I got this of a link in Facebook…a compilation of quotes made about Sachin. ..amazing! Thought would be apt post his mind blowing run chase in the Hyd match!

Hashim Amla:
“Nothing bad can happen to us if we’re on a plane in India with Sachin
Tendulkar on it.”
Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a
flight

Yaseer Hameed:
“Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and
Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job.”

“To Sachin, the man we all want to be”
- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially
for Sachin

BBC on Sachin:
Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there
is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something
that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even
those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When
he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their
lives “

“But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds -
or a game - until Tendulkar was out.”

“Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?” Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq
when the latter dropped Sachin’s catch.

Brian Charles Lara:
“Sachin is a genius. I’m a mere mortal.”

Mark Taylor:
“We did not lose to a team called India…we lost to a man called Sachin” -
Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

M. L. Jaisimha:
“The more I see of him the more confused I’m getting to which is his best
knock.”

Glenn McGrath:
“The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which
he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -
all make for a one-in-a-billion individual,”

Anjali
“I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute
longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out
there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,”

Matt HAYDEN:
“I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA”

“Even my father’s name is Sachin Tendulkar.”
– Tendulkar’s daughter, Sara, tells her class her father’s name after the
teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai

KUMBLE:
“I am fortunate that I’ve to bowl at him only in the nets!”

Shahrukh (quoting Shahrukh from an interview)
“Que: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were
invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan.
Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!”

Navjot Singh Sidhu:
“India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par
Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte..”

Waqar Younis
“He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.”

A banner once said-’ I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE
SACHIN ‘ that quiet defines Sachin-The greatest.

Allan Donald:
“Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has
many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the
world”

And i remember reading in one of Allan Donald’s interview.
This interview was in Cricket Talk 7-8 yrs ago.

“I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from
point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the
over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to
be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over
and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my
astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin.
His reflex time is the best I have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec.
To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.”

Peter Rebouck, Aussie journalist
“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations.
The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century.
This Genius can stop time in India!!”

NKP Salve, former Union Minister (This was when he was accused of ball tempering)
“Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to
politics. It’s clear discrimination. “

Andy Flower:
“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the
others.

This brought a tear ..its easy to get caught in the hype and the halo effect and all..but seeing is believing! This are the tributes when he is still playing for India. I shudder to think what will happen if he quits. Not just cricket.

Normally, Im not the book review types- atleast not blog about it. But this book was so good, I couldnt help myself.

I picked up 2 states…by Chetan Bhagat (5 point someone fame) from Ambience Mall in Delhi for a good flight book back to hell (kolkata). Normally I would kid myself telling me I would read books on a flight to make even the two hours count like Im some kind of big shot businessman who uses every minute to be productive. I can safely say that pretending to do that was one of the best decisions Ive made 20,000 ft in the air. The book has a very simple premise as mentioned in the blurb. Boy loves Girl, Girl loves boy, they get married, but in India the boy+girl+families from both sides gotta love everyone else remotely connected for it to work out. CB has played out the characters smartly with a role reversal ( Boy is from North –punjab & girl is Tam Bram) which well seems to be the opposite in most cases in reality (mine for example . From the meeting in a B School to juggling high flying corporate careers and weird families, this book is sure to immerse several couples into its 270 pages of wonderful narrative style. I really was not able to place the time period of the book though, seemed a little dated (probably early 90’s ) going by the ‘jaw dropping’ salary( 4 lacs p.a.!!) offered by the MNC joined by the protagonist. Reading about the blatant and exaggerated stereotyping of South Indians was a little insulting and amusing at the same time. I couldn’t help but agree with the observations made – ‘Knowledge is what Tam Brams seek/Education is the highest honour’ to ‘ Dark and Mustached and Rajini worshipping’. The scenes of a punjabi struggling in chennai – autos/no non veg/no beer + ultra conservative had me smiling the entire time. There is a scene in Ratna Stores – the beloved wholesale utlity store thrown in to complete the Chennai experience!

There has been an excess family drama thrown in for good measure, Im guessing to empathies with the hundreds of couples whose North-South Chasm is widened by such narrow minded families, but a harsh reality mentioned candidly by the author.  Guilt Trips glaore – mother vs girlfriend will make the concerend reader squirm endlessly. I will not complain about my family no more  

The romance between the two is brought out very neatly with of course the physical intimacy teasingly left to the readers imagination. Girls would melt on antics don by the protagonist to win over the family of the his girlfriend.. Guys would be up the entire night having to listen to their girlfriends on the above. Boy takes tuitions for girls brother for IIT coaching at 5 in the morning..man what some guys do to get a girl..Id sacrifice 5 years of my life rather than getting up at 5 in the morning unless there was a Counter Strike Tournament or something! I am so gonna get screwed btw. The part where the boy has to choose between Delhi and Chennai as his job location preference brought me out into a cold sweat, as if I had been a subject in CB’s preliminary research for the book! I deliberately don’t want to give away the plot, its fairly simple, but wish to highlight that this book will closely connect to so many people out here in India who face the same issue that the couple face in the book. The beauty of the book is the way it is handled and the empathy that will be evoked from the reader. I actually found myself looking for clues on how to deal with such issues from the book like im sure a lot of guys in the boys place would..

Highly engrossing and very lump-in-throat, this book is a winner from the page 1. Would make a great gift to your someone special and a good hint hint book too  

Highly Recommended Reading.  Dedicated to everyone who went through what Krish and Anaya went through Need I say more? There, you’re here in the blogs again!!

Sep 5^th 2009

 Authors Note: Hell, if there is Krusty the Klown & if not can be Knot..then why can’t I?!

 Back home, a well earned leave-took the train from Chennai to Karikudi for a friend’s marriage. A couple of years back I would have thought going to a  ‘rural’ location would be something of a tourist attraction but after you’ve walked a mile in my shoes(a.k.a seeing Bengal at all its mighty), this really did not flap my feathers

 Kariakudi- is considered to be quite famous for its cuisine(chettinad Im told) and is a semi-touristy location due its magnificent cum ancient houses that resemble mini palaces..jaipur eat your heart out!

Natures Beauty!

 We landed up at the station at dead 1 am in the morning and everyone around us seemed to be looking for what we were too..a ride to our hotel. Fortunately/Unfortunately there were just 2 of them in the entire town and no one had heard of our hotel. After about 20 mins, I started eyeing the best place outside the ticket counter where I could crash for the night. I liked the counter minus the dogs and conmen , aka, counter 2B.   Finally reached the haunted looking hotel where I slept like a log inspite of the female company I had ( mosquitoes…what else?)

 Next morning bright and early ( I mean 9ish), we headed out to explore the town to grab them grub. I was as excited as a kid seeing santa claus as there were so many south Indian restaurants tempting me with their 17×22 ad boards of steaming delicious idlies, vadas, dosas..the list was endless as was my appetite after being starved of south Indian food in Bengal. 

The French Connection

I was stunned out of my mind to see a France inspired menu on pasted on the hotel bill board-  and if I can recall my French , apparently the hotel has an open garden(ouvrez le jardin), a meeting hall and some kinda play pen for the kids to bawl their eyes out instead of being an embarrassment. Let the parents have 1 damn meal in peace!

Arun’s Icecream and Bonbons?

Anyways, had a delicious relaxed breakfast which consisted of (surprise surprise) steamed idlis and sambhar vada, I decided that it would be incomplete without a steaming tumbler of filter kaapi!

KariaKudi Kaapi!

Trying to aarithify (for non tams it refers to the expert way of pouring the coffee from the tumbler to the dabara(the base vessel) in a feeble attempt to allow the cool air of karikudi do its magic. After 3 such clumsy attempts, the following were the outcomes of my science-experiments-you-should-not-try-at-home :

1. Third degree burns on my tongue
2. 30% of the coffee spread all across the table
3. Managed to spread my stupidity in remote corners of South India(when it was just restricted to Eastern India for the last 6 months)

 Post my meal and faux pas, I had to clean up, but a stealthy look at the wash basin which seemed to be straight out of the set of a B grade tamil prision flick, I decided that a set of 5 tissues would be an apposite replacement for the same. On requesting the same, the waiter gave me a blank look that made me reminisce myself when I looked at my 9^th standard Physics final paper. I was confident in spite of protests from my friend who gently suggested to use the means used by the cattle class/common man. I was confident that my waiter would not let me down, but alas , he returned with what seemed to be 8×4 cms of cut out Tamil newspapers from Dina Malar- a local tamil daily. He infact gave them to me quite smugly thinking that he had surpassed himself in the hurculean task assigned by me. Necessary is the Mother of Invention they say. I believe it.

Paper Tissues

 We headed out to the marriage hall of my friend (M) and met up with the rest of my batch mates. Was glad to meet them, well most of them atleast I was awestruck at the size and scale of the function, it seemed that M was the local headman of the that village and he had invited the whos who(by that I mean the entire county). Im sure the local political hotshots can take a cue from M and try to pull stunts like this before the local elections!  After catching up with the guys over a scrumptious and very traditional meal, we decided it was time to part ways.

Nikil, Solanki, Babu, Sid, REC Prashant, Raghav -me!(L to R)

Headed back to the hotel room and hit the sack for a good 3 hours post which we checked out to catch the bus to Tiruchy( a 3 hour journey from Kariakudi). The bus stand in Kkudi was enormous with buses zipping across in an around with a reputation like the Blue Lines of Bombay ( Sue me, its Bombay). The buses interestingly were boarding passengers based on not who came first to the seat but on the orders of a very imposing looking Village Elder/Local Thug of the Bustand who kept barking out orders. He seemed to be of atleast 50 years with an imposing mustache and a the whitest shirt and lungi with a  burning yellowish angavastram. He certainly looked & played his part. 

His peon who held an umbrella over his head seemed to be in awe of his master like the tourists who gaped open mouthed at the way things were being run. Not wanting to disturb the set processes or question the legality/sanity of the proceedings, I decided to get his attention so that he would decide that I was ticket worthy in his vast network of bus hooliganism in Kirundi. I guess either I was transparent or no important enough, for over 15 minutes we were pretty much stranded. The rebel in me came out and decided that enough was enough, we had to get a bus before we were picked up for an possible Cast member for LOST: Karikudi. A LO, a bus that was empty came screaming across and we ran alongside it, threw our bangs into the seat through the window thereby *claiming* our seats. It was a tipping point, we could see scores of travelers follow suite and throw whatever they could into the bus hoping it would land on the seat meant for them- be it bags, bottles or babies. Mission get a bus was a success!

 The bus was packed like sardines in a can but the long trip was quite enjoyable due to the driver’s good taste in classic tamil music which I was very glad I could second guess most of them within the first 5 seconds. Naan orru Pacchi Tamilzhan!

Reached Trichy, had a quick dosa-idli combo and caught the A/c fancy Volvo to Chennai for an overnighter. For once, the movie played in a Volvo bus was something to my fancy – a new tamil movie called Vennila kabbadi Kudu. Highly recommended. If I see Golmaal or No Entry one more time like I’d been forced to see in my in-numerable trips in Bengal I would have perhaps done a rerun of Speed- I (being a bad guy of course!)

When mys sister first called me up & told me the news, I couldnt believe it. M.J was more than just the king of pop for me. He defined english music for me. He was M.Tv. We used to watch a show on DD 10 years back sponsored by Pepsi where the latest english music songs were played, and invariably MJ’s songs would be lions share of the entire show. I actually bought the orignial casettes of Bad/thriller/dangerous as and when they came out, which was an event @ my house. I can still recall going through the leaflet of dangerious as I’d try to sing along to the songs with the lyrics in my hand. The anticipation we had when one song got over and the next was gonna come was something that I can still recall to this date. …as I write this, VH1’s doing an awesome tribute to the king, playing all his songs back to back which is just taking me down to a trip on the memory lane.

Some of my personal favourites would have to be  History, Who is it, Smooth criminal (the video still gives me the goosebumps) ,man in the mirror stranger in moscow. Every video of his would be so unique and invariably feature a cameo from a A list star(liberian girl) or animation which was ahead of its time( why you wanna trip on me). Stating the obvious,MJ’s dancing would inspire even 2 left footers like me to secretly try to ape him in my room. Legends never die, they will live on through their art.

R.I.P

An amazing night at Some Place Else, with Hip Pockets belting out rock songs & had the audience eating out of their hand. I did a solo act there and it was turned out to be quite a fun experience. As usual  the bartender had to get my lime juice order wrong and give me lime juice with soda. Ughh. Anyways, more than just the music, the crowd is equally intriguing. I saw a 60 year old guy who seemed to be completely at home  with the 20’ish crowd. You can spot a 1^st timer/socially awkward guy in a flash. He would come in with his hands in his pockets & try to look cool/try to fumble around in his cell phone/lean against the bar pretending to wait for his imaginary friend. Been there done that.

And of course, one of the better parts of the night is the inflow of the PYT’s (Pretty young thangs) that keep the place hot & happening. There was no dearth of ‘em last night too [ one of the pluses of going solo ;P ] . The payment system here is one for the books, you just give your credit card at the beginning when you order, and the waiter comes over every 30 mins to refill your drink and after your  done, he will automatically give you the bill (your too wasted to care/count). To keep track of so many customers with no real lighting speaks volumes on the caliber of the staff. It’s a pity that the band wound up by 12:30 which seemed quite premature. Am going there to get my 2^nd helping though!

The one time the crowd waits for a guy, it’s the TOI Page III dude. He would come in here Hi Fi the regulars and keep his eye out for the PYT’s/ Foreigners who would grace us with their pompus aura of being agreeable with the desi crowd as this place is worthy enough for them to feel at home. As the camera went clicky, I was totally ignored (understandably) by the same but as you can see, my hand (circled in green) managed to make the cut. I was just a flash in the pan, but you’ll get the complete picture once things develop J  I give myself a +5 for punning. Time for the 2nd greatest act in 2 days, another visit to S.E!

All hyped up with my new Ipod Nano (courtesy sis) + a drink at T.C in Delhi has got me very curious about the english rock music scene. I was blown away with Yes-Owner of a lonely heart and decided that there’s more where than came from.
Got AC/DC, Led Zep, Guns & Roses, ,Bob Dylan..either I am not musically inclined or I just don’t get what the big deal is. I did listen to most of them, and honestly barring the famous ones (stairway to heaven, sweet child of ,mine etc), I did not fancy a real ‘adoption rate’ for anything else..hmm i guess being 24 makes you a laggard in this rock song appreciation business! For now, its back to my original select few songs & my nostalgic tamil mp3 songs. For those down south, I highly recommend www.tamilmp3world.com . Its more of the memories that each song brings then the actual melody!

Just in case, you never know when and where, but if you have to.
www.postaprayer.org

I hope yours is answered as mine will be.

An interesting concept from The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell-    One chapter, for example, deals with the very strange epidemic of teenage suicide in the South Pacific islands of Micronesia. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Micronesia had teen suicide rates ten times higher than anywhere else in the world. Teenagers were literally being infected with the suicide bug, and one after another they were killing themselves in exactly the same way under exactly the same circumstances. 

  This news spread like wildfire and eventually acted as a ‘permission’ for others to commit suicide.- A Tipping Point. Moot Point at that.

The reason I quote the above is because you see the world based on events that affect your everyday life. I just saw the Final Destination series – for those who are not aware of the cult hit, it’s about how the protagonist has a vision of seeing his death and people’s around him based on certain signs. After seeing FD-1, I skipped using the water geyser in my hotel room as that is the no #1 cause of people getting pwnd in the movie I ended up freezing my butt in the cold shower for the next two days. What’s worse, the towel of the hotel was the size of my shoe cleaning cloth. Wet, Cold , alone and  freaked out at 1 am in the Not a good state to be in.

 Continuing the ’signs’, I recently went to a garbage dump (its part of official work, don’t ask.) I could see about a million kites/hawks there looking at me menacingly waiting for me to become their dinner menu, a scene quite reminiscent in FD-2 where doves are indirectly the cause of death of one of the victims of fate. Moving on, I saw a  donkey  with a rope around to his neck, the other end of the rope fastened to the ground with a 4 feet wooden stopper. Suddenly,  the donkey went mad (probably from chewing a Bengali rap video DVD or something), broke free from its shackles and started  running around the dump with the wooden shrapnel stump flaying about dangerously- another scene directly out of Final Destination 3 – Except it was a pretty white horse in a carnival in that.

I recently started to take an affinity to swimming , and I soon realized the worth of the clichéd term- ‘ I can’t swim to save my life’. I just went from my so self imagined Ian Thorpe in a pool to Govinda playing a game of chess. Let’s just say that I’m now stuck practicing my so called strokes at the kiddie end of the pool.  Hell , if Richard Branson can learn how to swim the first time(Screw it, lets do it, his book, there’s no reason why i can’t follow suit is there ? – Ironically, he has nearly killed himself swimming, flying on a plane, flying on a hot air ballon – I’m not here to tease Grim Death as much as he did- seeing the Final Destination series is fateful enough!

I’ve heard a lot about the Saw franchise(listen to the theme song- the final test, its kick ass)  and couldn’t resist myself when i finally got hold of the same a couple of days back. It talks about a crazy psychopath who places his ‘victims’ in traps/games that they must beat to survive for petty crimes they have committed.   A very long shot parallelism can be drawn to the Tamil Film- Anniyan where the chief anti-hero character Vikram kills people in a very graphic way for the sins they have committed. I can get on board with Anniyan atleast, since the victims were sinners guilty of crimes of quite epic proportions. Whilst in Saw, it seemed very absurd that 1 man tries to put people through hell and convince the fuzz that he is doing it for ‘peoples on good’. Sorry, that just won’t do.

 However in the Saw series, the the chief baddie (Jigsaw ) has 1 simple message for all his victims-  ‘Those who do not appreciate live, are not worth living’.

Although that does fit the bill for a striking movie line – it seems a           bit over the edge. But a grain of truth is present in that statement , and I’ve come to realize it (luckily without having to be a part of the movie brrr). We sometimes take a lot of stuff for granted- family/friends and even our own lives. Don’t wait for your wake up call to remind you that you’re lucky

I hope you have not gottten the impression that I’m a maniac depressed goth or something, I’ve been wanting to write about something that has really got my imagination working overtime for the last month or so- Out of the ordinary books like Tipping Point/Black Swan and crazy over the top movies like F.Destination and Saw

There is a tipping point for everyone . Every event, although seeming irrelevant, is part of a bigger purpose, part of a plan. Nothing seems to make sense if seen in isolation. You just need to look at it closely and connect the dots. 

As Jon Locke said in LOST- Everything happens for a reason.

                                                                                                                         Do you believe it?

A sudden flash of light
a simple yet bold solution
a ray of light shone
on the indefatigable void

Luck awaits those
who make it.
Wait for it,
it seems to run out on you.

Indecision will kill you faster
’tis a cancer that will eat
till nothing is left, a soulless
body trapped inside a hollow shell

The truth shall set you free
And sometimes, people can handle the truth.

All you need is a little faith.

Enjoy the present. You may not be there for the future.

Merry Xmas ya’ll

Ah, such a warm fuzzy feeling wrting this from my old laptop. Finally got her out of hibernation, with a spanking new battery and charger (which set me back my 1st months salary post college). A lot has happened the past 2 months and although I would like to share and go into detail, Im afraid that I must resist the same. Lets just say that I have come to learn more about my job here and even more about people. It almost seems as deja-vu to me…A similar chain of events occured within the same timeline at hrd. Anyway. I just needed to get that out of the way

Hmm..lot of stuff has been happening around the world too. Lehmans’  Collapase, India beating Australia, Mumbai Blasts.. . But as humans, our toothache is of more concern to us than the poverty of 100 people. But Im glad to see that I am being proved wrong. I hope mumbai just dont forgive and forget.

‘Cause I don’t.