Social media detox and other ideas to stick to

-

last fortnight of 2018. Another year coming to close. It is winter and hardly any chance of snow here in Peel on Christmas Eve. It is that time of the year when self reflection starts to envelope my thoughts. If I break down last 2 decades in 4 quarters, last quarter has been full on Social media toxic addiction. So much so that it almost destroyed relationships within the family. It is a monster that may not be tamed but can definitely be kept at bay. These new unofficial ministries of Fake truth manufactured emotions misleading presentation of educated falsehoods are consuming us and how. I am active on social media but not too an extent that will believe anything and everything that is being forwarded.

Thankfully not being so photogenic and unsmiling face helps to keep the temptation of posting pictures 7 times a day. With all said and done, it is still almost impossible to stay totally isolated from this addictive pretty ugliness. There are some good folks out there too whom you would never meet in person but you may get a chance to video chat with them some day who knows.

Though I was not able to devote as much time to reading as I thought I would but it was better than 2017. I hope 2019 turns out to be even better than what I have done so far not only in terms of reading but writing as well.

Coming from India and that too from North India (I hate to label it that way but, in a way, I am compelled to). Haryana is right next to Delhi but I can not speak Haryaanvi. I am a Punjabi and can speak Punjabi but some how I do not sound like a Punjabi. Let me be very clear I have no disrespect or malice towards any language or regional accreditation. Have to borrow   a famous dialogue from Chak De India where SRK explains that mujhe ek hee naam sunaayee deta Hai INDIA.

I love the languages that I can speak and understand and also the ones that I can not.

So, coming from North India my love for Bollywood music (Hindi cinema music) food cricket and Indian Politics and journalism keeps me going back to Gulzar songs Twitter Hindi news papers and cricket writers. These may sound lame excuses to stick to SM but I want to say engaged and informed and also be heard. So how much SM is good SM. There is no definitive answer to it but these SM calories need to be managed rather efficiently. Need to cut down before being irrecoverably consumed. That is one of the things that I want to work on in 2019.

A cricket recap of 2018:

Cook's fairy tale farewell was quite remarkable. Zimbabwe winning in Bangladesh NZ edging out Pak in a thriller were high points. Sandpaper gate was unpleasant but I feel everyone overreacted a bit. New Australian side or I should say Slightly Un-Australian side has locked horns with India in their backyard and the series promising to be a real delightful contest. As usual Boxing day tests are very eagerly awaited events. SL will take a lot of heart from what they achieved in Hamilton. SA vs Pakistan should be a good context too. West Indies are tapering off Test radar rapidly. Not very heartening to see them losing test matches with in 3 days. Ireland and Afghanistan have joined in but are far from making any impression any time soon. Only England Australia India SA and to an extent NZ and Pakistan seem to have not lost their focus in test cricket. I would support an idea of 2 tiers in test Cricket with Top 6 and bottom 6 (Rankings to be revised every 24 / 30 months) with test matches being also played slightly differently. Let a test match involving any team in Bottom 6 be a 4-day test (98 overs a day: which kind of makes it Lunch day 5). No series should be less than 2 tests. Teams in bottom 6 should play minimum 3 tests against each other. ICC needs to be firm with some of its policies and should encourage better scheduling practices.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Game 6 #CWC2019

-
Remember 1992 World Cup. Each team played every other team in the competition.  CWC 2019 is Going to replicate the same format. A lot has changed in 50 over cricket since 1992. Today’s game was between Pakistan who had a pretty ordinary game against WI and England in red hot form and they are the home side. Pretty settled unit.  To me this game is going to be a key milestone in the journey of this tournament. We got a score of 348 by a team batting first and it was under a very real threat of being chased down successfully. No centuries in first 5 games, we got 2 in the second half of this game. The tournament is wide open. No easy games.   Many pundits will have their predictions wrong and will probably have their punditry scrutinized. Am I prepared to keep going with my predictions... yes😊. Pakistan played smart cricket today. Sarfaraz used his spinners quite well. Jason Roy got out cheaply. Hafeez chipped in with useful wickets. Amir and Wahab kept t...
Read more

Game 7 #CWC2019

-
In one of my earlier posts I did mention that SL and Afghanistan will have the basement battle in points table. This is no disrespect to SL but they are downhill for a lengthy period of time with no sign of arresting the slide downwards. Afghanistan on the other hand has the capability to play competitive cricket. As it turned out , a good game of  cricket. Although it was rain curtailed, it was not a dull contest. SL emerged winners. Their middle order at the moment is feeble to say the least. Directionless as well. I can see lots of changes happening in SL cricket after the  completion of this tournament. They were able to win largely due to their top3  and  a very dependable Malinga. Afghanistan has made some big strides in international cricket but I don’t really expect them to pose any major worries. With that being said, they are not easy walkovers either. They have young bowlers who are only going to improve in the days to come. With more and regular crick...
Read more

2020... the year of lessons.

-
 The lessons that 2020 is throwing are the most unexpected ones but are also life-changing. As the world is going through a global pandemic, we have all become too conscious of and perhaps too vulnerable to our surroundings as well. Technology has picked up the pace and how in the last 2 decades. We all were running at a tremendous pace creating a rift between nature and our existence. The pandemic has given the unwelcome unpleasant and uncomfortable pause. Much like mother nature imposing a speeding ticket on us. We better become responsible drivers and share this planet with other species with utmost care. In most accidents, pedestrians suffer the most without being at fault. Other species are pedestrians, we are the ones being impaired drivers. If anything, this pandemic has healed our plant a little bit. Lesser pollution, lesser noise... it helped but it caused hurt too.... to the economies across the globe. The travel industry, airlines, tourism, job losses, reduced salaries.....
Read more