Chak De Team 11 !!!!!

The D-Day arrived. 29th June - The day I had been waiting for the last two weeks ever since we confirmed our participation in the Ashok Nagar Cup. For the first time, we assembled at the ground on time after a refreshing cup of coffee. The opponent team delayed the proceedings and if one had to go by the rules, they had to walkover but we were kind enough to accept their lame excuses for the delay. They looked professionals, clad in yellow-black jerseys unlike us and I wondered if we have to toil very hard to earn a win but as they say, looks are very deceptive and it was more or less a cakewalk for us.

After some serious discussions, I opted to bowl after winning the toss. The start I gave with the ball was just perfect. After conceeding just 2 runs off the first three balls, the fourth one was of a shorter length and I was successful in deceiving the batsman and he scooped a dolly to the fielder at short mid-off. Team 11 draws first blood : ) . The over that followed, the one by Monish was bang on target and he was just too good in maintaining balls at good length. Shriram and Bharath continued from where we left. Shriram was in his element but it was pleasing to see Bharath bowl so very well after some tough matches last week. He was superb.

Occasional misfields helped in their recovery. But for them, our ground fielding and catching were not all that bad. To be frank, I was surprised to see the ball get into my hands after it was hit high in the air. To get you a clear picture, I was standing at mid-on (my regular position where I love fielding just because it enables conversation with my bowlers easy and frequent) and the moment I heard Shriram and a few other players say ' Rajesh, that's for you ', and with all players tilting their eyes toward me, my pulse rates soared. I'm good at grabbing flat ones but I confess, these 'high-in-the-air' catches really tense me. Just like adding salt to the existing wound, Bharath joined me in the search for the wicket. Though I knew he was running towards me, my focus was only on the ball and I never bothered to communicate to him. The ball finally bounced on my palms, jumped out, kissed the air above my fingers and landed back to the place where it is always safe - my palms. : D : D and I quickly pocketed the ball to make things safer : )

Wickets fell at regular intervals. At one stage, they were 31 for the loss of 6 wickets at the end of 7 overs after both Bharath and Shriram missed out on a well-deserved hat-trick. I still wonder if we bowled exceptionally well or if their batting looked out of sorts. Monish and I finished things off bowling the last two overs in tandem. I bowled the last over and to my utmost satisfaction, the first ball was straight through the gate, the batsman failing to connect the ball with his bat playing across the line. Uprooting the stumps is the the best feeling for any fast bowler and that too at the dearth. Though I didn't get too expressive, I could hear people appreciating me and a peculiar voice caught my attention shouting ' Come on da...well bowled' (as I was walking back to my run up). It was Durga - he should have had the best view from square leg and it's indeed a special feeling. The ball that followed was a flat hit to covers and Kaushik, I knew, would never drop such easy ones and he rightly justified with his safe pair of hands. Incidentally, I had changed the field just before that delivery by moving him from deep cover to cover.. Thank God!!!. I was on-a-hat trick but this time we didn't miss it. Once again Kaushik got into the act, fielded smartly at covers and I was successful in gathering the ball, pounced on the stumps and screamed ' Howzzzzaaat '. Run Out!!!. A team hat-trick after all...!!!

They were bundled out for a cheap 37 and after some initial hiccups, we finished things off in 6 overs. It is always a special feeling to captain a winning side and I take this opportunity to congratulate my team-mates on this convincing victory. I must admit that the practice sessions we had last week really helped. Overall, a satisfactory performance and with God's blessings, we hope to continue the same to the next match on 5th July.

Thoughts for the day :)

I wanted to write an article about ‘The modern ideas, Conservatives fail to acknowledge and The antiquated practices, Modern find tough to accept’. I want some more time so that I shall give my best and I definitely want to. I’m dying to express my views on this topic because this is something I come across at home everyday. (Readers, kindly give me some more time and I’ll surely post it by the first week of July). In the mean time, I’ve come up with a quickie.

Well… Below is something I believe in.

# People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than those found by others

# Beauty is often worse than wine; intoxicating both the holder and the beholder

# Where there is excellence, explanations are not required. Where explanations are required, seldom you find excellence

# Talent is often nurtured in solitude

# You can’t change people but channel them your away

# The cruelest lies are often told in silence

# Power is a little like alcohol: the faster it’s consumed, the quicker it affects the brain

# People have one thing in common: they’re all different

# Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up

# Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as to not injure future ones.

# Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles

# Victory has thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan (I’ve heard Navjot Singh Sidhu say this quite often)

# Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; Argument is an exchange of ignorance

Finally

# A man is a product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes

(Hope this applies to me as well and I become a man whose life is on the lines of his thoughts)

Starting work on my next blog right away :)

I have been Tagged !!!

Thanks for tagging me Ani... This is the mother of all articles and perfect for my blog titled 'As I Introspect' as this involves a very big introspection of my life..

6 Whatever's about me

1. I love eating...very selective though...hate all those green vegetables..i prefer the fried ones like potato etc but never over eat...even on those days when we go out for unlimited pizzas, I'm the one to finish first and friends banter me for not making the most of it..they don't understand the fact that it's after all a stomach.. :)

2. I'm this kinda person who wanted to read but the moment I take a book for reading, I doze off and that happens almost every time...eventually I became a person who hadn't cultivated the reading habit.....things do change right???...yeah... with blogging, I started to read my friends' blogs...haha...I do read :)

3. Sometimes I tend to react in a way I hate to...especially while talking to my mom or younger bro...the second I finish my conversation, I ponder over it again and scream to myself " Why the fuck did you react that way? you should have been more polite...you're so stupid ".. I fail to think before I speak. That's a bad habit, I admit

4. I'm a music freak..strictly Tamil or Hindi songs... loveeeeeeeeeeeeee Shreya Ghoshal..though my friends forced me to listen to English songs and gave me songs for 2 GB, I somehow found them all boring. The only two songs I loved listening were Shape Of My heart (BSB) and My heart will go on (Titanic)

5. I believe in fate and Karma. Efforts apart, people shall get only what they're destined to. I also feel whatever happens in life is for a reason and that change will be appreciated at the right time.. ( In the film Dasavatharam, I admired Kamal Haasan's novel way of portraying the positive effect of the deadly Tsunami...it's hard for anyone to think on those lines...he's truly an optimist)

6. I'm scared of heights... Oh my God!! had a tough time at one of those amusement parks in Cochin...had the heart in my mouth while sitting in one of those rides....hmmm.. ya...I can recollect.. it was called ' The Deadly Dragon '...huh...bull shit...was really DEADLY...that was the first and last ride.. :) ....a nightmare..

5 things I miss in my life right now..

1. My school life at Jawahar Vidyalaya and my JV friends.

2. The tuition classes under Mrs. Shrimathi (Maths, class 10) and Mr. Sundaresan ( Physics, class 12). Also worth mentioning here are the days in high school at PSBB, K.K.Nagar where we used to sit together during lunch and imitate Sundaresan Sir. We laugh laugh and laugh till our stomachs ache.

3. Cycling from home to school in the morning hours...

4. Those early morning cricket matches during summer vacations when we were in school.

5. Of course, the days I spent with My Grandpa who is no more : ( .. Really miss that Gentleman.

10 things I wanna achieve (not exactly achieve but things that I wish for) in a decade

1. Do my GATE exam really well next February and pursue my PG in Industrial Engineering at one of the IITs or NITIE, Bombay

2. Get a job in banking or any sector not related to core Mechanical Engineering.

3. Learn car driving

4. Stay in touch and maintain healthy relationships with all my school and college friends.

5. Fall in love with a girl ( preferably my colleague :) ) .... a ' not-so-fair ' girl with long fingers ( Unlike many guys, I'm not so much attracted to all girls who are very fair in complexion and I love women with long fingers.. :))

6.Get a beautiful flat in an affluent locality in Bangalore and lead an urban life. Adorn the walls of my apartment with landscape paintings and Shreya Ghoshal stills in my bed-room ( I'm sure my wife will accept my first crush in our bedroom...atleast on the walls : D )

7. Buy a hi-fi SONY music system and listen to Shreya Ghoshal songs 24 X 7

8.Meet Shreya Ghoshal, tell her how crazy she has driven me and take a photograph alongside her ( do read the post titled ' Fallen In.....' posted a month back )

9. Preserve my Music library of Tamil and Hindi film songs. They're so very close to my heart.

10.Phew...last one... ( managed to write 9...10th one... lemme think :)) I would like to watch the first day first show of Rajnikanth's next Tamil film (tentatively titled 'Robot')

The Book Tag

Sorry...no book around me


Tag five people

Madhumita Gopalan http://madhugopalan.blogspot.com/
SuhaniSoniya http://tete-a-tete-today.blogspot.com/
Man In Painting http://keyboardsculpturer.blogspot.com/
Shaji http://awesomesprings.blogspot.com/
Preeti http://beetlejuice357.blogspot.com/

Being a moth in a chandelier

If one were to ask me this question "Which of these will make you the happiest person on Earth? Is it a bowl of ice-cream left for you to finish? Or bunking college and going to a film? Or a date with your girlfriend? ", I would politely answer ' None of these' (Readers may wonder if I didn't listen to the third option or if I'm sounding too diplomatic but the truth is, I'm being very honest). The premier thing in my life (at least as of now) which enthralls me and with which I share a committed relationship is playing cricket. Yes! It’s been there ever since I attended cricket coaching classes when I was in my fifth grade. For someone who had grown up watching the game on TV, it was exuberance that filled the air around when I played cricket in a professional way, clad in whites with my pads and gloves on. That was a special feeling indeed.

Though playing cricket had always been a part of my life till the tenth grade, I started feeling its absence once I entered high school. Things never seemed to materialize and the sincere efforts we had put to bring in people for a match went in vain almost every time. Even on those days when we played occasionally, there was not cent per cent commitment due to poor fitness levels and lack of touch with the game. Playing cricket has given me so much happiness, that's the only time when I actually forget everything in life and stay so much focused and dedicated on the field that, I'm sure, even a Kelly Brooke in bikini will fail to distract me.

After months of anticipation, a full-fledged cricket match happened last evening at the Somasundaram grounds in T.Nagar. I made a sincere effort last morning to do some yoga exercises and rolled my arm just to loosen the muscles so that I bowl with not much difficulty. Every time I go for playing cricket, I become a moth in a chandelier and yesterday was no different. Captaincy has eluded me on a very few occasions in the past and yesterday was not one such. I'm of the view that this responsibility will only exude confidence to players and make them give cent percent. After losing the toss, I took the ball in my hand to start proceedings and to my satisfaction, got the line and length right from the very first ball. But for those two boundaries, it was a very economical spell and I was successful in picking up two crucial wickets. I've always enjoyed standing at mid-off cheering up the bowlers and I applauded them after every dot-ball. As a bowler, I know how much it means when a fellow player applauds you. Fielding was not bad either and I played my part in a run-out.

Though I didn't get a chance to bat, we successfully chased 69 in 10 overs and the most important thing was, we didn't lose a wicket. It was so convincing and the immediate conversation I had with my opponent players was "When's the next match guys? ". Though it might have just been a friendly match, as I said, I play the game with so much intensity every time. Winning the match last evening made me so joyous and it was evident as I returned home with so much satisfaction. Nothing in the world can make me happier than playing cricket. Now, the daunting task ahead of us is to lift the 'Ashok Nagar Cup' which starts on June 29th. Hope we stay fit and put up a very good show.

A cricket fanatic forever,
Rajesh

When I knew only laughter....

Life can't get better than the one I had at Jawahar Vidyalaya. It was, in fact 'better than the best'. Precisely, I made the most of my last four years at JV that is from my 7-10th standard. They were, and will definitely be the best phase of my life where I used to enjoy even the smallest things happening around me and now, when I think of it, feel blessed to have made friends around me happy.Before penning down that wonderful journey, I would like to thank all my friends without whom this article would never have been made possible.

Seventh standard was to me what a spark plug is to an engine - initiated the fire or rather kicked off that wonderful journey of mine. I used to be a very quiet boy, face ebbing with innocence, being too circumspect at times with a not-so-friendly attitude. What brought about the change in me was unintentional but something that just happened and I feel that's what they call GOD. What really surprises me is the fact that I never knew I was changing but was thoroughly enjoying and there never seemed to be a dull moment at school. Even those numerous art classes when I was chucked out were warmly welcomed with a smile or rather laughter. The lack of concentration in class just because I was busy planning for my next dig at teachers thankfully didn't hamper my studies. I was very successful in maintaining a consistent score of 80-85 p.c and to my utmost satisfaction, got a higher rank than my close pal Shriram almost every time. This was a key factor in me not compromising on the fun part at school. Another pivotal role was played by my cousin Divya who never disclosed any of those mischiefs to my parents at home though she knew most of them. The tallest of all - when I was caught of malpractice in that f***ing IT paper ( details of that incident revealed later in the article). I'm very thankful to her.

I loved school so much that I missed just half-a-day of class in ninth standard to attend the 13th day rites of my grandfather. I still remember that day- I pushed my mom to get my lunch done fast and rushed to school in my Hercules MTB cycle to attend the second half to make sure I've cent percent attendance in the ART hour. First of those funny incidents was in seventh standard when I misplaced my friend Sreeja's pen which had a photo of Sai Baba. I was so perturbed that I started making fun of her and refused to search for that pen. She ended up in tears, won my sympathy and I had to compromise and thus offered her a pen which my friend R.B had with a photo of Vinayak. She was in no mood to accept and wanted that Sai Baba pen alone. I got so frustrated that I shouted 'Podee Baba' and a few around me burst into laughter and eventually she was nicknamed Baba. This incident will always remain etched in my memory- her weep and those moments which really tensed me and R.B. Being an innocent boy, I was afraid if she would complain etc but things ended up on a good note and we found her pen just behind her chair. She stopped weeping thus bringing my pulse rates back to normal.

Eighth standard was just perfect when all the french students merged and I should say, we really gave the teachers a run for their money. I had become a boy sans fear - Come what may, I was ready to face it and nothing could be done at the expense of the fun we had. I still remember the day during one of those math periods when the six of us ( myself, Shriram, M.B, Rakesh, Vignesh and Murali) teamed up to cook up a story with all teachers in an amusement park. Though I don't remember what exactly the story was, it was that day when we all got together and the intensity of our laughter was just too (three) much. It was also the year when I learned all those filthy words and found pleasure in using them even when situations didn't demand. The best was my verbal dual with Arvind Raj on one of those days during lunch hour ( I don't want to get into this topic any deeper just to maintain the decorum of my blog space). These funny incidents had no boundaries...to name a few more... those Mane Mane cherche lines in our hindi classes, Taj Coramandel matter, By the by My name is Damayandrui (craft), the extent to which Shriram and I laughed when I copied during a hindi test...those funny conversations Kutty Sriram, MB, Murali and our class teacher used to have among themselves almost every day...the art hour when Vignesh and I hit chalk at our Sir and ran away. Art hour used to be unique in a way that it was supposed to be the only class where I had fun from outside the class. In a sense of exuberance, on most days, I never used to bring the Art note just to irritate him. The friendly cricket matches we used to play during holidays deserve special mention here ( Rakesh, do u remember the reverse shot we used to play). It feels nostalgic to remember those days when we assembled by 7 in the morning and played till the sun took the toll on us. Almost all matches were nail-biting finishes.

Ninth and tenth had tough moments as well.... juuuust and ssssss ( our sincere efforts to imitate our geography and history teachers) were part of almost all the conversations we made... Another notorious incident worth reminiscing was when Shriram and I burst into laughter seeing UPK Ma'am take the podium to conduct the morning assembly and almost all students scowled at us with disgust as they were tired of our laughter. We feared if we would be pulled out and taken to task by one of the teachers present . Thankfully, nothing unfortunate happened but our laugh was instantaneous as we were astonished to see a fat lady adjusting herself between two doors. There was not a single class when I failed to get away without rebuke from my history and geography teachers. The situation worsened one day when my history teacher left the class in disgust as i jacked her left, right and center. She found it so insulting that she left the class saying, I quote "I will not take history classesssss for you peepul (people), horrible classss, alwaysssss loghing (laughing) and making fun of all teacherssss. One idiot (myself) startssss loghing and the whole classss followssss him. All of you keep standing and no one should sit...keep standing". After she left, I murmured to myself ' Who the f*** is she to make me stand... F*** off '. That was the only day I actually wept in school. Mrs. Shantalakshmi had complained this act of mine to the class teacher and the latter asked us to stay back after school hours. Our class teacher entered and in an angry tone said " Except Rajesh, all of you shall sit". I felt like a stranger stranded in a jungle. She shot back " What an audacity you have!!! Who do you think you are?". I was lambasted verbally in front of all the 42 students. I knew, I was the sole reason for having made the entire class to face the axe. After we dispersed, I found a group of my class girls standing outside the gate having a private conversation and I was very sure they were cursing me. I felt so bad that soon as I came back home, I went straight to my room upstairs and wept for nearly an hour. Another terrible incident was when I used a red pen to add a few marks in my IT paper and complained the teacher of totaling error. I admit to the fact that I was not smart enough to use the same ink she had used. She was bustling towards the principal room when I stopped her to plead guilty. That evening, my pulse rates soared as I had to meet the principal but thankfully the principal had left school little early and the VP was kind enough to let me off saying "You thought you can fool her every time? Today is her chance to win over you."



Excursions added spice to the fun and fortunately we had two outings in ninth standard ( thanks to Divya Ma'am for arranging a trip to the Chennai harbour ). The bus journeys were just great. We leaned out of the window, made fun of fellow motorists but the fun inside was kickass stuff...imitating the way Anuja sings and her apple polishing attitude, Sukanya's Oonjal matter and of course we had Kutty Sriram who was always made the scape goat. Dolphin City and Mahabalipuram made for two great places of visit that year and we had a wonderful time.

On the whole, JV life was where I made ' FRIENDS FOR LIFE ' and it's a special feeling when I see myself in touch with almost all of them even today. The time we all spent together are great memories, which might better find place in a book.