There is a Japanese legend that says:
if you miss the bus, maybe you avoided the accident. If you got rejected, maybe you were saved from the wrong place. If they left, maybe they made room for who is coming. The universe protects you in ways that look like bad luck at first. Trust the detour.🍂
Le vieux du quartier m’a dit : « N’oublie pas que la boussole a été inventée avant l’horloge parce que la direction est plus importante que le temps. »
The universe will make sure you'll win if you just believe in yourself. Universe doesn’t reward talent, luck, or intelligence first , it rewards the one who believe in themselves. let me remind you every good thing that you have in your life came after you decided to believe in it. even when nothing seems to be working. even when it feels quiet. even when your faith starts to shake a little. keep believing. keep visualizing. Keep showing up like it's already yours. Universe moves in silence before it reveals its magic. what you can't see is still unfolding. what feels delayed is simply on its right time. your belief is the bridge between where you are and where you're meant to be. Hold the vision a little longer cause It's already on its way to you. Manifest the sh!t out of it!!!
Ending a connection sucks but you know what else sucks? Feeling deeply disappointed in yourself for holding onto someone whose behavior breaks your heart and also humiliated that you still want to “make it work” despite how they treat you.
THAT shit sucks. And it hurts. End it.
We are overstimulated and we don't even notice. Netflix while eating. Reels in the bathroom. Music while cooking. Podcasts on walks. We consume by default, not by intention. You keep filling every gap, then wonder why you feel foggy and unmotivated. Boredom and silence are the real growth drivers. They give you space to think and create. That's when solutions show up for problems that have been stuck for months. Leave some room.
You remember the auction room of 2018. Some kid from Patiala, barely old enough to vote, zero first class games to his name, suddenly worth 4.8 crore. It looked like the kind of punt that destroys franchises.
7 years on, that same kid is hitting sixes like his life depends on it. Because it does.
From 2019 to 2022, Prabhsimran played just 6 IPL games. Punjab kept the chequebook open, kept him on roster, kept whispering about potential. But potential without release rots you. You spend nights in hotels carrying water bottles. You watch Gayle & Dhawan do your job. You start believing the auction price was a curse, not a blessing.
He ran to stay human. 7 kilometers, then 8. Every morning. The burning in his lungs was better than the silence of the bench.
Sachin Tendulkar told him something once; He said most boys would kill to sit where he sat. Told him to find contentment there. Sounds like advice for a monk, not a cricketer. But Prabhsimran clung to it.
Then 2023 happened. The Impact Player rule dropped. Purists screamed about death of cricket. For Prabhsimran, it was oxygen. He could swing from ball one without worrying about the collapse.
13th May 2023, Kotla. Delhi Capitals had them against the wall. He walked in & played the innings of his life. First 30 balls: 27 runs. Next 35: 76 runs. No other batter crossed even 20 runs for his team while he scored his 1st IPL century. Delhi missed the playoffs. Prabhsimran found himself.
But that is not why he bats like his life depends on it. You need to meet Sardar Surjit Singh, His father. Kidney failure. Three sessions a week hooked to machines. The house in Patiala is heavy with it. The only time the old man lights up is when his son opens for Punjab. They carry him to the couch before every game. Position the TV. For 3 hours, the sickness vanishes.
Think about that weight. Every boundary is not runs for him, It is medication. Every six is oxygen for an old man. When he says he plays for his father, he means it literally. The single joy in a week of hospital corridors & medical debt.
Come the 2025 auction, Punjab retained 2 players only. Shashank Singh & him. 4 crore for a keeper who had spent 4 years doing mostly nothing. He repaid them with 549 runs at 160 strike rate.
Shreyas Iyer gave him something simple; Freedom. Told him he was senior now. Told him one bad game would not end him. Freedom to fail.
Now he is flying. Strike rate pushing 173 this season. 80* against Mumbai off 39 balls. 51 off 25 against SRH. Each innings bigger than the last: 37, then 43, then 51, then 80*.
The boy who waited is now the man who delivers.
“Sleeping peacefully under Modi rule”?
Let me wake you up with facts. Not opinions. Facts.
▪ 26 tourists were executed in Pahalgam on his watch; in a state under Central Government’s direct administration.
▪ Our own former Army Chief Gen. Naravane confirmed in his memoir that political leadership KNEW about Chinese intrusions in Galwan weeks before 20 soldiers were killed, and did nothing. Those soldiers were sent without firearms on orders from above. Not my words. A 4-star General’s.
▪ China STILL occupies 2,000+ sq km of Indian territory in Ladakh per government’s own admission in Parliament. The PM who screamed “not an inch of land taken” was contradicted by his own Defence Minister on the floor of the Lok Sabha.
▪ Manipur has been in ethnic civil war since May 2023. 260+ dead. 60,000+ displaced. Presidential Rule imposed in 2026, 3 years after the violence began.
▪ India-Pakistan went into a full military standoff in May 2025 after Pahalgam; ceasefire brokered in 4 days. Same enemy. Same territory. Zero deterrence achieved. Zero accountability taken.
▪️ India’s neighbours; Pakistan, China, Bangladesh; are all in active hostility or territorial dispute with us. “Surrounded by hostile neighbours but sleeping peacefully” is not a flex. That’s a confession of paralysis.
The man who promised a “56-inch chest” sent soldiers to die unarmed, watched China build railways into disputed land, let Manipur burn for 3 years, and held no one accountable after the worst terror attack on civilians in a decade.
This isn’t stability. This is a sedated nation, where the government controls the anesthesia, the media controls the dosage, and you’re told to call unconsciousness “peace.”
You’re not sleeping safely. You’ve just been told to stop looking out the window.
Humans shouldn't always stay at home, even if you have nothing to do. Because staying at home for too long makes the brain become dull and leads to overthinking. You'll have more negative emotions. Psychology calls this state mental rumination. Most of the time, people who stay at home long term are not physically lazy - but mentally exhausted. You increasingly do not want to go out or see people. Even going to the supermarket downstairs to buy a bottle of water feels troublesome. You start to get used to being in a daze alone, scrolling through your phone and staying up late. Then you repeatedly struggle with yourself in an empty room. You think you're resting. But in fact, you're quietly draining the vitality of life. Your brain needs stimulation. Movement. Connection. Without it, your thoughts turn inward and spiral. The longer you isolate, the harder it becomes to break the pattern.
The brilliance of #FreedomAtMidnight (S1 & S2) lies in its HONESTY. It stays rooted in historical truth, celebrating the legacies of #Gandhi, #Nehru, #Patel and several others without placing them on a pedestal. It presents them as human, who’re flawed, conflicted, pressured, yet extraordinary in their decisions and contributions. It shows how they built the foundations of modern India and subtly reflects on what we lack today, what we’ve forgotten, and what we urgently need to learn again.
what you do in private, shows in public.
Reading shows in a conversation. your diet shows in energy. your discipline shows in confidence. your focus shows in your results. you are what you cultivate when no one is watching. prioritize your time & focus on discipline/consistency.
There’s a particular cruelty in cricket’s numbers when you’re a pace bowler. The sport will worship a quick who can touch 150kph even if his average hovers around 30, but a bowler who runs in with the intensity of a man trying to push a broken-down car uphill? He needs to prove himself in triplicate just to get his kit bag in the dressing room...
Michael Neser has 423 first class wickets at 23 odd average. He also has 4000+ runs at average around 30. Those are allrounder numbers. Yet until last month, Neser’s entire Test career could be summarized in a coffee break: 2 matches, in last 4 years, each appearance feeling like Australia had remembered they had a spare key hidden under the doormat...
Stat sheet doesn’t tell you about the 2010 Shield debut, when a 20 year old Neser dismissed Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh; two batters who’d go on to play Test cricket, whose Test careers would begin after that game & end before Neser got his baggy green. It doesn’t tell you about the countless times he’d be the best bowler in Shield, only to watch the selectors fax in another squad with his name in the “emergency only” column...
“I feared my Test career was over,” Neser admitted last summer, and you could hear the exhaustion in that sentence. Not the dramatic exhaustion of a torn ACL or a stress fracture, but the quiet, grinding fatigue of a man who’d torn his hamstring playing Australia A against India A at the MCG; 12 months on the shelf for a glorified practice match. The kind of injury that happens to players who are always available, always dependable, always one phone call away from being told “we need you to carry drinks and maybe bowl 12 overs in nets if it rains.”
Neser, at 35, became the human equivalent of that reliable sedan in your garage; works perfectly, gets you everywhere, but everyone’s dreaming about the sports car they can’t afford.
And then, the twist. Gabba 2025.
Last minute selection over Nathan Lyon, a decision that had Shane Warne’s ghost reaching for the whiskey. A 35 year old on his home ground, picked ahead of the greatest off-spinner of the modern era. The controversy was delicious. The vindication? Even better.
Neser’s Test progression reads like a man who’s tired of being the backup plan.
1st Test: 2 wickets. 2nd Test: 5. 3rd Test: 6. 4th Test: 4 in the first innings at MCG, each wicket a middle finger to the idea that you need 90mph to succeed in Australia. He has never gone wicketless in an innings. Not once!
In this series where England built their entire philosophy around speed; Wood, Archer, Carse, Atkinson. Neser & Scott Boland have tilted this Ashes by proving that 5 good balls an over beats one thunderbolt followed by four half-volleys...
Depth of Australian fast bowling didn’t just keep Neser out of the side; it forged him into something harder, sharper, more complete. While others were being rested & rotated, he was bowling in Cardiff, batting in Glamorgan, learning to be the player you’d build a team around even if nobody ever did...
You won’t find many pace bowlers with those numbers, in any country, in any era, still waiting for their moment. But then, you won’t find many cricketers like Michael Neser...
He doesn’t need speed. He has got something better: perseverance. And finally, the opportunity.
A generational freak isn’t just raw pace or shiny numbers. It’s showing up again & again.
With bodies breaking around him, From Ryan Harris to James Pattinson to Jhye Richardson to Pat Cummins or Josh Hazlewood, Starc kept running in. Fit, Fast, Ready. Whenever asked
Too good👏
In January 1999, a 24-year old Ricky Ponting held a press conference with a blackened eye.
He told the media he had a drinking problem, and said the black eye was the result of a drunken brawl in a club.
Most people saw a careless brat not valuing the opportunity to play for Australia. Few saw a young man who had the courage to face the media with a black eye and concede he had a problem.
The young man would eventually take Australia to its greatest heights.
There have been some formidable captains that have taken their test teams to great heights but haven't won an ICC tournament. There are captains that have been successful in limited overs cricket but don't quite have a great test record.
Ponting is an exception. Four ICC trophies along with 48 test wins with an envious win percentage.
The most impressive of the triumphs, in my opinion, was in 2009, where he won the ICC champions trophy after most of their great players had retired. He carried a relatively young side on his shoulders and was the man of the series.
We are in December, well into the yearly Australian summer. I remember as a kid, I would invariably have a 5 o'clock alarm throughout these months to watch the magic of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and the likes.
But the biggest motivation was to watch Ricky Ponting stride out to bat at number 3 with intent. He walked to the crease like a man in search of an adventure. He owned the pitch, and he made sure the opposition knew that with his swivelling pull shots off the front foot.
I loved to watch him dominate bowling attacks around the world, including India. The style, the arrogance, the swag; the aura that Viv Richards carried before him, and Virat Kohli after.
The world hated him, for the major part, and he did not give a damn about it. The tiny eyed man with a boyish grin conquered the world, and retired as the most successful cricketer the game has ever seen.
The image of Ponting walking out to bat with his collar up is still one of the most badass images in the history of this beautiful sport.
I remember being numb on the morning he announced his retirement. And to watch Michael Clarke break down at the presser added to it. The fact that I won't be able to watch him bat again took a while to sink in.
Happy birthday Punter, it's been over a decade since you've retired. But I still miss my 5 o'clock alarm.
This isn’t a review but a must-read ideological critique on the propaganda film #Dhurandhar from today's @the_hindu.
Adding a fact with Proof - it wasn’t the Kandahar hijackers who called “Hindus cowards” but the RSS Sangh who labelled the pilot & the passengers as cowards.
Earlier I shared once, sharing again -
After The Kandahar IC 814 Hijack incident on 24th Dec,1999 where the Indian Govt had to release 3 terrorists in exchange for the lives of 155 passengers & 11 crew of the hijacked plane the deal draw a widespread criticism calling "national humiliation".
At this moment the then-RSS Chief Rajju Bhaiya (Rajendra Singh) wrote a column in Panchajanya that the incident exposed the deep rooted cowardice within the 'Hindu Samaj'.
He emphasised that Hindus should never fear death. He argued on the aircraft, even if 8-10 young men had stood up and confront the terrorists they could have made difference.
He noted that while concern from passengers' families was expected, the intensity of their protests was unbecoming of a decent and dignified society. This is why Dr. Hedgewar emphasized cultivating 'Veerta' (bravery) in the Hindu community."
This the way the Sanghi brain shifted all accountability from the then Vajpayee Govt to the common public, also a hidden advertising of RSS - 'Join RSS become Brave'.
However, the famous Sanghi of VHP working president Ashok Singhal extended this discussion. In one press conference, when he was asked if the Govt could show its courage during this Plane- Hijack, he replied it was not the Govt but the pilot who had to show courage.
"If the pilot had courage, he would have just refused to fly the hijacked plane."
HT reporters reached Captain Devi Saran for his bite. This time the Captain said in response "I don't know who this gentleman 'Ashok Singhal' is but he knows nothing of aviation or the value of innocent lives."
Captain Devi Saran also said
"If he speaks about being a 'Hindu' then at first I'm a Human. Even Sri Krishna in Mahabharata tried his best to prevent Bloodshed before Kurukshetra.
I would like to ask this Gentleman Did he meet the family members of the hijacked plane passengers or Crew during this crisis period?"
Many passengers came out after this & slammed Ashok Singhal's statement.
A few passengers wrote a letter Where It said
" When the conversation failed on 30th Dec & the hijackers started talking about bombing the plane in the sky it was Captain Saran who told us how to open the emergency door. It was planned that he will not let the plane fly but run till the end & crash it with the wall so that we passengers can jump off the plane & escape.
In such a situation, he was going to be killed certainly. And if Mr Singhal is so courageous then why didn't he come to Kandahar to fight those Hijackers & rescue us?"
Red faced Sangh Parivar further had no discussion on this subject.
It is noteworthy that after so-called nationalist RSS was founded at Dusshera Fest in 1925, it had 22yrs before Independence to make it's mark in the history of the freedom movement. And in it's entire History it worked as British stooge and after the Independence as agent of CIA for petty monetary benefits. And that too have ample evidence.
Right now only attaching the proof of the above mentioned incident below. Check that. 🙏🏾
@nmannathukkaren