Retirement

Another sport person retires, any guesses? It's Venkatapathy Raju. I almost forgot him and I wondered, why the hell he waited for so long to plan his retirement. There are guys like these and there are guys like 'Sohail Abbas', just when one thought that he would carry on and set the stage on fire, he hung his shoes.

I think one should understand that youngsters need and deserve opportunities and this can get a helping hand from seniors if they retire. We are not talking of un-timely retirement but at least when one is not performing to his 100%, then retirement should be considered as a best option.

I don't think we are ever going to have any retirement age fixed for sports person because even now I remember Robin Singh's performances. At the age of 30 plus, he used to make all youngsters feel guilty of commitment and power. You must be wondering whether I am making a note about a one off case here, but just imagine someone like Narendar Hirwani playing for Madhya Pradesh. I am not joking, he still does.

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Cristiano Dies

Cristiano Lima becomes another victim of ignorance and carelessness. Decent medical facilities in the ground would have saved his life. People as always have started the blame game but no one is taking steps to improve things that led this happen.

I pity the situation in which these guys play the game. May God rest his soul in peace!
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Contrast

In this era of e-age banking, how can some banks stick to their age old methods. Well, it doesn't sound that logical but I experienced it today.

I went to an ATM of a nationalized bank to withdraw some amount. Here are the things that I saw

There was (read is carefully 'was' and not 'is') a promixity card reader that would allow a person holding the right card to gain access to the machine, but it was left wide open.

I couldn't find any security in the gate, instead even the stairs leading to the ATM was filled up with shops.

People were queued up right from the machine till the road

People were very helpful, in the sense, they were keying in the PIN for you and even collecting the cash, counting it and giving it to you with the receipt. Reason: In the rush, you can't even waste 0.5 minute.

The rush was so much, it looked worse than a fish market.

I decided not to even stand in a queue and people who were standing behind appreciated my efforts as they got a KM closer to the ATM.

The mad rush was because of the machine was running slow. I thought of using a near by ATM of another bank, but couldn't as the ATM card issued by my bank was not compliant. Ironically, the ATM in which so much rush was there, was an ATM where you can use VISA, VISA Electron and everything in the world. I couldn't really understand, who this bank is serving?. In this cut throat competition, this Bank still survives, amazing, isn't it!

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Hinjewadi to SJM Towers

I have made a transition from Hinewadi, Pune to SJM Towers, Bangalore. I have hopped and have now migrated to Bangalore.

City seems to quite OK but traffic is like 'never seen before'. Pune was a good place and Bangalore is better.

As of today, I am 10 days old in Bangalore.

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Here are the pictures of my child "Srinidhi", she turned three months on 25th October 2004.

Click here - Photos and then choose "Angels" as album


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Rent a Caravan

I am not posting an ad here but that is how people used to call "Venkat Raghavan" during his cricket days. Funny isn't it.

Some more nick names of my friends, just out of nowhere.

Nagarajan Karuppiah - Naag S
Suman Kumar - SuKu
Bright Sam - Serial Killer
Sreenivasulu Chenupati - Lu

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My Child - Srinidhi

July 25th 2004, I saw an angel from heaven in my very own hands. My wife (Gayathri) gave birth to a baby girl and the moment was the most memorable one in my life so far.

The baby so tender, innocent and calm, finally life showed it's purest form of all in just 2.75 kgs.

"Srinidhi" is what we have named the angel. I shall soon post pictures of the little one for you all.

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Fascination

Since childhood, I have a fascination for the rails. I always used to dream about traveling in trains. We are six in our family (my parents + one brother + two sisters + myself) and whenever we got a chance to travel, we used to book a whole block for us.

traveling together has always been fun for me. My father who is a food freak, especially while traveling, always made sure that we taste each and every food at all possible stations. Be it a Rotis at Bhopal / Oranges at Nagpur / Dosa at Ballarshah / Idli at Warangal, I have tasted it all. My father knows the items that are famous in a place so, if you say that the train is halted at 'Chandrapur', he would say a dish which is famous at that place.

The place where I have moved now is very near to a railway station 'Chinchwad'. I make it a point to visit the station daily. I walk down to the station and buy daily newspaper from an agent. At last I am near a thing which I like most. One day I am planning to visit 'Lonavalah' by catching a local train from here and I shall post pictures for you all. Till then happy reading!


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Mirchi era

We owe a lot to these private FMs like Radio Mirchi and RED FM for bringing radio back to life. I hope everyone has tuned into these stations atleast once and they do a good job out of it.

Hail Radio Mirchi


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Leaving Scotland

I would be flying back to India next weekend. My stay in this place was
memorable, I would miss:

1) Football matches in sports bar
2) The food at marks and spencer
3) The Soups from opera
4) Cycling to Loch Lomond
5) Bar in my hotel
6) The Australian in the bar
7) The scotts in the lounge
8) TCS collegues in office
9) Capuccino in vending machines
10) Bounty in the retail machines
11) The ambience in the Night Clubs
12) The piper in my street
13) The fans in the park

Even though I fly back with a satisfaction of finishing my work as planned, I always wanted to stay one week more. I think there are so many things to see, so many things to learn, so many different things to feel, even if I would have stayed more, I would always miss more than I could cover.

So, sayanora my friends back in Scotland. They say every thing ends for good and so my visit. Now, I have a more friends and memories to cherish.

Good luck!

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Small things, great deeds

I have been interacting with this Pakistani news paper agent for quite some time now. I go there once in a week to pick my calling card and during weekends, I pass through his store and usually talk to him for some time. We exchange the feelings that we have for our mother land and talk about our family back home and how we miss them.

This person is one of the first Asian to set up a News paper stall in Glasgow and he is known for his soft spoken nature. All newspapers have rated him as the best news agent in Glasgow. He seems to know everyone who comes to his store and everyone makes it a point to talk to him. His shop is situated in a subway near Queen Street station. He would normally greet everyone "How are you dear?, What can I do for you?", he picks up local accent very easily but one thing that amazes me is that he can't speak English. He just knows how to greet people, recognize the accent and correlate with the items in the store and that's all and he is doing this with ease for over seven years now. Great feet, I am flattened.

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Loch Lomond

Last weekend was a long one, third may was declared a holiday here in Glasgow and we (eight of us) decided to embark on a journey to Loch Lomond. Loch in Scotland means Lake and Loch Lomond is a famous Loch in Scotland situated some 25 miles away from Glasgow. You can reach there either by flight, bus or train. We decided to cycle to Loch Lomond.

Cycles in UK costs something from £200 to £400, my manager has a cycle which costed him £1200 so cycling is not the cheapest mode of transport in UK but since there is a separate traffic free cycle route to almost all places in and around Glasgow, we decided to rent cycles to make up for our journey. The cycles had eight speeds for ascent and five speeds for descent, all were mountain bikes. It cost us £18 per day. It was on a Sunday morning at around 9 AM that we started our journey, the temperature was not conducivesive for cycling as it became windy and cloudy with a overcast prediction. All these couldn't stop eight brave souls.

Aftravelingling for some six miles, we reached the cycle track just outside the city. The distance to Loch from that place as 19.5 miles. We had decided to take breaks so that we could enjoy the journey. The moment we crossed the city limits, the nature unfolded itself, the picture perfscenerynary, the old houses, the canals passing by the roads were so refreshing that we didn't feel the paintravelingling so far. Soon, the first break came by and we stopped at a store away from the city, we Swisswiss rolls and red bull each (a drink with taurine, preferred by athletes and footballers for instant energy). The journey resumed after about thirty minute break, now we felt it difficult to keep up the pace with each other so we formed groups of 2 each traveledlled in our own pace. My cycle puncturedtred and all chipped in by putting the cycle tube in the canal to check punctureutre, it took us 30 minutes to fix it, and we all started again. We reached Loch Lomond at around 3:15 PM aftravelingling for 5 hours. We witnessed a rowing competition in the lake for families and after spending some 2 hours we decided to head back.

Now, the distance took a toll on us. We found it difficult to even pedal for 5 minutes now and I started walking with my friend, who also felt Walking is better than cycling. We enjoyed each and every moment of the journey and reached Glasgow at around 11 PM in night. Someone who said, that the joy is in the journey than destiny was dead right. It was a memorableable journey and experience for me and probably the last one as I might be heading to India next weekend. The only thing that was not good was my "sour butts" (Sorry for the language but nothing could have described it better).

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S Sriram - Scotland

Sridharan Sriram finds a way to Scotland, he has arrived here and would be playing for a Scotland side. The move is aimed at bringing some discipline and professionalism to the Scotland side. May be People back home thought that Sriram is not a professional and didn't include him in the team.

Some may debate on Sriram not being loyal to his team, but what would a person do sitting idle and waiting for a call from a team which would never do so. There is this man who has braved the circumstances and there are others like Sadagoppan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das, who are waiting for a call from national side. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, I still can remember Kambli, deciding to play from a South African side. My thought is that in a land of billions, only 15 or 20 get a chance to play for a national side, it doesn't mean that others are not capable enough to find a place. So, the answer is migrate like Deepak Patel and make a name for yourself.

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Great Weekends

Last weekend was the first time, I got out of my room to see the world around. I don't drink or smoke, but I choose a bar next to my hotel as my hang out place. Soon, I was joined by two Glasgow residents, one Irish international and one English woman. I was accompanied by one of my Punjabi colleague.

We all had a ball talking about our cultures, religions and the kind of people in our country. I managed to click two photographs of the gang. Few things that I learnt from them

1> People in Scotland doesn't like them to be called English, they are OK if you call then British
2> Whisky is a product of Scotland while Whiskey is from America and other countries

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Read this

If you like fairy tales, then you have got the right piece. This article will make you go mad. I was going "oh, c'mon...." after reading this. Donno about you.

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Diana

Recently a US broadcaster showed pictures of dying Diana in their channel. It is believed that they have obtained the same from French agencies probing the death. The title of the program was "Diana's Secrets". The title and the content of the program didn't gel in too well and I was sickened by the program.

The Royal family yet to comment on the program, but it is obvious that general opinion is "please don't do cheap things....". All British channels decided not to show the making-rounds pictures in their channels. More than anything else, they wanted to respect the privacy of the individual. The same US has condemned a website showing bodies of dead US soldiers. Now, how can we justify this?

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Deportivo - Bad luck

Last night I was with a (newly acquired) friend in a sport bar near our office. We were watching the match between Deportivo and Porto. It was a first experience for me to watch a football match in a projection screen. Because of my dislike to hard drinks, I made myself comfortable by picking up a fresh orange juice and a packet of peanuts. We were on time for the match and we were joined by equally crazy crowd in the bar.

The bar had some 20 TVs and 5 projection screens, an ideal place for a football / NBA lover. I loved the match but I have to say that Deportivo was a sure winner deprived only by the referee. Better luck next time Deportivo.

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Got a compliment

Today I got a compliment from an Admin guy in our office, he said "Inspite of being from India, you have a good English....". When I had asked about the other Indians working in the office he says, half of the time they talk in their own language. His perception is valid, he thinks that Indians are not comfortable in talking in English and that's why they converse in their native language. His perception could be wrong but what amazes me is that Indians tend to talk in their native language in front of Englishmen.

People who said to me that don't speak in Hindi was seen conversing in Marathi with their fellow counterparts in India and when I was in a call from India, people asked me why are you talking in English, are you trying to impress?. Can we change a little?

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In Scotland

This is my first trip overseas and it took me less than 11 hrs to reach a place that is exactly opposite to one I am used to. Scotland is cool, it's clean and it rocks.

From a plane you hardly see houses in this city. From a birds eye view, you see pieces of land sandwiched between water bodies. Being the home ground of Celtic, people are football crazy here. I could see those color full faces and white and green striped hats all around, after Celtic won the SPL (Scottish Premier League) with some 9 matches to spare. People say it's different from London and SPL is one of them. This place has lesser Indians than London has. Indians were there everywhere in London starting from a bus driver to garbage picker. Some even managed "Sau saal pehle mujhe thumse pyaar tha...", it was a heartening scene.

Glasgow is a small city with moderate climates 10-11 degrees in summer and 2-3 in winter, that's what moderate means in this part of the world :-). This is summer now and the temperature is around 6. People prefer walking than ride so you can find everyone walking to their office in the morning. Public transport is dominated by Scotrail (an underground rail service) and taxis which buzzes through the streets of Scotland at over 90 KMs per hour. People here fly to Newcastle and London during weekends.

Today I have planned to visit a Pakistani restaurant. Pics are not yet taken as I await my first purchase of a camera here, but shall be coming your way soon. Till then good bye!

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Taking wings

Yeah, I think I will do it this time around. I would most probably fly to Glasgow which is in Scotland this weekend. I am taking a flight to London and then to Glasgow from there.

It's a maiden visit for me and I am very much excited about it. I shall be updating my blog regularly with all the photos and the events that I come across, so don't miss. Till then good bye!

Note: Last time I had similar plans to go to Blythewood and after all the preparations the trip got cancelled. So, till the time you hear from me, nothing is certain :-)) my friend.

Here is a perfect example of un-certainity from my to-be-autobiography - Journey of a thousand mile

My manager once denied me off a decent incentive and this is what he had to tell - "Nothing is certain in life, in life we can talk only of possibilities. It was just a possibility that I could have given you a decent incentive. Remember only mother nature can assure you that the sun would rise from east every day...".Isn't that a nice reason to deny a decent incentive.

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