On a lighter note

I'm a devil

2010-03-08T22:14:00.003+05:30

I have been listening to the phrase "You are a devil" from many people around me including my parents, my brother and also from my friends on a lighter note. I always wondered, was that really true? and I was always unable to infer why until some thing happened which made everything clear to me. On a sluggish Sunday morning I woke up and was ready to take the day as easy as possible to relax my mind from the whole weeks turmoil. To wake up at around 9 in the morning then sitting in front of the TV for an hour or so and then to proceed with a heavy breakfast then back to TV. Things seem so easy and peaceful. I could feel time ticking second by second so slowly. I always enjoyed that. This Sunday was no different.

Before going for a bath I thought of shaving my lightly grown beard so that I don’t have to shave on the Monday morning. Anyways the first feeling of waking up on a Monday morning itself is bad hope I had an option to wake up directly on a Tuesday morning. I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the shaving mirror looking at the handsome character in the mirror :-), I couldn't stop staring at myself. I saw the beard, it was very light infact. Thoughts to shave it or not started in my mind. Just to avoid the Monday morning blue I thought of going for it. I put some foam on my beard and mustache; smeared it evenly all across. Again looked at my face in the mirror, raised my eyebrows and a final sigh before starting to shave it off. It was a new razor and hence the shave was smooth. I cleared everything around the cheeks and lower part of the chin and near the throat except for my goti. Foam still remained on my chin and on my mustache. Now I wanted to shave the mustache off. Cleared it from sideways and was about to shave below the nose and damn... the tip of the new blade cut the tip of my nose. For a fraction of a second everything seemed normal and then it started to bleed. I just looked at it for a couple of seconds I didn't know how it happened or what was I supposed to do. I just stood there watching my tip of the nose bleed.

I remembered a saying in Kannada saying, translated to English here "Anger resides in the tip of the nose of a human being". A wicked smile was seen on my face. All of a sudden I rushed out to my mom who was preparing breakfast for us and said, "Your son is one step closer attaining nirvana". She turned back and asked me what was I talking about and was amused to see my nose bleeding. She asked me what happened and I iterated, "I am one step close to attain Moksha (nirvana or enlightenment)". She asked me what I meant. I told her that today I let go of all my anger since I had cut my nose tip. And we started laughing. My mom called my dad and bro to take a look at the great achievement I had done. They were all proud of me... hahahaha LOL

As a human being we have six bad qualities called as "Arishadvarga" in us by birth as per the Hindu philosophy. They are Kama (lust, craze, desire), Krodha (anger, hatred), Lobha (greed, miserliness, narrow minded), Moha (delusory emotional attachment), Mada or ahankara (pride, stubborn mindedness) and Maathsarya (envy, jealousy, show or vanity, and pride). One who can give away all these qualities can become a supreme human being and can attain Moksha or nirvana or enlightenment as its called.

So I was one step closer to attain the same since I had cut off source of anger from my body. This is how tried to put it. I came back to bathroom just to clean my nose from blood and to put some after shave. As soon as I applied the after shave it started to burn like hell but I thought this was a small price I was paying for such a life time achievement. I heard my brother come behind me and say "You proved you are a devil today". I asked him how. He replied I resembled "Shurpanakha".

Shurpanakha is a mythological character in Hindu epic of "Ramayana". Shurpanakha is the sister of Ravana, the devil king of Lanka and was a devil herself. She comes to Lakshmana the brother of Rama, the Hindu god, with a proposal to marry him. Lakshmana rejects her and makes fun of her. In order to take revenge, she attacks Sita, queen of lord Rama, which Lakshamana opposes and cuts her nose and sends her back to Lanka. Humiliated Shurpanakha goes to her brother Ravana and complains about it which leads to whole story of Ramayana.

Since I had cut my own nose and resembled her, I was part of the devil family now and the puzzle of everyone calling me a devil unfolded with proof infront of my eyes. I couldn't deny the charges made on me, neither was I angry. I also understood that you lose something (anger) to gain something (being devil). I went to office on the next Monday morning and did share my experience with my friends and colleagues. This was the experience with which I wanted to start my blog but that’s ok... When the feeling of cutting the nose itself is so good everything else seems OK... :-)

From the blade of the legend's bat - A tribute

2010-02-24T23:39:00.001+05:30

"Respect, respect and more respect to the god of cricket" I must say. I was part of the history today and my gratitude to the legend who made it possible. What an innings? What an innings? SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR aka god of cricket aka master blaster aka little master. Man who showed his master class yet again proving his mettle reached a grand mile stone of 200* (not out) individual score, maiden double century in ODI.
It's always pleasure watching him play and today was nothing different; in fact it was the best experience. Cricket fans all over the world can not forget the day today. Master made it look as easy and simple as it can look amidst his age barrier in the scorching heat of Gwalior. Who else could have made such a record apart from the god himself? Everything today was made perfect by Sachin. All the flicks, cuts, drives, pull shots, timing, placement, power, class, elegance, technique anything and everything. Nobody could have done it any better. Many cricketers found their worth because of cricket where as cricket as a game finds its worth because of one man today, Sachin Tendulkar. He is a legend yet so simple, a down to earth human being, passionate, believes in absolute action than words and what an action it was today.

On my way back home in office cab, things started heating up as soon as all my cab mates came into the cab. There was only one thing on our minds. Cricket and God. Every one starts opening up their Mac books, connecting their data cards and here we go. Every one opened as many cricket sites as possible atleast 4-5 of them. yahoo cricket, cricbuzz, cricinfo, espnstar, crictime live streaming... Every ball every comment on those sites were read carefully. God was playing at around 170+ runs with many overs to go. From then till the time India finished their innings, the scene in cab was a mix of cheerfulness, excitement and tension. Every run from his bat was applauded. Scene in the cab made the people around the cab on the roads were raising their eye brows. Finally that moment comes when he reaches the record score of 194 and moves past it. Right from our childhood days when we started following the game till today we would never have had such a satisfaction ever watching cricket. The icon making one of the best records possible with his master class. Just a few seconds later, it’s a "been there done that" situation. We had already accepted him as the highest one day innings scorer and were awaiting what was in store. Where would he take the limit to? He never creates records he always sets the limits, limits in cricketing sky. Everyone eagerly awaited the maiden double century. Last 2 overs left. Master is at 199. Only a single ball was required for him to reach the master mile stone. Dhoni on the other end playing his natural game and was in good form hitting boundaries and sixes. At that moment we weren't cared if India reaches 400 or 500, Dhoni hits sixes or fours, only damn thing we cared about was Sachin reaching 200. That milestone in itself would have meant all time victory for Indian cricket. Finally that miracle happens. Sachin Tendulkar - 200*. We all applauded, cheered and shouted with excitement and happiness. It was an amazing experience. An evening I can't forget of. Every second of it is memorable. We left our cab with a big smile on our faces. As soon as i got down from the cab I started getting calls from friends and family, trying to let me know of the record made. After reaching home I didn't even care to watch the 2nd innings of the match because I felt we had already won, having Sachin on our side. A true legend.

Congratulations to little master for the job well done, for breaking records and accomplishments. Thank you for making us part of the history, for the entertainment you have given us for more than 20 years and for making cricket and India proud. With all respect...

Lightning at my finger tips

2010-02-22T22:58:00.007+05:30

It’s around 11.30 PM on a weekday. As usual I am at home with my laptop open to browse through the internet with my LG flatron running parallel with something on the discovery channel. Its about the time for me to go to sleep. All of a sudden whole of the world around me goes dark. The laptop screen turns bright to little dull and I realize it’s a power cut.
Beginning of the last power cut for the day for an hour. This has been the scenario from a quite a while these days in Bangalore. Every day offers you 4-5 hours of load shedding officially and many 15-20 min power cuts in between. It’s hard to imagine the fate of smaller cities or villages in the state when the capital of the state itself has such a situation with power. It’s hard to accept power cut since it’s just the end of the winter and summer hasn't started yet. I would have never thought a power cut at such an odd time of the day could mean anything great to me but there was something in store in that darkness. Since it was already time to bed and not much battery power left in my laptop I decided to switch it off. It took almost a minute to shutdown. I got up from the chair and started taking steps in complete darkness now, since even the little light from the laptop was gone. I wasn't sure of where my cell phone was to use it for my help. I slowly started moving like a blind person dragging my feet on the floor just to make sure I didn't bump into the furniture or to the TV. I could have directly gone to my room but wanted to reach the TV, just to make sure I turned the main switch off, since it was still on when the power went off. This was the moment when I realized one of the best experiences of the day. Just by chance my fingers stretched little ahead from my body touched the flat screen of the flatron. I was able to see the little sparks of light coming from the junction of my finger tip and the TV screen. It was not an electric shock but just a little discharge of charges from the TV screen. It’s the same scenario when the charges reach to the earth through a lightning. TV being on for a long time the static charges that was on the surface of the flat screen found me to be a medium to get discharged and reach the ground. The whole incident excited me and I started moving my fingers all across the screen and was able to witness the same scenario again and again. It was wonderful. Though it was dark on the outside there was a little light that got kindled inside my head from some of my physics classes from the school days. I am sure it was lightning that was happening but at a very controlled and a smaller scale. A scale which couldn't harm me but still could give me nice experience. I thought of shouting "Eureka Eureka" but it was already late in the night and every one at home was sleeping. I was happy to witness this scene and silently being part of it. Oh yeah, I did switch off the TV mains after moving my hand through out the screen and discharging all the charges.

I was thinking of starting a blog from a past few days and thought this could be the nice experience to share and start with. So here I am penning down the same with excitement.