I was there ..........well almost

It was the 10th day of 10th month of 2010... Second day of the second test between Australia and India held at the beautiful cricket ground in Bangalore. We booked tickets online well in advance and was left with an extra one , thanks to a  friend who had ditched us. Was very excited and was up at 6 on a Sunday, time considered early even for a weekday . We had to reach stadium with time to spare as we had to get rid of the extra ticket we had. It was easier than I had expected it to be. There were a number long queues at each counter. Sold the ticket at its actual price , though people were willing to pay larger amount. 


Stadium was filling up by the time we occupied the seats. We had a fairly good view from were we were seated. The stadium was buzzing with anticipation and was eagerly waiting for the day to start. Australia were five wickets down overnight. Was hopeful of a quick end to their innings and India to start batting in another two hours. What transpired was entirely different. They didn't lose a single wicket in the entire session. The crowd, which was buzzing at the start was pretty quiet as the session progressed. Some of the guys were trying to cheer up the crowd by all means possible. It was all in vain.


It was lunch time and we moved out to have some snacks. This is were we committed a mistake when all of us went out with no one guarding our seats. They were obviously occupied by the time we returned and had to look for a proper place from where we had a good enough view.  The second session was completely different to what transpired in the first. Australia lost all their remaining wickets with one of their batsmen scoring a century which was duly appreciated by the capacity crowd. 


Indian innings commenced after tea break and was off to a rollicking start thanks to Viru. We were having a blast with Sehwag scoring boundaries at will. This was short lived as he perished soon going for another big shot. The disappointment of this dismissal was soon forgotten as the home crowd favorite, Dravid, walked out to the middle. He too walked back to the pavilion soon leaving the capacity crowd at the beautiful stadium stunned in silence. Part of me was sad to see the back of both Viru and Dravid. The other was happy in hope that I would be witness to the landmark day in Test Cricket history.


Suddenly there was a buzz and huge roar in the crowd. The God of cricket just walked out to the ground with His weapon in this incarnation  in hand. He was cheered to the middle and one could see the excitement and anticipation of the landmark in the crowd. Amid all the roar , He was cool , calm and composed and went about the things at His own pace. Each and every run from His willow was cheered. Crowd were cheering him on to the fourteen thousand landmark. I was least bothered about what was going on around. My total concentration was on Him and was praying to Almighty to let the one on earth reach the land mark on that day. The guys with whom I was at stadium were more intent on beating the traffic to reach home than on the match. I also had to leave with a heavy heart along with them. I had to drag my legs out. My heart was against leaving. This was one of those situation where I had to listen to my head over heart for social reasons. While I was on my way back , was informed that Sachin had indeed reached the land mark. I should have been there. It turned out to ... I was there ........ Well Almost ..

How to start a great conversation with a Girl .....

The plunge into the icy Atlantic is scary. It’s bone freezing cold and you wonder if you can survive. Even the charming  Jack  couldn't do much as he swam in the Atlantic when Titanic sank. What chances do you have? Plenty.

First of all, you’re not in the Atlantic. That’s a good start for you. Making the move to talk to a girl can seem like a very daunting task. This is a very natural step that is as unique as you can be. You could do just about anything here, walk up to this person, even if she is with her posse of giggling girls, who already know why you’re approaching them, or you could step in closer and wait for the moment when she’s alone (which usually never happens. How wicked, isn't it?).

Here, again, your words don’t really matter, it’s all mostly in your tone and your composure, and that wickedly sweet smile of yours! Even if the damsel is proud and pretends like she isn't interested in knowing you, you can still go on with your words, adding humor and a line that makes her understand that you can’t imagine leaving the place without knowing her, and spending a few moments to get to know her better. Be calm, however much you feel the situation slipping away from you. If you want to pester her to talk to you, even if she declines it, do so deftly coating your words with a lot of charm and elegance.

If you've always dreamt of swimming across the English Channel, you know the first thing you have to do is learn to swim. It takes time, but you know there isn't much you can do but master the art of swimming one baby step at a time. The same with a girl , you get smoother each time you make your move.

If you can pull it off at the first try, that’s just perfect. Or beginner’s luck! If you’re not very confident, practice it a few times in different situations, when you’re alone and bored. It definitely helps you become that much more smoother. If it doesn't work in any rare circumstance… well, don’t tuck tail and run under the bed. Remember that even the best moves can go wrong. That shouldn't really stop you from approaching anyone else. Remember, approaching a girl you admire is wonderful, and it’s always a great feeling if you can pull it off your way.

Learn from your mistakes, and very soon, you would be able to approach just about any girl without a single sweat bead on your brow. If you are worried about the others who just watch and wait for you to mess up, just to get their laughs – ignore them.

Last day at my first job ...

My last day with previous employer  started on a hectic note and ended with me being exhausted. Slept for about two hours before I was up to catch the cab to Airport. Reached airport and was seated  looking around aimlessly as usual after the formalities . Saw a gorgeous girl seated few feet away from me. Her beauty was flawless. But my eyes turned away from her .. This was just the second time this has happened , first such instance being in a mall. Then the girl , though beautiful was smoking. So didn't like looking at her any longer. This time though the reason was different. My eyes were restless and mind was tired.  Went on looking around. Then I saw a kid of about two playing with another kid of similar age. This was  what I wanted for refreshment after a tiresome thirty odd hours. Beauty , in a pure form , to give me some sort of relief and refreshment. Innocence in the eyes , calmness of face and the purity of smile almost made me forget how eager I was to board the plane and doze off. On hearing boarding announcement came to senses and proceeded towards boarding gate. Just slept after boarding the flight and woke up on reaching Bangalore. It was only after my lunch I found time to reflect on the previous days happenings while trying to get some sleep.

Interview with HR was the first thing . Was pretty cool as I refrained from giving any controversial answers and all were  politically correct. There was clear lack of motivation and intent in the way I was answering. Completed some other exit formalities and just killed time till afternoon by doing routine things like morning tea with my "Chai Team "  , chatting etc . Went out for lunch and was back after about two hours . I was completely mechanical till now , just going through with the motions . Partly because it was hectic and partly due to my thoughts racing around . Bid farewell to some of my batch mates   Small farewell was organized which had cake cutting and was given souvenir . T-shirt with signatures and messages from teammates bought back college memories. Was also given a "Jabulani" with signatures of my Chai Team , a pleasant surprise. Was asked to say a few words , which I politely declined . I was in doubt if I could hold my composure if I started talking , particularly because some thoughts of B.Tech were also racing through my mind. Had one final tea meeting in front of CNN building enjoying the ambiance.  Made arrangements to get luggage transported and met few other friends before heading home. 

Now , I am here in Bangalore , recollecting the days happenings , while trying to sleep. I am quite pleased with how the day unfolded. There are things which I am happy to have left behind  , Noida climate being on top of list , especially summer. Having spent three years of my life there , I would have to be a guy with a passive heart to not have things to miss. I am quite happy that I held my composure in the last few moments . Life moves on and my journey now has lead me to Bangalore . Looking to have a great time .

Au Revoir !!!!!!!

Today , when its time for birds to return ..... Sun says bye for the day ......... in the book of my professional life , a chapter comes to an end. Journey , planning of which was done on a cold chilly night  of January three years ago , and commenced at an entirely different end of mercury level seven months later , is about to come to an end.  Sailing was not smooth and had its crests along with troughs ,  which is as expected with life  . First day is still fresh in mind and haven't yet forgotten Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows read during training.

The sense of achievement , though a minor one , at the start of your career ,  after days of  burning midnight oil and making a release is always a refreshing memory. News that all  our efforts were futile the very next day was the down side to it. Loved the challenges all along and take pride in the ones I overcame and I believe the failures , if any , were a learning and only added to my experience.  There were many days where it was pure slogging at its best  On few days , it was like  a craftsman  at work. Joined as a freshman and have grown in all facets of life. Got to meet different kinds of peoples with varied characters.  I truly believe this played a huge role in my personality development. Had loads of fun and enjoyment in team parties. It would be a grave sin if I fail to mention our tea time chat , the best half an hour of the day where we discuss pretty much every thing . Our " Ashes" between FE and BE teams also was a great experience , though was second best on most occasions. These three years coincided with probably the toughest period yet of my personal life. Few have been of great support in those tough times of mine and  thanks would just be undermining their role.

I have always believed " Change is the only Constant " , One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a long time. I thought , time was finally ripe to move on in life. I would like to take pride in being emotionally detached and believe that glitter in your eyes followed by drops on your cheeks is precious .I , along with two other friends , were the ones to have bid farewell to all our close friends in college five years ago . The precious  couldn't stay inside the eyes and did come out for a few truly special ones that day. Tomorrow the chances are quite bleak ... but you never say never !!!!!!!! 

Last man standing ...

It started on Tuesday and carried on till Thursday. It was one of the greatest moments of Sport. Neither of  the men involved , though not unknown to tennis followers , was Rafa or Fed . It was  last man standing stuff , term usually associated to wrestling and not with beautiful lawns of Wimbledon , that flirted with fiction and reality. It was nothing spectacular but breathtaking and the  basic requirement of sport , commitment  to the fore. It was a match in which  two gladiators , Isner of USA and Mahut of France , giving it all , barely able to stand at the end of 11 hours , were inseparable , with  Isner edging it 70-68 in final set. Final set alone was fought for over seven hours easily eclipsing the previous longest tennis match.

Beauty of sport lies in the human factor which eventually makes mistakes that rival can take advantage of or a moment of brilliance or the factor called luck to intervene. But these two fought on for three days defying the laws of sport. It was also beautiful as it was devoid of controversies. This match was purely about will. Every person has a breaking point in him before he quits. It's the point at which his courage ends and contest doesn't seem worthy enough .  We give in Psychologically. But not these two. Those two wouldn't just quit.

What makes it more beautiful is that they practically played for nothing.  It was not a grand slam final played on Center court , just first round on court 18. The winner will not pocket money in millions of dollars .  There was no national pride involved. It  makes their performance even more astonishing. They were just playing for their personal pride . Professionals doing their job and giving everything. They were pushing their body for one more point .  It was more a show of human spirit than a match. Sport has been bought to disgrace by many issues , match fixing , racism , tampering , politics etc to mention a few. But matches like this are what brings back glory to it , irrespective of what  happens around. France football team showed no desire in their match against South Africa. They could have looked no farther than their fellow  country man , Mahut , for inspiration. It's a cruel world in which we live in . So one man had to be  second best.

College Chronicles --- Part - 4

When I was in class eleven and twelve , I had the pleasure of experiencing  five different campus environments in two years. My first stay was about twenty miles from town , serene environment and also had a hostel kind of feel associated to it. My stay there was for a month and was shifted to a place which was in out skirts of town . This place was a colony and residents were not just students. It was a pleasant change for reasons pretty much obvious . My time in this place was even less and had to shift my base again to campus which was in heart of town. The only advantage being its accessibility to hotels. This stop in my journey was for about six months before we moved on to a place which had a country side feel to it. Here we spent around seven months and we really had a blast. 


Our next campus was about fifteen miles from town , in a village. It had a proper campus feel to it and had acres of greenery to supplement its wonderful atmosphere. There were two temples nearby. One was on top of hill outside our campus and the other just beside , which can be seen for my room. Evenings were pleasant at times , with cool breeze and gentle music from temple ,  relieving you of  stress and pressure of college life. There goes a saying that old habits are hard to change. On our way to college , we observed small stalls on road side where food was available. One fine day we tasted the food when we were given permission to go to town for bringing necessary things. The urge to go out and eat was difficult to contain. We had two options . Either take a walk to office , fill out a form , take permission from in charge and go out . Just jump the wall and explore the world outside . Found the latter option easy to implement. This activity which started as an occasional one was now pretty much regular. Me and a friend also were pretty regular visitors to the nearby temple. Generally we used our highway , jumping the wall . On certain special occasions we followed the formalities . We preferred our highway as it was just a matter of five minutes walk from our room. One evening after some discussion we decided on using our highway. My friend jumped and I was about to. I heard my friend say some thing. I was in no mood to listen and climbed it. When I was about to jump , saw campus in charge seated in temple along with the priest. He was the one who used to wake us up every morning as he very well knew that we didn't care our warden. Now I could make out what my friend was trying to say. I was about to jump back into campus , but stopped on directions from in charge. When we went to temple , he started his lecture involving the priest in between . He was praising us at times. When we started to relax , he started scolding us. He was mixing in every thing he could think of and we were in utter confusion and couldn't come to a conclusion of what he tried  communicating to us. We were given a lecture for about thirty to forty five minutes.  On the first break he took , we seized on he opportunity and asked him that we will leave and we had to study. He could understand the cynicism in our voice and class extended another ten minutes. We finally left , taking offering of god from him. We jumped back into campus. We burst out into laughter and were in tears , for not all tears are an evil. 

More Cricket

Having started on cricket in previous post , I'll continue with few memories of cricket. When I was in school , I used to spend my holidays either at home playing or my grandma's village. It was the time of Sankranti and we usually have a school break for about ten days. I was around nine or ten years of age and was having a blast in holidays at the village. Usually spend time going to my uncle's fields or playing along with others of my age group. One early morning there was a buzz outside our home. People were going in groups with bats in hand. My uncle had some casual talk with them . They were a person short and I said that I would like to play. I looked out of place among them as they were all quite few years older than me. On the way I came to know that it was a regional rivalry ( among two streets of village )and they would be playing for money . I was tense as this was the first occasion I being involved in a match which money was involved. Ground was surrounded by bushes . Opposite team batted first . I was made to field close as they thought I would not field well and my mistakes would result in boundaries. I enjoyed fielding close in. I dismissed two batsmen (run outs) , one which was a direct hit. They put up a good score and my team was going on well with our chase. At that stage I thought my part was done for the day and was happy that I played my part well. From a healthy position , a dramatic collapse put us in bother. Though runs needed was less , wickets were thing of concern . I was the one left apart from the other two at crease. I was praying that these two win it for us and I shouldn't be needed. Rarely do things go on as planned or the way we want. Another one got out of the last ball of a over and we had one over to go with three runs to get. I had to go out to bat. I was still hopeful of winning and me not getting to face a ball. Striker wasted two balls and got out going for a big hit. I was left to face three balls with three runs needed. Our team was resigned to defeat. Seeing my diminutive size , bowler relaxed and just bowled a loosener. I dispatched the ball into the bushes and our team was victorious. I couldn't believe , overcome with joy and was mobbed by teammates.

In school our class had the reputation of being the most indisciplined one in entire school. We maintained this legacy till we left school and took no measures to change it at all. By chance if any new teacher came with no opinion about us , it took very little time for other teachers to give description about our class. When in class eight , there were plans to have a match between students of class nine and ten for sports day . We were against it and insisted that we also be given a chance to play. Though there was certain opposition , it was decided that we take on a combined team of classes nine and ten . I was my team captain and chose to bat on winning the toss. Our team was a well balanced one. We batted deep and also had quite few bowling options. We put up a good score with contributions from all those who went in to bat including me . We knew opposition strengths and weakness as we had already played them many times. Three or four of us discussed and set fields , bowled according to plan. I initially took my position in slip and in later stages fielded close in . Took two good catches of their important batsmen. They could never go at the required rate and in the end we won quite easily. It was a memorable victory as whole school was watching and practically all teachers were supporting the other team.

Cricket was pretty much part of our daily schedule in BTech. We played almost everyday after college.  In our first or second year we played a match against fourth year guys. There was a bet involved of around hundred bucks or so. We had first go with the bat and scored above one hundred and fifty in fifteen overs. When it was their turn to bat , they were pretty dismal . We were on way to a handsome victory with just a casual  effort with ball. Then trouble started with umpire , a guy of batting team , calling two of our bowlers for chucking. First guy somehow completed the over. The second guy was so irritated . He uprooted the stumps , started hurling expletives . He also said that they could have the money as charity and there was no need to cheat for mere hundred bucks. One of us , of course not me , had to intervene and cool him down and stop him. I was completely taken by surprise because this guy was the last person I expect to lose his composure. ( This guys name also starts with H and its not me .)  I still have a good laugh when I recollect those events. In BTech I was badly injured my hand just before exams , playing cricket. Luckily I didn't have to struggle as exams were postponed and my injury healed in time. I still have a memory of it on my palm.

College Chronicles --- Part - 3

Cricket ... Seven letter word which unites people across age , gender , caste, religion , regionalism and all other divisive factors .. It is a religion which has devout followers . As it is with every religion , this too has a "God". When he is on field a billion souls pray for him. Mumbai streets are empty. Even at times of distress he can bring a smile on your face .. Some confessed their nightmares .. Some said " I have seen God , he bats at no.4 for India in Tests" . A banner once in Sharjah said " I will see God when I die , but till then I see Him " . Another in Sydney " Commit all your crimes when He is batting . They go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching " . I can go on and on .. For the limited edition species who are still unable to make out , He is Sachin. My memories of cricket dates back to 1992 and I have been a pious devotee for 18 years and counting . In my 11th or 12th class , which my pea sized brain can't properly remember , after our night study hours , a discussion started between   ten or twelve of us about him. I couldn't  understand the reason why Indians take pride in criticizing their heroes.  Discussions usually turn into a debate with people taking sides. Amazingly in every such situation , I end up in minority group. It was three of us who were in support of him and we were easily outnumbered. The discussion / debate / fight , had more of a noise than information. It was passionate sprayed with tiny pieces of  logic in between . Time flies during these times , and even before we noticed we had spent almost 4 hours . As I am used to now a days , meetings or discussions rarely have conclusions. It was never going to be different and our debate didn't deviate the script. Everyone went to bed , tired , with a feel of satisfaction and belief that they had the upper hand in debate.

  Time Magazine's quote on Sachin:
"When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam. When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy. It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will."