Cup that counts

Cricket world cup is on full swing and a blog entry by me had to come on this. Here it goes..

As World cup games are being played and many records are being made in each match.Somehow the excitement is somehow missing in this world cup.May be too much cricket over the years is responsible for this ( thanks to 20-20 ). If i try to find reason at personal level , there are no McGraw, Donald , Warne , Lara , Waugh , Waqar, Akram ,Jayasurya , Ganguly , Bond , Yusuf ,Inzamam , Kumble , Flintoff, Klusener , De Silva , Anwar ,sohail....list is so long for the stars. Even the lesses known stars are being missed i.e Flower Brothers , Tikolos , Olongas and obuyas .Hey! don't we have sachin , murali , Ponting ,Kallis , Shewag , Steyn , sangakara , Gayle , Peterson .....list is small in comparison to earlier list and the impact is missing too. Why Pakistan has to look up to Afridi only signifies the degradation of pakistan cricket. I would had been better if Akhtar was not there in their line up ...his reputation of is being eroded when he is being hit like anything. Brett lee looks shadow of himself , fear of fearsome lee is hardly visible . Australian bowling is still best but they are not far ahead of others . Talking about fielding , Africans are not the fielder they used to be .Everyone is dropping Catches as if they are happy to give more chances to batsman but they won't give 2nd chance to umpires ..read referral system URDs. jonty acts are a wishful thinking these days. Before the game, people are not talking about memorable rivalries .Somehow English team is showing they only care for Ashes and to make things worse better players are getting injured. Sachin continues to be everyone favourite as he was 20 years back ,but rivals have subsided i.e warne/Mcgraw/Akram etc.When the team india playing minnows should had been one sided affairs , sadly things are hard fought wins.Has standard of cricket dropped in few years? The question remains open.Talking about venue of matches played ...and mistreatment to viewers who had to face wrath of stick in quest to get match ticket is hardly acceptable. Eden gardens denied of any important game is another bad thing .Players right of Playing in front of 1 lac people has been denied in the process. Cricket politics winning here and ego clashes of cricket Administrators of this country are more important than the game itself.

Enough of cynics talks , Only way can be forward way. The cup has come to the sub continent and this is best chance for team India to catch the cup at home.Cricket fever slowly is gripping the whole country.Everyone interested in the cricket talks is good thing. Cricket mad country deserves the cup. With time we will know the champions and the stars of tomorrow who will be missed in future world cups...aptly said...the cup that counts.

Lunch times : Now and then

Its some moments past 1pm and i got some innocuous message on office communicator displaying "lunch" .The reply to this has got monotonous over the months i.e 5min/2min/lets go and sometimes rare modifications. Sometimes i perform the ritual of asking others to gather for lunch with similar responses mentioned query i.e lunch?. In other words this is reminder i.e this is lunch hour and fear factor associated is join the group otherwise one has to eat alone .At time people move to otherwise deserted place in office i.e cafeteria.Lunch hour is the the time for social interaction with some typical smiles flowing around and typical social interaction stuffed with rudimentary questions "how are you ? " " all is well? " etc etc .This is
the time when one listens to particular tribe who are otherwise so busy and they carry their work all the time on their head/shoulders/brain ( if its there ) .Not to forget gossip mongers who don't fail to comment on their managers and olleagues .One should not forget souls want to share from miniature "dabbas" that they carry religiously from home to office. I wonder how one can cook that small quantity and to carry that and at the end offer that to 10 people(assumption).I don't khow if they are best at resource phenomena. Not to forget souls who survive on juice and they sip juice as if that has arrived from out of this world on their service .In between this sometimes chit-chat subject becomes "Cafeteria food is bad" and not so good caterer.Caterer in my behave as if they are here on charity mission feeding hungry people/Who don't have access to home made food...charitable catering. Another tribe is who eat "fasting" food , its a misnomer..how can one eat in fasting?...but in India we do many weird things on the name of god...khuda ke liye. Its not difficult to find people who are on dieting and on special diet . They say," i eat highly customized food ", calorie count is in fashion.Clearly ,we care more for our health if the fashion trend supports that.

Enough of office talk...to refresh the mood i'll trace back to lunch timing in college days. Lunch time there was like another typical session to discuss " how bad the food is?". Different pros and cons of this topic were discussed at length.Eating roti "just_out_of_tawa" was a must do event. Anything cold was strict no no.As i look back hostel food was not that bad , at least multiple times better then the diet i eat these days. some dishes were "so special" or trademark of our hostel mess to be precise.Those french fries can easily beat much revered french fries of McDonald's and other places i have visited.

Coming to important question, what was my answer to "with whom i'll have lunch ? " The answer is it was highly dynamic...with anyone present there in hostel mess. All tables were equally likely .....side effect of having so many friends . It can be said there were several layers of friends between close friends and distant friends. Interestingly as i remember close friends were not my lunch time friends.I would like to add dinner time to previously mentioned phenomena. As i talk about dinner/lunch time friends i can't forget to mention other tribe of friends. Sports complex friends,pizza friends, Table tennis friends, watching TV friends,pizza friends,watching movies friends, cricket friends,bakwas talk friends,frustration session friends , study friends ,jhaduu friends( somehow my room was jhadu/broom room.....people cared periodically to clean their room i.e monthly/bi-monthly) ...gosh!! so many divisions ...but why i'm counting that? Wasn't it effortless?

How things change so quickly . Being formal has become the rule. I see everyday one of my fav lines personified in many souls working in office environment ...the line being , "we are prisoners of own identity , living in prison of our own creation ".
The fear is can i save myself from being typical prisoner....i'll have to look for answer in future. 5 years down the line ,what i'll be doing? Will i ping colleagues for one typical lunch session and have typical lunch time talks.Its scary ...it would be interesting to see what happens...which path to choose...so much of confusion and that is magnifying the fear.Before closing , getting company while having lunch/dinner is privilege , if no is around , silently ,i arrange for the sweet debate , me v/s myself moments i call it .

Scary selfishness

Mike Tyson : 14th July 2010 : " The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn't necessarily deserve it. Now I'm 44, and I realize that my whole life is just a f--king waste. 'Greatest man on the planet'? I wasn't half the man I thought I was. So if there's a big plan now, it's just to give-it's selflessness, caring for the people who deserve it. Because I think I'm a pig. I have this uncanny ability to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'This is a pig. You are a f--king piece of sh-t."

Selfishness can make one feel really bad. At least we can help others when they ask for your help. No wonder that this line is one of my favourite , " At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much you get from others , but , how much you are able to give" .As i write his i remember some unknown faces whom i helped. That illiterate man at ATM machine who didn't know how to use that ATM machine , that old lady who held my hand while crossing the road , the man who asked me how to fill form to deposit money at bank , the guy whose ticket was not confirmed and i made him sleep on my berth , that junior in school who walked up to me to me to ask how to write speech . Through the list is not uncountable , but still they make me smile each time i remember those moments.

Help offered to friends is obviously not mentioned in the list . At times whole day and more was devoted to solve the problems which created problem for them. Even if the problem was not of any significant magnitude i.e some mathematics problem.I'm getting guilty feeling( i should not mention about help offered/given ). A generous "thank-you" was not acceptable . Somehow,i never got comfortable with this word if i added that person in my friend list.With time i have started accepting this "thank-you" formality with a awkward "welcome".Coming to the recent event when i told one friend to write on chat window " calling you " rather then " can i call you?" . Its highly not-good-feeling to give permission to anyone calling me. Reason is simple , helping is at very high priority for me. The feeling that comes on seeing smiling face is the reward which is unique in its kind.sometimes,one can only imagine that smile because that person is not in front of you.But this hardly reduces feel-good -feeling.The sense of "i am of some use to other " is really special one.

Before closing,i'm happy to help unconditionally and someday i don't want to call myself "a pig".The work is on :)

Choti and frogy moments

Note : C=choti , f=frogy

Taken from one typical choti-frogy talk

In the middle of the talk.....

f: you like me?

c: you mean, i should call you sweet and cute?

f: There you go.Now you know me better.....i'm happy.

c: That's fine , but i like surprises, Saying you what you want me to say is hardly cool.

f: yes, that i know ...but...

c: May be you should call me cute then.

f: I should ..but you are too cute to be called cute and your sweetness can hardly be confined in one word "Sweet".

c: Don't try to be....leave it. Now, i want you to surprise me because i like surprises. Enough reasons...isn't it?

f: ok , i shall try to surprise you .

c: aha! , what do you mean?? From where these words "try to " , "shall" are coming. Just say you will surprise me now and now only.

f: ok....i'll surprise you now and now only.

c: now, i like you.

f: i know

c: oh no!!! , why your face is looking like sady sady?

f: nothing

c: no something is wrong. I shouldn't had talked to you like that. I'm so rude.

f: now see that expression on your face. Didn't i say , you are too cute to be called cute.

c: yes Mr. Frogy , you know things better than me. And i can say any number of times you are so nice.

f: crazy at best you are...aren't you?

c: as you say.....


Still in the middle of the talk.....

Some talks are really endless. Some fights are typical but still refreshing each time. Talking about Protagonists of the story. First Frogy . He was too much confused , kind at heart ( don't know how he was non-vegetarian ),late in realizing mistakes,bad at emotions(good at hiding them) ,always a sigh creature. About choti , less said is best said as her name says.So aggressive ( frogy had to face it every moment ) , strong willed , strong at heart , good at handling weak souls ( after all frogy was to be handled emotionally). At the core of that strong soul did lie so innocent face of choti. As Mr. frogy claimed every time, this innocent face did make him fall for choti.

Coming back to the story, how it started? When-where-why? Was it really a story? Answer is unknown. Mr. frogy didn't believe in luck/fate/destiny. Choti did count these things.What held them together in those circumstances is bigger mystery. It was 2312 AD to be precise. Humans had developed "too much". To add to these confusion , technology had developed so much that it was possible to make other species from existing i.e frogs to humans. Many countries had mastered this technology. But this was still not easily available technology to all countries. Mr. frogy was chosen frog in country kumken to be first frog-made-human. Choti , a human belonging to the 'lilliput' tribe was working as intern in the lab where this secret mission was being incorporated. The moment when they saw each other was not love at first sight. Then they hardly knew what lay ahead for them.......series of special moments , each contained full life in itself. Sometimes longevity can't be measured in terms of time elapsed...sometimes precious value of each moment dictates the measurement criteria....the unending saga that was....Frogy and choti moments i did call.


p.s : The person for whom this was written, disdainfully rejected to read this. But sometimes some lines are written even if no one is going to read them . "Will you read me when i won't write? " , answer i got , "NO".

Change : The observation

How diffcult it gets to share emotions. Its not easy to climb those walls time and again. How often we think twice before calling someone? The questions are obvious,what will i talk? do i have reason to call? Do i have reason to send SMS? How things take twists and turns? Once unseen barriers become rift and that keeps on widening? Is looking towards different path can solve the problem? It's easy to make speculation? why-someone-did-this-to-me scenario? How often talking to self only increases the pain? How helpless one can get when there is no fight between me and myself , not long ago this fight inside me was sweet and cute( for quite sometime they are sadly in unison ).

In past scenarios this situation was the case when i used to open some random page from my notebook and used to write randomly, bringing my thoughts on paper. I still remember that embarrassing situation when my friend had opened one of those pages and started reading that( class 11 days to be precise ) . I had to literally snatch the notebook vehemently to save my thoughts from being read. That reaction of mine was rude and uncharacteristic of me for sure. I didn't know then many more such pages are to be written . As i write this blog entry i surprisingly know i don't possess any of those pages at this moment. Pages which contained my emotions in black and white. most of the times they were new resolutions , i-shall-do-this-do-that type to motivate self. Others meant to criticize self for wrong actions. When even 1 hour was scrutinized and analyzed. Number of sleeping hours were counted and curtailed. Alarm clock was effectively used time and again . Waking up early in morning was regular phenomena .Spending even 1 rupee had to be justified .Eating outside was part of rarest of rare occasion . Dream was about unknown future. Sometimes doing everything to capacity can't keep away some difficult moments away.Mountain of expectations were ahead of me. i knew , "good is not good when excellent is expected" .

As i'm writing these otherwise meaningless words and throat is too chocked to speak any words; I find only one change in me over the years. Then,i didn't want anyone to listen my sad words. Words which haunt me and defeat me in war inside me everytime. Now, somehow its getting frustratingly difficult to hold words inside me. I just wish this phenomena is temporary one. But agonies are so difficult to handle, only because we don't know about length of that. The quest goes on, in search of the soul who will listen to "i-me-and-myself" at the same time . Waiting for the days when the fight, "me v/s myself" ,is resumed.I just hope that sweet fight is resumed ASAP : as soon as possible....the wait is on

Happy B'day to worker-Dear

Few words can't make the whole story ,
But the quest goes on and on .
What if the person says i couldn't got your single word?
Answer again same...quest goes on.

The quest is to spread smile ,
To appreciate what i observe ,
To say words unsaid ,
To learn from some good points ,
And make evolving changes in mine.


They say, we don't know people by chance
There is big conspiracy
For me those are opportunities to gain from others.


Oops! my non-poetic self is laughing ,
Words are not rhyming ,
Thought process going haywire,
Damn!! i made it confusing again.

It's time to revert back to simplicity
Simply said is best said
Some words i tried to write on your b'day ,
To wish and send happiness in this way .

It's time to add to this days wish list for you,
May that smile be always there from where it belongs ,
May your all wishes come true ,
Happiness is always replicated around you.


p.s : Happy B'day to worker-dear. Its no wonder that i did end up calling someone worker-dear; after all , "slave" and "mazdoor" was favourite word made favourite by me in our friend circle. Some sweet additions keep happening to already sweet things . That is what the quest is all about.

p.p.s : Coffee at "my_desk_away_from_my_desk" has got into some sweet memories i shall carry forward.

winter saga: travelled

With mercury reaching new lows in different parts of the country oops!! different parts of the world ( Europe-russia-US will agree ) everyone has at least one question to ask to everyone " kitni thand hai yaar!!" ( cold-cold-cold ). This question works at local as wel as global level...err again...australians will disagree this time. One getting cough and cold only adds to already hot topic of discussion . How memory lanes will spare me in this thought process. Here it goes...


I can't forget going to play at 5am when morning light was still sometime away and fog used to delay the start of play by quite sometime.What made things interesting was all of us knew the delay will be there. But with game in mind it was difficult to sleep a la Swami and friends by R.K narayan. Waking up lazy souls was interesting and lecturing them on importance of the sunday game was fun at best.


If sunday wee hours were beautiful ,all dusks were magnificent.Daylignt used to fade up at astronomical rate and one had to hurry from school to home to get going with the game. Sun god seemed in great hurry to wrap up days activities. Above mentioned phenomena led to fight against time. No one could resist the urge to play new match with reduced overs and reduced boundries. No wonder fading light left us with innumerable games which didn't get complete. Every evening Mom's gentle reminder used to turn into warning for not wearing sweater while playing , this used to conclude with routine "scolding" session .With mornings and evenings getting the mention its time not to forget days when sun god used to get leave i.e chilly nights were after effects of chilly days. I can't forget to mention here Sattu-parantha-baigan-bharta on demand dinner. This was regular demand from me to mom and was generously completed without fail.


With change in location ( i'm in pune now ) change in sun gods routine is not so obvious. Now Waking up at 5 seems like crime .Enjoying warm winter sun-light seems rare activity .Now saturday mornings are reserved for till-10am-sleeping. Change in taste of winter vegetables are not noticeable any more. Before closing....i have words flowing in my mind......even if we can't live some moments again we can always smile thinking about them. This gives motivation to live new moments which in due course of time will get into sweet moments list.

p.s : happy new year if anyone is reading this blog entry :)