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Its official now ... Kimi is WDC 2007. The Mclaren appeal to FIA got rejected ... I hope next year on Mclaren learns to take defeats with more dignity ( you see Kimi is gonna be WDC2008 too hehehe) ...
Read more...The earth recently has seen the silent invasion of a new species. The invasion had been slow initially, but in the last 2-3 years the invasion has been growing in leaps and bounds.
Now let me enlighten you with the characteristics of this species and as is the norm lets start with the females.
The females in this species are extremely aware of the ever changing trends. Their vocabulary contains words like sexy, chic, up market, classy etc etc. They dress in the latest trends. Their color coordination in accessories would put even the top model to shame. Their hobbies include ramp walking, reality shows and television.
The males are more into gadgets and gizmos. Their conversations are peppered with swear words. Outdoor is not part of their environment. Their world revolves round graphics, gore and special effects.
A strong dislike for the non visual media (read books) is a common characteristic. So is the ability to exercise their vocal chords with relentless screams and yelps.
I am sure you must be wondering what this post is leading to… Welcome to the world of Junior Adults(JAs). They have almost invaded our space. Achievers in their species are aged between 2 to 10 years
But , they never enjoyed the wind blowing across their face, or built sand castles and had mud fights. They never played with dolls, they dolled up to be models with the perfect pouts. They don’t know that cricket and football are played on open grounds and not with the short cut keys and mouse.
For all of us innocent kids who dressed in whatever mom bought for us despite that trend being outdated by years . For whom birthday parties meant samosas, wafers and cake at home and not a theme party at Mc Donald’s. For all of us who fooled ( ok atleast tried to) fool mom that we were done with homework so that we could run out and play, here’s raising a toast to our Wonder Years.
“Nooo, I need a mini skirt”, the ear shattering scream across the mall almost made me drop the stuff I was carrying. The Junior Adult , aged 5 years old is on a shopping spree.
The JAs have arrived but where have all the kids gone?
Happy Children’s day to all
As I enter my housing society, I suddenly have a sinking feeling that I am being stalked. Wherever I go, i feel few pairs of eyes piercing my back . I turn around to catch the stalker but alas i find no one around. I almost sound like the protagonist of Sidney Sheldon's "Tell me your dreams", but in reality this is not MPD( for people who must be wondering whether I have completely lost it :D )..
This is what I call OCN . It usually strikes when I am sprinting faster than P. T. Usha to catch my 9:30 Madras Mail office shuttle ( see I leave my house at 9:28, so you can just about imagine the scene). I am almost lunging for the finish line and lo, I am struck by a virulent attack of OCN. Unlike other viral infections, OCN usually begins with a pleasant smile so initial reactions are mild.
This is a conversation between me and OCN virus, yeah the virus talks too :D
OCN : So Deepti, you leave for work at this time daily?
Me: Yes Aunty,
OCN: So you are late today?
Me: Just a little (No, I am running the Mumbai Marathon next year, hence the sprint :( )
Before the attack becomes more intense, I smile my brightest smile and run off, knowing very well that this is only a temporary relief .
Scene 2:
My weekend had just begun, and my long suffering mother who secretly suspects I am turning aethist, coaxed me to atleast put my attendance at the nearby Ayyappa Temple.
Sadly, she doesnt know its not god i am againt but some of the viral attacks I am subjected to each time I go there, each being more vicious than the other.
OCN: How are you Mole? Visiting the temple after quite a few days?
Me: I am fine aunty ( big smile to avoid the questions).
OCN:How is work?
Me: Fine
OCN: So when are you getting married?
Me: Smile ( Actually gritting my teeth), No idea aunty, amma and acchan are looking out. ( And they also think they are running out of options)
OCN: I am looking forward to a sadhya ( wedding feast in malayalam) soon...
Me: ( I almost mumble the name of nearby mallu restaurant for sadhya) Silence...
I have never prayed as intently as that day and on many days when this strikes me ... God , why single me out for all this torture?
Now the incident that triggered this blog,
Last night one of my friends came down to borrow a book. I had just finished handing it to him , when he told looked at the top floor balconies and exclaimed " Deepti call the fire brigade"
startled I looked up, and to my horror, OCN had struck again. In the process of having a good look at my "male" friend , OCN had got tangled in the balcony grill. With great difficulty, the fire brigade rescued the poor soul. ( But I am sure she must be grinning at the breaking news she had at hand, isnt breaking news worth all the pain folks .. wink .. wink.. )
Long live OCN .. Overtly Curious Neighbours .. atleast they keep the fire brigade busy with their antics.. and I am seriously planning to run the marathon .. or maybe the obstacle race next Olympics as I practice daily .. dodging and running away from OCN :D
The Formula 1 season has been one of the best I have seen.
To have a 3 way fight for the title is the stuff dreams are made of. The start of the race was the best Ferrari could have asked for. The moment Kimi edged out Lewis, he went into top gear and then there was no stopping him . Looks like Kimi's usual bad luck with the gearbox got transferred to Hamilton ( wasnt that really wicked of me.. but I am so delirious about his victory)...
The 3 pit stop strategy of Mclaren proved to be their undoing. Even the Ferrari haters would agree that ist their strategy and team work that got Kimi here. Alonso dug his own grave with his chronic "foot-in -the mouth" disease. Looks like its back to Renault for him. Massa.. boy you are some team player .. but please dont go the way Barrichello did .. you need to win too ...
But i feel for Lewis , he drove really well for a rookie and maybe with little more luck on his side I wouldnt have been writing this post. Better luck next time Lewis...
and to end the post, here's a quote from his post race conference
"People will probably try to make up more stories about me but I'm not going to change myself, I never did before and it's not going to happen in the future," Raikkonen added.
"I lead my life as I want and that's it."
I had almost forgotten I have my blog until one of my friends reminded me of my erratic posts(glad that people keep a tab) ... Last couple of month have been too hectic, loads of new things to learn and work on simultaneously...( who would have dreamed that oracle and UNIX have more compatibility issues than an average married couple :) )
Weekends just seem to fly past and before I know.. Lo and behold it’s Monday again... as the famous lines of the poem Leisure,
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare" :)
While on the topic of social networking, good o'le Orkut seems to be in news all the time and for all the wrong reasons too. People need to learn that it isn’t possible to monitor what every individual does, if not Orkut (which they threaten to ban daily) , the country's tech wizards will come with something else. What all will they ban??
There is one thing though that brings a real wide smile on my face these days, the sports scene in the country these days. Sania is in the form of her life. The hockey scene is picking up with India reaching the semi-finals of Asia cup. the cherry on the cake is the Nehru Cup win. For all the football fans, finally we could scream for our Indian team. The self belief shown by the footballers was heartening... hope this is a beginning of a new era (already dreaming of India making it to next Football World cup :) )
Hockey, the name itself floods me with a sense of deja vu. The school days hockey practices, playing in the slush on the school grounds, exemptions from exams .. the list is endless. Chak De India just took me back to the best days i spent in my alma mater. Its so wonderful to see people take hockey seriously now. Hope this is just the silver lining needed to improve the players' conditions and the playing conditions ( trust me the training camps are actually like refugee camps :) ). I am sure Dhyanchand must be smiling proudly in his grave too.
So here's to Indian hockey ... Chak De India...make us proud always :)
After the fantastic weekend ... with the amazing race at Indi and Real winning La liga .. the week started on a bouyant note. Hamilton is actually improving with each race.. the way he matched up to Alonso's pressure was amazing ... for a change Kimi's engines lived till the end of the race and did not succumb to heart failures as it always does. The competition between Kimi and Massa was superb to say the least. As i write this , I am already dreaming about Silverstone.
Since i have a soft corner for Hamilton .. just hoping he triumphs on home turf.
The whole of this week has been so hectic that I dunno how the 5 days flew. More so because I was almost buried in work.
With the presidential polls looming over India.. I am dreaming of a day when Indian presidents wouldn't need someone to hold their hand in order to even walk ... ( remember Shankardayal Sharma ) .. our present nominee also isnt far behind .
The Sivaji fever has caught up to me tooo .. hope to watch the movie this weekend ...
Singning off the week that was :)
Saturday started out as all normal weekends do .. on a lazy note ..
As my bro had his paper in the afternoon, the first half of the day till 11 had to be spent in forced silence ( he doesnt like any noise in the house when he is studying & for me its kinda difficult).
My cousins came in the evening and Deepak got me the amazing iriver X20 MP4 player from Dubai ... its actually my gift to my bro as he goes off to join his job in August at Schneider Electric.
The latter half of the day was just normal as i caught up on my reading ( reading Fontainhead again... cant seem to get enough of Howard Roark ... I hope God still makes guys with the same mould :D.. but even if he does, where are they? ). Missed the F1 qualifiers coz i read the schedule wrong :(
Saturday however ended on a somber note, there was a phone call at 1:30 on our landline. I dread late night calls, always get bad news. This call was no different, one of our family friends expired suddenly. Just got me thinking on how life changes in matter few minutes. So many times , we take people especially our loved ones for granted. We forget to tell them we care and when we want to.. its too late anyways ..
Being a huge Ferrari fan, the racing season has been quite a disappointment, but for the rise of Lewis Hamilton. I vouch for the fact that there is no harm in acknowledging genius even if it happens to be your competitor. His colleague, a certain Mr. Alonso though has some difficulty in accepting this fact. His insecurity shows in the form of his silly gaffes ( which I dont mind anyways :) ) . Kimi Riakonnen is blessed with good luck which seems to just increase each season ..and he does make it a point to share with his team too :) .
I miss Schumi but the competition just got tougher for Alonso from the least expected quarters ... just in his backyard.
Guess there is something between me and Spain... Nadal, Alonso and Barcelona to just name a few. Like the popular ad punchline says aptly "And the battle continues....."
At a recent celebrity wedding (read big fat), there was a media circus about a starlet claiming to be the groom's ex-wife. The media went into an overdrive about her suicide attempt and alleged drug addiction and the in-house doctors diagnosing a case of hallucinations.
However the alleged "Victim" got what she was seeking, her 2 minutes of fame (even if it was defaming) and glory. Who else would have given a second glance to Janhavi (see it wasn’t just 2 minutes of fame .. we still remember her name).
The numerous PILs filed these days have made a mockery of the judicial system. In a country where court cases stretch beyond the lives of victims , where a bomb blast trial takes so many years that the country has already witnessed a couple of bomb blasts at the same places , its a surprise our courts have time to even consider PILs on trivial issues.
All the litigants of the PILs are looking for are their 2 minutes of fame. Do they really care what Richard Gere actually does for AIDS patients. In case of the PILs against ART, it is a fact that what I perceive as beauty would be an eye sore for my neighbour, does that mean we file PILs and counter PILs against each other. India was a land which thrived on its differences. However it’s really scary to see the levels of intolerance these days.
Like the spoof on PILs on radio rightly says, does anybody ever think of filing a PIL against the government or politician who fall back on their promises or for people who starve.
I guess then, nobody would hound them for their sound bytes because they aren't filing PILs against someone famous, who would in turn guarantee them their "2 Minutes of Fame".
Due to my extraordinary( pun intended) past experiences with movies which are a collection of short stories which have some common thread, I had to be dragged to watch the movie, Metro.
However I am glad i was .There are very few movies which actually set you thinking about the rat race called life. Each day begins and ends almost like a reflection of a previous day without much thought given to anything.
In property ads we hear descriptions of the amenities and more amenities.We run to buy a flat with maximum amenities but without giving a thought about the little almost non existent time we have to enjoy them. The little time we have is spent mulling over the EMI rates which seem to be smiling back at us wickedly.
Its a trend to talk about spending "quality" time rather than "quantity" time with our loved ones. If only if it were that easy to define "quality".
We keep running the race and climbing the ladder and when we have decide we have reached the winning post or the top most rung of the ladder, the path which we traversed would have a trail of many things which we would we had waited and enjoyed.
However the pace of life has reached such a frenzy , that despite the thought of slowing down ... the EMIS and all the jazz jsut keep smiling and we just cant stop running.
The morning news brought a big smile to my face today ( for a change) . The Supreme Court had brought about a Stay on the 27% reservation for OBC in all higher educational institutions.
Its a slap on the faces of our vote bank hungry politicians who will stoop to any level to keep themselves happy.
The quota controversy broke out almost simultaneously at the time the movie Rang De Basanti hit the theatres. This movie which motivated the youth to come forward and fight for their rights peacefully. The candle light vigils and silent protests sparked up a new fervour among the youth. Few students from AIMMs started the Youth for Equality, a group to protest against the 27 % reservations for Post graduate courses. What started out with few people turned into a mass movement almost bringing the Government machinery to its feet . Daily protests and hunger strikes only inspired more students to speak up. The politicians used force against them but the peaceful rallies continued. There were setbacks due to pressure put on the judiciary, however truth always prevails and today's judgment is a proof.
Hats off to "Youth for equality" ... we need more people like you....
My blog these days almost resembles a dormant volcano with posts errupting from my brain once in 2 months .
Reading the newspapers and watching the news these days has become a painful experience for most of cricket's ardent supporters. Each person worth his salt has some opinion to say about the team . The horrible losses we suffered against Bangladesh and SriLanka notwithstanding, its the postmortem being carried out which numbs the senses. Little children with hardly any achievement to boast of have media coverage for their slanderous digs at the cricketers.
However bad our state in cricket be, I personally believe we habe no right to burn people's effigies and deface people's photographs.
I wouldn't blame the local public, my question is to the media... "why do you give coverage to such events?" Does all this account for "Breaking news "( other than the Abhiash wedding ofcourse)
Why do we think so much with our heart, raise our sportstars, celebrities on a pedestal when they are doing well and then leave them in a lurch when their stars are not shining on them ...
More than anything else, lets learn to concentrate on real "Breaking News".
As for the cricketers the best option is to ignore them till they start performing consistently... ( but I really can't stop watching cricket :))....
True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.- Erich Segal
This quote from the writer of the one of the most poignant love story may seem to be such an irony...however it holds so true in today's world.
As the whole debate (read war) between the believers and non- believers about the whole concept of Valentine's day rages on, the above quote may almost land me behind bars .
It is strange because when we have so many social issues to tackle we create such a hue and cry over a non-issue.
Love is a matter of personal choice, few people like public display of affection (PDA as they call it :) ) .. so why not let them celebrate while the others can always learn to ignore and carry on as though its just an ordinary day. Then it is also a case of haves and have nots. Those who are in love who bask in its glory and the so called unlucky ones who get depressed due to affection deficiency syndrome .
Its such a popular topic that people ( me included) dont mind writing about it though they have no clue themselves.
Looks like I am preaching now ... or is it St. Valentine trying to make me a believer ... I think i need to get my ears tested soon.
