Opinions and Opinionated

Ever since I've been out of Chennai, I've realised that life and people have strated seeing me as ME and not as son of Mrs and Mr. so and so. I've had no qualms about this, but for the queer fact that people want my opinion in lots of issues, but cant bear me if I'm opinionated. Though I agree life is always fuzzy, I believe in being binary as far as my likes/dislikes/passions/hates go. Its either I support it or I'm against it. I dont like trying to be politically correct/diplomatic/wishy-washy in any issue.

The other funny thing is the dictionary meaning of Opinionated. It goes something like this:

o·pin·ion·at·ed (adj.)
Holding stubbornly and often unreasonably to one's own opinions.

I feel that the word has been one of the most misused/abused words in the english language.

My opinions on any issue depends on what kind of an issue it is. For issues which have a straight Right/Wrong, I have seen that almost always I take the right side. It could be basically because I was brought up in a hindu family in India where siding with the wrong was never encouraged that my thinking has been permanently influenced by it. For issues which dont have a straight yes/no or right/wrong, I consider it my preveilege to have an opinion and am entitled to it.

I'm proceeding here to just give a few daily life examples, where people see me as opinionated.

1. Tendulkar Vs Anybody (Dravid/Lara/Ponting.......)

I started watching cricket at the age of 5 and it so happened it was the debut of Sachin then. Ever since I've been fed on Tendulkar's drives, cuts, pulls and sweeps that it is impossible for me to accept anybody else as better. I have seen Tendulkar play for 16 years and I'm yet to see anybody as consistent as him (again my OPINION). People argue that Dravid has been matchwinning. So what? When I see Dravid bat in a test match, more often than not, I sleep. I see Cricket for entertainment and don't care about India winning/losing. For one, the system in India is so corrupt that I want Indian team to be disbanded so that corrupt pigs like Dalmiya will stay away from the game. So from this point of view, I can't support Dravid. Moreover, Sachin through the major part of his playing days played in a team which always ooked at him as the batting mainstay (he still is looked at as a mainstay). Sachin knows that if he gets out the people who are coming in next have two demons to fight - the opposition and also the nagging feeling that the best player is back in the dressing room. I can surely say Sehwag and Dravid will surely feel safe knowing that either Tendulkar is in the dressing room padded up or is already with them in the middle. This itselfis a huge advantage that Sachin doesnt enjoy. And coming to people like Ponting/Lara - these are batsman who are technically less sound than Sachin and are players who blow hot and cold. I know entire seasons when Lara/Ponting have failed. Barring last 2 years (when his body is refusing to cooperate), Tendulkar has never had a full failed season. Give me the statistics to prove me wrong. And my take on matchwinning effort is its pure coincidence that Dravid has scored well and the other departments also clicked in the 2 tests that we won and I know innumerable occasions when Sachin has scored a 100 and still we lose- the reason? bad fielding/bowling/weather, which are not in his control. Cricket is a team game and Sachin is a batsman. As long as he scores his runs, I will worship Tendulkar as God of batting. Period!

There are other issues like ARR - Ilayaraja, Superstar - Kamal, Ajith - Vijay and many more....


P.S: Fortune favors the bold.