Sunday, September 30, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
So Called Chaos
Time waits for none. Another day, another year. Time lost, age gained. Everything else is stagnant. I don't know what I am looking for. Objectively I should be happy with the way things are. I lead a normal life, pretty much like average Joe. Work, play, have fun. Something is still missing. I don't know what it is. Or maybe I know what it is but I don't want to own up to it. It could be because I know what I want and I know I don't stand a chance of getting it. Why does it hurt so much to know that the one thing you always wanted is the one thing you can never have? Why do I still feel compelled to put up a brave front inspite of being on the losing end? Is anyone even winning? Would success taste sweet if I get it now or would I throw it all away? Who is at a loss if I don't get past these daemons? How long should I fight for lost causes?
Am I doubting myself? Never. Am I questioning the futility of this whole exercise? Most possibly. I can't tell, I don't want to tell. Whatever happened to the fun guy inside me? Did he grow old too? Or did he just leave town for a while?
I'm confused. Is this my Quarter Life Crisis?
I feel like destroying something beautiful.
Post Title: Alanis Morissette - So Called Chaos
Am I doubting myself? Never. Am I questioning the futility of this whole exercise? Most possibly. I can't tell, I don't want to tell. Whatever happened to the fun guy inside me? Did he grow old too? Or did he just leave town for a while?
I'm confused. Is this my Quarter Life Crisis?
I feel like destroying something beautiful.
Post Title: Alanis Morissette - So Called Chaos
Monday, September 24, 2007
Gotta love these coach-less wonders
4:46 am - Got my wakeup call from Pune after India won the toss and elected to bat
4:48 am - Got my wakeup call from east coast after India won the toss and elected to bat
10 minutes later I sleep-walked into the living room, switched on the computer and started looking for a channel to watch the match. A few agonising moments and I found someplace which was broadcasting the game and I snuck up cosily with a blanket. It was coooold early in the morning! I struggled to stay awake as India struggled to force the pace early on. Caffeine ensured that I stayed awake and Gambhir played his part to make sure India did not lose the plot. At the close of innnings, India fell well short of the 180 odd they were hoping to get. It was clear that the bowlers had a job cut out for them. Fielding had to be right up there too. Over the past few games the fielding standards had been uncharacteristically high from this Indian side, lack of a penetrative 5th bowler was India's Achille's heel though and Pakistan knew well enough to exploit this weak link.
I was out of the shower in record time as India took to fielding. RP Singh had been impressive thus far and Sreesanth had a good last game (despite all the histrionics his performance was top class). RP got off to a great start with his 1st over wicket and India were right on. Sreesanth, however, looked like he had lost his mojo. His first over went for 21 runs and it brought back memories of that fateful 1st over from Zaheer Khan in the '03 World Cup final against Australia. India never got back into the game after that over and I bet every single soul who knew this piece was praying to God this wouldnt be a repeat performance. Luckily this wasn't a 50 over game and there were no Gilly and Hayden to send India on a leatherhunt. The Indian bowlers stuck to their job and Pakistan's batsmen played with overt eagerness to their own undoing. Ofcourse all of this did not end without the high voltage drama that can be expected from a India Pakistan match. Towards the end Harbhajan got clouted for sixes by that man once again, Misbah-ul-Haq, and it seemed like the match was slipping away as Sohail Tanveer got into his act too. Sreesanth and RP Singh got a wicket each and the last over was on to Joginder Sharma. Jogi had been sent to all parts of the park in his earlier games but had held his nerves to bowl a splendid last over against the Aussies in the semi-finals. The question was could he prove it wasnt about a single game. And prove he did, much thanks to the cheeky arrogance from Misbah who decided to play a fancy scoop behind the wicket. He was unable to get a single off the last ball to win the last game against India and this time failed to get 6 from 4 balls. Oh how this would give him nightmares for the next few years to come =))
Finally a young Indian team did what nobody had expected them to do. Win a 20-20 world cup. In a game relying heavily on power hitting, accurate bowling and spectacular fielding no one, including yours truly, had given this team a fighting chance. We were without the legendary star power that is an intimidating force for bowlers around the world and we had a first timer captain shepherding a bunch of relatively unknowns into uncharted territory. The relatively unkowns rose to the occassion and went all the way, each playing a significant part in one game or the other and gelling together to form a championship winning outfit. Who knew Rohit Sharma would bat as well as he did in his 1st game at the international level, who knew MS Dhoni would trust Joginder Sharma with last overs inspite of him being taken to the cleaners, who knew Joginder Sharma would justify MS Dhoni's faith in his abilities, who knew Freddie would get fingered so bad by Yuvraj Singh? But it all happened, and to good measure.
As the feeling sinks in, questions arise. India have been enjoying their cricket for the past few months and it shows in the results. They lost the one day series against England but it was one hell of a 7 match series. It could be argued that they played without the pressure of expectations and hence were able to perform. The most significant aspect, to me, is that India have done all of this without a coach. When was the last time any team won a major sporting event without a coach? Much has been written about India's earlier coaches and how there was always tension within the dressing room. The rifts between John Wright and Greg Chappel and the senior Indian players are now part of BCCI folklore. Whether it was due to a difference in idealogies or a difference in approach to the game or whatever other reason, the end result always failed to flatter. What it did was bring a lot of politics into play. After a hard day's fight out on the pitch the Indian team had to fight these internal battles off it. Was the no-coach a blessing in disguise for this team? Ganguly had mentioned not too long ago that at this level you do not need a coach. MS Dhoni and his boys proved Dada right. Dhoni did well to utilise his resources efficiently, all the players performed as was expected of them and well deserved success beckoned.
I don't think BCCI will be looking out for a coach sometime soon after this recent run. It's all good as long as the smiles continue and the victories keep coming. We got your back Men in Blue. Git 'er done!
4:48 am - Got my wakeup call from east coast after India won the toss and elected to bat
10 minutes later I sleep-walked into the living room, switched on the computer and started looking for a channel to watch the match. A few agonising moments and I found someplace which was broadcasting the game and I snuck up cosily with a blanket. It was coooold early in the morning! I struggled to stay awake as India struggled to force the pace early on. Caffeine ensured that I stayed awake and Gambhir played his part to make sure India did not lose the plot. At the close of innnings, India fell well short of the 180 odd they were hoping to get. It was clear that the bowlers had a job cut out for them. Fielding had to be right up there too. Over the past few games the fielding standards had been uncharacteristically high from this Indian side, lack of a penetrative 5th bowler was India's Achille's heel though and Pakistan knew well enough to exploit this weak link.
I was out of the shower in record time as India took to fielding. RP Singh had been impressive thus far and Sreesanth had a good last game (despite all the histrionics his performance was top class). RP got off to a great start with his 1st over wicket and India were right on. Sreesanth, however, looked like he had lost his mojo. His first over went for 21 runs and it brought back memories of that fateful 1st over from Zaheer Khan in the '03 World Cup final against Australia. India never got back into the game after that over and I bet every single soul who knew this piece was praying to God this wouldnt be a repeat performance. Luckily this wasn't a 50 over game and there were no Gilly and Hayden to send India on a leatherhunt. The Indian bowlers stuck to their job and Pakistan's batsmen played with overt eagerness to their own undoing. Ofcourse all of this did not end without the high voltage drama that can be expected from a India Pakistan match. Towards the end Harbhajan got clouted for sixes by that man once again, Misbah-ul-Haq, and it seemed like the match was slipping away as Sohail Tanveer got into his act too. Sreesanth and RP Singh got a wicket each and the last over was on to Joginder Sharma. Jogi had been sent to all parts of the park in his earlier games but had held his nerves to bowl a splendid last over against the Aussies in the semi-finals. The question was could he prove it wasnt about a single game. And prove he did, much thanks to the cheeky arrogance from Misbah who decided to play a fancy scoop behind the wicket. He was unable to get a single off the last ball to win the last game against India and this time failed to get 6 from 4 balls. Oh how this would give him nightmares for the next few years to come =))
Finally a young Indian team did what nobody had expected them to do. Win a 20-20 world cup. In a game relying heavily on power hitting, accurate bowling and spectacular fielding no one, including yours truly, had given this team a fighting chance. We were without the legendary star power that is an intimidating force for bowlers around the world and we had a first timer captain shepherding a bunch of relatively unknowns into uncharted territory. The relatively unkowns rose to the occassion and went all the way, each playing a significant part in one game or the other and gelling together to form a championship winning outfit. Who knew Rohit Sharma would bat as well as he did in his 1st game at the international level, who knew MS Dhoni would trust Joginder Sharma with last overs inspite of him being taken to the cleaners, who knew Joginder Sharma would justify MS Dhoni's faith in his abilities, who knew Freddie would get fingered so bad by Yuvraj Singh? But it all happened, and to good measure.
As the feeling sinks in, questions arise. India have been enjoying their cricket for the past few months and it shows in the results. They lost the one day series against England but it was one hell of a 7 match series. It could be argued that they played without the pressure of expectations and hence were able to perform. The most significant aspect, to me, is that India have done all of this without a coach. When was the last time any team won a major sporting event without a coach? Much has been written about India's earlier coaches and how there was always tension within the dressing room. The rifts between John Wright and Greg Chappel and the senior Indian players are now part of BCCI folklore. Whether it was due to a difference in idealogies or a difference in approach to the game or whatever other reason, the end result always failed to flatter. What it did was bring a lot of politics into play. After a hard day's fight out on the pitch the Indian team had to fight these internal battles off it. Was the no-coach a blessing in disguise for this team? Ganguly had mentioned not too long ago that at this level you do not need a coach. MS Dhoni and his boys proved Dada right. Dhoni did well to utilise his resources efficiently, all the players performed as was expected of them and well deserved success beckoned.
I don't think BCCI will be looking out for a coach sometime soon after this recent run. It's all good as long as the smiles continue and the victories keep coming. We got your back Men in Blue. Git 'er done!
Friday, September 14, 2007
What do, New York couples fight about?
More appropriately the question should be what New York couples talk about. I'm not too concerned about the Yankees. What I'm interested in finding out is what do couples talk about, whether they're in New York or New Zealand or New Orleans or Navi Mumbai.
A friend of mine recently got engaged. To her luck, it is an arranged marriage. Now that they're engaged the couple is in the 'happy' courtship period. To begin with, I am not so comfortable with the way arranged marriages happen. You get to meet each other once or twice and then decide within the short time whether or not the other person is a good fit for a life partner. When you think you've got it right, you get engaged and then there's some time before you wed. What if during this time you find out that your partner is exactly what you were hoping s/he would not be? What if you failed to read the signs in those 2 meetings before you said yes? How long does it take before you can actually interpret all those signs in the right manner? Is there a way out once you realise what a schmuck you've committed yourself to? But I digress. Enough with my own insecurities and on to the story of the couple.
So it happens that both work the long hours and catch up in the evenings daily. Both hardly know each other and so it seems like there would be lots to catch up on and that they would not have enough time to know each other despite the long courtship period. Its been about a month now and it all seemed to be going well. Almost. As it turns out, her fiance, like most men is pretty reticent. I mean thats how its always been, right? Women talk talk talk and talk and men (pretend to) listen. But we have a new problem here when women expect men to talk. We can'd do that! We just aren't conditioned to do that! What do you think spawned that joke about the mothertongue? It's called the mothertongue because the father never gets to use it. Huh? Or that other joke? Why do you think that when guys talk on the phone the conversation is over in 30 seconds flat and when girls talk you wonder if you need a calendar and not a clock? Not saying that we can't hold conversations but its just natural that after some time of listening to the woman talk and trying to keep her interested in keeping the conversation going we deserve a period of silence. My friend does not subscribe to this school of thought. It was getting increasingly difficult for her with each passing day to meet every evening and do the bulk of the talking. Meeting up everyday after working till late left her little time for herself and to get her stuff done. To add to her woes, if she tried to bail out on one day, they would end up giving each other a piece of their mind the next time they met. All of this, during the courtship period. Things certainly weren't going pilaan ke mutaabik =))
Without playing the blame game let's try to realistically assess the situation. Guy is eager to make the most of the courtship period and get to know the girl but does not have the gift of gab. Girl is (naturally) glib and is also eager to know more about the guy. However girl keeps facing intermittent road blocks when she has to come up with topics to speak on every-frikking-day. I guess the guy can be blamed partially in this case but such a judgement begs more questions than answer the existing ones.
So how important is it to keep on talking throughout the evening? Is it really necessary to exercise the vocal chords in full blast all the time? Can't we have some moments of peace? Whatever happened to 'har baat lafjon mein bayaan karne ki jaroorat nahi hoti hai'? No? Not anymore? I know it takes the fun out of meeting up if you're not going to talk much, but what if you realise that you are committed to someone whom you cannot talk to for more than 2 minutes? I know, I know, my insecurities are coming in to play once again here, but spare a thought for this situation. What in hell do you do then? Alright, lets say you somehow manage to get through all of this and get married. What happens when the both of you come home after work and have nothing to talk about? Worse yet - wife stays home, husband comes home after a long day and wife starts nagging. Such an exciting prospect, innit?
Right now the way things are for most of my friends and I, we dont have a lot going on. There's nothing new or exciting happening any given day and we are pretty much slaves to the routine. Whenever I have conversations with my friends, all of us dread the 'aur kya' type questions. There IS no 'aur'! If things stay the same what do we talk about when we get home? Funny questions all, pertinent nevertheless. I guess I'll have to wait my turn to find how things pan out.
Post Title: Morcheeba - What New York couples fight about
A friend of mine recently got engaged. To her luck, it is an arranged marriage. Now that they're engaged the couple is in the 'happy' courtship period. To begin with, I am not so comfortable with the way arranged marriages happen. You get to meet each other once or twice and then decide within the short time whether or not the other person is a good fit for a life partner. When you think you've got it right, you get engaged and then there's some time before you wed. What if during this time you find out that your partner is exactly what you were hoping s/he would not be? What if you failed to read the signs in those 2 meetings before you said yes? How long does it take before you can actually interpret all those signs in the right manner? Is there a way out once you realise what a schmuck you've committed yourself to? But I digress. Enough with my own insecurities and on to the story of the couple.
So it happens that both work the long hours and catch up in the evenings daily. Both hardly know each other and so it seems like there would be lots to catch up on and that they would not have enough time to know each other despite the long courtship period. Its been about a month now and it all seemed to be going well. Almost. As it turns out, her fiance, like most men is pretty reticent. I mean thats how its always been, right? Women talk talk talk and talk and men (pretend to) listen. But we have a new problem here when women expect men to talk. We can'd do that! We just aren't conditioned to do that! What do you think spawned that joke about the mothertongue? It's called the mothertongue because the father never gets to use it. Huh? Or that other joke? Why do you think that when guys talk on the phone the conversation is over in 30 seconds flat and when girls talk you wonder if you need a calendar and not a clock? Not saying that we can't hold conversations but its just natural that after some time of listening to the woman talk and trying to keep her interested in keeping the conversation going we deserve a period of silence. My friend does not subscribe to this school of thought. It was getting increasingly difficult for her with each passing day to meet every evening and do the bulk of the talking. Meeting up everyday after working till late left her little time for herself and to get her stuff done. To add to her woes, if she tried to bail out on one day, they would end up giving each other a piece of their mind the next time they met. All of this, during the courtship period. Things certainly weren't going pilaan ke mutaabik =))
Without playing the blame game let's try to realistically assess the situation. Guy is eager to make the most of the courtship period and get to know the girl but does not have the gift of gab. Girl is (naturally) glib and is also eager to know more about the guy. However girl keeps facing intermittent road blocks when she has to come up with topics to speak on every-frikking-day. I guess the guy can be blamed partially in this case but such a judgement begs more questions than answer the existing ones.
So how important is it to keep on talking throughout the evening? Is it really necessary to exercise the vocal chords in full blast all the time? Can't we have some moments of peace? Whatever happened to 'har baat lafjon mein bayaan karne ki jaroorat nahi hoti hai'? No? Not anymore? I know it takes the fun out of meeting up if you're not going to talk much, but what if you realise that you are committed to someone whom you cannot talk to for more than 2 minutes? I know, I know, my insecurities are coming in to play once again here, but spare a thought for this situation. What in hell do you do then? Alright, lets say you somehow manage to get through all of this and get married. What happens when the both of you come home after work and have nothing to talk about? Worse yet - wife stays home, husband comes home after a long day and wife starts nagging. Such an exciting prospect, innit?
Right now the way things are for most of my friends and I, we dont have a lot going on. There's nothing new or exciting happening any given day and we are pretty much slaves to the routine. Whenever I have conversations with my friends, all of us dread the 'aur kya' type questions. There IS no 'aur'! If things stay the same what do we talk about when we get home? Funny questions all, pertinent nevertheless. I guess I'll have to wait my turn to find how things pan out.
Post Title: Morcheeba - What New York couples fight about
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