Did he really deserve it?

This is an article I had written last semester .But I decided to put it up for the sole reason that the man in question is arguably the most important man in the world today. Not only has he changed the face of hope as the messiah in the radiant lexicon of international politics,but has more importantly, changed the way we look at the most powerful nation in the world .But has he delivered the goods as yet? Or is it just the remarkably synergistic promise that lures us into believing in the man?On Oct 9,2009 Barack Hussein Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after just eight and a half months at the White House. Did the Nobel Prize committee award the prize more out of awe for the enormous promise that Obama beholds rather than recognition of concrete achievement?It was worth viewing the whole affair from both sides of the spectrum.............

View:

In an era of renewed multilateralism, President Obama embodies the new spirit of dialogue and engagement on the world's biggest problems: climate change, nuclear disarmament and a wide range of peace and security challenges.
The peace prize came as an implicit condemnation of Mr. Bush’s presidency. And countering the ill will Mr. Bush created around the world is one of Mr. Obama’s great achievements in less than nine months in office. And another is Mr. Obama’s willingness to respect and work with other nations . Bolstering America’s global standing by renouncing torture, this time with credibility, he has pledged to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; rejoined the effort to combat climate change and to eradicate the world of nuclear weapons; and recommitted himself to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and offered to engage Iran while also insisting that it abandons its nuclear ambitions. While he has made an excellent start on climate change with new regulations that finally begin to grapple with carbon emissions, the United States has to lead the way to a global agreement.
Mr. Obama did not seek the prize. It is a reminder of the extraordinarily high expectations for any American president — and does bring into sharp focus all that he has left to do to make the world and this country, safer. Americans elected Mr. Obama because they wanted him to restore American values and leadership — and because they believed he could. The Nobel Prize, and the broad endorsement that followed, shows how many people around the world want the same thing. And his words in Oslo on receiving the Nobel Prize accentuate this opinion. "Throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes," Obama said. "And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century."

Counter View :

Giving the Peace Prize to the president so soon in his term embarrasses him and diminishes the honor.

After receiving the Nobel Prize before he had completed even a year in office, Obama managed to be both abashed and appreciative in his response. But no amount of self-effacing spin can obscure the oddity of this decision. Obama’s escalating image as the new prophet of world politics may have just been enough for the Nobel committee in draping the peacemaker’s mantle on the shoulders of a president who is presiding over two distant wars and who may soon send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Obama was cited for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."  Yes, he has reached out to adversaries. Yes, he delivered an admirable speech in Cairo in which he called for "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." Yes, he has called for a world without nuclear weapons. But all of these initiatives are, to use a polite word, aspirational.
By contrast, other political leaders have received the prize for real accomplishments .Be it Woodrow Wilson for the foundation of League of Nations or Jimmy Carter for his role in the Camp David agreement. It's hard to escape the impression that Obama was honored because he is so different from George W. Bush .And his dynamic image does signify America’s return in the hearts of people around the world. That's an admirable trait, but it doesn't entitle him to a distinction Alfred Nobel said should be conferred on "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." And somewhere down the line we suspect that Obama would agree.

Simply TENDULKAResque...................

I was born roughly two years after Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar made his test debut.Right through my childhood,time and time again,just like one billion Indians ,I have been enthralled by the opus of this seemingly peerless five feet run-conjurer. Just turn the clock by 19 years and I witness the ultimate ODI innings ,this time not at the tranquil environs of my home but a more delirious hostel common room which sends the country into reverberating paraoxysms of elation .Having been a cricket fanatic all my life i just had to pen down my adoration for an individual,who continues to mesmerise timelessly....
Suresh Menon, an Indian cricket writer of repute, had covered Tendulkar’s first tour, in Pakistan in 1989, where he had watched him being hit on the mouth by Waqar Younis — and battle on regardless — and strike Abdul Qadir for several straight sixes. His abiding memory of that tour was of a peculiar complaint of the team manager, the old Indian cricketer, Chandu Borde. Borde had been assigned a hotel room immediately under Tendulkar’s,and had been woken up at dawn each day by the boy knocking practice balls on the floor of his room.
Nevertheless the intensity of the Tendulkar cult in India is about much more than just cricket. In the words of cultural author Mike Marquesse,Tendulkar has always found himself at the epicentre of a rapidly evolving popular culture shaped by the intertwined growth of a consumerist middle class and an increasingly aggressive form of national identity. National aspirations are poured by millions into his every performance. It's a tribute to his strength of personality that he has somehow risen above the swirling incompetence ,the straitjacket of corruption engulfing him and a parasitical media craving for blasphemous sensationalism.

Like Tendulkar, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods(Don't intertwine infidelity with excellence) dominate their chosen sports both statistically and stylistically, and like Tendulkar they are a source of joy to fans of every stripe.Jordan, Woods and Federer may cross more boundaries, but nowhere do their performances carry the weight of expectation that Tendulkar's carry in India (and among the Indian diaspora). Nowhere are they the focus of the kind of fervour that greets Tendulkar when he strides to the crease at Wankhede, Eden Gardens, or the Chidambaram stadium.The above photograph of 8-year olds forming a 200 at school in tribute to Tendulkar's double ton at Gwalior accentuates the essence of our pride in him being an Indian......

Sometimes you can only feel a peculiar sense of sympathy for the other great batsmen of this generation.I was having one of those rare chats with dad the other day and we did agree for once.We discussed whether Ponting was to Tendulkar what Walter Hammond had once been to Don Bradman; a truly great batsman forever condemned by the accident of birth to live (and play) in the shadow of an even greater one.
Like Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar dominates his sport comprehensively, but unlike them he is the sole focus of an entire nation and its quest for identity.For lovers of sport like me,watching Tendulkar play is so much more....... for it brings with it an unadulterated joy, a joy that transcends human barriers of culture and location,a joy that bears no cultural or nationalist overtones,a joy as someone aptly said is so intimately personal,yet so transparently universal .........

PS: Ayaz Memon writes what I truly view as the definition of Tendulkar's greatness:

If Tendulkar were to retire tomorrow, a long queue of the game's greatest batsmen would await him near the dressing room: Hammond, Hobbs, Hutton, the three Ws, Richards, Gavaskar, Dravid, Sehwag, Ponting, Lara, Chappell, Miandad, et al. And at the head of this queue would be Bradman, first to shake his hand and say, "Gosh you little bonzer, I would have loved to play an innings like that!"

Taking the plunge......

From the teeming buzz of Cuttack to the surreal tranquility of Goa.....from the exuberant school boy to the naive engineering entrepreneur....Life has traversed quite a circle-with some perplexing summers,some sombre autumns ,some whimsical winters and of course not to forget the rejuvenating vernals .Yet the essence of words continues to mesmerise... ......Writing has always been a riveting pastime.Even finding a Parker pen in my dad's drawer as a kid felt like discovering the celebrated sword of King Arthur... Delving deep into the frustum of words has always been a sempiternally arousing passion .And the insatiable need to express emotions in words to a wide diaspora of netizens meant that the amateur ambitious writer inside me had to take a plunge into the world of blogging......