Love...

A thousand promises for you I hold,
Each as pure as the first drop of dew,
Love me once, and a deeper meaning of love,
I'll reveal to you,

I'll be the picture that you'll paint of love,
On the twilight skies I'll be your soul,
I'll be the vision,
of hopes and dreams in your eyes,

And if there be a darkness to your life,
I'll be the warmth of the morning ray,
I'll be the comfort that you'll return to,
At the end of a long weary day,

And I promise you, that I'll love you,
The way you have never been loved before.
And with each day that you love me,
You'll know, that I love you even more.

Sigh!! This one not only brightened my day today but will brighten every day henceforth. What a lovely surprise from my husband today;-)

Selection Process

If you have a bunch of kids around; not aged more than 6-7 you get to hear some priceless pieces.

Here is one:

My little nephew T, all of 4 years, was waiting for an invitation to his neigbour's daughter's birthday party. The little girl walked up to him and said,'T tomorrow is my birthday party and you are selected for it!'

Her parents , T's parents and we two were stunned and burst into laughter.
Yes kids surely say the darnest things!

Sparing Sachin...

Sachin Tendulkar is a unique person in every sense. Everything he has done on and off the field exemplifies his uniqueness. He has been India’s wonderboy, heartthrob, kamikaze kid, saviour, knight in shining armour etc. As much as his batting is unique so have been his dismissals and also the criticism he has faced.

Don’t you ever wonder that Sachin Tendulkar must be thinking what it is that I must do now after 17 years of international cricket , more than 100 tests and 350 ODIS, so that the critics simply shut their traps!

Take the recent article by Sanjay Manjrekar on him. Read it and try to figure out what message Manjrekar is trying to send to all of us.

• Is he trying to doubt Sachin’s commitment to the game?
• Is he trying to accuse him of faking injures?
• Is he trying to say that Sachin puts self before team and country?
• Is he trying to tell us that Sachin is in his own world thinking that he is still the 16 yr old kid who recently made his debut?
• Is he trying to cast doubts on Sachin’s integrity to himself, team and the country?
  

What is he indeed trying to tell us?

I can’t believe that Sanjay Manjrekar, Sachin’s good friend for a long time would write such a column. How can anyone doubt this man’s integrity and commitment?
A man who has always stood out like a shining star and a ray of hope for many when India used be down in the dumps; a man who has inspired the current generation of Indian cricket.

You question the integrity of the person who landed back two days after his fathers demise to be a part of his team in the 1999 world cup campaign; he who scored a century on his return despite being ín mourning. Please don’t tell me that it’s easy to recover from the loss of a parent’s death, you rarely do. That gesture of Sachin only proved his rock-solid determination and dedication to his country and team.

In the 1999 Chennai Test, he was in brutal pain due to his back but he did not give up without a fight. Agreed he could not get us a victory but what a single-handed fighting innings that was.
Remember the ’98 season Vs Australia; he demolished them at home in the test series and in Sharjah.
He played an important role in the 2001 Aus series at home and later down under in 2003.
The 2003 world cup belonged to him and it was our bad luck that we did not win against the Aussies.

The man has single handedly led India’s fightback before the young guns fired under the Ganguly-Dravid combination. Until the recent England series there was not a single series that had gone by without him getting a hundred in a series. Yes he has had his drawbacks, limitations and failures. He has even candidly admitted on TV in his 30th birthday show with Harsha Bhogle that he does have a regret of not having carried India to more wins single-handedly as much as he would have liked to.

We just forget that the guy is human after all. And after all these years we are still ahead to doubt this man’s commitment to the game?

He is faking injuries so that he does not fail. Which wise man has told you cricketers to play with injuries or semi-fit? Whom does it help? No one, the individual suffers as his injury could aggravate and could end his career prematurely, and the team suffers as the player is not 100% fit. How can you, Mr. Manjrekar then even suggest that Sachin should play carrying injuries? You want him to end his career prematurely. I do believe that the guy has 4 years of good cricket left in him.

You yourself say that one cannot judge a persons seriousness regarding injuries, aren’t you exactly contradicting yourself by doing so in your article? None of us except Sachin and his doctor know what his body is going trough and no one but him is a better judge to know when he can play. You and I can opine but ultimately he will decide. And one more thing is he not showing more commitment by opting to stay out when he is not 100 % fit and cannot give his best to the team?

Sachin Tendulkar is an extremely intelligent cricketer. He knows his statistics by heart, he can narrate the manner of each of his dismissals and the bowlers who got him out. He knows the game is changing, he knows his position and role in the team is changing. That’s why we rarely get to see the aggressive Sachin of old days with the adrenalin rush in his body when he bats. He has calmed down and realizes that his presence on the wicket means much more to the team, hence he is slowly curbing his shots, his body is also not assisting but he is making efforts to work around it.

So Mr. Sanjay Manjrekar what made you write that article? Has your Ten Sports colleague Rameez Raja been influencing you? It would help if you acted more under the Aussie influence where they lay prime importance on fitness of a player and commitment to the game. Ask them their opinion on this issue about Sachin or for that matter ask the entire cricketing world! How could you pen this article?

Don’t criticize Sachin for the sake of doing so! I’m glad Sachin lashed out unlike most times sitting quiet and ignoring.

Mr. Sanjay don’t commit the mistake of unnecessarily criticizing this fellow, he is a true gem, with all his flaws and drawbacks he is still the best in the world and very few compare to him as a player and as a human being.

Here is a nice forward I had received when I was working after my engineering and hope all his critics including you get a message there

This is what Sachin’s messenger had to say to all of us:

This is interesting
I never judged any software engineers by the number of defects they delivered
I never commented on your activity reports
I didn’t get into your grading or banding details
Than why do you all keep discussing, judging and commenting on me all day long
I’m currently at the practice nets getting fit for my next series.
You are at your work desks, you are supposed to work
So please do so and spare me for heaven’s sake

Movies in Dubai…

Since moving to Dubai there is not much I’ve been upto. The house was set up in fifteen odd days. It was an absolutely enjoyable and satisfying experience. Seriously it’s indeed a great joy to do the little things and set up your house from scratch. For me it was also hassle free. Like it take it, that’s my husband’s attitude while I prefer to hunt down a dozen stores before being satisfied that I picked up the best deal!

After the house was done I decided to take the much needed break and relax in my new house. The cooking is also turning out decent and fortunately I feel I’ve inherited my granny and mom’s genes in cooking! I never imagined I would be doing this in my entire life but a couple of months of a drastic change in your life sure does seem helpful!

Books, music and TV keep me good company the whole day and weekends are the best what with outings to new places with friends and yes movies! Life back home had got hectic with my workload and husband’s constant travel that I could not recollect the last time we caught movies so often. And here it’s completely opposite; if not the theatre we catch some good movies in TV or DVDs.

A few ones I caught up with

Crash:

I was dying to see this Oscar winning movie and we got the DVD home. It’s a fine picture and full credit to the Academy for giving it the best film Oscar. Crash is a story of day-to-day life in America, about different people from different backgrounds: Racial, financial and professional, it’s about prejudices and fears. The stories are inter-mingled where the people cross each other’s path.

It concentrates on LA, USA but every one of us will identify with the characters. It’s a movie that makes us think. The Whites have their own prejudices against the Blacks and vice-versa. Asian Muslims are looked with suspicion post the 9/11 attacks, the Persians try hard to convince they are not the same as Arabs. Everyone seeking to prove a point and protect their identities.

Crash raises a lot of questions through the stories and tries to tell us that there is a good and a bad side to every person.

• What do you do when the person who molested you is the one to risk his life to save yours?
• What do you do when the same person watches injustice done to you quietly is the same person who stands up for you another time?
• What do you do when the person whom you constantly ill-treated based on his/her nationality is the first to be there for you when you need help the most?
• What do you do when you kill a person thinking he was going to kill you only to discover he was innocent?
• What do you do when your mother blames you for your brother going astray the wrong way?
• What do you do when all your life you have been stealing and this time life offers you the chance to save a few lives?
• What do you do when you are robbed of everything you own and end up blaming the one person who had tried to warn and help you?
• What do you do when the little daughter runs in to protect her father who you are about to shoot down?

What would you do? That’s what Crash tries to answer and in some cases leaves it for us to find the answers.
As Graham, the cop puts it, ''It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

It’s a must see movie. I suggest you do the same if you have not seen it yet.

The Ron Clark Story:

This is a movie that I caught umpteen times on Star movies here. The story is of a School Teacher Ron Clark and how he turns around a class of rowdy, ill-mannered kids to bring them to the top honors in their exams. The way he established a trust with the kids, the way he gets them to love studies, the way he builds their confidence, the way he makes them believe that they are winners and not losers as proclaimed by one and all. How he helps them fight the odds at home and simply become winners and discover their hidden talents on the way. A lovely film and Mathew Perry is surprisingly lovable in the role of Ron Clark. He is easy-going and goes through his act effortlessly. I was real glad to see him in a different role other than his Chandler Bing acts.
Another must watch movie.

Fanaa:

Caught this in the first week of its release here. Two of my favorite actors in it and I was surely not going to miss it. Kajol was her old self and Aamir a pleasure to watch. But the storyline was simply ok, there was nothing great in it and had it not been for the lead duo I’m not sure it would’ve been as successful. The songs were decent and I’m pretty sure Kajol’s kurtis and skirts are going to be rage in India soon. At the end of the movie I felt that I could have easily waited for the VCD to hit the video library or the movie to be shown on a TV channel.

And one more thing I can't keep watching Aamir die in back-to-back releases this year!

The Da Vinci Code:

In one sentence it’s never easy to make a movie from a book. Read the book and stick to your own imagination.

Phir Hera Pheri:

The sole reason to watch this movie: Paresh Rawal. It’s not as good as the first one but this man has you in splits with his dialogues and antics. Catch it on the VCD/DVD. This man rocks!

Yet to watch:
Golmaal
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest
Corporate
Superman Returns.


So that’s it folks, with laptop on board now, looks like blogging will be fairly regular! Cricket will be the next, longtime since I wrote about it!

Remembering the Brave Martyrs

Remembering the martyrs

Today, India will observe a two minute silence to remember all those who lost their lives in the recent Mumbai blasts. I can’t recollect the last time the nation came together to do so for victims of terror.

It’s been a week and it still hurts. I thought I could put down my feelings in a day or two but could not. There was anger at those who committed this ruthless crime, sadness for the families who lost their loved ones, admiration for the people who came forth to help people at the blasts sites and the ones stranded on the road, pride for the railways people who got back the services on track within 7 hours, and applause for the city to get back on its feet the next day.

I kept thinking if there is any way to prevent these acts of terror? But even with the highest security force in place I don’t think we can! We simply can’t. The ’93 blasts, then the Ghatkopar and Gateway of India in between and these serial blasts last week. Everytime we were hit we have got back on our feet. Do we really have a choice there? What should we do, sit at home frightened and not go back to leading our regular lives?

Is that possible and what do those terrorists achieve? Victory? Victory over whom? Victory for what purpose? Killing innocents , killing the unarmed, attacking from the back! Acts of terror? Nope acts of sheer cowardice. Yes that’s what they have proved time and again when they have attacked innocents. They have failed to bring the life in a city to standstill or to scare the people, so what are they achieving?

The trains are the lifeline of Mumbai and the hour when they were attacked was the peak rush hour. The Western line was my line when I was in Mumbai. I took the same trains daily back home; the very trains that were attacked. A friend of mine was in one of those trains, she was lucky she survived the attack but some weren’t. My husband’s school mate died in the blasts and I can’t imagine what his family must’ve gone through, just like numerous others who lost their dear ones in the blasts. The pictures on the news did not stop haunting me for days.

I felt so helpless. Sitting away from home all I could do was call up and find out if everyone I knew was doing fine. On the news I saw little kids come out on the streets and help the stranded. Women offer food and the elderly offer all the assistance they could at the hospitals, on the roads and at the blasts sites. The blood banks were overflowing within hours of the attack. In every possible way people helped and it moved me.

It is a city I’m extremely fond of because I’ve spent my entire life there. Its spirit is indomitable and it is undying. At times we do get caught up in our own affairs, you see there is no time to look around; but in times of calamity the people always have held each other’s hands and those idiot terrorists are not going to win ever.

Everyone is a survivor and if it were any other city they would’ve fought back in the same manner as Mumbai did.

I hope the intelligence agencies and police bring forth the perpetrators of this crime sooner than later and a repeat of ’93 case does not recur in this case.

All those who died in the blasts will be brave martyrs and I join in to remember them in silence. I hope we can try in every possible way to ensure that their sacrifice won’t be a waste.