Becks does a Ganguly!

Finally, after huffing and puffing their way to a place where they have to DESPERATELY beat ESTONIA(!!!) in order to still be in the race to qualify for euro 2008, the English football team and a certain Mr. McClaren have decided to recall David Beckham to the national side after he was unceremoniously booted out of not just the playing eleven but the entire English team on 11th august 2006.
What started off as a winning streak for England, with clear victories of 4-0, 5-0, and 1-0 against Greece, Andorra and Macedonia soon turned into a nightmare. Forcing an hitherto untested 3-5-2 formation on the team proved costly as they lost to Croatia and co. to reach the current state of affairs... and with that the tables turned on Steve McClaren... He is now under immense pressure from engerland's boisterous fans to deliver, or he stands to be kicked out... Hence the return to the former captain, in the hope that he can save them from further embarrassment...
Does that story ring a bell in the minds of those who follow Indian cricket?
The Saurav Ganguly- Greg Chappell saga has many parallels to the English story. Both extremely successful captains, in tandem with super supportive former coaches(John Wright, Sven Goran Erickson) built formidable teams, often under accusations of helping their friends stay in the team while better men waited in the wings... Both were dumped by the new coaches in insulting manners, and now, while one has completed a successful comeback, the other seems on the verge of the same...
Cheers to fallen heroes, rising phoenixes!

Weight Loss.

I have never lived away from home. This put me at a slight handicap today as i packed my bags in preparation to leave home for (at least) the next two years.
Should i pack all those shirts?? well these are new, so they must DEFINITELY go in, but those old ones were gifts, and have sentimental value, and that one is REALLY lucky for me, so can't leave that out...
And so it continued. I packed and I stuffed my bags to bursting point. I was pretty happy with my effort, until I spotted a small line on the air ticket,"max baggage allowed-20 k.g.s". What? only 20 kgs? How am i supposed to pack two years worth of stuff into 20 kilos? Then began the slow and painful process of identifying what was actually essential, and what was just excess baggage.. things that you feel you cannot leave behind, but are best put away in boxes to be retrieved later if needed...
I guess that is pretty much the rule every where. When you move from one phase of your life to another, it's best to leave behind all the excess baggage and carry only the bare minimum... after all there will be new memories, new friends and a new life to be made.

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring...
And love is not the easy thing....
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind.
U2-Walk on

If wishes were horses...

Here's my wishlist. Anyone who wants to gift me any of these can tell me so, and ill mail you my address where these can be delivered.. ;)
5.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Still a couple of months to go before this one hits the stores..
Wish i could read it right now!!!



















4. Sony Vaio


good machine, great looker, fully loaded. would esp like the grey!!












3. Microsoft XBox 360

What a machine! even an amateur gamer like me was taken in by it's amazing graphics..

















2. Lamborghini Gallardo Roadster
Saw one of these babies in aamchi mumbai a couple of months ago.. have wanted one ever since..






1. M.D.(ophthal.) A.I.I.M.S.
Ahh! My no. 1 wish.. money can't buy it!

Think about it!

There have been days before today, and I'm sure there will be many in the future, when i wake up in the morning with the feeling that there is so much work to be done today, that i may just about manage to finish all of it on time, or, god forbid, have some work spill on to tomorrow to throw tomorrows already packed schedule off balance.
There have been days where the latter has been the case(more often than not).
But what happened today, i was TOTALLY unprepared for..
Woke up in the morning with a sense of dread about the impending mountains of paperwork and impossible people who do that paperwork to be dealt with. Approached every person who could help me out hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst..
And then it happened. Each and every one of those people seemed to be at their joyous best, helping me out with not the usual scowls, but bright smiles! As i watched the mountains crumble so i could gleefully walk over them and go spend some leisure time, i realised this. I had actually spent more time worrying about whether everything would fall into place today, than i had spent in the actual act of accomplishment.
I guess, it is true then. It is not the AMOUNT OF WORK we do that bogs us down, tires us, stresses us out until we are nervous wrecks ready to collapse into a burnout..it is the THOUGHT of doing all that work that does us in.

Highways hurt!!

I wonder what it is about highways that makes people compare them to their own lives?

Is it the long winding routes, sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, sometimes smooth, sometimes(and in mumbai, MOST times) bumpy, sometimes straight, sometimes winding?

Is it the fact that these routes take you to places that you had read and heard about before, but never actually seen , and hence, experienced before? Places which look and feel so different than you had imagined them to be?

Is it because every time you come to a fork in the road and you choose one road, you wonder where you would have been had you taken the other route?

Is it the fact you go through your journey knowing the person next to you well, the other people in the bus lesser, and the assorted other humanity(like drivers, salesmen, etc.) not at all?

The fact that taking a U turn is not allowed in the fast lane?

The fact that the highways are ONLY THE MEANS to get from one place to the other, and hence just the transit, and NOT the destination?

I wonder..

Reticent Reverie Begins...

"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," said Dumbledore. Ron opened his mouth in horror. "Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words."
It's funny how the most appropriate words(and some pretty good solutions) for any situation that life can throw at you can be found in books and cartoons meant predominantly for a juvenile readership.. Take for instance the first two quotes on this blog.. both have been said by the greatest wizard of all time and the best headmaster Hogwarts ever saw, Albus Dumbledore, in one of the six published Harry Potter books.(waiting with bated breath for the seventh one.. but thats another day, another blog post.)
Cartoons, another medium of juvenile entertainment, throw up daily wisdom which cannot be ignored.. who hasn't at some point wondered how an under-ten year old Calvin regularly comes up with the most amazing insights into adult life and philosophy? Or how Snoopy, Charlie Brown and of course Linus(with security blanket) shell out anything but Peanuts in their daily adventures? Stories of Tintin, that man-child of a journo, being honored by the Dalai Lama make you stop and think.. why is it that wisdom hides behind a mask of innocence?
Maybe the answer to that lies in the question itself. Maybe wisdom is innocence.. maybe we were born wise, in tune with the things that really matter.. maybe we unlearnt that wisdom as we grew older, got too busy figuring out things we don't need to know.. only to be reminded of it by more blessed souls who kept the child alive..

P.S. the opening line was a disclaimer. I may have to eat my words someday..