Rahul Dravid

Everyone around me, everyone I know or everyone who knows me has been asking about why I haven't written anything about Dravid after he retired on March 9th. My story with Dravid here goes:

I was in 6th standard and that was time we had only doordarshan at home. That meant I watch every program that came on tv. That made both my Granny any me to watch cricket, tennis, gyan darshan and everything. India's favourite sport had to be telecast the highest as well. Dravid became my fav cricketer just for his smile I guess. 1999 world cup and I had begun to understand a bit of cricket I could appreciate that us being kicked out in super six and Dravid was the highest run taker of the tournament. I did not understand why he was called slow.

I went to Surathkal and then came to Intuit. Constant companion were those matches and the support. I have argued, fought with people over Dravid. WHy I like Dravid? Dravid is what I want to be, but am not. That patience and concentration is what I want to see in me one day. The way he handles pressure, criticism is how I want to be some day. IN coding area, he is like Randhir who goes to see the code, the design and tests before jumping onto the coding, the implementation. Dravid understands the ball and then decides the merit of it and plays it. I cannot write sweet or poems, but end of it, he is a role model.

Some old ones

When prose has has rhyming words in the end, they become a poem for me :D

Some like the rain, some like the sea..

I like this guy who went to WIMIWI

It seems only yester

When Sam told shez going to Leicester

If time flies any faster

Tomorrow she ll celebrate Easter

Feels very bitter

These days, 2de and yester

Makes no better

Thinking I shouldn't deter

iLived

I hope I can tell that one day. Steve Jobs was for me was just the CEO of Apple, the company for which developing apps was a biig process of the reviews and intricate details. Oct 6, when we had a holiday and I open my FB page, it is filled with RIPs for Jobs. And then I read his life.

I crib and remember every single bad day in my life, a proof in my blogs. I rant and gossip. I am not comparing myself with Jobs, but ...

http://www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi/no-goodbyes-steve/

iShalltry.

:)

People back in India!!

Seen this trend of posts in FB.

Well, most of my classmates went to US, for myriad of reasons. There is a theme in their statuses and comments.

'@People of India...'

'From what I see in India...'

'so difficult to picture tht street in India....'

etc etc..

Worse is when they get back for a month of hols here. The traffic and the pollution takes the life off without the kerchiefs and hats. And the gyan for fight against causes in India.

An intelligent year in foren land probably has this effect. I don't find anything wrong in them not getting back. The rate of exchange is too high to leave. But come on, 25 yrs here wasn't as bad :)

Damn.. I dont understand myself some of these days, or maybe I am beginning to get to know. I feel I am what I dint want to be.

Evrything seems to be wrong, whereas I know de r wer de shud b. I say doomed.

WC?

After one about IPL, here is another on cricket.

At the start of this tournament, I hadn't predicted in my dreams that India would lift this cup. Another thing was I wasn't following ODI for a while(or so I thought). But cricinfo is my best friend and my not following wouldn't be true.

Trivia: I read avg 3 articles per day

So they beat Bangladesh, but allowed them to hit a 290. Come on, which team's bowling is worse than this?

Found it in drafts.. Had written in my onward journey :D

Going to be as abstract as possible. Without any explanations:)

When you like something a looot and feel u both grew up 2gether and feels incomplete and al that, it mostly would happen tht u wouldn b at a great day in d former's life but evryone else is.

Frustration and anger results, which might anger your near ones. I am trying to take it out on the blog and forget(forgive is nt d word for something this abstract)

I will have a day. I will. I shall.

IPL4 confusion

Uff. A post after a long time. This is for the IPL4, rather my feelings towards it. I watched the previous three series with ardor, supporting Bangalore in all its matches even when it played poor. Remember, I walked to a Reebok store and bought their jersey when they had lost all the matches and had to win their next three matches with the top three teams(in points up to that time). I got another t shirt free for probably supporting RCB at that time.

What changed in IPL4 that I need to think so much? Dravid has moved to Rajasthan, even Kumble was not retained. I am a sentimental fool and find it hard to support the team which did not stand by them. I will support RCB for it having Bangalore in its name, but definitely not against Rajasthan.

Why in the blog, cos people get irritated when I bring Dravid in my conversation and wonder at my claim that I am following him for long. But seriously, I adore and love him. Too many thoughts and too few words. I rest my case, to be taken later.

Luv ya.

Celebration

What do we celebrate?
From the most recent to the earliest, we celebrate an Oscar. We celebrated when ARR won for an English movie. It would be unfair to say that it is great to win an Oscar. Its much more than that. But why did he have to wait that long? What becomes the criterion for the nomination? For the music to be nominated, should the movie also be classic? To be recognized, should one be a part of a winning group? The last question is a general question, not pertaining to just the Oscars.
We celebrated Bindra's gold and Vijender's bronze. What after that? They got a few brand endorsements and the country moved on with Cricket. Why is this celebration so short? Years back we celebrated Karnam Malleshwari the same way and then she faded into the oblivion.
We celebrated Sania's rise in the rankings' ladder and will again do that when she climbs again, since she fell down in between somewhere. We criticized her for things outside tennis and blamed her for loss of concentration!
We celebrated Kalpana Chawla and Sunitha Rao's excursion out of the planet. We celebrated Amartya Sen's Nobel Prize. We celebrate every success as our own, though they might not have stepped on this soil for decades.
Why do we count our celebrations? Why don't we have enough reasons within to celebrate? Why don't we continue on the celebrations? Why?!!
The author partly shoulders the blame for these whys since she hasn't done anything but ask these questions.

Jane austen

Finished all her novels. They have the charm and lightness of the English period, having the perfect ending, which makes one smile at the end of it and sometimes throughout. It makes one sigh at the gallantry and the chivalry. And the women holding on to their pride. Perfect story.
The central character is always a girl with a free spirit and very gay. Except for maybe Pride and Prejudice, she is very impulsive and doesn't budge against her view of the world. On the way, she makes a lot of mistakes and learns it the hard way sometimes. But there is always that knight to rescue her, whom she doesn't recognize in the beginning. PS- i actally remember only sense n sensibility, pride and Emma at the moment.
My likeness to them is particularly with the likeness to the main character, or my belief of the likeness. Foolish at times, repenting sometimes and correcting herself after some event.


Again, one more in the drafts.

Invisible mode

Gtalk and the invisible mode!
I think people should not be given that chance of staying in the invisible mode. If they want to be hidden from people they don't want to talk, let them remove them from the list. Why is that mode needed where you can see everyone online and ping them at your will? It basically is the center self important status. When you are not respecting others' will.
Too much into just a feature in messengers. But there are many who agree with me. All the angels who stay online, not being invisible.
PS - one could argue about the busy status and chatting. :D

payroll team outing

An outing of different sorts.Actually so, since none of us, other than Ravi and Nita knew where we were going. When I got to know at Leela palace entrance that we were to go to Nandi hills, it was accompanied by reminiscing my previous visit and wondering what we could ever do there! Ravi promised it wasn't the usual way and told about this guy who was accompanying us for our trip.
Got into the bus at the Manipal Hospital. The history lessons began from there. Go back to 1790, when the British followed more or less the same route to come to Bangalore, after getting on to the Madras coast by sea from Calcutta, which was incidentally their capital at that point of time. Atleast for my part, i did close my eyes as was asked and could imagine the English walk those roads. Why Bangalore? For the obvious closeness to Mysore, where Tippu ruled. one of the real warriors in the Indian history who didn't succumb to the English, and like the rest gave up due to the internal bickerings. I suppose the only history where freedom struggle to have prolonged for centuries owing to the politics within.
The English had lost the first two Mysore wars to HyderAli and Tipu. I believe the last time when an Indian king dictated the terms of the treaty. The third Mysore war ended in Tipu accepting the treaty terms put forth by the English but his Army was able to repel the British army owing to the Maratha help coming in late for the Brits. The fourth war is when Tipu was dethroned and Mysore was returned to the wadeyars, the initial rulers of the state. They gave Shrirangapatna to the British, who fled from the place because of mosquitoes. They were then given what is Bangalore now. And Nandi hills was first captured by British since it was at a strategic location to attack Mysore, capuring which, every other province bowed to the English supremacy, since Nandi was considered to be impossible to breach.
Now the streets of Bangalore. We started from ulsoor, which is the lowest point in Bangalore with respect to sea level, which is why the Ulsoor lake is where it is. And where I stay now, gets flooded with a rains just more than showers, because it was a part or near the same lake long back. PS- kempegowdas one tower is in ulsoor. i knew the southern one, because of a history lesson before. ;)
Cubbon road was where the English used to march. And that place is actually so English even now. Just that the Indian Army uses it now. So MG road was always the place to party in Bangalore!!!!
Just put whatever I could remember. Maybe just for myself. Whatever that is, it was a nice trip. Seth thought we were a great group with not much fussing. And we thought he was a sport to climb those 1000 steps with working shoes. We had lunch at this farmhopuse at the foot of the hills and it tasted just heavenly.
And the next day, we all had stiff calve muscles accompanied by a sense of accomplishment. Comments on this, not welcome :D

drafts

what happened was a good thing but what follows is an act of
meaningless politics. Bindra has made all of us proud and the
flag going up for the national anthem would get tears in eyes.
But whats the point in conferring rewards to the guy after he is
recognised outside? Atleast now, they gotta realize the need for
funding on infrastructure. What TZP brought to the screen, the
parents attitude towards evrything other than studies woldn't
take us anywhere in the medal list even after decades. Hope this
changes.

learn the life lesson of how to distinguish between what is worth stressing over in life, and what is better left to the birds.
brilliant quote by no one, but so true..

percentile

I had a wrong assumption about the percentile calculation. Had always thought percentile gave you the idea how you fared with the toppers marks taken as cent. That made a lot of sense to me. The last AIMCAT made me wonder about the whole calculation. How does the number of people tell you how well you have done? Isn't the competition supposed to be with the people on th higher rung? With more people taking the test, the percentile will improve even with you being at the same level, assuming that the people joining the race are behind you. There should be an intelligent answer to this seemingly foolish calculation. I can only think of it this way, look at the rank when on top and the percentile when you want to make it to the top. :)

NEVER HIDE YOUR THOUGHTS IN AN ATTEMPT TO BE PERFECT! BUT SOMETIMES, ITS INEVITABLE.

Followed this link from TIME site and went on to read this piece by Baz Luhrmann- Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) So very true that we forget today, thinking about the future.


Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

Dio!!

I still remember the day when I was asked to choose between a vehicle and a gold chain for myself. It had sounded such a absurd thing to be asked, cos vehicle was the obvious choice. It is a different thing that dad gave me a chain too, later on. This was almost six years back. Then, selection of dio over an activa, for the points in the looks department and not looking like a scooter. Then, everywhere I went, I used to take the dio, thus reducing any exercise.:D But, that was one thing, I was attached to, at that point of time. Even the four years of college, dad wouldn't use it much, only enough to make it fall. But how I used to love it and miss it at college.
And then I had to leave it at home while coming to Bangalore. Had tears when I patted it last time before coming here. But cab strikes at Bangalore came as a savior and the subject for emotional advantage to get it to Bangalore. I forgot the anger and the helplessness of being lost, with it. Just love it.....
Now its come back from service with the front body replaced. Even the small hole in the front is gone now!!!!As good as new, I so like it........

happy writing :)

I had intended to write about this book I had read a few days back- All creatures, great and small by James Herriot. A very simple book but some kind of an implicit message in each story. I had started the book with a little apprehension, it being gifted and hoping to like it for the sake of the person who gave it. By Jove, I liked it and would have liked it even it was to be given by some arbit person down the road.

The small things in life, which gets one so much of happiness, which people search everywhere. The vet comes to this small village as an apprentice with a lot of questions in his mind. And by the last page of the book, he settles beautifully, married and as a partner at the same village. Along his journey, he meets some great people, very diverse in nature and culture from the people he has met before in the city. The simple lifestyle with the animals being a part of their families and the love they show towards an outsider reminds me of Mom, who will take care of some even the constable’s comfort who had come for election duty. The life at small places is so very uncomplicated. Each call in Herriot’s day brings a new experience. The house itself, not devoid of experiences, each day in the village bringing something to look forward to.

Now, not knowing how to review books or to pass comments on the writing style, I would just say that it gives a very simple pleasant reading.

Nothing matters

Just yesterday we were having this discussion on how nothing really matters. What you do in college, rather how much you fight for marks doesn't matter. Obviously there is the thought that maybe should have studied, a little atleast. But then, there is no point proceeding further in that direction. After a while, it is your abilities which will take you where you belong to.
In a better thinking process now. It did a lot of good. gave the intended visibility, the independence, learn a lot of new things etc. I don't think that kind of an environment will be provided again for a while now. I was here, responsible for whatever I wrote and no one else. The transition was to happen anyways. But the disheartening part is that you never would know how good or bad you were, so that you could improve. But you can't help such things sometimes.