The plight of Deccan Chargers !

Remember when India went down under last December and came back losing all test matches, ODIs and T20s ?! Of course, no Indian Cricket fan would forget that. :P

But even during that series, you never hated the Team Blue. Yes, you made fun of it, you jeered after an historic loss and yet when the next match started, you had your hopes high and supported it by waking up at 5 AM just to watch the top order crumble yet again.

That's exactly how I felt during IPL season 1. I made fun of Deccan Chargers but I never stopped supporting it. It's a sin to not support your home team.

The season 2 followed very soon. We were the champions. Not undefeatable (:P) but all that matters is, we brought the title home. All praises to the Gilly-Lehmann pair (and the fact that, it was held in South Africa and not in Hyderabad :P).

And then came IPL auction 4 and the very witty and the very smart (yes, note the sarcasm) Gayatri Reddy decided to bid $900,000 for Dan Christian. :| Sangakkara, Steyn and Duminy were enough for them. And in exchange for whom ? Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh. Yes, bamboozled, aren't you ?! Now give me a reason, why I should watch this IPL 4 when there is no hope to even hope for a win ?!

And don't even get me started on Season 5. They get Parthiv Patel for $650,000 and thankfully lose Ravindra Jadega after bidding for a whopping $2M. :|

On the brighter side, the matches aren't being scheduled in Hyd coz of the Telangana issues. Hence the jinx won't have any effect right !? But we landed in Vizag and bang we jinxed it too. Hence the bright side gets nullified. :P

But don't be disheartened. As they say, "Where there's a will, there's a way", I did find a bright side for all those people who quit watching IPL. During every DC match, always bet against DC. Trust me you'll be able to clear all your debts and might as well be able to experience the life of riches and fantasies. :D

P.S: I'm sorry to have insulted VVS Laxman by not even acknowledging him. But I couldn't resist mentioning him now, just to bring out the humor element associated with him. :P

Every time someone mentions DC, I always visualize them like this.

Placements

(My placement experience - an article I wrote for my college magazine, Communique 2012)

That feeling you experience when you see your name in the selected list of candidates, cannot be described in words. Unless you actually go through all that struggle, pain, torture, nervousness, restlessness, you will not be able to relish the goose bumps you get when you stare at your name in that list. That feeling beats everything else. And I'm glad and consider myself lucky to be one of the very few who felt it not once, not twice, but thrice in a span of just 3 minutes.

I'll be eternally grateful to the MJCET Alumni Association for conducting such an eventful learning experience through the Campus Recruitment Training programme. The esteemed, excellent and the experienced faculty that we were blessed with for that one week changed the life of so many students.

Spending the days and the nights with the RS Aggarwal books and all that training and hard work doesn't matter if you can't execute it when the moment demands it. Clearing the aptitude is not really a huge feat. It's all about competition. The company never decides the cut-off marks before the exam. They set it after the results are out. All you need to do is, be in the top 150 or 200 among those 500 students who participate in the placements. How hard is that? Not at all, if you make it your priority to get into all the companies that you're eligible for. You just need to prepare for 2 weeks like you've never done before.

Writing the aptitude and waiting in the Ghulam Ahmed Hall for the results to be announced is one of the most testing phases of my life. Neither that impatience nor the euphoria you feel when you actually clear the test, can be described in mere words.

Aptitude is just the start. The real horror arrives with the commencement of interview sessions. Whoever said that "The anticipation of the event is much more threatening than the event itself" couldn't have been more right. Especially the CSE and the IT department students are grilled in the technical interview. An idle mind is a devil's workshop. When you're waiting there for your call, you imagine a zillion possibilities of getting yourself kicked out of the interview. I still remember how my legs wouldn't stop quivering and my friend who was sitting beside me just couldn't get his hands to remain steady. After all that torture, I was sitting outside the room and I had just 2 more minutes to convince my mind to remain optimistic and my heart to stop thundering like a hailstorm.

That moment when I was waiting outside the interview room, nerve-racking emotions running through my body, imagining all sorts of psychotic questions that I might have to face, right that moment, I suddenly noticed my three best friends standing at the other end of the corridor. I couldn't see their faces clearly but I guessed that they must've been done with their interviews. I wanted to forget everything and go meet them. Then I thought, I just need to maintain my decorum for 10 more minutes. I just have to go into the room, say whatever I know and then get out of it so that I can go meet my friends and then discuss how horribly we embarrassed ourselves during the interview and laugh it off. That moment, I felt no fear, no inhibitions, no misgivings. All I could think of is, get into the room and nail it. And I did.I came out smiling widely and then the hilarious anecdotes of my friends drove HR off my mind.

I felt so confident after the tech interview, that I could have conquered the world. Accenture has been my dream company since even before I joined MJCET. I didn't want to lose this golden opportunity. HR is basically to convince them of two things. One - You are worthy of their company. Two - You won't ditch them and join some other company or go for higher studies. And I didn't need to fake on both the fronts. Convincing him needed only one sentence "It’s my dream to experience life at Accy, and if not today, no matter what, someday I'll make it." Frankly, those words weren't hollow. I truly meant them.

Victory might make you over-confident. It’s human tendency. And when it was time for Infosys HR, I was advising people around me and didn't bother to prepare anything. And rightfully so, the HR interviewer brought me back to earth. He had a counter for every single sentence I uttered in that room. I never felt so disgusted with myself. I thought, I'm nothing of an engineer, and I don't deserve this job. But later when I came to know I was selected, I realized, maybe he was just trying to test my patience. Never did I show him any signs of annoyance or irritation. I maintained my temper and my smile. I guess, that was the winning mantra.

Wipro was a back up option for me (no offense). I was 90% confident that I'll get into Accy. But when your career and your future is at stake, it's always wise to not take any chances.

Getting placed after 3 years of an amazingly bitter sweet ordeal called Engineering, is really an accomplishment, but more than that, it's the moment when you tell your parents after all the hardships and all the trials they went through just to keep you happy and get you educated, that you're actually gonna stand on your own legs very soon, the pride on their faces truly completes your victory.

Some might argue that they got placed even without any prior preparation. It's at times like that, that you need to ask yourself - are you willing to take that chance? No one who is serious about their career would answer in the affirmative. So the dilemma is solved. Now pull up your socks and go chase your dreams. And while you're at it, my sincere advice, don't forget to enjoy every moment of that struggle and tension. ‘Coz trust me, those are the moments you're gonna remember mostly and cherish all your life.

Bleed Blue !!!

(One moment ! Just one. Still gives me goosebumps. The 60 secs that define my addiction and craziness towards Cricket. I wrote this one as an article for my college magazine.)

2nd April 2011. Finally the day arrives. Very happy that the wait is over, excited that we are gonna win the Cup but at the same time, apprehensive that we are facing SL.

We paint our faces with the Indian flag and wear Blue to support our team. The venue of the epic final is our own Wankhede Stadium at Mumbai.

First innings, SL score 274.

Not an easy target to chase, our hopes dwindle a bit but we are all watching it with our families, friends, cousins. We try to console and boost each other's morale.

All hopes are on Sehwag and Sachin to give us a great start. To make us believe that this is our time now. Sehwu goes for a duck and Sachin leaves for 18 :|

World's every expletive is being directed towards Malinga by every Indian cricket fan.

Shattered and broken, I give up. I wanted to break my tv set. I was almost in tears.

Gambhir and Kohli are on the crease. When experienced players didn’t stand a chance, I wasn't counting on these two young guns to fire. How wrong was I?

They make a partnership of 83. A flicker of hope arises in 2 billion peoples’ hearts.

I tell my mom not to leave the room. I stop texting. Everyone stops texting me. All facebook notifications and updates have stopped. A silent plea to all my friends, "Don't you dare jinx it". Somewhere a friend is not allowed to change his seat, someone is not allowed to go and take a leak, someone is banned from the tv room and the deluge of such superstitions go on. 2 billion hearts unify and pray for a miracle.

52 to win from 52 balls.

Yuvi and Dhoni are on the crease. We know that we can do it. We suddenly start trusting India more. As if, 31/2 never happened. It is as if when Sachin fell, we didn’t curse our heart out "Arey yaar, India ka kuch nahi ho sakta".

We try not to raise our spirits too high in case they are shattered again. Iss baar agar armaan tute, toh jhel nahi paayenge.

35 to win from 36 balls.

Dhoni escapes a run out. SL go for the UDRS for a lbw appeal against Yuvi but its turned down. Heartbeats are racing. India is getting reckless. We don’t want anything stupid to happen. Our prayers are intensified now.

27 to win from 24 balls.

Dhoni and Yuvi hit 4s. We are back on track after scoring 11 runs this over.

16 to win from 18 balls.

Malinga has the ball. Dhoni hits two back-to-back 4s. Revenge is indeed sweet !

5 to win from 12 balls.

We know the victory is near but we don't expect this. Dhoni goes for the helicopter shot.

Indians all over the world - silence. No reaction. It’s unbelievable. Did he just do it ?! Did we just win the match ?! The Cup ?! Am I dreaming? All these thoughts come alive in the span of a nano second. How amazing is the human brain ?! :D

The goosebumps set in. Finally we realize, yes WE DID IT ! After silence, comes the eruption. Thunderous wallop ! The roar ! We cry, we hug, we laugh, we are open mouthed, we cheer, we shout, we scream, we applaud, we grin and then back to shock again :D

India are the world champions.

That 60 secs of my life, when Dhoni hit that six and the overwhelming emotions after that - the most precious.

The victory lap: Sachin is being carried on the shoulders of Virat Kohli. He holds the Indian flag aloft. He can't stop smiling. The lap continues. The flag waves. The crowd roars.

Kohli speaks: Tendulkar has carried the burden of nation for 21 years;  It was time we carried him.

The presentation ceremony: Dhoni is the Man of the Match and Yuvi is the Man of the Tournament.

Dhoni gets the cup, the team is with him in the podium and fireworks begin. The Indian team roar and roar.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is now holding that cup that eluded him for so many years. And he screams in joy. What a night !

We beat Aus in Quarters and Pak in Semis.

How many times did we beat our two most rivalled opponents in the World Cup and go all the way to win it ?! Will it happen again ?! Maybe. Hope never dies. But I know everyone will agree with me on this - Woh pehli baar ka nasha kuch aur hi hai ! :D

For life, WE BLEED BLUE !!!

WHY ?!

(This is not a blogpost written over a month. This is exactly how I feel right now. I don't know why I wrote this. Maybe I just want to feel better.)

Why did you all have to leave us ?! Why can't you be here with us today ?! I dont like this feeling. I feel so hollow.

Its Eid in 2 days. And you people aren't with us :'(

I was telling my mom today, that we don’t have anyone, and I could feel those tears at the brim of my eyes. But I won't let mom know. I don't want to remind her of everything.

And she tells me that we'll go there someday. Maybe next year. Not the exact place of course, it won't be the same. She makes me believe that those days will come again.

I wanna tell this all to dad. But I won't. I can never utter those words in his presence. Coz i know, he'd feel 100 times worse than how I'm feeling right now. May be he already is. I love him too much to make him go through that internal struggle.

I thought I was very brave. I can block anything. I can face anything. But I know now, no matter how much I run away, that pain, it never subsides. There is no escape to this. All our life. That emptiness will forever remain in our hearts. In our souls.

I look at others and think, how damn lucky are they ! But they never realize. Foolish people. They throw it all away. And when they finally see its worth, it's gone. Their hands try to hold on to something that is lost now. There is no turning back. Regret is all you'll be left with. And void. I don't know if I should envy them or pity them.

And now he is so far away too :'( The one person who can come any close to assuaging our grieves, isn't here with us. But I hope and pray, it's the last time ever. He'll be back next year, to where he rightfully belongs.

I know, that in many ways, I'm luckier than many others. What I have today, is beautiful. There is no substitute for this, of course. I'm so very proud of it. And hence I should stop cribbing about what I don't have and be content and glad for what I have. I usually am. But today, hearing to others' tales, it all flashed before my eyes. I lost my control. I hope, someday, we'll all be in a happier place than we are today.

And not a day passes, when I don’t pray for you all up there. I hope you dwell in heaven for eternity. We miss you. Every single one of you. More than words could ever express. More than you can imagine. More than we can ever imagine.

Rest in peace !

Life goes on..

There are two things that can explode my tear ducts in about less than a second. One would be when my dad or my bro scold me (regardless of whether I deserve it or not). And two - when someone reminisces about my grandparents. You might notice this glitch that I said “when someone reminisces” and not “when I remember”. There is a reason to this too. I don’t ever think about them if I can help it. I block them totally out of my mind whenever needed to. Yes, I’m cowardly. And I’m not proud of this fact at all. But that’s the way am made up. I miss them. I miss my grandparents like hell. I so badly wish they were here with us. And it pains me to realize that there is no way to get them back and so I take the easy way out – not think about them. And when someone mentions them, bang, am outta that room as fast as my legs could take me. Yeah I agree again, am a coward !

All my friends mention how close they are with their maternal cousins and tell all the real mischievous pranks they keep plotting against each other. Sounds fun but it always confused me why is it that I don’t know MY maternal cousins so well ?! To be frank, I got to memorize all their names when I was 10 or 11. It shouldn’t take that long for any normal loving family. Should it ?! Why did it happen to me then ?! I was forced to face the reality when a friend of mine was excited about the end of exams because she’ll be going to visit her maternal grandparents just like every summer. And here is why.. 

My maternal grandparents expired when I was maybe 5. I don’t even remember their faces. Here, photographs and pictures are my only mode. How can someone miss a person he/she has no memory of ?! You can’t. Well, such is my case. 

When I meet my mom’s aunts and uncles during weddings and functions, they make a point to mention my grandparents and it is always with an esteem amount of respect and a surge of love and that really gets me spell bounded every single time. They never forget to relate a few anecdotes here and there, and I can actually conjure up their images. For me, these are the memories. And these memories are enough for me to miss them. And I do !

And because of the early demise of my maternal Grandparents, we’ve always spent our summer holidays with my paternal grandparents. Actually my paternal family is not exactly as loving as a happy family should be and I’ve longed more than once that they’d be like my mom’s family. But it is not to be.

Kids can hardly understand any of these complications. So I’ve always enjoyed my holidays and have many memories of the absurd and the ridiculous adventures me and my cousins enjoyed. I was never close to my Dada or Dadi. My Dada was a very reputable person in my village and people often used to come to him for advices and needs. He was a doctor. I always loved him and felt immensely proud of him. One day someone told me that he treats the poor and the needy for free of charge and even supplies them medicines, I started regarding him with a new-born affection. When I grew up, every time I went to his place and when a neighbor or a passer-by used to look at me, I used to act all proud having this “Yeah, he is MY grandpa” look :D Might sound childish but I always feel special when I’m there.

He had this liver problem. But I was always sure that my grandpa is strong and he can pull through anything. He visited Hyderabad and had undergone excellent treatment. Suddenly, one night we got a call that he was seriously ill and admitted in a hospital. We couldn’t get train reservations. So we decided to travel by car. But it’s not safe to travel by highways in the night time, so we decided to start early in the morning. It took us around 9 hrs. We were 2 hrs late. That was the first time I had experienced the feeling of losing someone I loved. But as they say life goes on..

Just two years later, I was writing my 11^th boards. My last exam was to be on 16^th of March. But because of some strikes, it got postponed to 18^th. I was in a way happy to have a break, so I could prepare better. We got a call a day before that my Grandma wasn’t well. If I had finished my exams on schedule, we could have made it. But again, it was not to be. After my exams I even went out with my friends to celebrate because no one really told me the seriousness of the situation. She passed away on 19^th March 2007 and we were a few hrs late again. To this day, I curse my 11^th boards and curse the stupid strike. 

And as earlier mentioned, it’s not a loving family. So we drifted apart. I went back to that house just twice when we were offering special prayers for my grandparents. Now, I don’t feel like going there. It’s empty. And it also scares me to find the place so calm when a few yrs back it used to be all crowded and filled with laughter of us kids and gossips of our aunts and that humor of our uncles and that glow on the faces of my grandparents. I miss them and those days but times have changed and it’s not the same and I don’t wish to go back. I again don’t have the strength to face such vast a change. But I have the memories and I’ll always hold on to them come what may. And life is still going on.. 

I look back onto the day when my Grandma expired. That day I realized I’m all alone. Ya, I have my parents, my brothers, cousins, friends .. But that shadow of an elderly love was forever gone. Am still a kid and they’re all gone. But I knew, life will go on, and it still does..

Betrayed !

On the journey of life, we meet a lot of people and make many friends but only a select few of them bother to know the real you and just like that they become a very integral part of your life. Even if you don't talk or meet on a daily basis, there exists a very special and true bond. It often happens with me that when I acquaint with someone new and start knowing that person, I get so intrigued; it becomes difficult to imagine my life without that one person. Is it just me or everyone feels so ?

And then suddenly when you are forced to move on or get over a very dear friend, what should one do ? Well you might wonder why I need to move on. Fights, misunderstandings, busy life are not among the reasons.

What if it’s an outright betrayal ? Not so easy to overlook, is it ?

The person has been lying to you every single day of his/her life and never once has your trust in them faltered. And a day comes, when you see past the camouflage and realize what a fool you've been. Obviously the initial reaction is shock and then it turns to disbelief, anger, rage, sobs, coldness and then back to anger.

 

 I'd like to quote here: When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selective.

Humans are fallible ! And so, after a while, maybe you find it in you to forgive. People regard hatred as a weapon to avenge those who've hurt you. But in the process, all you do is hurt yourself more. It is so foolish to let the anger and the betrayal affect you when all you did was trust someone you loved and regarded as a true friend.  

And then, what if that person is willing to accept the vice and wants to reconcile ?! Certainly, I'm not inflamed anymore, but how is it possible to regain the trust ?! Going back to something is harder than we think. I'd question the authenticity of every single word, thereupon. It would be unfair for the both of us. It’s like that saying - Once broken, can never be the same. And I feel the need to mention, I'm not being frigid. I do feel the lacuna !

But what's more important is to never let that one chapter (words can be deceptive) of your life question the loyalty of your other friends. Never let one (beep) person force you to change your perspective towards trust or tamper with it.

In matters of trust, be compassionate enough to forgive and forget, but it solely depends on an individual, if you are willing to give that person a chance to regain it (or sufficiently prepared to be shattered again ;-) )

Give it a thought..

(This post is entirely my friend's experience and I do not take any credit for it.)

My day begins with someone screaming at me to wake up. I’m in too deep a sleep to acknowledge that it's not a dream. When reality strikes me, I wake up all miffed and look for the cause of it. Dad!

And then I remember. Dad had told me the previous day that he had an important conference to attend and I am not to delay him in the morning like I always do. But I did. I get up from the bed to do my daily chores. Though I tried to hurry, we still end up starting late (more late than we usually are). I was in a lousy mood myself because of the bad start, lack of sleep etc etc.. (name it and u got it).

He dropped me at the bus stop like he always does and my wait for an auto began. Suddenly a gust of wind blew my hair and I started feeling a lil better. I had this impulse to take a bus ride instead of an auto. Usually am excited about commuting through busses because of the variety of people I get to observe. Just sit back and look around at their moods, cultures or any irrelevant gestures about them. So I boarded one and it was empty. That didn't help raise my spirits, of course. Then slowly it started to fill in with a few people hurrying to work and students for college.

At the next stop, a few workers got in holding their "gampas" (some construction equipment). Bus was already crowded so they had to slog their way in. Every single person in the bus cringed at the sight of them. An old lady started screaming at a worker for brushing through her saree. A young man screamed at another for stamping his newly-polished shoe. The deluge of such insensible reactions weren't surprising. This is how workers and laborers (and many other category people) are treated in India. But the shocking part was those workers didn't mind it. It hardly affected them in any way. In fact they were totally oblivious to the people around them. And then I thought, how could it be that when only one person scolded me (and which I totally deserved), I could feel all gloomy and let it ruin my day and those people in the bus hardly receive any kind of loving gestures from anyone, seem so unaffected ?! We really need to start appreciating the excess of affection and love we get from everyone around us ! :-)