What a (Mis)Adventure!!

31st Jan 2011 - It was Day 4 of my driving lessons. Pushkar had been a good tutor (so far) and I had been an even better student. Today's agenda was to learn reverse and half clutch. As usual, we finished our dinner by 10:30 pm and left for Ballard Pier. I rehearshed whatever I had learnt in the last 3 days for some time, feeling more confident than before. Then, it was time to learn the new tricks. Pushkar told me about reverse and asked me to try it. 1st attempt was ok, 2nd one was slightly better. Confidence was seeping in and then it all began - the engine stopped and refused to start!

This had happened before as well, on my Day 2. That time, fortunately, we were close to Pushkar's place. When the car broke down we dragged it to his house, took us around 15-20 minutes. We got the car repaired again, replaced the battery as well. In spite of this, it happened again. It looked to be a battery problem. For those who know less about Ballard Pier, it's a commercial area and has a lot of offices. At that time in the night, the place is empty - ideal for activities like driving. In fact, Pushkar learnt driving there itself, so I had to follow him. So, the battery was down and the engine was unconscious. We looked at each other wondering what to do. Pushkar called up Hari bhai, the mechanic, and told him about the problem. He was available only in the morning, which left us the option of leaving the car there itself.

There were a few cab drivers there and we thought they could help us. Pushkar approached them and they oblidged. They inspected the problem and confirmed it to be a battery breakdown. We tried a few techniques to get the car going but it was not going to be. The cabbies told us to leave the car there as it is safe and we can come down tomorrow morning to pick it up. We agreed, and we parked the car. We asked one of the cabbies to leave us to our house - at Mumbai Central. Just when we were about to leave, a teenage boy approached us. He asked us, "What happened? Did your car breakdown? Should I have a look?" We were looking at him, thinking what to do. He asked the same thing again. We said, "Yes. No. Actually, we have.." The boy replied, "That's OK. If you don't wish any help from me, that's fine!" He left, leaving a deceptive smile on his face. We left, and all the way Pushkar could not stop wondering about the safety of his car. Our cabbie was telling us things like which battery to use, what he did before driving cabs, why were the earlier batteries better, and so on. We were not listening to him at all. I was disheartened, as I had decided so many things to try that night. Pushkar was tense, quite obviously. We reached our house, and then suddenly we decided to go back. Back then, we did not realize that Pratik's house was close by and we could park the car there, where it would be certainly safer than the current location. In tense situations, we tend to overlook sensible things. We paid the cabbie, and I went to my house to get my bike keys and helmet while Pushkar was waiting, impatiently, below my building.

My family stays in 2 separate rooms, my parents sleep in one and my sis and me sleep in other. I knocked on my door and my mom opened it. She felt I had came back from driving. I took the keys, as the lights were off and went to my room. There, Sayali was busy watching her favorite tv program. I seized the opportunity of quietly getting hold of my helmet without her realizing anything. I had to do all this to avoid my parents from knowing what had happened, as they would have nagged me for it which I did not want.

We left from my place and reached Pratik's house in 15 minutes where we parked my bike. We left to get the car. At that time, it was confusing to find the car as the roads and buildings seemed to be similar. Just when we were about to panic, I saw a glimpse of Maruti 800 from a long distance. We approached, feeling better and better when we came closer to it. Yes, it was the car we were looking for! I tried opening the door and it opened. By that time, Pushkar had not even keyed the car. I had forgotten to lock that particular door! Thank god, we came back. Again, we dragged the car for about 15-20 minutes and parked it below Pratik's building.

We were sweating and felt hungry as well. While going back home, we stopped at Say Cheese and Fruit Juice corner at Churni Road. It was already 12:30 am by then. We ordered chilly cheese sandwich, cocktail juice and water melon juice. All the while savouring these, we were thinking about the incident. Pushkar claimed that whenever I would drive it happened. I argued that his car is old, and had been lying uselessly for months so it happened. Our snacks were over soon and it was time to leave for home. I dropped him, came back and quietly entered my room. Sayali was sleeping by then, and my parents were already asleep. I changed, and was in bed real soon. I am glad nothing bad happened that night. All this did leave some good memories of a wonderful misadventure!

Tennis Days

Playing tennis, that too under lights, in a state of the art court is an experience I could never ever imagine 3 years back. Thanks to Zehra and Tushar, I could play my 1st ever tennis game under lights on a chilling christmas night. This game came after a very long time as the last time I played was back in June 2010. The game was very refreshing, and the pain is being felt now.

It all started in MET, back in Jan 2009. As very few people were placed by that time among the recession-hit Operations batch, a lot of people had a lot of time to spend (Should I say waste!) in the otherwise boring Sem - 4. Most of us chose different ways of spending time, but we spotted the intimidating tennis court and felt a pull we just couldn't resist. But there's a story which actually initiated this.

One of those days when Zehra, Tushar and Bhavik were at the court. Some guys were already playing then so they were waiting for their turn. I wasn't with them that time, as I had been to Vaishnao Devi in Jammu, the farthest place I have ever visited in India till now. So, there they were waiting, looking at those guys play a rookie kind of tennis. Zehra had a word with those guys, asking for their rackets and some time to play which they agreed they would do. 30 mins passed by, yet the guys did not stop playing, making things a bit frustrating for us. Soon enough it was 4:50 pm and we just could not bare anymore as the court would be open for students only till 5 pm. Zehra lost her patience (quite naturally) and asked the guys to which those morons said, "Sorry guys, we have a class to attend. We can't give you our rackets." They said this and left, leaving behind 3 people - 2 dejected & 1 furious. Zehra was so angry, Tushar & Bhavik could feel the heat. Zehra felt this should not happen again ever. She suggested to get our own tennis rackets. Tushar and Bhavik were wondering about it.

Buying those rackets was not a simple decision. Among all of us, only Zehra had been placed in Piramal Healthcare by that time. Tushar, Bhavik, Mousami and I were tense enough as we were not. Jobs, forget good ones, were not easily available. Money was also an issue for some of us. We were not sure as to we would be playing tennis that often. Worst, were we deciding to buy rackets just out of frustration? Zehra, Tushar and Bhavik had a group discussion about this. Once they all agreed to contribute, they called me up to ask if I would chip in as well. I agreed, without thinking much about it. It took me some time to realize that I had made one of the smartest decisions of my life in a blink. That was the day after which the tennis court at MET virtually belonged to us till the time we left the institution. (you can ask any of our batchmates about this)

We all used to play for hours together on the court. We downloaded videos from Youtube on how to play the game. We clicked our pics, video recorded our games. We were also planning to organize a intra collegiate tennis tournament then. We had been tan for a very long time. Now Zehra is atleast 2 times fairer than what she was during those days, I am sure Mousami, Tushar and Bhavik would agree! We forgot everything else while playing the game. There was always the tension of placements, education loan, personal commitments troubling all of us. It was the tennis court that made us release all of it and enjoy our lives. We enjoyed a lot, not just tennis, but our lives surrounding it.

Life without Wife

Just a rare occasion that my mom being away for 2 days has created such a mess at home. It makes me wonder how dependent we all are on her. More so my dad. Life without his wife has truly become miserable for him.

My mom is visiting Shirdi with her office colleagues. Usually, when our parents are away, my granny comes to stay at our place to look after us. This time, we all decided that we wont call her as we have grown up now and we can take care of ourselves! My dad was proud of this. Quite certainly, things haven't happened as we had planned. Much worse is the incident which happened some time back.

Things were going fine in the morning. Me and my sis had our breakfast and we started doing the household chores. Noon was approaching, and we started feeling the heat. It does look simple when mom does it, perhaps because we have always seen her doing those things. But, it's only when you put your feet in someone else's shoes that you realize the other side.

In the evening, dad had to pack some stuff. By the time he finished with it, he had a lot of waste paper to dump. Most of the times, it is my mom who does it. I wish she would have done it, atleast today. On second thought, if she had done it today, this hilarious incident would not have happened. So, what my dad does is he just forgets that his cell phone is also somewhere close to the waste. He dumps the waste papers along with his cell phone!

It was late in the night when my dad realizes that his cell phone is missing. We look around the entire house for it. We did found out certain things which had been missing since a few days, but could just not find the cell. He was worried. We asked him to remember the last call he received or made. It took him some time to realize what he had done. I had emptied the dust bin just a few minutes back in the garbage dumping in our backyard. Me and my dad went to find out the cell. It took us around half an hour to go through a lot of garbage before finally getting it back. I had never been so dirty all my life, thanks to my dad.

I am missing my mom. Back home it is very smooth when she's around. She makes our lives easier. It's a pity that we don't always realize or appreciate it. I hope this incident shall change a few things, atleast for me. I think it is also necessary to learn all of this. It's good to be in safe hands but just in case we face a similar situation again, atleast we would be somewhat prepared to face it! I dont say this often, but, mom I love you. Dad, you are hilarious at times. You did not realize but I just could not stop laughing for quite some time. I am waiting for mom to come back and I am gonna narrate this whole thing to her. Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa

Is Cricket really a Batsman friendly game??

If you are a cricket lover I am sure you must have heard commentators and analysts saying "Cricket is a batsman game!" many times. Many of these commentators have been players at the highest level of the game. Most of the analysts, on the other hand, go through a lot of data crunching to come up with their trivia and statistics. I therefore wonder how can they say such a thing without realizing that it is the exact opposite. Yes, Cricket is a bowler friendly game. I am sure it must be hard to believe, especially when the big boys say otherwise. Well, I do have facts to support this view.

First of all, a batsman has to face all the bowlers bowling to him in a match. He is all geared up, with pads, gloves and helmet to keep his body safe. He has to adjust his batting for pace, swing and spin. While scoring, he has to run, not just for himself but for his partner as well. The bowler, however, has 10 other men to help him get wickets. The fielders take catches; the wicket, however, is credited to the bowler. At times, a bowler makes life difficult for a batsman, which makes him vulnerable and he can give away his wicket to some other bowler. At times, the batsman is run-out. There are times when the ball edges on to the stumps. There are times when a non-striker batsman is given run-out because the ball has hit the stumps with the batsman out of crease, thanks to the bowler who could touch the ball before hitting the stumps, luckily. A bowler gets so many chances and such good support from the team to take wicket while a batsman needs to make sure he does not give any chance of taking his wicket.

In terms of statistics as well, it turns out that the bowlers have always had an advantage in the game.

Let us look at the top 2 batsman in Tests, ODI's and T-20's with their top 5 scores. It does take a lot of time and deliveries to face for even the top class batsman to score meaningful amount of runs. Even in T-20, the fastest half century took 12 deliveries. However, for the bowlers, things are easier. In a test match, a bowler needs to bowl a maximum of 20 good deliveries to take wickets, while 10 in ODI's and T-20's. All bowlers need not produce all of those deliveries; they can produce a few individually as well plus the fielders are there to take catches and make run-outs, while the batsman can also play on to the stumps.

The commentators and analysts definitely need to ponder over this.

Repeat No Repeat

Just as I was about to feel that he has finally learnt how to do it the little guy asks me, again, "What to do now? I forgot!" Nishi, the little guy, is 4 years old and I am his best friend. He's my neighbour, and sometimes I feel that my family loves him more than me! The amount of attention he gets, the way my mom takes special care of making sure he gets some delicious cookies, my dad takes him on a ride - all these make me jealous and I wonder if the same was done for me. Maybe, I don't know, I was too small to figure it out. Anyways, that's not the point here.

Nishi's mom got him a remote controlled car with a set of tracks. As in case with any of his toys, he brought it for me to see. This one was cool, very interesting. Without wasting any time, we started playing with it. The tracks had to be made up from all the pieces given so the car could be rolled over it. It was simple, I made it up for him the 1st time. The 2nd time, I showed him how to do it. Almost every other day this guy comes back and says, "What to do now? I forgot!" I looked into the cute eyes of this dumb kid and showed him how to do it. However, once when this happened again, I snapped at him! I don't know why. I was like, "Why doesn't this guy understand?" That kid just froze for some time and went home soon, as his mom was yelling out for him.

I never realized how much frustration had built up in my mind regarding this thing. I felt sorry for the lil' guy and I thought I would make up with him by getting some chocolates. No one was home, so I made some tea. While having it, I was pondering over the incident, trying to realize what happened. Somehow, I was relating it to a lot of things which had happened in my life, some of them which are happening even now.

There are times when you do a mistake, that's fine. We are always told to learn from our mistakes, and particularly, not to repeat those. Doesn't it happen that we do repeat some, if not all, of our mistakes? Honestly, it does, in my case. I've done a lot of mistakes, some big, many small. I haven't always learnt from them and have repeated some of them more than once. It is important to accept a mistake. However, it is far more important to learn from it and even more to realize never to repeat it. It doesn't happen though, thats a different story. After digging deeper into this I realized the reason for it - a conscious effort had always been missing. More often, the arrogance gets over us when we accept our mistakes. Something like, "OK dude, I accept it. It's my mistake, I am Sorry!" We do one part of the whole thing, and forget the other, more important one!

Just once, think about this with a different view. The person being affected in this case must be so frustrated with you. He/She expects you to learn from it and there you go again. A worst case scenario would be that the person would be so frustrated that he/she would loose all hope. When this happens, you have pushed away someone so far from you that it is highly impossible to get him/her back.

The tea is too strong, just the way I like it. Am I over reacting, over thinking? Maybe. I am thinking too wierd, too extreme. Maybe not! You need to be humble to accept your mistake, and particular enough to remember it, always! It does need a conscious effort and I feel, now, that it's worth it.

Later that evening, I went to Nishi's house, called him home with that car and track. He came, and was so happy to see the chocolates waiting for him. He munched up all of them, and it was fun to watch him do that. Again, I showed him how to make up the track. This time, I was observing, he was vigilant than ever. We kept on playing till the time my mom came back from office.

I fondly remember, a few days later, Nishi coming to meet me. He had the pieces of tracks with him. This time, he built it over, all by himself! :)

Impact of the unexpected

It has been a long time (about 3-4 months) since I've read a book. Finally, thanks to my sis, I am reading a book 'The Black Swan' written by Nassim Taleb. It talks about the impact of highly improbable events that happen in our lives. The whole idea is very interesting, especially when I relate it to the last 10 years of my life.

If I list down the things which I deliberately wanted to do 10 years back v/s the list of things that happened unplanned, it's like a see-saw titled to 1 side. No prizes for guessing which list would run into more pages! Here I would be talking about those events which have really had a huge impact in my life.

On a professional front these events happened - After H.S.C. I joined B. Sc (I.T.) in K. C. College, which was 1 of the most beneficial decisions. I was always interested in computers, very fascinated about them. B. Sc (I.T.) made me aware about I.T.and computers, was a cheaper alternative to Engg, plus I could enjoy my college life by being a part of a lot of activities like Dramatics, College Fests, etc. Pursuing M.B.A. from M.E.T. was again more of a last minute decision. To be honest, I was completely unaware about the specializations, also the job profiles after doing M.B.A. Joining Logicserve was a chance I took, as I had no choice. It may sound silly, but it was only after spending over 2 months that I realized that I am actually working in the field of Digital Marketing (please note, I have 'specialized' in Operations). All this doesn't really make up a good mix, isn't it? Well, here again, things are unexpectedly perfect. Digital Marketing is a good mix of technical and conceptual ideas and my qualifications only do justice to it. Add to that the huge potential this industry has, in India and abroad, I do have a good career to deal with.

On a personal front, I have seen a lot of friends come and go. A few of them have had a huge influence on me, and even fewer shall always be with me. I've been a part of a wonderful relationship and a disheartening break-up, and perhaps a good recovery from it. Fun-wise, I've played with some great gizmos like digi cam, laptop, ipod and high-end mobile phones.

So, all of these have been unexpected, yet am glad they happenned. Talking about future, I do have some things in mind but, guess what, I am going to allow these unexpected things to occur. These have been very good so far, and I hope, I really hope, that they continue in a much better manner!

Love you gizmos

Last week had been busy, busy in exploring, yet again. Bought me a new device, Nokia E72! Features booklet, websites for mobile applications, cool stuff from friends, all this going on for about a week just to make sure the device is fully loaded. Suddenly realized similar experience I've had with my Ipod Touch, with my Sony Cybershot, with my Sony Erricson K750i and all my gizmo's. When a new device comes, the earlier ones' loose attention. All these inanimate toys must be so very angry with me for sidelining them for a new gizmo!

When a new device joins my gizmo collection, it is my responsibility to make it feel comfortable, give it some more time, isn't it? Does it mean I don't need the earlier one's anymore? Or I don't enjoy the earlier one's?

Had these been living I am sure I would have had to answer these questions much before. Infact, there might have been protests, maybe a revolt against me! Thank god, these are inanimate. That is why they won't understand me ever. Still, I am expressing this for them just incase they could. After all, we should always try and do things which are under our control. The rest is for fate to look after!

My gizmos, my dear gizmos, I love you all. It may be hard to believe for you, but I do. As a human being, I exist in two worlds. One belongs to my family, friends, colleagues and all those living beings. The other belongs to you. Yes, you complete my materialistic world! I am so glad to possess you. There are many more to come, probably more exciting and cool than you all. Do remember, you all are special ;)