In search of myself...

The traditional way of annual maintenance of vehicles / machines etc. is called Ayudha Pooja and falls on the last day of Navaratri. This Ayudha pooja was a little special as an incident left me amused! I landed in Bangalore after a hectic Delhi trip late in the afternoon on Ayudha pooja day, only to find my wife waiting for me at home - to wash my motorbike so that she could do the honors with the turmeric, vermilion and sandalwood paste. Obediently (no other choice), I took the bike to get it washed. I was charged Rs. 10 extra for the excess water that had to be spent in washing the bike. I resisted, but the mechanic was adamant that he had to spend a fortune in cleaning my vehicle. I was irritated, but the devil in me made me proud of the distinction! I narrated this to my wife who only remarked that I would never change - her common dialogue when she doesn't find words to express herself or defeat my argument!! Lol...

If the word "traffic" were an adjective in the English language, its superlative would have been called "Bangalore". I have seen really bad traffic jams in many places, but have always known this to be a sporadic thing. Beautiful Bangalore boasts of this on a diurnal basis. Every stretch of road is pregnant with smoking vehicles. The planning authorities are hell bent on having buses stop immediately after traffic signals for a never-ending queue of people to board and unboard, thus choking the flow at a green light. The longest trailers / trucks with absolutely no or capacity load on them can ply on Ring Road during the peak hours at high speeds ranging between 5 and 10 kmph. To top it all, maamaas (traffic cops, as known in Tam land) stop these trucks for money-milking right amidst peak traffic. Pedestrians cross at will at the K R Puram station junction, with no regard for a bus speeding toward them. At their very sight, the bus driver must stop. And ...

This is what pure joblessness can do to someone. Make him blog after an year or so. I still don't find a subject to blog about. But let me try this. A cricket match tomorrow where I am playing with the team representing General Motors @ the NCJ grounds, Bangalore. Looking forward to it. What else? I am married now and people tell me I should be more responsible and should stop playing cricket. I don't know how cricket would affect any responsibility. That my wife loathes cricket is a fact, which would make her frown if I only spoke of the game, leave alone playing it. But that is her, and this is me. I have nothing else to write about. Good luck to me for the match tomorrow. It has been quite a while since I have seen victory in a match. Last 6 matches for Garnet were dirty losses and I am struggling with form. Marriage has generously helped that loss. Don't read a jobless fellow's rant. Go do your work!!!

An unfamiliar tear rolls down my cheek as my fingers grope for the right keys to hit. The news that Ayush passed away almost put a bullet through my heart. The truth still fails to sink in, from the hope that there must be something wrong with what I heard. I disconnected the call last night in my sleep thinking it was the alarm that went off. Persistence woke me up and I heard a very shattered Lays telling me that Ayush was no more. I thought and wished desperately it was a dream, but the dialogue with Vivek confirmed the worst. How could someone with so much fire be put off in an instant? I can only imagine Ayush with his naughty smile calling me for a second run during one of his charismatic knocks! How could his eyes close? How could his breath stop? Anyway, to all that knew Ayush, let's all stay together and pray for eternal peace to his soul. Heartfelt condolences to his parents and sister. Surprising that the pics below that made me feel proud once, make me weep now! God, W...

It's a time in life, where I stop to smell a rose; I take a little pain, to strike a good pose. At times I wish I had a smaller nose, And put more effort to shave my stubble close. It's a time in life, I turn a new page, A little thought says that I have come of age. I know damn well I am entering a cage, What do I do? I can't be a sage! A lady over here, my theme she bought She seems to be the one I had always sought I am thankful to God, for what I have got, For in her I see, the half I am not. - Anand

Here's a picture of an ad board I found outside my office premises here in Bangalore. Amazing that we understand the meaning, though we know that the spellings have gone for a toss. Do we overemphasize spelling in schools????

Delhi Daredevils lost three wickets for six runs in a low scoring encounter of the IPL 2010. The fight is still on for the second, third and fourth places and each encounter gets more and more interesting. Like an exquisitely directed screenplay, IPL is pacing up the hearts of millions to whom cricket is religion and God is secondary. In many other places, tense ambiences prevail because of the sudden disruption of flights bound to and departing from more than two dozen airports in Europe. A volcano out of Iceland (who in holy halloween imagined a volcano in Iceland!) put clouds of ash as high as tens of thousands of feet up in the air and turned the blue sky dark. Wives wanting to meet husbands, kids wanting to meet fathers, businessmen wanting to attend meetings of paramount importance, all stranded. Charles de Gaulle, Heathrow, Flughafen Frankfurt am Main, where flights take of and land seconds after each other have come to a standstill. Airlines are still pondering over their resch...