The Statement

The night wasn’t getting any younger, and neither were we. It was high time for us to assess our stand on what had come to be known as relationships. The word excitement summarizes our thoughts on the then newly evolved notion. Everyone, including us, was buzzed with the idea. With most of my friends way ahead in the race, my group didn’t want to fall back either.

So, discussing on the topic, and two of the four of us(including me) already committed, frustration was pouring out from the other two. We were discussing how a third one of us was hitting on an already committed girl. The fourth however, wasn’t on any girl’s list. He had a whole list of his own crushes though.

Right then the fourth, frustrated and desperate, with reference to the Indian Railway Reservation System, commented "Ok guys, this is the scenario, you two (pointing to the already involved ones) have a confirmed seat, this guy (pointing to the third) has a RAC and I, well, I am in Waiting”. We all had a good laugh for the next couple of days on that statement. It was, spot on!

Brand India

An Italian guy dressed in a Tiranga riding the name Force India. World over players playing under one banner – The INDIAN Premier League. Entertainment in the name of India. Wow!
Harsha Bhogle narrates an incident in TED India Talks about Dwayne Bravo in the IPL. I quote the incident.

Mumbai Indians (MI) flew in Dwayne Bravo(DB) from Trinadad and Tabago overnight and when he had to go back to represent the West Indies, they asked him
MI: When do you have to reach?
DB: I have to reach by certain time so I have to leave today
MI: No, no, It’s not about when do you have to leave; it’s about when you have to reach.
DB: I have to reach on date X.
MI: Fine then, you play a match on the day X-1.
So he played in Hyderabad, went straight from the stadium to the airport, sat in a private jet and he was in West Indies in time. Never would India have thought on such a scale before.

Brand India is now recognized world over. It is not the land of snake charmers anymore. However, India is at the edge of a precipice. It can now take off and soar, going ever higher; it can stay where it is; or it can suddenly begin to fall. Of which I hope the former is true. Jai Hind!

Great Expectations

Engineer Sudeep Sodani. That would be my title in some time. And every time I mull over it, the funnier it sounds to me. Did I expect life to be so? A big NO! Expectations are a part of life, and getting nowhere near them comes complementary. I started out with dreams of being a scientist at the age of 7. As I aged, so did my dreams, making their way through an archeologist, a businessman and a pilot, to being an engineer.
Am I happy? Or do I look back at my choices with dissent? I am glad that I have a real job at hand but the thought of being one of those professionals, fascinates me to the core. Boy o boy! Me as the next Indiana Jones? What a life it would be! Reality bites back to bring me to the truth, to make me realize the essence of the real world. But I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Great expectations aren’t that great after all when they turn that smile upside down. Life is a roller coaster ride. What is the point if you anticipate in life? Let it be the way it is supposed to be. So I believe, do not expect, just remember to hope.

The Bicycle Analogy

With the last two months of college lined up, a conflict of emotions emerges within me and my friends. Excitement for the future ahead and what it holds for us verses the fear of letting go what has been our home for the past four years.
Pulling each others' leg, the long talks in canteen, the boring lectures, and the list goes on and on. So many things you want to remember, the ones you don’t, you hope will pass over time. However these few years have turned out to be, one thing is for sure. These days will be remembered. Clearly etched in our memory will be every laugh, every fight, every moment spent here. Reminiscing heightens all these emotions, as we look back at this place feeling safe. And so the memory lane narrows down on you, making you believe that the idea of facing the world all alone, though churns your stomach, is not safe at all.
Excitement for the future, however, makes this notion interesting. The fear translates onto a better side, like riding a bicycle for the first time. Though it doesn’t seem safe, the urge to get on that bike and try something new is fascinating. So get on that bike, and once you ride it, you will love the wind rushing through your hair, even though you might look back at walking with awe.

Master Class

There were no running laps around the field, no aggressive gestures, nothing over-the-top. He did what he always does, raised both his arms, closed his eyes for a moment and quietly acknowledged that it had been done. The way Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar celebrated when he reached his 200 epitomized the man's persona.
It took 20 years for the little master to break a record that stood strong for nearly 40 years. However, it’s just not the numbers game that is worth acknowledging. His attitude, endurance and respect for the game are much more significant. It’s not just now that his love for the game is visible. Previous instances have had us witness the greatness of this man. No one can forget Sachin receiving the Man of the Match award with tears in his eyes, because India lost that match. Even at the top, he understands that the game is bigger than him and not the other way around.
Most of the sportsmen provide us with entertainment. This man has provided us with much more in the name of cricket – Emotion.

Fade to Black

January, 2009 is clearly etched in my memory as my college witnessed the death of two students. While ones’ heart gave out to the pressure of failure, another committed suicide for reasons unknown. More than a year later, a similar incident resurfaced my feelings on the matter. Before I put forth my views, let me narrate the incident.
Recently, life support was taken off a student, from our college, who had been declared brain dead, as a result of drug overdose. When medicines didn’t provide remedy for his regular viral infections, drugs (suggested by his friends) seemed to do the trick. Neither of the neighbor students, nor the warden or college authorities, nor his parents paid attention to his condition. And after all was said and done, it just became a hot gossip topic for everyone in and out of college. Everyone speculated as to what the reasons were, but the reason was quite clear - Ignorance.
In India, student deaths expire with newspaper headlines, and this is a matter of concern. Here, the youth are considered to be the future of the country. So what happens when the youth are consumed away by suicides, drugs and failures? The bright future fades to black. I believe that this is not the end of such incidents, and I hope that I am proved wrong.

The Story

So many a times we have stopped at traffic signals and have had beggars come up to us for money. We might also have encountered a few men telling us their sad stories and eventually the need for money. Experiences tell us to avoid these supposed con men, to ignore them and look away. The other day, waiting at a bus stand for a friend, I, with a group of friends, had a similar rendezvous.

Ignoring the guy when he first walked up to us and asked for money, we continued our wait. We didn’t turn a deaf ear though, and listened to his story with little emotion. He had traveled 850 km from his home to come to Jaipur to find a job, heeding his brothers’ advice, who lived in the city. On reaching his brothers’ address, he learnt that his brother had left the place. Stranded, he spent all of his money searching for a job. Now he had only one choice, that to go home. With a train the same night, he just wanted some money for “kharcha paani”, as he put it. The story, though far-fetched, involved us somehow. To add to it all, he pointed out his wife and son, whom he had brought along all the way from his village. We tried to cross-examine the story, trying to find a loop hole, but he seemed to have had a genuine answer to all our questions. We guided him to a police station, but he told us he had already been there and they had given him rotis, and that this was all the help the police had provided. Saying this he showed us a container filled with rotis. We had listened enough, but to believe that a man in his late twenties could be so stupid, as to bring his family along without a job, would be stupidity on our part. We contributed 40 bucks, not for the man and his story, but for the wife and the kid.

I am not sure if we did the right thing or not. Did we encourage art of con or really help out a guy in distress? I am sure of this though, it is our innate nature to be humane, and we do lend out a helping hand whenever someone, no matter who it is, touches our hearts.

Stranger than Fiction

Since I started watching TV shows, to picture myself as one of the characters has always been so fascinating. To relate to them is so easy, for one’s life seems so dull as compared to the fiction. Even my accent, jokes, gestures have somehow come to be, as they are, from beyond the screen. Enveloped in the character, seems like such a safe place to be, where you are sure that any storm will fade, and it will always be a happy ending. Characters such as Barney (How I Met Your Mother), Joey (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) and Charlie (Two and a Half Men) give us a delusion that a regular guy, even with his ups and downs, can get any lady he wants. Any guy can only dream of such a life, for it’s perfect in his eyes. He strives to suit up, do anything he learns from them, to be them. What we need to realize is that not everyone is a Casanova and more importantly, that life is stranger than fiction. The art of a different girl every night is but a fairy tale, only resulting in instability in real life. So just sit back, enjoy the show, and let the moment pass, for your life is better than fiction.

The Cheap King

When Madame Tussauds welcomed SRK, a.k.a the King of Bollywood, into the elite company, I was disappointed. His contribution to the world of cinema though noteworthy, has been monotonous in nature. Leaving out some movies like Darr or Chak De, he has been able to don one character only, that of a chocolate guy. I am not judging his talent, simply implying that his talent, like him, is old. Why do I think so lowly of Shah Rukh? It all started with a show back home. A group of Bollywood superstars, including Shah Rukh, came to town to perform a show. During the act, Shah Rukh called a lady from the audience and told her that he would do the same thing to her, which he did to Aishwarya Rai in the movie Josh. Nodding in agreement, she waited, anticipating a dance or so with the King of Khans. And what did the king do? He spat a gulp of water on her face. Shocked and humiliated, the lady walked off the stage. Even though the crowd laughed and the show carried on, the mental image of the cheap king disgusted me henceforth. Oh and why is it that he delivers movies which are blockbuster hits? It is sheer marketing. Behind the humble looking king is actually a sly-cheap-fagging human, who cares only about his own existence. My name is R@DeN, and I am not a SRK fan.

The Flash in the Pan

Ever since Roger Federer tasted success, the one roadblock that he faced every year was, and this is no revelation, the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. The 17-year old became such a treat to watch, as he worked his way up to the #2 spot, winning four French opens. No rally was too long for him, and the opponent had no answer for his powerful forehands. Then came Wimbledon ’07, and we saw him battle out for the #1 spot, a classic five-setter match, eventually which he lost. A year later, an emphatic Nadal returned and confronted the same nerves with much more confidence, winning the Wimbledon '08. The ghosts of Nadal got to Federer and he lifted the Australian Open ‘09. As he felt happiness with tears in his eyes, Nadal set out to become the #1 player. However, as opposed to Fed-Ex’s game which is based on fluid mechanics, Nadal’s game deteriorated as his knees gave out to tendinitis. The injury caused not only physical, but a mental glitch as well. Recovering from the injury, he came back a different, a struggling Nadal. The US Open ‘09 and the Australian Open ‘10 witnessed the fall of Nadal, from a demolition machine to the guy with a limp. The world expressed its sympathy, and gave the once champion a burial in their minds, considering him just a flash in the pan. He returns from injury again though and I, a Rafael Nadal fanatic, can only hope that they are wrong. Vamos Rafa!

The Ugly Temptation

It’s just a coincidence that my first post comes to be on this date, February the 14th. It’s been 21 long years of single valentines, but that’s not the sorry part. What makes this Valentines even more disappointing than the others? The ugly temptation to call someone so special to you, who doesn’t really care anymore. The urge, though will last only for the day, is quite overwhelming. The conflict between the mind and the soul is exhausting, of which I can only hope the mind prevails. To know that the person is just a call away seems to gives all the more reason to listen to the heart. Even saying the phrase ALL IZZ WELL to yourself, doesn’t do much either. Maybe it’s the unanswered questions, maybe so many things unsaid, maybe just the thought of us. You only wish the person had stayed just a little longer, to listen to your heart. Saturated with all these thoughts, you reminisce the memories, only to sulk even more. It is at this point of saturation, that you need to remember that the person is not the same you fell in love with, that the love is gone. Realization knocks your head and you see the world beyond, the bliss.