Shrieks of a disgruntled soul - I

A trivial thing does not become significant by just taking it seriously.

The plagiarised scribbles of an idiot

saari umr hum jee bhar ke jee liye,
ek pal to humein marne do, marne do......

naa na na na ........ na na nanna na na na ........
naa na na na ......... na na nanna na na naaaa aa aa.....

Burn me with sunshine..... Drown me with rain.....
Give me another chance........
I want to grow up once again........

naa na na na ........ na na nanna na na na ........
naa na na na ......... na na nanna na na naaaa aa aa.....


(Heartfelt apologies to Mr Swanand Kirkire)

Philosophical Gyaan - VII

Every moment, you have two logically relevant options to choose from:
1. Think that you are living every moment
2. Think that you are dying every moment
The second option is not that bad either since it gives you the advantage of not being shocked at finding yourself dead all of a sudden, when you would say, "big deal" (assuming that your sarcasm won't die with you. It would be really sad if it does).

Cryptocross - I

(Clicking on the crossword might give you a clearer image, which can be copied to a word file and the solutions written on.)

Across:
1. Babes with rectangular extremities somehow help you with cutting-edge tools (7)
5. Race around ten squared cricket-pitch lengths (4)
7. The small city will not be shortly changed (4)
8. Use tray somehow to get to the tidal river-mouth (7)
9. Dormant, refreshing talent (6)
10. A circus accoutrement may catch muddled alphabetical end in a non-British way (7)
13. Fall behind with empty-headed goon to reach the salt-water lake (6)
15. One of the hundred cellulose fabrics is colourful and waxy (6)
18. Happen before something that was somehow parted electronically (7)
20. A confusing publicity race for acquiring the supporting series of a kind (6)
21. Accomplish the corruption of the best of the pack in a bee house (7)
22. Renovated room became an open wasteland (4)
23. Creepy, headless lake (4)
24. Disgruntled son glares at the set of gifts (7)

Down:
2. Hitler was born where Al wasn’t down-under (7)
3. Relate without right to induce excitement (5)
4. A partly floral way of doing things (5)
5. Ferrous deficiency is caused by the absorption of volatile amine by Alcoholics Anonymous (7)
6. Destroy the snake-tail on the way (5)
11. Enthusiasm without much ado while dozing (4)
12. Mark of an injury due to crashing of cars (4)
14. Result of a changed coo not heard (7)
16. Dazedly save shortened long month to get sets of seven diatonic notes (7)
17. The head of the borough is on a short march with half-rebounding toy (5)
18. A gem of a Russian cereal (5)
19. The clear sky can be imagined to consist of anaesthesia (5)

Matter of fact - XIV

It is pretty obvious that God is either everywhere or nowhere. In either case, squandering millions of taxpayers' money on construction of places of worship, is not justified. But then, the human penchant for doing unjustifiable deeds is quite legendary.

Quote Hanger - IV

There are two types of people on earth.
Type 1: who do not believe in luck and miracles, who believe that they are alone and no one is out there to look after them and that fills them with fear.
Type 2: who believe in luck and miracles, who believe that there is always a higher power somewhere who will protect them in times of danger and that fills them with hope.

- Mel Gibson in 'Signs'

There is one more type:

Type 3: who do not believe in luck and miracles, who believe that they are alone and no one is out there to look after them and that fills them with hope.

- Adarsh Shettigar

Matter of fact - XIII

There are too many stupid people living on this planet.

Matter of fact - XII

Success is not about never falling, but about getting up every time one falls.

Also, the above sentence is nothing but bucketful of crap, and made up as an excuse by those who were foolish or incompetent (or sometimes unfortunate) enough to fall in the first place.

Matter of fact - XI

Time is like a rural Indian wife; no matter how much you abuse her, she offers herself to you silently, ceaselessly and unconditionally.

Philosophical Gyaan - VII

There is always a right time and a right place to start something good..... The time is now, the place is here.

Matter of Fact - X

Commitment without ability often fetches more than ability without commitment (sadly).

Life - preface

The redefining e-novel 'life' is a philosophical attempt at compensating for all the idled-away non-blogged hours of the past 12 weeks and hence, for the lack of compelling torturous epistolaries.

The topic 'life' has been chosen as a smack on the face of the agitators propagating hatred about this blog for the heck of it and on top of that, finding a justifiable cause for their unrest, that being the irrevelance of the posts. So, here is a 'relevant' subject - life. All you esteemed critics out there, try all you want to get away from this one - you can do that only once and won't live to do it again.

Matter of fact - IX

The seriousness with which you are listened to, is (usually) inversely proportional to how much you speak.

Matter of fact - VIII / Philosophical Gyaan - VI

Sometimes in life we have to choose between a right way and an easy way. But at other times, the two ways coincide and we don't have to make a choice at all.

Quote Hanger - III

Time has no divisions to mark its passage; there is never a thunderstorm to announce the beginning of a new year. It is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

- Thomas Mann

Quote Hanger - II

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

-Douglas Adams in his speech at Digital Biota 2, Cambridge, UK, 1998

Matter of Fact - VII

The saddest thing that can happen to one's ability is the loss of one's own faith in it.

Quote Hanger - I

More than our abilities, our choices tell who we truly are.

- J.K. Rowling

(Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter in 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets')

Matter of fact - VI / Philosophical Gyaan - V

You may think that mere existence is a miracle, or you may think that it is a curse; either way, you will be right.

The dawn of a new era?

(After an exaggeratedly long break from blogging, I am back to torment my (apparent) well-wishers who incidentally happen to have undue interest in my writing skills, having occassionally reached such a fever pitch that my online absence results in me being on the receiving end of pretty petty chivying. So, if you want some, come get some. It's revenge season, man!!)

The November of 2008 will be remembered as the dawn of a new era for Americans and Afro-Americans. The historic moment of the birth of the new Deal with Barack Hussein Obama becoming the first ever black American president, will bring nostalgic tears to many an eye who have been there, seen it all and witnessed the fulfilment of Martin Luther King's dream to a substantial extent. For once, the mere election of an individual to the pinnacle of political echelons made a considerable fraction of the world population forget the many obstacles on the road ahead. This is one of those rare moments that will be firmly etched on the minds of the (concerned) humans for all their lives, and will go down in history as an epoch-making milestone.

For a certain other set of people(mostly not overlapping with the first set), the November of 2008 will be remembered for another reason altogether(albeit a little too anticlimactically insignificant compared to the previous one). The ardent cricket-following Indian populace (of which I naturally consider myself a part of) got the moment of its dreams when India defeated Australia fair and square in a 4-test match series: 2-0 in statistical terms.

The series also saw two stalwarts of Indian cricket retiring completely from international cricket. You could not help but think that the timing of retirement of Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly could not have been more apt. Not because they would not have been able to win matches for India in the future, not because their replacements will be performing much better than they have been, not because they no longer had the hunger for success and the passion for playing cricket that we have come to associate with them over the years, but because of the likelihood of failure being interspersed among the moments of glory in the morrow, possibly resulting in the tainting of what would have been illustrious careers anyways, and because of the realisation that at some point of time in sport the aging physical dimension of oneself can become a hindrance rather than an asset. So in the end, the decisions of both were that of going out on a high victorious note, so that Anil Kumble won't be remembered for his extensively dry spells towards the end and Saurav Ganguly for his relatively weak technique against short-pitched bowling.

The series does not only mean a possible end of the erstwhile Aussie domination of world cricket, but it also implies the beginning of a new era in Indian cricket, that of the captaincy of M.S. Dhoni, the man with the Midas touch in Ravi Shastri's words. While it is true that Dhoni's job was made much easier by the strangely lacklustre performance of the Aussies and most importantly the all-round team contribution to the victory, his well-deserved lion's share of the plaudits should not be taken away from him by any means. As far as the Aussies are concerned, the return of a certain Andrew Symonds might make a helluva difference and in conditions seamer-friendlier than found in the subcontinent, there is every reason to believe that they will be back to winning ways, in spite of the absence of Mr Glenn McGrath. Despite that, one thing is certain - from now on, the opposition won't enter the field thinking that the Aussies can't be beaten; because the golden aura of invincibility has now vanished.

Matter of fact - V

Self-belief makes prayers redundant; unfortunately, the converse is not true (or else, life would have been much easier).

Matter of fact - IV

Pulchritude is inessential for self-satisfaction.

Matter of fact - III

The more things change, the less they remain the same (logic).

Matter of fact - II

Arrogance is inversely proportional to ability (with possible exceptions) and directly proportional to insecurity (without exception).

Roger Federer vs .....................

This is what John McEnroe said about the Wimbledon 2008 men's singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal:
"There was so much drama and, we have to say thanks so much to Roger. There was class from both players and their levels were incredible. It was the best final ever. People talk about my matches with Bjorn, but this was better. It was an unbelievable effort from both players. I've never seen tennis like it. I don't know how Nadal did it because Roger was playing brilliant tennis after the first two sets. At 2-2 in the fifth set, I didn't know who was going to win. To say this match was magnificent is an understatement. Federer has dominated on grass in the past few years but now he has someone to equal him. Will Federer win Wimbledon again? I don't know."

No one could have summed it all up better in these few words.

Now the question that arises is not only whether Federer will win Wimbledon again or whether Federer will win any Grand Slam in the future or whether he will break Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, but also whether he will be able to retain the no.1 spot for long. The only answer to these questions is that we'll have to wait and see.

If you ask me, Federer still has the capability to win atleast 3 more Grand Slam singles titles with which he would win a record 15 titles. But with other players (Nadal and Djokovic) not heeding the earlier aura of invincibility around Federer which had innumerably demoralised potential Grand Slam winners such as Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick apparently even before the match started, there is no doubt in my mind that winning those 3 more titles is not going to be a piece of cake as it was for him in case of most of his 12 earlier titles, but it would be a really hard earned meal. And finally when he decides to close the curtains on his illustrious career (which for the sake of tennis, shouldn't be too soon), we will come to know who Roger Federer really is: one of the all-time greats, or someone who has even surpassed that level. As far as the French Open is concerned, I feel that Fedex would be derailed until Nadal doesn't feature in it (because after what happened at Roland Garros final, 2008 I feel that Rafa is too good to be beaten on clay by any of the current frontline players, no matter how much I dislike believing it).

But all of this wouldn't make a difference to me if every future Grand Slam final is even half as good as the Wimbledon 2008 men's singles final. (And I would be hoping that somewhere in the future, Marat Safin is able to win a Grand Slam or two, out of the blue).

What to do?

After a four-week hiatus, I'm back to blogging with this solitary post just for the sake of those who have visited 'blogger' purely for reading this beloved blog of mine, which not only has led me to believe that I'm a decent writer but also has played a part in improving my typing speed.

Without wasting any more time writing mediocre fifth-grade stuff, let me move towards the supposedly philosophical, 'high IQ' standards that I have set for myself.

So here goes nothing:

Looking up at the tribladed aerator (or air-director, should I say) with my body stationed on the couch in horizontal equilibrium, I wonder whether being an ardent advocate of nihilism is the right way to live.

When the overall scheme of things allows me to take a break from the mundane activities spanning the diurn and the nocturn, and contemplate the various possibilities of the origin of and the reason behind everything (in dissonance with one of my philosophical gyaans), I reaffirm my earlier view that whatever one does in one's lifetime will prove to be futile in the long run in the context of the seemingly unending panorama of space and time called as the multiverse (which appeals more to me than the more widely accepted concept of the universe). So what's the point in living. Remaining unaffected by the Total Perspective Vortex would imply that your soul and your will to live are already dead.

But then, another possibility occurs to me, the one proclaimed by me earlier in all those chronologically numbered anecdotal posts, which my inadequate cerebrum forced me to forget, as a result of which I once again become one of those bloody hypocrites I despise from the chasms of my coronary arteries.

The ultimate choice that I make among these two will obviously be immaterial in the end.
But this is not the end yet and hence, the dilemmic question of making the choice arises.

So, good-bye folks. See you after a fortnight. Meanwhile, let me make that much shouted-about (or rather, blogged-about) choice and also remind myself of my legacy, both inherent and otherwise. I suggest you do the same.

A must watch

If you haven't seen it before, see it now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yILDiU859FU&feature=related

The most famous football save ever, featuring the daredevil Rene Higuita of Columbia with no worries of victory or defeat, just aiming to provide pure entertainment.

You don't get to see such things these days.

Yaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnn

When you reach third year engineering and you appear for your examination, staying awake for the whole three hours becomes the biggest challenge of all.

So near and yet so far

There are very few things in life that are worth losing your sleep over, and in the past few years I had added the Champions' League semifinals and finals to the list of those things. So it was but natural that I fought the closing instincts of my eyelids to (inconsequentially) cheer my beloved Chelsea to glory in its first ever Champions' League final.

I always thought that nothing hurts more than seeing your team put up a pathetic performance (as Chelsea did in the first half, but escaped with a serious stroke of luck in the end), but I was proved wrong in the end.

Apparently, I had forgotten the dreadful record of my teams once the matches went down to penalty shootouts. It began with 2006 World Cup quarter-finals (the unheralded Portuguese trouncing the paper-tigers England 4-1 in penalties), followed up by 4-1 defeat of Chelsea to Manchester United (3-0) by penalties in the Community Shield, 2007.

All that looked to be changing when Petr Cech saved the third ManU penalty from Christiano Ronaldo. The heart of every Chelsea fanatic would have filled with ecstacy and would have pounded in anticipation of the turning of a new page in Chelsea's history. (The foolishly red-carded Drogba ensured that) Chelsea's fifth penalty was taken by none other than the inspirational John Terry, perhaps the last person to be expected to goof-up in a tight situation. But then, even Christiano had missed and luck gave John Terry the slip at the worst possible moment and the penalty shootout was then tied at 4-4.

It only took another couple of successful shots from ManU and a save from Van der Sar (off Nicolas Anelka) to bring a sudden death to all my hopes, aspirations and expectations of victory.

It is said that penalty shootouts are a lottery and most often rightly so. And there would be no denying that after their insipid first half performance, Chelsea fought back brilliantly throughout the match, enough to have deserved their victory, if it was to be.

From the final extra-time scoreline of 1-1, it can be rightly inferred that it was an even match (perhaps, with all the missed chances from ManU and the shots from Lampard and Drogba hitting the post, 3-3 would have been more apt). But sadly, one of them had to lose and even more sadly for me, it was destined to be Chelsea.

The scenes of joy and celebration from the Luzhniki in Moscow would have made me happy for ManU if Chelsea hadn't been their opponents. Anyways, well-played Manchester United, maybe a deserved win, or maybe not, doesn't make any difference now.

As far as Chelsea is concerned, it was the most awfully heart-breaking case of being so near and yet so far.

Philosophical Gyaan - IV

Life is too precious to waste even a moment of it hypothesising about its cause of origin (and coming up with dubious answers)

Philosophical Gyaan - III

Life is too precious to waste even a moment of it doing something that is not required (to be done).

- Funnily, I contradict myself by writing this blog.

Matter of fact - I

We need to complain; hence, we converse.

Philosophical Gyaan - II

Life is too precious to waste even a moment of it doing something that you don't like (to do).

Philosophical Gyaan - I

Life is too precious to waste even a moment of it worrying (about it).

Victory is the cake and revenge, icing

It all begins with a presumed supreme advantage you have on your side, not without the avoidable help of your antagonist. Continuing in that frame of mind, you think that nothing can stop you. You are the ultimate ruler of the world (of the continent, rather). And you prove it with a stroke of talented brilliance.

Then you take a break and savour your pachydermian exploits, utterly unaware of the scheming opposition's urge to get level with you.

The battle resumes and you are oozing with self-confidence (possibly qualifying as over-confidence). You don't expect anything to go against you and you even ignore the consequences of something that might do so.

And when you blink and see, it's a different world out there. It can't be true, you think. But your efficient senses don't agree with your ever-optimistic thought. You even pinch yourself for the dreaded confirmation and grudgingly you infer the seemingly only possible conclusion. But it ain't over yet..........

Shaking yourself out of your self-materialised Edwardian summer blues, you strive doubly hard, you don't want to give even an inch to those consistently over-achieving bloody idiots. But they are stronger than you. Fatigue starts showing up. You yearn for an opportunity to reassemble your physical, emotional and mental strength.

You get that opportunity and you reflect on how wonderful your situation could have been at this juncture if you had decided for it to be so. You repent and you pull out your hair. Even your tears evaporate in the heat of your anger. But then you seek solace in thinking that it could have been worse and the battle hasn't finished yet. You embark on a new beginning, remembering your legacy that made you what you are: special.

You restart with all guns blazing, minus the complacency this time round. The elusive reward now appears within sight but you are blindfolded for a moment and you lose sight of the goal. But you know that it is somewhere just round the corner. And yes indeed!!! You are back with a bang. You are eager to fulfil your potential, do justice to your abilities and you strike a double whammy into the guts of your enemies.

And then you are back to where you started from. A few scattered moments of glory are all that are possible for your opponents to achieve. Plenty of breathing space for you.

And then it's over. You finally win, you soak yourself in sweaty mirth, you dance with joy and relief because this time, it was you who won and someone else who lost and not the other way round which you have been used to and wary of experiencing.

The final whistle becomes just a physical sign of the inevitable occurrence that was waiting to happen for eons.

- This post was specially dedicated to Chelsea fans.

Just a matter of choice

Trying to ensure that your destiny does not consist of mundanely meandering through shrouded mists of mediocrity and repentance, may not be much fun, but it does give you an inexplicable sense of satisfaction, as if you have been preprogrammed to know what is right and what is not, or may be that is what is called as human intelligence (?).