Thursday, April 9, 2009

My Bucket List

The thing is, when I'm old and look back at my life, I should not have any regrets. I dont want to be that guy that had a safe life but did nothing extraordinary and regret on missing out on the finer things in life before dying.
Well sure there has to be a lot of compromises if one were to achieve even a few of the things that one wants to do. Creating a bucket list is easy. But achieving them is...well not so easy.
I hope to do atleast 60% of what i have listed as my bucket list before I die. Wish me luck.
Well here it is..


(X) Own a Royal Enfield bike
(X) Drop out of school – Dropped out of MSc

(X) Do Skydiving

(X) Do Parasailing

( ) Quit a job for a silly reason

(X) Go to Disney World
(X) Go to Manhattan, NYC
(X) Learn cooking
( ) Visit the pyramids in Egypt
( ) Visit Italy, UK, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France
( ) Go to Washington, DC
( ) Go to Niagara falls

(X) Spend money gambling in Las Vegas

(X) Do an overnight drive across atleast two states

(X) Visit the Grand Canyon
( ) Visit the Taj Mahal

( ) Go to Alaska

( ) Go to Hawaii

( ) Bike ride across India

( ) Direct a movie

( ) Stand in an election and win it

(X) Study in one of the most prestigious institutes in the world – Yeah that’s right…Im starting my PGCPM in IIM Indore

(X) Meet with a CEO of a billion dollar company informally – Met Cognizant’s CEO over lunch

( ) Trace my ancestry to atleast 15 generations

( ) Play cricket in the Chepauk Stadium

(X) Watch Sachin Tendulkar score a century and win the match for India live in a stadium

( ) Meet Steve Waugh and tell him I’m his biggest fan even before he became the Aussie Captain

(X) Watch American Football live in a stadium
( ) Watch Manchester United win a Football game in Old Trafford stadium live
( ) Meet Rajinikanth and tell him I’m a huge fan

( ) Meet AR Rahman and tell him I’m a huge fan

( ) Meet Illayaraja and tell him I’m a huge fan
( ) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Go Skiing

( ) Visit the Tanjore Temple
(X) Lived in more than one country
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
( ) Been in a rain forest in South America
( ) See a major sporting event (Olympics, Tennis Open finals, Cricket world cup finals)

( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
( ) Been to the Louvre

( ) Visit all the continents

(X) Visit the NASA

( ) Win a photography contest

( ) Be a freelance/professional photographer for National Geographic

( ) Watch Jerry Seinfeld performing live in NYC

( ) Be a part of the live audience of the Colbert Repor(t)

(X) Drink alcohol/ smoke cigarettes atleast once

( ) Work in ISRO on a Chandrayaan project

( ) Join the Indian Air Force (I applied for the Indian Navy while in high school, but my mom made a big deal out of it and prevented me from going for it. Looking back, thats the correct decision.)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

SIA Cup Fall 2008

I never show my emotions on the Cricket field. But this tournament changed it and brought out a mix of emotions. After all, this tournament will be known for breaking the stereotypes.

Being the last tournament for me in Tampa and for MB United, I wanted to go out with a bang by winning the tournament. But I never once thought I’d get the opportunity to hit the winning runs with a boundary.

Honestly, I didn’t think we stood a chance at winning the tournament. But I certainly knew we had a good team and we can put up a good show. As soon as I came to know about the league fixtures and that we are playing MatchFixers in our first match, I was raring to go.

In the last 1-year, these guys have defeated us in all tournaments that we played. To add salt to the injury, they lured my cousin (who is as explosive as Jayasuriya) from our team. So my sole objective was to win the game against these guys.

League Round Match 1

MB united Vs. Match Fixers

MB united – 86 in 14 overs

Match Fixers – 87 in 13 overs
I scored 16 runs, which is the top score in our lineup. I had a good time in the middle rotating strike and occasional boundaries. Almost always when I go into bat, we would be in a bad position and Harish and myself stick in the middle and steady the innings. That’s what happened in this match too. We put up a decent score of 86 in 14 overs. We bowled well, with Kaushik bowling my cousin Srikrish on the first ball. We played well till the last 4 overs of the match where we lost concentration and let their lower order batsmen snatch the game away. This was a huge disappointment for me personally.

Our next match was against a Pakistani team (Waterford Cricket Club). We knew they aren’t a strong team. But we need to win convincingly enough to maintain a high Net Run Rate in order to qualify for the quarterfinals incase there is a tie between the teams in our group.

I don’t exactly remember the scores but they batted first and scored some 70 odd runs in 14 overs. Our star opening batsman Varma thrashed them and we were able to win convincingly. I went in when we were 2 runs short of victory and Varma was 6 runs short of a 50. I decided to play out the remaining balls in the over so that Varma can finish off the match with a six. But a bad decision by the umpire had me out for 0. I didn’t know why I was given out and I asked the umpire how I was out. I was told I was out caught by the wicket keeper. Three reasons I was disappointed although we won the match. I scored a duck, against a Pakistani team and most importantly we lost one more wicket, which brought down our NRR. (And No, Varma did not score a six to get a 50. They bowled wides). Highlight of the game was, Arun, our temporary wicketkeeper took 6 catches.

Our last league match against Aryans has nothing much to discuss except that we again scored a convincing win. Aryans scored around 90 and we chased it with 2 overs to spare. I scored 14 runs and got out trying to the win the game by hitting a six. Lesson learnt. Also, Jags, our mainstay batsman was back in team.

And yeah we were through to the quarterfinal next day. But we were going to face the toughest team in the competition, Hyderabad Tigers. They are the defending champions and against whom we lost the finals last year.

Muzza, our captain had different strategies going into the quarterfinal game. Our team, which had the fastest bowlers among the total 16 teams that played, cut down the pace. Nik, our top bowler and ex captain, did not even bowl a ball. But he did not even utter a word of disappointment and that showed the rest of the team how he put the team first. Our slow bowlers were disciplined and we were able to contain the hard hitters of Hyderabad Tigers for 96 runs in 14 overs. Pradeep playing the first match in the tournament was a great find. The batsmen had no answers to his skilled bowling. I got one run out to my credit on the field.

This time, Jobin went to open the batting with Varma, since Arun who usually opens the batting with Varma had to sit out of the match for Tijo. Varma got to business right away, hitting the bowlers out of the ground. Jobin was quietly rotating the strike for the first few overs. And just when Varma was slowing down, Jobin hit an extraordinary six. That got everyone in the team pumped up. We needed around 50 runs from 7 overs. After a couple of mistakes that cost us a few wickets, Jags and Tijo were trying to build a partnership. I was the next man to go into bat and I was sitting away from the rest of the team trying to concentrate. That’s when Tijo exploded with 3 sixers and we won the game with ease. And luckily I caught the moment in my camera. This win meant a lot to us and gave us confidence that we are a good team and we can beat anyother team.

We were now pitted against UCF Eagles in the Semi Finals. None of the guys have played against this team for about 4 years. So we had no idea about their team composition, strengths and weaknesses. Just when the match started I had a scuffle with the UCF Eagles team and I was all charged up. They batted first and took the game away from us from the word go. They had quality batsmen and they used every loose ball to score a six or a four. When their innings came to an end, they had a huge total of 118 runs in 14 overs.

We had to score 8.5 runs an over to win the game. It was a tough task and our openers Jobin and Varma had to give us a good start. They did and we were cruising along. Just when everything was going fine, Varma was given run out, a pathetic decision from the leg umpire. We were all shell-shocked and started to shout abuses at the umpire. Nik ran into the field to argue with the umpire and I, lost my temper and ran into the field with a stump. I had no intention to hurt anyone but just going in with the stump will create a fear among the opposition and pump up our guys. It did and we were shouting for each and every ball bowled. We were determined to win the game at any cost (even by abusing the opponents). And then again there were a few quick wickets, including that of Jags, our main batsman. I joined Tijo in the middle and we were starting to build a partnership. I was rotating strike while Tijo was going after the bowlers. And one poor judgment in running cost my wicket as I got run out. Now for the turning point of the match, just when the run rate was dipping after I got out, Arun went in to bat (honestly he wasn’t in the best of forms and wasn’t timing the ball correctly). We were shocked when he hit a huge six and a four in one over and plundered 15 runs of it. That got everyone confident that we were gonna make it. Tijo responded with 3 sixers. And within no time, we chased what seemed to be an impossible target with 1 over to spare. As soon as Nik hit the winning boundary, we all ran into the field as if we won the finals. And I threw in some abuses at the opponents, which in retrospect was a bad idea. They complained about me but Muzza and the senior players covered me. However I duly apologized to Muzza after the match. Actually we were so aggressive and passionate about winning this match that we were celebrating the current victory ignoring the fact that we were through to the finals.

After a quick drive to the nearby Dunkin Donuts, we were back in the ground for the grand finale against the SriLankan Lions. Just to give a quick history about this team, they all play like Jayasuriya. Last year when we played against them, we scored 90 odd runs in 14 overs and they were on the verge of defeat with their score reading 20/5. Then came Hemantha, the most powerful batsman I have ever seen. Scored 7 sixes and snatched the game right out of our hands.

The Lankans are a fine team outside and inside the field. Its always fun to play with them and to watch them play, especially when Hemantha bats.

This was the fifth toss that Muzza won and chose to chase, except for the first game when we batted first.

Lankans started of well, with their supporters waving SriLankan flags and drumming outside the ground.

We had our own supporters, the TCS guys from Preserve, who were all drinking apple juice (atleast that’s what they told me.) We had to sit out our wicket-taking bowler Pradeep since he was too tired to bowl.

And Muzza had plans to use Nik this match.

Lankans started off well scoring 60 runs in 7 overs with just one wicket. Tijo, who changed his bowling to quick spin was awesome, taking their already settled opening batsman. I caught him at gully to kickoff the Great SriLankan Collapse. They started to loose wickets at regular intervals. Then came the formidable Hemantha. We had 4 men in the boundary line on the leg side. And Hemantha still hit on the leg side with the ball carrying landing on the floodlights. I, who was standing in the boundary had no choice but to look at the ball going 25 feet above my head.

Just when Hemantha was starting, Denny bowled a real quick ball that bowled Hemantha. Right then we knew we have the game. From 60/1 in 7 overs, they were able to make only 96 runs by the end of 14 overs.

We were pretty confident that we were going to win when Varma started off the innings with a huge six. Varma and Jobin again gave us an awesome start before Varma fell caught behind. Jobin played well to and he was out caught behind as well. I went in when we needed 35 off 36 balls. Jags was my partner. I started to play sensible by giving strike to Jags who was a settled batsman. Our equation came down to 31 from 30 balls. That’s when Shriyan came to bowl. His action is somewhat similar to Muralitharan. I launched into his first ball and hit a straight six that erupted our team on the field. That’s when I called Muzza and asked him to be ready with the camera for capturing the winning moment. Jags played his shots too and we needed 5 runs to win in 3 overs. First ball was a wide. The second ball was a short pitched ball and I pulled it over the head of the square leg fielder. Voila, a boundary and we won…The entire team rushed into the ground and hugged Jags and me. I couldn’t have asked for more. A win and an opportunity to score the winning shot, that’s more than wishful thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4J0kfJvLwI

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Sundays

Are Sundays really fundays?? Not for me. I cant point out any single reason why I dont like Sundays. And I dont remember from when I started to hate Sundays. But from what I remember, during my school days, i never did any homework on Friday evenings or Saturdays which would make my Sundays horrible. Not that i would do the homework on Sundays, my worry would be, Monday is nearing and what punishment would I get in school. Sundays are days with anxiety attacks.
These anxiety attacks didnt stop even when I went to work. Anxiously expecting mails from onsite on Sundays was sickening even though i tried to leave work at office.
Now that I'm onsite, things havent turned better either. Ofcourse the anxiety attacks have stopped but its lazyness which is taking over me on Sundays. Its 12'o clock now in the noon on a sunny Sunday afternoon and I still havent come out of my comforter.
This makes me think what would make Sundays really enjoyable...

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Do we need a bonding factor?

I just finished watching Band of Brothers and was thinking about what makes Americans proud of their country. They dont have a history of 1000 yrs nor do they have a culture. America is a country of immigrants. British, Italians, Mexicans, Cubans, Indians...you name them and they are there. America is not even their native but they are overtly proud of it. There is unmistakbly a sense of bonding and brotherhood among Americans. With all the differences and without a cultural heritage to bind them, what else makes them bond together and be proud of their country?
And India with her history of over 2000 years and a culture that stands the test of time is not given due respects that she deserves from her people.
What is the reason behind these ironies in America and India?
Perhaps the cultural heritage and historical achievements are no longer a bonding factor for the present generation. So when i try to think of what could possibly be the bonding factor for the present generation, I'm not exactly sure of the answer. However, it makes me guess that a crisis of somekind influenced by an external entity, may be a war, could bind the people together. God forbid such a thing happens, but seeing America which goes for war once in 25 years, it compels me to think so. The present generation of India has never faced such a crisis and I feel we are taking too much for granted of our freedom. On the contrary, I see Americans having their flags in workspaces, in cars, in front of homes, in shopping malls etc. Not that I say displaying one's national flag alone is patriotism. I can never recount an instance where an American cribbed about something that is American, which is quite opposite of our Indian nature.
Patriotism is not just supporting India in sports. Its more than that. The feeling that it is our country, we made the laws and hence we should adhere to the laws, is what would be the minimum criterion for being patriotic. There should be compulasary military service for youngsters to achieve this kind of a feeling.
I sincerely hope I'm proved wrong and Indians are indeed patriotic without an external bonding factor like a war. Jai Hind.