That unturned stone.

I remember a year ago, I was sitting by the window in that hostel room at ACJ. Newspapers all over the bed, coffee mugs and maggi bowls. It was four in the morning and Chennai was all set for another day, but I wasn't. I had wasted the last four hours sitting and wondering if I was happy. All this with a seminar to attend and an exam to give in a few hours. I could not come to a conclusion and I had no explanation either. I had read enough career advice blogs, I was ready to publish my own. But I still did not know what I wanted. Nothing changed. The exam was not worth regretting those four lovely hours spent by the window. Was ACJ going to be another phase of my life that made no difference? I found the right dress to wear and pushed that thought for another day. This day was going to be about me, the interview and a good job. I was more terrified to answer the questions that my heart was asking. "What kind of a job do you want?" "What kind of a journalist do you want to be?" "Is this going to make you happy?" The interview with my current boss went smoother than the stress round I had with myself in my room. Cracking a job with one of the most reputed news channels in the country made me joyful . A sense of achievement, an offer letter and jealous friends around made that moment unforgettable. The first question my father asked - "Congrats, so what should you do? What is your role? Is it what you want?" "Thanks pa. Yes I am happy. I will explain later. ok bye" Tears rolled down as I hung up. I did not have an answer. I always knew I wanted to change the world and do something revolutionary. Not take orders,be my own boss! And here I am using no part of my brain, getting yelled at, cutting footage and packaging news stories. Sometimes these stories do not even make sense and are made only to get a viewers attention. I knew this was not what I expected and I could talk about my job and convince people that it is perfect, but I could not fool myself. To wake up every morning and realizing that it was not what I wanted to do was a pathetic feeling. Sometimes we get so caught up impressing others we forget to make ourselves happy. Here I am. 10 months of taking orders and doing a job that changes no ones life, not even mine. I am still laughing at that evening I fought and convinced my parents about this job. I vouched for everything-- New Delhi, the job, the growth, even my happiness. In less than two months from now I will be teaching kids. I will soon be a part of the system that I have complained about every single day of my life. I will not be doing a job just to grab attention or to get rich. I am not going to make any more decisions that will make me fight with myself. I am now going to sign the confirmation letter from Teach for India and be answerable only to my conscience.

Bleed Blue

And today after a month of watching a few matches here and there, jumping at times.. wondering what the craze was all about i finally figured it all out. India makes you CRAZY! once again I bow,to this country and the people who are from all walks of life, who don't have too much in common, who are differentiated on the basis of colour,religion, caste, creed... but.. but...there is nothing that unites them but for... CRICKET.
Till a month ago the most annoying topic ever. Today things have flipped. I have no rights to even comment on anything after how i have celebrated this world cup victory. April 2nd will hence be known in my calender as the day I screamed the MOST.
I must accept I am not a cricoholic like Maddy,Raj or Hari... I never enjoyed playing cricket quizzes, talking about the ashes or betting on something being an lbw!

But,

After the double toss confusion and Sri lanka winning it,choosing to bat.. i did feel bad considering how badly i wanted India to bat first today. I have always liked the chase,the tension, the nails, the jinxing, yelling and the fights. I liked it all the more today. Hopping for a double nelson, moist eyes when Gambir got out at 97, the screaming and throwing of pepsi bottles on the tv when sehwag got out even before he could smell the ball, sachin not contributing, RAJNIKANTH's "kanna" look and Dhoni's last ball lagaan six performance!!



If i had to explain, paisa vasool to someone i'd probably talk to them bout this match.After a good 45 overs when the powerplay kicked in and Sri Lanka actually scored so much so suddenly i could feel a bad cloud creep over us. And when sehwag and sachin added to this I couldn't help but expect the worst. But as they say, nothing is ever over till the Fat lady sings! how true.

Then began a commendable performance by Gambir,followed by Dhoni.... and a lot of screaming!! yuvraj totally deserved the man of the series award,next being Dilshan according to me.. When Maddy got back for the 2nd amazing half I knew he was gonna statistically analyze the match, which was never good for India or my confidence level. Out of 9 games played between the two teams the team batting 1st had won the match on 7 occasions.
not a good fact.and in a world cup this had happened 4 times,not good again.

And then this went on and on,discussions, fights,arguments,Bets, praying,hoppin on one leg,not jinxing it,"don't move out of your chair",don't pee til its all
over,whistle,jump when they show rajnikanth, react in chorus,pray a little more..
Changes like Dhoni coming in after Gambir got out was welcomed with a puzzled but yeah ok just pray look! And then it was 50 runs to go..A bad(good for us) over by kulasekara, then slowly 15 from 17 balls... when Malinga's over wasn't gettin over at all. the prayers increased and so did the tension!! but our man dhoni's consecutive boundaries got us celebrating and before we knew it, up went the ball ... felt like watching lagaan all over again :D and, India had won the match. none of us even waited to watch the ball reach the boundary, we knew it. we knew it. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. it took 28 years for history to repeat itself and I was thankful to be old enough to enjoy and cherish it.

Maddy and my dad reacted so much for the 1st time,they ran to the road screaming and hugging the other crazy kids at home. My mom was still shocked and wanted to know if the last ball was really a six!so was Bhavna. Raj had nothing to say,he was speechless while hari got as vocal as he possibly could and ran to the road to make sure everyone got the point, kiran and I jumped yelling deiiiiii super da indiaa indiaaa India!! crackers,yelling and cheers continued for 25 mins till we decided to hit the road, MG road after this(whoever thought of this was a genius).

Hari ,Kiran and I put our heads out of the car screaaaaaaaaaming INDIA and waving at the people. we saw close to 100 people on the main road. wasn't a big deal. then we reached a junction where we saw people dancing and celebrating. atleast 500 people. screaming.Epitome of awesomeness.Unity.



We lost our flag to a crazy aficionado, Yelled vande mataram, saw the biggest flag EVER,hi5'd a cop by mistake,shook hands with random people,screwed up our throats, almost ran out of fuel, did crazy dance steps, rejoiced being a winner, and smiled at the fact that the pride was seen in each one s eyes.

So many memories,so much to never forget. Ponting's captaincy, Afridi's face, Lee's omnipresence,Yuvraj's consistent performance ,Dhoni's planning and execution,Sachin's 100th 100 not being achieved,Simon Taufel finally standing in a world cup final,England getting out of the series so early :) but most of all our WIN. Our debatably well deserved win.
Truly the most memorable moment in Indian cricketing history and definitely one of my favorites.A story I can't wait to tell my kids. :)

F-204

A girl in a white t shirt,cotton shorts.. a pair o funky shades.. blue nail color and a bandana is probably not accepted by the Mylapore public. oopz! i shud've known better before i stepped out wit a flowery umbrella,yellow shoes and a stupid brother!
My Chennai trip wasn't planned very well. Happened in a big hurry.15 days for a crash course! well I was supposed to travel all the way from anna nagar to mylapore for 15 days in that wretched heat! no.. not fun!! not one bit.
I never liked Chennai too much, so I didn't expect this (long) stay to affect that preconceived notion. Guess I was wrong. just a little.
As i walked into Maddy's "penthouse" I couldn't help but giggle. what a lovely place.So tiny even my G.I.Jo's wouldn't pay any rent!The funniest part was when my mom asked ME not to dirty that mansion!
But come on, whom am i kidding. that place had everything - a bed(with everythin possible on it), a refrigerator with 2 month old kaaju barfi and one hershey kisses, a tv which was always on, mosquitoes(ah those loyals losers), cigarette butts all over the terrace(thanks to that new yr party) and a direct view to my cousin's balcony! :D
All this plus this place was a 2 minute walk from every possible eatout in that area-Balajee bhavan,vasantha bhavan,lipz! haha.. everyday was like a saturday.
Classes weren't too bad. The journey was fun- 29C,41D,share auto,bargain n fight with rick guys.. "yenna anna.. everyday pora edam- ambathu tharein" , "aiyo aravathu kudu ma" "mudiyaadhu" "seri vanthu thole"
all that!! and much much more!

Maddy would sit every night and read some lame cricket article(yes that room had wi-fi),a pathetically boring match would be on just then,mosquitoes feeding on poor me(unable to study) watching garry sobbers or something bout the bodyline series... and suddenly at 830 kublu'd call and we'd run to have podi idly at balagee.. aah some routine!

Maddy'd sit across the table and ask kublu n i real mean questions-cricket,chemistry and sanskrit. the 3 most amazing things in one's life...NOT! We would fight and patch up over chocolate ice-cream(jamaai to be precise) :D but then there were also the "Die hard" quizzes that we played.. rest assured I was awesome at it :D!

Kublu had his big 1st date coming up and we were all excited cuz that little squirrel was finally growing up! we kept advicing him..little did he need it.

Then one fine sunday morning Maddy went to play Tennis with a certain Shiva who was his long lost Kansas buddy. Nope'd never heard of him before. They got bak at half past 10 sweating like pigs.
Maddy-"maanu this is shiva,shiva maanu"
Shiva-"hi,Manoo!! what's up? Damn sama vezhil..! can i take my shirt off?? (with a straight face) "
Me- thinking (welllll.. ) "uh yea sure,do u have a nice chest?? " :D :D

Maddy had warned me. Be nice. He is not the easiest person to get along with. We have lotsa things in common but i don think u wil like him too much. OUCH!
and then when Nadal had taken his shirt off and sampras had washed up a little they gave me a post match analysis - "superb match manoo,we played a lot. gosh im tired as hell.
i need a smoke.. and orange juice. i took a million breaks. i cant handle this heat!
what a day!"
i giggled n kicked him out.
We then went to eden for lunch (kublu joined us) - yea all we did was fight. bout 20 year old's being immature,no sense of committment,The US and Indians there, my gen being the one with the wanna-be's! and 'bout Shiva being cool.. :P
I drove Shiva's car.. his eyes filled with fear. eiy manoo license irruka? :D
ice cream on the streets!

"what next people?"
Shiva-"im here for a short trip da. too much work. loan,frnds meet pannanam......."
Manu-"ok shut up,lets play cricket"
Maddy,kublu and shiva (Chorus_ - "WHAT"

and the rest of the evening we played gully cric! no maddy didn't write bout my lovely game after he joined cricinfo ( I wonder why) :D
Why did Maddy say that it would b tough for me to like shiv.
it really wasn't. Was super amazing actually!
He sure made that trip worth remembering!his funny way of being super serious.judging people,being rude,not knowing any street in Santhome, his driving, his hair problems! and his never dying self-love!why why why wouldnt i love that darling! :)
and then one day after a million calls from shiva he and maddy landed in Bangalore,
where the awesomeness continued..

more to come.

later.

love all you fools.. kublu shivi and mad! :D oh and ammamma! :P

Roar.

Its a pity, to imagine that one day my kids might run to me and say, "Mamma have u ever seen a tiger? We have it here in our books as an extinct animal,have u? have u?"
Imagine that day,in a few years when our national animal will be extinct.
This is my blog, my little bit to help these tigers.

Poaching and other related activities have brought down the tiger population by nearly 60%. Today we have only 1411 tigers left. In just 2009 over 68 tigers have been killed and out of those 68 around 32 of them have been poached.

And what have we all done to help nature? we use every little bit of her and don't take care of her at all. These tigers and their absence might seem like something that does not affect our daily lives but on a large scale we will realise that it is a cycle and the absence of such a huge animal will make a huge difference. We are going to run out of fuels in less than 60 years from now. We humans are such selfish people who want to use every possible thing available and we don't really care about the consequences or what we leave for our future generations.Well.. when we don't care about other humans how can i fight here for a cause that is about animals!

Let us all hold hands today and spread the word. Starting with this tiger project we can prove it to the world that i am strong..i am the common man.. this country is filled with people like me who are ready to fight and support.

2010 is the year of the tiger. Let us do our little bit to save the big cats!!!



All those interested in this cause can spread this message through their blogs and articles.

www.saveourtigers.com

baatsha!

ya today was funny.
I got up early and rushed to the Bangalore University with appa. We reached by 930 to stand in a queue of around 700 people in order to submit my correspondence forms. Appa said, "hmm.. thats a crowd.. do u need my help??". Being the usual jerk i said,"no pops,thanks but i don't want to take the easy way out, I will wait and get things done."
He chuckled and left. as the sun began to cheer up i began to lose it.. I was tanning in order to get a DD verified. wit people around me discussing about how their friends stood for 6 or 7 hours the previous day and a few others verifying their filled forms, i began to text everyone possible! I was building sand castles with my white shoes. I stood for an hour and finally asked my stupid ego to shut up. I picked my phone and called papa.

"papaaa, where're u?.. this is so bad. its hot. i don't like it. this line hasn't moved at all. its HOT. pl pa help me.."

i could hear him giggle and cut the call.. I found him next to me in the next few minutes. He said ok give me tht form and the DD. I was confused. I gave it to him. He disappeared into that crazy crowd as i waited there cursing my old sunscreen lotion. He came back in exactly 6 mins and said seri come out of that queue. I said papa no no its finally moving.. are u sure you want me to jump out.
He said ya ya I got it done. Come out.

And with dirty cursing glares from the others in the line i ran happily towards my dad.. Thank you papa.. you are the BEST... but how? what did you say..
and then came the two words... "unmaiya sonnein" :P

cricomanic!

I was waiting for a call from maddy(my bro).. it'd been a real long day and i had so much to talk about.. it finally rang.. i ran to pick it up- any wild guess as to what he asked first??
hey cho2 channel 26 or 60.. wads the score? who's batting? im on my way bak home from dinner!! At times i wonder- is this all that he worries about? What is the craze all about? what is so awesome about the game? How come inspite of having such a fanatic at home i never loved it that much, ouch!

Maddy is like this walking cricket statistics dvd! all u gotta do is sit with him and woooof off to go to the world of cricket- test cricket.. the actual cricket, those 5 glorious days, how it started.. wads the story behind the ashes.. how Sir Issac Alexander Vivian Richards is the greatest ever batsman or even how hyped the 20-20's are.what is bradman's last match's score? some law of averages.. lakshman's 281(i hope i'm right).. and so on..
Maddy has something to say about it all.. even His blogs are filled with cricket stuff..!

He once even told my mom, mamma if my wedding is on the world cup finals will i be allowed to postpone it? the wedding ofcoursE! my mom is still a little shocked, but ya we love this lunatic and have started accepting his randomness! And this.. mom when i find THE girl i'm gonna make sure she loves cricket!! poor thing. :P

I finally thought wads the big deal.. Seems like a simple game. 11 guys in a team..2 teams.. lakhs of crazy people around an umpire, fairly normal rules.. swing, square cut,cover drive, duckworth-lewis,lbw,slip... ya i kinna knew all this. So this time when maddy was giving cricInfo a serious thought i thought it'd be the right time for me to show him that i wasn't that bad after all.. If he could make my best frnd pri cric crazy then I shudn be too tough!! :D

one late saturday night Maddy and i had a random cricket quiz before which he gave me a gist of the rules of the game. I obviously thought he started that to make me look like an ass! So i gave it all i could and got a 7 on 10!! yes.. a SEVEN! He was shocked.. arre motu how do u know so much man? i swear i didn't see that coming.

Hehe.. it is like this.. when you are in france you don've too many options.. You will end up learning french! :D

The game is fun no doubt.. the fans, the style, the men!
Maddy has a preconceived notion that women can never be better than men at two things-
1.Driving
2.Cricket

I have hereby decided to prove him wrong! :D
you are so gonna take back ur words bro!

what was the score again? was it sri lanks playing? :P

P.S. Girls don't watch or like sports just for rugged sweaty hot men! There are a few of us who are truly interested!

too fast.. its making me too furious!!!

I wanna jump onto that bajaj chetak and be dropped to school again! I wanna wear just anything and be able to run out of my house. I wanna lick ice cream off my nose t-shirt and smear maddy's face with some and get into a silly fight :D

I miss all this and more..have I become old and boring at 18?? damn!! I wish I could just be 7 o even younger, be stupid, irritate people and get a lovely smile in return, play really dumb pranks and laugh when old people yelled at me :)
good old days.. the best times!!!

No one has the time or the patience to even scold me now. haha! I remember hiding on the day o my report card or pulling it out of my bag 5 mins before the school bus came. I was 1 o the naughtiest specimen's according to most of my teachers. hahaha! The way i used to cycle around the block at 12 o 1 in the afternoon.. dirty my clothes ,find new ways to torture people, make my gran chase me, have wounded knees and messy hair :) :P

Now life is all about, o my god I wanna look perfect! people myt consider me as a wanna-be if i try too hard though. or a fashion disaster?? right amount of make up. perfect hair. sunscreen. kajal. lip gloss.
Aaah such a plastic girly life. I wanna wear stupid torn shorts, a lil blue speg, a pink hair band tiny pretty chappli and run all around the block!! forget all my worries..scream like a maniac.. hit all my stupid friends.. play and come back.. hog and sleep on ma mom's lap!! i really want to do that :)

So what are we chasing? Money, Fame..?? love?? World peace?? life is like some electric train. But atleast these trains stop for a minute or two in between.
classes,studies,ambition,books,concepts, o my good lord.. I just described my life lately.
I haven't even spoken to papa properly in a year odd. I am afraid that moving so fast in this lane called life is not proving very advantageous!

A nice sunday. Get up at 7ish run to CTR have breaky with my best friend or have awesome brunch with ma family.. talk about my hectic week ahead. laugh. play. irritate. discuss some problems. seek advice. siesta. loaaads o tv. a movie. some nice reading. family friends relatives.

A typical sunday. get up at 5. rush to class. sit there till 2. get back home totally bummed out and hungry. hog. sleep til 5. try to watch tv, get yelled at by mom and study. dinner at 9. sleep at 11!

I really wanna jump off this train, take a literal big break!! Pack my bags suddenly on a friday evening and drive to some lovely place out o this busy city!! :)
any volunteers??

:)