Cut it for memories

Second most fickle thing to politicians in India, is electricity or at least sometimes back it used to be. Sitting alone at my desk one day when electricity went off, I wandered into some very funny and delightful memories. I remembered the time when I was in school, when homework was the biggest worry. Well more worrisome was realizing it late in evening and worse than that was the fact that lights went off as soon as I sat down to complete. But somehow that no-light thing also brought an excitement with it, of spending some more time with friends in the neighbourhood, chatting, gossiping and playing dumb charades. Even adults were not spared. I remember how ghost stories sprang up instantly and aunties revised all the gossips they had completed discussing that day.

The course followed when I went to college. Standing in those galleries of Cautley, we had Inter-branch gossip. It would be a letdown if I say that we had to complete assignments when the electricity cut off, which anyhow remained incomplete till the very last minute. But then the fun was in throwing a light beam at someone’s face or room, to hurl abuses with changed voices and to go to hostel top for a bakar in changed ambience. I think whole of my lobby mates would remember that night during the end sem exam of Solid Mechanics when we had no electricity for the whole of night, for whole of that time when 80% of college prepare for exam. From my branch the guy at the receiving end was DJ. He received a back due to that one fateful night, as the rumour goes.

Well may be down the years, we would have no electricity cuts. I somehow feel bad about it. I feel sad about my juniors who would never experience this part of college fun. I feel for the kids in my locality who have no escape from that evening work anyhow. I feel for the nostalgia associated with such acts as trivial as electricity cut off, which our future generations will never experience. All this I thought in 5 min, because that’s what it took for electricity to resume, thanks to generator in my locality. I resumed my work.

On 5th ODI

Firstly like million other I rever Sachin with utmost devotion. I believe that come decades, there wont be a player like him. We witnessed another GOD like display from him yesterday. I just made a loose comment that in India after Mahatma Gandhi, Sachin must be the only person who inspires collective emotion of whole nation. Also he must be soon awarded "Bharat Ratna". Nothing less.

As the match came to an end with the loss I somehow could find the flaw in my loose statement. Gandhi finished the job for which he came into the arena and thats where Sachin has not been up to the mark.Not for the first time its happening that maestro played a valuable innings and India lost. So close yet so far. I was disappointed with Sachin just because he didnt just finish it. I mean you got to finish the job you take over. He just didnt do it. It made me remember Misbah's shot in T-20 final. He could have won it for pak, but he just didnt do. All good work went down the drain and it further added to the tally of those innings which Sachin played in vein.

Also it highlights one of the major difference domestic cricket structure of Australian and Indian cricket. And it shows when the situation is what it was yesterday. Our players just didnt have that temperament to take us to victory when experience was absent to guide them. I mean there was a circus going on the pitch.

Last but not the least. We were playing an Australian team which was far far depleted in resources and which defied the odds once again. And I feel thats what a champion attitude is. I was not that disappointed coz these days cricket is Sachin Tendulkar for me. I will watch if he plays. Else it is shear waste of time to watch and then have disappointment of loss, of game and time.

Snippets

Rain it seems, is a thought provoker not because it comes from heaven but just because it gives a lot of idle time, when you just have an option to sit and think. This weekend was again a rainy weekend and so in breaks I had a lot of time to ponder over things.

Gandhi Jayanti seems to have no importance to people in jamshedpur, since this is one of the 5 holidays many of us get in the whole year. But I am sure the importance of it is lessening across nation too. What a pity.

I think we are witnessing the slow death of cricket. The attendance in recent champions trophy is one measure. I witnessed one of the die hard fans confessing his loss of interest in the game. Go football ( read as “GOD”). Btw no offence to cricket fans, I was also one, once upon a time.

Read a new Dan Brown book, well the ending should have been better. Though I found it better than “Da Vinci” on some points. One more book I read was “ P.S. I love you”. Really a bad book I must say. Disappointing.

Football on weekend was upset with my team drawing and the rivals winning.
Well the news of the fortnight has to be this. Jamshedpur has got a Dominos. I twice checked the spelling on the hoarding to make sure. Went and asked the junta around and then the reality dawned on me. Some reality. So this weekend it was beer, pizza and football.

CCD here has finally started playing good songs other than “ghunghat-ki-aad-se-dilbar-ka” types. But dominos is yet to catch up. It had “saat-samundar-paar-me-tere-piche-piche” types on first day.

Saw the movie “Gone with the wind”. Couldn’t believe that the movie was made in 1939. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”.

Ending on a sentimental note. Read this in a status message. “Some feelings sink so deep in heart that only loneliness can help you find them”. True, I must say. Sitting alone and watching rain dripping, I replayed some of the long forgotten good incidences and could still feel the warmth. No good thing ever dies.

Ritual

This piece of writing follows, in the fond memory of my group benzene. The name may suggest a group of chemistry geeks, but it was nothing like that, there were six of us, hence the name. Six of us and unfortunately after first year we were allotted different hostels. I was in Cautley, 2(Dex and Myst) of them were in Ravindra, one (Virus) in azad, 2 other(Dude and Matt) in Ganga. Except for two of us all our branches were different, so meeting regularly became problem. We met sporadically, especially on bdays to give bumps and all. Still we always felt that we could make it more frequent. Finally as I remember it was matt’s bday in 2nd yr (6th apr) when the idea of meeting every Saturdays , w/o miss was discussed and passed with 6 ayes to 0 nos. Now every Saturday we used to meet and go for dinner, then have a night-out, play AOE (which is a one big story in itself :D) and then be back in our rooms around Sunday morning to sleep. After sometime, this Saturday night dinner came to be called as Saturday night ritual and there were very few Saturday in the next 2 yrs when the ritual was not followed. Even in heavy downpour we used to walk to hostels and eat in canteen, just to keep the ritual intact.

Actually I was just thinking about it this Sunday when it was raining on and off for the past 2 days and I had lot of spare time. When I looked back I realized how the unfortunate event of separate hostels became a kind of blessing. It reiterates its importance when you get out of college and into the job when weekends is the only time when you can have a night out and it is the only time to go out with friends. May be the ritual seems too stringent but believe me if you enjoy with a group it will become a way of life. What I feel is that living in a social group is ingrained in us, as we grow up. No matter how much we try to remain a loner, a need for a group, where we can laugh off some bad memories, where we can discuss some problems is always felt. And believe me, when you will look back on these meetings, as I was doing this Sunday, you will feel a surge of emotion rarely felt.

I came back to present and it was still raining and I decided to dine out along with some friends, since we dine out every Sunday.

Sense and Play

There must not be many people around who do not like any kind of music. Music is an appeal to the emotions inside you, it rejuvenates your soul. Some say it is language of god. This world had music right from its inception. Evidently most of us felt that music should accompany us wherever we are on this earth. This want resulted into rapid progress of technology in this field right from first walkman by sony to latest version of I-pod in the market. But still I feel there is a missing link and I am pretty sure that very soon this missing link will also come into existence.

The missing link I am talking about is the link between my instantaneous emotion and the song which my I-pod is playing. Is it not possible, considering the advances in the field of bioelectronics, that in future we have a mp3 player with emotion sensing device, which will sense the emotion and play the song accordingly. Imagine the situation when you are high, your mp3 senses it and plays “comfortably numb”. Can there be better customisation of your mp3 player to suit your personal needs. I hope I am heard.

Shoe again

Disclaimer: The incident in the article is purely fictional. Any resembles to person alive or dead will be a mere coincidence.

The shoe-throwing activity, it seems, has inspired many. Three incidents have been reported in quick succession. Well it was not that surprising when I became a witness to one such incident. It happened at my work place. One of my colleagues, Moon Light (ML), I know that’s strange name, was the hero of the day. This guy being utterly talented in the whole lot, got a call from Merrill Lynch in spite of recession. Also he has a MS call from Stanford. On the top of it he was a bit annoyed with the recent happenings in his firm.

Allegedly some biasing had been done in written examination and then some more in a telephonic interview. According to ML, as soon he started giving right answers the call was cut and when they called back they started asking every other question than his field. Also to his utter dismay the people in the telephonic interview were stunned after hearing his name, as he says and so they awarded him less marks. The telephonic interview was held for internal assessment.

Also as ML describes his grief further, one day he found his answer sheet being used as toilet paper by a slum boy. I dunno what he was doing there. By the way the slum is some where on the way to near by race course. ML snatched that paper and some others which were used, compiled them as a proof and kept them in his pocket. He forgot to take them out and all the shit work got washed with the laundry.

In order to express his grief he had to resort to this shoe flinging thing. And so the climax of the drama came in a meeting where all VP’s and MD was present. Everyone knew ML so he was given the first row seat. Suddenly in midst of the meeting a wave of a killing bad odour, as if gutter manhole was left open in conference hall, spread. The people sitting in back rows immediately made their way out as the odour was emanating from somewhere near the stage. The remaining people saw a shoe being thrown in the direction of a VP, who was previously chief of a department called Relation Management & Handling (RMH). The shoe didn’t strike the target but all in the close vicinity fainted. Actually there are very few eye witnesses of the incident as the whole of first row was half dead with rotten smell. Only testimony of the guard of the auditorium gate, who saw ML coming out in one shoe, is the proof. After that he dosent know coz he fainted too.

Probe in the incident revealed that the shoe came from ML and the smell from ML’s shoe. It is the greatness of my firm that in spite of kicking ML’s asses they presented him with a new pair of shoe and one yr monthly supply of socks absolutely free. Also to keep an employee like ML in the firm, the firm published this incidence in the media and so Merrill Lynch took back its offer and so did Stanford.

Believe!!!

That’s what my gtalk status message reads. I think I should clarify it. Last year in Champions League Final in Moscow one stand of united supporters formed this word with white placards in their hands. It read “BELIEVE”. What a strong message.

 

Also recently I gave a book review presentation. The book name was “You will see it, when you believe it”. Never interested in self help books I started off with reluctance and when I finished I could relate what those fans wanted to convey.

 

Not even I could relate it I could see it live on TV, every Wednesday and then on Saturday and so on. I am talking about Manchester United quintuple campaign. This team has a belief and to back that belief they have strong characters. Come what may, they are standing like a rock of Gibraltar.

 

United went into a tough tie against Villa with 2 defeats and then there they showed why they are champions, why they boast of the best youth academy and what is character of a team. A 17 yr old prodigy Kiko Macheda won the game for united in dying minutes on his debut.

 

This spirit again confirmed itself at Estadio De Dragao against porto. Those who were looking for a goal spree had their hope quashed but those who appreciate a rock solid display must have savoured the game. I think in every campaign at least there are 2-3 fixtures which are just a test of team character. Last year those matches were I think  semi final legs against barca. This season there have been many such display which show why United can never be turned down. Why we rein supreme and why are we champions.

 

So all of you reading this, even if you are not united fans just remember that its very necessary to believe. Believe in your dreams and turn then into reality. Along may come pain, toil and hard work but then that’s the difference in the people who have believed and turned dreams into reality. That’s the difference between Usain Bolt and millions other, that’s the difference between Mahatma Gandhi and the masses. That’s the difference between SAF and 998 other managers and that’s the difference between Manchester United and 100 others. So BELIEVE!!!

 

Glory Glory Man Utd.

Request: Please correct me on grammatical errors if any. 

For the Love of this game

In January, I visited my college during last week. And so I also went to football ground. Inter-hostel tourney was going on and I was on the sidelines watching one of the matches. I stood thinking about the time when I was one of those in yellow. I had felt this before and again felt it. Love for this game. I was planning to write something like this and was reminded by a comment in my previous blog.

I am fan of Manchester United beyond definitive adjectives. And I feel that to develop love for any game you have to be a follower of any team. A team revered by you. I used to watch EPL matches during school time. I lacked regularity and knowledge. After I came to college I came in contact with abhinav whose fanship was infectious. I think some united-god send me to cautley to spend my years with fans like sarangi, tejo and babu. And so I was painted Red all over by the time I came out. Devil I always was.

5th Jan ’08, 4th round FA cup against Aston Villa, Giggs puts in defensive tackle in 80th minutes, makes last but one pass and rooney scores. 2-0, United through to 5th round. Well I was well involved into the match, this I realized when I saw that tackle by giggs and tears came to my eyes. I was overwhelmed by the commitment shown there. I mean its 80th min and you come back running because its a counter-attack, take the ball away and help in scoring. I realized that day I had formed an emotional attachment with the team, the game.

Now I really understand that why people are crazy about their clubs. One friend of mine once asked me to keep check on my reactions when I celebrated as united scored. I tried, but to tell the truth, its hard to keep down anything that comes direct from the heart. And so I still celebrate in the same manner in which we guys used to in cautley TV room. I remember that in penalty shoot out of Champions League final, I missed watching 3-4 penalties just coz I couldn’t see my guys missing them. The penalty that terry took, I heard it from sarangi it was like… “Shit he has dived on the other side.. oh yes he has slipped”. The time between the two sentences seemed like whole season.After United won all were hugging each other and I was on the platform where TV was kept and with my arms in 10 o’clock was screaming. What a moment that was.

Well I write all this about my craziness just “For the love of this game”.

"Take it to the next level"

Inspired by a forwarded mail, but the thought has been coming to me since I watched that nike ad with the same motto. It is evident that quite a moving ad it was.

 

 In second semester, I went for cricket trials. I had never played with leather ball before, but somehow the trials went good and I was called up for nets. Well that is a different matter that I never made it up to first team. Then I tried again in third year and this time again I failed to make it, in fact I got so pissed off with cricket that I erased any form of cricket from my life for coming year.

 

So as soon as fourth year started I was on football field. Well this is the time when all sane minded people leave playing and extra-currics and start focussing on future prospect which their accumulated CG’s  open for them. Well I didn’t have good cg to ponder about and was more interested in football rather than cat. Obviously I was out of my mind. But in my friend circle I think everyone was like that only so I didn’t feel anything different.

 

Also in football too I didn’t made it to first team. Well I may be seen as a failure by some and I say it is justified too. But I am not writing this to justify myself in anyway so I wont dwell on this subject. What I want to emphasize is the topic. During my first year in cricket with leather ball I took my game to next level. I used to get a good amount of swing and I had pace. Same thing didn’t follow next year. I was stagnant. I was not able to move ahead. One reason for this was that instead of focussing on improving I was rather focussing on getting into team. I could never think that if I kept on improving eventually I would get a chance. Also in the process I would continue to enjoy the game.

 

When I started playing football, I made a point to enjoy the game, learn skills and understand the game or rather taking it to next level. And the results were very good. I improved my game. I remember that coach’s opinion changed from “you only know how to run fast” to “your football has improved”. Still even when I am in job I take time out to play football.

 

By and large many of us fail to understand this basic thing. Not every one of us can become a ruler in every field. But every one of us can take a skill to a next level. If we work with this motive the results are palpable. Also the frustration part is taken care of because there are visible improvements in front of you. Till date I have applied this principle to many things and I have got very good outcomes.

 

Next time you start doing something; just “Take it to the next level”. And keep on doing this. 

Unwrapped

It was a gloomy evening. Everything seemed to carry a tinge of sadness, man and animals alike. Coincidently it was year end too. Saket was trying his best to keep his spirits high. Past 3 years he had spend his 31^st dec travelling due to one reason or the other. How much he craved that time to have a travel less 31^st dec and how much he was regretting it today. It had been barely 6 motnhs in the job and so the cribbing part wasn’t over yet. In fact the reasons to crib were increasing day by day.

 

It was around six when someone called. The moment he heard hello, he knew it was ankur on the other side. So long it had been. This was good enough of a reason to smile. At once a plan was made and the evening was set. He had got a companion to crib with. So they met in a mall, far from their places so that there would be no reason to visit each others place. This place seemed as if it had been gift wrapped, with a promise of something good inside. And everyone was afraid to initiate the unwrapping part with the fear of getting acquainted with reality. And so everyone seemed contented.

 

They started roaming around watching human robots with every expression that was synonym of happiness, on their faces. He at once knew the secret as he bore the same expression. After endless discussion about who was being treated worst by his employer, they decided to have snacks as no one was feeling hungry, and none of both wanted to celebrate the beginning of year.  

 

While holding a burger in his one hand and a can in other saket moved out and was waiting for ankur to come. Standing few steps above the ground he took the first bite and at once knew that it was horrible. It seemed that all the frustration of whole year was finding a reason to get out and it had a genuine one now. He at once flung the burger towards garbage can. It didn’t go into can but landed just outside. Suddenly 2 living soul rushed towards it. A child in ragged clothes and a dog. The similarity was in the expression of hunger. Unwrapping was over, though unintentional and he knew why everyone refrained from it.

Electronic GOD and his beloved son

I some times wonder if there exists an electronic god, I mean the way ancient greeks or Egyptians used to have. If there exists a god like this then he is damn unhappy with my friend atul, lead character of my previous blog “comp katha”. Either He is angry with him or atul is his most beloved child, put to test every now and then. So we continue where we left in “comp katha”. After the computer was decimated, atul with indomitable spirit , converted his HD to xternal one. He also bought a new lappy.

Till the lappy was delivered in packed box it was all fine. No, no don’t jump to conclusion. This time it wasn’t cracked or anything else. This time the problem was with “partition magic”. Something happened and everything was  ground zero. The OS refused to start. And there was our champ faced with one more battle. Well by evening everything was good. What a fight back.

After that came a bigger problem, this time it was xternal HD. Since it claimed lineal descent from that wrecked comp so it was bound to have problems. What happened was quite elusive. All the data in the HD started disappearing, well this was quite an awe to a metallurgist and a civil engineer.  One of our frnds rohit barnwal, a true devotee of electronic god, enlightened our souls with his profound knowledge. Also he suggested a possible remedy to this problem. Well rohit barnwal is like oracle in matrix and this software, recuva , as I remember proved to be “keymaker”. So atul and recuva were on mission with a vision to recover.

For 2 days in row atul was nowhere to be seen. Finally at the dawn of third day, electronic god smiled and data was back. Yes it was back. Triumphant once again, pumping his small fists in air came out atul. I truly believe that there is an electronic god.