Anticlimactic Twist To An Absorbing IPL-2020, KXIP And RR Eliminated!

IPL-2020 has been one of the most absorbing versions ever given very different terrains in the United Arab Emirates, its three stadiums being Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Dubai is almost similar to the Indian flat tracks inducing high scores while the pitches in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are on the slower side, both rather helping the bowlers yielding mostly modest scores, more than 200 runs very rare. That IPL 2020 is so absorbing is clear from the fact that only a couple of matches to be played in the final stage of the league, only one team has officially qualified for the play-offs and it is still not clear which three of the five teams would finally join MI there. Of course, Dhoni’s CSK had already been officially eliminated from the tournament, along with KXIP and RR as of today.

 

We had maintained in our earlier IPL piece that thanks to the slowish nature of the pitches the struggle between the bat and the ball was keener, and therefore, we were having many hard-fought humdingers. Besides, we also said that the Indian win-toss-and-chase strategy had been almost neutralized here which was a healthy sign for competitive cricket. However, things have changed dramatically in the final week of the league stage.

 

We are seeing now active application of the Indian strategy, that is to say, win toss and choose the option of chasing a target, and this has been paying off. In several crucial matches we are getting used to watching the toss-losing side batting first and making perfect mess of a target, with at least 2/3 bowlers, both spinners and pacers, of the rival sides creating havoc.  Yesterday we had seen a perfectly balanced side RCB making just 120 runs batting first against SRH and another top side DC setting a pathetic target of 110 runs against MI. In earlier matches we saw CSK and RR easily chasing down competitive targets set by KKR and KXIP respectively. In all these matches and in a few more the winning sides have consistently been the ones winning the toss and then opting to chase. Such has been the importance of the toss that all these matches ended as thoroughly one-sided affairs, adding an anticlimactic tinge to an otherwise absorbing tournament.

 

The most spectacularly disappointing victims have been RCB and DC, two top teams who amassed 14 points each more than a week back, and since the last one week had been unable to win just one match to proceed to the play-off stage. DC has lost last four games on the trot while RCB lost three. Of course, at least one of them would still make it to the play-offs. The struggling first and then resurging, Team KXIP had done all the hard work to amass 12 points and needed to win at least one of the remaining two matches. They lost both: against RR on 30^th October and against CSK today.

 

Funnily enough, CSK, after being eliminated from the tournament, has become a sort of kingmaker, preventing two teams from entering the play-offs: eliminating KXIP today and almost doing the same defeating KKR (on 12 points for a long time) on October 29. To the question as to why this strategy is evolving the answer is not forthcoming. The common theory is that pitches are slowish okay, but dew is affecting the bowlers of the toss-losing side and helping the chasing side score with greater ease.

 

The lament is the probability of either KKR or KXIP winning those matches that would have given them at least 14 points each had they won the tosses and chased. Of course, we cannot cry too hoarse for KKR, because the team has been suffering from an unpredictability of the West Indies type, non-performance of key players, change of team leaders and a classic saga of strategical mistakes. Then the two teams of RR and SRH that had been performing indifferently are surging at this late stage, RR is gone today, but SRH is still in the fight.

 

As we go on talking about the anti-climax of one-sided matches, we just have had a reversal of our own theory in the tough match between KKR and RR today in Dubai. As per the set strategy RR decided to field first after winning the toss. Through the usual series of fits and starts KKR finally managed to set an imposing target of 192. Then they entered the battlefield like charged Royal Bengal Tigers and made an attacking RR totter getting half of the side out in less than five overs. The rest just lingered on, the match turning out to be entirely one-sided, but neutralizing the set pattern. KKR won the match by  60 runs in 20 overs and earned 14 points to be in the fourth position, their only concern at the moment being a low net run-rate (NRR). RCB and DC also have low NRRs while SRH has a much higher one.

 

Now we need to wait two more days for the final line-up. Today, RR and KXIP are eliminated. Tomorrow’s RCB Vs DC match would ensure one of them reaching the play-off with 16 points while the last league encounter between SRH and MI on 3^rd November would be important only for the former as the latter is already the number 1 in the play-off line-up. We might be having 2 or 3 teams locked with 14 points each and in that eventuality NRR would decide the qualifiers. So, absorbing yes, but the one-sided matches are always disappointing. And we fervently hope that the win-toss-and-chase strategy does not influence the play-off matches. The first Qualifier is to be played in Dubai on 5^th November, the Eliminator and the second Qualifier in Abu Dhabi on 6^th and 8^th November while the Final will be played in Dubai on 10^th November. 

Self-Respect And Respecting Others!

We more or less understand the meaning of self-respect which is to keep or show respect to one’s own self. A self-respecting person is one who tends to justify his/her deeds or actions or reactions in the intrinsic belief that s/he cannot possibly do or say wrong things, and if s/he gets insulted by others in the process or is asked to do or comply with ridiculous tasks s/he gets mortally offended. Losing one’s self-respect is often the end of the world for a truly self-respecting individual. This, of course, differs from individual to individual depending on the individual’s perception about it and whether his/her sense of self-respect is genuine or cultivated or vain. To this point we will come at a later context. First, we must try our best to explain the syndrome of self-respect or self-esteem further.

 

How does self-respect come about? We have to be clear about one thing that we cannot possibly create self-respect on our own; supposing we can the questions are at which stage of our personality development have we created this: at birth itself or in school/college days or during working life or during married life? Obviously, we cannot provide the answers. Therefore, we must consider this with a detached analysis.

 

Respecting one’s own self is subject to the basic fact that one knows oneself well. To put it in a personal perspective, I know myself well which is dependent on the attributes of my personality: what is my nature, how I speak or communicate to others, am I honest and frank, my beliefs and convictions, do I look presentable or not and so on. Now, for these attributes to develop in us we need a background or a base, and that base is obviously our society and our upbringing. Our personality develops from these: the environment we are born and brought up in, our traditions and beliefs given by our parents, the education we’ve got in schools and colleges, our level of intelligence and presence of mind, quality of the company we’ve been keeping all the time, nature and stature of our jobs or businesses, and most importantly, how the society and the others behave with us, look at us and treat us in all respects. From all these attributes in me I come to know my personality, and convinced in my ability, I start respecting myself or that I become a self-respecting person.

 

Another factor of paramount importance about the syndrome of self-respect is how we treat the others. It is said that we get respect only when we give respect. So, our inability or unwillingness to respect others is a factor of which we are often not aware at all. It reflects our mental state of being, that is to say, how egoistic or condescending or simply proud we are in our outward dealings and how this impacts our self-respect along with relationships. In reality, there is an inverse relationship between our presumptuousness or imperiousness and our self-respect: the more the former the less gets the latter. We may be truly unaware of this process or we may pretend our ignorance about this. Whatever it is, this process impacts the sense of self-esteem in us, and if we still go on with our peevishness then we start getting similar reactions from others and our self-respect becomes vain and showy.

 

This brings us to the point about having a false sense of self-respect. This is only natural, because we cannot deny anyone of the privilege of having self-esteem, and everyone has a right to it, even a vagabond or a thief or a dreaded criminal or all plain corrupt people. If they still prefer to continue living their lives with vain self-esteem, it’s their call, entirely.

 

For us all normal human beings the key to our self-respect in its truest sense, is to go on respecting all others in every stage of acquaintance in our life in every decent sphere of activity, not only for their jobs/tasks/deeds, but also for their good gestures and behavior. And, as we have mentioned earlier, you must not allow ego or pride come in the way of respecting others. Else, one fine morning you may find one of your closest ones complaining bitterly and disconsolately that you had never really cared for or respected him/her in all your life, which would drive you mercilessly in a spree of introspection as to exactly where you had gone wrong: till you find a clue to it you, as a genuinely self-respecting person, will not be able to live on with self-esteem.

 

The crux is then, mutual respect for a healthy living in the society of fellow human beings with your head held high, never having to stare at the ignominy of losing or probably losing your self-esteem. As a bonus, this would further strengthen your relationships with family, kin, friends, colleagues and all acquaintances at all levels of decent activities of life.

Homage To A Spiritual Guru: Vijay Kumar Deutale!

 

We call him Bhaiya that means ‘Brother’; his official name is Vijay Kumar Deutale, originally from Nagpur in Maharashtra. He was tall, lithe, bespectacled and bearded with a predominantly grey tinge. He had a baritone that was always pleasant and soothing to the ears. I don’t remember him ever getting angry or raising his voice. He was always smiling, at times bursting out with free-flowing and pure laughter and merriment. Bhaiya had been known to us since the year 2003, and all these years he had been our spiritual guru, family friend and philosopher-guide in everything he chose to speak about us or we requested him to provide answers to our inquisitive questions. It wrenches away a part of our heart and soul to say that he is no more.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale was working as a civil engineer in the government of Maharashtra. On a quest to explore life and meaning of life further he took voluntary retirement a few years back and started doing his personal work more intensively along with a stint in a private construction firm in Dubai for some time. Then he came back to India, and around 2017-18 he began experimenting with the medicine supply chain. He had been progressing well in this line, work mostly done online, keeping only a very limited number of close associates. During the lockdown period too, he was going ahead with his online activities, only perhaps missing his daily outings, mostly to his closest friends who had been his beneficiaries: in terms of spiritual advice and guidance.

 

Like Gautam Buddha, Bhaiya too left his family and kin very young in age, took the course to meditation and spiritualism, and made his life a success on his own; only that he never got married. His parents and siblings never approved his ways and, in a way, disowned him completely. Bhaiya had been living alone since then, and making a success of his materialistic career as a civil engineer as he bought his own flat in a central Mumbai suburb a few years back, and had been living alone there since.

 

He was all in his divine elements, like a live god, and was actively counselling and guiding his limited friends/associates/colleagues when a common friend introduced us to Bhaiya in Mumbai. In the days after the introduction we used to feel his presence constantly with us, and particularly during the nights I felt him treading around our home, perhaps to study us in all details. He confirmed his out-of-the-body experiments when I asked him about his nightly rounds. Aided by my rather intuitive nature and active alpha thinking I started having experiences of the ethereal type: Bhaiya helping me to delve into people’s, the ones concerned to us, minds or even bodies to find what was wrong, reading wordless messages emitted by living people in various ways, feeling the presence of good or bad spirits at times and find what the immediate future holds for us or our friends and kin. Whenever we queried him about our future or the justifiability of certain future plans, he used to close his eyes partially, his eyelids flapping, and then embark on a non-stop counselling and future-telling, never readymade solutions, but ways subject to severe conditions or dedicated efforts. Truly spiritual, he never recommended stones or jewels or talisman or anything to wear.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale initiated his own technique of spiritualism and meditation thanks to his relentless forays into this mysterious and invisible sphere. His utmost thrust was on removing negativity from body and mind, making the body and soul pure. He never bothered what people eat or wear, but emphasized on proper meditation to rid negativity. His meditation technique consisted of selected mantras, depending on the people in consideration, that had to be chanted for a designed time-period, preferably every day. Chanting can be loud in the beginning; with the practitioners gaining command chanting then can be through only moving of the lips, and at the final desirable objective chanting must be done silently, without even moving the lips. As per the goals in life of the practitioners there can be objectives like health or success in work/projects or in relationships assigned to the mantras which means that the positive energy emitted through the chanting can be channelized for the accomplishment of the goals. The said goals can be materialized by making certain pledges to be assigned to the mantra-chanting.

 

His technique was fraught with grave dangers. Bhaiya used to tell us that if someone manages to remove his/her negativity the whole of that negative force bounces back on him, the originator of the process. We were appalled by this fact: the kind of negativity he must be bearing on himself thanks to all his beneficiaries. Of course, at his supreme level of spirituality he was very much capable of throwing off such forces with ease. However, one other fact remained. The negative forces did impact his physical body. For a couple of years, he was tackling with a persistent problem on his left leg up to the thigh, constant swelling and pain. He said this was due to all the forces he had been welcoming on to himself. Perhaps, this integral part of his method partially explained why his physical body ceased to exist so suddenly.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale knew about this probability too. On various occasions he told us that his divine guru, somewhere in the Himalayas, used to send him errands, what to do or whom to enlighten next. Coming to us, he said, was a divine message and this perhaps was one of the last few errands left for him. As is proved by happenings a few years after our initiation, Bhaiya started reducing his divine practices/counselling gradually, stopping it almost completely after his voluntary retirement and his stints on various earthly jobs. On many occasions too, he used to warn us that he might vanish suddenly anytime and therefore, we or all the people enlightened by him must try utilizing his knowledge fully and fast.

 

Yes, we were astounded by his immense knowledge of almost about anything. Without any formal stint in music he used to tell my wife Ragini about the most profound and intricate things in music: in all forms, from the purest classical to the most modern, theories or practice or anything. He also wrote devotional lyrics to be tuned and sung. Unfortunately, like most normal human beings, we had not been able to gain from his acquaintance fully: on many aspects we were not able to follow his path devotedly and on many practical jobs we could not proceed as he desired. However, only his physical self has gone, we still hope to go on acquiring the knowledge and wisdom from his ethereal self.

 

On the evening of 13^th June 2020, he felt unwell with a severe stomach pain, and informed his closest associate, a lady doctor residing in Nagpur. As per the doctor’s instructions a neighbor admitted him in a hospital in Mumbai. The doctors there reportedly found a hole in his intestines, and a septic that was spreading throughout his body, affecting all the organs. He had to be given ventilator support, a day later. He passed away on the 16^th June 2020. No clinical theories can explain his demise. He left his physical form on divine errands.

 

And, we came to know about this four months later, through the same common friend who introduced us to him in 2003. It is believed now that he issued instructions not to inform anyone, except for a certain family, about his demise. This was most probably due to the fact that he sensed the misery of his close people going through during the prolonged lockdown, and he never wanted to distress or depress them further as long as possible.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale, Bhaiya, had been a down-earth-person, never resorting to the luxuries of life and always living as a common man. He never made a living out of his divine prowess nor earned money from it; he traveled to everybody’s house whenever requested on his own, taking the local trains or the city buses. And, he had always been publicity-averse, requesting us never to create any form of publicity about his activities and powers. This directive from the spiritual guru put me in an existential dilemma: to tell people about him or not. I wanted to tell his story, desperately. Perhaps, in my meditation one morning, after a very long break, there was an abstract communication with his soul which seemed to permit me on my objective. People, maybe a limited number of them, must know about him and get inspired by his life. He is a celebrity in the field of spiritualism, a silent crusader, and I am privileged to be able to let people know about him.