A moving tale of India and elders

Senior Citizen: So where are you from

Me: I'm from India, Sir (out of respect for the elderly man)

SC: Oh I see.. So what do you plan to do after finishing..

Me: Well, Sir, I don't know, but I plan to go back to India after some time, my parents are back there, I need to take care of them too....

SC: Ah that's very nice of you.. I asked another who was from India who said he'd work for a couple of years and go back to take care of his parents...

Me: Oh..

SC: If only children here too would take care of their parents like you do...

My heart sank.

This, was the stark difference between 'societies'. In the melee of being devoted to a job, many Americans ignore their own parents... The elderly barber proceeded to tell me how his wife, who was bed ridden, did not have their daughters come over to take care of them... That was when I realised how lucky we were to live in a culture where elders are respected and are taken care of well. Atleast, we can hope to do that. We must never forget that we are Indians with deep cultural ties and a lot is expected of us.

I love...

I love when it rains a lot. Especially when it pours. There's nothing which enlightens you better than the smell of the earth drenched with rain after a hot day

I love it when it snows real hard. I love walking through the calf-deep snow, plodding your feet. If you want to imagine what it seems to stomp your way, recollect images of Rocky training in Siberia, in Rocky 4.

I love the summer dog days, when all there is during the day is sun, sun, sun. I love it either in the hills where the cool sunshine brightly lights up all that is around, with the occasional breeze albeit of lower density - or in the plains where it gets all sultry leaving you feeling like in heaven when coming back home after playing or roaming around mid-day. To experience this, you have to be in India. There's nothing like the Indian summer. You like it too? I have a community in Orkut, I'm the only member though.

I hate it when I have to switch on the lights prematurely because of cloud cover/dark clouds. It gives an eerie feeling, caught in two minds, because it isn't yet time for the lights yet its darker than usual.

I hate it, in the summer time when the indoor temperature is something like 20 deg C lower, because of the air conditioning. Especially some buildings in America, where you have to wear a jacket inside the building during summer. That is one of the worst things ever, feeling cold when all you wanted was to feel cool. It is ironical to come out of a building and be relieved to be back in the warm air again. The textile showrooms, in particular, advertise a chilly temperature to attract crowds, who do turn out to beat the heat. Count me out. I'm not game.

I hate it when the weather is in two minds. It should either be too cold, freezing, or should be real warm. Anything like 12-15 deg C is uncomfortable because its just not possible to wear proper clothes.

I don't like it when it half-drizzles, not being able use an umbrella or put it away.

I love it when it's cold at night, but you have a real cozy room and a cozy blanket.. the same feeling when you feel lazy to get up on a cold morning.

Mother Nature, I love you.

Minesweeper is trying to convey something

Almost all of us reading this would have experienced Minesweeper, the game which comes free with the Windows operating system.

What makes me ponder hard and reason for lengthy periods of time is that no matter where you click, your first square will not be a mine. You may argue that it is obviously designed: a mine on a first click will make you less interested in the game. But, isn't it a strange outlook in life? Every time you play Minesweeper, you are always given a chance to prove yourself on the first try - shouldn't life also be like that? For your first try you should be forgiven; the latter steps shall determine if you have learnt from that first step - very much like Minesweeper.

From a game design point of view it means that the outlay of the mines on the field is undetermined till your first click, but life can't be like that, swaying to your fancies.

Your first 'click'... Always reprieved, no matter how bad a guess it may be..... Minesweeper is conveying a thought provoking message....

East India Companies: A reversal of fortunes

Tata will soon lap up Jaguar and Land Rover, once very English, will soon have an Indian at the helm of all affairs. So much so for the haughty greedy Englishmen. I say, the politics of tomorrow will be commanded by those with people power; India fits that role but not China because it is ruled by narrow minded people(atleast that is what they portray).

YouTube videos in higher quality

Some videos have a link below the video for a higher quality version, but someone found that suffixing &fmt=18 to the address of the page will display any video in higher quality(that is, if it was of higher quality before uploading). The sound also seems to be of better quality.

But! Since higher quality means bigger file size, the playback will be really slow. You will need a superfast connection to view a higher quality video at normal pace.

Check it out yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0 (normal, low quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0&fmt=18 (higher quality)

I found it on a video on YouTube itself.

see more loldogs are funny dog pictures!

Blogging and social life....

Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new Australian research has found.

Really?

Cry babies spanked by Captain Courageous

Take that, cry babies.. The Australians who have been trying to take down the Indians much like Symonds did the streaker, albeit stupid, cowardly reasons. All of them tried - Symonds to Bhajji, Ishant - Ponting acting like a stupid kid - the Australian media batting for the Australians for no reason at all - but ultimately, they had no answer to Captain courageous' cool and strategy. Wow, hats off to MS Dhoni for persisting with the team - Yuvraj, Sachin - they played their part and not a moment too soon.

About Praveen Kumar the seamer and Piyush Chawla the leg spinner, guess what the Aussie commentators say about them - they reckon it was a master plan by Dhoni to shield them from the Australians until the last moment so that they wouldn't know how to deal with them. It was a big, big, risk - because as far as I remember, I don't ever remember fresh, young players performing so well at moment's notice at the international level - I just don't know what to say about Dhoni.

And Sachin - it's such a rare moment to see him finish off the second innings not out. It was magical.

The lions have been tamed in their own den; the Aussie brand of lions is definitely worth putting out on the endangered list; they are soon to be extinct. With a knacky guy like Dhoni running affairs for India, looks like the Men in Blue are here to stay... A 2-0 win over Australia, not letting them overwhelm at any moment, full credit to Captain Courageous. Cry babies, now you have reason to cry. Cry as you like.

Please, let the players celebrate

I don't like sports channels trying to make interviews to players just after a victory. I am definitely not so cricket crazy as to intercept happy players enjoying themselves. Especially after the CB Series win, not only was Gautam Bhimani hovering around the celebrating Indians like a blood thirsty mosquito(just a crazy comparison, but he does look like one doesn't he... Cheerful chap), ABC too were trying to pull the players for interviews. Now, if you noticed carefully, almost all the cameras and photographers had theirs guns trained towards Harbhajan - obviously ready to catch the slightest sneeze to use against him. Credit to the tough person he is, Harbhajan didn't do anything stupid - he gave a decent interview and waved around without controversy. I loved it when he tugged at his own shirt and made a pehelwan stance, signalling to the crowd that he had undoubtedly made his country proud by keeping his cool when there were only vicious snakes around him. I'm referring to Matty, Ponting and the Aussie media.

Follow up on the 8-1 loss

The very next night after that 8-1 loss, I played that 'Sabaas' girl again - this time it was a doubles - mixed doubles game - I played with another girl against her and her friend. Turns out the 'Sabaas' girl is a state player and her partner for the game is a tennis player(she almost played the backhand with two hands tennis-style). Now the tennis girl was really hopeful she would win against me because she had a state-level player on her side. I was just remembering how to serve tactically. Damn, when I lost 8-1 almost all my serves to the Sabaas girl were smashed and dropped and torn apart. Now, having rediscovered my serves, the tennis girl was markedly pissed off because she just couldn't judge the line, play backhand and move back(not to mention my smashes which surprisingly always went to her).

Make no mistake, we won every single set played. Every single one of them. I was over the moon. I was playing better, my reflexes were wonderful, I was enjoying smashing around, wow. Nice to be hero once in a while.

Having lost a 'final' set which the tennis girl promised they would win but lost, we ended the day.
And then the moment which brought a smile to my dedication and love for shuttle badminton. Sabaas girl, the state-level player asked, "Did you take professional coaching?" That was out of the blue. Totally. "No", I said, "I learnt playing myself in school and at home". I was so happy for once.

Now for the next shocker. They offered to drop me off, and when I asked the Sabaas girl where she lived, I didn't expect her to tell me she live the same apartment as I did. And, I hadn't met her in over 9 months. Wow. I'd never even seen her before the shuttle matches. She lived just two floors above me.

Anyway. I had won all the games that day and I was almost a national-level player. That too courtesy a girl. Ha.

Harsha Bhogle talks too much; Wasim Akram is trying too hard

Listening to commentary on ABC, if Harsha Bhogle is on, he doesn't let any of the other commentators speak! Even when they start, he doesn't stop until he's finished whatever he's started, and he would've started long, long, back. Also, you can detect the situation India are in from his tone - he is fast and 'happy' when India're good; hardly saying anything otherwise. Not taking any credit away from his talent, he does explain everything in detail as a good radio commentator should.

Wasim Akram is trying too hard to impress with his commentary(I don't know who, maybe his position in ESPN-Star is in question), it doesn't sound too great. But, I would say, Indian commentators are not as good as the others(English are the best; Australians are next). The English (Gower especially) commentate in such a way that they don't disturb you watching the live action; maybe that has to do with the English vocabulary which they are naturally better at.

On that note, the life of Indian commentators over the years has been on a roller coaster ride... Sanjay Manjrekar, L Sivaramakrishnan, Charu Sharma... Once upon a time Sivaramakrishnan was a local favourite on Doordarshan, Sanjay used to be on some commentary team, same with Charu. During '98-'99 when ESPN-Star Sports were dominating with almost all the matches on their channels, all these three were almost 'dead', many including myself thought it would be the end of Sanjay. However, with the entry of Ten Sports, then Sony (2003 World Cup) and Zee Sports, now Neo Sports, commentators must be in demand now. Many 'accuse' Sanjay of being a bad commentator and talking a lot, but I don't think he's that bad. Sivaramakrishnan is quite simple I would say. No comments about Charu. He thinks he's a king of all he surveys. Ha. But each and every time, I am very surprised each and every time ESPN-Star don't win rights to a tour - because I think they are the best team in the house for cricket with arguably the best experience. I wonder why they aren't bidding as high as the others.

What you get when you come to America.... Not a culture shock, but a...

Quote by Sunil, B'lore, Mech:

"When you go to an American university, you don't get a culture shock, you get a GULTI shock"

Unless you are Gulti yourself, that is

Losing 8-1

Playing shuttle badminton with girls I thought would be a cakewalk. First assumption.
I had just played one match with my friends, and two Indian girls and a boy came along with racquets and synthetic corks. After a couple of minutes of warmup, they wanted to play a match, so one of them came up to me and Raju and aksed if we would like to join in. Raju and I looked at each other and I agreed, Raju probably letting me go because I wasn't dressed properly for playing(I had gone straight from my lab). So the other guy and I teamed up, and that is when my smiles all dried up.
Now when playing with the opposite sex it isn't appropriate to smash, drop it short and push around aggressively, I thought. Second assumption. One of the bigger girls definitely seemed to be a tennis player, because she was smashing tennis style. And smashing hard. And dropping it short. Not that I am a great player, neither was the other guy, but I was out of touch and wasn't as flexible. The short drops were ever so tender. Damn. And so we lost the first set
Then the second.
And the third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
You see, the problem was that by the second set I was in in 'OK' form, returning well, but the other guy was still a learner I believe. And so we won the 6th set because I dropped my assumptions and smashed it around.
Again, girls are divine, my heart just wouldn't let me play as I wanted. So we lost the sixth and seventh sets. And eighth as well.
Playing finished, I was walking away when the two girls intercepted me and said, 'Hi, you played well, what's your name' I replied, asking them their names and where they were from. They were from Poona, I guessed rightly, coz the smasher kept saying 'Sabaas' whenever her partner played well.
I guess losing 8-1 to girls is a something great and to be cherished. And no, I'm not making excuses for playing badly. I'm not.