Some experiences you can never forget- Kalpakkam 2004!!!

Debilitated by all the work for past few weeks, I could not spare time for my blog.In this post I will share my real life experience and explicate how that experience inspired me to help others in whatever small ways I could. As I always say, let's roll.

I went to an enrichment camp organised by our school in Kalpakkam in 2004. It was a 4 day camp starting 23rd December. This was the first time I was going out on a trip without my parents. As any teenager would be, I was really excited about this trip. I met students from all over the country, school toppers/state toppers and a couple of CBSE  board rankers as well. It was a fun experience to be part of such a precocious cohort and learn about what each one of them had planned to do further. It was also perplexing to see that these young chaps were not just exemplary students, they were outstanding in at least one other extracurricular activity as well. Some played music, others were good at painting,sports,writing etc. 

For 26th, we had plans to go to Mahabalipuram. I had made a lot of new friends and the night before we were discussing everything we would do there. We had read about Mahabalipuram and were really looking forward to visiting the historical place. Any guesses on what might happen the next day? Keep reading!!!!

My group got up early for the breakfast so that we could be the first on the bus. We were in this grand school hall chit-chatting while other students were having their breakfast. Suddenly ,the school peon came in shouting, asking everyone to run to the first floor of the building. We had no idea on what was happening. When we asked him, he said that there was a big crocodile that had escaped from a nearby zoo and thus we must run upstairs. Our teachers guided us to the rooms of the first floor and we sat their for about 30 minutes. Every student came up with suggestions on how to handle the situation with one of them even suggesting that "let's go and kill the crocodile ourselves". But we sat their waiting and then we all saw what was really happening.

We saw water flowing into the school and wondered what was happening. When we looked outside, our hearts sank. We saw water everywhere. We looked at the sea from the other window and could notice that the waves were unusually high. As the water kept rising inside the school and outside, we thought that it was a flood. But there were no rains and thus how could it flood. We kept asking our teachers on what was happening but no one had a clue. Everyone just asked us to remain where we were and calm down. How could you calm down, you could see huge waves in the sea, enormous amounts of water outside your building and water level slowly increasing inside the building. But we had no other option as well. There was only one floor in the building and then a terrace to which only the most fit students could climb to. Within the next few minutes we could see the chairs, tables, plates and other stuff floating in the water in our building. The intensity of water flowing outside had increased. We could see cycles, bikes and other heavy items being carried by water as if those items were weightless. That was the moment we realised that we may never make out of that building.

"It is a Tsunami", yelled one student. I had never heard such a word but the sound of it really sent shivers down my spine. He explained us the phenomenon and we wondered how an earthquake in sea could be the cause of all this. Knowing we were not even in a flood like situation but something that never happened in India further diminished our hopes of survival. We panicked, we cried and then consoled each other. After all what we could do. We had seen nature's strength that day and were powerless to do anything against it.We just waited there, in the hope that something miraculous would happen and we would live to see another day. 

After about 3 hours we noticed that the water level started decreasing. The level was about 15 feet in our school but it was nothing short of a miracle to see it going down. We could also see less water outside the school and thought that God had answered our prayers. Once the level was safe, teachers double checked that it was safe outside the school and then guided us outside. We got a bus to take us to the nearest safest place( arranged by the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant). On our way we saw a lot of things that are best left unsaid. I just don't have the words to describe the kind of destruction caused all around. That was the moment I realised what it feels like to be helpless.The only thing you expect is for someone or something to come and help you, to hold your hand and guide you to the end of the tunnel where there is again some light. This was the defining moment of my life. I did live to see another day and promised myself to make it meaningful, to make a difference.

David Luiz - We will miss you Sideshow Bob!!!!!

On Thursday, I read the article on Daily Mail UK that Chelsea FC were in advanced talks with PSG for the transfer of David Luiz. Nervous, I went through a couple of other sports websites and all of them confirmed the news. I thought this could be just like millions of other transfer news that never materialize. To my dismay, I was wrong. Chelsea's official website confirmed today that David Luiz was indeed leaving the club this summer and have agreed a fee with PSG for the Defender.

I truly believe he was an asset to the club and was simply not settled at the bridge that led to few shaky performances. You don't get to see those nervous moments, silly passes or careless defensive mistakes when he plays for Brazil. Why? Probably because everyone trusts him there, he is their captain, their leader. His partnership with Silva for Brazil is arguably the best Central Defensive partnership in the world at the moment, now they will play together at PSG. I just wish we had a manager that could give him the same confidence and get the best out of him for Chelsea as well.

I believe David Luiz is simply an outstanding ball playing defender who is extremely flexible. He showed how good he is last season when he played in the Defensive Midfielder role under Benitez. Whatever the reason for the decline in form, I will always rate him high and I am very sure he will soon prove his doubters wrong especially disrespectful former players who have had a number of jibes at him.

On a side note, Chelsea have got a good amount of transfer money on this deal that can easily be invested in a couple of areas that we are weak in. Its a win-win situation for both the clubs. Defensively we have a couple of very bright young prospects: Zouma and Kalas and I feel in a couple of years they can fill in the void left by Luiz  and Terry.

KTBFFH!!!!!!!

Life of an IT guy- Is it something we always wanted????

I am sure you must have guessed by the name of the post that I am the typical IIM guy.Oh wait by IIM, I meant the Indian IT Male janta(crowd). Don't crack your head with that silly joke, I can't help my humor at this stage of my life :D.In this post I will describe a typical day of an IIM guy(fictious character) and hope many other IIMians out there can relate with it and then leave the rest to judge whether it really is worth the effort since your birth(almost all parents want their children to join Infosys/TCS when they are born isn't it, reminds me of Three Idiots :)) .As I always say in my posts, enough of my inane talk, lets roll.

7 AM Monday morning(general shift pleasant days) : The alarm goes off and I hate that sound even if its the best song that I had set the night before. I keep snoozing it till my room mate(not married yet, if you are then it will be your wife ) abuses me with his usual one liner - "Are nahi jamta to kyun lagata hai(If you cannot get up why the hell you set the alarm)".

9:00 AM : Done with the morning news paper,chores and all other stuff, I head to office full of energy and ready to leave my mark on the corporate world(hyperbole I know but I do feel that way sometimes). The usual ride to office is about an hour. Since I have developed a couple of hobbies, the transit time has never been an issue.

10:20 AM: I reach the office and the fun starts.The office cab/bus was late and my supervisor looks at me as if I have committed a felony. Is that my mistake if the transport is late, don't think about giving that excuse, the obvious reply would be "Why don't you shift to a nearby place." LOL, I would not do that sin, would be my instant reaction(in my mind ofcourse, can you retort like that to you supervisor?). As if spending 12 hours in office is not enough, if I shift to a nearby place, your expectation will be to invest those 2  hours in office rather than with family or friends.

1 PM : Back to back meetings. Aha!!!!Meetings, makes you feel I am doing some great work isn't it that needs so much planning and coordination. The truth is everyone is fooling himself/herself. I don't think anyone needs a degree to do the the kind of work we do.

4 PM:  A colleague comes up to me and asks to take a break. I feel, of course I want a break not for 15 minutes but from this work. I have timelines to meet, I have a greedy client who just can't be satisfied with whatever we deliver, I have an even more gluttonous management who not only wants you to complete your work but also be pro-active and innovative. Even a mango tree cannot grow in conditions suitable for Paddy, that is the rule of the nature isn't it. A person thrives if you provide him/her suitable conditions not if you suck the juice out of his/her life and then ask him/her- Can you please complete this assignment too?

7 PM: My shift ends. Are you kidding me? Who will complete this assignment is my supervisor's question?Who will provide the handover(why do I need to stretch for handovers, can't the privileged onsite guys join a bit early). This is mission critical stuff and there is no one better than you to complete it, please stretch a bit and I will leave.LOL again, mission critical ? The only reason you say its mission critical is for me to feel that I a super hero who can save the project by completing this stuff, just like Spider Man saves Mary Jane in the movie. We all like to be heroes and that's what these guys bank upon.

9 PM: I realize that I have a life outside work as well and I must wrap up for the day. Just then, my onsite supervisor pings me and asks whether I could just complete this one last thing. The super hero drama starts and I am trapped again.

10:30 PM: Finally the work is done, all handovers are complete and I can head out. I just realize in all this huff and puff, I forgot to grab my dinner . I also did not get time to call home or friends.Too bad, I console myself thinking this was just a bad day at the office and everything would be fine the next day. Ya next day that will probably never come.

But we like to be positive, hold to even the lightest piece of hay.With that thought I grab my dinner, head home and sleep at about 12 with the hope that tomorrow will be a better day and bring in an opportunity that will make me want to do the work rather than abhor it and still do it for the sake of survival.

I will leave you with that thought!!!!


DISCLAIMER : This is not my personal story : !!!!

Chelsea football Club - Keep the Blue Flag Flying High

Hola amigos.

I thought about it very long. I told myself why not. After all we do it for our happiness, don't we?
I started blogging by writing a couple of posts on real estate (why? because i had to struggle a lot in my search and I wanted to help others). I followed it with a couple of posts on how to manage your investments(again I struggled a lot to make my investment decisions). What next? I thought why not write about things I love, follow, revere. So my next post was dedicated to SSRT(an extra S for Sir :) ). Next in line is my biggest passion : Football and Chelsea Football Club.

I have been a football fanatic for 13 years now(since 2001). Liverpool was my first love simply because I loved Robbie Fowler.I simply admire the atmosphere at Anfield(even today). But then, I did not find that passion supporting Liverpool, something was missing. I quickly realized my love affair with Liverpool was simply an infatuation, a teenager's love. My heart lied somewhere else, where? With CHELSEA FC. I started supporting them in 2002 and simply loved the zeal of Gianfranco Zola.I won't be presenting any statistics here because I want to use this post to look back at some of the proudest moments of our club. So let's roll.

Premiere League Champions for 2004-2005. Our first league win after 50 years with the Special One in charge. A billionaire owner, extremely talented new manager, millions invested and we get what we deserve.

We became champions of England again in 2005-2006.Super Frankie finished the season with 20 goals and was voted the second best player in the world. Ballack(one of my favorites) and Cole arrived in the summer.Sky was the limit for this side but things did not turn out that way. That's the beauty of this game. Although we did win the FA and the Carling Cup, Champions League was still an elusive dream.

The Special one was no more special at the bridge and departed with mutual consent in 2007.Although Chelsea did reach the UEFA Champions League final that year, they lost to Man Utd on penalties. I won't ever forget that day.As soon as JT hit that penalty and Van Der Saar dived the wrong way, i ran across my flat jumping and shouting like a 2 year old kid. After 5 minutes of wild celebrations, i came back to the TV set just to see Anelka miss his penalty. What a shame,he never looked like he would score.It was time for another change at the Bridge.

Luis Felipe Scolari was brought in as a new manager for the 2008-2009 season. After a promising start to the campaign with Chelsea playing attractive football(as some call it), results started to falter.Scolari was axed just 8 months into the campaign and Hiddink was hired as an interim manager. We won the FA cup that season and the future looked bright again. A man of his words, Hiddink did not take the full time charge of the club and returned to his Russian national team coaching role.

Come 2009-2010, Carlo Ancelloti was hired the new manager and he delivered big time. We not only won the FA cup but also won the Premiere League scoring 103 goals in the season.There were three 7-0 wins and an astonishing 8-0 win over Wigan on the final day of the League. It was the first double in Chelsea's history. The following season was a disappointment(as per our standards) since we did not reach any Cup finals and could only finish second in the League. By now you might have guessed : a change was on its way.

AVB dubbed as the new Mourinho was named the manager. Great things were expected from him but it turned out to be anti-climax. There is nothing worth mentioning of AVB's tenure in charge at the bridge, let's move on.

  

 

Roberto Di Matteo was named the interim manager(yes AVB was axed in March).And then it came, finally!!!!!!!The Dream was no longer a Dream, it became a reality. We fought, we dig in, we gave it all. We cried, we rallied, we celebrated all along. This time i did not run across the flat only to return and see my team loose. This time I sat there all along praying for the impossible to happen - till the final penalty was hit,the ball went in, drogba ran across field and all the players fell on one another to form a lump of bodies. A Day to remember, a Day to cherish!!!!!!!!

The 2012-2013 season started very well, but a string of poor results in the league and Champions league brought an end to the Di Matteo era(yes i do call it an era!!!). The next manager inline was Rafael Benitez(a hero for the Liverpool fans). The fans were not amused with his appointment and gave him a very hard time. They were not to blame, this was the same manager who had multiple jibes aimed at Chelsea during his stint at Liverpool. But all is well that ends well, Chelsea became the Europa League Champions, the first club in the history to hold both the European Cups simultaneously. Super Frankie broke Bobby Tambling's record and became the club's record goal scorer, an amazing feat for a midfielder.

Something that followed is truly amazing. A second home coming for the Special one(the only Special one). Although the 2013-2014 has not gone very well for us - probably a third place finish in the league(final game of the season is today) and no cup wins, I expect great things from this Chelsea side. With the best manager in football, I am sure we will again be the best club in the world.

KEEP THE BLUE FLAG FLYING HIGH!!!!!!!!


Blue is the colour, football is the game We're all together and winning is our aim
So cheer us on through the sun and rain' Cause Chelsea, Chelsea is our name.



Images courtesy Google images.

2 states - Can I claim its my story?

Yeah yeah I know, no post for over an year and now I have 2 in a day. As I mentioned in my other post on Sir Sachin Tendulkar, I was so pre-occupied with other stuff that i could not devote time to writing. Enough of all my melodrama, lets get straight to the topic of today's post- 2 states - Can I claim its my story?

First of all I had not read Chetan Bhagat's 2 states but watched the movie yesterday. I must congratulate Abhishek Verman for such a simple yet elegant movie. I must also commend the performances of Alia and and Arjun and a special mention for Ronit Roy for such a fine performance.No prizes for guessing that me and my better half had planned for this movie long ago. We had seen the trailer together about 2 months ago and knew that this is the movie we ought to watch - Why, because its the story of my life, oh sorry the story of our life.

In the movie Arjun falls in love with Alia in IIM A. I could not wait that long though, I fell in love with this girl when I was 15. We were both in the same school but different sections. So we hardly saw each other but still whenever I could get a chance I made full use of it. I still remember I used to wait on our school ground for 10-15 minutes in the morning so that I could walk behind her to the class cherishing each glimpse of her's on the way. She still has not admitted that she knew I would be waiting there every morning, she says she started noticing me when we were 17, common man can you believe this. Anyways, this waiting game continued for about an year - I kept waiting for her in the morning, found reasons to go to her class, made some common friends but still did not have the courage to talk to her. I even started taking rounds of her house especially whenever there was a power cut since i knew she would be sitting in her lawn. No man i was not a stalker, I was rather a kid who really liked a girl but did not have the courage to tell her.

Time went by and I got busy with the board preparations. To my surprise I topped the board exams in my school and was even among the 0.1 % students who got a perfect score in Maths in the CBSE board. I felt like a stallion (Rocky fan) and went to the next level to impress her. Soon she noticed me(that's what she says) and started giving it a thought. The missed call game started and one fine day I said "Listen i know who you are and you know who I am so lets chuck this game" . She kept the phone and I thought gosh what have I done. Did I screw everything up? Did I do all this too soon? Should I have given it a little more time? I had been contemplating for 6 hours when my phone rang and the rest is history.

We fell in love when we were 17 and it is only growing with each passing day. We had an eventful Junior college and an even better college life. After graduating from our respective colleges, we happened to get jobs in the same city. What more could you ask from the Almighty. You guys must be wondering where is the connection with 2 states, let me explain in a bit. Did I mention that she is a Brahmin and I am from a typical Punjabi family?  Her parents asked her for a couple of marriage proposals when we were 23 and she had to finally tell them about me, As expected her parents did not approve of this and the serene love story turned into a tumultuous one. It took her 2 years to convince her family. I lost count of the number of times she cried in these two years but she never lost hope, the hope of getting married to me, but she stood like a soldier willing to die but not to give up. She finally managed to convince them and now it was my turn. I cannot boast that I played any part in convincing her parents as Arjun did in the movie. I talked to my mother and just as in the movie the Punjabi drama started, its true we Punjabis are very emotional, very ostentatious and very melodramatic. Just as every other boy in the country, I did not have the guts to speak directly to my dad. All sorts of questions were asked - you are too young, you are not settled, we are Punjabis how will we adjust with a Brahmin family, please focus on your studies. I answered all the questions but my parents were not convinced. I thought its better that the parents meet and discuss the solutions but it was probably a mistake. The parents met and everything that happened in the movie happened in our life too.

Good movies are made so that people can connect to it . 2 states is not just a good movie, its a reflection of the last 10 years of my life. I did not want to write a 5000-10000 word post but simply put everything that's shown in the movie happened in our lives too, the movie is simple and so are our lives. I just hope my love story has the same fate as the movie's.

Sir Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - a Legend, an Icon and a Champ.

I am finally back from my sabbatical. Had so much to do that i simply could not devote enough time to blogging. Sorting out my dreams , dealing with personal issues, excelling at work and a host of other problems barraged me from time to time.I simply could not do what i love to do in my free time. But today i promise to all my viewers never to take such a long break. Its well said that unless you miss something, you don't know what its worth.

Today's post is dedicated to Sir Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar- the best cricketer the world has ever seen, no arguments here, and probably will ever see. No only because of all the records he has broken, the numerous runs he has scored, his hundred 100's but also because of the way he has handled all this success. Admit it, we all like to brag.Especially in India people like to crow about everything: grades, money, relationships, gadgets, property, kids,pets, the list is simply endless. Crux of the matter is we are experts at ostentatious displays. Understand what i mean and you will start appreciating the God already. I call him the God, yes the God of cricket. You might think i am getting carried away like millions of other Indians in calling SSRT(an extra S for Sir) the God. No i am not getting carried away, read on to find out why.

Tendlya(don't run a spell check, one of the many synonyms that I will use for Sachin) got his first bat when he was 11. Love the fact that he was rejected by the Dennis Lille bowling academy in 1987.At the age of 14 he scored a mammoth 329 in a school match in a world record partnership with Vinod Kambli. Naturally many of the selectors had noticed this small ,curly haired chap making news all over the country.A year later he scored a century on his first-class debut for Bombay (Mumbai), and at age 16 years 205 days he became India’s youngest Test (international) cricketer, making his debut against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989. The career changing tour was the tour down under in which he scored 2 centuries. Our little chap announced himself on the world stage and there was no looking back from there on.

He was the first overseas player to represent the Yorkshire team in 1992, now i know why Geoffrey boycott admired him so much. He was also the youngest Indian cricketer to play in a county cricket match. Not that the journey has been a smooth ride for our Tedlya. He was out for a duck on his International ODI debut,had to wait for 79 innings to get his maiden ODI century, charged with ball tempering on a tour of South Africa, indifferent form after a career threatening tennis elbow injury,supporting Harbhajan in the Monkey episode but he did what he does best, let the bat talk and answer his critics. He is also infamously remembered for the Chennai Test loss to Pakistan in 1999 but very few people know that the reason he did not turn up for the presentation was that he was crying in the dressing room. This clearly shows the level of commitment and responsibility he had for the sport and specially for his country.Let's get to some startling facts :he is the only Indian to be in the Wisden's World X1, the greatest ever ODI batsman and the second best Test batsman. He was named the player of the tournament in two different world cups, the 1996 and 2003, sadly India lost in semis in the former and in finals in the latter. The only cricketer to have scored hundred international 100's, more than 30000 international runs, 8705 runs in Test away from home and amass the first double hundred in ODI. I do want to list all the records he has broken but the list is so big that i simply cannot. Tendia was awarded with the Arjuna award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. He was also awarded with Bharat Ratna,the highest civilian award in India,on 16th November 2013 soon after retiring from international cricket.

People say he was not a match winner for India. I laugh at them because these people simply overlook the fact that Cricket is a team sport. The Indian team of the 1990 era was not good enough to win a lot of matches but still there are many matches that tendlya won for us. Don't forget he was an opening batsman too, do you expect him to bat through the innings and win every match for us. A batsman is there to bat, a bowler to bowl and the fielders to field. If we had even 3 SSRT in our team of 11, i bet India would have won every other match and a host of international tournaments. But that's not possible because a sportsperson like sachin is born only once in a decade or probably once in a century or a millennium. I back this pretension with the fact that tendia has won 62 man of the matches award in his career, the most by any cricketer, followed by Jayasuriya with 48 and Kallis with 32. If people don't think he is a match winner why do we love him so much. I have seen it myself - when i was a kid my dad and uncle used to come from office early just to see him bat, i have seen the crowds gather outside TV retail shops just to get a glance of SSRT's cover drive, i have seen people in my office cramp up the room when Sachin was at the crease and leave as soon as he got out, i have seen people cheer his name in the stadium like we cheer for our motherland, i have also seen people dance and clap whenever he would hit a four or six. Why all this euphoria if we don't think he is a match winner. I will tell you why, because we love him so much that we expect him to score a century and win every match for India. Anything less and we start blaming him for the loss - everyone has a reason to blame him. The day we understand the meaning of the sport and stop getting carried away by our emotions will be the day we would truly understand Sachin's legacy.

For me cricket is not the same without the little master. I have lost my interest in the sport not because it has become boring but because my love was never for the sport. My love was always for the genius who played the sport from 1989 - 2013 and the day he retired is the same day i too retired from watching cricket. Not that i do not watch cricket but i simply do not enjoy it now. There is no reason for me now to run home to watch a match, check online scores every second,clap and shout hysterically, embarrass myself in the cafeteria shouting Sachiiiiin Sachiiiin, call around just to check if he is still batting- there are simply no emotions left in the sport. Cricket was my love when you were there but now its just a sport. Even now while i am writing this blog, my GF asked me: Is Sachin mad for not playing at least the IPL. Shows you how much we miss you SSRT.

I am proud to say - I was alive when Sachin played cricket!!!!!

My love and admiration will always be for you , Sir Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.