Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Addy .....

Addy .... Adu ... Adyaa ... Aditya Prabhakar Kamble. My best friend. He left for heaven yesterday morning leaving behind a sea of tears and his impeccable personality.

I know people would be thinking why is Pratik writing about such a sad event. But Addy was such an influence that I cant keep it back. We knew each other since we were 3 years old. Went to the same pre nursery school. Took it forward with the same school. We used to go home in the same PMT bus everyday (8006). He got down at Netaji Nagar. Initially I used to get down at Wanorie and after some time I went till the last stop of Kondhwa. Someway down the line we got fed up and started taking a lift home. We always urged the person giving us a lift to take us both else we wouldnt come. And finally we ended up going home together on our bicycles. We went to Alaka talkies for 3 consecutive days on our bicycles to book the tickets of Titanic way back in 1998. But since it was a very popular movie we never got tickets. Finally, one day we went there at 6 am itself .. :).

I always took him with me for shopping since his sense of clothes was light years ahead of me. We were extension of each others' families. No wonder my family was weeping like hell yesterday. We both (only the 2 of us mind u) went to Tirupati and Chennai in 9th standard for a good 8 days. People called us mad men and we were proud to be mad. We even went shit scared to see porn movies at Alpana. Gosh .. those were the days.

He taught me how to drive a geared bike using his mother's M-80. When I bought my Yamaha, I rode to his place and I was so proud that he was the first person after me to drive the bike. The tie that I wore for my reception was chosen by him. When I met with an accident in 12th standard, he bought me home and then took me to the hospital. Whenever we were bored, he would come to my place and we played video games the entire day. From losing 6-0, 6-0 in a game of Tennis at Level 1, we went on to win 6-0,6-0 at Level 5. He played at the net and I played from the baseline.

In my hour of despair 2 years back, Addy and his family were at the forefront of solving our misery. The first person who came to my mind in any kind of problem was Addy. If I would have had a Christian wedding, he would have been my Best Man. He was scheduled to go to London on Feb 6th to pursue a course in Tourism. An avid chef, he always asked me to come with him for some drinks. Drinks was just a reason ... we ended up talking about our problems. Whenever either of us felt like having a beer, we went to an isolated military area in Lulla Nagar from where we could see the entire city.

I even proposed to Amruta from Addy's place using his telephone when there were 6 digit telephone numbers. 672554 ... that was his number. In school, we were in the same house. He always defeated me in short distance races while I held the upper hand in long distance races. He used to put newspapers in his pants to avoid getting hurt while being caned by teachers .... :)

He was a year junior to me academically. I remember he was applying for admission for 11th standard in Wadias and he met me at a place called "The Theatre" in Wadias and he asked, "Pratik, Commerce lu yaa Science lu ?". Knowing his academic acumen, I asked him to apply for Commerce. But I had to face the wrath of his parents later that evening since they wanted him to take up Science. He applied for Science at SP college later.

One of the weirdest things we did was that we went to Lonavla one fine day coz we were getting bored. We walked from Lonavla station to Bushy Dam and decided to trek a bit on a hilly area just next to Bushy Dam. Since it was December, it was reltively hot in the afternoon. The next thing we knew was that we were trekking in our underwears to get rid of the heat. We walked from Bushy dam back to the station in underwears. Phew ... !!

He always feared of being a virgin all his life. I'm so gutted that his fear came true. I dont know if stuff like this and porn should be mentioned but we hardly care. He always said ... "Pratik, ek din traffic ruk jaayega mere liye". And yes Sir, you did cause a traffic jam yesterday ... !!

I have cried enough. Addy, you didnt have a right to do this to us. My Orkut testimonial for you would never be fulfilled .... Dude I will MISS U. LOVE U TONS MAN ... Cant say Cheers ... though you liked that word a lot.

Adieu ....

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Tune into Advertising .... !!

There is an Ad doing the rounds in which a teenaged boy is praising some instances where the Indian cricket team has performed extremely well. While it makes very good viewing for a cricket fan like me, it does expose the frailities of Advertisement. Every walk of life should be well tuned to the happenings especially something like Advertising.

The first clip of video shows India defeating England in the Natwest series final at Lords in 2002. Who can forget that ? But the catalysts of that victory namely Yuvraj and Kaif are both out of the team. Kaif for his poor run of scores while Yuvraj for his injury hassles. While the state of Yuvraj can still be forgiven, that of Kaif makes you feel whether that video should still be shown. I wonder when I will be able to see Yuvraj, Kaif and Raina bully the batsmen by acting like a wall in the circle.

The next video shows Virender Sehwag hitting a six off Saqlain Mushtaq to go from 295 to 301 at Multan in 2004. As sublime as that moment was, in today's context it should go off the air since Viru is going through a bad phase. This does not undermine his capability as a match winner. But with a technique like his, this was bound to happen. I am still an ardent admirer of this man and would like to see him back sooner than later.

The next video shows Irfan Pathan taking a hat trick in the first over of the test match at Karachi in January 2006. I remember watching it live on the hospital bed at Jehangir Hospital last year. No one has ever taken a hat trick in the first over of a test match. But then, even Irfan transformed from a wicket taking genie to gift-a-boundary laggard.

So what exactly goes into advertising. I know that all these 3 videos are landmarks in Indian cricketing history but there has to be some thought process that goes into catching the fancy of the people at the right time ....

Cheers ... !!