Unforgettable moments

We all have moments we can never forget. I've decided to do a list. These are in no particular order.

1. 4th standard - My sister giving me her cooking class output - channa with bread. Still remains one of my best meals.
2. 4th standard - Rain holiday. The Principal stood outside the school in pouring pouring rain, and we all peered out at her from the bus, and she said the magical word - 'holiday'.
3. 1994 World Cup Final - Roberto Baggio missing the penalty kick against Brazil. I woke up at 2 in the night to watch that match, and the bugger kicked into the sky. Crap!
4. 1994 World Cup Final - The next day, we wore black to college (11th standard), as a sign of mourning. Not since my hero had kicked out, but since Brazil had won! Loved doing that! :-)
5. March 2006 - Driving my CEO's BMW M5. Awesome! 60 miles of pure pleasure on the M25.
6. May 2006 - Driving a motorboat in Brightlingsea, Colchester, while cheering on a sailing race! Awesome again!
7. 1991/92 - The first time (in a long time) when my mum laughed from the bottom of her stomach. The joke - it was a tamil movie, and a character was lying drunk on the ground. And someone tries to wake him by pouring water on him. The character gets up, and asks - 'is it raining in Tamil Nadu?'. Lol!
8. 1980's and early 1990's - watching regional language movies with English sub-titles at the bottom. Nice. :-)
9. Early 2004 - Going parasailing with Priya, and falling into the sea after take-off. :-) Had to happen to me.
10. 1998 - Winning a free pizza at Pizza corner, winning the college caption competition, winning Alpha girl...
11. Oct 2003 - Winning a travel bag in Manish travels Volvo for a full house in Housie. Was going for Aparna's wedding in Bombay.
12. 1st Feb 2004 - My great friend's wedding in Kerala. Nair & Resmi.

Enough for this round. More to follow later...

MBA

Life's been so miserable in my workplace thanks to some very harmless words like 'management restructuring', 'turnaround', 'BPR', 'downsizing'... The right word is 'slaughter' -since people/resources/limits/decision-making capabilities/infact just about everything is being slaughtered...

MBA's create these jargons and its all fun and games, until the damn thing turns around and bites you in the butt!!!

Sigh!

FIFA World Cup 2006

England FC

A week before the FIFA World Cup, I was in the oldest town of England - Colchester. A quiet, quaint little village. Friendly taxi drivers and people with my kind of laid back attitude to life.

But there's nothing laid back about their passion for the beautiful game. And the English press are wonderful hallucinists - this will be THE year, they claim. They rant on and on about how they have the best players in the world - Beckham, Lampard, Terry, Owen, Rio and the wonder kid Wayne Rooney. The time has come to restore England's position as the first team of the game. After 40 years, its gonna be sweet sweet revenge!

Oh well! Its now the quarter final stage of the World Cup. The first game between England and Paraguay gave a new meaning to the word 'scrappy'. Unofrtunately the second and third games didn't too much better. The pre-quarters were a disgrace to put it mildly.

So what do the English press say now?

It's that foreigner! Sven-Goran-Eriksson, I believe, is the most despised man in the English Kingdom. Atleast for the past week and the next couple of days. And beyond that, if England make it past Scolari's bullies.

Portugal

Which very neatly brings me to the country with the push-me-and-i'll-push-you or don't-push-me-and-i'll-still-push-you players. I live in a state called Goa, which till about 45 years ago had been a Portugese colony. The Portugues left, the Indians extended their map by a miniscule dot to include Goa in its borders, and yet, yet, the Goans believe they are still a part of Portugal. That is, a certain brand of the Goans. These people believe that their land has been illegally occupied and they must still fight for their freedom, but now against the tyranical force called India.
I personally know some members of this ilk. You'd think they're harmless, sosegad characters, until the venom starts spouting. 'How can we give our jobs to you outsiders?' 'How dare you live in our State?' 'Throw the non-Goans out!'.

Funny! If only they'd realize they'd be no jobs in the first place without these so-called outsiders.

Back to Football. Do I think the English press would be proved as visionaries rather than hallucinists? I have a hat, a wig and a flag with the St. George's Cross to prove my loyalties. I fear, even on a good day, it may not be enough.

But it just might be enough to pip 'em Portugese at the post!

:-)

Worship

To worship is to surrender your will for the glory of God. The glory of God is the radiance of his holiness. As you worship and surrender your will, you will understand His holiness.

You will see Him the way Hannah saw it in 1 Samuel 2:2 "there is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God"

Lord make your holiness our passion. Let us be a generation whose only desire is to declare your glory among the nations and your marvelous works among all the peoples!

Amen.

Faith

I believe in God the Father, through Jesus Christ who paid my penalty.

There are somethings in life that I just don't grasp. This is one of them - Amazing love, how can it be? That Thou my Lord should'st die for me.

I don't try to understand it. I just believe.

60 years - 16/06/06

My father is an amazing man, the older I got, the smarter he became. Things I have inherited from my dad
– have no fear ‘cos God is mightier than anything,
– drive only in overdrive or second gear,
– growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional,
– laugh from the bottom of your stomach and
– love old cars.

May 6th

Despite I-hate-the-fan and I-need-the-AC routine, they made it… thirty two years (1974-2006) – definitely more better than worse.

My parents wedding anniversary.

Anna

My endeavor is to be an individual with integrity and with the ability to reason, and in the pursuit of excellence create and sustain productive and constructive businesses. My dream is in the words of Tagore,

Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Kolkata

There are certain places in Kolkata that look like photo stills from 1947 barely touched up in Eastman colour. The background consists of a large insipid building. In one corner stands a public transport bus with people seated on wooden contraptions and staring out of framed windows. Running across the length of the photograph is the Tollygunge tram with its passengers - the first class ones enjoying the blast of humid air from a ceiling fan of rather enormous proportions, and the fan-less second class masses. Abysmal of all, in the centre, is the handcart with its morbid components - the man, the machine and the merciless man who chooses to ride on one.

Friendship

"The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched arm, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him."

Anna and the King

The 2004 Formula 1 season:

So what does one say about someone who’s won 13 out of 18 races in a season and a car-maker who’s won six consecutive constructor championships – Simply the best!


Awaiting Melbourne - 6th Mar 2005.


The best race of the season

Round 15 - Italy - September 12

With race day came the unexpected – rain and a tyre dilemma. Most went for the dries, except poleman Barrichello. Bad decision. Despite the lead at the start, he had to make an unscheduled stop, handing the lead to Alonso.

But the Brazilian’s misfortune was nothing compared to his teammate’s. Schumacher made contact with Button on lap one, spun, and dropped to 15th. His fight back through the field was impressive. Both he and Barrichello found pace that simply decimated the opposition. It allowed Barrichello to regain, and keep the lead, despite his extra stop, and Schumacher to move all the way back to second by the flag.

Result:

Barrichello P-1, Schumacher P-2.

A Ferrari two-one :-)

Music

What do you call today’s noise? Definitely not music. Perhaps you couldn’t apply that term to the last generation’s efforts as well, but atleast it wasn’t noise. Today you go to a nice little coffee shop, it’s all peace and quiet for a while. And then it starts – dum-nzee-dum-nzee-dum. Imagine a man pounding a rock with a hammer at frantic pace and another nearby rubbing two steel plates together, and then magnify by ten times the garish sound they produce together... you got it. Need a term stronger than ‘noise’ to describe that!

Perhaps it’s the first sign of my moving from being the present generation to becoming the previous generation. I don’t mind. Give me the Dire Straits-Deep Purple-GNR-Pink Floyd-Queen’s or the Bach-Handel-Mozart’s or even the Whitney Houston-Bryan Adams-Bon Jovi’s, and I’ll take them any day of the week and twice on Sunday.