The Elixir of Celebrations

Remember the advertisement that used to hog television channels' space up until recently, especially during a cricket match? "Boost is the secret of my energy..." "Our energy.." The kid and the great one. I have gained a few years, and now around me this is what I hear more often than not. "Booze is the secret of my energy.." "Our energy..!!"
"The" drink. Supposedly : The liquid that erases bad memory, the beverage that takes you to new highs, the glass that gives you courage, the drink that gives and shares the joy. It is the season of festivities and joy. Hence I refer to it as the Elixir of Celebrations.
Such are the times, that celebration and booze have become equivalent. "Let's celebrate" always precludes "Let's get a drink or two, and enjoy." Such is the influence - both after taking it and before taking it(the fantasy does the work) - that the temptation is almost impossible to overcome. Well, at least for a few.
Historical records of alcoholic beverages being consumed date as back as 10,000 B.C. in the form of stone age beer jugs. 'Sura' is supposed to be the favourite drink of the king of Hindu gods, 'Indra'. 'Osiris', the only god that was worshipped all across Egypt, was thought to be the inventor of beer, and hence it was the understanding that he instructs the people of Egypt to drink, of course in moderation. Such details are found all around the world. Vessels to ferment and store beer have been found in numerous excavations across the globe, which point towards various time periods - from B.C. to A.D. Generally, in moderation, it was thought of as a medicine, and it still is today.
Today, booze has become quite a regular part of our day to day lives. Hey, I don't mean to say that all of us drink regularly. Think of it this way. I watch a booze addled "Charlie Harper" on laptop. I watch our to-be-idolized-I-don't-think-so heroes getting into their dashing characters with a bottle of beer or a glass of whisky in their hands. The liquor barrons are fighting to save their other businesses, of course at the expense of others and not their own money. From high-class Chardonnay to our item-number-country drinks we are surrounded with alcohol, no matter whether you drink or not.
In more personal life, today a large number of times I see our dinner tables decorated with a drink or two when I go out. I agree that it is a very good supplement to the celebrations. It symbolizes the carefree attitude of the youth, it symbolizes "yes, we can!" (Apologies Mr. Obama) The Christmas nears, and I remember the number of times I have demanded home-made wine from certain friends of mine. I have a simple stand for it, "Drink to celebrate, drink to the happiness. But never give in to your sorrows and have illusions that it will solve your problems for you." Hence I call it the Elixir of Celebrations, not a "Magic Drink." So far so good, eh?
There is however one issue I have with the concept, or shall I say a wrong concept. Is booze supplementary to the celebrations, or is it a necessity? Over past few years, there have been numerous experiences that gave me hint that it is in fact the latter in certain cases. While making plans for a night-out, I hear "Hey man, without booze what's the point of night-out? I would rather sleep at my home." This, and many such incidents. This is where I draw the line, and I never ever would want to give booze more priority than it deserves.
Be that as it may, these are the times to celebrate. In under a year's time, I will legally be eligible to buy alcoholic beverages. I think, maybe that's why Parle Frooti had this tagline, "Why grow up?" They perhaps knew, that as one grows up the choice of beverages start to deviate from Frooti. Maybe, maybe not. Enjoy the celebrations...!!!
                                    "Ooo booze, you let me loose,
                                      over the mild wind, you let me cruise,
                                      Whisky, vodka, wine, or beers,
                                      friends, family, celebrations, cheers..!!"
P.S. No judgements entertained, based on any part of the post..!! :D

Cricket-Criticism-Captain

I recently came across a picture on facebook. Of a couple and a donkey. Once they travelled on foot, alongside the donkey. Compassion, perhaps. Once, the man let the wife ride the donkey. Chivalry, maybe. Once, the man rode the donkey, the wife walked. Patriarchy, I guess. Once, the donkey had to carry both of them. Dominance of intellectual superiority, so we are proud to assume. But one thing was common. No matter what they did, the "public" always criticized them.
I go back a few years in history, in the times of Azharuddins, Jadejas, and of course Tendulkars(times is small word for this man, "era" is better fitting). All over, I used to hear, "Albeit Indian Cricket players are talented, they are not professionals, like Australians, or South Africans. The Captains, though intelligent, sometimes fail to act professionally." I come back to the present, I think of a person, M. S. Dhoni. And the first thing that comes to my mind is - A professional captain/player. The one, people in my memory were talking about. I assume that they should be happy with the fact. But hang on, at the taste of defeat, they are not. Following the tradition, perhaps of humanity, he went through what should I call, wrestler The Undertaker's "Last Ride". People, who happily carried him over their shoulders for World Cup Victories, for India's no. 1 Test ranking, are now rushing to bang him on the floor as hard as they can.
I absolutely understand, that every one who ascends to a throne has to step down at one point of time. But is it really the time for Dhoni, and is it really justified? That's the question I ask.
There's no dearth of criticism that Dhoni is facing at present. I will be providing a few statistics at some point of time in this post, but before that, I'll write about what I think about professionalism that he displays. "We have few slow fielders like Sachin, Gambhir, Sehwag in our side. So our batting has to compensate for those 20-25 extra runs that they may give away." Really, anything wrong with that? Is it not a fact? All of them, no doubt, are very safe hands as far as catches are concerned, but in the outfield, can they be compared to Kohlis, Rainas? And I don't think this sentence means that Sachin, Sehwag and Co. should be out of the side, it simply means that the batting has to click. And who's saying that they are less than capable of doing so?
Now, Dhoni as a batsman. Fortunately, so far, nobody doubts his batting abilities in One-days and T-20s. Tests, severely criticized. So, I will limit myself to the context of "Test Matches" in this post. No doubt, he is an un-orthodox batsman. But remember, he's a Wicketkeeper-batsman, not Rahul Dravid. And thus, I wanted to compare him with "Mark Boucher". I remember him always known as a dangerous, effective, quality player. And so, I felt, it's an apt comparison. So here are a few statistics.

	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100	50	SR	Wickets
MSD	67	106	3509	37.33	148	5	24	59.96	192
MB	146	204	5498	30.54	125	5	35	50.17	530

So, if Mark Boucher, was very well fit into his role, are the above statistics not justifying Dhoni's place in the team as a Wicketkeeper-Batsman? In all terms? Only thing he lacks in, is perhaps wickets per match played. But, I don't remember him consistently making goof-ups behind stumps.
On his recent form, last 20 test innings, (maybe this England series not included), he has scored 611 runs. Almost the same as Boucher's career average, considering the worst case scenario of Dhoni getting out in all 20 innings. Last 10 innings, 299 runs, last 5 innings, 171 runs. And majority of the last few innings he played were away from home. This point, because of criticism that his away batting is "worst", or something of that sort. And he, most of the times, has to bat with the tail. A point worth noticing, isn't it?
Now, onto his captaincy. Another table of statistics, comparing Azhar, Ganguly, Dravid, Dhoni.

	Overall				Home				Away
	Played	Won	Lost	Draw	Played	Won	Lost	Draw	Played	Won	Lost	Draw
Azhar	47	14	14	19	20	13	4	3	27	1	10	16
Ganguly	49	21	13	15	21	10	3	8	28	11	10	7
Dravid	25	8	6	11	8	3	2	3	17	5	4	8
Dhoni	41	20	11	10	22	16	2	4	19	4	9	6

As we can see from the above table, in the overall win conversion factor, Dhoni beats all of them. At home conditions, hands down. The latest criticism is about his demand for pitches turning from day 1 -
My thinking : 1. Home advantage is used all over the world, in every sport.
                      2. He claimed, "If the pitch turns from day 1, it will play fair for both sides." England won, right?
Anyway, only major flaw in his record that I agree with is the away record. Though in the recent embarrassing 0-8 whitewash in two away series, the entire team failed to perform, on a broad basis; still, it is a major lacking in his record as a captain. And thus, I believe, in the couple of away series coming up in the near future, we need to back him as captain, give him and the team a chance to prove themselves. Even in those if he fails to perform as captain, maybe it would be justified to discuss about the change in captaincy. Going beyond statistics, I have genuinely appreciated some of the field placements, bowling changes, batting order changes he has made dynamically, and that characterises abilities of a captain, a tad bit more than statistics. He backs the players, and gives them a confidence boosting longer than critique-expected reign, and then when the players fail to perform (read Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma) he gets the blame. By the same people, who blame the selectors of not giving players sufficient opportunities.
Ricky Ponting, with a formidable australian unit, can only boast of a 50% win conversion rate in the away matches(19 wins out of 38 played), in a period when Australian team hogged the no. 1 spot for years. Dhoni deserves a chance to prove that he is capable of going near that record.
On a different note, Dhoni himself has said that he may have to quit one of the three formats by 2012-13, and I see him actually taking the decision. Time will tell. But I believe he's one of the rare professional cricket players that India has produced, a better-than-average Wicketkeeper, an un-orthodox and yet effective batsman, a good captain, perhaps the best of the choices available in the present.

P.S. I am not paid by Dhoni or anyone for this, neither am I a die-hard fan of Dhoni (Sachin, always). But having seen a lot of undeserved criticism towards him, I thought of doing a little research and writing about it.

Old Habits

Remember a typical Villain-Hero Movie climax? In this ultimate scene, hero beats villain up bigtime. Villain clearly sees defeat, and begs for mercy. The hero being the hero, forgives the villain, thinks that villain is showing some remorse and he will be a better man now. The moment it appears that the hero takes eyes off this villain guy, he makes one last attempt to finish the hero off, but hero being the hero and villain being the villain, nothing else to be expected than the dynamic response on the hero's part and "Sachchai ki jeet".
Something that is portrayed in a major way here is that "Old Habits never die." And how true is that! One fine day, a 50+ guy in our office comes to play TT. He hasn't played TT in almost ten years. And yet when he starts to play, the smoothness, comfort with the sport and the finesse is clearly visible. This applies to bad habits as well. When someone is telling an interesting story, some other person necessarily has to come up with a better one(at least as per his standards), or else he'll feel that others think of him as a complete idiot. What really makes others think about him as a complete idiot, is a different issue.
Of course, habits become old habits when you get out of them, by choice or by force. After getting out of college, I tried to get out of some habits(good or bad-I won't comment. It completely depends on perspectives.) And with this experience, I can tell you that getting out of your habits is difficult. Curbing your natural instincts and acting differently takes out a lot from you. And it is much more difficult when you are experimenting, "What if I act this way in this situation? I am not sure, let's see." For example, if a gregarious person tries to keep mostly to himself, doesn't lookout for making friends with new people anymore, he/she may literally be holding himself/herself back every second.
As I said, I have been trying to change some habits. There was a time period in Trivandrum when I was staying aloof from most of the things happening around me. Then a time period when I refrained from making any silly comments on anything or anyone around. There was a time period when I stopped taking part in "Extra-curricular" activities as we know them. Nothing really out of depression or anything as such. Just a part of self-analysis. Maybe thought of studying a bit more helped me go through it.
But every time I had to go back to any habbit, it came out very naturally. The best day in my Trivandrum days so far was the day I had volunteered in Trinfy Carnival, an event for Infosys employees and their families. We were given responsibilities of the game stalls, and the joy on kids' and elders' faces after playing the games was beyond description. It didn't matter that I didn't know Malayaalam at all back then when 95% people asking information about the game were doing so in Malayaalam.
Did I regret coming back to my old habits? Yes. I had stopped expecting that I will get "friends" here. But then I came in contact with some people with whom things became pretty natural. Started pulling each other's leg and in the meantime I forgot that eventhough things look to be merry, it is not like back in college. And so I stepped out of the "line", just because of coming back to the old habit. Yes someone got offended, and I feel bad about it, and so this thought in head-"Old Habits never die."
Again, to come back to general sense, I think even you must have had such experiences in life, when you couldn't stop yourself from doing something, and regretted it just moments later, thinking that I probably could do this with someone else, but not now. A good thing about it though, is that, such experiences are food for thought, and always help you to grow, and quite frankly, are necessary.

Where it all started...

Hello people... Writing here after a long time... And just when I start typing, I really understand how long it has been...

Mysore was the next stop in the journey, when I last wrote in the world of blogs... It was not going to be a long journey, I had thought... How foolish I was... As they say, it was just the begining. Of what? Of an enlightening, ever teaching, mind broadening ride... If you are starting to get a feeling that it is another cribbing post about how things have changed... Hell yeah, you are absolutely right...!!!

Ok not really, I was just kidding... Kidding just about the "Cribbng" part though... Yes things have changed, but who said they were going to remain the same anyway? Some say that I have changed, and I feel they are absolutely right. of course, my interpretation and their interpretation of this change may vary(to a large extent in case of some people)... What I really want to say is that some things haven't changed. Some things are just the same as they were in "The Golden Days". The people who made them "Golden". All the shining "FRIENDS"...

As the days have passed since that beautiful time, more and more realisation sinks in... Realisation of what really gave me "kick" to do things... What really made me the person I was(past tense deliberate... Not sure if I still "am" that person...). It was all, due to the jackasses, the idiots, the fools, the breed that is called "Friends". I take this moment here to say that I miss them. Once upon a time, when we all thought that we'll spend lives in the same merry way as we did back then, somewhere deep down was that wisdom that it will be a mirracle if we actually can... But what was the point of speaking out the truth, when it was inevitable and everyone more or less knew that it was inevitable? Why would one have spent time on this truth, when time was a scarcity? Resources like oil, gold are fast depleting, and even with this full understanding, we extract them with ever increasing speed. Was it not the same what we were doing back then?
You tend to get a grip on the undestanding of the importance of things when you go away from them, and so did I... I moved out of my comfort zone the moment I parted from friends... And then I really understood what the world really is... As I write, a memory flashes by... Reading a blog "Sach ka Saamna"... It spoke about how friendships are fake and all. Back then, I ridiculed that kind of thinking. Over these 11 months, I was able to comprehend what made that article come up. I understood what kind of situations that person might have been in, what kind of people that person might have encountered with... I remember a few friends saying back then that they pity that blogger. And now I do... I really do, because I am(present tense here is deliberate as well) lucky enough to have my friends with me... You guys rock...!!!
I apologise for the times when I could not deliver like I promised, and I thank my friends for being... The memories are wonderful, and we'll definitely relive them... Not once, many times... Just  a few moments back I wrote that some things have changed. But some haven't. An occasion like friendship day still makes me write all this "crap", this "bakwaas"... If any reaction after reading this is like "Grow up", I will give out my best wicked smile and say nothing else... The same old thing coincidentally made me start second inning of "Life is interesting", FRIENDSHIP... Where it all began....
Happy friendship day everyone...!!!!!

Yaaron...

"Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na....."

"Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na..Na Na Na Na Na Na....."


This tune rings in my ears. From a movie called New York. It's really amazing how the same tune, same lyrics mean differently in different situations. Like this song- I had always liked it, but I perceive it in a bit different way now...

My SPIT journey began with this enthusiasm, this excitement...

"Yaaron...jee bhar ke jee le pal...lagta hai aaj kal...daur apna aayega...
Yaaron...jo khud pe ho yakeen...toh zindagi haseen...tujhe kal bulayega...

Hai junoon...hai junoon sa seene mein...
Hai junoon...hai junoon sa jeene mein..."

Now these lyrics describe very closely what my first year was like. It was starting of a new journey with all the enthu and a hope of makin things come true for me.

Then came the wonderful second year...

"Kahin...jaise koi dhun baje...raahoon mein dekho hai manzar saje saare...
Hum hi...hum jahaan pe...har jagah...sapne sajaane ki hum ko mili wajah...
yeh agar...jo sach nahi...toh sach bhala...hai kya......"

The world-well by that time college started to feel like pretty much the world for us-was full of opportunities. Plenty of things were there to do, which I probably had never done in my life. Participating in various things, hanging back in college for no real reason, interacting with more people...It also provided base to a lot of friendships, which I am sure are going to last long...

Then came the third year...By now, I had realised that college is THE thing for me...It holds many things dear to me. Having created firm base in previous two years, I (and I'm sure many others) dared to do even more, with all the more enthusiasm...

"Yaaron...apne hisaab se...dil ki kitaab pe...kuch toh naya likho...
Yaaron...anjaam ki fiqar...na karti yeh umar...fir kyun bhala daro..."

Yes we had our own funda's, our own equations...We defied some of the unjustified non-sense coming our way, be it a lecture or anythinhg else...

And then, very soon...It was the fourth year...As this final year was proceeding ahead, it's speed seemed to hav doubled, or trippled, or watever...And suddenly following thoughts started to come in the head...

"Kabhi...jo milenge...raaste...pal mein hi chamkegi hasee purani
Toh kaho...kya kahoge...fir humein...kaise chupaaoge namee yeh palko ki...
Yeh bata...hai kya hua...hua hai kyun...bata..."

Well these beautiful lines explain for themselves...I'll keep it as it is...

And merely hours left, before I begin a new journey of my life...The professional journey...I hav left with everything I gained in college, with every friend (at least metaphorically if not physically) I was lucky to have...All the fun moments safely in the ROM...

And the song ends with the same lines with which it began...

"Yaaron...jee bhar ke jee le pal...lagta hai aaj kal...daur apna aayega...

Yaaron...jo khud pe ho yakeen...toh zindagi haseen...tujhe kal bulayega...
Hai junoon...hai junoon sa seene mein...
Hai junoon...hai junoon sa jeene mein..."

And so does the journey...

An Engineer(?) and Imraan

It was a normal day. An "Engineer To Be" got up in the morning, went through his usual morning chores, had breakfast, read a bit, had lunch. Very normal day. Surprisingly, his head was filled with no random thought that day.
Then he remembered that he had to take his car to a mechanic for some repair. It was going to be boring but it had to be done. So reluctantly, with an empty head he took his car and went to the mechanic. Sureshbhai, the in-charge over there asked what the problem was. The "Engineer To Be" started blabbering words like "Motor tak patrol pohoch nahi raha hai...Battery perfect hai.." After checking it out a bit, he said "Theek hai ruko...Main aadmi ko bhejta hoon..."
So there the Engineer was waiting, enjoying the breeze flowing. There was nothing else to do anyway. And then came the man Sureshbhai had sent and the engineer was surprised, bigtime. He was a normal person, nothing of that sorts, except that he was a boy of merely 13-14 years of age, maximum!
Some sort of doubt flashed in the mind of that "Engineer To Be" for a few seconds. "This kid is going to repair my car?" But the kid came, asked with a smile "Kya hua hai?" And there was "Engineer To Be" explaining him what the problem was.
As normally as a Doctor says after diagnosing a patient for mere two minutes that he has got a bit of throat infection and it'll be cured within no time, the kid explained what the problem was and said "Ho jayega fataak se!" And he just started working. Well, working and talking.
Imraan was his name and he was talking so casually as if he was talking to a friend. He was talking about various things. As vague as "main rickshaw chalana toh janta hoon...par gaadi mein thoda taklif hota hai..." He was so full of life! He once even got into a bit of quarrel with a fellow mechanic, and the way he faced it was astonishing. No bad word from him as such, but made the other one understand exactly what his point was. He knew hospitality pretty well, for he offered "a Cutting" to the engineer and insisted that he had it.
None of this affected his work nonetheless. He was working efficiently, with minimum tools and applying some simple physics "fundas" which the engineer had learnt. Well, learnt yet somehow seldom applied.
Imraan was a guy who probably never went to school. He wasn't introduced to the "Education" perhaps, and yet he was there, with tools in his hand, knowing and doing things practically, standing on his own with pride. That pride showed in his eyes, the manner in which he talked. Yet politeness never left him. He may not know the theory at all as to how parts like condenser and all worked. But he applied his simple logic to everything and said things that almost always made sense. That was the day "Engineer To Be" bought "tambakhoo" for the first time in his life. And why? To put it near the pipes of the fuel tank and all so that rats and mice don't chew them and destroy them.
And after some time, the "Engineer To Be" had once again started to evaluate his formal education so far. It was necessary no doubt, but not satisfactory. His car was repaired, fuel started reaching to the motor. Engine started roaring with the accelerator and so did the thoughts of "Engineer To Be". He went home with repaired car, lot of thoughts and sheer respect for Imraan.

The moon

It was a night of no moon and I was bored with studying. So I was just looking around and up in the sky. When I realized that there was no moon in the sky, these thoughts combined with thoughts of secondary body revolving around primary body (courtesy satellite communication-engineering subject) and came up with this.....


Earth circles around the sun
she thinks he's the brightest one

Day time it's energy earth inhales
but during night there is someone else

Calm, soothing moon is comparatively small
but he's the one breaking darkness wall

Sun's brightness shadows moon's importance
does earth think about moon even once

Maybe that hurts moon very much sometimes
maybe that's why very high tides arise

Earth looks up to moon in dark times
moon doesn't disappoint barring two monthly nights

Moon wants to say to earth
"My world is you,
my life has always been
literally revolving around you"

The situation appears to be very funny
after all there exists something called irony

I myself am confused as I write
just a point of view, don't know wrong or right