Down the memory lane..

Pasanga, a children-centric Tamil movie that I watched recently made me write this post. No, this post is not a review about the movie, instead it is about the school-life memories that are etched for life in my mind.

It was a day during class 7, a notice was read by our class teacher saying that our preparatory/final exams were advanced by a week or so. Listening to that, the class went quiet, and I on a funny note said 'we will go on a strike!'. I thought I wasn't that loud but it fell into the ears of our teacher. The look on her face stated that she did not understand my so called 'humour'. Hell with it! She in turn called me to her desk and rewarded a painful whack on my back! Huh!

I was like Harbhajan Singh that time, a good student, at the same time, one who was always close to controversies, and our teachers used to rope in Sachin Tendulkar, my elder sister, who also was my immediate senior in the school (read it as who was always in the good books of my teachers), to pass on some words of wisdom to me.

The next thing that reminds me of high school was the "rote" method! I was so much into mugging that time that I even used to count the words of an answer (yes, that includes the count of the articles used in that answer!). And for me, a word written in the answer paper which wasn't printed in the text book was a crime. I thought answering a question as what printed in the texts would show that I was ridiculously meticulous. Somehow, my teachers and parents didn't observe that I was on a wrong learning method. May be the good marks I used to get masked the underlying fact.

About the games now. Though I wasn't that lean a boy, I had rather a poor throwing arm, and so I rarely played the 'catch-catch' game, where in a group of people would split into two teams and a member from one team would throw the ball up in the air, and the other team people would catch it in its descent. Ah! buoyed up one day, I too joined the league to play, and the first time I took the ball and tried to put it out of earth's orbit, it went off the flight and fell off the school's compound. Well, loss of the ball meant the end of the day's play. And ten bucks!

Those were some moments!. Thanks for the movie for putting me on the lane of reminiscence.

PS - I promise I will write something substantial the next post! Bouquets and brickbats are welcome!
Here's a pic of the heroes of the movie -

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Being Kolaverised!

It was a regular visit to Facebook and a link with the name 'Why this Kolaveri di' caught my attention.

Just opened to see what was that. Boy! That was addictive! Hilarious! And stuck to my head for whole of the day as a hard, sticky chewing gum!

Thought I would be fine the next day! But the song emerged to be the winner over my mind!

It was still running in my head, I took a bath, and was performing my regular prayer before God, my head processed a different suprabatham that day, with few remixed lines as paa paa paaan.. paa paa paan pa.. paa paa paaen pa paa.. sariya vasi..!!!  I somehow managed to finish the prayer. My sincere apologies to the almighty for my wavered concentration!

I started to office, to my surprise, my kolaveri-addicted mind didn't force me to download the song and made me save into my mobile. I was on my way.

My usual walk to the office would always be with my headphones connected to phone and phone connected to FM, however I was so much kolaverised that day, I didn't even think of putting on them, who knows even the FM channels would have been bombarded with the same kolaveri song!

Come office, my teammate was listening to something on her music machine, I thought she wouldn't have checked the song and I wanted to proudly introduce her the song and kolaverise her too, but my excitement dropped as she had already downloaded the song and had several runs of it! Yes! she was infected too, by the kolaveri virus!

Ten minutes into my work, I could hear ring tones from all corners of my work zone buzzing with 'Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri Di', it seemed like people have  intentionally increased their phone ringing volumes just to show off that they are also enjoying this wide-spread musical epidemic.

Then I realised, Kolaveri travels faster than light!

The day went off with some moments of surprise and awe when I found someone who hadn't heard the song yet, and they were made to feel as though they made a grave error by not being active on the social networking sites and someone would even look at them as though they were from a different planet! (Little exaggarated though! ;))

Its day five! Yet the song wins over! and I remain KOLAVERISED!!!!!!!

PS - The success of this song is a clear message to the movie-makers. I hope the SRKs and the DirtyPicture production crew would realise that sense-less promotions, excessive hype is not the way to pull in people into the theatres, its just sheer creativity and out of the box stuff that connects to people world-wide and yes at the cost of nothing!

PPS - I have seen people hitting this post to find the meaning of 'Sariya Vasi' as I have mentioned those words in one of the lines of this post. I don't want to disappoint them. The meaning of Sariya vasi would be "Is it right? Vasi" (Vasi - a tamil name, incidentally the name is the character's name that Rajnikanth played in the movie Robo).Any Tamil friends please clear me if I am wrong!

M S D, Respect.

Behind the three wooden sticks, there lies a cricketing laboratory, powered by a sharp brain and a pair of quick claws. Yes! I am talking about an agile wicket-keeper who also is an aggressive stroke-maker, and above all a calm leader that comes in a package called Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Let me get nostalgic here, I was always fascinated with the story of King Midas as a child. As I grew up I can only associate the story to the modern Midas, MSD! The forerunner of the modern Indian cricket. Mind you, he doesn't have an MBA degree from the LBS or the IIMs. However, the decisions he take, that burgeon from his instincts, well supported by his enormous confidence produces great results.


Instincts
Be it handing over the last over of the maiden 20-20 world cup final to an unheard name in the form of Joginder Sharma, or be it promoting himself up the order in the finals of the 2011 cricket world cup, the success of MSD has been stupendously stupendous. I fall short of adjectives to describe more about his feats and his super human abilities! '

Sportsmanship
Who would recall the 'dumb' bell to the crease though his dismissal was legal according to the rules of cricket except a true sportsman like MSD, (there were some news that his decision was influenced by Tendulkar). Though this act of him was highly applauded by the cricketing greats it was equally censured by the rest of the cricketing fraternity. But with that decision he helped keep the cricketing ties between the two nations green!

A Leader
He is a true leader when it comes to sharing the credit to his team members, and at the end of the day he makes sure that each one of them gets their pie of honor, credit and respect. At the same time he backs his team and lead from front in the time of adversities. That is the reason he bats at six, and not to keep his averages thick!


Critics
However successful MSD is, there have been critics around the world who comment that his success is only because of sheer luck and not of any cricketing brilliance. To prove them wrong, here's what happened just a few days ago, India lost 4-0 in the away test series in England. And it only meant one thing - "EVEN MSD fails! ". A root cause analysis on the loss would help discover the answer - excess cricket means tired legs, tired body and a tired mind.

The loss clearly makes an understatement that luck has nothing do with the success he has achieved and the laurels he brought to the country. Only self-belief in your instincts, calmness and level-headedness means success for everyone!

PS - How ridiculous it is to compare the batting technique of MSD to number ten Ishant Sharma! Did you forget the days when you basked in the glory of  MSD's mighty sixes and the celebrations you did when he lifted the trophy which the whole country waited for nearly three decades! If you did forget here's that historic image!

PPS -

I remember reading a quote by Paul Strang of Zimbabwe ' What we[Zimbabwe] need is 10 Tendulkars'.

But I say what you really need is just one Dhoni!!


M S D, Respect!

It's October!!

<Connected/Disconnected Thoughts about October and My Birthday!!>

I get reminded of Dudley Dursley of Harry Potter or rather I behave the way he does when it comes to my birthday!! unlike the number of presents that he counts, I keep track of the number of people who wish me, and who make my day more special! :)

I remember dates, names and faces for a life-time. I have an elephant's memory when it is about these and hence I would never miss wishing a closed one on their birthday. If at all I do miss it for some reason I compensate it by wishing them on their half-birthdays!

Its no kidding if I say that the entire nation has celebrated my birthday this year. With the festival of lights coinciding with my birthday it did happen!! Thanks for firing those crackers! You guys really made my day!! A special note of thanks to MSD for inflicting a humiliating defeat on the English and for providing a sweet victory right before my birthday!

And yeah, I always loved the month of October, it all started in the school when I used to get a three week long holiday right after the Mid-term exams. With Dasara, Diwali and my birthday falling in the same month, it was always the month I longed for!!

With the emergence of facebook there has been a dip in the number of wishes through phone calls this year. Though the wishes are reached to me through a different medium, I somehow feel that a wish made through a phone call would produce more warmth compared to a message left on the wall. However, taking it in a different view, I am contradicting my own opinion that I have made in one of my previous posts - 'words written lasts forever'. Excuse my multitude of opinions please.

Another point about October, there's been a birthday or two of my friends or acquaintances on almost every day of this month. Can anyone tell me why is it so?? I am little baffled here :D

P.S - As most of my female friends got engaged/married this year, it has further accounted for a dip in the number of wishes this year. Anyways I still have time for vengeance, let me get hooked!!! ;)

P.P.S - I know this post seemed a touch childish, I guess it happens when it is the day of your birthday!!

A year of blogging!!

The love towards blogging would usually start with a friend sharing his/her blog with us, and as we keep reading the blog we develop the feeling 'Why don't I give a try and write a blog too..'

My closest encounter to blogging happened when a friend shared his blog and the blog which he follows, after several hits to their blogs, the interest within me towards writing and blogging started taking shape and after few months I did start off my first blog with the title 'Will I complete it' and the first post was about the beast.

However, I later copied the content of the blog and discarded it citing a not-so-good title and created a new blog with a catchy title and a peppy design and this incarnation was titled 'The Lubberwort' ;)

The next thing I did was to send the blog link to few of my friends and compelled them to read and demanded a feedback!!! Yes, sometimes you need to that! The initial posts clearly portray that I was a beginner and they were marked with naivete and T9 mode of spellings. I still kept them the same just to gauge how my blog evolved over time.

Thus, I made a beginning and kept posting sporadically and also inculcated blogging etiquette by reading blogs of more established bloggers and by registering to blogger communities.
  
It was all good initially, no worries of what the content of the post be, whether it appeals to everyone or not, it didn't matter to me much.

But a little worry and a responsibility surged when a good number of readers were following my blog be it by force or by unsolicited interest, and when I started receiving good responses for the posts published.

So the next time when I sit to write a post, consciously or unconscioulsy, I used to think of the audience and at times that would limit the way I express something, unlike the free-style of writing employed in the earlier posts.

However, the initial discomfort turned out to be a good sign, as it helped me being more fastidious and more purisitc than earlier. It did help me to think about more creative ways to present a content however at the expense of a little more time and a little extra effort.

Also, with the blog getting a little popular, it helps me not to keep the blog dormant for a long while, and I could avoid procrastination. Thus, not letting my dynamic thoughts go down the drain.

'The Lubberwort' is one year old now, it turned one the last september! And I hope to continue and publish at a higher frequency than before and keep the blog alive and kicking!!

Happy Anniversary 'The Lubberwort'!!!

Serendipity

A few days ago, I texted you telling what Serendipity is? Yes, meeting you turned out to be a Serendipity! I thought I would fill this coveted space of mine, about the serendipitous journey a long time back, anyways, its never too late, and this is what the journey was and still is..

The rides from the office, the stops at the frankie shop, the sulking face, the messed up iphone, the punctured tyre, the lunches at the cafeteria, the movies watched, and the one watched on the first day of its release.

The one and only comment passed about your school :( , the greeting card, a day out at Aryan's home, the training given, the training taken.

The silk challenge, the lost bet, the unheard song, the muted response, the misunderstanding, the talks on phone, the pastries at cakes n bakes, the soya milk from the super market, the not given swiss chocolate.

The argument, and the ride to the post office and a non working hair drier, the meeting with the dentist and the surprise unfurled, the movie that wasn't watched, the movie that was watched.

The worst performance and the worst response, the good performance and the better response, the SSIS packages, the queries explained. the money lent.

The wiki-explanations about the most boring topics on earth, the uninterested faces, the unanswered calls, the Google search for the meanest of the problems.

The 'ruby' online, the dialogues repeated, the laughter, the lake, the big rock, the thoughts of dumping me beneath that, the balloons on your table, the mails, the contact blocked on your communicator, the agreement reached.

The dairy milk chocolate, the IM conversations, the boost at the CCD, the Telugu dubbed English movies, the passes exchanged, queuing up for the same, the songs listened, maleyali jotheyali, engeyum kadhal, love me tender love me sweet and the new one!! .

The songs that were forced to listen, obviously the songs where I brayed, the quiz not participated, the unaccompanied lunches, the dhandiya, the photos taken, the bluetooth exchange.

The days missed, the shopping, the black shirt, the top from splash, the parallel parking of the bikes, the happy moments.

The meet after a week, the meet after two weeks, the forced read of the blogs, Vignesh, the consultancy calls, the search for the driving license, the phone forgotten at the washroom.

The missed dj night, the new year resolutions, the muted lunches, the 1473-1453 conversations, the looking out of the cubicles, the emotional mails exchanged.

The days laughed, the days fought, the adventurous days, the boring days, the days missed, the days parted off, the unsaid good-bye, the days missed, the memories, the moments, the moments, and it goes on and on and on and this list is endless. And I wish this serendipitous journey be stacked with many such beautiful moments further on!!

As they say, words spoken are forgotten, but words written last forever!! and what better day it can be than the most joyous and most important day of your life to present this!! 

A vErY hApPy BiRtHdAy!!
TaKs!!