Respected by choice...

When I was a little kid, my parents always told me, “Respect your elders”, as the years passed it became, “Respect your teachers” followed by “Respect your friends” followed by “Respect your peers” etc. My simple question,”why?” Why should I respect people I am told to instead of only the people I want to? This led to further research on my part as to “Is there actually anyone who I genuinely respect?” If there are, then “why them? Why not others?

The world today is a marketplace of leaders. Economic, social, religious, cultural, political, self proclaimed, you name it and you will find people queuing up to be the next big thing. One thing synonymous to all leaders is that “Leaders must be respected”. However, considering that people like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Suresh Kalmadi, Shibu Soren are also supposedly leaders, respect is sometimes hard to come by. Still, people do respect them. Difference is, it is more often fear and compulsion rather than respect.

However, there are people in this world who have a kind of personality that commands respect. Nobody ever taught me to respect my mother; it comes from within me, its 100% genuine. That’s commanding respect. Her personality is such that I don’t have to think twice before respecting her. Similarly there are such people in the world known by many, who command a similar kind of respect. In the blog titled “Respected by choice” I have tried to portray certain personalities who I willingly respect. At no juncture have I equated their level of success to the respect that they have earned for themselves because I think success is no yardstick to measure the respect a person commands. In the process, I have also tried to pay tribute to them. Surely I am not the first and will not be the last to do so.

Casinos in L.A. would probably pale in comparison with the earnings of some footballers today. These players probably have the money to buy certain towns in our country. The fallout of this being that they change clubs like diapers and don’t think twice about it. Football is the new business arena where the smarter you are, the richer you get – end of story.

In such a world there is a certain ‘Ryan Giggs’ who stands out among the crowd. He stands out because he has the distinction of playing for one club throughout his professional career despite getting lucrative offers from elsewhere. He started his professional career at 17 at Manchester United. Sixteen years down the line he is still at United. Add to that, he has consistently been playing top notch football, still bamboozling defenders half his age with ease. There was a time when he enjoyed the kind of media attention that Ronaldo or Becks do now. What makes him different is that he decided to shun all the attention as it was better to concentrate on football. Giggs has been an Old Trafford faithful throughout. His achievement? Unconditional love from the Red Devils across the world and respect from anyone who understands football.

Till date, Giggs prefer to stay away from interviews, photo shoots, media conferences etc. Yet his name is often splashed in the media. Why? Because, his football does all the talking for him and Giggs is content with that He does not want to be talked about for anything else. Out of all the achievements he has had over the years, I would like to end by pointing out at one “Securing the commitment of millions of young hearts towards Manchester United for life.”

PS: - My heart included!

Firstly, this post is not about the truckload of records that Sachin Tendulkar possesses. I dare say that even if you are completely ignorant about cricket, you will have heard of a few. Also, this post is not about glorifying Sachin – the cricketer. It is been done by number of people (overdone at times). This post is about celebrating Sachin Tendulkar – the person. He commands respect from almost every person in this country and beyond. The man has got more number of ‘Man of the Match’ trophies than some of these present talking breed of cricketers have runs. Yet, in every interview I have heard from him, he praises every other person except himself. After more than 20 years of playing at the highest level, Sachin says that he is grateful to the country for providing him the opportunity to play such a long innings. Honestly speaking there will be no argument if Sachin were to say, “India should be grateful to me as I played for 20 long years.”However he never has and never will say that… because he is Sachin. Sky may not be the upper limit for him but ground is definitely the lower limit. Both his feet are always grounded no matter what and that’s saying something, as he has more than enough incentive to fly.

Some incidents during the childhood stay in memory. Sachin Tendulkar looking heaven wards after scoring a ton, just 24 hrs after his father’s death is one of them. Everyone in my house wept for him that day. When I think of it now, I know exactly why. Such selfless service one has to respect, there is no other choice is there?

Success comes to many but only a few can handle it well. For that I respect Sachin Tendulkar. His dedication, his character, his values elevate him to a level hitherto unseen in any other sports person. I could not care less if the world cup final is held in Mumbai. However I will do whatever it takes to watch Sachin play his farewell match LIVE. My only objective is to contribute a pair of hands that claps relentlessly foe a man who deserves it all – believe me, it is the least I can do.

Our current president gets the private screening of every movie that hits the theatres every Friday. She’s the first woman president to have been aboard a fighter plane. She goes to every VIP meeting with an entourage of family and friends and makes it a point to tour the place all with the taxpayer’s money. Now if that’s all that a president is supposed to be doing, then I am changing job preferences right now!

Her predecessor to the post had created an impact that was impactful to the point that I actually started believing that we might just have a chance of becoming a superpower under his leadership. He was honest, free from corruption, knowledgeable, hardworking – in short, he had all the qualities that are never present in an Indian politician. He was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Result- He did not receive an extension of term and had to leave office after four years.

During the four years however, there were a number of instances which earned him my respect. He managed to tour schools all over the country as he believed that there is a lot that can be learnt from children. Although he didn’t have the time to visit the hairdresser but he had the guts to reject the Bill of Profit as it was against his ethics. Today India has the ballistic capabilities to face almost any nation. A large share of the credit goes to Kalam for his path breaking research and innovation on missile technology. After his presidential term, he donated a library of books for reading and guidance to his successors in their job. Going by current trend, I say dust and other particles have a new mansion all to themselves.

I’ll start by saying that I am not an atheist. Neither am I a strict believer. So you kind of get the idea that I am still figuring out my way in this maze called religion. (Believe me, it is a maze!). My mother is as devoted as they come. So I’ve had more than my share of “Why should I pray?”, “Who I should pray to?”, “Who has done what for God” and all that. Amidst all these preaching’s there is one so called ‘monk’ who actually got my attention and still has not lost it. I say “so called” because his words, actions, deeds nowhere resemble what one expects from a typical saint. Anyways, listen to this, “You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.” This is one of the many famous quotes of the man in question, “Swami Vivekananda” Nowhere does this quote signify the usual preaching’s we associate these men with. Vivekananda never shied away from challenging the norms. In his childhood home, there were different hookah pipes which were meant for different castes. Swamiji smoked hookah from all the pipes. As the taste was same, he concluded that the caste system was baseless. Basically, a tight slap on the face of all the orthodox people then.

As far as I know, he was the first representative of India in the west. His introductory line at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago was, “Brothers and sisters of America”. The line was followed by a two minute applause after which he resumed his speech which was thrice allowed to exceed time. He was a saint himself but his lectures were never focused on God. Hard work, dedication, concentration always found precedence. His firm belief was that the best way to prevent children from getting spoilt is to leave them at a ground with a football. To cut a long story short- he hardly sounds like a religious preacher, but if what he preaches is religion then I am definitely willing to be called religious.

If I did not know better, I would have claimed that all Tennis Grand slams are rigged. My simple reason being that almost every Grand slam ends up with the same two names in the last match of the slam. It’s as if both these men have unfinished business to take care of with each other and stamp their claim as the best tennis player the open era has ever seen.

Yes, I am talking about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Both of them have faced each other in more number of finals than most players will ever play in their career. This post is about the FedEx-Nadal rivalry. It is about the fiercest competition that the tennis world has witnessed. Nevertheless, a competition that is respected from the both ends of the net.

We all have a favorite between Rafael and Roger. Irrespective of your support for one, you can never be disrespectful towards the other. These man themselves share a mutual respect for each other which speaks volumes about their greatness. After Nadal won Wimbledon for the first time, his portrayal of joy was very submissive. Why? Because he respected and felt for Roger who was crying buckets at the other end….

Roger and Rafael are text book examples of healthy competition. In the court both men stop at nothing to get the better out of each other and in the process have given us some of the most memorable matches in the game. However it is perhaps the only rivalry in the world where the loser gets the same amount of applause as the winner. On field they compete to win, off field they are just two individuals in awe of each other.

We call it rivalry.

Correction… “Respected Rivalry”