost... This mindset disappointed me... Not because I am a Patriots fan... But because of the sadistic mentality...

It is fine if you support some other team... For eg -- the last time any team went undefeated for the whole year was the Miami Dolphins in 1972... This time, the Miami fans wanted the Pats to lose so that the Miami record remains unbroken... This is still acceptable...

But, if one starts hating a team / player only because the team / player is just too good compared to the peers, then the hatred should be unwarranted... Its just not fair... Don't pull down a good entity just because others are just not good enough... Raise your bar to the level set by good ones, dont pull the bar down to your level... Thats not what sports are all about...

The Greek empire invented the Olympics to decide the best race amongst all using the meter of sports... They understood, rightly so, that wars are not the correct way of finding the better race... Sports were a non-violent way to find the stronger, powerful and superior race amongst the different kingdoms and empires...

But, they never wanted that the better race - the better people - to lower their performance just to make the Olympics interesting or competitive... But, today's fans exactly want this to happen...

The Pats are not the only ones subject to this hatred... All the winners might be subjected to such mindsets... Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher, the Australian cricket team -- are on the receiving end of such feelings due to the virtue of their immortality...

Tennis is boring because of Fed-Ex's swiss charming tennis... Formula One was so boring until Schumi retired... So many ppl were happy when 5 of the Aussie invincibles retired in one year...

Why are fans and ppl so sadistic? Is the prospect of a game of 2 equals better than the chance of a fabulous sportsperson performing at his best? Is being too good so bad? Is immortality a sin?