No, I am in no mood to disburse gyaan to all and sundry, but if you felt a lack of motivation anytime in your life, this is something you may want to lay your eyes on:
It's Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Any other good recommendations on the subject are welcome. People around me are getting married; and anything to keep me occupied with other thoughts will do! Like many other things, it is funny as long as it doesn't happen to you.
Modi is back to bashing his sister-in-arms Sonia. I wish political correctness would mean excluding words like caste, religion, majority, minority, secularism, pseudo-secularism, reservation, et al and all their variations from politics. Rich and poor should suffice; and you may add middle class. Sometimes I am inclined to think that the Indian constitution is fundamentally flawed; we might be better off without such 'noble' ideas. I might be oversimplifying things, but in Gujarat, it seems there is no need to be politically correct either. To me, these are the weeds that we would do well remove from our psyche. The graffiti I read in a restroom (and posted a few months back) is particularly relevant here and worth pondering over.
Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude
out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow
in us like fungus; one minute they are there, we know
not how. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener,
but only to the soil of the plants that grow in him.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Friday, December 7, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Homecoming..
It was a pleasant surprise, my colleagues (who are more like an extended family) took me out to lunch today...it was more like a farewell party... yes, it is time to pack up and go...go home..I am not sure if that is a correct statement, but I am going..to India..for good.
It has been a a little over an year here, and when I came in, I didn't really like it. But as the weeks went by, I would shirk aside the dislikes and move on.. And that is the real crux of it. I don't know what the real America is;, is it the chaos of Manhattan, or the easy going folks around here in New Hampshire. The first impression of this land of opportunity (loo for short) was that it was so different from Europe, and it still holds. I obviously refer to the people. And I guess it has a lot to do with the volume of immigrant population here. But that's just an explanation, and it is not going to change how I view this land. Here are my initial thoughts about this place, just in case you were wondering.
The packing is tiring. There is a ton of stuff that I need to dispose off, but just recalling the price I paid for some of them makes me cringe. How does one pack up effects amounting to an year's worth of life in a couple of 30" x 20" x 14" bags? But that is a digression, and I am a little too happy to crib right now.
Homecoming has always been a happy affair. When we were about to leave for vacations (for those who don't know, I went to a boarding school), a classic way to start small talk on the dinner table was that this was the n'th last time we were having this kind of food. When we were served fish (on Wed'days for dinner) that no one would like, we would say I am eating this for the third last time this year. I still remember the menu - each day of the week and every meal of the day still seems a recent memory. Back then, packing used to be fun. You wanted to leave almost every item of clothing behind, secretly hoping your parents would buy you new ones. And of course you wouldn't have to carry heavy bags. The last day invariably had an exam, and we would fight tooth and nail to schedule the easiest (like Civics or 'Work Experience') or the craziest (like Sanskrit) for the last day. And we would race to run out of the hall to meet our parents who would have come to take us home. Some of the lucky ones had an 'authority letter' from their parents that would allow them to go home by themselves. I never had such an opportunity, until I appeared for my last exams, and I would always be jealous of those who were going home 'alone'. I guess my parents never realized I had grown up, and I am not sure if that has changed. Back then, being alone meant so much fun. You could trek all the way down to Rajpur with a backpack and take a local bus to the station instead of the boring one and half hours on the regular bus, or could have poori chhole instead of the mundane rajma chawal, and also grab a thums up with it (If you are thinking what's the big deal, let me tell you that our vacations began december 1st, we were in Dehradun and it used to be really cold; no sane Indian parent would allow a child to have a cold drink in that temperature). Some would skip the dinner altogether, and squueze out a movie at Prabhat, Krishna or Natraj or a rasmalai at the kumar sweets at Ghantaghar. Just before the vacations, as the classes remained suspended for the exams, we would wander around the school, in an area that we called the peninsula and the front pitch. Here is a link in case you were interested. The peninsula would offer a great view of the doon valley (it was like u were on the edge of a cliff which faced the valley and had rocks on the other 3 sides, hence the name). Another name for the same area was 'sinhaasan battisi' as the rocks flattened in the center in the form of a seat with a not-so-convenient backrest and if you sat there, you could see the shivaliks giving way to the plains of north india. But that was one place where we grew up, came to know each other and make friends for life.
Coming back to the present, there has been some excitement (a saner mind may call it relief) that is all-pervasive. There has been some shopping (mostly online) and some futile gift searches have not helped my planning. Hopefully things will fall in place in the next couple of days, before I take off.
P.S. I wonder how I have not managed a post till date about my school. Perhaps, there hasn't been a compelling reason. I hope to find one soon!
It has been a a little over an year here, and when I came in, I didn't really like it. But as the weeks went by, I would shirk aside the dislikes and move on.. And that is the real crux of it. I don't know what the real America is;, is it the chaos of Manhattan, or the easy going folks around here in New Hampshire. The first impression of this land of opportunity (loo for short) was that it was so different from Europe, and it still holds. I obviously refer to the people. And I guess it has a lot to do with the volume of immigrant population here. But that's just an explanation, and it is not going to change how I view this land. Here are my initial thoughts about this place, just in case you were wondering.
The packing is tiring. There is a ton of stuff that I need to dispose off, but just recalling the price I paid for some of them makes me cringe. How does one pack up effects amounting to an year's worth of life in a couple of 30" x 20" x 14" bags? But that is a digression, and I am a little too happy to crib right now.
Homecoming has always been a happy affair. When we were about to leave for vacations (for those who don't know, I went to a boarding school), a classic way to start small talk on the dinner table was that this was the n'th last time we were having this kind of food. When we were served fish (on Wed'days for dinner) that no one would like, we would say I am eating this for the third last time this year. I still remember the menu - each day of the week and every meal of the day still seems a recent memory. Back then, packing used to be fun. You wanted to leave almost every item of clothing behind, secretly hoping your parents would buy you new ones. And of course you wouldn't have to carry heavy bags. The last day invariably had an exam, and we would fight tooth and nail to schedule the easiest (like Civics or 'Work Experience') or the craziest (like Sanskrit) for the last day. And we would race to run out of the hall to meet our parents who would have come to take us home. Some of the lucky ones had an 'authority letter' from their parents that would allow them to go home by themselves. I never had such an opportunity, until I appeared for my last exams, and I would always be jealous of those who were going home 'alone'. I guess my parents never realized I had grown up, and I am not sure if that has changed. Back then, being alone meant so much fun. You could trek all the way down to Rajpur with a backpack and take a local bus to the station instead of the boring one and half hours on the regular bus, or could have poori chhole instead of the mundane rajma chawal, and also grab a thums up with it (If you are thinking what's the big deal, let me tell you that our vacations began december 1st, we were in Dehradun and it used to be really cold; no sane Indian parent would allow a child to have a cold drink in that temperature). Some would skip the dinner altogether, and squueze out a movie at Prabhat, Krishna or Natraj or a rasmalai at the kumar sweets at Ghantaghar. Just before the vacations, as the classes remained suspended for the exams, we would wander around the school, in an area that we called the peninsula and the front pitch. Here is a link in case you were interested. The peninsula would offer a great view of the doon valley (it was like u were on the edge of a cliff which faced the valley and had rocks on the other 3 sides, hence the name). Another name for the same area was 'sinhaasan battisi' as the rocks flattened in the center in the form of a seat with a not-so-convenient backrest and if you sat there, you could see the shivaliks giving way to the plains of north india. But that was one place where we grew up, came to know each other and make friends for life.
Coming back to the present, there has been some excitement (a saner mind may call it relief) that is all-pervasive. There has been some shopping (mostly online) and some futile gift searches have not helped my planning. Hopefully things will fall in place in the next couple of days, before I take off.
P.S. I wonder how I have not managed a post till date about my school. Perhaps, there hasn't been a compelling reason. I hope to find one soon!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The disappointment...
Was up all of last night, with a Sam Adams hefe and a sandwich to fuel it...And they (do I say we?) lost again..So much so that my 11 year old cousin didn't feel like celebrating his b'day. So much for hope...and yet the flicker is undiminished...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Choked...
Yes, this is about cricket, and about South Africa. Here they go again. The sequence is so close to the epic '99 semis that it's hard to believe. Two boundaries and a runout! I feel for the South African cricket fan. And yes, a certain player on the sidelines may not be in contention, but he is doing his bit.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Oktoberfest
Just to give you an idea of how BIG is it. How would I love to be in München at this time of the year! Needless to say, I love hefeweizen.
Friday, September 14, 2007
RD Goes....
Disclaimers are the order of the day when you talk of Indian Cricket.
I am a big fan on RD, the man and the player.
It is 5.00 AM and I am up not to write this blog but wrap up a stupid document that I was supposed to finish yesterday for a customer.
I am no good at writing obituaries.
Now, What the heck happened? Against all my wishes, I ctrl+t to cricinfo, to check on the T20s and the headline says RD has resigned! How, why, OMG...Why does it always have to happen before we are to play Aussies? The curse of Oz, a particular willophile friend of mine might say. The other day I was discussing RD's captaincy with this friend of mine, and we kinda concurred that it leaves a lot to be desired, the decision to bat first in the decider at Lords being one of them.
Did I tell you that hindsight was a funny thing, and most of our decisions will be looked upon by future generations (if at all) in shock. But now that he has resigned, discussing what he did as the Captain of team India (as all the media has cried horse to tell me this technically fallacy) is a moot point. Pawar and Modi, for all your marketing crap and minting gold with the viewership, people might call you the best CEO or salesman in Corporate India. But tell me your one contribution to the cause of improving Indian cricket. You guys suck when it comes to leading: your man-management is horrible, and some of your policies an utter shocker ( I am not going to rant about a monopolistic, power-starved regime of yours in my blog). So you couldn't anticipate what was coming, could you. Well, frankly I don't expect any better. Enough of my rants; BCCI, the sooner you would dissolve yourself, the better it would be for the game of cricket in India. Period. Why in another post, I got that doc to complete.
Let's look at some recent captains and the way they have exited the stage
Kapil Dev - never saw eye to eye with SMG - and although you lead us to glory unsurpassed, thankfully you did not choose to prolong your captaincy for as long as your career (as far as i recall of those days).
SMG - Again, power hungry, and monopolistic, I can't recall how you left, on various occasions.
BSB - No idea how you got there in the first place, lol!
GV - This is no place for gentlemen, as I realize today!
DBV - no idea what he did as Indian captain.
RJS - Nipped in the bud..lol!
KS - Tried your best to stick, but the glue had a limited shelf life
MA - After a long tenure, you should have known when to leave, but left it to the messiahs to make the decision, and didn't push come to shove the second time?
SRT - So unhappy when the old order was established, and all those senti stories in the media didn't make you look as innocent as you have told us u are. Thankfully, u knew better the second time.
SCG - For all the good you did to the Indian psyche, you should have known that it was too stressful a job for anyone to retain his sanity after 5 years in the seat. We prefer communists wearing chappals to the parliament than Chappel showing us the middle finger. And you didn't come out of that nasty exchange with your head held high.
RSD - For a man with a cooler mind than anyone in the list, you probably knew better than most of your distinguished predecessors
(Vaas bowls a wicket maiden first up as Kenya chase 261...no this is not a 50 over match) .
Now that leadership question will be discussed all over print and electronic media, chat forums with the wise offering all gyaan, come on, take your pick, who should succeed RD. In the past, BCCI has chosen to stick to the senior people, and if they go the same way, either of Sehwag, Yuvraj or MSD is a choice (I am keeping it safe for now, lol.). I just hope they don't go back to SRT or SCG or VVS (in tests). But different captains for tests, ODIs, and may be T20s as well would sure be a one way to cool off the hot seat. Take your pick BCCI, prove me wrong, prove it to me that you got a brain that could manage people and not just dollars.
I am going back to writing that stupid document. Did I tell you I love Fridays?
I am a big fan on RD, the man and the player.
It is 5.00 AM and I am up not to write this blog but wrap up a stupid document that I was supposed to finish yesterday for a customer.
I am no good at writing obituaries.
Now, What the heck happened? Against all my wishes, I ctrl+t to cricinfo, to check on the T20s and the headline says RD has resigned! How, why, OMG...Why does it always have to happen before we are to play Aussies? The curse of Oz, a particular willophile friend of mine might say. The other day I was discussing RD's captaincy with this friend of mine, and we kinda concurred that it leaves a lot to be desired, the decision to bat first in the decider at Lords being one of them.
Did I tell you that hindsight was a funny thing, and most of our decisions will be looked upon by future generations (if at all) in shock. But now that he has resigned, discussing what he did as the Captain of team India (as all the media has cried horse to tell me this technically fallacy) is a moot point. Pawar and Modi, for all your marketing crap and minting gold with the viewership, people might call you the best CEO or salesman in Corporate India. But tell me your one contribution to the cause of improving Indian cricket. You guys suck when it comes to leading: your man-management is horrible, and some of your policies an utter shocker ( I am not going to rant about a monopolistic, power-starved regime of yours in my blog). So you couldn't anticipate what was coming, could you. Well, frankly I don't expect any better. Enough of my rants; BCCI, the sooner you would dissolve yourself, the better it would be for the game of cricket in India. Period. Why in another post, I got that doc to complete.
Let's look at some recent captains and the way they have exited the stage
Kapil Dev - never saw eye to eye with SMG - and although you lead us to glory unsurpassed, thankfully you did not choose to prolong your captaincy for as long as your career (as far as i recall of those days).
SMG - Again, power hungry, and monopolistic, I can't recall how you left, on various occasions.
BSB - No idea how you got there in the first place, lol!
GV - This is no place for gentlemen, as I realize today!
DBV - no idea what he did as Indian captain.
RJS - Nipped in the bud..lol!
KS - Tried your best to stick, but the glue had a limited shelf life
MA - After a long tenure, you should have known when to leave, but left it to the messiahs to make the decision, and didn't push come to shove the second time?
SRT - So unhappy when the old order was established, and all those senti stories in the media didn't make you look as innocent as you have told us u are. Thankfully, u knew better the second time.
SCG - For all the good you did to the Indian psyche, you should have known that it was too stressful a job for anyone to retain his sanity after 5 years in the seat. We prefer communists wearing chappals to the parliament than Chappel showing us the middle finger. And you didn't come out of that nasty exchange with your head held high.
RSD - For a man with a cooler mind than anyone in the list, you probably knew better than most of your distinguished predecessors
(Vaas bowls a wicket maiden first up as Kenya chase 261...no this is not a 50 over match) .
Now that leadership question will be discussed all over print and electronic media, chat forums with the wise offering all gyaan, come on, take your pick, who should succeed RD. In the past, BCCI has chosen to stick to the senior people, and if they go the same way, either of Sehwag, Yuvraj or MSD is a choice (I am keeping it safe for now, lol.). I just hope they don't go back to SRT or SCG or VVS (in tests). But different captains for tests, ODIs, and may be T20s as well would sure be a one way to cool off the hot seat. Take your pick BCCI, prove me wrong, prove it to me that you got a brain that could manage people and not just dollars.
I am going back to writing that stupid document. Did I tell you I love Fridays?
Monday, August 6, 2007
Gyan in unexpected corners..
As soon as I lay my eyes on it, I thought it would make a good blog post... Checkout the pictures below.
Sorry for the trouble, but there wasn't enough space and light to get a single good picture.. for those who cannot connect the two pieces, here is what it says:
Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude
out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow
in us like fungus; one minute they are there, we know
not how. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener,
but only to the soil of the plants that grow in him.
Google didn't tell me who JDM was, but it told me that the profound thought came from none other than Nietzsche. So here is the complete verse(or is it just a quote), JDM happened to miss a few words...
"Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him!"
Too bad google didn't tell me was where could I get a fungi cleaner for these :(
If you haven't been able to make out where I got the pictures from, let me give you a hint. There is a clue in the bottom right of the picture. And there are not too many places where you can find such graffiti. If you still cannot figure this out, you know whom to ask.
Sorry for the trouble, but there wasn't enough space and light to get a single good picture.. for those who cannot connect the two pieces, here is what it says:
Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude
out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow
in us like fungus; one minute they are there, we know
not how. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener,
but only to the soil of the plants that grow in him.
Google didn't tell me who JDM was, but it told me that the profound thought came from none other than Nietzsche. So here is the complete verse(or is it just a quote), JDM happened to miss a few words...
"Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him!"
Too bad google didn't tell me was where could I get a fungi cleaner for these :(
If you haven't been able to make out where I got the pictures from, let me give you a hint. There is a clue in the bottom right of the picture. And there are not too many places where you can find such graffiti. If you still cannot figure this out, you know whom to ask.
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