Sorry for neglecting you but that’s life. I can’t promise I won’t do it again. I can’t be sure I will.

We’ll see next year.

p.s. A belated Happy 8th Birthday.

The new characters I’m introducing include my friend Mr. X and his wife Mrs. Y. Other friends will make their occasional stop. Hoping for some continuity with these peeps.

Stay tuned.

Its been a while since I last posted anything on the blog. Inspiration unlike lightning often strikes twice and so it did over the past week.

I’ve never subscribed to the one world concept before. Being a fan of history I’ve always enjoyed reading about different cultures and believed that the diversity in thoughts, beliefs and faiths is something that fostered evolution of the human species and expanded our mental capacity. The internet has in many ways robbed us of the uniqueness of thoughts that existed before. These days people read about something as soon as it happens. Later on every major news website has already covered it to death and everybody knows about it. This common consciousness is perhaps restricting the development of a new revolutionary idea. Maybe there exists some individual out there who has the potential to discover within him/her the creative spark to launch the next cultural renaissance. Unfortunately that person is too busy looking at funny youtube videos of cats falling from tables and of babies singing the alphabet. But I digress.

Lately I’ve been traveling to office using Mumbai’s heartline – trains. While they’ve always fascinated me before, my respect for them has grown million-fold over past few months. Over 6 million people use them on a daily basis and they are in many ways responsible for the city’s productivity. Trains inevitably lead to the people using them. I’ve made it a point not to use headphones or mp3 players while traveling. I love observing people and have made the most of analyzing people around me. Walking on a crowded street few days ago while rushing to catch a train on my way back from work is when I had my first epiphany. I realized as people brushed past me that each of them had a story to tell; fascinating experiences of their own and an entire lifetime of thoughts & feelings which mirror my own. At that very moment I realized we are all the same. Any human walking across the Earth at that very moment represented something. We are all parts of the whole; what the whole may be is yet to be determined. Being a fan of philosophy I know there are millions of questions such as ‘Who we are’ and ‘Why are we here’ which have been asked in the past and no doubt will be in the future. However it is when you yourself ask these questions that they become relevant to you. No one can make you ask these questions. Everyone has experiences that drive them to this point. I’ve had some of them in the past but it really hit me on this particular evening.

Human beings aren’t good or bad. They’re simply human. Its their actions that determine their orientation. All bad people can display glimmers of goodness in then and the noblest person to have lived can also tread down a different path if only for a moment.  We’re not black or white but different shades of grey.

I don’t hold grudges or ill-will against people of any country, region or religion. We’re all here for a limited amount of time. Where we were born was simply a matter of accident. Why hold it against someone who had no choice in the matter?

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” ~Anaïs Nin

Part Deux:-

Last night on the way to the train station I was walking on the road because the footpath has a lot of cracks and its difficult to see them properly at night.  A lot of people walk on the road towards oncoming traffic so we can see the cars and they can see us. On this occasion however a tempo driver carry some goods did not see me. His “cleaner” or assistant did see me and ask him to slow down/stop but it did not happen in time. I tried my best to avoid him and pressed against the railing between the road and the footpath. It wasn’t enough.

The mini-truck dug into my hips and twisted me around. As this happened I heard a crack and only hoped it wasn’t my back. I was finally so squished that the tempo could not move and I was wedged in. Many on-lookers were horrified and made the driver stop.  Luckily I managed to wiggle a bit and someone helped me remove my backpack and get over the railing. I was in a daze, thinking the incident had happened to someone else and it wasn’t until I reached home that I snapped out of it.

Later on I checked my backpack and a plastic container carrying my eve snacks had been busted. The crazy thing is I trusted my intuition earlier and moved the container from the bottom of the pile to the very spot  that would bear the brunt of the force and save my back. Minor internal bruises to my hips did occur but they shall pass.

An important lesson was learnt that life can change in a split second. I did not want to have a new found zest for life ala Ross in Friends and numerous other people in numerous other instances but this is inevitable. I’m going to make an effort to appreciate the present a lot more that I currently do.

Man – a being in search of meaning. ~Plato

Its getting harder to keep coming up with something clever, poignant or dramatic year after year on this date so this year will keep things simple cause I know the way time seems to be flying by it will be way to soon before I’m back here making another bday post.

I like writing. That and my love of music were probably the two biggest things I had my US education sojourn to thank for. It was way back in 03 that I found a perfect outlet for my inner-writer-wannabe and overnight I had become a blogger. My posts have ranged from movie reviews to personal musings; from quotes to weekend updates; from multiple posts a day to one in a month. I have tried to keep posting on a regular basis but sometimes RL gets in the way or as it so happens is often ‘the’ way.

I stopped putting pressure on my self to post something every day and now it has become an itch that is scratched every now and then. As such the post title is 7 year itch.

I hope the itch continues to persist and demand the occasional scratch. See ya next year.

The catalyst was of course SRT or Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar – a godlike figure to over a billion of my fellow countrymen and not to mention cricket fans everywhere in the world.

I’ve been blessed to live in the same time period as SRT and witness first hand events which a century down the line will surely turn (like many things do) from history to legend to myth. Things we’ve seen SRT do will surely be scoffed at by skeptics in the years to come. Or atleast they would have if it wasn’t for the fact that our lifetime has been the most documented in history. The rise of the internet and information technology has made sure that these deeds will never be doubted or forgotten.

Someone once said, “Cricket is an Indian game which was accidentally discovered by the English.”  How true this is. No other nation eats, drinks and breathes cricket like we do. A win can cause loud/massive celebrations with dramatic bursting of crackers making it feel like Diwali and a loss can cause panic/hysteria with shameful burning of cricketer effigies and what-not.

Sachin Tendulkar or just Sachin as he is known everywhere or simply Tendlya as he is affectionately called in Mumbai made his debut in 1989 when I was just 6 yrs old. While I’m sure I saw him play immediately I don’t recollect it easily. I am sure I saw him play a year later and then in 91 in the Friendship series against South Africa which was their return to International cricket after spending years in the wilderness due to Apartheid polices. 1992 was the world cup in Australia/New Zealand and even though we crashed out early I was hooked for life.

I get goosebumps as I’m sure every die-hard cricket fan gets when thinking about some of his greatest knocks and plateaus scaled. Who can forget the epic hundred in Australia as a kid when everyone around him was journeying to and from the pavilion with monotony. Or the twin hundreds against Australia in Sharjah 1998 when his single minded determination almost sealed a heist and then two days later on his 25th birthday another sparkling hundred gave India the game and the trophy. Monumental feats like a emotional hundred in the world cup barely hours after returning from India having performed his father’s last rites still give me the chills. I still remember the fitting riposte he gave to Pakistan’s bowlers in the 2003 world cup in a game he later confessed he had lived and prepared for a year in advance and had trouble sleeping for as well. Such are the aspirations and expectations he has had to live with being given deity status in a country which in the words of Shantaram is the place where love was perfected.

Despite all the stats and feats which any schoolboy could rattle off with great precision (Crossing 34 Test hundreds, over 40 one day hundreds, over 10K runs in both one day and test cricket, the massive 650+ partnership with Vinod Kambli in high school which was then the highest partnership in ANY form of the game, nearing the all time test played record) there were still some feats many considered impossible – for mere mortals that is. Some feats were only dreamed of but as Sachin’s career progressed they started to get realistic. Playing for over 20 years in international cricket has certainly taken its toll on the Little Master but after a series of injuries in 2005-2006 that nearly ended his career his is once again on song and enjoying a fine purple patch. He has scored 10 international hundreds in the past 12 months and the ridiculous achievement of 100 international 100s could realistically be his by end of the year.

Among the boxes he still wanted to tick off was a test triple hundred, a world cup win and a one day double which no one had done before.

Yesterday will live on forever in memory as the ageless wonder finally did it. It might have been 12 years since his apogee when he was battling desert storms but he scored that ONE knock which everyone regardless of age or nationality would remember forever. Having done so much for the purists, this one was for the masses and he did eventually dedicate it to the people of India. He became the first batsmen in odi cricket (which has been around since 1971 and had an additional 10 overs in the early days) to score a double hundred.

It always galled me that a Pakistan batsman had the previous highest score having done so against India in the disastrous Independence Cup in 1997 (sheesh – what a flop show that was) but ‘Sach’ reminded us that even in these tumultuous times – All izz well

I had moderate to little hopes for the year 2009. I am a Libran and have a peculiar preference for numbers. Some numbers can unsettle me and some just fit right. Last year fit just right, the one before that not so much so I approached the final year of the decade with a hint of trepidation but also some excitement as we all do at the beginning of each year.

There were only some things set in stone for this year – namely my office was changing locations and moving much further away from home than I liked (I’ve been living out of suitcases since January) and most importantly at some point this year we (my parents and I) would begin the age-old Indian ritual of looking for a prospective bride for me to marry [in a related true story, during Diwali of 2004 (which was my last Diwali away from home while studying in the US) at a massive family gathering I had openly (and boldly) declared I would be getting married on Dec 15th 2010... at the time it seemed I had eons of time but as 2008 was coming to an end, I realized people had not forgotten my date and in fact most were holding me to it] via an arranged marriage. Of the two, one was bound to happen and I had to convince myself that the time had come to enact the other.

After starting the process of growing my hair late last year, this was to be the year I would let it down, sit back, relax and enjoy life much more than I had in the past. It was to be a renaissance year by any measurement. I went to Thailand with my cousin Sameer and we had more fun than we could have hoped for. This was also the year I enjoyed entertainment to the hilt – watched a ton of movies, saw a great bunch of television shows – long live The Wire which in my humble opinion is one of the greatest and least appreciated shows of all time. All these were experienced on a new 32″ LCD screen I picked up in the steal of the year which also doubled as my pc monitor (so the gaming was certainly great).

Apart from the visual media joy, I also indulged in liberal doses of photography and music this year and came to the conclusion at last that music means much more to me than I had given it credit for in the past. That epiphany alone could have salvaged a bad year but it simply set things up for what was to be a grand finale to the year.

If I am blessed with anything, it is patience and I certainly needed all of it post Sep 27th cause that kids…  is the day I met your mother (HIMYM reference).

I made no resolutions for the New Year.  The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. ~Anaïs Nin

Cheers.

O re piya haye  – Oh my beloved, oh
Udne laga kyon man baawla re – Why has my crazy mind started soaring
Aaya kahan se yeh hosla re – From where did it get this courage
O re piya haye – Oh my beloved, oh

Tanabana tanabana bunti hawaa haaye bunti hawa – The winds, oh the winds are crisscrossing and interlacing
Boondein bhi to aaye nahi baaz yahan – Even the rain drops do not abstain here
Sazish mein shaamil sara jahan hai – The entire world is a part of the conspiracy
Har zare zare ki yeh iltiza hai – Every particle has this request

ni re, re re ga
ga ga ma
ma ma pa
pa ma ga re sa
sa re re sa
ga ga re
ma ma ga
pa pa ma
dha dha pa
ni ni sa sa pa
pa sa ma pa dha ni sa ni
re ni sa sa sa.. . . . ..

O re Piya
O re Piya haye
O re Piya

Nazrein bolen duniya tole – Eyes communicate, the world evaluates
dil ki zaban haaye dil ki zubaan – The heart’s words, oh the heart’s words
Ishq maange ishq chahe koi toofan – Love asks for and craves for a storm

Chalna aahiste ishq naya hai – Tread slowly, this is new love
Pehla yeh vada humne kiya hai – This is my first commitment

O re piya haaye
O re piya
Piyaaaaa….

Nange pairo angaro pe – Barefooted on embers
chalti rahi haaye chalti rahi – I kept walking, oh kept on walking
Lagta hai ke gairo mein – I feel I used to live
Palti rahi haaye – Amongst strangers
le chal wahan jo – Take me there
Mulk tera hai – to your homeland
Jahil zamana – The ignorant world
dushman mera hai – is my enemy

haaye

O re piya haye

This weekend I celebrated my 26th bday and it was a refreshing change from the past few years that went by. This was my 4th birthday since moving back home from the US of A and it was without any doubt the best of the lot. I distinctly remember how the previous 3 birthdays were spent. (I know there is a certain someone who is going to tease me about my memory but hey, that’s just the way it is)

2006 was spent mostly in bed because I fell sick right after coming home from work the previous day and staying up till 12 am. Sent out the customary “sick so missing work” emails and then it was spent rolling around on the bed wrapped in a blanket with chattering teeth, answering a phone every now and then and trying to muster the energy of showing even the tiniest bit of enthusiasm for the first birthday celebrated back home since 2001 when I had turned 18 and ate chicken for the first time. Not much of a successful follow up birthday there. Anyway, as the story goes had some fam come over at night to cheer me up and we went out for dinner. I was freezing no doubt but still managed to grab some grub and be home before passing out. I was sick for the following 2 days.

2007 was spent not being sick but neither was it spent being awesome. Had a usual run-of-the-mill day at work:- showed up, got my hand shaken by about 30 people, cut a cake, had some laughs, went home a bit early to have dinner with the fam at the same place as 06. It was decent. The highlight was of course going in the morning to a car dealership and booking a brand new car since my earlier one had been stolen couple of weeks earlier. That car was found a month later just before the insurance company would have paid up anyway but that’s a different story. Wow, it’s been two years since my precious black stallion joined the stable – time flew by.

Moving on to 08. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach for about 2 months before the date that things were going to be different this year and how strange but true that feeling was. About 3 weeks before my birthday I found out I was going to have to travel to the US and the zany thing was the ticket was for the 4th of October 08. Yes folks, I had the pleasure and the misfortune of spending my birthday mid-air during without a doubt the longest birthday of my life. The flight took off at 4:00 in the morning and by the time I went through the middle east, changed flights and ended up in NYC it was still freaking 4th of October. I think I had a 27 hr birthday or something like that. Was dead tired when I reached the big apple. Hung out a bit with the fam there, cut a cake (yay!) and was off to bed fighting the jet-lag.

Having missed out on a kick-ass party since my college days 5 years ago I was quite adamant to do something different this year. Age had nothing to do with it. I had no false pretensions that overnight I was gonna turn into something I wasn’t before. I mean, we all hope a birthday will do what the new year’s resolutions fail to do – motivate us into doing something better, as if one birthday will turn into a seismic event changing our microcosm of life. But that never happens, we are still the person we were a day before the birthday. When you think about it, who knows when is a person’s actual birthday every year. Time is what we say it is. The position of the Earth when I was born was completely different than the one this year on the exact same day/time so looking at it from a deeper space/time angle, the funny feeling we get the moment the clock strikes 12 to signal our birthday has begun makes no sense whatsoever. There is no actual proof its my birthday – a calendar used by majority of the world says its the 4th of October in the year 2009 of the Common Era but does that really mean that my body, mind and soul have aged exactly 26 years – absolutely not.

Anyway I was getting sidetracked during that previous paragraph – basically the point of all the previously typed 4077 characters is that this year I organized a party which was different from any I had previously done. I have a history of being involved in parties that people enjoy and remember forever. Exhibit A> New Years 2002. Exhibit B> The Take a Break party 2004. I don’t know why it happens, the vibe is just good I guess. This year was inspired by…. drum roll please HIMYM. I think I’ve waxed lyrical about the TV show How I Met Your Mother enough already so I’ll skip ahead to the what rather than the why?

The concept of Game Night came out of one of my frequent re-viewings of the show and I knew I had both the right audience in mind and the right time-frame to pull this off in. Choosing the crowd was not as easy as I thought. There were tons of people who could have rocked it just as well but I needed people to mesh to create the vibe that can make or break a party. All it takes is for a couple of people who are just not in-sync and the whole evening can come way down. After careful selective processing, the list of about 15 was complete. It’s a tribute to the buzz one gmail thread created that every single person invited showed up. (Yes even CK right before 12 am for a piece of cake and a participation cert.)

The weekend kicked off as is the new custom – waking up at an ungodly hour to play a physical sport and feel productive for the rest of the weekend. Lately for the past two weekends, squash has been replaced by ping pong.. sorry CK. Shopped till I dropped for the parties getting groceries, drinks and stuff. Thanks to the ‘LSE-returned one’ for all the help getting the pieces of the puzzle right the day before. Hosted a friend from the Buffalo days for dinner with his fiancée and had blast walking down memory lane. Clock struck 12 and I still was the same.

Sunday came and made early morning stops to tick off the last remaining bits of pending tasks. Got dressed and went off to see the movie Wake Up Sid – a movie I could really relate to (no follow up questions). Back home, prepared a cd for the party (The OST of Game Night was sadly unused) and then began the slow trek of friends. Started things off with I never, the all time classic ice-breaker game. One half of the room was a bit boring never having smoked or taken alcohol, EVER. You can only be cheesy for so long so the game had to be changed. Guesstures – the charades game was next and was an instant hit. You just had to be in the room to see the level of energy. The teams were set and it became quite close in the end but my team won that game.

Taboo the game of unspeakable fun was next and the sudden change from being allowed to use hands and no speech to only having to talk without motion was tough on quite a lot of people. The game stayed close and had its great moments of controversy and yelling. I seriously had to be the voice of reason and settle most of the escalating arguments.

I had planned not to play but to host the final game which I called Mixed Bag (inspired by my rambling thoughts at 5:00 in the morning the previous weekend). The game contained a little bit of everything and if I thought it would be relaxing as compared to the ones earlier in the evening, how wrong I was. The shenanigans were out of control. There were some really good bits of sketching with the eyes covered and then the sketching contest between two people nominated by the opposite team because they were the weakest “artists”. I gave each of them the clue of Moscow – basically they had to draw the city with the eyes covered and the team had to guess. They both showed innovation – neither went for the Kremlin, tanks or bears and snow as I had thought – one drew moss and a cow (brilliant) and the other drew a mosque, tried to draw the flag of Russia and then showed some snow as an afterthought. But the wackiest art was yet to come. The Moscow round was forked due to the amount of cheating going on. The next thing I gave them was Africa and it was worth it just to see the barren pieces of paper, each trying not to out-draw the other. Eventually the experts took over and the round thankfully ended.

Gave everyone participation certificates and gave some of the key players best-performing certificates. Each was signed by the Game master – me. People grudgingly walked off into the rain, even I was wishing the night didn’t have to end because everyone was having such a good time. The vibe was good.

The pictures came out real well with the action and frenzy well documented. And to top it off it was an alcohol free birthday – prob my first this decade.

All this because as Chili Davis said, Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

The strange part is that I haven’t caught a decent amount of sleep ever since. As I joked with someone yesterday I’m en-cashing sleep in installments. The biggest payment sleep has made so far has been 3 hours straight. Spent a sleepless friday night, played squash way early in the morning, lots of travelling to reach home just in time to see India lose to Pakistan in cricket. Dejected but unable to sleep again – a 3 hour installment.

Sunday was one of the best days I’ve spent in recent memory. The whole day was spent in great company. Got around to completing a ping pong game almost a year in the making. Back home, sleep for an hour and then back out again – the Times of India Bandra fest which was surprisingly real good fun. A pretty decent walk around an art gallery showcasing good local Indian art. A stroll through a multi-product expo which was quite refreshing. Caught a great rendition of a very popular play depicting the life of the average Indian maid.

But then came the tour-de-force – A live performance from KK (Krishnakumar Menon) one of the brightest stars of the Bollywood singing fraternity. The guy was always blessed with talent and a great voice but to see the man in action was truly a joy. The energy was quite commendable over two hours straight. The song selections were spot on and the crowd ate it all up. It was one of those things that those present will remember forever and fitting that one of his hallmark songs is about ‘Pal’ or a moment in time .

Lyrics are below with a translation of the main lines:-

Hum, rahen ya na rahen kal                  If we are or aren’t together tomorrow
Kal yaad aayenge ke ye pal                    We’ll still remember these moments
Pal, ye hain pyar ke pal                            These are moments of love
Chal, aa mere sang chal                            Come with me
Chal, soche kya                                            Come, what are you thinking about?
Chhoti si, hai zindagi                                 Life is pretty small
Kal mil jaaye to hogi khush-naseebi  If we ever get a tomorrow it’ll be our luck

Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

Hum rahen ya na rahen kal
Kal, yaad aayenge ye pal
Pal, ye hain pyar ke pal
Chal, aa mere sang chal
Chal, soche kya
Chhoti si, hai zindagi
Kal, mil jaaye to hogi khush-naseebi

Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

Shaam ka aanchal, odh ke aayee dekho woh raat suhani
Aa likh dein hum dono milke apni ye prem kahani
Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

Aane waali subah jaane rang kya laaye deewanee,
Meri chaahat ko rakh lena jaise koi nishani
Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

Hum rahen ya na rahen kal
Kal, yaad aayenge ye pal
Pal, ye hain pyar ke pal
Chal, aa mere sang chal
Chal, soche kya chhoti si hai zindagi
Kal mil jaaye to hogi khush-naseebi

Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal
Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

I haven’t had decent sleep since. I finally left the bed right before dawn to pen some thoughts in the form of poetry called Shayari. Who knows what tonight will bring?

—————-
Now playing: K K – Pyar ke pal
via FoxyTunes

I get up in the evening, and I aint got nothing to say
I come home in the morning, I go to bed feeling the same way
I aint nothing but tired, man Im just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help

You cant start a fire, you cant start a fire without a spark
This guns for hire even if were just dancing in the dark

Message keeps getting clearer, radios on and Im moving round the place
I check myself out in the mirror I wanna change my clothes my hair my face
Man I aint getting nowhere just sitting in a dump like this
Theres something happening somewhere baby I just know that there is

Stay on the streets of this town and theyll be carving you up alright
They say you got to stay hungry hey baby Im just about starving tonight
Im dying for some action Im sick of sitting round here trying to write
This book
I need a love reaction come on now baby give me just one look

You can’t start a fire sitting ’round crying over a broken heart
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
You can’t start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark

All from Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen