Stargazers reach the Stars!!!

WOW!!! Its taken me almost nine months to sit down to blog again.. If I’d say that I haven’t had one major happening over these months, you bet, I was just kidding. From my first flight journey, a date with the CIO, to a promotion, to festivals, close friend’s marriage, the rough times my sweetone’s been having, to tiffs, work pressure, BAU(Bull SHIT as usual), Sachin’s two classic knocks in the Australian series finals, Federer’s slump from glory, nostalgia, insomnia and much much more.. But, damn it, I haven’t got this freaking thought to sit back to blog!!!

Guess it needed such a wonderful weekend to spur this thought onto me again.. What follows, is my version of supposedly the most wonderful day for the Verizon Cricket team, the company, and more importantly to a bunch of cricket crazy gentlemen. A bunch of guys, who spend their weekends(half of Friday as well), dirtying their trousers, tearing their calf muscles, giving the all out, for a win, a win for the company, a win for themselves..

If someone tells me, that corporates play Cricket for the heck of it, damn think again.. We are a bunch of serious cricketers, who take pride playing for the company, most importantly playing Cricket!!!

Aah its getting a bit too serious!!! The venue is the Fifth floor Conference room, on Wednesday.. The most glamorous conference room, in our workplace, a glasshouse.. The Vz Cricket team with a couple of new entrants, tennis ball specialists dawned the room.. We were working overtime to get our appointments for the weekend straight.. There was a buzz around the place.. The formation of the Vz Football and Volleyball teams, a first timer for external events, seemed to be the reason for the Buzz all around.. New jerseys, unknown traits of individuals, low expectations, cent percent enthusiasm was what these guys were blessed with.. On the other end, we have the cricket team, which has been existent for almost eternity.. The structure was there.. The talent in abundance.. Energy levels greater than the fire emitting sun.. But a trophy was the only aspect of our game which was missing.. We sat down and the team was announced.. Such a relief to just know that I was a part of the team.. I must confess I am the least fit guy in my team.. But being a left hander was my single biggest advantage..

We were getting back on track after a humiliating defeat against CTS.. A snub!!! We decided to go out there and give it our best.. Saturday was fully packed, morning we had this Infy cup, then our Internal match and finally a do-or-die quarterfinal match in the 30-over Cricket tournament.. Energy levels were questioned.. Plans were jotted down on who’s in which team..

Thursday and Friday were like a seat on fire.. When I get to know that there is a match during a weekend, I get started thinking and dreaming about it during the weekdays.. Things like, hitting the first ball for a Huge six, scoring a fifty or hundred, taking six wickets in a over and wrapping a match up, taking a skimmer of a catch, we winning comprehensively.. Dream!!! Its been that way most of the time.. I am weak link through the Off side.. A disgrace to left handed batsmen, but I am weak out there.. So I shadow practise this cover drive more times than I’ve actually hit a ball there in that region.. Its this mental preparation I am talking on..

I had this daydream on Friday morning.. Our photos being published on the Company’s Intranet.. Yeah seriously!!! I was feeling extremely happy and chirpy about it all, till I got this call from my manager!!! BAU as well!! Anyways, I start early on Fridays from work, to catch a nice sleep for the game on Saturday’s..

Saturday morning, we were all at this venue, DB Jain college.. Huge chunk of land.. A visionary for six new IT parks.. The rain gods had their romances the day before on Friday.. The ground had water logged in patches.. The marker was a extremely professional one.. He wanted us to play this tennis ball match on 22 yards.. :-) How lame!!!

We were supposed to start the match at 7.00. But started it at 8:45.. The first match was against Hexaware.. Nice opponents.. Their opener played a gem of an inning.. He carried his bat through.. We weren’t hundred percent on the field, wet conditions, scared the hell out of us.. We didnt want to get injured or something because we had three matches the same day.. The 30-overs being the most important at the point of the day.. We restricted them to 65 in 10 overs.. These fellows, Praveen and Manoj bowled awesome.. The last ball was a debacle.. The penultimate ball was a run-out.. The opening batsman thought he was out, and he was walking into the pavilion.. I called him through the umpire as he wasn’t out by his runner was the guy who was actually out.. True sportsmanship you see.. Heheheeee.. Next ball, the final ball, he deposits it over mid wicket for a six.. I got this look from Ramesh, which was like, “Why on earth did you call him back”.. We went to bat… Ramesh and Abbas opened… Abbas unfortunately missed the ball and got himself bowled.. Praveen went in next.. Nazeer followed.. We were kinda struggling at around 25-3 in 5 overs.. That is when we had this onfield Telecommunication Engineer who was busy over his mobile phone, exploring his device, I mean the mobile.. We had this onfield, verbal dual and one insane guy from the opponent team, showed us what he had, and Ramesh just gave him a piece of his mind.. We had our teammie(no jackpot for guessing who it is)who went in a bit late, and was like this Tyson raring to bite someone’s ear off.. Things settled.. This tiff, spurred the guys in the middle on.. Ramesh and Sajith put on a forty run partnership to carry us through.. A win and we were through the next round.. We’d to rush for our internal match.. I’d not speak on that, as the remaining part of the day would need another blog..

Yeah one thing, Saturday was Manoj’s birthday!!! Happy Bday Manoj!!!

We learned that our opponents on Sunday, were Sutherland technologies, who were apparently last year’s winners.. They were playing their first match of the tournament.. Bright in violet.. :-):-) Our captain Nazeer, kept telling us, just dont care whoever the opponents are.. We can just go there and do it.. And a win with them, we are through to getting a cup.. A strong wind.. Seriously a wind.. from one end to the other end of the ground.. We were asked to bat first.. We lost two early wickets.. Then I went in(Time for some boasting.. Dont mind it).. First ball, short on middle stump, a pull it goes for a six.. I didnt do much.. The wind just took the ball with it.. Heheheeee.. Abbas and me formulated a simple startegy.. Abbas came and told me this, “Very simple!!! One six per over.. I was like Ahhnn Okay!!!” We rotated the strike depending on the end, as we were a left-right combo, it helped us a lot.. He played real superb, damn made me run.. I was running like this headless chicken.. From 23-2 in 4 overs, we scored 97 in ten overs.. Abbas and me put on a 68 run partnership(Howzzat!!!) We weren’t done yet!!! Because we knew that the target was gettable.. The wind would steal any ball with a bit of elevation and deposit on the other side of the boundary.. Sutherland too had a left hander.. He was an antonym to me.. Lean fair and handsome.. Heheheee.. I scored, he didn’t!!(I cant be nice all the time).. Manoj and Praveen again bowled like champions!!! Real ones!!! We defeated the yesteryear champions by forty runs..

We had a annoying lunch break..The cooldrinks guy was a miser in every word.. His policy was worse than any govt tax policy.. He lost his head beyond a point.. Then post lunch, nice curd rice biriyani and all, we were like these pythons which just finished its grub.. Hardly moving.. But we had to move..

The challenge ahead was of great proportion.. It was against iSoft.. They’d beaten CTS, iNautix on their road to the semis.. Both very very good teams.. And they had this player in Stalin, who was a division player, from my father’s team.. My dad told me that he was a very good one at that.. Reputation came a loong way.. We were asked to bat.. And we batted horrendously.. We were at 43 from 9 overs.. The Prince of our team, Praveen came to our rescue.. The final over fetched us 19 runs and the much needed momentum.. 63 was their target..

Out of no where, we started to have a belief, that we can pull this off.. Almost everyone is unison told our captain, yeah we will do this.. The adrenaline was pumping.. We wanted this match so desperately.. For all the cricket we’ve played over the years, we have not had such a want.. Like this child wanting to see his mom returning from work, like this guy waiting for his gal for hours, like a person waiting for an appraisal.. We were DESPERATE, yet somehow confident.. The last over gave us that needed momentum.. We walked in like a bunch of witty werewolves.. Manoj started the proceedings.. That fellow had a soar ankle from Saturday’s game.. But he bowled like a daemon.. Second ball of the match, a cover drive, deep extra cover Senthil comes running in, throw to the bowler and damn we have a run out.. wow!!! Awesome throw.. And the guy who was run out without facing a ball was a Left hander.. A good one at it as well!!! Sopes a boon.. Second over, Praveen was steaming in.. threw the ball outside off stump, cover drive.. A rocket came straight into me.. It was a simple take, I made into a extra-ordinary one, rather extra ordinary one.. Then came in Stalin.. The first ball we thought it was a snick to the keeper.. But the umpire didnt give that.. Then he played a couple of huge hits of Manoj.. They were always in the game till he was in there.. Fourth over.. Praveen gets across a zapper, he tries to late cut the ball, Ramesh who was the keeper, took a blinder, after two juggles.. Wow!!! That was the match.. We went Bonkers!!! Wow!!! All of us screaming.. Pumped up.. Fifth over Manoj, bowls, the first ball went for a six.. The batsman name if I remember correctly was Bala.. He was middle aged, I thought he would play a waiting game.. He smacked that ball and the wind played its trick.. Last ball of the over, he ballooned one ball right up there and I took the catch comfortably.. Finally.. Then Manoj had to go in.. He was limping.. Abbas was not doing great with this thigh as well.. But for the spirit he showed.. He came in, and he produced two run-outs.. Wow!! Astounding.. 3 overs 27 to win.. It came down to 2 overs 21 to win.. Now the best moment of the entire tournament.. One I will keep telling my grandchildren, as a part of their bed time story, a Dive by the great me!!! There was this Maroon trouser fellow who was their only ray of hope.. He faced the first of the penultimate over.. Damu was bowling.. Praveen was standing at long on.. I was at short mid wicket.. He pushed the ball, straight down.. I am still thinking on how I did this, the ball to my left, it needed a dive, oh hell yeah!! I did it… I stopped the ball.. They took only a single.. My elbow aches but damn, I care a damn!!! That was kewl over only 6 went of it.. 15 of 1 over.. I knew we were over the line, as it was Praveen who was bowling the last over.. Couple of swings by the batsman, provided much needed breeze to us the close in fielders.. It came down to 2 balls 12 to win.. A single was scored.. One ball 11 to win.. Even Don couldnt have scored 11 of a ball.. Praveen bowled it outside off.. A late cut for a single.. Most importantly we won!!!

We were through to the finals.. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was an awesome team performance.. Everyone burnt themselves for it.. The victory was the sweetest as sweet as nectar.. I dont want to get reminded on the finals as it was a not too great performance.. Satyam played real well.. Credit to them.. They played real well.. Cheers to them..

But we were and are delighted just on the entry to the finals.. Our first finals in years.. And everyone had a role.. The iSoft game was the best game of my life.. I guess it’ll be the best ever.. A team we were.. We did mistakes, tiffs on and off the field, snubs, lame jokes, but we did everything as a team.. I apologize to Praveen for the act of anger on Saturday on field.. I know it was shit bad to have done it.. And I wont do it here on the field.. Nazeer’s captaincy, Praveen and Manoj’s opening bowling, Damu and Saravanan’s middle over bowling, Santha and Anand’s outfielding, Ramesh Abbas Sajith and Senthil’s batting, wow I enjoyed every bit of it.. Especially the way Abbas and Manoj played carrying the injuries, aggravating them, just for the sake of the team.. Damn!! Hats off guys.. I remember Manoj chasing a ball in the final, he was running like houses with that bruised ankle, Abbas was running to score run-outs.. God, what committment!!!

We thank our captain, Muthu and Ajith Sir for their support. A special thanks to Prabhu,VijayDurai and Ramji for their enthusiastic support off the field through the matches.. A special thanks to the top management, HR for their extended support in the past and in the times ahead..

We’ve shown what we can do!!! I wish and I guess this will be a turning point for Sports in my company.. Sooner than later, we will have many champions and trophies garnering our premises.. We’ve got it all, to do it.. Lets keep the dice rolling!!!

We are indeed Stargazers who’ve reached the stars.. Cheers!!!

KISS – The Secret to Success

For ever so long, on the pursuit of success, I’ve ended up faltering a bit too much. But with experience, have I learnt the actual key to success.

 Though I’m just a kid, who’s hardly been around for 17 months in the demanding industry, facing the brunt of the actualities of life, from a state shielded by School,College compound walls and the careful discretion of parents,family and friends. These 17 months have been an upward learning curve, in knowing the nuances to hold on and remain abreast to the competition that’s ascending to new heights with every passing day.

Success at college or school was much sweeter because it was a closed environment and you knew that almost everyone around you were happy to see you succeed. But out here its a totally different proposition altogether. A success becomes a measurable entity. The demands increase with every outgoing success of yours. You get to see a lot more Hate and anguish with every success of yours, though not explicitly but implicitly the steam is on. A person is just known by his last failure, all your previous successes add on to your reputation, thats all. A simple failure will defy them all and throw each of them out of the window.

But as humans we live to survive as on Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest”. The quest is to survive, meaning to remain fittest with the ever changing demands of the society, family and the world. The measure of being fit is nothing but a simple equation of Success in our attempts to survive.

Everyone will have their unique methodologies, adapt according to situations, exibhit wittiness, give in their extra bit, travel that extra mile, show power, dictate, lead, listen and do a lot of different things in the path to attain the ultimatum.

From all that I’ve perceived the key is just to go and get hold of a KISS.

Well KISS here equates to Keeping it Simple and StraightForward.

In anything or everything we do, there exists some basics of life. The Complexity pertaining to a situation or a task agonizingly increases when we fail to understand the basics that need to be done.

Who increases the difficulty of a problem? How do certain tasks cease to become so difficult? How do we succeed across difficult situations?

We ourselves increase the difficulty of a problem. There’s this dreadful ideology which is a simple human tendency called as PreConception, which ceases to increase the toughness altogether. The basic law of any management preaches on Not to Preconceive on anything(Individuals especially). Have you ever wondered why people travel boundaries, countries etc, to attend meetings, discussions when the Telecommunication System’s so technologically advanced. Well its just that, a telepresence or a VoiP call will not serve us to understand the intricacies of people running the business.

In anything we do, the key is to breakdown the requirements into a list of simple scheme of things. Take one stuff at a time, do it simple, or get to do it by empowering someone. And have this thought that hurdles will pamper the flow.

A rightful example on how hurdles are just blocks but they are not the end to someone’s success, we can take the example of the 110 m hurdles race. The winner is one who’s reached the Finish line and has crossed atleast One hurdle successfully, though falling on all the remaining.

Yup on the same grounds, we may fall on small blocks, but its all about simply gathering the lost momentum to leap further and gather pace to reach the Finish line.

The other part of the coin is being StraightForward. A lot of the problems are due to the fact that proper communication isn’t rendered across parties. Another basic of Management states, “Don’t give a committment if you are not sure of living upto it”. Just being plain, and addressing issues the way they are, claiming your scopes and limitations will do a world of good for all those who are involved in the assignment. Its a simple moral science lesson, of the primary school, that honesty is the best policy. Oh my God! it works till our death. Just being simple and honest of our chances of doing an assignment itself will solve 80% of the problem. Because we’d have understood the problem, worked out a solution to the same, by the time we say we are ready and can finish the problem.

So its just a Kiss that can make Life so wonderful and the Earth so lovely to live. I’d like to hold on to lot many KISS assignments in the years ahead!! Cheers!!

The Seraphim Smile

“I became totally blank,
like someone hit on the head by a wooden plank.

It became hard to explain,
on why i’d become increasingly insane.

Why was there a frequent mood switch,
which appeared to be a negative glitch.

I sounded as though life’s to depart,
with my senses totally fallen apart.

A query on my purpose of life,
long after it became a sharpened knife.

With no thrill and no sprill,
every passing second like hell,
until i saw that smile spill,
out of the mouth like an Elixir pill.

Life took an U turn,
and here on will’ve no burn.

With the disastrous past buried,
and the present thoughts steadied.

Now the purpose in life is to travel that extra mile,
to always catch the Seraphim Smile.”

A Smile

Well!! This is just about something called a Smile!!

 Can a smile change someone’s life? Just an exercise of 42 muscles around the face rejuvenating the working of 42000 nerves? Can a curve have a better curvature than the silver moon? Well yeah!! A smile can do much more!!

It just takes the sight of a simple smile to change someone’s life!!

A smile is the form of all goodness that the human race needs.

When at war, a smile between enemies, will render peace. When we are swallowed my miseries, blanked by darkness, surrounded by sorrows, a simple smile would be relief than any thousand words of consolation.
Happiness is nothing but a motion picture of single instances of smile,as an MPEG is a series of static JPEGs. And more happier would we become when we see others happy, inherently meaning while we see others smile.

Have you observed certain happenings when we smile without even realising that we’re!!

When we get up in the morning, have a peep out and see the early morning dew,trickling on the wet grass… The Sunrise… Cute little puppies, kittens with their mischievous play… A budding flower… Seeing a baby blinking… Baby smiling… Baby doing anything… Hearing a cute comment… Mom’s face first up in the day… Reading through tonnes and tonnes of stored SMS’s from the Special One(s)… winning in the self-playing games… hearing your favourite song as someone’s caller tune… The Good morning message when you just open your eyes… Rewinding college and school chores… Sister’s possessiveness… Self dumbness… First success… First achievement… Lesson from the first defeat… A romantic scene… falling water… flying bird… Sachin’s backfoot coverdrive… and many many more…

 Its a simple curve, indeed!! But it touches hearts, changes minds, brightens days, increases love, decreases hate, achieves peace, conquers people,place,property like no other weapon can….

And A special smile will inspire you to scribble such blogs as well!!!  

Lets smile and make other imprint one every minute!

Keep smiling!!!

“There’s utter gloom all around,
people stranded making no Sound.

Roses,tulips,sunflowers mourn,
on the dark with their heads down.

Alas!We see a ray of light,
as my highness gets up from a sleep so tight.

Opening thy eyes,casting thy smile,
which has given hope to the world all the while”

My first Blog – My first Love Story – My first of all soughts!!

I am very bad at this.. Really bad at this.. As Osho says people who are not in Love write more about love.. But people who are(or were) in love (one sided) write the most….

A Journey into an empire….

I’ve always been very shy to put my love across.But time was running out.The fear that she would never be mine started to kill me.Insomnia hit me badly.Days prolonged.Nights shortened.Horrors prevailed.But at the bottom of my heart, I wanted to put my Love across to her.Gathering my guts I went to her and what follows is my effort to express my Love to my Love.

The minute I saw her, I went speechless.Her smile blew me down.The fire in her eyes and the beauty of her smile.The smile that changed my life.The smile that God had worked his heart out to create.I stood amazed.I stumbled and started talking about odd topics.But somehow I got my act going and started.

I told her,”Hey dear listen.For long I’ve been wanting to tell you one story.”

She said,”Wow!!!Story.I love them a lot.What is it about?”

“It’s a story that has no head or tail but pure and true” I replied.

I could see a confusion in her eyes.But she gave her impeccable smile and asked me to start the story.And I started the story.

“The PreRequisites are : The listener must be strictly Feminine and Reader should be Masculine.

Close your eyes, clear your mind and gather your thoughts.Start imagining in all 11 dimensions.

I’m taking you into A JOURNEY INTO AN EMPIRE.

You’re at the entrance of the empire and there is a gathering of angels waiting to catch a glimpse of you, as they wanted to see the person whose SMILE is considered to be superior to theirs.

The angels realise this for a fact and you move on into the empire where a chariot,a beautiful one is waiting to take you on a trip around the empire.You climb onto the chariot and start your journey into the empire.

At first you come across huge gardens of Tulips and Roses standing tall exibhiting their beauty but on seeing you, they realise that, they don’t stand a chance in comparison with this chanceless beauty. The chariot roles on and on.

At a point the Rain starts pouring just to show that it is the hallmark of purity.But as the rain falls on you,swiftly does it realise that you are at the Epitome of Purity and is perplexed.

The chariot roles on and on.The Sun having showed its power in burning bright and having failed in the attempt to impress paves way for the moon.God should have been in the greatest of moods when he created the moon, because of its curvature and splendour.In general,Beauty is compared with the moon but now on after seeing you, the Moon is compared with you.Such is the marvel of yours.

The chariot enters the habitual areas of the empire.There are these people who are loving,kind,caring and who want you to be a part of their empire and always with them.Garnering their wishes you move on.

The Chariot reaches the fortress of the empire.

The fortress is not one which is surrounded by crocodiles but by lotuses wanting only peace and harmony.You enter into the palace which is an Architectural Splendour.The emperor must have had the vision of a thousand Picasso’s to construct such a Monument.A Timeless Beauty.

You enter the palace and walk into it, to the respect of all subjects of the Kingdom.There is a seat that lays at the top of all subjects and the seat, rather the throne that would give you the power to rule the Empire.

The throne is waiting for you to take your rightful place on it.The throne is all yours and this empire is nothing but “THE EMPIRE OF MY HEART”.Come rule the Empire.Its all yours.I Love You.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

She opened her eyes and returned me her usual impeccable smile and said,”It was a great story.I never expected this from you.Leave it all.I’m so proud to have a friend like you.”

She looked deep into my eyes and gave her smile again.Her smile gave me the reply.That was last smile she gave me.She never again came back.She stopped her journey with me,but my journey with her continues.

“Love is such a wonderful experience, its better to have experienced it once rather than having not experienced it all.”