Sing along ......

Battered ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:50:00 +0000

So it went kaput. Read ... my plans of going to the US of A ... Amrikkkkka ... so near yet so far ...

The last 2 weeks have definitely sent out a signal ... everything can change in a day's time. Here I was ... ready to leave for Mumbai from Pune to get on board a late night flight to Tampa and one call ruined it instantly. I was told that the project I was selected for does not have any more requirements. The despair, anger and trauma that it brought to not just me but so many of my well wishers and family members was devastating. Maybe ... I was seeing too much into the future ... it was a horrible feeling to be battered so badly mentally ...

With every passing minute ... it became even more painful when so many of the things I did during the week prior made me look like a fool ... I left a good job (I wont call it a flourishing job but it was not bad at all) and more importantly an organization where I got along with most of the people :) ... so many things I bought specifically for America were left idle in the suitcase ... even the Kirana store man was asking me when I am flying :P

I hope I am not making this look like the end of the world for me ... its not ... far from it ...

But the education received is invaluable ... I am guessing I will be a hot topic of discussion (I guess I have already been that in the week that has passed) ... but thats not surprising ... I am sure I would have done the same if something similar had happened with someone else ...

As of now ... I have atleast managed to get back on my feet ... job hunting begins in Pune ... Amrikka to jaana hi hai ... by hook or by crook ... I am biased towards crook now :P

In the meanwhile ... I had quite a good day at Mumbai ... getting Darshan of Sidhhi Vinayak on a Tuesday and that too at 4:45 in the morning (that was bad planning since we didnt intend to reach Dadar at 4 am after we left Pune at 2 am ... believe me ... Asiads are fast :D) ... nice quite moments at Mahalaxmi and to top it off ... Chicken Tikka Biryani at Noorani ... :)

And ... HP bought 3Com ... that was something great and unexpected ... bodes well for AT ... are we (Yes ... it still feels "we") next in line atleast now? ... I am sure that would have been the topic of the day at office today ... I am wondering how that affects Co Branding now for AT :P ... now if HP also acquires Enterasys ... Co Branding can be done away with ... what say guys? ;)

Anyway ... I will update my status very soon ... some positive signs have already shown up ... I will be back in front of some terminal sooner than later ... and I can definitely do with some prayers and blessings ... :)

Cheers ... !!

Adios ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:21:00 +0000

Lump in the throat? Not entirely ... but it feels odd leaving such a nice company ... I know we always bicker about lots of stuff in life ... the place we work at is at the receiving end most of the times ... but at the bottom of your heart I have always felt that the freedom and atmosphere at AT has been out of the top draw ... I will miss AT and ATians ... you guys rock ...

I remember my joining day. Drenched and just out of college. My previous company (I was an intern) had given be the most demoralising sendoff ... partly due to my own misgivings ...

I remember the disappointment of knowing that Sonal (my manager whom I had to report to) is actually a guy ... :(

But Sonal is one of the most influential people I have met in life. A manager at office but a friend at heart. I have never ever felt that gap with him. His PJs have been bettered by Sabhtarsha and myself and we both get even dirtier looks than we used to give Sonal earlier :)

There have been several others (in fact everyone here knows the entire company) whom I have had a great time with ... Sabhtarsha has now become more of a pest than a pain :P ... Avdhoot, Amit, Rahul, Gaji, Vijay, Ajay, Vineet, Pushkar, Charuta, Zarin, Khyati, Manish, Mohsin, MJ, Basu, Ghos, Nitin, Sandip, Vinayak and I am sure there are many more ... I have had a blast guys ...

Not to mention that people who have already left AT ... Ashvin, Vivek, Ganesh, Manikant, Rajat, Alok, Deepa, Amit, Debu, Nishith, Rohit ... everyone was a joy to be around ...

Some of the things that I will always remember:

Maggi at my desk
TT (it was better post 7 pm and on weekends)
rides to Good Luck, Santosh bakery, Ganesh Bhel, PD, etc.
leg-pulling sessions (some people were always the target)
meeting to decide lunch/dinner/breakfast venues
night outs (called fire-fighting sessions :P)
those amazing weekly calls (thanx to Manish) :P

and many more ...

I am going to miss AT ... but something new awaits ... dekhte hai usmein kitna mazaa hai ...

till then ... Adios AT ... Cheers ... !!

WFH ... WTF ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:18:00 +0000

What prompted me to write about this?

Well, I am working from home (it took me a long time to realise that WFH actually means working from home) and suddenly it feels like its not that big a deal afterall ... I mean I was looking forward to it with bated breath coz I have heard such a lot of stuff about this phenomenon that it excited me a great deal ...

I do agree that WFH has perks and it should be experienced at some point in time ... but I found myself missing office while at home ...

The boon ...

I dont have to have a bath to start working ... this is like ... VOILA ... :)

Due to this ... I can get up just around 10-15 minutes before I intend to start working ...

I get home made sizzling hot food ... for breakfast, lunch and snacks ... peace ...

I get to play carrom with Dad ...

No meetings ... yaay ... ;)

I dont need to login to Moneycontrol ... CNBC is so much better ...

The bane ...

The biggest drawback is that I miss the office atmosphere ... there are not a lot of people to pull their leg ;)

I miss the sweets that people bring almost every morning ...

VPN makes the intranet all the more slow to traverse ... dratch ... :(

No free telephone calls ... not that I make a lot of them but still ...

No group discussion on the stock market state for the day ... this is a killer ...

Those TT sessions ... :(

The umpteen rides to PD, KNP, Good Luck or Santosh Bakery ... this is quite a lot I am talking about food wise ... I mean Anda rice, Vada Pav, Anna ki Chaay, Basundi Chaay, Limbu Sarbat, hot Veg Puffs, Vaati Cakes and the all time favorite Bun Maska ...

I am sure there is lot more to this than I have realised in my first 2 hours of WFH ...

and I still maintain ... idling in office is much better than working from home ... so much for the experience ...

Cheers ... !!

Dratch ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:23:00 +0000

I was watching one of my favorite movies on the telly a few days back ... Abhimaan ... Yes, that masterpiece from Hrishikesh Mukherjee ...

I had never noticed one of its anomalies before ... to be frank its such an everyday phenomenon in movies that it can be argued that its not an anomaly afterall ... but looking at the storyline of the movie, I thought it was quite weird ...

Amitabh Bachchan is a very famous singer. This is like the base of the movie. Now when you have such a base, I felt that you should stick to atleast its most bare essentials :P ... in the sense that he should have been given only one playback voice in the movie ...

Within a space of about 15 minutes, there are 3 different songs that he sings that are actually sung by 3 different playback singers ... Rafi, Kishore and Mukesh ... its hard not to notice this ... I found it strange ...

Of late, I have also been noticing that Times Of India probably has given SpellCheck a pass ... there were 3 image errors where the picture was being portrayed as those of someone else's ...

There were 3 more on one page a couple of days back when Sania Mirza lost at the US Open. These were the 2 headlines that were so out of touch with grammar ...

Bondarenko goes though Serb way (should have been "through". This was when Bondarenko defeated Ivanovic who is a Serbian)

Sania lose 0-6, 0-6 (should have been "loses")

there was a piece in one of the sports news saying "star of yesteryeras" ... it was a pain reading all this ...

as Mutley's master would say ... Dratch ... and double Dratch ...

Cheers ... !!

Punch ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:38:00 +0000

No, I have not been involved in a slugfest with anyone :P

This post will evolve with time. Dialogues have always fascinated me ... whether its in real or reel ... it doesn't matter ... so I thought that blogging about some of my favorites (actually they do not need to be favorites ) would be fun ...

Over the last couple of weeks ... I heard some great dialogues on the telly ... I have heard them before but it feels better the next time around ... here are a few ... and as I said ... this post will evolve with time ... and the dialogues may not be pin point in terms of the words I use ... :D

From the movie Guru ...
Manik Dasgupta (Mithun) to Shyam Saxena (Madhavan): Shyam ... kya tum is aadmi ko sabke saamne nanga kar sakte ho?
Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan): Mere kapde saari duniya pehenti hai ... sabko nanga karna padega ...

From the movie Kaala Pathhar ...
this needs a prelude ... Shatrughan Sinha challenges Macmohan for a game of Teenpatti and Macmohan is like the undisputed king of Teenpatti among the workers at the coal mine ... Macmohan's 3 cards are J J and 2 while Shatru has K K and 6. But Macmohan cheats by getting a J out of his shirt sleeve ... so he now has J J and J ... when its time for Show ... Macmohan says: Mere paas teen gulaam hai ... and then shows the 3 gulaams ... Shatru says: Mere paas 3 Baadshah hai ... Macmohan says: dikhao ... Shatru shows the first Badshah card and says "Baadshah" ... then shows the 2nd Baadshah card and says "Baadshah" and then shows the 3rd card which is a 6 ... Macmohan:Teesra Baadshah kahaan hai? and then comes the clinching dialogue ... as follows ....

Mangal Singh (Shatrughan Sinha): Mere taash ki tirpanwe(53rd) patte ... teesre Baadshah hum hai ... :P

from the iconic Sholay ... actually there are so many in this movie but I like this one ...
Police Inspector to Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar): Khota sikka to dono taraf se hi khota hota hai ...
Thakur Baldev Singh: Sikkey aur insaan mein shaayad yehi farak hai ...

from Inside Man ...
when a person is called to identify the bank robbers based on a language they are speaking inside the bank ... and this language is not known to any of the investigators headed by Denzel Washington
Person: That's the President of Algeria speaking ...
Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) to the Person: You want to tell me that the President of Algeria is trying to the rob the bank??

from Company ...
Rawte (Bharat Dabholkar) to Chandu (Vivek Oberoi) : ये पाटिल की वजह से बोहोत प्रॉब्लम हो रहा है
Chandu : पाटिल को मारना है?
Rawte : नहीं नहीं ... स्कैंडल हो जाएगा ... then he picks up his cup of tea ... looks in the other direction ... has a sip ... and says ... लेकिन उसको मरना है ... followed by the beats of Ganda hai par Dhanda hai yeh ... thrilling ... :)

will keep adding to this list ... Cheers ... !!

Moryaa ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Ganpati is here ... although the festivities will take a backseat of sorts due to the unnerving swine ... but Bappa will still continue to light up homes and streets with its grandeur ...

There are so many pockets in the city where Ganesh idols are sold nowdays ... I remember there used to be just Shaniwarwada at one time (I mean the more famous ones) ... now there's Corporation, Saras Baug, Ganj Peth and sundry ...

This time we bought our Ganesh idol from Ganj Peth thanks to my bro-in-law Omkar ... and we booked it way back in the 1st week of August ... if looks could kill ... Ganesha would be on most people's wanted lists ... :P

Due to the incessant rains during the early hours of each day ...we decided to get our idol the previous night itself ... coz driving a 4 wheeler in the heart of old Pune can be mind-numbing during the day ... especially during Ganpati ... so we bought the idol at Saturday midnight itself ... resplendent in yellow dhoti and a broader than usual trunk ... and for a change we also liked the Mooshak ... this year's idol will adorn our home along side last year's "Shenduri" idol for 10 days ... The "Shenduri" idol will be immersed this year ...

We had a surprise guest on the very first day ... none other than AAG (Aditya Amit Gupte for Christ's ... er ... Ganpati's sake) ... it was tough deciding who was more cute ... the idol or AAG ... close contest but AAG won and the Lord was more than happy seeing one of his forms win against him ... :D ... AAG has the most cutest smile and the way he keeps mouthing baby-sounds (sometimes its too loud to be called a baby-sound :P) ... he had everyone at home hostage to his pyrotechnics ...

As for now ... CHORUS (a la Javed Jaffery in Mumbhai :P) ... GANPATI BAPPA MORYA ... MANGAL MURTI MORYA ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Fallback option ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:52:00 +0000

There are times when the mundane stuff gets so overly done that you always start thinking what brings you joy in such a situation. All those moments that you have had fun in the past keep juggling in your mind and then you filter those to come to one such option that will get you out of such an ignominy.

Today, Sabhtarsha and I were caught in such a scenario. Sabhtarsha had just mopped up his work for the weekly Build and I had almost finished the tasks assigned to me. Post lunch ... we were in a quandary as to what we should do. TT was a good option. Coffee/Tea was another. A walk down the Bungalow scheme at Pinnac society was another. We ended up walking to a place, not very far away from office. Its around 10 minutes from office and we like the coffee they serve. After sipping through a 15 minute talkathon, heading back to office was the last thing we were looking forward to. Walked back to office. Tried doing some work. Got harried. Though we sit a mere peek away from each other, we mostly communicate over GTalk. Both wanted to go out again. And off we went again. This time Sabhtarsha took his bike along and we decided to check out some USB hard disk drives. Checked them out at Sujata and Sai which brought us quite close to College ... our beloved Fergusson College. Yeah ... Fallback option numero uno ...

Right ... so we were at the right place at the wrong time ... :P

We moved to Savera. After a long time, I had the pleasure of sitting at an outside table. Tea and Toast Butter was the near perfect foil. Another round of talks ... some more frustration vented ... some more philosophy vomitted out ... and it was turning out to be a jolly evening on a working day. Weekend was alive and kicking.

We entered college. What a feeling. Those trees, that parking lot that greets you and then the crowd. Times have changed. Every student looks like a kid but that doesnt mean we dont ogle at them. What a serene campus ... year after year ... it fails to disappoint you ... we didnt turn left from the Circle ... coz that would have taken us to our department and we were not very keen to interact with students or teachers ... so off we went to the ground ...

There were lots of cricket matches on display and we had the liberty to pick and choose any game we liked. Some years back, we were one of them. Shirts tucked into the trousers ... sleeves rolled up and a free swing of the bat ... stumps in disarray ... an easy catch dropped ... a stupid runout ... arguments over the Umpire's decisions ... such an everyday scene on a College ground. We ripped apart every possible classmate of ours in conjunction with the way they played cricket and ended up laughing our lungs out.

There was a special moment too. Vande Mataram was being played somewhere and at that instant itself, the entire ground stood still ... mind numbing ... one of the better sights of my Fergusson life ... kudos ...

It was 5 pm ... we had been out of office since 2 pm ... at the back of our minds we knew that we may get a mouthful from the folks back in office but it was one of those days when the atmosphere at office itself was asking us to take a break ...

We came back to office only to spend some more time with colleagues in the parking lot. And then ... instead of climbing the stairs to our 2nd floor desks ... we went straight into the lift and onto the 4th floor to play some TT. The next hour was spent sweating over smashes and slices and some fantastic rallies.

Its 7:45 pm now ... and we knew our Fallback option would never fail us ...

A long weekend like this is always welcome ... :D

Cheers ... !!

Comparing stalwarts ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:20:00 +0000

Of late ... I have been visiting Good Luck and Vohuman a lot.

Vohuman holds a special place since I spent a lot of time there during my time in Wadias. That cramped ambience, round tables and the scent similar to that of a bakery lured me so many times to this helluva place.

I started frequenting Good Luck only when I moved to Fergys. No doubt, it is another stalwart in the Irani cafe shed.

So I thought I would compare the two ...

Good Luck is much more spacious ... there are 3 separate alleys of rooms ... Vohuman is comparatively much smaller ...

You dont get to see too many funnier people than Bava from Vohuman. His shayaris and non-veg jokes are a rave among Vohumanians (if I can call them that) ... Good Luck hardly have any funny or even decent speaking people at the "Galla" ... mostly your queries are answered in a very straight forward way ... this might be good for some people ... but I feel Bava steals the show here ...

I have said this before and I say it again. No one serves better Cheese Omlettes than Vohuman ... when you eat it ... you feel more of cheese and less of egg ... its the other way round in Good Luck ...

Similarly, Scrambled eggs on Toast is an absolute delight at Good Luck ... I dont think Vohuman has something like that ... and even if they do ... I am sure Good Luck wins hands down ...

The trademark Bun Maska ... I think its better in Vohuman ... they have more Tooti-Fruity in it :P

I find the Masala Omlette better at Good Luck ... while the tea is better at Vohuman ...

Service is more or less the same ... nothing to choose over there ...

Vohuman serves everything on the menu throughout the day ... Good Luck has certain reservations ... they serve breakfast stuff only in one of the rooms after a certain time ... the other 2 rooms are reserved for meals ...

The meals are out of the top draw at Good Luck ... the Biryanis and Chicken dishes are a major hit ... Vohuman pales in comparison ...

Parking is a huge issue at both places ... for Vohuman ... you can either park at Jehangir or some other place ... this involves some walking ... for Good Luck, it depends when you go there ... if its post 9 am ... you may have a harrowing time finding a place to park ...

Overall sentiment? ... Breakfast at Vohuman ... Meals at Good Luck ...

Go have a bite ... Cheers ... !!

Crackerjack weekend ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:08:00 +0000

And even that is an understatement.

It was an enthralling weekend ... er ... extended enthralling weekend. We didnt even know it would turn out to be such a showpiece.

When Biwi and I came back from swimming on Thursday morning, we were at Meghdoot having an Uttapam and discussing what we would do tomorrow (it was Biwi's birthday). We both had applied for leave but we were unsure as to what we would end up doing. Dinesh had said that he will also be on leave if there is some plan. Prakash had said that he will not get a leave come what may. Somehow, MUMBAI came up ... :)

No more discussion was needed. We were going into flashback mode. Back in 2004, I had just learned how to drive a car and Biwi was working in Mumbai at that time. I had borrowed money from numerous friends (I was not working then) and managed to go to Mumbai to surprise Biwi on her Birthday. We had gone to Marine Drive to cut the Birthday cake. Yes ... we were going to do that again.

The plan was to leave Pune by 9 pm and reach Marine Drive by midnight. Spend time at Marine Drive. Move on to Taj and Cafe Leopold and round it off with a drive on the Worli-Bandra sea link (it was toll free for another 4 days :P). With this discussed, we left for office on Thursday.

Biwi and I reached home at 8 pm and were ready to leave in another 30 minutes. Prakash came home. We left at 8:45 pm and moved to Chandni Chowk. We met Dinesh over there and left for Mumbai. We all were very hungry and had to stop near Indira Institute to have some food. By the time we left, it was 10:30 pm. The drive till Lonavala was hassle free but fog engulfed the road at Khandala. Visibility was sketchy and driving was extremely slow. To make matters worse, the land slides had caused 2 lanes to be shut. When we started descending the Ghat, fog disappeared but only to be replaced by rain. It was breezy rain till Panvel but when we entered New Mumbai, it started pouring down. Fortunately, the time was such that there were hardly any vehicles on the road. It was scary to watch cars parked on the road itself. All the images of News channels came storming back about the dreadful Mumbai rains. By the time we cleared Chembur and Sion, the rain was getting even more heavier. We reached Marine Drive at 1 am. It was just drizzling now and we thought it was quite apt coz we had to cut the Birthday cake. We all got down and Biwi did the needful.

We enjoyed for around an hour. There was a police van just behind our car which prompted us to get moving. We moved on to the Taj and it was a mixed feeling. We were driving through the lanes of Colaba asking for directions. The next thing we knew was that we were in the Taj driveway. An ensemble of security personnel greeted us. We had no intention of going inside the Taj. We asked them for directions for Cafe Leopold. Since there was a divider in place, we had to go towards the end of the Taj and take a U-turn. It was both fascinating and gruelling to watch to Taj from so close. There were still some dark spots around. Sigh. Towards the corner of our eyes, we could see the Gateway of India in all its splendor. It looks even better on a rainy overcast night without a crowd.

We reached Cafe Leopold but I guess it was too late. The shutters were semi closed and we thought we can give it a miss.

Right then. Onto the Worli-Bandra sea link. We kept asking for directions to reach Kemp's Corner in Worli. We even thought of getting down and visiting Haji Ali but the rain was so heavy that walking down the sea for 15 minutes didnt sound very exciting. We finally reached the sea link and wasnt it awesome? Hats off. It looks like a showpiece. In hindsight, it could be said that it should be looked at during the daytime but nevertheless it was a spectacle at night. Clicking pics was difficult due to the rain. The police didnt allow us to get down from the car and stand on the bridge. After spending around 30 minutes, we moved on.

We got down at Bandra and moved towards Pune via Sion, Chembur and Vashi. The rain was incessant and showed no respite at all. We needed some snacks and tea since I was feeling sleepy while driving. We halted at a hotel just before Lonavala. Biwi took over from me in the car and I dozed off a bit. Then we experienced 10 minutes of mayhem.

Towards Khandala, we were driving from the centre lane and the car stopped all of a sudden. There was a truck around 20 meters behind us and we had to make sure the car didnt retrace. The hand break was not pulled up completely so I pulled it hard. I took the driver's seat but the hand break was not ready to come down. Wet hands made it all the more difficult. There was a mini traffic jam coz of us and the truck behind evaded us by a whisker. Finally, we were able to get the hand break off and moved on. Phew ... !!

We reached Pune at 7 am and went to Good Luck. Had some Naashta and dropped Dinesh at Chandni Chowk. Prakash also went home while Biwi and I hit the sack as soon as we reached home.

The Birthday was spent at my in-laws place. My Saala had bought a new Pulsar 180. We all went to Dagdushet Ganpati to perform pooja. Some shopping ensued and at 8 pm, DAPP were back together at Inox. We saw Ice Age 3. Delightful movie. A must watch. I would advise everyone to catch a night show during some weekend coz families get their kids and its a fun atmosphere in the movie hall listening to giggles and crackles of kids. We came to our place after the movie and Dinesh and Prakash had got some crackers.

We were not sure if 11 pm was the right time for crackers but still we went ahead. After some shots, 2 guys came storming out of a society and started yelling at us. We knew it was our fault and apologized immediately but there guys were not ready to cool down. Finally, we asked them to take any action they desire against us before moving on.

I met Pranay and Devyani at Good Luck on Saturday morning (Biwi was working). It was funny. I had gone to Mumbai the same day that they had come down to Pune. :). We walked till IMDR (for old time's sake :P)and chatted for an hour or so. Then I went to Gaurav's place. Initially, only Gaurav and I were supposed to meet. But we were joined by Charan, Amol and Pushkar. We had a great time chatting away till evening. Amol was the show stealer as always. Kudos sire :P.

Dinesh and Prakash had got an aquarium for Biwi as her Birthday gift. The 2 fish are very cute. We have named them Nemo and Peaches. :P
It was a typical DAPP Saturday night.

Sunday was consumed mostly by sleep and rounded off with the marathon Wimbledon final. IT WAS ALL IN THE EYES ... ANDY BLINKED FIRST ... !!

Cheers to a wonderful weekend ... !!

Extreme ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:36:00 +0000

Ever since I rode a Pulsar for around 70 kms a month back on NH-4, I had this plan brimming in my head. I needed to convince myself before anyone else that I can pull it off. To start off, I was not sure. I was not confident. But the prospect of it was very tempting. I knew I was going to be under the pump for the duration of the plan but I just wanted to give it a shot and see where I stand. So, what was this EXTREME plan?

Simply put, I wanted to go to Goa on a Pulsar(or a similar bike) and come back to Pune. But this has to be done within 24 hours. I know it sounds crazy, weird, illogical and crap. Apparently, I also share the same feelings :). I was aware that going to Goa and spending hardly 2-3 hours and then returning didnt make any sense. But my goal was to ride the bike and see if my endurance helps me battle all the exertion of such a ride. Plus, why one day only? It would have been convenient to go to Goa, spend a day and then return. But I did not want convenience. I just wanted to try this. To execute this plan, I had to choose a day when I have a holiday and Biw does not have one.

Over the last 2 weekends, Biwi had been working. I made up my mind that if she works this weekend too, I had to take the chance. The rain was threatening all week and I wanted to get this done with before the rains started. Of course, I had to let Biwi know about this. She refused instantly when she heard about it and understandably so. I needed the entire week to convince her and though she caved in, I knew she didnt want me to go. Throughout all this, I was quietly confident that I will be responsible enough to do the basics right and make it a success.

The next step was to venture out for some mates. Frankly speaking, I didnt expect anyone to join me. No one would be ready to ride for around 17-18 hours in a single day and even if they would, they would not like the idea of spending just a couple of hours in Goa. But I would have loved someone to be with me.

I floated the idea to my CoV mates. Initially, Gaurav and Prashant sounded interested but later decided to back out and they were frank enough to tell me the reasons. Lack of sleep and the prospect of driving in rain and in the night would be extremely dangerous. I did not have any hard feelings. I asked Prakash and Dinesh. Prakash refused immediately. Dinesh jumped at the prospect. He assured me that he was going to come. This excited me even further. We had to make some decisions now and plan it to perfection.

We needed bikes. Dinesh has his own Pulsar 200. I could not afford to take my Yamaha around for 1000 kms in 24 hours. She would not last. Throughout the week, I pestered friends and colleagues to lend me their bike for a day. I know how close a bike can be for a person and I was also telling them the reason why I wanted the bike. Not many would like someone else riding his bike for 1000 kms. On Friday afternoon, I asked one of my colleagues, Vineet, for his bike. He agreed immdediately and even went to the extent of taking me with him to his place during snack hours and getting me the papers of the bike. I am extremely thankful to Vineet. That bike made the difference. It was a Pulsar 220 :)

The plan? It was to leave Pune at 3 am on Saturday morning and come back before midnight. We would ride separate bikes. This turned out to be a good advice from Gaurav. That was the basic plan. It evolved more and more on the D-Day.

I called up Dinesh on Friday evening and asked him to go home early and catch some sleep. I myself was going to reach home by 6 pm, have some food and hit the sack. So far so good. I came home by 6:15 pm. Had some food and was asleep even before it was 7 pm. I forgot just one thing. DAPP meets every Friday evening. I got a call at around 7:30 pm from Biwi asking me where we are supposed to meet. I asked "For what"? only to realise that it was Friday. Sleep plans went out of the window since I didnt want to disrupt the weekly DAPP routine. DAPP assembled at my place at 8:30 pm and we spent the night at Dev Uncle's kitchen discussing about our plans on the morrow.

Prakash was busy talking us down about how this plan is ridiculous and it was having an effect on Biwi. She started getting worried all over again. Surely, we were not going to call off the plan so late? Were we? It was 10 pm. We had to leave in 5 hours and still hadnt got sleep. Biwi suggested we postpone the plan by an hour and get extra sleep. I was not sure that was going to matter. We agreed to leave at 3:30 am. Dinesh and Prakash went home. This was followed by one last ditch attempt by Biwi to make me cancel the plan. In hindsight, I was quite close to cancelling it looking at the overcast skies on Friday evening. But this plan had been hounding me all week. I needed to get it off my mind. A typical husband-wife discussion led to no change in the outcome. I was going ...

I got up at 2:40 am and was ready by 3:15. Packed some dry clothes in my bag. Took a sweatshirt to counter the cold and I was ... as they say ... FEELING IT ...

I made sure Dinesh was up too and asked him to meet me at Ambegaon Naka in Katraj at 3:30 sharp. I myself left home at 3:25 am and reached Ambegaon at 3:40 am. Dinesh came 5 minutes later. We discussed the course of action.

We decided not to race beyond 100 km/hr. If needed, we can touch 100 once and that would be it. Clear Satara before sunrise. Reach Kolhapur no later than 7:30 am and Sankeshwar no later than 9 am. We would halt for breakfast at Gadinglaj. This was Part 1 of the plan. Part 2 was to discussed during breakfast. Gadinglaj is 310 kms from Ambegaon. The last thing was ... dont wear a watch. We did not want to keep looking at the time and feel the pressure.

With this discussed, we high fived and set off in the night. It was 3:50 am. Zooooommm.

Riding a bike on NH-4 is like a dream. You cant expect anything better than that if you are an avid bike rider. The toll nakas also do not pose as a stumbling block. We rode within ourselves (or so we thought). Satara was taken out well before sunrise. In fact, the light improved only when we were getting close to Karad. Throughout, we could see lightning in the background of the road ahead. Rain was threatening. The time of the day was such that there were not a lot vehicles on the highway. It made our task simpler.

Karad and Kolhapur came and went. Everything that I looked forward to was coming true. The thrill was magical. After passing Kolhapur, I was eagerly looking forward to reaching Sankeshwar. NH-4 is even better as we enter Karnataka. It transforms from a 4 lane to a 6 lane highway for some time. I ventured out and touched 104 km.hr as my top speed but I am generally scared when I drive fast. So, I rode between 80 and 90 throughout. I took the Sankeshwar exit and stopped. Dinesh had not yet reached. I called Biwi and informed her that we had reached Sankeshwar. I called Dinesh and he was around 4 kms off Sankeshwar. I still hadnt seen the time. Dinesh came and we both rode for another 15 kms to reach Gadinglaj. Most of the hotels had not started serving food. We finally found a hotel that served us Poha and tea. Dinesh told me that he was late coz he halted at Kolhapur and also waved and screamed at me but it seemed I neither saw him nor heard him. Dinesh had to call someone and it was then that he told me the time. It was 7:25 am. No wonder none of the hotels served food at this time. We felt good that we covered the bigger portion of the distance in less than 4 hours. We had breakfast and discussed Part 2.

The road was a state highway now and not in the best of condition. So we agreed on a speed of betwen 50-65. Pass Aazra, Amboli and reach Sawantwadi. We decided to meet at Sawantwadi next. It was 85 kms from Gadinglaj. We also discussed that it would be nice if we can reach Sawantwadi by 10 or 10:15 am. We also decided to put on our earphones and enjoy Part 2 since it was going to be a slower ride from Part 1. We left Gadinglaj at 8:05 am. The road through the jungle of Aazra and the Ghat of Amboli was OKish but it was a very pretty sight. Especially in Amboli. The clouds had descended right into the valley and it was a sight that commands Oohs and Aahs. I so wanted to halt and spend some time here. But the bigger task of reaching Goa prevented me from doing so.

Amboli's Ghat demanded that we ride extremely slowly to negotiate the sharp turns. Once Amboli was taken out, I reached Sawantwadi and parked my bike outside the bus station. This time I saw the time in my cell. It was 9:50 am. So far so ... pleasing. Again, I called Biwi. She was already in office and she also sounded surprised when she heard that we had already reached Sawantwadi. I called Dinesh. He was around 8 kms off Sawantwadi and told me that he had to stop in between coz a honey bee bit him. Luckily, either it seems it was some other insect or a smaller bee coz he seemed unhurt when he met me at Sawantwadi. Time for Part 3 of the plan.

Panaji was 60 kms away. But we needed to go more towards Mapusa rather than Panaji since we had decided to spend the time in Goa at Baga beach. We decided that it would be nice if we can reach Baga by 11. It would give us more time in Goa. Thats when things became a bit sticky. As soon as we left Sawantwadi, it started pouring down heavily. Dinesh and I had to stop and we put my sweatshirt and his jacket in the bag since we wanted them to remain dry. We decided that we will ride despite of the incessant rain. It paid off. We rode safely in the rain and negotiated the sluggish city traffic to reach Baga. It was 11:10 am and we had completed the first half of this plan.

We parked our bikes (the speedometer read 448 kms) and headed straight to Nine Hills. This is the hotel we frequented a lot during our last visit to Goa. But sadly, they were serving only drinks. We then went to Britto's. We were only going to have food for the next 3 hours.Fish and Chicken were gobbled up. I claim to be an occasional drinker and this was more than an OCCASION. I had a bottle of KF which was enough to set the zing for the remainder of the ride. There was some typical fun associated with an all-boys get together and we made sure we enjoyed with all our stupid and lewd comments. It was important to keep the spirit going in such a plan. It was quite an experience watching heavy rain on a beach. That surely made all the crowd flock to Britto's. And we were not complaining. Afterall, it was keeping us AWAKE ;)

We had some tea and it was time to leave. We stolled out on the beach just to feel the sea. The tougher of the 2 halves stared down at us. As decided, we were to leave at 2 pm. To make it even more spicier, we called up Biwi and Prakash and asked them to book tickets for Angels and Demons for any show after 11 pm. Forget midnight, we wanted to reach Pune before 11 pm now. We were pepped up and raring to go. We decided we will not change into dry clothes since it was still drizzling. We will take that call in Sawantwadi.

We discussed the plan till Pune. Reach Sawantwadi by 3:30 pm. Gadinglaj by 6 pm. And hit NH-4 before sunset. We refuelled and set off. So far, only the bums (as expected) were sore but everything else was still holding up :)

We reached Sawantwadi on the dot. It was still drizzling and we decided that we will change into dry clothes only when we see a dry patch of road. We set off for Amboli. Reached Amboli at 4:15 pm. Halted and clicked the only pics of the journey. I will put them up once Dinesh gives me the pics. Had tea and set off again. On our way to Aazra, it stopped raining and even sunlight made an appearance. This was it. We stopped and changed into dry clothes right in the middle of the jungle and the highway much to the chuckle of onlookers. Dry clothes surely gave a totally better feeling. We reached Gadinglaj at 5:40 pm. Had tea at the same hotel as the one in the morning. The owner of the hotel smiled when he saw us coz we had asked him directions to Goa in the morning. The highway was still 15 kms away and we wanted to reach there before the light started fading. Sunset was still some time away. We left Gadinglaj at 6 pm after discussing the next phase. That was to meet at the PUNE - 100 kms mark. That would be some way after Satara. It also meant that we needed to drive at a stretch for 200 kms. Given the fact that we did 300 at a stretch in the morning, this was not going to be too difficult. But our condition was not the same as morning.

Anyway, we set off for Pune. Reaching NH-4, we wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the light went out. We did a good job of it. We cleared Kolhapur around the time the light went out completely. The trouble started some time after Kolhapur. We had not taken the rain into account. That too in the night. It started off as light rain but slowly changed into heavy rain. The fact the we needed to ride with the visors of our helmets upturned didnt make it easy since the rain was hitting us in the face and eyes. The speed dropped off considerably and it was a battle to cover the remaining distance. Even when Karad passed, we had another 50 kms to go before Satara. It was extremely tough to ride in the rain ... not because we were scared that we would slip off but coz it was difficult to maintain the speed that would take us to Pune before 11 pm. Somehow, we managed to reach the PUNE - 100 kms mark at 9 pm. Fortunately, there was a small stall right at that mark. Dinesh came after 5 minutes. We had 3 cups each of tea. We could not hold the first cup at all since our right hands were stuck in the ride mode. Even when we held the cup correctly, we were shivering so much that some of the tea fell off. It was only after 2-3 sips that we felt better. Prakash had called informing us that there is no show after 10:45 pm in any of the theatres. 10:45 would be too ambitious we thought :) So the plan of watching A&D was dropped. This also made us decide that we will stop here for some more time. We sat there sipping tea for around an hour. The rain had reduced considerably.

We left at 10 pm. The last 100 kms were going to be the longest since we were itching to reach Pune and meet Prakash and Biwi. Dinesh told me that he would go home directly since we were not going for the movie or dinner. I reached home at 11:35 pm to be greeted by Prakash and Biwi in the parking lot. This was followed by me telling them about the entire trip and they were an extremely excited audience coupled with my excitment. Prakash went home. I had a hot water bath and saw the India Bangladesh match. Well played India. Way to go ... !! ;)

I also feel that there are some myths associated with riding a bike on a highway. Driving fast is not necessarily the same as driving carelessly. There is a method to most of the things we do in life. It is also not a big issue riding in the rain. You just need to stick to the basics. We covered 200 kms in the rain in 3 hours ... thats an average speed of 70 ... as I said, you just need to keep it simple. I also feel that too much is made of the fact that riding/driving in the night is an issue. While it is more conveneint to ride in the day, riding in the night is not too difficult. 50% of our journey was in the night. The last factor is sleep. For me and Dinesh, the enthusiasm of executing this plan was enough to keep sleep away. Just for the record, we slept for 3 hours on Friday night but never felt that we are dosing off for the next 24 hours ... we even found time to come back and see the cricket match. Its all in the mind. How keen are you to do something?

The after effects? Well ... the bums have been chiselled the wrong way :) ... right elbow was locked since I have a tendency to keep my right hand upright while riding ... the right ankle was locked due to constant action with the brakes ...

As they say, all in a day's time :)

Cheers ... !!

Upset weekend ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:18:00 +0000

What a weekend it was. It seemed as if none of the predictions (read expectations) were destined to go right.

Djokovic crashed out of Roland Garros on the same day as Venus Williams also met with the same predicament. Just 2 weeks ago, Djokoic had run Nadal close at Madrid and lost an epic semi final. He was surely looking like finally breaking the Nadal code. But he lost rather meekly in straight sets. But the ripper of the day was Rafa eating the humble pie. Full marks to Soderling. What a match the Swede played. His forehand was like a dagger all evening. Nadal was found wanting trying to play his grinding game. On more than a few occasions he was caught flat footed by the marauding Swede. Credit to Soderling to fight back from a break down in both the 2nd and 4th sets. In fact, it felt as if Soderling should have won in straight sets looking at the way he dominated the match. The men's defending champion was followed by the ladies defending champ. Ana Ivanovic can win the title of the most inconsistent player over the last 12 months. She also crashed out without much of a fight.

If Federer doesnt win this time, he will surely cry more than January. He has to negotiate Tommy Haas tonight which I presume will be a tough match. His quaterfinal match should be comparatively easy. He may play Roddick or Monfils. But the semi may be tough. He can play either of Robredo, Tsonga or Del Potro. Looking at the way Soderling played, Federer might end up playing him in the final. But dont underestimate Davydenko, Murray and Gonzalez.

And what about the NBA? Lebron vs Kobe was billed as the dream Finals especially after Lakers-Celtics last year. Without a doubt, these 2 are the hottest superstars in American sports. But the Orlando Magic and Superman had other ideas. Lebron and the Cavs were dumped 4-2 in the Eastern conference finals. This was a shocker given that the Cavs had trampled their previous 2 opponents 4-0 en route to the conference finals. But the Magic have been that kind of a team. They haven't let the loss of Jameer Nelson affect them at all. If anything, this team will surely give Kobe Bryant and the Lakers a run for their money in the NBA Finals which kick of this Friday.

Stoner stunned Rossi at Mugello. This is like Rossi's pet circuit. Having won for the last 7 years ... !!

But its been that kind of a weekend. Bodes well for sport. More and more sportsmen/sportswomen are making their mark. Here's hoping for another fun filled sports weekend.

Cheers ... !!

Thanx girl ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:46:00 +0000

We always try to make friends ... try and find people who will stand by you during your rough times ... celebrate with you when you wanna make merry ... and basically be a mode of support for you throughout ... we venture out and find some of these species ... some find lots of them while some treasure a select few ... but this is with people ...

Throughout your journey in life ... there are some inanimate friends that leave an impeccable mark on you ... unknowingly ... today is the day I bow down to my beloved ... BIKE ... she turns 10 today ... Yes ... I prefer a calling my bike a SHE ... and as they say in bike parlance ... DEFINITELY FEMALE ...

I fondly remember the evening of May 24, 1999. I was watching the World Cup match between the Kiwis and the Windies ... when my Dad called out to me ... I peeped from the window and there she stood ... resplendent in Black (and Gold stripes) ... the match went out of the window (now thats quite apt) ... I ran down and couldnt believe that my Dad got me a new bike ... there was no plan as such to get a bike ... but I was not complaining ... my Mom also came down and we had performed Puja ... I drove down to my friend Aditya's place ... which was around 2 kms from my place ... and he also had a test drive ... :)

Gone were the days that I had to go to college on my sister's Sunny (believe me it was not a great sight driving into Wadias on a limping Sunny ... my Dad was humble enough to give me his Scooter every Saturday and my body language in college was completely different on Saturdays ... :P) ... a Yamaha as I always perceived it ... was ROYAL ... the sound of it ... was like music ...

It came into my life when most of my friends (and me too :P) were going through the usual nuances of puberty ... :P ... the most obvious of this phenomenon was getting attracted to the opposite sex ... :P

By my own admission ... I am (and was) mirror-cracking material (thanx to Orkut for coming up with such a fitting description for people like me) ... so getting attracted was the only thing I could afford :) ... but my friends were much better off ... they not only got attracted but also ... well ... lets leave that for another day ... ;) ... most of my friends, like me, were from a middle to lower middle class family ... having your own bike at the age of 17 was a big deal back then ... and I think it still is (though I am sure things are better now) ... so all my friends relied on my bike to ride their dates ... I mean pillion ... so it was sort of a daily routine to give away my bike to some friend in college ... then come home by bus and then stay awake late in the night for my friend to come back and give my bike back ... magic days ... and this was not limited to guys ... even my female friends took my bike away coz their boy friends didnt have a bike ... just magic ...

I always felt my bike feeling unwanted ... maybe she felt ... "why aren't you taking some one out" ... I wish I could explain to her ... :)

The inspiration to buy a Yamaha came from my Chacha ... he had a RX-100 and then a RX-Z and I always wanted a Yamaha once I drove my Chacha's bikes ... he took care of his bike like his baby ... and I followed ... we both took my bike to a "sticker" man ... one who makes flashy stickers ... and we stuck Red&Black stickers denoting "Yamaha" on my bike ... he also gave me "Bike Wax" which allows you to clean the bike in a ... well ... better way ... I did that religiously for 2-3 years but then gave up ...

I feel quite happy with myself that the first girl who sat on bike (of course when I was driving) was Amruta ...no it wasnt a date ... it was a bit accidental ... we needed to go and meet a friend of mine (happens to be her cousin) ... Nikky ... and it didnt make sense to go on separate bikes ... but it did have me jumping with joy ... my bike also felt a bit prouder than normal ... :)

It was just before the HSC results when I met with a horrible accident at night ... it was hardly 10 days before the results when Chetan and I skid off the road and went bone crashing for around 20 meters ... I was driving ... Chetan didnt have a lot of injuries but I was hurt all over ... elbows, knees, face and belly ... I almost passed out ... Aditya (who was on his bike) and Chetan brought me home ... I recovered in 2 weeks ... fortunately there were no fractures ... but the marks (right knee and left fore-arm) still show ... it was a horrible accident ... my first instinct when I skid was to check if my bike was alright ... apart from a few scratches on the indicators (that still show) and a bent leg guard ... there were no other issues ...

Around the same time ... my bike was witness to a horrendous incident ... I had given my bike to Kiran for a date ... he was going through a rough patch with his girl friend and they hadnt met for months ... and when they finally met ... it was a like a big setup by the girl's brother to sort out Kiran ... I had been witness to a lot of gang fights in Wanorie area during those days ... Kiran was cut at several places by those people ... he had promised me that he will return my bike at around 4 pm. When it was 6 pm, we started to get worried ... Chetan, Aditya, Chinna and I went to almost every place we expected Kiran to go to ... but to no avail ... finally we found him somewhere in Wanorie and his white shirt had become red ... yes it was blood ... and again ... I was curious to know what happened to my bike ... fortunately it only had blood marks ... and nothing else ... the episode that ensued after that deserves a separate post ... one of the darkest nights of my life ... I dont think its a good idea to explain why ....

Throughout its journey with me, it has undergone changes ... mainly replacements ... the speedometer has stopped functioning ... it stands at a reading of 81 K ... one of my most heartfelt desires was to see the reading at 99999 ... but alas ... it is not going to happen since its beyond repair now ... the petrol tank has been replaced once ... so has the chain ... the stickers resemble a RX-100 instead of RX-135 ... the sparking Golden font has eroded with time ... its been blackened ... the indicators dont work as they should ... the horn is a moody creature ... my bike guzzles a lot more oil ... upper and dipper are more or less the same ... driving pillion is avoided since the power has run out ... though that can be repaired ... maybe I will gift that to her on her birthday ... I changed the tyres of my bike in 2007 ...

During this time, I have progressed as a student from Wadias to Fergusson ... my bike would religiously accompany me ... and then I got a job ... it seems like eternity that my bike has been with me ... I somehow find it difficult to fathom that its only been 10 years ... in fact I have been with my bike more than anything else ... it also made a trip to Mumbai for Mood-I once ...

The evolution of the BIKE genre has also been unprecedented. Disc brakes ... single suspensions ... digital speedometers ... fuel filters ... 220-350 cc ... non circular and jazzy indicator lights ... phew. Takes your breath away isnt it? But my bike has remained the same ... its not a pity though ... it still gives me a better than decent average ... breaks down rarely ... and doesnt trouble me during monsoons and winters ... fuel rates have gone up alarmingly. I remember the first time I filled her up (this statement sounds quite weird ... I know :P) ... the rate was Rs. 31 or 33 ... its been one helluva ride ...

Here I am taking my hat off to my companion ... Happy Birthday girl ... we still have miles to go and plenty to catch up on ... Thanx a lot ... and lets go for a ride and spend time together ... and brace ourselves for the next leg of our journey ... Cheers ... !!

Organizing foreigners ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Well, this is not an attempt to advise the new government about some of their gazillion reforms coming up :P

I am talking about the IPL.

I have been dumb found by the way teams have selected their 4 foreign players in any given game. To my knowledge, each team has a pool of 9-10 foreign players to choose from. Honestly speaking, I find it very appropriate that only 4 foreign players can fit into a playing eleven. The last thing we want is the dearth of Indian players in the INDIAN Premier League. Having said that, its extremely difficult for the coach and the captain to shortlist 4 players from this pool. But there are some obvious take aways which need no debate and teams have been found lacking in terms of coming up with the right foreign player formation.

Lets start with Chennai. I think this is the only team that came close to selecting the BEST 4 foreign players. Hayden would make a playing eleven of any team in the world in any format of the game. No wonder he holds the Orange cap. Albie Morkel is one of the most destructive stikers of the cricket ball and he is a capable bowler too. Murali is again a must-have. No debates on that. If he is not taking wickets, he will atleast pin down the batsmen. Last year's final was a flash in the pan when Yusuf took him apart. According to me, the fourth foreign player for Chennai should be George Bailey. Thanx to ESPN-Star for broadcasting Australian domestic cricket. I have seen Bailey play. And boy he can play. Nicknamed Geuronimo, this guy can wield the willow like no other. This guy has been INSTRUMENTAL in captaining Tasmania in the absence of Ponting and he guided Tasmania to the ODI championship Down Under. As an option, Michael Hussey should be on standby as the 5th player. Ntini and Oram are more utility players in the sense that they dont guarantee that they will put on a performance ... definitely not in T-20. Oram should have made it to my list but his recent injuries have taken the zing out of his bowling.

Next up is Delhi. Looking at their foreign players, its a bloody tough task to choose their 5 foreign players. I guess AB should make it automatically. He says he wants to become the best player in the world in all 3 formats and doesnt he back himself? The 2nd player should be Daniel Vettoti for God's sake. This man is a wizard in T-20 cricket. If you have any doubt then just look at this bowling average, strike rate and no of wickets. If you still have some doubt, get hold of the India-NZ video from the T-20 World Cup when he single handedly stopped India in its tracks after Sehwag and Gambhir threatened to murder the Kiwis. That was also India's only loss of the tournament. Dilshan comes in next. This guy is made for T-20. Having become the new Lankan captain in T-20 cricket, it has just given him the fillip to take his game up by a notch or two. An electric fielder, great runner between the wickets and more than handy off-spinning option ... this guy should be a certainty in every game. If available, Collingwood should be the 4th player. I dont know the logic of keeping him out. To be fair, Delhi's batting ends at no. 4 according to the current formation. With all due respect to Karthik, I feel Delhi lacks the depth. Collingwood is the perfect man to come in after Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan and AB. Add to that his canny bowling. The player on standby should be Farveez Maharoof. He is a good steady bowler. He has all the variations plus his nemesis (read Sehwag) is in his own team :P ... Warner is too recent a player to walk into the playing eleven and his cross batted swipes leave much to be desired. McGrath to be honest doesnt come with the same artillery for Delhi as he did for the Oz ... Owais Shah is too inconsistent.

Now Punjab. The first player should always be Brett Lee without a shade of a doubt. Everyone knows why. The next player should be Kumar Sangakkara. He is street smart and has this natural ability to adapt to the situation of the game. If you need one man to bat through while the others want to hit out, Sanga is the man for you. Amazing wicket keeper to boot. Ravi Bopara is fast becoming the most efficient T-20 player. If you have seen him finish games for Essex, you would know what I am talking about. He is going great guns in all forms of the game. His bowling is an added incentive. He is my third choice. If available, Shaun Marsh should be the 4th player and James Hopes should act as their fence player. Marsh already proved himself last year and Hopes is an extremely handy T-20 all rounder. But since they were not available, my 4th and 5th players would be Mahela and Abdulla. But I feel Mahela is too good a player to be wasted at no. 5/6. Abdulla has the potential to become the next big thing in Sputh African cricket.

On to Deccan. The captain selects himself. Gilly doesnt need any invitation to make the playing eleven. Andrew Symonds should be the next player. Great with the bat and more than good with the ball. A great fielder. My personal choice for the 3rd player is Fidel Edwards. The reason why Deccan stormed through the first half of the tournament was due to RP and Edwards opening the bowling for Deccan. Edwards also has a slinging action like Malinga and his pace can unsettle the best of batsmen. The next player should be Dwayne Smith. In fact, I would say he should be an automatic choice much like Symonds. He is the perfect no. 6 batsman in T-20. He has the capability to hit the long ball and is a deadly accurate fielder. He can also bowl decent medium pace. Looking at this year's team, I will have to say the 5th player should be Gibbs. Around 3-4 years ago, he should have made the 11 automatically. But he is inconsistent now. If Afridi was available, he would have been ahead of Smith and Gibbs for me. Vaas doesnt impress me and so does Styris.

Talking about Rajasthan, I would say the biggest mistake they have made is to keep out Tyron Henderon. This guy is made for T-20 cricket. He along with Murali Kartik took Middlesex to the T-20 championship in England. He is a great T-20 bowler and a ferocious striker of the ball. He should make the playing eleven always. Warne has missed a trick this time. Warne would be the 2nd player for obvious reasons. Graeme Smith is also an automatic choice. Given this year's team, I would pick Mascarenhas as their 4th player always. He is a canny bowler and a big hitter. Johan Botha would be my fringe player. Of course, Tanvir and Watson select themselves but they were not available this year. Quiney, Carseldine and Harwood are largely unimpressive as T-20 players.

That brings me to Mumbai. One of the most under achieving teams and its disappointing for me as a Mumbai fan to write about this. Someone needs to drill a fact into the Mumbai authorities that Sanath Jayasuriya should always be present in the eleven and he should always open. The last time he batted in the middle order was the 1992 World Cup. His average back then was 19 ... and didnt he do an admirable job working his ass to end up with an average of over 30? SRT bamboozled me when he didnt pick Sanath for a game. I will go to the extent of saying that its not a huge issue if SRT himself doesnt play but Sanath SHOULD ALWAYS BE THERE. Next is his Lankan team mate ... Lasith Malinga. This guy again is made for T-20. His toe crushing yorkers and mesmerising pace changes make it extremely difficult to score off him. JP Duminy has come on leaps and bounds and it didnt surprise me when he hit 5 fifties. In fact he was the saving grace for the much hyped Mumbai batting line up. Dwayne Bravo is the 4th player and according to me one of the game's best all rounders. But he should NOT open the innings. :). The last player (in fact he should have been tried very early in the tournament) is Graham Napier. This guy seriously makes a mockery of the cricket ball. One of the hardest hitters of the ball. Once blasted 16 sixes in one innings enroute to rip roaring 150 in a T-20 game. For my money, this guy had the potential of becoming one of the success stories of the tournament. But thats a bit of a skirmish on the part of SRT's captaincy. He should think like a captain and not as a leader :P

Time to shift from SRT to SRK. Kolkata is not a team as bad as they are projected to be. Lets be frank. They have Brendon McCullum at the helm. We all know how he lit up Chinnaswamy stadium last year. Maybe assigning the captaincy to someone like Hussey or Hodge would have helped given the fact that both of them have captained Victoria previously. McCullum isnt even a local district captain in Kiwiland. Next on the list are the 2 Victorians that I just mentioned. Brad Hodge is the highest run getter in T-20 cricket in the world and is the glue that has held Victoria and Leicestershire en route to mutliple championship seasons. A handy offie and a more than reliable fielder. He has been the saving grace for Kolkata this year. He should always be in the eleven. David Hussey for me is an automatic choice. He has a very simple way of playing T-20. Come in and graft. Hit out in the last 3-4 overs. One of the most dumb decisions have been to keep Charles Langeveldt out of the Knight Riders team. How can a T-20 freak be kept out? Dumb ... dumber ... dumbest. Period. The last player should be Chris Gayle. This guy is a very weird cricketer. It almost makes you feel that you need to perk him up for a match. He is very inconsistent for a man with his kind of talent. But should be in the pool of 5 players. In Gayle's absence, Mendis should be the fringe player.

Finally, its speaking about Vijay Mallya's Royal Challengers. Make no mistake. This is one of the best teams in the tournament and also one of the dumbest. You cant ... I repeat ... you cant keep Cameron White out of the playing eleven. If 4 captains come and go and still dont get White into the team, its a problem. White is again MADE for T-20. No wonder most of his Aussie team mates (playing for other franchises) chuckle at the thought of not facing upto White. He is one of the Victorian T-20 and ODI stalwarts along with David Hussey and Hodge. For me, White is an automatic choice. Ross Taylor walks into the team as my 2nd player. He is like Sehwag and Jayasuriya. You dont drop him if he fails once or twice or even 5 times. He has to be there always. Where the hell is Dale Steyn for God's sake? I know he got injured after 4-5 matches but that should have kept him out only for 1-2 matches. I see him giggling in the dugout and get drinks for his mates so I am assuming he can run up and pepper the batsmen as well. Just because you win with a certain combination does not allow you to drop one of the most lethal bowlers the Proteas have ever produced. Again, seriously dumb. Jacques Kallis is an imposing figure and should always be present in the eleven. My fifth player would be Jesse Ryder. Come on, this guy is talent. You cant keep dropping him. Sorry Boucher and Van Der Merwe but I dont think you are making any contributions to this team.

So that's that. My frustration at not having to see the so called T-20 players in action prompted me to write. It is still not late. Some teams might still benefit now (if not next year) by picking the right foreign players.

Here's hoping for a thrilling IPL-2 finale ... Cheers ... !!

Halo of countryside ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:35:00 +0000

I could actually imagine that ...

It was a fun trip. One of my most satisfying moments in life. Staying in a city, we somehow always cringe to break free ... explore unchartered territory ... do something you have never done before ... basically you want to add to your resume of experiences ....

We picked the long weekend of 1st May to visit Sangaon. This is a small village on the outskirts of Kolhapur ... for people who know a bit more ... Sangaon is a stone's throw away from Kaagal ... well not exactly a stone's throw ... its around 6 kms from Kaagal. Biwi's Nanaji owns a farm (I dont like that word ... hence I am going to use the word Khet from now on ...) at Sangaon. I had been to this Khet once before but I had hardly explored it ... this time it was going to be different ... it was a nice incentive to go there ... since we had not been to Kolhapur in over 2 years ...

My in-laws were also going to join us there. Hence, we planned it in such a way that we will use one car and one bike to travel to Sangaon. Everyone assembled at our place at 4 am on Friday ... thats Dinesh, Prakash, father-in-law (Pappa), mother-in-law(Mummy), Biwi and I. Prakash and Dinesh started on Dinesh's bike while the rest travelled in our car.

I wont delve too much into the journey ... except that it was a short and sweet drive ... with hardly any traffic ... toll booths were idle ... we stopped for Naashta at Karad ... Prakash swapped places with Biwi in Satara ... and I swapped places with Biwi in Karad ... driving a Pulsar on NH-4 is a heavenly experience ... we went from Karad to Kaagal in 57 minutes ... :) ... Biwi did an admirable job anchoring our car till Sangaon ... in fact she drove beautifully ... Dinesh swapped places with Pappa in Kaagal ... Pappa and I bought from cooking oil from Kaagal and reached Sangaon ... by now everyone from Kolhapur (read Biwi's Nanaji's family ... thats Nana, Nani, Mama, Mami, Mausis, Mama's kids, Mausi's kids) had reached the Khet ... Sangaon is divided into 2 parts ... Sangaon Kasba (this is more of a marketplace kind of a place) and Juna Sangaon (this is where the Khet is and it is a very quiet place with Khets all around) ...

After exchanging pleasantries it was time to make plans for the day ... the menu for the day was Mutton and Chicken Rassa ... or more specifically Kombda Rassa ... and Vade to boot ... this is the famous Kombda Vade ... the menu was mentioned as soon as we reached the Khet ... so we wanted to be very hungry before devouring all that ... Nanaji took us to the well (Kua) of the Khet ... the cock went through the sacrifice ordeal ... Yes its not good viewing ... but that's that ...

The next thing to do was swim in the well ... I had done that during my last visit too ... but somehow it felt amazing this time around ... the fact that it was close to 40 degrees outside and almost ice-cold in the well made it all the more enjoyable ... Pappa, Nanaji, Shivam and Soham (Mama's kids) joined us in the well and it was mayhem ... Dinesh went into a diving frenzy ... from unprecedented heights ... I too joined later and we started a "Mutka" regime ... it is diving in such a way that your legs go into the water before your head ... and in doing so ... you should cross your legs ... difficult proposition ... :P

Anyway, we swam for around 2 hours and it needed someone to come and drag us out of the well ... we were hungry now ... and the food made our day ... Kombda vade were lip-smacking ... couple that with Mutton ... Masala rice ... plain rice ... and off-the-tava-chapatis ... since Prakash and Dinesh were coming to Sangaon for the first time ... they were forced to eat a lot ... and I mean it ... they were sweating profusely throughout (I have been through this before :P) ...

We lazed around in the courtyard and tried to find some sleep ... but the heat and some ants made it difficult ... we garnered some sleep before everyone assembled for tea at around 5 pm ... tea was just a starter ... the amount of junk food on offer made us skip a beat ... biscuits ... poha-chiwda ... chips ... nuts ... cashews ... bhutta ... and they kept coming ...

We decided to visit the river that flows through Juna Sangaon ... its around a km from the Khet. The walk from the Khet to the river was extremely picturesque and it culminated into the most ideal setting of a river flowing through the countryside with a wooden over bridge and acres of land to park your backside and get submerged in this aura ... there was a jamun tree over there and this being jamun season ... we had plenty of jamuns ... it was getting dark and walked back to the Khet ... the heat was still very much present and we were feeling the itch to have something chilled ... being a small village we were doubtful if we would get anything ... we walked from the Khet to Kasba Sangaon ... we were fortunate enough to find a shop selling soft drinks and ice cream ... well ice cream in a village sounded a better option ... and it was ... we all felt much better after the ice cream went down the system ... we walked back and it was now time for cards ...

Everyone went off to sleep at around 10 pm in the house and reminded us about the positions we need to take in the house when we plan to sleep ... we ignored it at that time only to repent later ... :P ... playing cards has also become such a ritual ... and Minimum at that ... its a fun game and keeps you engrossed ... Biwi, Prakash, Dinesh and I laughed the night away ... mainly discussing about all that we observed with the people present on the Khet ... poor souls ... it was like despite being good hosts they were the laughing stock ... :) ... it was only when we started hearing weird noises that we decided to call it quits and go off to sleep ... even then we went in the house and started laughing ... much to the dismay of all those who had already dozed off by now ... there were lots of mosquitoes ... so it was not trivial to find sleep ... luckily we had bought some mosquito coils ... and got saved ... but we were still laughing so much that it made us get up and go to the kitchen just to finish off the laughing ... we were asleep in some time ... and that completed a most memorable first day of the trip at Sangaon ...

The next day was spent pretty much doing the same stuff ... a heavy Gaon kaa Naashta ... playing cricket with Soham and Shivam ... swimming in the well ... a heavy lunch (again :P) ... pursuit of sleep in the afternoon ... etc ... there was a small difference though ... Prakash, Dinesh and I wanted to have a bath in the bore well ... just adjacent to the Khet ... but it was occupied by some women who were washing their (?) clothes ... we sought refuge under the tamarind tree (we saw almost every type of tree during the 3 days) ... sang some very unfortunate songs :P ... maybe that hastened the washing by the women ... but we also knew that the water will not be available for eternity ... and as ill luck would have it ... the water stopped as soon as Dinesh and I stepped in ... dratch ... we had a bath with whatever water was left but Prakash had to go back to the Khet and have a bath ...

The evenings were something we looked forward to coz the heat during the day was relentless ... we wanted to go back to Kasba Sangaon to have ice cream like yesterday ... only today we didnt realise what the time was ... the elders advised us against going coz it can be dangerous during the night ... but we still wanted to go and we did ... just that our CITY minds refused to accept that we were not in a CITY ... we reached Kasba Sangaon at around 9:30 pm ... and it was pitch dark and pin drop silence ... Yes ... the Gaon was fast asleep ... and we were left looking stupid ... no other option but to head back to the Khet ... it was nevertheless a good experience walking through the brazen paths late in the night ...

On reaching the Khet ... we played cards but there were even more mosquitoes than yesterday ... so we decided to go in and have some fun but everyone was asleep ... so we decided we will sleep in the kitchen ... chatted for a while ... played cards and then dozed off ...

The day of the trip was the final day ... as usual we got up and had Naashta ... this was followed by the most intense cricket matches that I have ever played ... and thats quite a statement ... it was Mama, Biwi, Dinesh and Shivam in 1 team while Prakash, Mummy, Pappa and I represented the other team ... quite a mismatch considering the fact that Mama has played (and still plays) state level cricket ... not that we were going to play with a season ball ... but still ... the first 2 matches were quite close ... we fielded first in both matches ... it was a 6 over affair ... Mama's team made 47 ... we sent Mummy and Pappa as our openers and we struggled :) ... when both of them got out ... it was upto me and Prakash ... we batted well and made sure we are within striking distance of the total ... but Prakash got out ... we still needed around 20 in 2 overs and one of those was going to be bowled by Mama ... I extracted 7 off Mama's over ... and we still needed 13 off the last over ... Mama tossed the ball to Biwi ... this was going to be interesting ... I didnt know whether I should go for the win :P ... but Yeah ... a loss is a loss ... even worse if its against my wife ... :) ... the first ball was a four ... the next was two ... then a dot ball ... we needed 7 off 3 ... the next was a four ... 3 off 2 ... dot ball ... 3 off 1 ... this was the moment of the match ... I thought I hit the perfect shot straight down Biwi's left hand ... but Mama just stuck his hand out ... the ball stuck and he ran me out at the bowler's end ... they rejoiced so much that all the elders busy preparing for lunch came out and asked what all the noise was all about ... and they went back holding their heads when they came to know that it was just a match ... but they didnt say GROW UP ... :)

The next match was also close ... I was surprised how well I played in the first match since I had not held a cricket bat for ages ... but Mama was a crucial factor ... he was so central to their scheme of things ... again they put up a huge score ... 58 ... and we had to get 59 ... this time we sent Prakash and Mummy to open ... both got out in the first over to Biwi ... Biwi was stellar with her bowling ... kudos ... :) ... so it was left to me and Pappa ... Pappa also got out in the next over to Mama ... and we had to make 50 in 4 overs ... hardly an inspiration ... but I soldiered on ... I targetted the overs that were not bowled by Mama ... hit lots of boundaries ... in fact I got 13 in one of Mama's overs ... we needed 22 in 2 overs ... Mama bowled the penultimate over ... and he bowled well ... I managed only 7 ... and we were left with 15 to get off 6 ... again Biwi was going to bowl ... Deja Vu ... or was it? ... I hit the first 2 balls for 4 ... we needed 7 off 4 ... the next ball was bowled almost at my chest and I fended it off to get 2 runs ... a huge argument ensued coz I definitely thought it was a no-ball ... but Mama was not ready to listen ... it was very competitive ... so it was 5 off 3 ... dot ball ... 5 off 2 ... and I got out ... bowled ... Ouch that hurts ... lost 2 close matches ... the third match was one sided coz we lost by a huge margin ... sob ...

we then headed to the well ... and this time we were going to make it count ... almost everyone on view was in the well ... Dinesh, Prakash, Biwi, Soham, Shivam, Pappa, Mummy (though she didnt swim), Nilambari(Biwi's cousin ... or shud I say Saali :P), Mama and myself ... it was highly enjoyable ... but Pappa, Mama and Mummy wernt there for long ... Dinesh and I went off on a diving spree ... we went further and further up until it started looking scary from up ... the dive from the highest point was extremely nerve racking ... its funny that you know you are not falling on firm ground ... its just water and yet you feel you will get hurt ... but what a dive it was ... from hot air(when you are about to jump) to cooler breeze (when mid-air) and finally cold water ... quite a transition ... that made us repeat it ... 3 hours came and went ... then finally we came out ...

We had planned to leave for Pune at around 1:30 pm ... so we needed to have lunch and get going ... the moment we came out of the well and reality dawned that we will be leaving soon, the mood dropped ... we talked of deferring our departure ... and everyone agreed ... so we were back to being happy ... Mami and Maheshwari (another Saali) had come to the well to inform us that lunch is ready ... we could not see people all dry ... we somehow managed to get Mami to the well and Biwi poured a bucket of water on her ... Maheshwari was close but not very close and she was already retracting ... I ran and got hold of her ... and after some time even she bore the brunt of the same bucket of water ... so now we were much more satisfied ... :)

Mami was hell bent for revenge ... and she started filling a bucket as soon as we reached the house ... but to her dismay I really didnt have an issue getting wet again ... in fact I loved it ... she started filling a second bucket ... someone called out for her and she turned ... then it was easy for me to come and pick up the same bucket of water and pour it on her ... 2-1 to me ... :P ... and thats how it stayed ... first leg goes to me ... revenge is promised for next time ... we will see ... an away win is very important :P ...

It was again very hot and we really wanted something cold. When I asked around about how many are ready for a beer ... I got a decent response ... it was Mummy, Pappa, Prakash, Biwi and Mama ... I too decided to have beer ... yes I have quit drinking but the occasion got to me ... cant help it ... Dinesh and Prakash went to Kasba Sangaon and got beer, soft drinks and chakna ... we all went back to the well and sat in the shade of a tree ... we were joined by 2 of Pappa's friends ... one of them was called DESAI SAAHAB ... and wasnt he funny ... he talked till the cows came home ... we were busy sipping beer and soft drinks and this man was just going on and on about the food he likes ... the places he has visited across India ... his farmhouse in Goa ... how there is no place like Goa (I quite agree) ... all the others did was nod in approval ... there were some trademark dialogues that are expected when people get high ... like "Our doors are always open for you Desai Saahab" (Yes it was said in English :P) ...

Finally, we went and had lunch ...

Lunch was prepared by one of Biwi's cousin grandfathers ... quite a task to explain the relation ... but he had made delicious chicken biryani ... cashew and raisins just added to the flavor and we devoured everything that came our way since it was the Last Supper ... eerrr ... Last Lunch at Sangaon ... after that we dozed off outside in the shade of yet another tree ... we got up at around 5 pm ... had tea and were ready to leave ... I must admit it was sad to leave such a divine place ... the food and the people were just amazing ... but all good things come to an end sometime ... and so did this ... we left Sangaon at 8 pm ... 7 hours behind schedule ... knowing that the next day in office will hurt ... both physically and emotionally ...

Adios Sangaon ... but we will be back ... Prakash is already planning his honeymoon at Sangaon ... :P'

Cheers ... !!

Wishes ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:02:00 +0000

A year wiser? I doubt that ... a year older? I more than vouch for that ...

As has become a ritual with me ... I spent my birthday away from work ... and with my family ... and more importantly ... at HOME ... doing stuff that I like a lot ...

Well ... I am almost at the footsteps of an age which is described as VETERAN in cricketing terminology ... it just feels like yesterday that the TEENS deserted me ... and here I am staring at the wrong end of the TWENTIES ... I have started inviting stares from people who are not a lot older than me and I still find it convenient to call them UNCLE ... and I am getting used to the fact that more and more teenagers are calling me UNCLE ... :) ... call that a residue of age ...

So it was nice to sit in front of the TV the entire day ... watch IPL ... gorge on Mangoes ... swim ... chat on Yahoo to absolute strangers ... sleep (in all its splendor) ... and finally have a 4 course HOMELY LUNCH ...

people who matter ... wished ... Biwi decorated our room ... Dinesh and Prakash gave a nice gift ... and all 3 made it a point to come back from office early ... so that we could have a good evening ... Chocolate cake from Copper Chocs never disappoints ... couple that with a quiet dinner at Signature ... and a prank hour (with target as Prakash) ... some chatter about out trip to Sangaon in a couple of days time ... and finally some more chatter while lazying in the society garden ... till 3 in the morning ... thats more than handy recipe for a good old fashioned Birthday ...

Happy Birthday Pratik Omprakash Beri ... some things in life are priceless ... for all others ... you need MONEY ... ;)

Cheers ... !!

Impact ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:45:00 +0000

I was surfing channels last weekend trying to get hold of some nice cartoon ... some nice sporting occasion or some nice movie ... there were lots of channels where I spent some time ... Tom n Jerry never fails to impress me (I am sure its the case with most of us) ... Augusta Masters was too appetizing but the fact that Tiger and Mickelson were not doing very well made me switch ... and finally I ended with ... SARKAR ...

It aint a secret that I am a fan of RGV's movies. There's a very interesting story about Sarkar and me ... it goes back during the time it was released (no matter how much I try ... I dont seem to create that feel of novels) ... the story is such that ... at that time City Pride Kothrud was a newbie ... and most of us counted just 4 as the number of multiplexes in Pune ... in Inox, E-Square. Adlabs and City Pride Satara Road ... some weird sequence of events had led me to see this movie in each of these multiplexes ... including thrice in three days ... it was almost as if I told my 4th accomplice ... I CAN ENACT EACH SCENE ... NO NEED TO WATCH IT ...

So when I tuned into Sarkar this weekend ... all those moments came galloping back (there I go again ... I am not novel material ... guess I am not that novel in creating a novel ... aah ... there's a statement) ... for now lets say ... those moments came running back ... much more real ...

If there was ever a scene that warms you up to watch the rest of the movie ... its the scene where Rashid meets Sarkar for the first time ... just mind boggling ... the impact it creates on th viewer ...

The director has interleaved the part of Khan informing Sarkar about Rashid and Rashid actually walking up the stairs so wonderfully ... the poise of both Rashid and Sarkar ... it gives you goose bumps ... even on the small screen ...

The back ground music is only broken by Rashid saying ... "Aapse akele main kuch baat karna thaa mereko" ... and is so promptly replied with ... "samajh lo ki mai akela hi hoon" ... Chander and Khan are both in this scene with Sarkar and Rashid (I am sure everyone knows about this) ... Chander has this habit of loosing his temper at the drop of a ... well hat would sound to advanced for Chander ... lets say he gets angry very easily ... as soon as Sarkar says this ... its like Chander getting the authority to impose himself on Rashid ... he responds with an eye contact with Rashid and pointing out his left hand towards the seat he is supposed to take ...

Throughout the scene ... its noteworthy seeing Khan chewing his Paan/tobacco/supari ... and Chander constantly hounding Rashid with his looks ... Rashid tells Sarkar of his intentions ... the way Sarkar lifts his eyes from sipping tea as soon as he hears the words "Shikuti gaon" ... just amazing ... impact ... and reaction ... just wonderful ... Sarkar hears out Rashid and then sets off for his introduction ... you almost feel he will go an for a longer time ... but he cuts it off with ... "Mai nahi karunga" ...

Rashid raises the stakes and says ... "30 lakh" ... this is enough for Chander to spit venom ... he angrily responds to Rashid ... Rashid tries to clarify with Sarkar (Rashid does a great job interacting with ONLY SARKAR ... he doesnt care a lot about Chander ... this is what a villain should be ...) ... Sarkar by now is vehemently denying Rashid ...

This is where the magic of Rashid takes over ... he is clearly disgruntled ... but he still has the audacity to finish the tea in his cup ... give Chander a WE-WILL-SEE-WHO-WINS-THIS-BATTLE-OF-STARES stare ... and finally gets up ... Sarkar is quick to chip in with ... "Aur suno ... tujhe bhi karne nahi dunga" ... this is the most amazing sequence of background score inter mingled with the most appropriate body language ... with Taasha ... Dhol and sundry ...

Rashid still touches Sarkar's feet before leaving ...

For me ... the most striking feature about this scene is that both Sarkar and Rashid appear vulnerable at different stages of this scene ... it ... as they say ... SETS UP THE MOVIE ...

Its even better in the movie hall ... ask me ... I have experienced it 4 times ... ;)

Cheers ... !!

Those were the days ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:22:00 +0000

If there ever was a picture that spoke a thousand words (maybe a million ... maybe more), its probably this ...

Yeah those were the days ...
When the towel acted as a photo background ...
When you thought of everything other than money (and related entities) ...
When 50 paise sufficed for a day's journey from home to school and back ...
When I avoided going back home by bus so that I can save 25 paise to ... wait ... not to own a house ... but to see myself gorging on the Raspberry ice cream that was for Rs. 3
When wearing a white school uniform should have acted a reminder to keep it clean ... but instead it was the exact opposite ... a white uniform meant that it had to be DIRTIED ...
When innocence won over almost everything ...
When the scolding received from parents resulted in making a mental note of things ...
When Akku-Takku, Lappa-Chhupi and Langdi were the HEP games ...
When haircuts were done on a SHEVGE-CHA-ZHAAD (drumstick tree)
When summer meant climbing up the Jamun tree and getting Jamuns for the entire Basti ...
When we made a beeline at the place of The PATILS to catch a glimpse of Chitrahaar and Mickey-Donald or the weekend movies ...
When Zatra (Mela) was the event of the year ...
When the place to shit was a place where the most luxurious township of the area stands today ...
When Ganpati meant watching 4 movies from 6 pm to 6 am behind the Mandal ... the movies being ... Gair Kanooni, Bhrashtachaar, Mitti aur Sona and Lashkar ... its a bloody tough challenge to locate these movies ...
When I didnt have to think twice (probably more now) to wrestle a girl over a petty reason ...
When my sister won 2 cans of Complan full of marbles defeating all the guys in the Basti ...

But the most important of all ... you wanted to get done with school as soon as possible and thought that life after school would be rosy ... well ... almost ... sigh ... Yeah ... those were the days ... Cheers ... !!

Time for Ping-Pong ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Yes, the TT tournament at office starts tonight . Sabhtarsha and I are the organizers and its a bloody frustrating task to keep reminding teams about their matches. The schedule has already started changing and we haven't even played a match yet. I wonder how Vivek did everything alone during the last edition of the tournament. Well done mate ... !!

The teams are more evenly (read sportingly) distributed this time. The draw was fun. Sabhtarsha and I are in the same team along with Sandip and Prabhash. Its not a bad team and at least "I" am expecting that we will perform better than the last edition. Our first of 8 matches takes place tomorrow against the DreamKillers. Well ... I hope I don't dream ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 3, 2009
DreamKillers didn't show up. So we had to reschedule our match. We played the Paddlers and won 3-0. A job well done by all of us. There will be sterner tests ahead. We have to defeat at least one of Top Most 5, Warriors, Orange and DreamKillers if we are to entertain any thoughts of reaching the Semis ... our next match is tomorrow against The Rookies.

Update : Feb 6, 2009
We have upset the DreamKillers. Thats the news of the day. Yes we did it. We had 2 matches. We defeated the The Rookies in the first match 3-0. The 2nd was against the DreamKillers. We lost the first singles but won the doubles to tie it up at 1-1 going into the deciding singles that was to be played by me. It was tense. I was extremely nervous to be honest since the result was going to be the result of the series. I lost the 1st set 11-5 and was down 4-1 in the 2nd set. But I am glad I got my game back on track. Gopi was more than a formidable opponent. I came through the 2nd set 11-7. I kept the momentum going in the 3rd and was up 7-3. Some silly errors cost me and it was back at 7-7. But I held my nerve to win 11-8 and cause an upset. We now have 3 wins out of 3 and lead the table with 6 points but we have also played one additional match as compared to the other teams. But it feels good like almost getting out of jail. Keep going The Blues ... Cheers to Prabhash, Sabhtarsha and Sandip ... !!

Update : Feb 9, 2009
We have caused another sort of an upset. We have now gone on and defeated The Warriors. We have almost made it sure that we will be in the semis by defeating The Warriors. I played the first singles and won against Nishant. The first set was quite good. I won 11-4. I opened the 2nd set with a 4-0 deficit. But I played on and went onto win the 2nd set 11-7 and thereby the match. We won our doubles too with Sabhtarsha and Sandip defeating Abhijeet and Avdhoot. I pity Prabhash. He always has to play the difficult singles match. He lost to Jaswinder but put up a brave fight. But well played guys. We have won 4 out of 4 and lead the table with 8 points. One more win and we are certain to play the semis. We have another match coming up tomorrow against Nine with one of the defending champs in their ranks. Come on guys ... lets seal it tomorrow itself ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 11, 2009
We are almost through to the semis. We defeated Nine today. It was a tough match. The tables turned this time around. Till now, our doubles and my singles were comparatively easier matches or atleast we made them look easier while Prabhash always had to play the tough singles. But we were facing the heat against Nine. I played the first singles against the defending champ Vineet. I was happy with the first set. I competed well but still fell short and lost the first set 11-8. But I completely lost the plot in the 2nd and lost 11-4. Vineet plays at such a different level. He is just an amazing player. Period. We were down 0-1. The doubles team had not lost a set so far in th tournament. We were left shell shocked when they lost the first set 11-8 against a weaker team. The 2nd set was also very tight but we managed to win it 11-8. But the 3rd set was quite convincing. We won that 11-3. So it was 1-1 going into the deciding singles. Prabhash had to play the difficult singles every time so far but this time I had already played against their best player. So Prabhash stuck to the basics and won in straight sets in the final game. So we win 2-1. 5 wins out of 5. Pretty impressive but plenty of food for thought for me and our doubles. Nice wake up call just before the business end of the tournament. Well played The Blues. Lets get as many wins as possible before the semis. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 17, 2009
We played after a long time and I think it showed. We were playing against a comparatively weak team. We were lucky to come out with a 2-1 result in our favor. Prabhash won the first singles and we were up 1-0. But the crowd got behind our opponents in the doubles. We started well. We won the first set 11-2 but somehow the crowd pressure got to us and we lost the next 2 sets and the match. It was 1-1. For the second time I had to play the deciding singles. Hasmukh is an efficient player and I was just praying that he didnt bring his A-game to the table. I started shakily. I lost a couple of service points. But I closed out the set well and won 11-7. I was down throughout the 2nd set until 8-8. I went up 9-8 but Hasmukh brought it back to 9-9. He held set point at 10-9 but I forced Deuce. Finally, I closed out the set 12-10 and won the match. Its extremely difficult to play if the crowd is against you. But I am glad we won. We need to assume that the crowd will be against us if we are to play better in such circumstances. The confidence has taken a bit of a hit. But I am sure we will bounce back. Our next match is against Orange. We could have played better but well done guys anyway. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 18, 2009
You dream of such days ... such occasions ... such an atmosphere. We defeated Orange 3-0. That does not tell the story though. This was always going to be a tough one for both teams. I played the opening singles this time around. I was pitted against arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... happens to be our VP. I was completely out of sorts in the 1st set. Lost 4-11. I started badly in the 2nd too. I was down 4-8. I dont know what happened after that though. I started playing OK from there on. I brought it back to 8-8. Then it was 10-10. Then 11-11. Then 12-12 and finally 13-13. I missed 3 smashes which could have won me the set. Then I buckled down and stopped with smashes. I won the next point to make it 14-13. The last point will remain with me for the rest of my life. I was too far back and Samir hit the ball towards my backhand. I played the slice. Till now I was hitting to Samir's backhand and he was surprised to see my shot go to his forehand. But the spin in the ball took it further away and he couldnt reach it. I won the set 15-13. Man I couldnt believe it. I had won a set against the best player at AirTight. I carried the momentum in the 3rd. I couldnt believe how well I was playing. I was up 7-3. But made lots of silly mistakes. It as 7-7 soon. Then 8-8 and then 9-9. I made it 10-9 and held match point on my serve. I dished out a different serve from my previous serves and Samir blobbed it back at a decent height and close to the net. The adrenaline rush just took over. I crashed down on the ball and after a long time connected on my smash. I won man. 11-9 in the 3rd. Fantastic. Samir was gracious in defeat. We then went on and won the doubles in 3 sets too after losing the first set. Sabhtarsha and Sandip were amazing in the last 2 sets. It was great to win 2 matches after being down 1 set in both of them. Prabhash made it a convincing 3-0 scoreline by winning 11-2, 11-4 in the last match. This has been a great show of character from us after yesterday. Well done guys ... this deserves a separate post ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 24, 2009
Are we on a roll or what? We played our final match against Top Most 5. Both of us had won 7 out of 7 matches. This was the last league match for both of us. It was billed as the "Clash of the Toppers" and it lived up to all the hype that was generated at office throughout the day. The winner of this clash was going to be the top seed in the semis and end up playing the 4th placed team. Such was the anticipation among the employees that the TT arena was jam packed much before the match started. The atmosphere was electric. We decided to change our combination for this match. Prabhash and Sandip were to play the singles while Sabhtarsha and I would play Doubles. We decided on this keeping in mind that our opponents didnt have a weak player in their ranks. All 4 were good players. For us, Sandip is kind of a weak link but he has also progressed wonderfully through the tournament. Prabhash opened the series with his singles against Rahul. It was a great match. Prabhash lost a tight first set at 9-11. He showed remarkable resilience and fought back to win the 2nd sett 11-7. The deciding set was neck and neck till 6-6. Then Prabhash took over. He closed it out in a hurry and won 11-8 and with that we took a 1-0 lead. Defeating the favorites was enough to pump us up. The Doubles was next. Prabhash had given us enough confidence to assert ourselves on the match. Sabhtarsha and I were pitted against the 2 Vijays and we knew it would be a slugfest. And what a match it turned out to be. We started scratchily but picked up our game midway through the 1st set. It was tight. 9-9. We held set point at 10-9 but somehow we lost rhythm and folded up 10-12 in the 1st set. Down 1 set, we knew we had to pick up the pieces. We build a good lead in the 2nd set. We were up 6-2. But again we lost rhythm and allowed them to come back. It was 9-9 again followed by 10-10 and then 11-11. We missed some great opportunities to finish the 2nd set. But we still didnt lose focus and played well to win the 2nd set 13-11. Alright. 1 set all and the crowd were driving us into a frenzy. It was a pleasure to be playing amidst such an environment. We build a good lead again in the 3rd set. It was 7-3. Then a service point which looked Good was called Wrong by our opponents and after much debate we decided to replay the point. It looked Good to me but we decided to accept the decision. But I think we kept thinking about it. It was 7-7 very soon and it was back to being a tight match. But Sabhtarsha and I were continuously cheering each other up and we finished the game on a high ... winning 11-8. What a seesaw of a match. We had won both matches after being down 1 set. Remarkable. We had already won the rubber now. Sandip faced up against one of the best players in office ... Pushkar. He made a fist of it though Pushkar was going easy. Sandip lost the first set 2-11. He was down in the 2nd too ... but miraculously won the 2nd set 11-9 due to some poor errors from Pushkar. But Pushkar went on to win the final set 11-6. But, we won the match 2-1 and with that we become the top seeds in the semis. It was a brilliant performance from us. Top Most 5 are still the favorites to win the tournament but we have given them a more than noteworthy wake up call. Well played guys ... this was also the first match in which all 3 matches went to 3 sets ... the match lived upto its billing ... we play the DreamKillers in the semis on Thursday ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 26, 2009
And then there are days that you wish never happen in your life. After defeating every team in the tournament and being top seeds in the semis, we lost. Yeah, its painful to even write that. To be fair, our opponents did the basics right and we just couldnt get over the pressure. I played the opening singles against Atul. I played bad to be honest but he was just too good. Hats off. I lost the first 2 sets 8-21 and 11-21. The scores pretty much sum up his dominance. I tried to make a comeback in the 3rd. I won that 21-11. I was gaining on confidence. The 4th set was tight. We were even till 10-10. Then he played some good points and I played some bad ones. He went up 19-12. Still I tried to fight and made it 19-18. But then 2 silly silly silly errors later, we were down 0-1. I thought I should have competed better in the 4th set but it was that kind of a day. Our Doubles were immediately under the pump. Nothing was going our way. Our opponents were just too good. We lost the Doubles in straight sets. Prabhash won the last singles in straight sets but we eventually lost 1-2. Kudos to the DreamKillers. Yeah, they definitely killed our dreams ... :) ... but its been a great experience for us. We defeated every team in the tournament in the league phase and if we speak purely of progress ... then in the last edition we were placed 10th out of 11 teams ... and this time we are in the top 4 ... so thats pretty damn good ... plus we have a chance tomorrow to be 3rd in the match up between the losing semi-finalists ... I doubt if the motivation is the same but we will try and be 3rd at least ... well played The Blues ... it was a pleasure being a team mate of the The Blues ... Cheers ... !!

Update : March 2, 2009
We managed to finish 3rd but the fizz had pretty much gone from our game. The semi final loss was a jolt but it feels good that we are atleast placed 3rd. We played The Warriors in the 3rd place playoff match. Prabhash won the first singles for us in a 4 setter against Nishant. Prabhash lost the 1st set but came back strongly to win the next 3 sets. We played the next singles. Sandip lost against Jaswinder in straight sets. It was 1-1 and the Doubles to go. Sabhtarsha and I played against Abhijeet and Avdhoot. We lost the 1st set 19-21 but came back strongly to win the next 3 21-13, 21-17, 21-12. It felt good. Top Most 5 went on to win the tournament by defeating the DreamKillers. But it was such an amazing match. Both the singles were 5 setters while the Doubles was a 4 setter. In the end, they won 2-1. A memorable end to an amazing tournament. We played well as a team and we were the only team to defeat all other teams. No other team achieved that. Even Top Most 5 lost to us in the league phase. But we lost in the semis after being top seeds to a worth opponent. We learnt lots of lessons and I am sure we will be stronger in the next edition. Sabhtarsha and I (being the organizers) decided to award great performances in the tournament. There were 7 awards.

Best singles player - Atul
Best Doubles team - Vijay Gaji and Vijay Vachhane (Sabhtarsha and Sandip lost out)
Best singles match - Atul vs Pushkar in the Final. The score was ... hold your breath ... 13-21, 21-11, 21-23, 21-13, 22-20 in favor of Atul
Best Double match - Vijay Gaji/Vijay Vachhane vs Ashish/Shashank. The score was 9-11,13-11,13-11 in favor of Ashish/Shashank (Sabhtarsha and I vs Vijay G/Vijay V lost out)
Most improved player - Gopi (Nominees were Gopi, Sabhtarsha, Sandip and myself. 3 out of the 4 nominess were from our team but the award still went to the 4th nominee :))
Most Spirited Player - Raj
Dream team : Vineet, Pushkar, Atul, Samir and Prabhash

Cheers to The Blues ... !!

I won ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:08:00 +0000

This is that kind of a day that everyone dreams about in life. Excelling in something and proving yourself against the toughest of situations. If I had doubts about what terms like PRESSURE-COOKER-SITUATION and ADRENALINE-RUSH meant ... it was put to rest today. What a day... I am going to photo frame this day ... ;)

It was our penultimate league match against Orange. Orange boasts of arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... he is also our VP. Orange also has our manager ... Sonal and one of our UI team mates ... Rahul. So it was quite a grudge match. Playing against your manager is daunting and fun at the same time ... this was expected to be a 2-1 scoreline match ... but we were not sure in whose favor ... after the bad match we had yesterday. We were a bit down in the confidence department.

We had already won 6 out of 6 and were secured of a spot in the semis. We didnt tinker with our combination. Prabhash and I were to play the singles and Sabhtarsha and Sandip were to play the doubles. We decided that I will play the first singles .. against whom? .... well ... against Samir ... Yes ... this was what I was looking forward to since morning. I wanted to compete with him.

I started off very shakily. I dont know what I was doing. None of my smashes connected. Most of my slices hit the net or went out and Samir also hit lots of winners. The first set was gone 4-11. Hardly competed. I was extremely disappointed. I knew I can do better than this.

It was more of the same in the 2nd set. I was just out of sorts. I was down 4-8. I decided to totally shun the smash. Thats when I started competing. I made it 8-8. Then 9-9. Forced Deuce at 10-10. Then it was 11-11. Then 12-12. And then 13-13. I missed 3 smashes on the way to 13-13. Why was I going back to the smash? I cursed myself continuously. Back to shunning the smash. I made it 14-13. Then came the moment of the match.

I was continuously a long way behind the table just to intercept Samir's smashes. He hit one ball to my backhand corner. I was a long way back and with very little options. I hit the backhand slice up the line. Till now ... I was feeding the balls to Samir's backhand corner since his forehand is a menace ... he was always expecting the ball at his backhand ... but he was surprised to see me hitting to his forehand. He had already backed away to his backhand corner. My shot landed at his forehand corner and swirled further away. He couldnt reach the ball. It was 15-13 to me and with that I won the 2nd set ... Bravo Pratik ... I had just taken a set off the best player at AirTight ... the adrenaline completely took over ... it was great walking to the other side of the table thinking that I had come from 4-8 down to win the set ... time to play ball ...

I was now on top of my game. I hit a couple of smashes too ... wow ... my weak shot had started working ... I was up 7-3 ... just 4 points away from winning the match ... then I made silly mistakes ... it was 7-7 ... Samir was not giving up so easily. It was 8-8 very soon. And then 9-9. The crowd had forgotten who they were supporting. I knew my team mates were cheering me. Every point was being cheered ... no matter who won the point. Every point took around 10 shots ... it was my serve at 9-9 ... I won the next point and made it 10-9 ... Phew ... match point against Samir ... this is what I dreamt about ... just one more point ... I took an eternity to serve ... I made up my mind that it will be a different serve from what I had served so far in the match ... I dished out a forehand top-spin serve. Samir did well to return it. But it was at a decent height and not too far away from the net. This was going to be it. I was going for broke. I slammed a forehand smash like there was nothing else in life to do ... it fell right in the centre of the table and went past Samir ... fantastic ... that was some feeling ... Samir and I shook hands and crowd clapped for around half a minute or so ... wow ... what an experience ... I had done it ... Samir was extremely gracious in defeat ...

I was feeling so proud of myself ... I has saved 4 match points in the 2nd set ... Samir actually won more points than me in the match ...

Everyone came up to me and shook hands ... man ... just amazing ... one set down ... 4-8 down in the 2nd ... a tight 3rd set ... and a result I dreamed of ... just fantastic ...

We were up 1-0 ... this was completely unexpected. It was assumed that whoever plays against Samir would lose. We had to win the other 2 matches to win 2-1. But due to this win ... the pressure from the 2 remaining matches reduced substantially ...

Sabhtarsha and Sandip were hurting after yesterday's loss and were extremely determined to start winning again ... the opponents were Rahul and Sonal ... one a Manager and the other a UI team mate ... there was plenty of needle ...

We lost the first set but competed very well ... we lost it 7-11. Again ... we were down 1 set. We played out a tight 2nd set. We were up 10-7 but they made it 10-10. But we closed it out 12-10. 1 set all and our boys were feeling it ... I think the adrenaline rush was very evident. I was shouting my lungs out cheering my team. We played the best set of the match thereafter. Though it became tight in the end ... we won 11-8. Sabhtarsha was exemplary with his chops and service while Sandip was hung up on putting the ball back on the opponent's side. Brilliant result. We had already made it 2-0 and won the rubber ...

By now ... Prabhash had witnessed 2 high-octane clashes. He was more than pepped up to win the last singles ... he just mauled his opponent in the last singles. It was such a masterly exhibition by Prabhash ... he won 11-2, 11-4 ... and hence I dont have much to write about it ...

What a day and what a match ... we defeated Orange 3-0 ... INCREDIBLE SHOW GUYS ...

Its 7 wins out of 7 for us. Top Most 5 also have 7 wins out of 7. We both have one match remaining and thats against each other. Moral victories up for grabs ...

Well done The Blues ... Cheers mates ... !!

Stranger calling ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:06:00 +0000

You meet a lot of people in life. You remember some ... and be friends with them ... you dont remember some ... sometimes due to your own ignorance and aloofness and sometimes coz you are not considered too friendly ... part of life ...

There is this person who comes regularly to the pool I go to. We have seldom spoken to each other (or at least I thought so). He comes for swimming and religiously completes his daily quota of laps ... like any other swimming aficionado ...

The gents bathroom is a long rooms of 4 showers. I was having a shower this morning and I was completely oblivious to the fact that this person was doing the same in the adjoining shower. Some excerpts of the chat we had ...

Person : Kaay aaz lavkar nighaala?
Me : (startled by WHO-IS-THIS-PERSON-TALKING-TO-ME) Ho. Office laa zaayacha time zhaala.
Person : Tumhi tithech aahat kaa kaamala?
Me : (Surprised as to how he knows where I work and not knowing what to answer) : Ho.
Person : Mhanje tumhi atta hi Aundh paryant zaata? Waait aahe traffic aaz kaal ... kasa manage karta roz?
Me : Naahi. Aamchi company shift zhaali. Kothrud laa.
Person : Bara Bara. Mag jaasta laamb nahi padat asel tumhaala.
Me : Pan tumhaala kasa kaay maahit mi kuthe kaam karto?
Person : Aaho aamhi bol loy hyachya baddal. Tumhich saangitla hota maala. Visarla kaa?
Me : HHHmmmm ... actually maala aathvat naahi pan saangitla asel ...
Person : Yamaha aahe naa tumchya kade?
Me : Ho. Barobar.
Person : Aani car Zen aahe na?
Me : Right.
Person : Baayko azun hi Persistent madhe aahe kaa?
Me : (man this person knew a lot about me) Naahi. Ti ataa Kalyani nagar chya eka company madhe aahe.

After around a minute or so ...
Person : Tumhi roz 25 rounds maarta kaa?
Me : Kashyaache?
Person : (laughs out loud) ... Ataa swimming laa aala mhanje pool chech round maarnaar naa?
Me : (I was lost) : Arey ho. Naahi asa kaahi nahi. 25 zhaale tar 25 naahi tar zo paryant bore naahi hot to paryant karto ..
Person : Naahi. Mi mozto naa. Kaaran mi 15 maarto pan tumhi 25 maarta.
Me : (I didnt have a clue about how many rounds I do. I smile) Asel mag.
Person : Asel mhanje? Maartaatach.
Me : Ho Ho. Khara aahe. Actually mi mozat naahi
Person : Pan mi mozto naa ... tumhi panchvisach round maarta roz
Me : (by now I was convinced that I do 25 rounds) : Actually aadhi mi 25 maaraycho ... ata mozat naahi ... hot astil 25 ...

I quickly changed and made my way out of the Gymkhana but this man's knowledge about me was amazing. A stranger can know more about you than you yourself ... Cheers ... !!

Missing ADDY ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Its the 2nd death anniversary of Addy today and I am missing him a lot.

Its funny how the image of someone who is no more with us always stays the same. No matter how old you get.

Take care bro ... !!

Dilli unleashed ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:23:00 +0000

I had been eagerly awaiting the music release of Dilli 6 ever since I heard Massakali. I am glad that I have not been disappointed.

The album is on similar lines to Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra's previous 2 offerings of Aks and RDB. AR Rehman's stamp is evident on each track. Looking at his past record, it is difficult to like his music in the first hearing. But Dilli 6 is quite a surprise. I liked it in the first attempt itself.

The album starts off with the now-known Massakali which is like an ode to a pigeon along with an attempt of the hero to correlate the pigeon to the heroine. That's just my guess. It can be thought of as a song to Patao or tease the girl. It is quite hummable and it almost gives you a feel that the singer is enjoying himself a lot while singing it.

The next is Bhor Bhaye which is an out and out classical music song. Its for the connoisseurs of classical music. I think this song has the potential to be the most ignored song of the album. I liked it though.

Noor follows. It is not a song actually but a recitation by Amitabh Bachchan. Usually, with such songs, the words used are very heavy and most people tend to ignore them. I didn't understand each word of it but the good thing is that its a small song and gets over before you shift to the next one.

That brings us to Tumre Bhavan Mein. This is more of an Aarti song but its good. Rehman weaves his magic and prevents it from becoming a Bhajan. Its good to hear to say the least.

One of my favorites of the album is Genda Phool. It is a feminine song catering to experience of a newly wed woman and the nuances of her in-laws. Vikash rightly pointed out that it gave him a homely feeling. And why not? The Hindi used in the song is very North Indian and very Gaon-ki-Hindi. Extremely hummable song. You should not miss this one.

One of the most calming and soothing tracks is Dil Gira Dafatan. It forced me to find the meaning of Dafatan and I have still not figured it out. Amazing song. You need to hear it at least a couple of times to understand it completely.

Funky is one of Rehman's lesser explored areas but he does a fantastic job with Kaala Bandar. It has the beat to it which makes you feel like dancing. The fusion of western and Indian music is evident along with the usage of Hindi and English throughout.

Rehna Tu is also a very soothing song. I don't have much to say about the song other than this. You cannot ignore it if you like calmness.

Coming to the title track, Dilli 6 is a rundown about the highlights of Delhi as a city. This also contains beats and for a title track, its actually quite good unlike Chandni Chowk to China.

The last song is Arziyan. Rehman seems to be heavily inspired from himself. Shades of Piya Haji Ali and Khwaaja Mere Khwaaja is painted all across this song. I think this is also the longest song of the album.

My preference of songs starting from my favorite ...

Dil Gira Dafatan

Massakali

Kaala Bandar

Genda Phool

Bhor Bhaye

Arziyan

Dilli 6

Rehna Tu

Tumre Bhavan Mein

Noor

Overall, a great album and I am not getting rid of it for at least the next 2 weeks ...

Listen to it ... you wont regret it ... Cheers ... !!

Go Slumdog ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:53:00 +0000

I am so glad that my first post of the new year is dedicated to such an awe-inspiring piece of work. Hats off to Danny Boyle. We need more slumdogs ... errr ... SlumDogs ... I think that word deserves more respect.

For starters, I am not going with any spoilers. Hence, its not a bad idea to read the entire post. So much for self advertisement.

The plot is the heart and soul of the movie. How does a SlumDog who has grown up in the slums and bylanes of Juhu (and conned lots of people for money) end up winning the biggest cash cheque of the famous show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?". The Director poses a question to the movie audience, much on the lines of the quizshow. He asks ... "How does Jamaal know all the answers? and gives us 4 options ... A). He knows the answers B). He is a cheat C). Its his luck D). It is written. I wont delve too much into further details.

The movie starts with Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla interrogating Jamaal (played by Dev Patel) about how he managed to win 1 crore in the gameshow. They definitely feel that he has cheated and they only want to know how he managed to cheat. Thereon starts the movie about how Jamaal knew the answer of each and every question. There are some twists too. There are 3 phases of life for Jamaal (along with his elder brother Salim and love interest Latika). Each of the characters in these 3 phases make you stand up and applaud. The innocence of being a kid is depicted beautifully. My personal favorite is Jamaal and Salim in phase 1. Just hats off guys ... !!

A lot of human emotions are on display ... NO ... not those feel-good emotions ... just the normal day to day emotions. For example, something as simple as ... you know only what you have seen or experienced. That scene between Irfan Khan and Dev Patel is amazing. Then there is LOVE ... for some LOVE is genuine while for others its an easy way to get into a relationship. For the wise and the realists and the practical, you can do most manageable things when you are in LOVE.

There are undercurrents of the most visible issues that plague India as a country. I am not surprised that a foreigner made it a point to remind us about these. Like the Hindu-Muslim tension, child labor and corruption.

As actors, all the actors who played the characters of Jamaal, Salim and Latika (in all 3 phases) are the only ones worthy of applause. To be honest, there is no one else with a lot of scope in the movie. My personal favorite is Salim (in all 3 phases). Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla are just about OK. I thought Anil Kapoor continued with his of-late reputation of hamming. Mahesh Manjrekar is hardly there.

The music is the highlight. AR Rehman steals the show with a most precise rendition for such a topic. This man is just amazing. It feels great when you watch a movie and get up the next day to Breaking News of the movie grabbing the Best Movie, Best Director and Best Original score at the Golden Globe awards.

Go ahead and watch it. You wont regret a single moment. Watch out for the Three Musketeers story from the very beginning. Its like a dream. Dont miss THE Amitabh Bachchan scene.

OSCARS ... here we come ... Cheers ... !!

Hasta la Vista 2008 ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:23:00 +0000

The inspiration for this post stems from all the other New Year posts I have read from the blogs of my friends. Sadly, I do not match up to the detail of my friends. Was it a good year? or a bad one? I am not sure.

A year when I started running away from problems instead of facing them.
A year that disappointed me the most personally.
A year when I could no longer EVEN-IF-SOMEONE-DOES-BAD-TO-ME-I-WILL-STILL-BE-GOOD-TO-THEM.
A year when self respect hit an all time low.
A year when home became a house again.
A year that was spent over and over again trying to start a new life.
A year when I tried to run away on weekends as much as possible just to shun the chaos.
A year when I made the most mistakes.
A year when I grimaced more than smiled.
A year when I fought the most.
A year that gave me names like NO-LONGER-CALM, CHANGED-A-LOT and many more that I cannot put down here.
A year when lots of friends/relatives preferred to stay away from me.
A year when I struggled to find people to share my good days.
A year when I quit Beer and started with Hard Drinks ... not sure if this falls in this section ;)
A year when I smoked more than before.
A year that I want to forget.

On the flipside ... there were some good signs too ...

I saw some new places.
People who ridiculed me came up and talked to me.
I learnt Spanish.
I started cooking.
I went to Mumbai twice.
I swam a lot.
I ran the marathon.
I had a great time with DAPP.
I restarted cycling.
I finally went to GOA.
Lots of my good friends got married.
I restarted blogging.
I overcame my fear of English movies.
I realised that I need to take my time before I call someone GOOD.
I was a Taklu for 3 months and I had a moustache for 3 months.
I reduced boasting about myself.

I am sure everyone has his/her UPs and DOWNs ... I am no different ... here's wishing a very happy and prosperous New Year to everyone ... Enjoy ... Cheers ... !!

Friends get hitched ... !!

noreply@blogger.com (Pappul) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:38:00 +0000

Three of my good friends got married over the last week or so. Its fun attending weddings ... especially if all 3 were in 3 different cities and with 3 different set of people.

The first one was on December 20 in Pune. It was the Nikaah of Murtaza and Rashida. We had gone with some of our close Fergys friends. It had been such a long time since I last attended a Muslim wedding. I could not have missed it at any cost. We were not disappointed. The Biryani ... the kababs ... and the curry along with Rumaali roti and ice creams were of the highest order. The only thing disappointing was when Murtaza chatted to me 3 days later and told me that lot of the food got wasted since lots of people didnt turn up. That was like a dagger. I could have done with some more of that food. How can people afford not too attend such a feast ... !!

Bhushan and Minal got married the next day at Kolhapur. This time Charan, Prashant, Lalit and I went to Kolhapur to attend the wedding. The drive to and fro Kolhapur was amazing with that kind of company. It was a typical Kolhapuri wedding ... an entertaining Baraat with everyone dancing on the roads ... lots of pretty faces for the eye exercise ... and Zhanzhanit Kolhapuri Jevan with Papads, Achaar, Masaale Bhaat, Tava Bhaaji, Batata Vade, Puri, Chapati and Moong Halwa.

Yesterday, Pranay and Devyani got married at Thane. One more chance to visit my favorite city of Mumbai. Pranay is one of my closest friends and it felt great to see my GD getting married. This guy has had his share of ups and downs. More downs than ups. I admire him for the way he has taken everything in his stride. Great person and a great advertisment for friendship. The company here was totally different. Mahesh, Anay, Rupesh, Ankur, Swapnil and Gunjan. Not to forget ... Biwi was also with me :). Again, food was amazing ... mostly on the lines of Bhushan's wedding. . Our return train was from VT. It was such an eerie feeling to be walking across the length of VT (I dont like calling it CST) ... there were some bullet marks visible on one of the walls and it only made us look away ... just imagining the massacre is such an exercise in thought.

But, its a time to rejoice for 3 couples ... time for them to have a fabulous life in matrimony ... Cheers to Murtu, Bhugho and Bunty ... way to go gentlemen ... !!