I’ve been missing from this space for quite a while, so just thought would write something to feel a sense of being alive. Well, I just celebrated my 25th birth day a couple of days back. This is the oldest I've been so far. Trust me, 25 is a scary milestone to knock. Suddenly you start associating with all the stuff you read about things like the quarter-life crisis. You know you’re just kidding when you say you’re still a kid at heart. I wouldn’t dare refute Bryan Adams when he says it’s about what you feel inside, but then there are no fairy tales which have a 25 year old in them, are there? (Michael Douglas would definitely disagree because the exact day he turned 25 saw the birth of Catherine Zeta Jones, his second and current wife).
Don’t want to start sounding like some Agony Aunty, so better stop here. Instead, like a birthday boy would, I did draw a ‘wish list’ for the next year (this is at least better than writing your quarterly goals). Anyways here a few *sharable* things from the list (not in any order):
1) India winning the World Cup. I've already poured my heart here.(And wouldn’t this turn into a fairy tale if I get a chance of being at the Wankade to witness the event).
2) Federer winning a grand slam… and defeating Nadal in the finals… (This one is starting to sound more like a fantasy, so I better stop here).
3) A trip to Andaman. This (alongwith Kashmir) is one location in India which is missing from my resume. (The places for which I can proudly tick the checklist include, the backwaters of Kerala, the beaches of Goa, the sand dunes of Jaisalmer, the white waters of Rishikesh, the jungles of Jim Corbett, the raw beauty of Tawang – and of course, last but not the least, the awesomeness of Shillong).
4) Sending my parents to a vacation somewhere.
5) Writing a ‘farewell mail’ in Yahoo! :) (This would actually be a consequence of something else). If you’re reading this blog from the corp network, please ignore this. :D
Hmmm… If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!!! Anyways would end with a quote from a movie I saw recently (ironically, the name of the movie was ‘Grown-ups’)
“In life, the first act is always exciting but it is the second act – that’s where the depth comes in.”
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
A crook; and something from my old book...
Well this week, for a change, saw me at the receiving end of plagiarism as the article i wrote was copied verbatim by another blog. (Good thing they even copied the first comment otherwise the needle of suspicion could have boomeranged back to me). Well, I'll show some restraint and control my emotions, and give those bastards the benefit of doubt. Maybe they are environmentalists and this is their idea of 'going green' - by recycling the same article.
UPDATE: The article was removed after a few days. Like I said, they were environmentalists and the article probably just bio-degraded.
Anyways I was scanning my mailbox and I managed to dig up a short story I had written quite a while back; thought would share it.
Karan merely managed to avoid hitting a fat lady trying to cross the road as he pressed the accelerator even harder. He realized it was the first time he had crossed 80 kmph while driving, let alone touch the 120 barrier. He tried the phone again but still no answer. As he took another sharp turn, he tried to recollect all the weird things that had happened to him in the last six months. It all started when he purchased a weird looking second-hand television set from an even weirder looking man; a bit too cheap he had thought. He soon found, much to his horror (and later to his amazement) that the TV aired the programmes an hour earlier than their stipulated time. He used it to gamble on cricket matches and horse races and had carved a fortune for himself. He had never been happier; having a bank balance he had never even dreamt off and was soon to tie the nuptial knot with his fiancé, Anjalee, a TV reporter. But all that changed 55 minutes earlier. He wiped the sweat off his face as he remembered watching the 'live' coverage of Anjalee's show in marine drive - on the very place he had popped the question to her. He recollected the day when he had gone on one knee and professed his love to her - she had just smiled then, but that had been enough. Today in the TV show, just as she was signing off, wearing the same smile, a long black car had driven straight into her and the next thing the camera showed was blood - all over. He found something strange about the car but could not recall what it was. He tried calling her one more time to warn her of the impending danger but no response again. He glanced at his watch – the accident would happen anytime. As he loudly uttered another swear word, to noone in particular, he did not notice the bus in front of him. Without warning, he steered left and crashed into something. When he gained senses a few minutes later, he found himself sitting in his black BMW with a pool of blood around the car. Just then it struck him what was so strange about the car he had seen in his TV.
UPDATE: The article was removed after a few days. Like I said, they were environmentalists and the article probably just bio-degraded.
Anyways I was scanning my mailbox and I managed to dig up a short story I had written quite a while back; thought would share it.
Karan merely managed to avoid hitting a fat lady trying to cross the road as he pressed the accelerator even harder. He realized it was the first time he had crossed 80 kmph while driving, let alone touch the 120 barrier. He tried the phone again but still no answer. As he took another sharp turn, he tried to recollect all the weird things that had happened to him in the last six months. It all started when he purchased a weird looking second-hand television set from an even weirder looking man; a bit too cheap he had thought. He soon found, much to his horror (and later to his amazement) that the TV aired the programmes an hour earlier than their stipulated time. He used it to gamble on cricket matches and horse races and had carved a fortune for himself. He had never been happier; having a bank balance he had never even dreamt off and was soon to tie the nuptial knot with his fiancé, Anjalee, a TV reporter. But all that changed 55 minutes earlier. He wiped the sweat off his face as he remembered watching the 'live' coverage of Anjalee's show in marine drive - on the very place he had popped the question to her. He recollected the day when he had gone on one knee and professed his love to her - she had just smiled then, but that had been enough. Today in the TV show, just as she was signing off, wearing the same smile, a long black car had driven straight into her and the next thing the camera showed was blood - all over. He found something strange about the car but could not recall what it was. He tried calling her one more time to warn her of the impending danger but no response again. He glanced at his watch – the accident would happen anytime. As he loudly uttered another swear word, to noone in particular, he did not notice the bus in front of him. Without warning, he steered left and crashed into something. When he gained senses a few minutes later, he found himself sitting in his black BMW with a pool of blood around the car. Just then it struck him what was so strange about the car he had seen in his TV.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The epilogue
So my first article is finally out (my grammar teacher would definitely argue that this was my fourth article considering that she had already taught me ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’). In 22 hours it already has 324 views which I deem quite an achievement because I personally refreshed the page just 311 times. It means 13 of them were actually genuine readers (now atleast my mathematics teacher is going to be very proud of me for this flawless computation).
There is one mistake in the article which I realized only after submitting the piece. Saurabh Tiwari has been picked for the squad which will tour Sri Lanka, and not Bangladesh. The site hasn’t bothered to correct it as yet despite me contacting them. So if any body of you have booked tickets for Bangladesh after reading the story, please change it immediately. I offer my apologies (it is as unconditional as Ravindra Jadeja’s).
Another joke on the same lines, just for this blogger page:
Once Yuvraj used to lift weights, now he is the weight.
All said and done, I think we all know what Yuvraj is capable of doing when he is on song. So here's a prayer for him - Yuvraj, sing!!
Thanks once again to whoever read the article. It does feel good. :) Will try and come up with more.
Enjoy maadi!!!
There is one mistake in the article which I realized only after submitting the piece. Saurabh Tiwari has been picked for the squad which will tour Sri Lanka, and not Bangladesh. The site hasn’t bothered to correct it as yet despite me contacting them. So if any body of you have booked tickets for Bangladesh after reading the story, please change it immediately. I offer my apologies (it is as unconditional as Ravindra Jadeja’s).
Another joke on the same lines, just for this blogger page:
Once Yuvraj used to lift weights, now he is the weight.
All said and done, I think we all know what Yuvraj is capable of doing when he is on song. So here's a prayer for him - Yuvraj, sing!!
Thanks once again to whoever read the article. It does feel good. :) Will try and come up with more.
Enjoy maadi!!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
And the winner is...
The news is out everywhere. I’ve topped the IPL Cricinfo fantasy league among my college folks. And as expected, the media is after me. Instead of giving multiple interviews I just thought I’d post excerpts of the interview taken by a leading daily (name withheld due to copyright reasons)
Interviewer (I); Rahul (R)
I: So Rahul, you’ve done it. Is there something you’d like to say to our readers?
R: Oh yes. I attribute this success to a lot of people. First of all, I would like to thank my parents for having me. Without them, I would have been nothing - trust me on that.
Next, I’d like to thank all the losers for being more worthless than I could ever be. What's a winner without the losers.
And yes, a word for my fans. Whatever Rahul Saraf is today is because of all you people out there. Without your continued support I could easily have been just one of the 13 losers in the league. It’s a scary thought.
And last but not the least, I would like to thank God. He was in my team and gave me 1867 points. The message to take from here is “Do not lose faith in God. Ever.”.
I: Ok so if you would want to pick one turning point in your league, what would it be?
R: Dropping Gilchrist after two matches. Not an easy choice when you consider he had given me 408 points in those two matches and gave a whole lot of points in the last edition. I was 9th in my league at that stage and was faced with a situation similar to what Sam Worthington was in Avatar.
“Loser. Laggard. Outcast. To ever face them again, I was gonna have to change the rules. Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move. The way I had it figured, Gilly is the most explosive batsman in the IPL. Nothing stops him. So why would he ever fail? But that was just a theory.“
I dropped Gilchrist to accommodate some of the other expensive buys. The rest, as they say, is history.
I: The tournament saw Sachin rise as a T20 player. Any comments on that?
R: It was wonderful to watch him bat the way he did, and hardly a surprise actually. I was, of course, disheartened because he could not win it for Mumbai. Just to further show what mettle he is made of, I’ll take the example of Gilchrist and Hayden. Now most people would select them over Sachin in the shortest avatar of the game, and you can’t blame them for doing so. But both of them were woefully out of form in this tournament and the only thing they did was try to hit their way out of trouble. They kept repeating the same mistakes time and again in the hope that it would come off. Contrast this to someone named Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. In the series against Australia in 2003-04, he kept getting out caught in the slip cordon while trying play the drive. He turns up in Sydney and what does he do? He scores an unbeaten 241 at a strike rate of 55 without a single shot through covers or mid-off.
Andy Flower summed it up when he once said, “There are two kinds of batsmen in this world - Sachin Tendulkar and all the others”
I: What about the controversy surrounding the IPL? Any thoughts on that?
R: For a moment forget about what the officials have done and are doing. If Dhoni can hit a six with one hand; if Sachin can score a solid 48 with a split webbing between the fingers of his hand; then you know that Indian cricket is in safe hands.
Interviewer (I); Rahul (R)
I: So Rahul, you’ve done it. Is there something you’d like to say to our readers?
R: Oh yes. I attribute this success to a lot of people. First of all, I would like to thank my parents for having me. Without them, I would have been nothing - trust me on that.
Next, I’d like to thank all the losers for being more worthless than I could ever be. What's a winner without the losers.
And yes, a word for my fans. Whatever Rahul Saraf is today is because of all you people out there. Without your continued support I could easily have been just one of the 13 losers in the league. It’s a scary thought.
And last but not the least, I would like to thank God. He was in my team and gave me 1867 points. The message to take from here is “Do not lose faith in God. Ever.”.
I: Ok so if you would want to pick one turning point in your league, what would it be?
R: Dropping Gilchrist after two matches. Not an easy choice when you consider he had given me 408 points in those two matches and gave a whole lot of points in the last edition. I was 9th in my league at that stage and was faced with a situation similar to what Sam Worthington was in Avatar.
“Loser. Laggard. Outcast. To ever face them again, I was gonna have to change the rules. Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move. The way I had it figured, Gilly is the most explosive batsman in the IPL. Nothing stops him. So why would he ever fail? But that was just a theory.“
I dropped Gilchrist to accommodate some of the other expensive buys. The rest, as they say, is history.
I: The tournament saw Sachin rise as a T20 player. Any comments on that?
R: It was wonderful to watch him bat the way he did, and hardly a surprise actually. I was, of course, disheartened because he could not win it for Mumbai. Just to further show what mettle he is made of, I’ll take the example of Gilchrist and Hayden. Now most people would select them over Sachin in the shortest avatar of the game, and you can’t blame them for doing so. But both of them were woefully out of form in this tournament and the only thing they did was try to hit their way out of trouble. They kept repeating the same mistakes time and again in the hope that it would come off. Contrast this to someone named Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. In the series against Australia in 2003-04, he kept getting out caught in the slip cordon while trying play the drive. He turns up in Sydney and what does he do? He scores an unbeaten 241 at a strike rate of 55 without a single shot through covers or mid-off.
Andy Flower summed it up when he once said, “There are two kinds of batsmen in this world - Sachin Tendulkar and all the others”
I: What about the controversy surrounding the IPL? Any thoughts on that?
R: For a moment forget about what the officials have done and are doing. If Dhoni can hit a six with one hand; if Sachin can score a solid 48 with a split webbing between the fingers of his hand; then you know that Indian cricket is in safe hands.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Three Idiots? Not quite
Hello World!! (All right, I know just a few people will be reading this, but just wanted to prove that my readers mean the world to me.)
Just saw the first match of IPL 3.0 between a team which won the trophy last year, and another which won the wooden spoon. Sounds like a mismatch but it turned out to be anything but that (unless you consider the four 10-over slabs in isolation). Now close matches always thrill you but this one provided all the more excitement because the man in the commentary box was Harsha Bhogle. Don’t know how many noticed but he was at his best, even by his own standards. He truly is a genius and you can’t miss him when he adds punches like “Shah Rukh will be tweeting every two seconds” or like “Wasim Akram would have learnt to swear in Bengali” in moments when tension is at its peak. Real gems, these are; and a real gem he is.
One of my priciest possessions in the small library which I have developed, is this book ‘Out of the Box’ which is a collection of the best articles he’s written over the course of 5 years. And just for the records I had obtained a copy the day it hit the stands. :) Truly India’s (in fact the world’s) first cricketing icon among people who haven’t played the game. (Lalit Modi could well be considered second). Now, one of the best ways to make your blog interesting is by quoting Harsha Bhogle and I’m going to do just that. This one is the opening paragraph of today’s edition of Indian Express. (For the ignorant, he writes for them every Friday). Read it and be awed by it, just as I was.
Pakistan hand out bans like toffees, those handing out the ban pretend they are pristine; Australia’s vice-captain leaves his team behind to offer solace to his girl suffering the after-effects of a dubious relationship; another South African storms his way into world cricket — for England; the world’s most hyped tournament slithers, rather than storms, in. That’s a lot of unusual things for a sport played by so few!
Coming back to the match, I was actually supporting the chargers (the team representing the city of Ashish Garg and N.D. Tiwari :P)- and the only reason was to irritate my sister who is a die-hard fan of SRK and hence KKR. Now any argument involving SRK generally leads to a comparison between him and Aamir Khan. I would’t want to jump into the debate here, but I did mention to my sister that three of Aamir’s last four movies (not counting Luck By Chance where he had a role as small as Dada’s stay in the crease today) – RDB, TZP and 3 Idiots – were probably better than any of Shah Rukh’s; and even she looked convinced about it. But then there is no denying who a better showman is between the two. Just to gauge what being witty means you just need to watch the show when Shah Rukh won the NDTV entertainer of the year in 2007 - the way he handled the barrage of seemingly tricky questions that were doled out to him. But sorry Di, Aamir is the better actor for me.
But again, Aamir is not a complete perfectionist that he claims to be – he didn’t undergo a sex change operation for his role in Baazi, did he?
Just saw the first match of IPL 3.0 between a team which won the trophy last year, and another which won the wooden spoon. Sounds like a mismatch but it turned out to be anything but that (unless you consider the four 10-over slabs in isolation). Now close matches always thrill you but this one provided all the more excitement because the man in the commentary box was Harsha Bhogle. Don’t know how many noticed but he was at his best, even by his own standards. He truly is a genius and you can’t miss him when he adds punches like “Shah Rukh will be tweeting every two seconds” or like “Wasim Akram would have learnt to swear in Bengali” in moments when tension is at its peak. Real gems, these are; and a real gem he is.
One of my priciest possessions in the small library which I have developed, is this book ‘Out of the Box’ which is a collection of the best articles he’s written over the course of 5 years. And just for the records I had obtained a copy the day it hit the stands. :) Truly India’s (in fact the world’s) first cricketing icon among people who haven’t played the game. (Lalit Modi could well be considered second). Now, one of the best ways to make your blog interesting is by quoting Harsha Bhogle and I’m going to do just that. This one is the opening paragraph of today’s edition of Indian Express. (For the ignorant, he writes for them every Friday). Read it and be awed by it, just as I was.
Pakistan hand out bans like toffees, those handing out the ban pretend they are pristine; Australia’s vice-captain leaves his team behind to offer solace to his girl suffering the after-effects of a dubious relationship; another South African storms his way into world cricket — for England; the world’s most hyped tournament slithers, rather than storms, in. That’s a lot of unusual things for a sport played by so few!
Coming back to the match, I was actually supporting the chargers (the team representing the city of Ashish Garg and N.D. Tiwari :P)- and the only reason was to irritate my sister who is a die-hard fan of SRK and hence KKR. Now any argument involving SRK generally leads to a comparison between him and Aamir Khan. I would’t want to jump into the debate here, but I did mention to my sister that three of Aamir’s last four movies (not counting Luck By Chance where he had a role as small as Dada’s stay in the crease today) – RDB, TZP and 3 Idiots – were probably better than any of Shah Rukh’s; and even she looked convinced about it. But then there is no denying who a better showman is between the two. Just to gauge what being witty means you just need to watch the show when Shah Rukh won the NDTV entertainer of the year in 2007 - the way he handled the barrage of seemingly tricky questions that were doled out to him. But sorry Di, Aamir is the better actor for me.
But again, Aamir is not a complete perfectionist that he claims to be – he didn’t undergo a sex change operation for his role in Baazi, did he?
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