A Paen for Ganguly

I’ve never been too impressed with Sourav Ganguly. I always thought he was a bit of a brat. Well, brat’s probably not the word; this man definitely had panache. But he is not a sportsman I idolize. Maybe he came too late for me to look up to him. My cricketing Pantheon (read Sachin, Kumble, Lara, Warne, McGrath, Donald & the Waugh brothers!) was already complete.

For all that, I still respect him, even if a little grudgingly. It is unfortunate that for all his heroics in the one-day game, he is going to be remembered more as India’s greatest captain. Between 1997 till 2003, there were times when he was the best Indian one day Batsman barring none, even the great Sachin. The very fact that he was able to match Sachin shot for shot even during the pre-tennis elbow days is a great testimony to Ganguly, the batsman. That 183 in Taunton in the second worst world cup for India since 1983 was one of the very few highlights of that horrible year. Which is why it was shocking when he was dropped first after the Greg Chappel fiasco and when Dhoni took over the mantle.

The first time was the bad one. Like any batsman, Ganguly had to struggle through a bad patch in 2005, but a batsman of his caliber had to come good sooner than later. Ganguly definitely deserved better. But, there was so much negativity during that time that he had to go. Too much had been said and done. I was for him to retire then and there. I freely admit that I sided with the celebrity-obsessed, headline-hunting, selectively-amnesiac, pandering-to-the-loudest media that called for his removal from the test team. I’d had enough of Sourav. The team was filled with his cronies and there was some genuine talent that was kept out because of his need to be surrounded with yea-sayers and the promise of great days had passed with the number of victories petering out. There obviously were others in the establishment who felt the same and the extremely public ‘defrocking’ of the high priest of Indian Cricket was followed with morbid relish. Ganguly was written off. He was relegated to the grind of the domestic circuit. We all thought Ganguly was out for good!

Boy, were we wrong! The most defining point of inflection in my opinion of Sourav was the ad that appeared sometime in 2006. It starts out with Ganguly asking if we had forgotten him and goes on to say “Whatever happened, why it happened, I don't know. I am practicing to come back into the team” and “Who knows I might get another chance to swirl my shirt in the air” and closes with “In the field or out of it, I won't sit quiet. I will cheer the team and so should you." My first reaction to this ad was derision, with my characteristic cynical sneer I proceeded to point out to my friends how far he had fallen. But, after I had to sit out through the ad a couple of million times during some cricket match, it suddenly struck me! I realized what a courageous move it was. True, it was a PR coup and probably not completely sincere, but can you think of any other cricketer who could talk about the most humiliating ouster of his career, the way he did. True the lines were probably written by somebody else and he had acting coaches, but, something about that ad struck a chord in me.

He was picked for the team against South Africa after the disasterous one-day series and there was no looking after that. He was the top scorer for India in that series. The two years that followed were peppered with gritty innings. The Prince of Calcutta had matured into Steve Waugh (Of course, I’m exaggerating)! I was impressed. It was absorbing to see Sourav fight his old demons (read the short ball) and discover some new one(The left arm spinner) Then, out of the blue, after the acrimonious Indo-Aus series, Dhoni managed to dislodge Sourav from the one day squad citing the need to improve fielding standards and blood youngsters as excuses, along with Dravid. I strongly feel that games are not won by fielding. They are won by batting and bowling. No matter how good a fielding side you are, if you don’t have the best batting or bowling on the roster, there is no way you are going to win. Case in point- New Zealand! For Christ’s sake, Sourav was the second best one day batsman of our generation. Why would you dump him? and that too for an obnoxious braggart like Uthappa? If you had to replace veterans, you will have to do it one at a time. Come on, Sourav is a better fielder than Harbajan! We did win the CB series but not because of the youngsters, but because of Sachin’s Brilliance in the two finals. Dhoni is no fool, so there must have been better reasons for Ganguly's ouster. It’s possible that Dhoni felt that his captaincy would be undermined with the divisive presence of Sourav in the dressing room. If that was reason, then I guess Dhoni is completely justified. This time, there was no way Sourav could get back in to the one day team. Successes of the Young Team in Australia and Sri Lanka precluded that. We realized then that it was the beginning of the end. The loss against Sri Lanka managed created a feeding frenzy among the press and the media began baying for blood. The outgoing selection committee decided to satiate the blood thirsty media and threw the easiest target in Indian Cricket then, to the dogs as a last gesture. Even his selection for the test series against could not hold back the end. The Ragnarok of Indian Cricket had begun. The Gods go away one by one. Sourav and Kumble are gone- one shining briefly before the end, the other- almost in disgrace. Three remain now! Dravid’s days are numbered; Laxman was always in the brink despite his brilliance; and Sachin, the greatest of them all is, after a slump, lighting up the heavens. Still, there is this feeling of imminent end for him. Truly, this is the “Twilight of Gods.” The Old order is passing and the new one cometh.

Now with Sourav gone, we will no longer see those glides either side of gully, or the self assured press conferences, sneer at his horrible slo-mo pull shot, read about leaked emails, groan at those ungainly diving stops in the circle or that relaxed saunter down the track for the singles, smile that almost tennis-shot down the wicket and the way he leaps down the track to hit spinners over long on and long off, cluck with disapproval at his relentless politicking. Indian cricket is poorer for losing all that. Cricket in India will move on. We already have to great finds, Gambhir and M Vijay with Rohit Sharma and Badrinath in the wings. Ganguly will no longer hog the headlines. He will disappear from the public eye for sometime and rebuild a life away from cricket and be forgotten as a sportsman.

Still, while his batting exploits and fearless, gritty captaincy will fade from that fleeting of all things-public memory, Ganguly’s legacies - a tough Indian Cricket team and the never-say- die attitude, look like they will linger a little longer.

My Retirement Plan

The first thing I realized when I started working with TCS, way back in 2005 was that I inherently dislike Work of any sort. There is no greater pleasure for me than sitting back an doing absolutely nothing all day. From the very first day, I started counting down to the time I can retire and laze around all day, which, I believe is my natural state.

While I always knew I wanted to retire early, I had no clue on when would be the right time when I can do that with absolutely no compunctions about my future. Now, fortunately for me, I have been placed in situations over the last few years which, basically, was the right place at the right time. That meant that I seem to be doing fairly well in my professional life and managed to do pretty early what I set out to do when I started- earn a significant amount of money. No, I am not an ambitious person, and I know I am not going to become the CEO of Citibank or something nor do I really want to. A nice one room house in a hill station , with lots of good books, a decent Internet connection and pizza once a week is my version of paradise.

That being the case, I realize that I am in a sort of an inflection point where I am supposed to take a few momentous life-changing decisions. Although, I am still not sure what I want to do, I definitely know what I do not want to do- Work. So, rather than grope about blindly, I decided, to create a mathematical model, which would help me figure out the earliest year I can retire by.

So, I started with a set of assumptions, they were

1. Time value of Money should be ignored along with inflation and returns from savings. I figure, I can invest my nest egg at at least the going inflation rate
2. I will be single for the rest of my life and obviously I will have no kids
3. I wont own property
4. I wont even be working part time so will have no source of income once I retire.
5. I will have no source of income and hence will pay no tax.( I am also ignoring Capital Gains tax)
6. If I intend to buy a Car, I will need to buy it in the next 10 years and the maintenance will be negligible
7. Significant medical bills will be run up only when I am 50 and will be a constant Rs 50k/ year
8. I will run up a constant expense of RS 3,60,000/ year after I retire over and above medical expenses if any
9. I will live until 70 (I know I am overestimating. By a distance. Well, what can I say? I am going for the 'at worst' scenario here)
10. Even if I continued working, I will have to retire at 60.

With all this in place what did I find out?

If I manage to save 12 Lacs every year(Which is the maximum I'd be able to save if I stayed here in the US), I will be able to retire by the time I am 38. Wow! That's just 10 more years! Isn't that absolutely Fantastic?

To accomplish that, I need to do the following before I retire

1. Buy a house in a hill station. Probably in one of the more remote areas and a car. I should find some way to finance it. I will probably take a loan. Damn that would bite!
2. Get a job here in the US and stick to it for the next 10 years. Basically make as much money as its possible.
3. Cut down on unnecessary expenses.
4. Try and pile up as many books, music and movies as possible. If I am going to do nothing for 40 years , I'd better start collecting stuff to entertain me
5. Learn some basic electrical and plumbing stuff. That will help both save money and independence
6. Learn some art/craft/skill, like painting, sculpting or wood crafting
7. Cut down on bad food and stop abusing my body. I don't want to be sick and dying as soon as I retire. Believe me, I'm heading for an at least an Ulcer by the time I am 30, the way I am going
8. Learn cooking and basic tailoring
9. The last thing and by far the most important point- Do not, I repeat do not fall for a female. That will undo everything. Unless she is super rich and well you can divorce her and get some alimony. Considering the chances of that happening let's just stay away from women


PS: If you are interested in the calculation, I have posted it in the following link
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pf-dO1LoEZr23C3QSzT9tYQ&hl=en