Polish those ‘diamond’ screenshots

I do not know how you are going to react on seeing this post – whether it is the sudden recollection that such a place for your reading pleasure ever existed or the collective groan that this place has suddenly gone abuzz with “activity” again. Whatever it is, it has been “idea germination” time again and I am going to dump this upon you. So, happy monsoon!!
Today, a brief reconnect with an old friend later, I left office. They say that when good things come to you, they come “chappar phad ke”(Now stop imagining Paresh Rawal in those “ajooba” googles!!). So the initial thought and associated emotions of having interacted with my friend did not sink in. It was when I was approaching home that I realized I needed to stop and reflect on the monotony that had crept in for the past few days. So, immediately, instead of heading home, I decided to take the U turn and head out for a long due conversation with myself (let’s call it Soulitude, going forward).
15 minutes into this journey it struck me that I hadn’t listened to Soulitude in a long long time. Soulitude was looking beyond “electrocuted handshake” interactions and smiles barely as long as the outstretched lips. He had missed those timeless journeys into wonderful bright corners of his mind, those memories were fast decaying but wonderfully glittered the moment he picked them up and tossed them around in a couple of angles. They were like diamonds, with each shining side throwing up different perspectives and people involved with the memory. That’s when Soulitude realized he needs to seek out those voices and faces that have long remained dormant in that creepy crevice in his mind.Its a beautiful irony of life that Soulitude needed to reach out to the depths of his mind to measure the heights of joy derived from those wonderful people called “friends”. So, my dear readers whom I have missed for long, call for a meeting with yourself, reach out to those dark but shiny corners of your mind and relive the memories. It is worth missing the “noise of the surface” for a while.

Run... run... run!!!!

Add a tune to this and stretch it a bit, some percussion and lo.. you have a cool sounding song… this was the theme song of the Hyderabad half/ full marathon event on Saturday, an event that I had the privilege of participating in .. and finishing! Perhaps, the defining words are participating and finishing because the time taken to complete wasn’t anything to write home about… 152 mins for the 21km stretch! What was really refreshing was the experience of being part of something so radically different from routine life.

Wind back to two weeks before the event.. Aug 2^nd, when I got to know that there is gonna be a event like this. Full of enthusiasm, I registered for the event along with two cousins (one cousin finally made it to the event and one dropped out royally J ) and my dad ( was the last minute inclusion, coz they did allow on-the-spot registrations). So, I had the benefit of a little bit of training.. let’s face it though… 2 weeks isn’t good enough time to train for a half marathon! At the end of it though, credit to my dad and cousin who did finish the run in very respectable and acceptable time.

Raceday: The five red lights illuminate and off they go… and we are go on the picturesque street circuit of Hyderabad. I will promote some Andhra Pradesh Tourism at this point, showing you glimpses of all places that I ‘shot’ past. First up was the greenery filled KBR Park on Banjara Hills (known for flowers!!) … that was the starting point!

The circuit was undulating terrain, and challenging, initially. Vivek (my cousin) kept up with me until the 1 km mark and then decided to back off (two pit stop strategy, I guess!) 1 km to 2 km was a little hard work coz the body was still warming up and it was that in-between feeling of not so hot not so cold, so ur muscles weren’t up to full working capacity. The 2km mark had the first water break.. time to pick up a water bottle and go on. A little ‘catching ur breath’ later, it was time to get back to pace. 2km to 4 km was actually peak performance. A glimpse at the stop watch.. 24 mins into the run at the end of 4 km. (again, the idea was finishing the race, not lap records!). two sugar cubes popped in at the 4km water stop and the run was reduced to a nice little calorie burning jog (and shaking an arm and a limb!!) The early morning was breathtaking. We were passing through the new Hyderabad. The Hyderabad that is still associated with Chandrababu Naidu… The Hyderabad of hopes, dreams, aspirations.. (and I was full of perspiration, now at the 6km mark).. This is where the magnificient Hitec City passed by, followed quickly by Shilparamam, the arts and crafts village. And then it was back again to glass buildings with the enormous Raheja Mindspace IT Park in sight.

One of the best moments of the run was when the traffic cops along the way, were actually applauding generously and cheering you along. It was inspiring. No iron hand to stop u. (Remember, I was neither wearing a helmet nor had fastened any seat belt!) .

The miles were going by and progress was getting a little slower with the 2km water points getting a little more elusive and far few in between!! But it was time to soldier on… We had crossed the IT district and were heading into the Gachibowli village.. and this is where the contrast strikes u. One moment, we were on wide, well-marked roads with glass buildings all around and the next moment, it was narrow, bylanes (which are, surprisingly, well-laid!!) with the village panchayat tree and post office.

It was now 13km since the run had begun and I was now counting down to the minutes and seconds that will would take me to the 21km finish line.This was a point in time where your body was on the verge of giving up… The mind then coaxed u, cajoled u and inspired u to go ahead and achieve ‘glory’ for the sake of “peace and prosperity of the nation”. The mind gave u sparks of inspiration and reminds u what all u were going to achieve if you finished the run ( u will be a superman in the eyes of the world… u will be the one guru people will look up to literally, while u are sitting up there on the platform!!)

13 km to 18km was some indifferent performance which took up roughly 40 minutes of the time. Ah.. 18km completed… and there was another monument in site (The grand gachibowli athletics complex) We had to wind around the road that led away from the complex and then do a full about turn and come back onto the road heading straight into the complex

Into the complex, and the 20km milestone in sight, the final 100 metres of the run was actually inside the athletics complex on the real race track. Awesome!!! This was when, finally, the sense of accomplishment started sinking in.. 2 hrs and 32 mins for the run.. 8 water stops along every 2km of the run, 4 sugar cubes, 2 glasses of electral water… but more than that it was the thrill of finishing the run when the body was giving up and the mind started taking over (This somehow reminds me of Honda’s hybrid Civic – where the electric motor takes over from the petrol engine to conserve fuel). No wonder, Ron Howard called it “The Beautiful Mind”! J

But there’s so much to improve. My completion time was a far cry from the winner’s 73 min. Bridging this gap is going to require tremendous practice and dedication and most importantly, another opportunity. If there is one more, I am ensuring that I am grabbing it and running again.

PS: The organizers of the event, Hyderabad 10k foundation, did not put a single step wrong and everything worked flawlessly. Kudos to them!!

The ‘splash and dash’ roadtrip

 

Ok. Trivia for you. How are you going to spend a lazy and cloudy Sunday morning if you have a little over four and a half hours at your disposal on a weekend and you are to come back home before midday? Look out of the window, smile to yourself that you have the best place in the house and snuggle deeper under your warm blanket? I would have done that too if not for a sudden brainwave or lack of brain, whatever you might want to call it, from one of my friends that we should do a roadtrip to Nandi Hills which is about 70 km from Bangalore on NH-7, Hyderabad highway.

So, off we went. The morning was absolutely cloudy. It made a pretty sight from your bed under warm covers. A quick refreshing morning tea and a quick little glance at the Sunday morning newspaper later, it was time to pull out the gleaming Zen from its slumber. We were three in all – Rohit, Jayesh and me.  All set to take in the beautiful morning. A quick prayer later ( I think the other two genuinely prayed that they return safely, especially with me at the wheel, although Rohit was involved in another roadtrip with me in April) the Zen nicely in gear, we set off into the mist of the morning.

Having read a lot about fuel economy drives in auto magazines, I was all excited and eager to try out one of my own. But then the first rule of a fuel economy drive, as they say, is to raise your windows to the fullest to minimize aerodynamic drag. We threw this theory out of the window because we were out to take in the cool, moist morning air. (Bangalore had got its first real monsoon shower of the season the previous evening) There were two jackets on two other human bodies, while  I was, probably, on a man-can-live-in-the-cold expedition

Anyways, coming back to the topic, we hit the outer ring road from the Old Madras road underpass. The first sight was a 40 metre fully laden Volvo truck. Shifting from second to third gear, it was light work getting past the truck. One more key thing I learnt from those economy drive descriptions was that you had to be as light as possible with your foot on the accelerator and be less monstrous on redlining the revs. ( I don’t have  a tachometer so I had to rely on the strains of the whining  engine to upshift). That involved a significant change in driving style. It was like playing Arnold in Terminator 2 on one day and playing Adam Sandler in The Waterboy on the other (With streaks of adrenaline secretion in the midst of the calm). The radio station was playing ‘Deewangi’ from Om Shanti Om – a fast number I soon cursed because I had to strain all muscles to prevent driving to its tune.

On to Hebbal junction, we did an easy right turn to finally hit the well-laid out and, now beautified, Hyderabad highway. The 11km stretch from CV Raman Nagar to Hebbal junction took about 23 minutes inspite of the forced ‘gentlemanly’ driving instincts. Hyderabad highway is very nicely laid out and looks a true six lane expressway until you hit the first traffic signal on the highway. And then it’s an assembly line of 4 consecutive signals (the full impact of which we realized on our way back!) until you zip past(or coast past it, in fuel economy mode) the Bangalore International Airport. Now it gets better here. You drive on for a further 10 km and you have a navigator who says he has been to Nandi Hills a couple of times before and eggs you to keep coasting along the highway and out of nowhere you suddenly find a detour to Nandi Hills on the left. You look at the navigator and he sheepishly says there’s another road ahead!! 

A small disapproving grunt later, you turn into the smaller road and now you realize that your fuel economy drive is in serious jeopardy with a series of villages passing by. But moments later, you are past those villages, since it’s a lazy Sunday morning and there arent many people on the road (Save for a few grape vendors holding up a bunch of grapes to passing vehicles and there’s a suggestion from somewhere in the car that we should just pick up the bunch on the fly from the vendor’s hand!!). Now you are onto the narrow winding ghat roads – this is a 11 km stretch from the foothills to the point called Tipu’s fountain. Fuel economy drives on a fast straight road are easy, just put your car in coast mode, run the accelerator light, and do not cross the 70kmph mark- But I realize that to extract maximum from every drop on the ghat section you need to be a little aggressive and attack the undulating terrain. This I learnt by example from a Trax. The trax was looming large in my wing mirror and begging for a place to overtake with its continous honking. Part of me said – hold on, this stretch is too narrow for me to let this guy go past and a part of me said – maybe he is the boss on these stretches. The other part in me took over and I yielded way to this guy. He zipped past and was out of sight. Now it doesn’t require rocket science to figure out that you can do the uphill terrains better on lower gears. It was not that I wasn’t doing the lower gears – but the uneven terrain was presenting a challenge because more often than not, I found the 900cc engine running out of breath on steep inclines. Now, it needed another course correction in driving style. Step on the gas a little more than usual, read the changing terrain better and be ready for a quick downshift( A lugging engine in higher gears consumes more fuel than an engine in the right gear!!) and we had caught up with the trax in quick time. Oh.. so much for the multi-dimensional capabilities that driving a car brings out. To extract fuel efficiency, you need to alter your driving styles for different terrains.  

Finally on top, we took in some of the most breathtaking scenery. Imagine this, you drive into a hilly terrain covered with greenery on both sides and signs of overnight rain in the form of drying up puddles on the road  and beautiful colorless clouds passing across (Now don’t already get the camera out, hold on!!). But then, the fun doesn’t end there. You park, get off and make your way to the viewing point.

You are swept off your feet with a brilliant blue endless skyline and a hazy white cold train of clouds crashing against the edge of the peak you are standing on and bouncing off it into your face. (Damn, I should have brought some warm clothing!!) Snap! Snap!! 

 

Maybe time to sit down here on the rocks and do some soul-searching.. or maybe better lie down for a brief moment or two and soak more of the atmosphere in – you never know when you can make it here again taking time out of your busy schedule (being politically correct!!)

Breakfast at a nice little eat out in the midst of a farm of gulmohar trees, with a wire mesh on top serving as a shield from the leaves. The chilly air made the idli-vada feel warmer than it actually was. The setup was complete with some old numbers being played from Rohit’s Nokia. Neither of us talked for a while.

It was only when we returned to the car did we realize how cold it was outside. It was nice to be back in the warmth of the  car and most importantly, back in the driver’s seat. Another roadtrip? Sure.. anytime!!! Just let me know the place.

PS: The fuel tank shows E and I have done 534 km since the last 32-litre refill. Hmm.. maybe more of roadtrips than city driving will improve that economy. 

The changing face of India’s ‘domestic’ circuit

A lot happened in the media over the last week. Top of mind is the celebration of the silver jubilee of Kapil’s Devils  conquering of the cricketing world – the unmistakable glint in the eye of every cricket lover of old (or not so old!) is all too evident when this topic comes up for discussion.

A thought about the changing face of Indian cricket has been swarming my mind all along, which I have discussed with a few already but thought it needed penning down. The changing face of Indian cricket I am talking about is the ‘domestic’ circuit – not Ranji trophy or Deodhar trophy or Tendulkar trophy or Lara trophy - It’s street cricket or more affectionately, galli cricket that I am referring to.

First, things that havent changed about galli cricket – The same old unbiased team selection procedure - Hold a small stone in the hand; show it to both captains; do some magic with it and ask ‘in’ or ‘out’ and the captain who calls correctly gets the first pick at the talent pool standing in front of him/her (yes, ‘her’ also!!!) – Just before the game is underway, rules are quickly drafted (ICC should take a leaf out from here as to how quickly ineffective rules are chucked out and new rules brought in!) full toss into the house is out, if the ball hits the boulder on the other end of the street, it’s a declared two – Game underway, you have the full talent on display, 5 different bowling actions (some chuck, some intelligently bend their elbow before delivering the ball, some have a longish run up, some generate amazing power on the ball standing still) , 10 different batting styles and stance (some have a front on stance a la Chanderpaul, some lean onto the bat as if they are hanging on to dear life, some have a stylish checking- elbow-angle-with-ground-first stance) –The sight screen disturbance comes in the form of a car or bike that passes by, which inevitably leads to stoppage in play for those brief moments and disturbs the three carefully arranged stones that serve as stumps at the bowlers end. There is always a scorer on the bowling side who keeps asking the score at the end of each over and the batting side, more often than not, overstates the score by a run or two and then you have a nice action sequence with both sides carefully recounting how each ball was played and then a satisfied conclusion on the score arrived at – Finally, one team wins and then you have all kinds of accusations and explanations from the losing side – probably the adaptation of a post-match presentation

Now, what has perhaps really altered the flavour of galli cricket – Nobody talks Gavaskar or Tendulkar anymore, it is Dhoni all the way!!! You have all kinds of hair styles and colors out  - Some Dhonis, some Uthappas (yes,with the ‘ghazni- like’ hair style). I watched a player in a street match in Bangalore who was even mimicking Dhoni’s adjusting-all-guards-and-helmet-20times batting. Today’s galli cricketers are far more talented – they generate amazing bat speed and thwack the ball hard – at the same time, they suddenly seem to realize the importance of singles, so they drop their wrists on the ball,sense the opportunity of a quick single at the vacant short leg position and sprint and their partner (yes, these days a non-striker has become mandatory, unlike the old!!) responds. No one wants to play longish matches these days. I recount a tale of how my father and my uncles used to play a test match in their front yard over four days every evening (and how one of my uncles who scored 210 and 210 not out in consecutive matches was made a permanent wicket keeper after that!! – Even we, cousins, used to play test matches over 4 days with 30 overs bowled a day).

Perhaps a sign that galli cricket is changing – or perhaps a realization that it has always kept pace with modern day cricket as was the era in which it was played. There’s a new format of cricket that becomes popular at the international level and the ‘administrators’ of galli cricket quickly lap it up and it becomes the norm. These things always pass your attention- unless pictures thrown at you like the one above make you sit up and reflect...

Now Dhoni wants to draw inspiration from Kapil’s Eleven for the 2011 World Cup…

 

The simple joy of 'coming home'

One of the primary reasons I am writing this blog is because I feel there is a large section of the readers who will relate to this  (and this is not to let u turn green with envy!!!)… and of course the other primary reason is to find an outlet to the range of emotions (mostly of joy and nostalgia) I  go thru whenever I visit home. One of the first things that is noticeably different on the day you leave for home is the sense of joy and the making up of seemingly valid reason to not work that day (and it almost always is a Friday, which simplifies things). So you tend to reach office a little later than usual and try and do a lot of things which you wouldn’t have done otherwise on a normal working day (like having lunch for 45 mins… having an extra coffee break at 3pm and howling to the whole office that you are leaving today and hence need to head for an early coffee break)

You trundle out of office, reach home and stuff two pairs of clothes for the weekend (not to forget the toothbrush… which you remember only when you ve packed your bag and reach the main door, which is quite annoying because your mission is being delayed by a further couple of minutes). Your bus or auto journey to the railway station or the bus station is spent absent-mindedly gazing out of the window thinking of all possible ways to plan the weekend (sleep first on ur bed… wake up and be pampered with home food… go back to ur playful ways with siblings… meet some friends). Different thing that none of these plans materialize. For me the best part about going home is the tryst with the Bangalore of old. The narrow, crowded lanes of majestic and gandhinagar is a different feeling altogether and is in stark contrast to the otherwise swanky commercial buildings in the new city. The best part about the old Bangalore is the food. You walk into a roadside sandarshini kind of joint and order a set dosa and that’s where the difference screams at you. You get three nicely puffed up (and well oiled!!) dosas in fine dough with a spicy curry and a tangy chutney as accompanying dishes. Its finger lickin good (now don’t file an unlawful usage of tagline lawsuit!!) all for an ‘eye-popping’ price on the 10-15 rupees band. So much for the company foodcourts.

Now comes the best part… u get on the bus (or the train!) making a mental estimate of the time its going to drop you in your hometown the next day (this is a very bad thing to do because every minute it gets delayed beyond your estimated time, you give half a dirty look to the driver and half a dirty look to the cleaner next to him!!) I wont go into what happens at home (because I do not wish to impose upon everyone what they should be doing in their visit home!!)  except the common.. mom sets all the pickles on the table, dad puts your favorite soap in ‘your’ soapbox. But one more thing that happens very often is that you are dumb-struck by how clean your room looks as soon as u reach (and u leave ur parents and siblings dumb-struck at how dirty it becomes by the time u leave!!) you get time for that little net practice in your backyard (or front-yard in my case!!) and keep resolving to yourself that u will start a fitness regime the moment u go back to ur place of work. And the other alarming aspect is the realization that time just seems to be flying double quick the moment you are at home and you are almost tempted to have a

If ever you were to plot your mood over this weekend on a two-axis graph, it will resemble the stock market crash of last week with the lowest point representing the time u settle down in the train (with a scowl on ur face which makes the passengers around u think u ve just been beaten up for stealing candy!!). You look too miserable for words and keep looking back longingly at Friday evening when u boarded ur train or bus for home… Ah! If only I had a time machine! Not for anything am I trading these two days…. Not even for a Ferrari F2008 test drive around Indianapolis

Why all of us are formula one drivers..

Before I begin let me confirm to all of you that this is not another sports post… although it has some references to formula one.. and the idea for this post came from watching the Canadian grand prix.. it was amusing to watch the Canadian grand prix for more reasons than one…. The track was wearing out and breaking up much like a monsoon-ravaged Hyderabad (or for that matter, Bangalore!!) road. And it was the best teams that were struggling to find grip on those sections of the track.. This set my mind ticking on how there is a hidden Michael Schumacher in all of us road drivers ( or should I say road ragers!!)

Picture this… you are behind the wheel of a Maruti Zen on Bangalore roads ( easy for me to relate this way!!) but you are only behind the wheel physically.. and u seem to have time for the whole world in this brief stint (although bangaloreans will tend to argue that a stint behind the wheel on Bangalore roads is anything but brief!!) you are on the phone… either with the hands-free or the loudspeaker.. or are holding it to ur ear in one hand and controlling the steering in the other.. (sometimes I wonder why automatic transmission is not the norm here, given the heavy self-imposed multi-tasking requirement!!) you are processing what the guy (or girl!!) at the other end is speaking and are replying… all the while with an eye and half an ear on the road (the other half opens when the stupid Tata Sumo driver behind falls off to sleep on his steering and consequently, horn!!)

You drive around with the phone call done and u need a new distraction to keep u engaged while u drive… so u start fiddling with the radio stations… (sometimes with the foot firmly on the accelerator pedal!) You need to turn right at Marathahalli bridge towards airport road.. the signal has turned green… u r on the leftmost lane and u turn all the way crisscrossing thru traffic that is needlessly honking from behind (hell, man!! U r the boss.. how dare they honk when u r changing lanes without indicating)

and then u come cross marathahalli bridge and stop at agra chat (u know this is supposed to be famous chaat from north india…. And all of the south Indians in bangalore come here every evening!!) .u pull over to the left (without signaling, of course) and head off for a quick bite (like Schumacher leaving his car in the middle of the Monaco track and walking away with the steering!) .satisfied with the snack, u finally resume ur “race” ( having counted the number of minutes for the pit stop) and then make ur way into bumper-to-bumper traffic on airport road (some say no longer bumper to bumper because the airport has shifted to devanahalli)… and u have this amazing knack of being able to sway around from the left most lane to the right most lane all in a matter of half a kilometer as if looking for a perfect chicane (corner, for the formula one ‘fans’) to overtake the train of cars in front.. and then u reach ur destination … Inox in Garuda Mall and drive into the parking lot (with the look of a Schumacher who has just driven a grueling race!!) The only thing missing is the podium presentation and the national anthem… which by the way, Lido Cinema plays these days… so next time you want that sense of achievement, head to Lido… J

And then the five lights illuminate (steve slater style!!)... and the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours has begun..!

Afridi - The saif ali khan of pakistan

Now that the IPL is finally done and dusted, its time to take a look at the lighter side of things...i like to start with things bottom up so that the root of the problem is always analyzed at (or attempted to be analyzed at :) ) Deccan Chargers was a team to watch out for.... and was favorite to hold the tournament by the scruff of its neck and wring out opponents which were all 'piece-of-cake' (atleast on paper!! .. that reminds me.. one of my colleagues coined this abt DC during the season... DC is the strongest team on paper since it is owned by a newspaper!)... but then, starry tantrums and hairy displays aside, there was really nothing that the team did noteworthy (except losing 12 of its games, royally!)..

Afridi was one of the 'stars' of the Deccan Chargers... Whenever I look at this guy on the field, I am only reminded of Geoffrey Boycott's now notoriously famous " if afridi is 17, i am 21" comment, eh! how many years back??? and one of geoff boycott's recent taunts at afridi has prompted me to write this piece.. boycott said " He can't change his game because he is a hitter of the ball. He is a wonderful hitter and I think he is one of the biggest hitters that the game has seen. He has a wonderful physique and is a strong lad. But he has no brain. He can't think. He can't stop swiping even if you stood on his shoulder and told him not to hit the ball before the bowler bowled."

To put it in plain words, i think afridi is such a talent lost... still not lost by some standards...! how many times have u seen this guy on the field and thought abt the mouth-watering prospect of seeing some big hits when he comes in to bat.. and thinking wat a dumb little score the opponent has left for this guy... and how many times have u kicked urself for thinking like that... after seeing him madly charge at a good length ball, testing Newton;s laws of gravity.. .trying to deposit the ball in the income tax building or the press box or the sydney clock tower depending on the ground he is playing in... and finding the bowler adjusting his position some 10-12 times, almost in impatience and frustration, for the ball to come and land safely in his palms... !

Afridi has been that kind of a guy throughout his career... but one real source of comic relief when he is fielded (if at all) in a test eleven is his absolutely crass and inelegant back foot attempted defensive shot... he seems to be in pain either from a constipation or a bad meal when he tries to play that shot... getting himself into all entangled knots.... holding out the bat... crisscrossing his legs... and then meeting the ball to the bat facing covers and the elbow pointing towards the bowler...

For all his idiosyncracies, he still seems to be the popular pathan from pakistan with his filmy looks... and his free flowing hair... so here's to the saif ali khan of pakistan...!