Idle Thoughts

Sachin Tendulkar completed 20 years in international cricket. In some aspects, it appears that Sachin is in a zone where time has stood still. Before his debut for India, he was asked in an interview about his ambitions. “I want to play for my country, sir” the boy replied. Not an unexpected answer at all in the context. Some twenty years later, in another interview, Sachin talked about his ambitions - He wanted to play for the country. I heard the same passion, the same determination that I heard 20 years back. Even the voice hadn’t changed! The same goes for the fans attitude as well. I remember watching matches where India was hopelessly staring at defeat: sitting at the edge of my seat, heart in my mouth only because Sachin was around there slaying demons. Anything was possible when he was around. I went through the same experience again last week when India played Australia in Hyderabad, chasing some 350 runs – watching Sachin trying to make the impossible possible. Nothing seems

I had read a lot about Max Muller, before I got around to reading anything that he wrote. In fact, going by the contrasting views that I had read about him, I knew of two Max Mullers. The first Max Muller opened the eyes of western scholars (and some eastern, they say) to the real worth of Vedas and argued for this civilization’s rightful place in history. The second Max Muller misrepresented the facts about Vedas to suit his faith and prejudice. Which one is the real Max Muller? Was he the apostle who propagated the message of Vedas to the west? Or was he the devil who distorted the facts to fit prejudices, confusing the uninformed? Recently I had the opportunity to read what Max Muller thought of Vedas and Indians in his own words. Initial revelation was that Max Muller is not as much of a student of philosophy and religion as he is a historian. His interest in Vedas and the rest of Sanskrit literature mainly is the light that it can throw to the history of development of reli