When I was a Teenager........................

Let me start formally by a big "Hello" to all.Formality sounds better when you are seriously trying to repair a relation or when there has been an absolute lack of communication for a considerable amount of time.The latter holds true in our case.What stopped me from blogging is predictable but what brought me into it again can be attributed to the exceptional motivational skills of my dear friend "Vishal".I don't remember being praised so vigorously in my whole life than in the last 10 days or so wherein things finally reached a stage where it altogether defined a new level of stress.I decided to play it safe and start "Blogging" again.

I was planning to scribble my opinion about the latest Budget.A few minutes into writing the post I realized it was not my cup of tea.Shifting back to the "Nostalgic" mode didn't disappoint as ever and revived the adrenaline levels.Music acts as a catalyst to sustain the adrenaline levels and "Those were the best days of my life" by Bryan Adams forced me to think what mine were.In the fraction of a second I concluded it was "When I was a Teenager"

Teenage comes with wild sway of hormones which in turn decides the other course of events.Mine was no different either where my heart ruled the brains.Thinking logical was simply out of question.

I was obsessed with the "looks" factor to the extent that the magic potion to fairness "Fair and Lovely" which according to the manufacturers overruled all genetic abnormalities had become an extended family.I could skip dinner but could not miss applying it overnight.If I happened to miss I would make up for it the next day applying three to four times until I was confident.I was an obese all through out my childhood which can be blamed on my Rice eating skills.Rice is something which all "mallus" consider to be divine and if that is to be believed I had definitely attained nirvana as I was eating Rice three times a day.I earned many nicknames for it "Bhatalya" being the one which stood with me for a considerable time.

Come teenage and I definitely wanted to get rid of this unwanted fat.I stopped Rice altogether though the initial Rice abuse was such that the after effects were difficult to get rid off easily.The pot belly was the worrying factor.I used to be busy pulling my stomach inside especially during my interaction with females which were very few and I wanted to make the maximum impact.

Falling in love was a daily ritual and very ably supported my dear friends who would never fail to say "Tereko dekh rahi hain saale" when I had my own doubts.I felt like a living example of the word "Infatuation"

Exhibition of popular-ism is other area which stood out prominently during my teenage years.I felt that I need to be able to waive my hand and say "Hello" to the maximum people around and expected the same from them.It was definitely a big high when somebody would point out  "Yaar!! Tu to bahut popular hain"

Remembering all this makes me wanna grow up once again..............

A beautiful "CURD" mind

For sure, the title isn't projecting the right essence of the post. It fluctuates between the extremes of seriousness and fun. So what is it supposed to mean? Translated literally in Hindi it reads "Dimagh ka (sundar) dahi" Yeah, possibly it would have pitched the right tone now. But wait till it unleashes completely.

February is usually a quite month. One of the reasons, I like this month of the year, is the climate. It is near perfect- Not too hot, nor too cold. It is also the month when our nation sits and watches Budget. Year after year, I have failed to understand what it means (to me and to others). No matter, how serious and grim I try to be in front of the television, it still manages to give me a flak. It is just too complicated and unhealthy for my heart. All I understood from this year’s was that I would be paying a little less tax. Even that hurt me. I had to finally make amends with myself that I also belong to middle class, aam admi category, who is affected by almost everything. Be it a price rise in sugar, diesel, chappal, and you name it. The best part of being poor is that you almost always give up hope and when you give up hope, it certainly feels much better. So the poor man lives for the moment and is happy. The rich keeps getting richer and you would rarely find a Ambani cribbing for a sugar price rise. He is beyond all that. And yet he tries to get tax wave offs for better profits is another story. But certainly when he goes home after a hard day of work and has a cup of tea from Tina, I am sure, he does not think of how much it costs. So to my thinking, he is better off too. Now comes out favorite Aaam Admi. He pays most of the money he earns in taxes, fights with the vegetable vendor for a price rise, sulks for his loans, children’s education and gets so habituated to sulking that it becomes his favorite pastime. Sulk to pass time, gosh! He cares how much is the monthly outgo and creates a new mini budget sheet at home only to be at the receiving end of his wife. To me he is not a aam admi. He is the "gutli" admi. Because he never eats aam, but keeps couting the gutlis.

As I said before, the good news is that I would be saving some taxes. The joy was short lived though. A pessimist friend of mine over a cup of caffeine told us that from now on our Provident Fund would be taxed and added "Dont forget the price hike in Diesel; which means it is going to be much tougher than you think. Usually diesel hikes have a cascading effect on all the rates and it does not matter if you drive a personal vechicle or not, it still would have a nasty effect on your life style". I had to nod to his pessimism and appreciate his knowledge. What choice did I have? So after the conversation ended and caffine kicked in my nervous system I began to think seriously how to move from the gutli-admi category to the better rich class. Getting poor was certainly not an option. The social pressure would be been enormous to bear with. So my conscience convinced me to study the basics. I readied myself to get accustomed to the budget and its implications. And there I was sitting in front of a random TV channel and listening to what Pranab Babu was trying to say. Now come on, I knew I would not understand it completely at one go, so I switched to AAJ Tak who were supposedly giving a more human version of what it means. But no matter how much I tried, terms like GDP, per-capita income, capital gain blew the remaining steam in me. I decided to give a try to the flamboyant "Economic Times" next day. But sadly, it did not enlighten me a bit. It only increased the confusion and left my mind in tatters. `So there I was back to square one. The stress induced from the budget certainly made me hallucinate and there I was talking to myself which reminded me of Russel Crowe's "A beautiful mind". Mine was slightly uglier. A beautiful “curd” mind. Something I am contemplating on.....

Tribute to God!

After a long long hiatus what inspires me to write? Well, I have seen god today. For all those, who have already drawn conclusions of me going crazy, hold on. Ok, let me scale down his status a bit and may be then you would agree as well. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, The ultimate GOD of cricket. What a man, what a genius, A true legend. Rarely would you find a person so grounded inspite of the fact that he is among the most powerful people in India. His words would weigh more than perhaps even the prime-minister. His deeds on the cricket field can overshadow even the best of breaking news. I won’t be surprised if his picture is being flashed on the front pages of most of the leading newspaper tomorrow leaving the temperamental Mamta Banerjee's railway budget to the inferior second pages. Such is Sachin's Aura.

This man has scaled the tallest of the mountains and yet is hungry for more. His 200 in a one day must have put the technology to test for sure. Some succeeded, others failed miserably.  The official www.cricinfo.com simply crashed. Popular social networking site Twitter threw thousand of Sachin tweets at one go. Some of the classics I captured are

"24 Feb need to be celebrated as "TENDULKARS DAY" when all aspiring and struggling cricketers would observe a FAST......."
"I finally know what god really looks like!! He is about 5"5, maharashtrian and plays cricket!! Tendulkar bapa morya"
" Lemme repeat: 'I Will See God When I Die But Till Then I Will See Sachin'"
"anandmahindra:On my way to ndtv Indian of the year awards.But wonder if any other indian matters tonight after sachin's double ton..."
"HISTORY has been created by d Master . In future people will always remember where they were when SACHIN scored 200* runs. Atyanth abhimaan."
"Missed it? You're madowat???? Anwar's 194 doesn't count for me - he had a runner. *THIS* is how you score a double century!!!"
"Those lucky fckrs in the stadium can say it for the rest of their lives, "I was there"... I wish i was.."
"kjohar25:His name is TENDULKAR and he is a LEGEND!!!"
"priyankachopra:Oh my god!Just read about sachins double century!Mannn!I slept thru it!! :( feel so proud to be born at a time when I can witness greatness!
 Sachin everywhere !

and finally this one, I enjoyed the most. Poor Shree
"I know Sachin is God but I have to remind you that Sreesanth has a chance today to be the first person to get 200 while bowling"

For sure I will always remember what I was doing when Sachin was raining boundaries. I was trying hard to work, and I was not the only one doing that. There were dozen others besides me flipping between work, chats and cricinfo. The flip became so violent when Sachin was nearing 200, that it was almost good to say, most of them weren’t working. Never before had anyone cursed Dhoni for hitting fours and sixes. But today was different. .He was denying Sachin is well deserved strike. It enraged almost everyone and I am sure his effigy could have burnt had he not allowed Sachin his due. Not everyday you witness history. It was special today. Very special. This person evokes hopes everytime he walks to bat. What a man. And look what he did to me today. Woke me up from the deep slumber and do what I like doing. Write. Writing praises on a supposedly funny blog surely must have had an impact on me. Hats Off to the man. Truly blessed to be born in the Sachin era. God please accept my bow !