Reflections

"What are you doing tomorrow night?", asked a friend.
"What is tomorrow night?", I asked. Then a fraction of second later it hit me . .
"ahh, new year's eve".It set me thinking (a lot of things do that to me these days :-)).
What the new year means to me. How the new year's eve has evolved over time for me.
The earliest recollection of Dec31st for me is during middle school. Jan 1st always meant the start of school after winter holidays. There would invariably be lot of unfinished winter projects and assignments that had to be completed. So Dec31st was always a hectic affair. Sitting in front of the TV, watching the bollywood stars and starlets dance to the beats of the "hit" songs of the year gone by and writing out that assignment.
Then as I got to high school, I got to partying on Dec31st. The whole family would go off to a club/ resort, stay till the "countdown" followed by fireworks, come home satisfied that we had done our bit to usher in the new year and hit the sack.Somewhere down the line this partying mode faded out of practice. Dec31st had become just another day; Nothing special to be done, no special resolutions to be made and broken.

But as is my wont these days, I could not resist reflecting on the year gone by and penning down my thoughts:
This year has probably been my worst year. I say "probably" because till now I have never though of evaluating an year as good/ bad.It has been a personal roller coaster ride. A lot of highs, some very deep lows and a general feeling of melancholy.
Some very painful memories, painful because the memories are so sweet and now no longer a reality but just a memory. Add to that, the happenings in the world, with faltering economies, terrorism etc and you have the recipe for a perfectly bad year. But as always, there is a glimmer of hope, that with a new day, a new year, a new beginning can be made to control the damage if not repair it completely.

Happy new year.

Quite unrelated to this post but somehow relevant in a twisted way to my feelings right now, I am pasting two poems below;
One,A beautiful poem I received as an email forward and the second, an sms that brings back splendid memories of a slice of life I will always look back at with a great deal of fondness.

Someone Somewhere

A thick haze settles over the ocean,
The horizon turns pink as far as the eye can see.
All creatures hurry back home,
As the sun plunges into the sea.
Someone somewhere made a fortune today,
Someone somewhere lost all that he ever had.
Someone will sleep with a smile on his face,
Someone with a heavy heart will be sad.
Someone somewhere was born to rule,
Someone somewhere was born to die.
Someone today found someone he loves,
Someone has left someone to cry.
Someone's life has changed today,
For some, it was just another day.
Someone somewhere is dumbfounded by his good fate,
Someone has nothing more left to say.
The beauty of this setting sun, Is too divine for me to summarize.
As I sit here and watch the setting sun,
Someone somewhere sees it rise......

-Anonymous


Reflections

A rose is nature's fairest flower,
Each bud in its perfection,
holds promise that a lovely bloom
Will catch the sun's reflection.

One of my fav songs --from Colonial Cousins

It ain't over till the fat lady sings.....

Or in this case, till the last ball is tonked over the pond....

It was SPANDAN cricket...IIITB's annual cricket carnival. Our team (Alumini from 2007 batch) made it to the final quite easily.
Considering our high scoring ways, inspite of having only 2 batsment in the lineup, we expected to get a decent total again. But as always, PHR failed again....in a pressure match. .. no surprise that!! Nandish shud have been around..if not for anything atleast to piss off PHR to make him score like in the previous game, with his irrepressible taunts
We ended up 69 in 12 overs.
"It is a defendable total, as long as we dont bowl full toss"...all our bowlers agreed just b4 entering the field to defend that total.

The first 4 overs went like a charm. The opposition batsmen finding out newer and weirder ways to get out ....... and our fielders managing to catch everything that came their way.
Then at end of 5 over with a score of 20/5 ( only two more wickets to get), yours truly made it to the bowling crease. Now, I rate myself as a bowler. . . I was thinking, one wicket for me this over...then Roshan will finish it off in the next....then we can go off for that delayed lunch at Chandana, where PTP and PHR can enjoy their "well deserved" cold beer . Advice flowed from all the other accomplished bowlers in the team..."bowl across him, he will edge it" ...."keep a little more pace man else you will get hit"...."bowl a lil slower, he will miss hit it" ...... whew!!
With all this, I just jogged up as usual and managed 3 uneventful deliveries. Then thinking..."ok lemme get that wicket....bowl a yorker and get done with it" , I just ran in a tad faster and then ended up banging it at half pitch....thud...six.
Next ..again attempted yorker..full toss....6!!! Gawd....managed the next one with only a single.....and ran away to hide myself at the boundary line with tails firmly between my legs.
"We have enough good bowlers who will finish the job"......
Bang....full toss for another 6.....this time Roshan being the sinner.
What followed was an amazing 25 mins...when every one of our bowlers seemed inspired to bowl a full toss, no matter what...we ended up losing with 10 more balls to spare..and the poor chap who won them the game ended up in the pool !!! Though, I cant still imagine how that guy did not edge even one ball ...Every over, it was 3 or 4 times beaten ...then a six and then a single to retain strike..amazing. . . The worst part....he just wrote somewhere that I am his favourite bowler....err... Dunno how to react to that!!

I have been in teams that have lost quite spectacularly before...but this one takes the cake.
Dunno if I will play SPANDAN next year, but the three years that I have played this tournament has provided enough memories to last a long long time......

Aussie Angel

"I called him a bad boy."
"He took offence to that. I thought that was quite funny. I said mate, you should be flattered, it's a clothing range."
Just like one Mr. Symonds should have been flattered that he was being likened to a Hindu symbol of worship. We know what happened there.

"I like the idea of actually getting into the ring (with him). I like that, bring it on"

So the ugly hulk has admitted he is a bully-- wanting to take on kids nearly half his age (in a boxing ring at that!!).Will someone kindly remind Hayden that the sport that Ishant is playing is called cricket...and that Ishant has reduced the arrogant Aussie captain to using his bat like a fishing rod, outside his off stump ?


"The thing is, his record speaks for itself in cricket. It's a certain line that you can go to and you know when you push it - and he just pushes it all the time. That is why he's been charged more than anyone that has ever played in the history of cricket."
One statistic I came across :Since 1992 (when ICC code ofconduct came into effect)
Bhajji has been charged 5 times.
Guess who else has the same number of "convictions": It is the Aussie skipper himself. This is just one more than the now retired Glen McGrath...... hahaha...Wonder if Hayden thinks Ponting is a "Bad boy" too. One thing is sure, even if he does think so, he will never dare utter it on public Radio.

Boy!! This is the worst phase of the ugly Aussie syndrome. or is it..ther are three more matches (or maybe just two if one of the teams get a drubbing) to go this Aussie summer, wonder what else we will hear from tha angels in baggy green (sic)