WINTER OF 99 & CRICKET (PART I : MORNING SESSION)

Come winter , I always travel back in memory lane to that winter of 99 , some 30 odd boys playing
cricket in early morning. Yes , I know , as per cricket rules, number of players should be 22 , but
when the rule was made nobody had asked us for our opinions , so we ignored it. Also the rule makers
didn't know about the attendance records , proximity of girls cycle stand and law of ' love after thousand sight' etc. Also as a simple rule of economics , when shareholders are more risk per person is less .
 (In this case buying a ball or repair the bat takes the place of risk)

Why only winter , did not we play in other seasons . Yes of course we did . Batch of 99 of the our College (including some people of next batch who played with us) can proudly say that , there was not a single day in those two years we haven't crowded that college field.

But imagine a cold morning  , a hard plastic/leather ball traveling at 100-120 Kmph , assisted by the hard cement floor / uneven ground and kissing your unprotected fingers or sometimes your most vulnerable spot under the belt , you will never forget that winter. And the aftermath , when you curse to kill the bowler and decide that you don't give a damn about the game. But next morning again , you will standing at the same place , is a different matter incomprehensible to normal human logic.

Before I write further about the college routine , let me tell there were two kinds of people in the group ,

THE IMMORTALS : (IM) : who never attended classes

THE LESSER MORTALS (LM) : People who sometimes attended due to some other reasons 
                                                      (not study related , of course)

The simple routine we followed were like this :

MORNING SESSION

7.00 AM : Start from home to attend classes in college

7.10 AM : Take the other route directly to college field

7.30 AM : All gathered , select the two captains and attach players to them , select the rules
                ( yes most of the days we made our own rules depending upon the boundary created
                   by roaming cows and not so roaming cow dungs )

7.45 AM : Let the game begin

8.00 AM : Ist period (Physics / Chemistry) over , attendance less by 30 boys , Girl to boy ratio (1:1) ,
                 who says we do not care about gender equality

Ist group batting : 2 overs gone , score 11 / 2

9.00 AM : Lab class starts (lab attendance is must to appear at final exam , as if we will make some
                 new invention in those two hours)

                 (response of people , in case their LAB class is on that particular day

                 Immortals : abe light le yaar , next time class karenge (WTF , next time )

                 Lesser Mortals : chal attendance deke ate hain (Let's go give the attendance & come  WTF)

(Now you can understand why 30 peoples were playing. who is going to play in place of those who will attend class , the rule maker ?

Ist group batting over : Score 98/12 in total 15 overs

11.00 AM : Mathematics / Biology Class starts ( Girls to boy ratio 20 : 3 , Those were the days we
                    were very serious about gender equality , in this case inequality I suppose )

Ist group batting : Score 15/ 0 , 3 overs ( Ist match is already over , this is second match Ist innings)

12.00 AM : Girls started coming from class , all attention to girls cycle stand and on the road

                    Some lesser mortals , who have already had the chance to bat and there is no chance
                    of them  to get to bowl , sneak out from the ground to prove the law of 'love after
                    thousand sights' following anyone of fairer sex giving a glance

Ist Group : Score 67/9 , 12 overs ( Generally total overs in subsequent match is less than the I st match due to time constraint)


2nd Group : Score 27/4 , in 5 overs

12. 30 PM : Match over , 2nd group won the match

Now remaining 20 odd people will take 3 separate ways

Ist way : Cricket crazy bunch (some 7-8 people) will shorten the boundary & start 6 over match

2nd way : Indoor game specialists (4-5 guys) will move to the college club to play carrom , TT , Chess etc

3rd way : Rest others will return home . (of course some of them will go and join the ones who left earlier in their  search of their queens on cycle and rickshaws

AFTERNOON SESSION FOLLOWS

P.S : This is a work of fiction. Maa , I always attended class.

WILL YOU BUY IT , IF IT IS AVAILABLE FREE

The Question is ‘Will you spend money to buy something, if you can get it free ’

Yesterday evening, I alongwith my friend watching live performance by Sriram (Indian Idol 5 Winner ) . We were outside the boundary area where the show was going on, straining our eyes to have a peek at the show. Many a thoughts were coming to mind such as to bribe the security guard , to break the boundary wall etc etc.

Yes , you may ask the question , ‘why we were standing outside the boundary & why did not we buy tickets to watch the show comfortably sitting inside the show area ‘

I am tempted to answer that we were having a evening exercise for our 2 pair legs and 3 pair eyes ( as my friend also had specs on) and what is the fun to watch a show by buying a ticket’

However all I can say we did not buy tickets because of the economic theory which states ‘Almost everything you purchase is a bargain, in the sense that you get it for less than the absolute maximum  that you would have been willing to pay.’

In this case, the price of the ticket was above the absolute maximum we were willing to pay.

Then I was asking myself, If I had a chance to get inside and watch the show without paying anything ,
Could I have done that.

Before I can answer myself , we came back from that place.

There are two types of people (Actually there are as many types of people in this world as there are
people in this world) first type who believes everything should come at a price ( no piracy , no free stuff ) , the second type ,who thinks ‘everything should be free

I don’t know which group I belong to.

We live in a pirated world , listen to downloaded free music , watch downloaded free movies , read downloaded free e-books. We like things which come free

However those statistics they put regarding loss to music industry, movie industry, publishing industry etc due to prevalent piracy, makes one think regarding the results of our seemingly innocuous actions of downloading and distributing free stuff.

Not going into deal with morals , ethics of the actions I have the following point to make

Without any value assigned to the product , eventually the product will be worthless . Let’s say , by some miracle , from this moment onwards everything becomes free (or we all lost our appetite). Then tomorrow morning , will I go to office to do my job (as if it really matters) . N O WAY

This will happen to all. All we will do, roam around free , eat free food , drink free drinks (vodka martini shaken but not stirred ) , watch free movies , listen to free music etc.

Idea seems fine. To do nothing . To have absolute freedom . However I believe with nothing to achieve, life will be miserable. Eventually everyone of us will get bored with the kind of life and our race may get extinct due to sheer purposelessness of our lives. OR in the contrary we may find the true purpose of life because we will have time to find ourselves.

As we all know the miracle is never going to happen , we end up with the question , ‘what I am willing to pay’

In case my cost for downloading or distributing is more than the cost of buying music , movie , book etc , then we need not search for free stuffs in net. We can buy it and that also with satisfaction that we did something right.

But who is going to fix that absolute maximum ? may be the Invisible Hand revered by econmists

Farewell to life

The following I wrote , in the final year of graduation as a farewell to life that never going to happen again.
Only thing I didn't know that what I wrote 4 years back will come true

For all final year students….. (Rendezvous with backbenchers)

Hi guys,

Good morning/good afternoon/good evening

depends upon the time you read it. We all waited all these years for this to end, but when the end is near celebration is the last word that comes to mind.

Here is the story of our failures & successes.

We sat in the classrooms with apt attention till teacher arrived. After that our mind said good bye and we went to win matches for India in a close match by hitting a century and taking five wickets. Even as
P.M of India we lead our country to be a superpower. Sometimes we took tours of bollywood and of course Hollywood too. And when the weather was good we went on dating with Katrina kaif, sania
mirza& x, y, z. when some of our friends were busy solving problems we thought what ‘xaero’ (Q3)
would be doing without us, might be practicing with rail gun and of course thought how to conquer the
whole world in rise of nations.

From sharukh to sachin, Napoleon to Einstein no one escaped our imagination. We became our
dreams not our disabilities.

Some other moment we just sat down and tried hard to find reasons of life in subjects taught to us. We cannot make ourselves understand how Fourier series will define us, how the data structures will help to solve our own problems, how differentiation will help to clear our excess baggage in life & how integrations will help us to accumulate our joys.

We are sorry for we could not stand to the expectations of our parents & teachers. We could not force ourselves to become someone. Sorry again. We became unsolved mazes with no answers where we lost ourselves often. We learnt everything except what we are taught. But don’t write us off. We are down in the chart but not out of it. We will be back.

We all know that the best thing our college gave us is us.

Final countdown has started. After some days it will be over. We will move away to begin a new life, to lose ourselves into the casual happenstances of life. A journey of 4 years that we started together will end soon. We will get our own summer of 69 to sing. Some of us will keep on touch for sometime, but then with time it will also end. Probably our best is over.

No one will come to give a birthday bashings anymore. We will not watch cricket match together, praying for India to win. No more our “khati” will go on till midnight and sometimes till morning. No more we will get drunk and dream the same dreams together. We will not fight over aishwarya rai anymore. Our volleyball & cricket balls will remember us forever. No more we will watch I.A flights taking off & our dreams flying with it. No more we will watch stars and think that there is still life somewhere there & someway down the lane of time our grandson’s grandsons will go for taking an evening walk there. No more in silence we will dream of our loves to come true, to find a reason to live. No more we will bunk classes to do nothing in hostel. Our holis, republic days, dipawalis will never be the same again. Probably we will never be the same again.

I remember a line, lend me your ears.
“ ab ke hum bichde to sayad kabhi khaboo mein mile
Jis tereh sookhe hue phool kabhi kitabon mein mile”

So many “no” s to deal in life. It is the time to circulate slam books, to capture photos.

So silly of us, we want to catch life on paper and print it. The best ones cannot be printed on paper because they are already printed on our memory. We are nothing but our experiences with each other. Probably doing B.Tech is just a secondary reason. We were here because we were destined to be here.

So how are u feeling now, little nostalgic, little frus2.cool man cool, life goes by like this.

The song below is for you special ones. I read it somewhere months ago.

“How could anyone ever tell you? You were anything less than beautiful

How could anyone ever tell you? You were less than whole

How could anyone fail to notice? That your loving is a miracle

How deeply you are connected to my soul”

Bid adieu,

From piyusa

'E' of 'A' & 'A' of 'E'

I would like to dedicate the following to my sweet wife . But last time I checked in orkut & facebook ,
my status  is showing a bachelor leading a happy single life.

Hence I dedicate this to all of you hoping that you have the opportunity to tell that special someone
about your love every single day of your life


Adam's Ego

She started complaining that I don't listen to her , don't love her anymore

But can I tell her that , evertyime I start to listen , I get lost in her deep black eyes &
in her single curl of hair swaying across her face like gentle waves in sea shore

I get lost searching for the girl I fell in love , searching for those innocent eyes hoping to
find those shared dreams we dreamt together.

I still wake up to see her sleep , sometimes her lips moving & face smiling , lost in the
morning dreams. I hold that carefree curl &  put that gently behind her ear

I still anticipate the evening to arrive early so that I can come home and see her face
gleaming to find me near

She was still complaining that I don't listen to her anymore

Eve's Agony

He thinks I am complaining

Lost in his own thoughts , may be he doesn't care for us any longer.

He kept listening to me late in nights till stars go for sleep . Everytime the unruly curl lost its place ,
He used to hold it and keep that behind my ear

He shared his dreams sometimes in spoken words and sometimes in silence. Now when
I search for that dreamer , it seems he doesn't live here

In those vaccant eyes , I find no love , no dreams , all gone for a place unknown
I want to talk to him so that we break the walls  and do not have to hide anymore

But he thinks I am complaining

Groundhog Day

What will you do , if you are trapped in single day of your life. Your every tomorrow is like today , on
and on . Every moment , each event occurs again & again.

Initially you will try to use the opportunity to your advantage . But eventually you will get bored with the
trapped life without meaning . Then you will try to end your life but cannot able to do it. And may be
then you will realise to do something good , show generosity to starngers , to let the feeling of love
catch hold of you.

This is a story of the movie Groundhog day starring Bill Murray, Andie Macdowell.

The character Phil Connors (Bill Murray)  gets trapped in same day occuring again & again , in a small
town. His memories of the "previous" day intact , he starts to manipulate life of others . Even he tries to
seduce  Rita (Andie Macdowell) , prodcuer of the tv show . However he fails miserably getting slapped everytime in the process.
Eventually he succeeds in explaining his unique situation to Rita. And on her advice , he starts to take a
positive look at life , learning new things like playing piano , helping strangers in the way. At the end Rita
falls in love with Phil and the next morning when Phil wakes up it is not same day anymore. He exclaims
'today is tomorrow'

Released back in 1993 , this is one of the cleverest movie I have seen . Showing the same day again and again , but keeping the audiences' attention is a difficult task. But the director Harlod Ramis was able to achieve the same by successfully throwing up new developments and delightful twists at every opportunity


It is a beautiful imaginative movie , worth watching anytime

Arzoo , Art & Aashayeen

Arzoo

First of all , before I forget I want to wish myself happy birthday . Approximately one hour and
26 minutes ago ,  I officially completed 26 years , though my real birthday is one month ahead.
At these initial minutes  of starting 27 years , i remember '27 club' ( a group of influential 
famous musicians who all died  at the age of 27). The notable musicians who died in this famous
age being  Jim Morrison , Janis  Japlin , Kurt Cobain (lead singer of my my favorite  song 'the
man who sold the world' of band  'Nirvana') and  many more.

Though I am at the alpha point of 27 , I am neither a musician  and nor yet famous.

Art

In the evening, I went to attend an art exhibition. This is  first time I attended something like
and that is  because, a colleague has invited .  I went alongwith  friends , who are in same
league as me when it comes to have an  eye for an art (to be frank, we had no eyes),
though we have enough  eyes for other beautiful things (that was one of the motivation , 
we went to that exhibition)

However , few minutes into the gallery , I was struck by the  realisation how ignorant we
are while it comes to appreciating art.  We were in the midst of paintings by budding
Ravi Verma , Amrita Shergills ,but do not have the understanding for it. It was not a 
problem only for three persons standing there.  It is a problem for current Indian culture ,
where getting a degree  is more important  than getting a dream. Appreciating music &
 art takes backsit in the race for earning a living .

It was more a painful observation ,when most of the beautiful  paintings were from the
brushstrokes of some of our senior officers   & their wives , who found time from their
busy schedule & responsibilities to paint while as youngsters all we did crib for lack of
time & tempo to pursue  our dream

As we did in earlier situations to escape truth , this time again we ran & end up in our usual place

Aashayeen

Nevertheless, I would like to believe that though the realisation  seemed to vanish from
collective consciousness of three individuals,  it is still there in our individual
consciousness . (I am not in a state to define & differentiate between the two)

Presently , I am listening to 'days go by (dirty vegas) ' & 'tujhe bhula diya (anjana anjani)
in a way to celebrate by  midnight sorrow and solitude.

Signing off for now .

V for Vendetta , P for Potter , C for CAT

Late in night yesterday , when i was preparing my laptop for its night shift duty by copying a torrent
from torrent site, my mobile started singing in a irritated mood.

The clock was smiling at an ungodly angle of 11.45 PM (IST) .

And the person who just disturbed my phone from its well deserved sleep , was from opposite coast
of India ; a city named Mumbai. And the first question I was asked 'Where did you copy it from' .
I was tempted to answer 'piratebay' but somehow  i realised the question was not related to what I
was downloading  at that time. So I retreated to age old cliche ' what are you  talking about' (In the
same tone you answered the invigilator when caught cheating in exam hall).

My question was answered with reiterating the earlier one ,'Where  did you copy it from , the 'about
me' section of your blog . Then I got it & relaxed a bit coming to know that what I was downloading
at that moment is not the matter of discussion.

I was going to tell  that I wrote that section by myself. But I  liked the tone of certainty in question &
as a rule you cannot /  should not lie to persons who know you for so long & so well.

'V' for Vendetta

So here I am confessing that I copied that line from famous dialogue  when the protagonist of the movie
('V' for Vendetta) introduced himself to his lady love . Here the dialogue goes like this:


"V: [Evey pulls out her mace] I can assure you I mean you no harm.

Evey Hammond: Who are you?

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.

V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon
the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Evey Hammond: Oh. Right.

V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this  dramatis persona.

V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now
vacant, vanished.  However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation,  stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. [carves V into poster on wall]

V: The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not  in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. [giggles]

V: Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call  me V.

Evey Hammond: Are you like a crazy person?

V: I am quite sure they will say so. But to whom, might I ask, am I speaking with?

Evey Hammond: I'm Evey.

V: Evey? E-V. Of course you are.

Evey Hammond: What does that mean?

V: It means that I, like God, do not play with dice and I don't believe in coincidences. "

The screenplay was written by , Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski  (as The Wachowski Brothers)

For half an hour , we discussed about magnificent words used in the above dialogue remembering the old days when preparation for the  ever eluding CAT was in its prime .
Then at the end , a challenge was thrown that we have to write something in the same line (though we
cannot write in the same league of The Wachowski Brothers ) of letters of our choice.

I choose the letters 'P' & 'C' (lets just say some characters  in my future blogs , may be Mr Potter & Miss CAT) .

In the morning , I searched for my old english notes but could  not find them in the dusty corners of my
room. So in my office  (please don't tell may boss) I sought help from omniscient  'google' for finding
words starting with 'P' & 'C' .

And I have arranged them to best of my ability & time

Introduction of Mr 'P' ( Mr Potter)

Physiognomy of Mr 'P' Points a Peripatetic Person , a Panache as a Paean to Pixillated Proselyte . As a Parnassian ,Procrastinating the eventual Perdition , this Progeny of Panaceist Practices Panaesthetism . A Puerile & Philocalic nature makes him Prone to Philogyny & his  Protean self Pursues Putative Propitiation. By Permitting the Paradox, Peradventure he is a Perpetual Problem and his life is nothing but a Perfect Parachronism

 To put in more insaner terms , He is like a dog chasing cars . He wouldn't know what to do with one if he catches it.(yes this one I copied from The Joker's (Heath Ledger) dialogue in the movie Dark Knight , go ahead sue me)

Introduction of Ms C ( Ms Cat)

A Coeval of Mr 'P' , she is a Circean Cynosure . Her Candent & Calefacient self , in contrast to her compeers , is a Compendium of Candour & Cardimelech. However she is a Cosmotellurian , a chiraroscuro  in the canvass of life , confined in the Claudent Confusion. She is a Conundrum of Chance & Choice. In short , for Mr 'P' she is the canorous catch-22.

(Someone like ' Ilsa' (Ingrid Bergman) from Casablanca. Here is looking at you kid)

BY THE WAY , I , UNLIKE GOD , PLAY WITH DICES AND BELIEVE IN COINCIDENCES

Serendipity

Yesterday night , we (myself and two of my friends) were getting bored ourselves to death
as the cable connection was not working , and there  was no movie worth watching left in
laptop or movie hall. Then suddenly one friend suggested to watch 'The sword of Tipu
Sultan', which he has downloaded recently. Though I was apprehensive initially , then
thought it is better than doing nothing.

So we three started watching it from beginning , where tipu's grandfather  (fateh mohammad)
has just won a war. We watched probably 3-4 episodes  upto where fateh mohammad is
killed by treachery of his enemy.

Listening to pure urdu words like guftaguu (talk),marhabaa (well-done), dariyaaft (enquiry),
yalGaar (assault/attack) , thanks to embeded subtitles in english , we could understand the
dialogues.

This chance occurence of watching the old serial , took me in memory  lane to the good old
days. There was a time when we used to impatiently wait for those wonderful saturday
evenings and sunday mornings for watching fun filled serials in dd like dekh bhai dekh,
alif laila, bharat ek khoj,chandrakanta (I remember Yaku Singh most) ,The sword of Tipu
Sultan , chitrahaar,Jungle Book and of course who  can forget Ramayan, Mahabharat.
Half of the village used to gather in  my grandfather's house to watchramayan , mohabharat.
I rememeber some  of the old people used to put hands together in obeisance whenever
Sri Rama or Sri Krishna character appearED in that old onida black & white model.

Even those ads for 'Nirma super' , 'vicco' , 'amul' , 'natraj phir sixer' 'vicks' , 'lizzat pappad'
were in a separate league of their own. The omnipresent Doordarshan Signature Montage ,
Vande Mataram ,  mile suramera tumaraha were part of our life

Who can forget the starting songs of 'mogli ' , 'Jangle jangle pata  chala hai , chadi pehne
ke phul khila hai , and the lyrics of the title song…“Tana na aa tana naanaa aa tana naanaa
naaa'.

I miss those days  before the arrival of  “cable” network.

American Beauty

When this movie (American Beauty) was released, I was in 11th class shuffling my time between playing cricket & chit-chatting with  friend and occassionally attending classes. 

In those times, in my native place (bhadrak) , watching a hollywood movie is something of pride and increased your status in friend circle ,  as that meant you can understand people speaking english &
had the freedom from home to watch a english movie.

One lucky friend of mine who has watched the movie , during his visit to his uncle's place in Mumbai, told the storyline of movie (though now it seems he exaggerated a lot ) and vividly described Mena Suvari lying in rose petals.

Now after so many years , when i watched this movie , this is my take

WOW

And this is not only after watching mena suvari in rose petals .
This is about how beautifully the movie was made justifying the
punchline  'your life is nothing but intersection of other
  lives and events'

The movie starts with the protagonist of the movie , lester
burnham  (Kevin spacey, seven & usual suspects fame)
jerking off in the shower and voice over ' This will be the
high point of my day; it's all downhill from here'. In the
end scene , he lies dead on his drawing room table with his
eyes open and ricky , the boy who lives next door and lover
of lester's daughter , looks into his open eyes and says wow

And in between , what happenss is everything what happens in
life. Occassional surprises when ordinary perople leave their
orbit.A middle aged man bored with life trying to find
happiness , a wife who wants to be sccessful to hide from
her insecurities ,a teenage daughter frustated in her life
finding love next door,a teenage girl (mena suvari) at last
stubmling upon her loneliness,a retired colonel facing his
fear for first time & ending up killing the protagonist,
the boy next door who seemed to find beauty everywhere ,
the boy's mother who is lost in the maze called life

That's it

Some memorable quotes from movie :

1) Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) : I don't think that there's anything worse than being ordinary

2)Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey)(LAST SCENE

... it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst ...

And then I remember ... to relax, and not try to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. Don't worry ... you will someday.

3) Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) : It's okay. I wouldn't remember me either. (After his wife introduced him to one of her competitors in real estate bsiness)

4)Lester Burnham : It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.

5)Lester Burnham : Remember those posters that said, 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life'? Well, that's true of every day but one — the day you die.

dreamer of night

What to say, whom to say.
Thousand dreams died yesterday yet a hundred ready to die
It’s a miracle that when eyes open I find myself dreaming
Else who knows what happens when dreams die

All night I kept walking with my shadow side by side
A moment of ecstasy after thousand agonies
Still I loved life after its thousand lies