Sri Rama Navami 2011

Today, April 12th 2011, is Sri Rama Navami. Sri Rama Navami celebrates the incarnation of Sri Rama on Earth. It is the 9th day after the New year, 'UGADI'. Sri  Rama Navami occurs on 'Chaithra Suddha Navami', 9th Day of the First Month of a Year. Rama is the Incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He took birth as a common man and his life remains as an absolute example for every one. His life was bio-graph'ed by the great sage 'Valmiki' in 'Ramayanam'.

Rama was born as the eldest son to the great king 'Dasaradha' and his mother 'Kousalya'. He had 3 step brothers- Lakshmana, Bharatha, Satrughna. He learnt all the skills from his Guru, 'Viswamithra'. He was married to the 'Sita', the incarnation of goddess Lakshmi, was the daughter of the king, 'Janaka'. As a result of Rama's step mother's jealousy, Rama was asked to lead 14 years of his life in Forest. So, Rama along with Sita and Lakshmana left the kingdom. There, 'Ravana', the evil king of Lanka, kidnapped Sita. Rama found Sita and destroyed the evil Ravana with the help of 'Hanuman', King 'Sugreeva'.

This day marks not only the birthday of Rama but also the day when Rama was crowned the Emperor after the return from forest. 'Rama raajyam', the kingdom of Rama, was said to be a perfect kingdom where there was no crime, fraud in the country. Jewels, diamonds, gold were all sold for free. No part of the kingdom suffered drought. It was always a land of surplus resources.

Rama's existence can be remembered by his Kingdom's capital, Ayodhya, which is still in existence. Ayodhya has many temples of Rama which celebrate this festival with utmost joy. Can you imagine any one who wouldn't celebrate the 'Rama raajyam' ??

The 'Rama Sethu', the bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka is present under the ocean today. This bridge was built by Rama from India to Sri Lanka on Ocean to fight the evil King Ravana. It was built by stones, which floated on water. This was possible by writing the name of Rama on every stone, which floated on water then. And thus the bridge was laid to Lanka and the evil King Ravana was defeated. Even today, the satellite images prove the existence of this bridge.

Jai Sri Rama !!

2011 ICC Cricket World Cup Finals

INDIA Vs SRI LANKA

 

Vs

It's been a month since world cup started. Teams clashing in league matches, knock outs in Quarter finals, battles in Semi finals. It almost sounded like a World war for cricket. Going through all this stuff, we've reached ICC Cricket World Cup Finals. It was in Wankhede stadium, Mumbai on April' 02 2011 that India repeated its feat from July' 1983 and clinched the world cup title once again. India regained the world cup after 28 years !

There are a lot of prominent records that will be remembered by the 1.2 billion populated country. It was achieved after 28 years of struggle. With Sachin Tendulkar retiring soon, he is now left with the crown in his medal bag. He remained patient for six world cups he played and finally achieved it in the end. For Dhoni, it's a fest, as his lucky charm worked again. Dhoni has now won up a world cup title in ODIs also apart from the T20 World cup title. Yuvraj singh, who was in poor form reckoned once again and played a wonderful series in his life time and was awarded the 'Man of the series'.
With other players coming in handy time to time, India was able to win the title successfully !

    

The match started with Sangakkara winning the toss and electing to bat. Zaheer and Munaf restricted the Sri Lankan batting in the early overs. After Jayawardene entered the crease, the magic of Sri Lankan batting started. He hit a superb century in just 84 balls and boosted up the run rate which was sluggish until then. In the batting power play, sri lanka scored a massive 63 runs in just 30 balls and set India a competitive target of 275. With Yuvraj and Zaheer shining at India's end, India was able to restrict the target to 275.

Later when Indian batting started, Sehwag was out in the 2nd ball of the 1st over for a Duck. After a few overs, the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar was gone with a thickish outside edge leaving India at 31/2. It was a toughest moment and Indian youngsters Kohli and Gambhir led India with a good partnership of 83 runs when Kohli was caught and bowled by Dilshan for 35. Every heart of the 1.21 billion populated country was beating in tension. This is when the captain of Indian team entered the ground and hit a 'Captain Innings' of his life time and scored 91 runs to finish the match with a wonderful SIX. The match finished off with 10 balls left.

With the whole team shining in most of the matches, India remained as the favorites throughout the tournament.  Zaheer finished second in the tournament with 21 wickets, Saching finished second with 482 runs in the batsmen list, Yousuf pathan finished third with the longest six hit. With Team India clinching the world title, India will bounce to the First place in the ODI rankings !