Time for Ping-Pong ... !!

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 ... !!

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 ... !!

An enjoyathon ... !!

I am so glad that I decided to run the Pune International Marathon. Simply put, its one of the highlights of my life so far. I would be lying if I say that I was expecting this kind of aura to the event. Of course, it turned out to be a sour event for the international stars but the atmosphere was truly electric.

It all started on the wrong foot for me. I was at my friend's place for the weekend in Kharadi and I had decided that I will go home on Saturday night so that I can reach the marathon on Sunday from my own place. But after being convinced of going from Kharadi itself, I decided to stay put. I borrowed Prakash's shorts(it didn't have pockets) and T-shirt. I had decided not to carry my cell for the marathon. Since I didn't have a place to keep my belongings, I was left with the prospect of driving at 5:30 on a chilly morning from Kharadi to FC Road. That's hardly a motivation. But, it had to be done.

I drove from Kharadi to FC on Sunday morning. Stopped at 2 points on the way for Shekuti :) ... that's at Mundhwa and near Corporation. By the time I reached college, it was as if my legs were stuck in cement. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had to walk from college to Chitale and that warmed me up. I met Sonal, Manish and Vinay outside Deccan Post office and we were raring to go. The speeches from Suresh Kalmadi, Priyanka Chopra and another Mr someone was a dampener since it kept delaying our race. I don't understand why the people need some other people to constantly remind them about something bad that has happened to the country. I am sure everyone is mature enough to realize that and hence have decided to participate in such an event to pledge their support and to condemn the terrorist attacks. Anyway, that's beyond common sense.

The race started at around 7:55 am from Khandoji Baba Chowk, 25 minutes behind schedule. As we descended from Lakdi Pul, there was a sense of excitement, not just with the participants but also with the people who peeped out of their homes, from their galleries and from the streets. There were scores of people supporting the race. As a participant, it does not get any better than this. Patriotic slogans were the order of the day. Kids stuck their hands out just for high fives. It was more than inspiration, at least for me and I am sure it was the case with everyone else. The first 2 kms came and went and it was only after the 4 km mark that I started to feel the heat. Close to the 4 km mark, there was a stage set up that was playing patriotic songs. Those songs kept me(and lots of others)going. When we crossed Seven Loves Chowk, I started to believe that I can complete the race without stopping. It was almost as if the legs got used to it and took me to the finish. There were lots of people on Main Street in Camp.

I also saw school kids from my school on Main street with Lejims and dhol taasha in tow. Also, it was quite refreshing to see vehicles stacked at traffic signals just to allow the participants to run past. Wow, that was some feeling. It was quite an odd feeling to go past all those roads you zip past so effortlessly on/in a vehicle. Every km mark was so eagerly anticipated. To be honest, the stretch from Camp to the finish line was least tiring as the only thought running through my mind was to NOT STOP.

There were a couple of incidents too. There was a group of around 5-7 youths that was always either in front of me or behind me. They were continuously shouting slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vande Mataram and Jai Shivaji Jai Bhavani. When we were passing from Residency Club, they were engrossed in Bharat Mata Ki Jai. In this case, one of them would shout till Bharat Mata Ki ... while the people around him would chant Jai. They did this twice and everyone except one shouted Jai. Now these guys got irritated at the fellow who was not responding to their slogans. This could have been due to multiple reasons, most obvious being that the person must be tired to even say anything. But this group lost their cool. They howled at him "Kaay re ... Pakistani aahe ka tu $#@!%". The person still didn't respond. This group moved close to him and said "Chal mhann ... Bharat mata ki Jai". I felt sorry for that person. He was panting and looked short of breath. But he still managed to let out a rather squeaky "Bharat Mata ki Jai". The group was happy and they resumed their chants practice.

When the 9 km mark passed and we were close to Kanbay, I passed a man. He asked me "Aur kitna dur hai?". I could see the 10 km finish line in the distance at Bund Garden. I told him (pointing towards the finish line) "Bass aur 5 minute, nazdeek hi hai". He replied "Kab se bhaag raha hoon mai ... saala 4 km ke naam pe kitna bhaga diya". I almost stopped. I told him "Boss, 4 km kaa route to alag hai ... aap yahaan kaise aa gaye?". He got so bugged that he stopped there itself and started shouting "Kidar hai woh kamine? Inko samajhta nahi bataane ko". And I moved on.

I reached the finish line within 5 minutes from there. I met Vinay at the finish line. He had completed the race in 53 minutes. I came in 6 minutes later. Sonal came in another 7 minutes later followed by Manish. To be frank, we all seriously felt that we could have gone on for at least another 3-4 kms. Not because of our ability but because of the momentum.

We all walked from Bund Garden to Madhuban for breakfast. We talked about how good it felt after finishing the race and how the body is going to ache tomorrow. We all left for our respective homes in some time.

I can say one thing for sure. If I am in Pune in December in any year, I will participate in the Pune International Marathon. An enriching experience without a shadow of a doubt.

Cheers ... !!

Foot fetish ... !!

Ok. The title doesn't exactly give away the contents of this post :)

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, Biwi and I saw (I think I regret watching it with her) possibly the stupidest(in a good way) movie at home. It goes by the name of "You don't mess with the Zohan". Though I liked it (its a fully faaltu, illogical and sometimes like a Rajnikanth movie), Biwi thought it was completely rotten. Anyway, I am not going to go into the details of the movie. Its more about what happened after that.

It had been some time since we both had had a Pizza. That too from Pizza Hut. So we decided that tonight is going to be the night. Of course, to have Pizza :)

But Biwi came up with sounded-cool-at-that-moment suggestion. She said that we should walk down to Pizza Hut. Now, the nearest Pizza Hut from our place is at SGS Mall at Camp opposite Dorabjee's. It is around 5-6 kms from our place. I asked her if she was sure. She nodded. Well, not one to not walk, I obliged.

We started from home at around 7 pm. To be honest, it was the most enjoyable of all walks. We had a pretty healthy discussion about most of the stuff going on in our life. We reached MG Road by 8:15 pm. It was a festive atmosphere with the Diwali decorations still shining and the walking plaza lending some more colour.

We finally reached PH at around 8:30 pm. Our clothing was not the best. I was wearing a pyjama and T-shirt with Red toilet slippers on. Biwi was better. She wore an unironed trouser and a top. But the food was good. It was a good experience. The service was nice and we were out by 9:50. We also wanted to book the tickets for Golmaal Returns for the next morning at Inox. Inox is another km from SGS. Well, we didn't have any options. Off we went on foot to Inox. We reached at 10:20. Unfortunately, advance booking closes at 10 pm and we had to return grim faced.

We were entering the torture time of the walk now. We started from Inox at around 10:30. We reached West End by 10:50. By this time, Biwi started cribbing about her right sandal and how it was poking her and she couldn't walk. We decided we will walk till Bombay Garage on East street and go home by bus. We reached Bombay Garage at 11. We saw an ensemble of buses pass, most of them plying to Hadapsar and some to Swargate but none on the Kondhwa route. We waited till 11:35 and called it quits. We couldn't see lot of ricks around. So it was going to be on foot again.

Looking at the discomfort Biwi was facing with her sandal, we decided to switch footwear. Yes, I had my toilet slipper on my left foot and Biwi's sandal on my right while she wore the opposites. Yeah, it was one of those days ... rather nights. At least, we were walking fast now. Or so it seemed. We were 2 kms away from home at around 11:40 pm when I started cramping in my right leg due to the Oh-so-wonderful sandal. But we needed to go on. In the meanwhile, Biwi also started cramping up but we were very close now. The last 200-400 metres were dreadful.

Finally, we reached home at 12:30 and flung ourselves onto the bed. It didn't take long for slumber to set in.

Cheers ... !!

Stumbled upon ... !!

I needed to put oil into my bike and I needed to find the huge screw driver to unscrew certain screws of my bike. This huge screw driver is kept in a small cupboard at my place. This cupboard contains lots of utility stuff like nailcutters, pliers, screw drivers (courtesy, my father). It also contains a huge plastic bag. I had never cared to explore this bag in the 5 years that we have been at this place. But I saw a audio cassette almost falling out of the bag. When I peeked in, I couldn't believe what I found.

This bag contained all the audio cassettes in which someone or the other from my family had recorded their favorite songs. It had at least 3 cassettes of Rafi and Lata (not those branded pre compiled sets from HMV) which my mother had fondly recorded. It also had a cassette of one Mr. Kutti who happens to be an erstwhile astrologer. My parents had gone to meet him many moons ago (I think it was 1993 or 94) to ask him about the future of themselves as well as their 2 kids. My father had taken a recorder with him to record all what Mr. Kutti had said. Its a major thrill listening to this piece of audio.

In school (and early college), I had a habit of recording best songs of a particular year. So I was Maha-thrilled to find all those cassettes. I have all those cassettes now from 1994 to 2000. Those were the days. I also found a cassette that I had gifted to my father on his 54th birthday. My father is a big, huge, major RK fan. I had compiled a list of RK songs in a cassette and gifted it to him. What a collection it is ... !!

But the cassette that took my breath away was a compilation of hit English songs. I was never great at English (and I am still miles away) and English songs and movies were like a different world to me. Still, from whatever I had heard or seen, I liked some English songs (just the feel, not the meaning coz I seldom understood what was being said). It was just amazing listening to these:

Informer
Its my Life
Macarena
Coco Jumbo
Mambo No. 5
Baby I love you way
Mysterious Girl
La Nina
Walk like an Egyptian
Lick it
Cecilia
And I miss you
Nothing's gonna change my love for you
Where do you go
My heart will go on
Its all coming back to me
Cotton Eyed Joe
Itsy Bitsy Teeny weeny

and many more ...

The reason this cassette was the most enjoyable is due to the fact that it was played at our school Christmas party in 8th grade (should be 1996) and we had a blast.

There is another cassette in which I had recorded a medley of DDLJ songs by carefully seleting the right music and lyrics to follow every part of the medley ... I remember I had to write down lyrics of all the songs of DDLJ before doing this.

It is another one of those moments in life where you ponder and bicker about the current state of life and wish you had the freedom to venture out and do things that you really want to do. For the time being, I am planning to buy a nice cassette holder/case to preserve these cassettes.

Cheers ... !!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S frenzy ... !!

I have been thinking of posting this for some time now. During the month of March, my wife and I happened to experience all 10 seasons of the iconic Friends series. I had seen it quite a few times but it never gets boring. For my wife, it was the first time so she was in splits 25 hours every day. Watching Friends is extremely addictive. You just cant stop. Weekends were consumed finishing off atleast 20 episodes. By the end of it, it felt miserable especially the last episode when the entire apartment is empty.

Anyway, I have posted this for some of my most favorite hilarious dialogues ... here they come ...

"You are 18 and she is 44 ... when you are 36, she will be 88" - Joey to Frank (Phoebe's brother) (Frank replies with - "You think I dont know that?")

When Ross is playing the bagpipe horribly ... "Why is your family Scottish" - Monica to Chandler. Chandler replies with ... "Why is your family Ross?" (since Ross is Monica's brother)

During Ross and Emily's wedding, this is how Emily's Dad introduces Ross's parents to his wife ... "Darling, meet the Gellers ... this is one and this is the other one" (Ross's surname is Geller)

"Its OK Pheebs" - Phoebe to Rachel. Rachel says ... "Pheebs is your nickname". Phoebe says ... "Oh, is it? I thought thats what we all call each other lovingly"

"Ducks is heads and Clowns is tails" - Joey to Chandler when they lose little Ben and start finding him. They get 2 babies and cant decide which one is Ben. One of the babies in wearing a shirt with Ducks and the other baby is wearing one with Clowns. So they decide to flip a coin and choose which one is Ben. Chandler asks "Why heads for Ducks?" ... Joey replies ... "Coz Ducks have heads" ...

When Frank brings his 44 year old teacher cum girlfriend to the Cafe and they start kissing in front of everyone ... Chandler says ... "If that doesnt keep kids in school then what will?"

When Phoebe enrolls for a job for a telephone operator to sell something called Toner, the person in charge explains everything to her about how to speak, how to market Toner, etc and finally she asks Phoebe ... "Ok ... all fine?" ... Phoebe replies ... "Yes, but just one thing ... what is Toner?"

Joey to Chandler ... "Imagine if our Duck and Chick have a kid, what will we name them ... Chuck" ... Chandler replies ... "or ... Dick"

Chandler is watching Yasmeen Blith on Baywatch and his Chick is making some noise ... he starts talking to the Chick ... "You both are chicks (Chick and Yasmeen Blith) ... I love you both ... but in very different ways"

Monica is a cleanliness freak and she doesnt like anyone tinkering with the arrangement of her apartment. Chandler plans to surprise her by changing the arrangement. Ross walks in and tells Chandler that Monica will freak out. Chandler gets worried and suddenly Monica knocks on the door. Chandler goes upto the door and says ... "You cant come in because Ross in naked" ... then he goes upto Ross and tries to explain ... "Ross, I had to take your name coz Monica has seen me naked millions of time" ... Ross asks ... "Why does anyone has to be naked?"

Joey to Ross - "If they homo-sapiens were indeed HOMO sapiens, is it the reason why they are extinct?"

I am sure there are many more but these are the ones at the top of my head. I think the best lines have been given to the guys ... Chandler and Joey pull off every dialogue remarkably.

It doesn't annoy me seeing any episode of Friends any number of times ...

Cheers ... !!

Cows and Bulls .... !!

You never know what would make you nostalgic. During the week, I experienced one instance of NOSTALGIA when I drove my friend's scooter for a while. Memories of Wadias came storming back when I used to have immense pride in going to college on my Dad's Bajaj Super every Saturday. The pride originated from the fact that on other days I had to be content in driving my sister's Sunny which isnt the most "pridey" bike you can ever ride. But after reminiscing about this piece of History, I thought I wont feel nostalgic for quite some time but I was pleasantly mistaken. After a hectic schedule at office for over 5 months, I found myself idle. Coinciding with my leisure was another interesting occurence. My wife found a way to be online on Yahoo which hadn't happened for the last 3 years. Since she was also idle, we decided to play a game. The game goes by the weird name of COWS AND BULLS.

I remember playing this game in all the periods (since I am talking about School, I am calling it periods instead of lectures) in School that were either boring or I was occupying one of the last 2 benches. The primary pre requisite of the game is that you should have an equally enthusiastic opponent. Here are the rules.

Its predominantly a 2 player game though nothing stops you from making it 1 vs n. Lets assume that its a 1 vs 1 game. Lets call them Player 1 and Player 2. Now Player 1 thinks of a 4 digit number. There are some constraints on this number. Firstly, it should not start with a zero. Secondly, no digit in the number should repeat.

Now, Player 2 starts guessing the number. Suppose Player 1 thought of 2758 and Player 2 guessed 1786 in his first attempt. Player 1 would compare the guessed number (1786) with his own number (2758). Player 1 will find that 7 and 8 are the digits that are present in his number (2758) whereas 1 and 6 aren't. Now he will compare the positions of 7 and 8 in his number. 7 is the second digit in the guessed number as well as his own number. All such digits that are present and also in the correct position are called BULLS. But 8 is not at the correct position since it is the 3rd digit in the guessed number as 4th in the actual number thought of by Player 1. All such digits that are present but at the wrong position are called COWS.

So Player 1's response to the guess of 1786 by Player 2 would be 1 BULL and 1 COW. Player 2 will then know that out of 1786, two digits are correct and 2 are wrong. Out of the 2 correct, 1 is at the correct position and 1 is at the wrong position. Of course, Player 1 doesnt mention which 2 digits are BULLS AND COWS. Player 2 takes note of this and proceeds with his second guess and so on until Player 2 guesses the number correctly. Both players keep track of the number of attempts to guess the number.

Now, Player 2 thinks of a number and Player 1 guesses. If Player 1 guesses the number in lesser attempts as compared to Player 2, Player 1 wins and vice-versa.

I find it tough to imagine this as a game since it can be an extremely challenging exercise to hone your Logical Reasoning skills.

Its interesting thinking that I spent 3 years (Grade 8 to Grade 10) playing this game in school but only hit upon it 9 years later.

Happy Playing .... !!

Cheers .. !!

Pav Bhaji ... !!

It seems the LAW of AVERAGES applies to food too. I had not had Pav Bhaji for close to 5 or 6 months until last week when I had it for both lunch and dinner. Though it wasnt planned, I was more than happy to lap it up. And if you are in the mood to have junk for dinner, you have plenty of options to choose from.

I was wandering away with Amruta last evening in front of Marzorin when she decided to have an ice cream at Pasteur. After the ice cream was safely deposited into our junkie tummies, we were still yearning for more. Next stop ... Anna's stall behind Victory theatre. Lip smacking Bhel ... yummy ... gave company to the ice cream in our tummies. And then the big brother ... Pav Bhaji.

The place was Juice World just before George if you are walking down from East street to Aurora towers. Apparently the Pav Bhaji was so good that we ordered a second plate after we had first one. Still not done .... the third made its way down too. Seriously, after Jayshree, this is the best Pav Bhaji I have had so far.

Nice places to have Pav Bhaji are : Juice World, Jayshree, Shiv sagar at Aundh, Jyoti at Kondhwa and of course ur state of the art thelas outside Saras Baug. If you are low on cash and need a quick bite and you are at VT in Mumbai (lots of ands), then dive into the the subway of VT, get out of it on the other side (towards Xaviers college and Bombay Gymkhana)and BANG .... mouth watering Pav Bhaji at less than 20 per plate. The taste may not be top class but better than most hotels in Pune.

Cheers to Pav Bhaji ... !!

Favourites ... I cant run away from them ... !!

I thought of writing this blog after stopping for fuel at the petrol pump in front of the RTO near Sangam Bridge. Since accidentally running dry of petrol 2 years ago near this petrol pump, I have never compromised on the petrol for my bike. I make it a point that I always fill petrol from this petrol pump. My bike has been transformed since I started visiting this petrol pump. A better average, better pickup and less oil ... some of the reasons for me sticking to it. Just how many such things exist ...

If it is ice cream, its always Poona Cold Drinks behind Hotel Kohinoor in Camp for its rich-in-taste Faaluda. If at a party at Naturals or some other similar outlet, its always Kesar Pista.

If its sweets, I never go anywhere other than Karachi or atleast I try not to go anywhere else.

Clothes ... more specifically pants or trousers ... I only buy jeans .. I dont know why.

Movie halls ... well ... it might be expensive ... it might be crowded ... but I still prefer Inox to any other movie hall.

Most enjoyable piece of road ... the one that goes from Yerawada Jail towards the Airport. Its a joy to see a 3 km road in front of u with nothing but greenery all around u ...

Hotels ... always George.

Paan .. always Maggai.

Kitos ... always on socks ...

Watch ... always a loose metal watch on the left wrist.

Shave ... always on Monday unless forced ... that may change now though.

Bike ... always Yamaha .... will never buy any bike of any other make ....

Candlelight dinner ... always Prem's ... what an apt name.

Beer ... always Canon.

Beach ... Diveagar ... not always ... but its an overwhelming favourite.

Fish ... always Baangda.

Sugarcane Juice ... always the one opposite Blue Nile.

Junk food ... 90 % of the time ... Pani Puri.

Newspaper ... always start reading from the last page to the first page.

Church ... always St Patricks.

well there are lots of others that I keep doing ... no wonder people call Pratik Beri boring ... ;)

To sign off ... Blog titles ... always ending with a "...." or "!!"

Cheers .. !!