Jogging

Monday, 25 November, 2013.

So what is special about this day? A friend of mine, after asking me so many times, kinda helped me on my path to fitness (hopefully it will be). I started jogging. Woke up early at 6 a.m. and went for jog in nearby rotary park, popularly known as Rajesh Khanna Garden. Also went to Juhu beach at few occassions.

Completed three weeks somehow, hope to continue same routine for long time. It requires a lot of sacrifice, you need to sleep early in order to get up early. You need to eat well in order to build stamina. Yo need willpower to get out from your bed.

Hope to continue this path and may be, someday, flaunt it :-) Let's see how future turns out.

City of Dreams

Mumbai, "city of dreams" as many call it, city that never sleeps. I too had fare share of sleepless nights in this city, thanks to my undergrad studies. Perhaps, I too have enjoyed some dreams, only If I conquered sleeplessness (oh wait, was it sleeplessness? Not really. Addiction to idiot box*, may be)

When I first arrived in this city, I was frightened by sheer number of passengers inside local train. I distinctly remember travelling from Churchgate to Mira Road, little air to breathe, hell lotta sweat, hardly any space to move, seemingly never-ending journey, and a sense of being in Mumbai. Fear is not the only thing, this city offered me at first glance, I was mesmerized by beauty of South Mumbai, notably Gateway of India and Taj, Marine drive and Chaupati. Days passed by and I started living in Mumbai. While staying inside campus I used to feel that I know a lot about this city, I can understand the daily struggle of people, survival-fight of some, while run towards fame for others.

It was four years of separation and then reunion (this time staying outside campus) which made me realize that how little I knew about this city. Daily commuting is what I never had to worry about during my stay at campus.

Given the load it handles, locals are very good in maintaining schedule. Makes me wonder how the people running it run it so efficiently (okay, I am not talking about late running trains on harbour line). Rains do halt trains unexpectedly, trains do get delayed along the way but I have noticed trains maintaining time (at least till Dadar, while coming from Churchgate).

Everyday, you see different people boarding train. You see people hanging on train, people sitting comfortably, people sitting uncomfortably, people standing comfortably and people crushed by fellow passengers.

Local trains do showcase different facets of life
- people singing prayers, soothing voice at times, torture at times
- people lost in their thoughts
- loud talkers for whom others simply don't exist
- people discussing business matters
- people discussing love affairs
- sleep deprived people making use of every moment available (some people sleep while standing, I too tried few times)
- a guy trying to protect her female partner from usual pulls and pushes
- generation gap, when aged people try to teach youngsters a lesson or two about standing in queue, not pushing, not rushing etc. etc. etc. ( I remember one uncle calling police when a dude pushed him while uncle was trying to alight train)
- a family coming to Mumbai for first time (perhaps) and getting stuck in local train
- occupying window seats within seconds (analogy - all good girls are taken before you think of one :-P)
- staring outside window continuously
- beggars negotiating rush, while managing to sing and collect some hunger erasing pennies

Is it just the trains which run on times? Many commuters also maintain near-perfect time. I am not very punctual, but for a stretch of around couple of weeks I boarded 9:00 AM train from Bandra station. I used to see a group of 5-6 people in the train, standing near gate, everyday. Never talked to them but felt like I knew them :-)

My thoughts are not about fear, perhaps because I normally board Churchgate-Andheri train which is not-at-all-crowded compared to Virar local or locals running on central line, otherwise this post would have been fear-fear-and-fear. My salute to those who manage to board trains from Dadar (towards Virar, Kalyan) and Kurla.

Other notable difference between life inside campus and now is roaming around city in car, thanks to awesome friends who bought new cars and other friends who know how to drive :-)

*Idiot box- not just TV serials. Computer and all the gaming, movies, serials, orkutting, facebooking etc. etc. etc.

Roller coaster ride of enthusiasm when it comes to running

I believe, even fools can't keep wisdom away for each and every instant of life. Some day, some way, a sudden flash of wisdom will spark their brain engine. And if its false, certainly not with me.

Normally a lazy person, with zillions of excuses to avoid even a little effort, I have accumulated hell lot of fat. I perhaps do everything that can add to a little more fat, for example my sitting posture at this very moment when I am writing this. But then, some times, I get enough enthusiasm to get my shoes on and go to ground just in front of my dorm.

Yes, the ground is just in front of my dorm. Even then, most of the times, my laziness keeps me away from it. But, one in a while, I will put my shoes on and go for running. I am calling it roller coaster ride of enthusiasm because I am very lazy, but that doesn't stop sudden peak in enthusiasm for short spans of time.

Today, like few other days, I went to run. I vaguely remembered different kinds of warm up exercises taught during my stay at residential school and at NSO, physical education, during undergrad. Tried to warm up, don't know if I was making plain fun out of me. Started running, full enthusiasm, one round, and then I started thinking... "Why the hell am I running, what good can it bring? I certainly can't become slim because that will require a U-turn in lifestyle and I do not think I would like to think of those many changes". People say that a bit of jogging/running/exercises keeps you healthy, I too know that but my mind starts finding excuses.

Amidst strong battle between enthusiasm and excuses, suddenly tired body takes over; everything goes to back seat and I start walking. As I regain my breath, excuses try to take control to stop me from thinking of another round but then enthusiams also tries to gain some ground. Sometimes I will give up, at other times I will continue.

Though this experience sucks, perhaps continuing it won't do good to me but not continuing can certainly harm a lot.

Hey Bhagwaan, Please give me a little bit of will power.

Is it just me....

Life was awesome, had plenty of fun. Played cricket almost every evening, played TT, played pool, hanged around with friends and watched movies. Made few friends who are most close friends at this institute till date. Found some like minded people and had pure fun.

Then, actual PGP1 started. What we saw during initial one month (june) was like a paradise, now life turned slowly into hell. Hectic schedule, intense competition and pressure to stand among the best in country took a great toll on me. At occasions I just gave up and didn't do anything, I regret doing that but gone is gone now :| Studies started, assignments, attending classes, strict and hard deadlines... man, I do not know how I survived till now. Then PPTs started, and tension of placement.

Meanwhile, SBI had thrown me into a really bad corner, my loan wasn't sanctioned :|

Not to forget exams, just before exam pressure increases to peak and tension builds. During exams it slowly releases and we forget to care about material things (read grades), I actually say myself that its learning that matters and stop studying :P

All in all, I had learnt more in 3 months compared to what I learnt in four years of my engineering.

I ain't focusing much on non-academic fun part, mostly because I ain't involved in all that. I was so afraid of not being able to cop up with studies that I tried to stay focused (wish I succeeded in studies at least)

Cricket Football

Due to me being busy with my professional and personal life I am not getting much time to watch IPL games :| I would have loved to write essay sized post about IPL, Mumbai Indians in particular and also about UEFA CL, Manchester United in particular, but unfortunately I am not in position to do that.

Since my last post, A lot of big things happened in Sports (Cricket and Football)

- India became #1 team in Test Cricket
- India is #2 team in ODI Cricket
- Sachin Tendulkar, only man in history of ODI to score a Double Century (stayed there for entire 50 overs, whoa)
-Mumbai Indians won two consecutive games in IPL season 3, scored 200+ in both games. So far, so good.
-Yusuf Pathan scored quickest century in IPL (37 balls), that too against MI :(
-Due to bad performance against Aussies and some other issues, Pak team has banned, fined almost entire team
-KKR won first two games of their campaign at IPL-3, that was surprising. But hats off to Dada's brilliant captaincy, especially in first game against DC. Some people might have given up in that situation.

-Manchester United, who never scored at San Siro earlier beat AC Milan 3-2 at their home turf and 6-2 on aggregate. 6-2 against seven time champions, that's some scoreline.
-Real Madrid knocked outta UCL even after spending those 250 odd millions :D (Lyon rocks)
-Chelsea knocked out of UCL by former bose, the special one's current team
-Beckham's dream to play in 2010 world cup is almost shattered due to injury

UCL last 8 - MUFC, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Lyon, CSKA Moskva and Bordeaux.

I shall never promise to continue

Its evident that very few or almost no one reads this blog (other than me :) ). But Still, I shall not promise to continue any post, because I never continued in recorded history of this blog.

Last time I was writing about the new decade and blah blah. I have this typical tendency of getting emotional while writing and I end up writing about myself rather than what my initial intentions were.

Normally people write so that they can take something out of their head and feel a bit relieved. In my case, Writing tends to extract more and more outta me and make me senti. Should I stop writing ? Not a bad idea, I am not good at it anyway. But then, How will I learn if I seize writing, what will I do in my random free time, like at this time. when I do not feel like doing anything else. Rather, I do not have anything else to do.

Anyways.. My same old boring life is continuing and I am trying to go with the flow.

And now I am out of ideas.. I thought I will write something but then I was wrong!!

Another year about to end - A decade Ending

Today, on Dec 27, 2009; While sitting idle suddenly thought about my idle blog and thought of injecting a bit of activity by posting something. I was engrossed in TOI and suddenly realised that they are filling pages with Sports personality of decade and other important events in the decade. After thinking for a while, I told myself, Do you remember December 31, 1999 @ Shri Bharatiya Sanskriti Shiksha Sansthan, Indore ? And suddenly I remember that our teacher had managed to rescue a bird whose leg was broken and we let that bird fly freely at around 12:00, on the eve of new millenium. Yes, I had nothing to do that. My teacher was a women and she was in love with birds and she was the one who rescued and She was the one who set that bird free, I was just there, Watching, Enjoying, Attaching myself with sense of doing something special @ new millenium but actually I didn't do nothing. Year after year passed away and I thought I am same old me, but am I ??

Today, I was watching Rocket Singh (Salesman of the year) and there was this dialogue, Har insaan me upar jaane wali or neeche girne wali qualities hoti hai, Akhiri me jo quality jeet jaati hai insaan ke saath waisa hi hota (All right, I don't remember the dialogue exactly but it was something like this only). So what are my qualities, am I going up or further up or down! Well, I don't want to think about that and such thoughts won't do any help to me. The fact is, Compared to what I was 10 years ago, I believe I am at somewhat better position. But, compared to my false (may true) fantasies of what I could have been, I am a big........ big LoSeR!! Anyways, Shit happens (Ain't it ? :P).. My somewhat carefree attitude coupled with a bit of pessimism is a deadly weapon that keeps me pulling down.

A few days back, I watched "3 Idiots", another perfect movie featuring Mr. Perfectionist (Bole to Amir Khan). Off late, he hasn't disappointed me or a large number of people (in general). Hits after hits, with some kind of message, that is how I would describe his movies. I was totally in love with his earlier movie, Tare Zameen Par, and with "3 Idiots" he had questioned our education system and also portrayed life @ Hostels (Rather, Engineering Colleges). During movie, He asks his friends to listen to their hearts and do what they want, not what world is running after. During that particular dialogue, Baba RanchhodDas ka gyan, I tried to remember what I really wanted during my final years at school and surprisingly I had no perfect answer. What perfect, Alas, I had no answer. I had a friend during school who thought that I was good at my academics and if I try then I can make to IIT. I had no confidence whatsoever, Not even in my dreams I thought about making to "The Institute" in India. I joined my hostel in 1999 and I passed out in year 2003 with a mere average performance (But that too was good enough for others to say I was a good student, may be because of my background, barring cases of a few extraordinary students, a first class (60 %) was considered good and I happily accepted the honor. So, I completed my schooling but did not have any clue about what to do with my life. I applied in Holkar College for B.Sc in Computer Science, My application was rejected. My cousin suggested me to apply for Gujarati College, I thought about dropping a year and preparing for Engineering Entrance Exam. Somehow, I managed to convince my father, I had to convince because fee for coaching and stay was a hefty amount as per my family's earning. I joined Gupta tutorials for AIEEE coaching and I spent a beautiful year with my school time friend Nayan, Kaplesh, Ravi, Gagan, Amit and Saurabh. Anand, Shitesh and Vaibhav were few others who were there for couple of months. Vaibhav was also preparing for MBA and we used to meet occasionally. Considering all, It was a wonderful year. In a blink of eye, that year passed away and we had to appear for exams. It was my first attempt at JEE, second at AIEEE and first at MPPET. Like last year, I failed once again in AIEEE. I did manage to score 3rd Rank (Category) in MPPET and my photo was there in news paper and my parents were happy. Before MPPET, I scored 9th Rank in IITJEE Screening test and that photo in the newspaper was "The photo" which gave me a bit of fame in my surrounding. A little boy from Jobat had photo in newspaper :) I had back to back exams of AIEEE and IITJEE Mains, because of that I was not able to attend my cousins marriage :( I thought I screwed up my JEE paper and I was a bit sad. Later while coming back to home I heard about my another cousin (son of maternal uncle) had met an accident and expired. Those were very hard days for me. My pet name and his pet name were same. Due to that I always thought n number of times before appearing in front of my Mama or his family, I always had this preconceived notion that my name will hurt them. And I didn't appear very frequently in front of them.

Later, JEE mains result was declared and I secured AIR-49. Okay, I just made to IIT given I was from category, otherwise I wouldn't have made it to "The Institute". But the number 49 sounded good. They really thought I was a brilliant student, the reality is I tried my luck and it worked.

Amidst all the negatives and positives, There I was, During Couselling I had this preconceived notion that Aerospace is a good branch, in fact, I was arguing with Jimmie about his preferences, he had CS-IITB, CS-IITD, Elec-IITB, Elec-IITD. That's it. I gave my big idiotic impression to him on very first day and there he was at the entrance of elevator when (1 month later) I entered H-13, Seven story building with three wings and Sky-Bridge, Beautiful view of Powai lake from Terraces and Windows, It was like a paradise. I was in the city of Mumbai, I had made to IIT and I was living in that amazing looking seven story building, Mess cone was another thing that added extra beauty to already beautiful hostel and the twin building of hostel-12 was also good. Thus, Started Life @ IITB, four beautiful and fun-filled years in my otherwise dull life.

I shall continue some other time...

Cricket

You might have seen my post about Mumbai Indians. From that post it is evident that I am a wee bit crazy when it comes to Cricket. Let me clarify, I do like cricket but only its shorter version or longer versions where Team India is involved. I grew up playing cricket, okay, I didn't hold a bat till I was 10 :| I was in a small village and we occasionally had plastic ball and plastic bat.. We used to toss ball using bat and count (hopefully you understood what I am saying). My childhood had severe scarcity when it came to cricket. Once my family moved to nearby town and my life found the missing spice that was scarce. My parents were not of opinion to let me play with gully boys, they used to think I will not study and flunk my exams; Who can bind their children, I used to play hell lotta gully cricket, I was like the worst player in my area yet it was awesome feeling to play, then fight, then play, then again fight then again play and so on. Slowly we promoted our level of playing and we moved to playground (that playground was meant for Govt School but it was like a public ground, everyone used to play there). As time passed by, we went one level further to hold matches with winning team getting 2 Rs, then 2 Rs per player. We used money to buy new bat and tennis balls. All of our matches were not finished, sometimes captain of opposite team ran away claiming that we were cheating, he was only finding an excuse to avoid defeat and abandon game. Sometimes two players had fight (sometimes players of same team too) and games were abandoned. Those were my cricketing days. I am talking about all these, you might be getting feeling that I learnt playing cricket, contrary to that, I was a big ZERO when it came to cricket.

I, somehow, was a good student in mathematics during my school days. In my 8th standard I somehow managed to get less than 50% marks. Since, 5th, 8th, 10th and 12th were board exams in state of Madhya Pradesh during those days, I got severe punishment for doing significantly bad in my mathematics exam. My father thought "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH", okay, he never read TOI (the famous campaign that TOI ran in recent past), but his thoughts were somewhat similar. My father decided that I have to go to boarding school and then started my life @ Indore. Rather, at Vishwanath Dham, Badodia Ema, around 17-18 kms from Indore city. Now I would not like to bore you with my amazingly beautiful as well as a bit ugly past (Yes, every coin has two sides [;)]). In school I used to play Cricket; Cricket on ground, Cricket in balcony and also cricket in a room. Every room used to have around 8 to 10 beds yet we managed to play cricket. We were caught playing, our warden punished us N number of times but the love for cricket was much much much bigger than the fear of punishment.

Then came the big turn in my life, I decided to prepared for engineering entrance exams (I am still not so sure whether it paid off or not). I took drop (1 year off) and joined coaching institute in Indore. Then we used to play cricket at our roof and sometimes at little ground cum park cum grassy mess just behind our residence.

Then came the proud moment in my life, my parents were so proud of me. I cleared JEE and got into IITB. My little cricketing (okay, limited to wing and sometimes corridor and very rarely to gymkhana ground) continued. I was same lame guy who can't hit a ball, who can't bowl a ball properly and who can't even field properly but the love for cricket and the fun involved in playing never stopped me from playing.

You must be bored by now, my intention was not to talk about my not-so-interesting past, I was going nostalgic and I couldn't stop myself from writing all the crap (above).

If Cricket is religion, Sachin is my god.

I have read this statement from various sources, one of my friends had it in his status message. Its a lovely coincident that Sachin is going to complete 20 years in International Cricket and I am writing this post today. I am really really grateful to Sachin for providing us with amazing fun-filled batting innings, some wonderful balling and also fielding. As I read in a editorial, Sachin is one of the things which truly unites entire India. Sachin was welcomed wholeheartedly at every single stadium in India and we tend to forget all our differences and enjoy together when Sachin hits a boundary and cry together when he gets out. Sachin is just a player but his passion for game, his passion for country and his marvels are much much bigger phenomena. Whenever he walks to the crease, he carries hopes of entire nation on his shoulders :)

Yours truly, never understood c for cricket in his early childhood. My father used to watch games involving India and I slowly learnt what is a four, what is a six, what is a wicket and so on. I started watching somewhere around 1995-1996 and everyone knows the form that Sachin was in at that team. 1996 world cup was pretty amazing till that ugly day when we were knocked out. As I said, I started watching somewhere around that time, I really can't remember much other than the fact that Sachin was a leading run getter :) I was transferred to boarding school somewhere around 1999. During our hostel days we used to watch games whenever India was involved. I remember the games played during 1999 world cup. Rahul Dravid was in such an amazing form and India were looking good. And to add to that, that amazing inning by Saurav Ganguly, scoring 183 runs against SriLanka. But we were knocked out. But love for Cricket never died.

Now, that I am looking back, I am wondering what happened between 1999 and 2003. India won first and only world cup title till now, in 1983. Since, 2003 was 20 years away from 1983 that number 20 (people give more importance to 20 compared to 16 or say 24). India were in such a brilliant form, they lost league game to Australia but beat every other team on their way to final. I remember the day, 1st March, when India were playing against Pakistan and I had my 12th board exams starting from 3rd March. Sachin hit superb 98 runs to chase target of around 290 (pardon my memory for not remembering exact number). I pretty much remember the game against England when Ashish Nehra took 6 wickets. We used to believe in totka, someone turned his Chappals and we unanimously agreed that India took wicket because that chappal was turned upside down and we all turned our chappals and enjoyed the game and our so-called false belief (okay I still believe in all those sort of totkas :P). Since I was in 12th standard, I had couple of pre-boards and all sorts of exams. Even when we tried to study we felt like we already know this thing or we can never learn this thing. Our teachers tried to keep us in control and force us to study but we never missed cricketing action involving India during 2003 world cup. I had my computer science examination on 24 march, Mekhla ma'am (our teacher, by the way she was the first one to taught us the word ma'am, we used to use madam before that) had done good job teaching us. Me and my friend, Anand, were good in CS and it appeared like we have potential to score good marks. But our all attention was diverted towards March 23, the final between India and Australia. We were hoping India to take revenge of the only defeat till then during that tournament and lift title. We, like many others, were day dreaming. We kept our studies in cold basket and watched game. Mr. Zaheer khan spoiled our hopes with his amazing bowling, but we had belief, we continued watching. Mr. Ponting added further pain to already suffering hearts. So did Gilchrist, Hayden and Martyn. When India started chasing, Sachin hit marvelous boundary in first over and I was so excited. We all were going mad and wishing India to successfully chase. In very next ball, Sachin attempted for another boundary, he did not connect, McGrath took catch on his own bowl and hearts of a billion people were broken, they still had hope but not so positive. Virender Sehwag fought well, he was not getting enough support but he kept playing and the last bit of hope was still there. Then came rains, I sincerely prayed to rain gods to carry on and force rematch, looks like my prayers were not strong enough or rain gods just ignored my prayers :)

As they (all of them:P) say, time never stops. India achieved successes here and there and looked promising for 2007 world cup. In the Caribbean soil, India played below par and lost to Bangladesh. Sri Lanka beat India and shown the door very early. 2007 turned out to be one of the worst world cups for India. Questions were asked, players were blamed and what not. The only positive thing was that performance against Bermuda, hitting 400+ and winning by more than 200 runs. Then came something which raised many debates.. Yes, I am talking about T20.

T20 might be killing cricket, as many say, but I like every bit of T20 cricketing action. I pretty much followed every single game during 2007 T20 world cup, IPL-1, IPL-2 and 2009 world cup. I will call it a day today, I shall continue writing this post some other time.

Right on the edge!!

A bit extra weight and you might lose point, a bit lower weight and you might give your opponent chance to reply. Is it their confidence that they can play safely on the edge, is it their practice or is it just the only chance in front of their opponent ? I am talking about yesterday's Australian Open championship final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. For the first time I have seen entire game. I have got glimpses of French Open and Wimbledon open finals earlier and they themselves are there to tell how good the game between this two players is. Some say Rafa is not good enough, some say Federer is past his peak, well I say, they both are playing brilliant and their game can intrigue a fool like me to watch game for hours. Some argue Rafa is not good, he is lucky.. Some say Federer is playing Vs Rafa as well as his own mindset, again I say, cut the crap, they are playing brilliant tennis. Enjoy the Game. Though I wish Federer to win  his 14th grand slam (what a confidence booster it would be if he beats Nadal on clay, but that doesnt look like happening).

 

Continue the awesome Tennis.. Kudos!!

Football + Fifa + Manchester United

Football - the art of dribbling, tackling , defending, attacking, blocking, scoring and what not.. what a game.. Superb... I love football like nothing else in this world. So how it started? well, Back in school we used to play football on football cum cricket field. I did not know anything other than couple of rules, I used to run along all the players and kick the ball whenever chance was there. Though I never really scored any important goal, neither saved yet playing was a bliss full experience. Then slowly, I lost touch with game, for next two years I didn't play at all.

After that I bought a computer. Fifa 05 was one of the first things I installed on my computer and then started "play, play and play". I played like crazy, mad fella. At that time, Utd wasn't in top form, Chelsea were winning crowns, but I had faith in Utd and I often played using Utd. I knew more and more about club and slowly started following EPL. In 2006 - 2007 season, United started campaign in flamboyant way. Utd went on winning and building stronger chances of taking crown. Parallely, I started playing FIFA 06. I got bored of the game and went back to FIFA 05, the free flowing first touch football (and also I found it difficult to score goals in 06 compared to 05). I slowly got accustomed to playing FIFA - I played FIFA 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (now u can believe that I played like crazy, mad fella).

Its not just on PC, I actually played on fields also. During my college days I used to play with wingies. Now, I knew more than a couple of rules but running all around field was as much there as it was during school days. I wasn't the best player, in fact, I was like the worst, yet I was passionate about it (how silly, but thats me) and I played a lot.

Now I want to go a bit off track.. Football, let it be playing on field, watching live on TV or playing on PC, it always was a great experience, but was that all ? No. I started liking movies who featured football. Goal (Chasing the dream, Living the dream) are one of my favourite movies. I started finding Football related news on Newspapers, I started going to goal.com and what not ?

Off late, I realised, I am not a football fan, I am more of a Manchester Utd fan. To me, ManUtd represents great football. With all due respect to players like Lionell Messi, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Villa etc, and their teams, I really do not find those teams attractive. For me, ManUtd is best. When Patrice Evra runs with ball, When Rio Ferdinand stands solid in defence, When Nemenja Vidic gives headache to opposition forwards, When Ji Sung Park works all around field, When Hargo (injured for time being :( ) shows true footballing art, When Carrick makes those brilliant moves, When Scholes gives life to game, When Tevez surprises all with his goals, When VDS makes those brilliant saves, When Nani performs that excellent post goal celebration, When Anderson tackles hard, When Rooney strikes hell outta opposition goalie, When Christiano Ronaldo scores goals and of all, when SAF prepares brilliant team after team. Go on winning United.

lol, with this I will end this post, this is not quite what I intended in beginning, but, who cares !!

Off late, my passion for Utd games is also fading away, but it will take forever to disappear completely.