Shadows by the Bright Moonlight...

A moonlit night in God's own country

Beautiful Dreamer, Wake unto me...

Starlight and Dew drops are waiting for thee..

My Worldcup Memories....

I was about an year old when India won the Cricket World cup....Like any other Indian, Cricket was in my blood from the time i learned to hold a bat...I don't remember the 1987 world cup...But I have some memories of the 1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup. One day when I came back from school, India was playing Pakistan...the scores and the situation escape my memory but Imran Khan was just coming in to bat when I arrived...With typical childish knowledge, I declared..If Imran goes for a duck, India will win...and thats how it happened....Imran was out for a duck and India won the game...The next memory I have of a world cup is also an India Pakistan encounter...you know how that clash means the world to both countries...This was the Ajay Jadeja's destruction of Waqar Younis in the 1996 world cup..I remember being devastated when Sachin got out in the semi final (Well I feel devastated every time Sachin gets out..)...The 1999 world cup was more closely followed...that being after my 12th standard exams....Memories from that include..India's 373 against Sri Lanka in Taunton, with Sourav Ganguly scoring 183 and having a 300+ run partnership with Rahul Dravid...I remember being torn between wanting them to bat on and having a wicket fall and have Sachin come in....I remember being baffled in the India- Zimbabwe game as to why Sachin was not there...I remember Sachin's hundred against Kenya after he came back from his father's funeral...But of all these, the world cup I would cherish the most (the same might be the case with almost all the fans of my age) was the 2003 edition...I love it the most not because of India's progression till the finals...But for one man's mastery over the rest...Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar at his best...Thrashing Akhtar over the point boundary.....Hooking Andrew Caddick out of the ground...Missing 2 centuries for the want of 5 runs...Maybe fate thought it all was getting too perfect...I don't have any memories to share of the ongoing world cup, mostly owing to the fact that I have not seen a game in its entirety....No motivation to stay awake till 3.30 in the morning...I hope the last 2 games left will do something to redeem it....

Courage

There comes a time in everyone's life when you feel totally down and out. You feel miserable to the extent of contemplating suicide. I've had such times too...When you have lost everything but the courage that you can face whatever is thrown at you. This courage can come from amazing sources. One of it is the reluctance to cause sorrow to your loved ones through your lack of courage. But you will see that this courage will carry you through the worst of the times. Ok..enough of intro. Now to my latest poem and surprise......It is titled Courage.

A lonely boat in a stormy sea
Facing the forces of nature
Lightning of Bad luck, Thunder of Confusion
Waves of Misery and Winds of Damnation
The boat had in it riders four
First one was man without whom this story is no more
Second rider had faith as his name
Faith, that the path he had taken was one without blame.
Third rider, Hope was a shining maiden
She said, “All these troubles will soon be at an end"
One named Courage was last one on board
He vowed that whatever comes, he'd stand his ground
Now you know the passengers four
Let’s see how the story unfolds
The storm was raging on all sides
Not a ray of sunlight anywhere in sight
It seemed that the world was at its end
The amassed fury seemed too much to defend
Faith was the first one to burn,
Hit by a lightning, he said," Maybe somewhere I took a wrong turn"
Saying thus he breathed his last
The journey ahead was worsening quite fast
Hope was the next one to die
"I don't think this will ever end" was her last cry
Even when left alone, Courage refused to give up
Through the devilish storm, he managed to keep his chin up
It took what might have been a lifetime
For the storm to vent its fury and start dying down
The winds began to slow, thunder and lightning ceased
The waves started losing their malice and the sea was coming to peace
Then courage did a wonderful wonderful thing
With a kiss, he breathed life into his kith and kin.
Faith and Hope got up with sleepy eyes
"Well what do you know" said faith, "Maybe my path after all was right"
Hope looked about taking in the scene around
"Forward my friends" she said "There is a shore to be found"
And a shore indeed did they find
A shore with peace and tranquility of mind
Once at shore, Man turned to courage, with tears in his eyes he said
"Thank you my friend! Without you I'd sure be dead"
Courage smiled and said to man “Never bother my friend"
"Stay with me and I'll take you to any journey's end"
"Never think that I don't feel fear in each breath I take"
"But what keeps me strong, what drives me on is that there's no choice to make"
"I know fear but I also know that something else is there"
"Something that is more important than all the fear everywhere"
"This something that keeps me driven until the road's end"
"Is the knowledge that I can bring you happiness my friend"

Guess Not!

Let the self denial begin.....

Will a Billion Prayers be enough?

March 23rd 2007. Friday. This is the most important day of the year till now for all the Indian cricket fans. India faces Sri Lanka in Queens Park Oval, Trinidad for a berth in the Super 8 of the 2007 ICC World Cup. A loss here would mean that India would be out of the world cup, barring a miracle of Bermuda beating Bangladesh. A loss here would mean that normal life will resume starting on Saturday. But no fan of Indian Cricket would want normal life to resume so soon. It has taken us 4 years to forget the thrashing in the 2003 World Cup finals. It has taken us 4 years to hope again for the pinnacle, to hope again for a 1983. We just cannot let all these hopes die in just 2 weeks. Being an ardent cricket fan myself, I know that it is not possible to passionately support any other team than India. It is not possible to forget the world cup and start following EPL from tomorrow. In the football world cup when Argentina fell early, we coloured ourselved Canary Yellow for Brazil. But here our souls are coloured Blue, the blue of Team India. Try as we might this colour will not come off. So if India falls at this step, then it is a weekend of self denial ahead of me. To tell myself that this does not matter and there are better things to be done rather than losing my sleep watching world cup. As difficult it might be, It will have to be done. That is why right now all I can do is pray. It is said that One day Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities. If a prayer can tip those uncertainities slightly in India's favour, then why not? But here lies the bigger question. With the sort of form the team is in right now, Will a billion prayers be enough?

Full Moon rising.....

Full moon rising, be with me forever stay with me tonight

Full moon rising, take the stars from the sky and put them in my eyes

Dark Side of the Moon

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear,

You shout and no one seems to hear.

And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

A dash of colour in my otherwise grey life...that's what you are to me.....

Sunset in Chennai...

I have been warning you all that soon I will be getting a camera and my blog will have more pictures. So here it begins with a sunset...Well you've gotta love the irony when you are beginning something with the end of something...Or maybe it is not Irony...maybe thats what is called "The Circle of life"

Of Rediff and Reviews

Confused about whether to see a movie or not? Looking for a dependable review? going to rediff.com? All the best.....The story begins one friday afternoon when I was in a quandary as to how to spend a saturday afternoon. I don't remember what was on my mind when i opened rediff and went to the movies section. Knowing that the latest multi starrer Ekalavya has gotten released, I checked out the review on rediff. Rediff reviewers who are usually stingy with good words about a film had waxed eloquently about the above mentioned movie...Toting it as a must watch, I must have gotten brainwashed, that i promptly booked a ticket for the saturday 1.30 show. the movie began and according to rediff it is a gripping story which never relents on the pace of story telling...well don't take it as a compliment for the Indian Cricket Team when i say that listening to the commentary of the match going on in Vizag proved more gripping than what was going on on the screen. Well apart from the Big B, the movie is pretty dumb. The opposite of this also has happened to me many a times...rediff critics tear apart a movie in their reviews and it goes on to be more than worth the ticket money...so lesson learned from all this: Don't trust rediff

A Picture is worth.....

Its been more than a month and not a single blog entry from me....Well thats not acceptable at all...Atleast when I used to write the diary, I unerringly posted an entry on the Jan 1st. This year, no diary writing ..enough diaries have been wasted. This year I thought of a writing a Blog on Jan 1st...Well now you all know how that turned out to be...Anyways...this being the first blog entry of the year, one might be tempted to touch upon the topic of New year resolutions....Well, My new year resolution has been the same for about the last 10 years..Don't take any resolution that you won't be able to keep...Other than that, on the topic of resolutions, I have the same opinion as Calvin ( of the Calvin and Hobbes fame). You don't know what he thinks about New Year resolutions? Well go find out yourself....After all, I had told you a long time ago to start reading calvin and hobbes...This is what happens when you don't do your homework.

Another thing that has my attention this year, you could call it my latest crush or craze or something like that...is photography. See I had a 2MP digital camera and I was pretty happy with it. Then, thanks to Orkut, I came across an Old friend who keeps a photoblog. Going through her blog showed me the unexplored realms of photography that I have been ignoring. Check out this blog www.jeenajayakumar.blogspot.com The pictures in there truly are worth a thousand words or more..So now my interest was captured and the next step is to get a camera that will serve all my needs...and now I just might have found the one..Olympus SP 510 UZ. 7.1 MP, 10X optical zoom with digital image stabilisation. I will be buying that soon and then you can expect a more picture laden blog than the boring text that you usually get. And while I am on the topic of Megapixels, here is a little tidbit...Do you know what is the resolution of our eyes? I read somewhere that it is around 26-27 Mega pixels...Don't know how much true that is..but still ....Thats all for now guys and gals....I promise that you won't have to wait another month for the next blog entry...Till then this is Venu signing off...Ciao.

Making history in the Bullring.....

When you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, thats when you create miracles.....same was the case with 11 men over the past three and a half days...The Indian team, starting the test series as overwhelming underdogs has shown that even the bites of an underdog hurts....The south african team were cock a hoop before the test, asking for pitches with pace and bounce...Well, as the saying goes....Be careful what you wish for...On a lively pitch where the batsmen struggled, Indian bowlers, lead by an eccentric but excellent pacer from kerala (Ahem..Ahem...) taught the proteas bowlers a lesson or two on how to bowl...and the rest as they say is history....For all the ganguly fans out there...See how Team India's fortunes took an about turn as soon as Dada joined the camp? (Is fate conspiring for Ganguly?) anyways...if keeping him gets India to win, why the heck not? Well...well begun is half done...There is one week before the next test starts...For once India has more answers than questions...In the batting of Ganguly, Laxman, Zaheer and VRV Singh and in the bowling of the hungriest pace pack seen in recent times, India can place their trust...One thing that pricks me in all this is Sachin's bad run....If only he too blossoms into runs...Well, two tests more to go...plenty of time for him to hit top form...Hope India does not do the "India Act" again and somehow manage not to win this series...Come on guys....you are in the driving seat now...don't let SA crash this honeymoon wagon...I am not greedy enough to ask for a 3-0 clean sweep of the series...Just win the series...and you will have told us that the trust of one billion was not misplaced.....

Hope

One of the movies that I might have never seen if it wasn't for IITK is The Shawshank Redemption. For those who have not seen it, It's about a guy breaking out of a prison. No big deal you might say. But it is a cult movie of sorts. You will have to see it to feel it. Anyways, there is a small dialogue in that movie which has been quoted often on many occassions. It goes something like this, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing there is and no good thing ever dies". This holds a lot of meaning in our daily lives. When you are fed up with your job, it is the hope of a good weekend that drives your week. When you see Indian Cricket team losing continuously, It is the hope of a Sachin Century that makes you tune in every time there is a match. It is hope that makes the world go round. Hope for a better tomorrow....This was a intro to what comes next....Yes, I am here with another poem. No prizes for guessing the topic. After all, after giving such a lecture on Hope, I won't be presenting a poem I have written on Osama Bin Laden. So here it goes....A poem titled 'Hope'

Night is gone
Brilliant rays of sun chasing away the demons of darkness
Light and warmth starting to fill the dark emptiness
Just like a smile lights up a dark face,
All uncertainties are about to be erased
Doubts, like storm clouds, darkening the sky
And Hope, like nine suns leaves the clouds behind.

Hope, is a strange thing
Quite marvellous are its doings
Making a long wait bearable
Making deepest secrets sharable
Tells us to go forward and not look behind
Yes, it is the only thing of its kind.
It might be too faint for others
But for the ones who hope, it lasts a hundred years

Hope to meet a long lost love,
Hope that someone is watching from above
Hope to hear just three little words
Makes life far better rather than worse
When new dawn brings new life
And new rays of hope to get over the strife,
With new beginnings and new turns,
The flame of hope still burns.
It is this hope and nothing else
Which will be by your side if noone else.
Hold on to the Hope and you shall see
The new dawn is the brightest that shall be.

The Fire Within

"Burn with Passion without ever burning out". This sums up Antaragni...the IITK Cultural Festival..."the time" to be in IITK and for the IITians(boys especially), also described as "do din ki chaandni". The whole campus fills up with colours(of all kinds)..there is electricity in the air...Some great people take their yearly bath during this time....haircuts...wardrobe changes....Its Antaragni Time...The allure of Antaragni is strong enough and the experience unforgettable enough to pull IITK Alumni from all parts of the nation. I am no exception..so I was there...Morning of Thursday November 2nd, I met an old friend again.... Kanpur Railway Station...Although I had sworn that I hate Kanpur the minute I set foot on the railway station the first time, like many relationships, the hate slowly turned into a quiet liking....When you have to sit in the railway station for 12 hours waiting for your train, you tend to notice the finer details...the smells of hot pooris being made...the sounds of haggling with the porters...the sight of people waiting for their delayed trains with infinite patience...all this was brought back on that day. The excitement had already overtaken me even before I had reached the IITK Campus...and once I entered the campus, it was like I never left...the same energy in the atmosphere...the banners and other decorations..the sign boards..Well, I was back. One thing notorious about IITs is its gender ratio. For every 100 males, there are like 10-12 non males.(Did I forget to mention that the female species is almost extinct at IITK?). Well, thats why Antaragni holds such a high place in the hearts of all IITK boys...for 2 days they get to see what they are missing and in that two days, they try to live their whole life. If you are a pretty girl in IITK at Antaragni time, I assure you, you will face no difficulties at all...For travelling there will be any number of chaffeur driven bicycles at your beck and call. For food, just point and ask, there will be someone eager to take you out for lunch. You just have to sit there and look pretty. You will make the life for some poor IITian. Other than these obvious reasons, another heavyweight at Antaragni is its Proffessional Night. This time it was Euphoria. It is only fair to say they didnt dissappoint. Living up to every expectation I had, singing all the great songs...Its the second time I was seeing Euphoria perform live and I gotta tell you...Theres nothing else like it. And then the next morning, everything is back to normal...people are rushing to classses...banners and decorations being taken down and last of the pretty ladies leaving for their own campuses...But its not about how long it was...Its all about how it was...Its about living to the fullest in the 2 days you get...Its about collecting memories that will last you till the next Antaragni....Its about burning with Passion without ever burning out.

Expecting the Unexpected.....

Hey there folks....thanks for missing me....I know its been a while since i gave words to my random thoughts in my blog. Well...I've been busy.....coping with the unexpected and trying to make the most out of it has almost become the norm of life...One fine monday morning I get a call saying that my boss wants to meet me in Noida and I need to fly there for a day..the operative words being "a day". I get all excited about joining the jet set life style folks....soon to be having breakfast in Berlin, Lunch in London, Tea in Tokyo and dinner in Denver...Next day morning I catch my flight to Delhi where i get my first bombshell...taxi charge to Noida Rs. 2000. You are forgiven if you thought i mistakenly put an extra zero in there. It was really Rs. Two thousand. Well, as I didnt know about any other option, I had to shell it out in crisp 100 rupee notes. I reach Noida and wherever I look i see an HCL office. First went to sector 16. Then i came to know that i was meant to go to sector 60. Took a rickshaw there and there too HCL has two offices....Somehow or the other I find my boss's cabin and that afternoon the second bombshell drops...I will not be able to go back by evening flight and will have to stay for 2 more days...Ah what the hell..I think...the next day at lunch, this 2 days gets extended to 10 days...I end up buying a new wardrobe and mobile charger.....One good thing that came out of this unexpected stay in Noida was the side trip to Kanpur...Man...I had almost forgotten how fast DC++ was....Anyways..now I am back..in Chennai. My boss left me with a warning that such short notice long trips will be the norm of the future...So now i am preparing myself to expect the unexpected...Maybe this is how life works in the corporate world...I wouldn't know as I am still finding my feet in this new world.

Mi Amigo....My Friend...Mon Ami

Hello friends...its been some time since i wrote something here. It was a product of lack of good themes to write on and lack of time to write in. But when something interesting comes by, which catches ur attention, you tend to eke out time for its cause. Well same case here. You know how from the time we were little kids (well some of us still are...though we look older), we have been hearing that true friends are there with you in your troubled times.....and we heard about a fair weather friend who is there with us only during the good times...Well, I was reading Paulo Coelho's 'Zahir'....he has an interesting twist to the age old belief....he says and I quote "Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer for us and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives." This got me thinking....which is true...There are people who are with you in your happy times...when there are all smiles around....life is just fantastic...they laugh with us....joke with us...and everyone is happy....And there are people who come to us when we feel that the whole world is crumbling beneath our feet...some come with sympathy....some come with strength...some come with understanding....I feel that the kind Coelho mentions is the ones who come to us with sympathy....to show how much they care and how sorry they feel for you...I know those kinds...like hyenas....preying on a wounded soul....But don't ever do the mistake of mistaking someone's understanding of your situation as sympathy...doing that you might just lose a precious friend. When someone is ready to be silent with you when you are not in a mood to talk, hold on to them...they are your true friends....You might be thinking how i am going on blabbering on about friends and what authority do I have to talk on this topic? Well....I am an Aquarian....we have a habit of using the word friend quite frequently....Whoever i meet becomes my friend....theres no other way to describe them....I once had the misfortune to hear someone being described as " a profitable acquaintance". In my mind I still have the word in "What the hell does that mean" category. My friends are one thing that I treasure more than my life....so looking for profit or loss from person whom you are friends with, takes the friendship out of it and makes it mere business. So when you know that a person understands you more than yourself, is there with you in your happy and your sad times...treasure them...they are gods gift to you for being a friend.

God is Back...

"If Cricket is a relegion, Sachin is the god".In a country like India, Cricket is indeed a relegion more powerful than any other. Where relegion divides, cricket unites. Be it a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Parsi, when Sachin is flaying bowlers all around the park, there is a sense of oneness in their minds. A feeling that unites India ike none other. And noone brings out this feeling better than a dimunitive genius called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Just think, how many other players are referred to all over the world by their first name? It is most of the times, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, or Agarkar. Rarely does someone refer to them as Rahul or Saurav and others even more rarely. But Sachin has always been Sachin. Since his broken nose on his debut tour to Pakistan, India has bled with him. Each time he is injured, the whole country prays for his quick and healthy return...because noone else does to them what he does. So it was no big surprise that India's opening match at the DLF cup was a real big match. It was the return of the god. We had all been waiting for the moment and it was well worth the wait. It was a statement to all those who said Sachin's best is behind him and he should consider retirement. It said to them "In your Face". Sachin was never one to respond to criticism or provocation through words, whether it be a bowler or a so called "expert" who is on the other end. He just lets his actions talk for him. You can ask one Shane Warne who initially said that he has drawn out plans for Sachin and later modified that statement saying that he has nightmares about Sachin. Or you can ask Henry Olonga or Andrew Caddick or Shoaib Akhthar....the list ges on. So this Innings was a statement...done in style.The only thing that spoiled the occassion was Rain and the @#$%^*& Duckworth Lewis System which seriously needs to be scrapped. But I don't care if India wins or loses as long as Sachin keeps scoring big hundreds. Rain may have played spoilsport here. But the signs are clear. If you thought that Sachin is over the hill....If you thought that he has nothing more to give to the game....you'd better wake up and applogize...Coz the God is back and he is here to stay for a long long time. Go Sachin......

Lage Raho Mamu....

Apun ne pichle satterday ko "Lage Raho Munnabhai" dekh dala...kya mast pikkchar hai mamu....Apni Sanju Baba aur Arshad ne kya mast acting kiyeli hai....maa kasam mazaa aa gaya..aur woh Vidya Balan bhi kya dikhti hai baap....ekdam dhinchak...Apun ko pikkchar mein sab se mast to hamara circuit hi laga...Koi bhi doubt ho na...circuit se pooch dal... "Abe Circuit..ye October 2nd kya hota hai?"..."Dry day hai bhai"..."Kyon"....."Bilkul idea nahi hai bhai....Lekin tension nahi lene ka....pata lagate hai na.." Abe agar Circuit nahi hota to Munnabhai ki to vat lag jaati...bole to "durgati" ho jaata...Har ek ki life mein ek circuit hone ka...nahi to kya life hai yaar...aisa koi honaich mangta jisse kuch bhi bol sake......dil khol ke jiske saath baat kar sake...Apun to bahut lucky aadmi hai...kyonki apun ki life mein to aisi logon ki koi kami nahi hai....Kya Maamu...apun bhi kya bake jaa raha hai...phaltu mein dimaag ka bheja fry...to hum baat kar rahe the pikchar ka...Apun ko pata tha ki baapu akha country ka father hai...lekin isme to baapu munnabhai ka bhi baap nikla...bande ne sahi acting ki hai...Aur gaane...kya mast gaane hai....pehliwali pikchar se bhi mast... Bande mein tha dum....Pal pal har pal...samjho ho hi gaya....lage raho munnabhai...sab ekdam dhinchak gaane hai...To apun sabse vinamr se bol rahela hai..jaake bhai ko dekh ke aane ka....Aur agar lucky singh type ka koi aadmi aapke aas paas ho to usse bolne ka.."Get well soon". To apun abhi chalta hoon...phir mulakaat hogi..tab tak..goodbye..goodnight..Sayonara...

Its Onam......

The festival that brings a flood of sights and smells into mind. The sight of the flower carpets...in newspaper photos (nowadays rarely do people lay it out on their courtyards)...the sight of posters of all the Onam special audio cassettes..(mostly mimicry cassettes like De Maveli Kombathu and Onathinidakku Puttu kachavadam). More than the sights, its the smells that appeal to me..the smell of new clothes...the smell of payasam boiling...the mixed smell of the Onam feast...I really missed Onam for the last two years....As coming from Kanpur to Kerala took about 52 hours on train (didnt want to waste dad's money flying), it was just not possible..In the first year of MBA we had an Onam celebration at IITK with all the mallus there...Although it was some 2 weeks after the real Onam, i didnt want to miss it (it being the mallu food that was prepared for that occassion. Getting good mallu food in Kanpur is like finding an Oasis in Sahara Desert...or maybe even harder). So I took advantage of the opportunity and reached promptly for the feast and had a good time....Last year we were planning to have Onam celebration on Onam itself. I was busy discussing about the activities that we should have on that day with the president of the malayalees association, who happened to be my wing mate. Little did I know that someone up there was watching me and saying,"Plan on dear boy...But I have something else in mind for you". About 3 days before the celebration, including the sumptuous feast and a Mohanlal Movie, I was diagnosed with Jaundice and promptly admitted at Health Centre IIT Kanpur. The Onam Feast for me was 4 bottles of intravenous fructose....Well the stint in the health centre is another story altogether...maybe I'll save it for another time..So this year I have vowed to make up for the 2 lost Onams...I'm off to Kayamkulam today...Monday and Tuesday leave...will start back to Chennai after the Onam feast..Mmm.....Just thinking about it makes me hungry...Let me go and grab a sandwich...Happy Onam to all my readers (using plurals instead of naming my readers gives an impression that there are a lot more of them). So catch u all later...