Full speed ahead !

   It was rather unexpected. It came to a point where I assumed I would never be able to touch the ball again. But overnight, things turned around. I was nearly out of the soccer team of MRCET which played only one tournament ever, at ICFAI and was crushed to a 2-1 defeat by NIFT in near darkness. Our weak players and low experience made us easy targets that ‘night’. But today was different.

 

I was somehow pushed into the team, and I begged Kamaz, the captain to place me in the reserves. Instead he gave me a place in the Subs, which is more than what I could ask for. It’s been nearly an year that I played soccer, or even touched the ball for a few minutes. And suddenly this tournament comes up and I find myself in it. It was rather unexpected.

 

It was rather unexpected. I was standing with the team. Most of the players were first years, seemingly inexperienced. It’s the first thing that comes across your mind when you see first years. I stuck to my place in the subs and stayed that way all day long. The team that I was seeing around me was different from last time (2 Years ago!). There was grit in everyone’s face. There was confidence, and nervousness and some occasional humour too. I didn’t know what to expect from the opponent teams but had a certain amount of faith in my team. After a few hours’ wait, the team took to the field, and I took a seat in the bench. It was fun watching from the sidelines anyway. Especially because it was a 20 min per half game which meant teams should hit 5th gear within a minute. There’s no time to settle, there’s no time to play around.

 

Game 1: We had a positive kick off. We dominated for 7-8 minutes and only once did the ball enter our court. That was the moment when everything fell apart. There was panic and defenders were scrambling for cover. The opponent striker from Gurunanak held the ball for a few seconds just 6 feet away from the post, looked for an empty corner, and casually took a shot. Maybe he even had a cup of tea which I didn’t notice! We gave away the first goal like the most unselfish people on earth. We had to strike back. And surprisingly enough, the attacking players kept their cool while the defense was still making mistakes. We quickly grabbed a messy finish which looked like an own goal, but two of our players claimed the last touch was theirs. So taking all versions into consideration, I think the ball touched about 5-6 players before entering the goal. 1-1 gave us some confidence and improved the movement. Soon, we were back into dominating the game after that it all looked like a breeze. We slotted home 3 more to finish 4-1 and were more than pleased with result. The next game was scheduled at 3:00 PM.

 

Game 2: VNR looked like a fancy dress team with the theme being red. Each was dressed in his own favourite team jersey while trying to make sure it’s dominant colour was red. In the match that they beat the host college, we found 3 ManUtd Jerseys in the attack and a few Milan jerseys in the defense. There were 2 C. Ronaldos (we named them Left Ronaldo and Right Ronaldo) and a Rooney attacking, and they did a pretty good job living up to the reputation. Our game with them would definitely be tough. The Winter heat was dehydrating us at an alarming pace. I was again confined to the bench and watched the match from tent which did nothing to prevent the heat from the 3:00 PM sun. The tire was visible. To add to that, our poor players were made to stand in the hot sun for some high profile ‘dignitaries’ having a photo session and some weird shawl ceremony. There were 5 men who were honoured by wrapping a shawl. The Photo session was a headache, and the men were given some ‘Life Time achievement Award’ kinda thing which delayed the process 10 fold. In all this, our team took the beating from the sun. The opponents were not fully charged too, but our team looked weaker. Players weren’t charging towards the ball, they weren’t sprinting, they were almost lazing around. The defense looked terribly weak again. 3 minutes into the game which felt like 30 minutes, there was a shot from the mid-field. The ball harmlessly soared across half the pitch almost lazily and suddenly entered the goal. We were stunned. Our team was ahead. The shot of the day gave us the lead. After that, it was back to that lazy play and nearly 95% broken defense. We had a few scary moments and a few delightful moments but none of them were converted and the game ended 1-0. We won for a second time in the day, which was again more than what we could ask for. It was 4:30 PM and I could take no more of the sun. I literally fled from the place. I told just one guy that I was leaving. This is still January which is technically Winter, and the heat was worse than what we felt during summer, and the dryness rubbed salt on the injuries. Oh yeah! Injuries. Nearly 5 players were injured in various circumstances, one player suffered from cramps in his legs, and the star player raised an alarm after he started to feel dizzy, but recovered soon. The team had a positive result at the end of the day but suffered heavily from physical injuries and heat.

 

That was my day today. And though I sat on the bench the whole day, I took a severe thrashing from the sun too, it’s high time we realized the effects of Global Warming. Tomorrow’s game is at 8 in the morning, and my strength has been drained out so badly that I can’t think of collecting myself up to reach that soccer ground 30 KM away that too, early in the morning…

 

I need sleep, and it should be dreamless..

 

Long live, my fvourite game in the world.

Republic Day Special

Hmm. Today was kinda mixed up. That was mainly because of the television and newspaper. Right from news about a foiled terror plot to women thrashed in a pub (and we call ourselves a democratic republic where people have a right to equality!!) to the Australian Open, it was all mixed up. You smile on one page, feel angry on another, and exclaim in shock on yet another and finally close the paper saying, "This world's weird".

Anyway, there's nothing much else to say. While trying to keep myself away from the Weird World, I still end up coming across things that keep reminding me of the same weird world. My project that's supposed to take off still hasn't, because of some formalities that are yet to be completed. And in between all the signature saga, we were caught in another tangle. A tangle least expected. The level of 'trust and politeness' among employees there. Sarcasm highly intended. Wow read on!

Example 1: We are talking to our project guide, and he calls another guy and asks him to ask someone else to handle this project and it's details. He kinda hesitates and starts blurting out in Tamil (maybe), and the guide replies back laughing (call that laughing, it was more like a you're-in-deep-trouble laugh), "I know what work each person in this department does, if I really start talking, many of you will be in trouble". And they were both laughing. Raj and I were standing inches away from them, not knowing whether to laugh or out a straight face, or a confused one! I began sweating inside. Is someone losing a job today? Thankfully, that incident didn't go too far, and they wrapped with some agreement which I couldn't understand.

Example 2: A few kilometers away from our previous incident, (imagine! we are still in the same campus) we saw another weird encounter. We manage to get into the office of the Director of the HRD department there for a simple signature. First look, there's no doubt about his position. He is extremely fat (well-fed?? yeah!!), so much that I wonder how he got into that chair. He is talking on a land-line and mobile at once and using a computer with another hand. He is scolding one man standing there. He started demanding what we 'students' were doing there. And the lady who took us there is stammering like crazy just to tell him why we were there. And in between all this tension, another lady barges in asking him for a pen drive while he was still on the phone. My immediate thought was, "Is she out of her freaking mind??". I understood his character within 10 secs, and she didn't after working for maybe years!! He snapped back at her saying that he was busy. She didn't seem to be giving up. By now, I made up my mind. Another job will be lost today! But somehow he actually ended up giving her the pen drive. After all the drama, he began shouting at the lady who brought us there. In her stammers and mumbles and grumbles, she got the signature done, and also a photocopy... phew we were out. She was asked to stay behind in the office. We don't know what happened to her after that... RIP. While coming out of the office, we were stuck in a maze. We forgot how we came in. There were about 3 doors in every room, and we had to go through 3 rooms to finally find the corridor... what an experience...

Anyway, all that was before the R-day... no point mentioning more detail.

A 'Tower'ing task ahead

Finally, finally, we got er.. half of the finalization of our project work for the final year. After travelling a total distance of 70KM today, I still wonder how I have something left in me to post today, maybe it's the excitement that is keeping me up. After the usual long journey down the inner ring road, we reached the 'Imarat', and had the initial shocker. 2 of our group were not coming today which meant whatever's done is done only for the other 4. After that, when we entered the Administration, we had another shocker. The receptionist asked us to go back home and come on Monday or something because we didn't have all the formalities completed. But after a few hours and phone calls and lunch, we managed to get the clearance from the administration and we were asked to go to the security desk for the passes. That set off a series of trips between the HRD, and Security and Administration and our Project Guides, and each of them were separated by at least 3KM of black road. WoW! Hell ride! Under the hot sun, always following the sign boards of keeping to the left, we covered a total distance of 20KM within the campus itself.

Clearly, there were more buildings than people in there. The population density at an average can be taken as 1 person per square kilometer, which is crazy!! Our initial achievement was being able to get into the campus. Once we did, all we could do was gape at the vastness of the whole thing. We were going round complete hills! There were guard towers everywhere. Nobody knows who is looking at whom at what time, and the security guards stand 24X7 behind heaps of sacks as if on war front. Everything was mammoth. It was too much to take in for a single day. The area where my group's project is to be done was deceptive. From outside, it looked like a 3 storyed building. From the inside, it's a megafactory. There are no 3 storeys. There's only 1 extending all the way to the roof. The machinery had danger signs everywhere. There buses roaming around carrying missile names... (what?!?!) The missile name denotes that the people travelling in that bus are working on that missile.. That was downright boggling... We couldn't make head or tail of anything in there. Hopefully, in a few days, things will get better. The worst part was, almost no electronic device is allowed inside, except ofcourse tiny stuff like a watch. No phone, no 'Pen Drivers' (whatever that meant!!), no CDs, nothing..

After all this travel and crazy formalities, we found out that we had completed only half of the process of getting in. We could have finished it today, but we were met with their typical timing. It was 4:00PM and bang! All doors were shut, vehicles were rolling out at top speed. Even the security were closing up. We rushed in for a last minute reclaim of our 'belongings' and security forms. And soon we hit the road and the realization hit me back. We are into something big. Though what we do won't be very big, we are still into something big. Something that shows more than what it actually is, or something that hides more than what it shows. Either way, it's something big, and there was an eerie feel to everything, especially the sight of those guard towers and security checks... Didn't feel like a place near Hyderabad.

And I 'liked + disliked' it... final say for the day.

Blow by Blow

Ok, so I struggled a lot getting that PCC thing but somehow it was done. Done before the day I was supposed to get to the Research Centre and kick off the project. In our view, it all looked fine, though only two of us had the clearance. We kick off our 'journey' to the place, which is about 30KM from my house. The drive was pretty smooth coz, most of it is the road leading to the airport, and hence was decent enough. With a sudden near U turn, we entered the road leading to the Centre. Most of it was dotted by the famous labs, including stuff about aeronautical materials, etc, of which we had no idea they existed. So after an almost seemingly endless drive, we reached the place. The first impression was as expected. Looked typically a govt. organization, with those black roads and scattered buildings, that didn't look anywhere close to what they are generally hyped for. It was a common sight. Govt vehicles zooming around, people too bothered with their own work (whatever it is), and a clear air of laziness. Just like I experienced during my mini-project. As soon as we entered, we were asked to wait for half-an-hour to meet the person authorized to let us in. Remember, only 'let us in', not 'start the project'. That half hour turned into 2 hours and there was no surprise. Then our lecturer who promised to meet us there so as to make things a little smoother advised us to have lunch and wait. So lunch it was, in the officer's mess. Decent food, as expected. Not tasteful, not tasteless, just about filling, unlimited as it was. After lunch we met the lecturer. And he tried to contact the person himself and was told that he was in a 'big meeting', and that the meeting could extend late into the evening. So, after all the travel (which we should do daily in case we get the project), we didn't take a single step into the facility. We were stuck the whole time at the administration block. What a start, I would say!

And to add to the woes, its the tire. After 2 weeks of lazing around, watching 4 movies a day, and internet, I suddenly traveled so far (60 KM is far in my standards) and had to endure long bouts of standing and waiting, with nothing but the shade of a tree, and an officer's mess to help. Of course, after watching a show called 'Alive in the Andes' on NGC yesterday, I began wondering if what I went through was at least 0.00000000000001% of what those people went through. Surviving for 2 months on the snow-covered Andes mountains trying to stay alive, with nothing but the flesh of already dead humans to eat!! No food, no water, no warmth, no shelter. 2 months. Ouch! The very thought can kill. But some of them, if not most, survived to tell the story. And my story is doesn't even come in the picture.

Anyway, I am master of deviations. Things can go from anything to anything else. Like starting with caramel pudding and ending up with dark matter. When humans are allowed to talk, there's no end to it, and yet we constantly remind ourselves that we know nothing about the universe... which is actually true.

You don't mess with the .. Govt.

Oh yeah, it's the third or fourth time I learnt the lesson, but clearly, I can't seem to be getting enough of these 'lessons'. Well, it all started off with a weird request for clearance from the police to be allowed to work on my project. Sounds a bit 'I-am-not-letting-you-do-this-so-easily' type. Surprisingly, my group of friends/project mates and I did not complain much, though it was a shocker when we first heard of it. All we could manage was, "I understand, sir".

Ok, so all that was left was getting the clearance from the police. Sounds like a piece of cake? Sounds like a piece of rock actually. Oh, we called a guy we knew and asked, he gave us an at some other PS (police station). But then turned out that the procedure he was talking about is for verification and not clearance. So we were again asked to go to a local PS. When we went there, they asked us to pay 500 bucks at an e-seva centre (eSC), and get a receipt along with all the documents needed for identification. So we traveled a few KM and got to the eSC. There the lady sitting at the counter bugged us for about 10 min that they can't give us the receipt, and behaved as if we were irritating her, and in a more frustrated voice asked another lady to tend to this matter. In all this, they made us (my mom and me) look like a bunch of dudders from a rural area. Surprisingly, this lady, whose cabin is just a metre away from the former, had an entirely different story to tell. Now how is it that 100 cm can make such a big difference? Well, it actually did. We were asked to take a token and soon were at a counter taking the receipt. Wow, Weird!!

Then we go back to the PS. The situation is grim again. There were a group of athletes who came to lodge a complaint about a lost wallet. The tempers were flying, and voices were on a competition to be the loudest. In between all we had to squeeze through to find the right person and submit the docs. The startling fact though, was that these people were a lot more friendly and soothing than those eSC ladies. However, there was a glitch. Or can we call it trick? The man incharge told us that the clearance would take a week! My project was way behind schedule and I couldn't afford an hour's delay. However, when we requested them to process it by Monday, they agreed. There was a special mention about us going back to the PS on Sunday. We went 3 times today, and there's one more to go. Now why would that be? Oh yeah! It's as easy as looking at a black circle and saying, "It's a black circle". There's some 'under the table' stuff to be done tomorrow which would ensure that I get the clearance by Monday. Wow, Weird!!

So with all, this I learnt the lesson that I have been learning all my life. You don't wanna mess with the Zohan. Sorry, what did I say? Govt. I meant... they'll take you for a ride, a hell of a ride. But what can we do? It's the only ride we have.

Update on Me

It's like a ship waiting for the high tide, so as to leave the harbour. It's my wait, for a reason to get back to things. Playing the guitar for example. Ever since the frets on both the guitars started buzzing, I completely ignored the fact that there were guitars in my home, and that I could play music. But once I brought home Karthik's Fender for a few days, it's back to business, as if it never paused. It's just like how I mentioned before. Like attempting to start an engine that lay underwater for years, and in my case it does really start. Up to now, I have successfully paused and restarted my unending endeavour of 'guitar learning' at least 50 times, and every time I restart, I forget that I ever paused it. The stiffness in the fingers is the only perceivable proof that can be obtained after every restart. That's good news, and bad news too. Anyway, it's a headache going into the details..

Serious times are coming fast and already going by, and I am still waiting for something to happen. Like getting a police clearance just for a project work. Such a big thing for such a small thing? Maybe it's needed after all, when people can show college ID cards and go on a shooting spree, a little dig into an individual's background is definitely necessary and I'm not complaining. The irritating part, however, is in getting the clearance. Six people of my group have six stories to tell, about how to get it. Which one do we follow? Nobody is sure. So when the dilema ends, and when there's clearance, (are we airplanes waiting for take-off clearance??), we can finally make some better use of our otherwise wasted 'serious time'.

That's the update on me.

Fly Away, Fly Away

It's the festival of kites. The enthusiasm is running high. Money is being splashed. Kites are being bought. Strings are being compared. There are bargains, there are arguments, there are kite fights, people are screaming at the top of their voices on victory, kids are running behind falling kites, people are getting tanned, the place is reverberating with music, and the skies are ablaze with colours.

Suddenly the video plays backwards, and there's a sound of a cassette player in the rewind mode. The colour fades and the camera stops on this guy sitting in front of his computer, apparently bored. Outside the window the scene is full of energy and here he is, describing it with no expression on his face whatsoever. As the camera pans towards the screen, the following words appear...


" ....festival of kites where kites do the talking. But in my case, I am the only one talking. It's been like this from the last 2 years. Just sitting at home and talking about it. Maybe I shouldn't blame myself because it was me who chose to be like this with my own will. So while the rest of the country or world enjoys the bright colours in the sky, I'll sit here wrapping up th..... "

And there's a fade out into blackness.

My Exuberance

Lots to say. No, it's nothing about fraudulent IT companies or over-excited news readers. It's about me. Thank God. Me. I forgot that this blog belongs to me, and is about me. So let me just go back to talking about me.

First of all, college is fortunately or unfortunately, officially or unofficially over. 9th was my last official day at college. So from now on, it's only focus on the project. That brings me to my project. I am pretty disappointed with the way things have turned around for me on this side of the multi-faceted polygon. My project is supposed to be about stress-analysis and stuff, a field that I hate, but the fact that brings respite to me is that we are doing it at a supposedly world class facility, which I don't wanna name here.

My music movement is way below the belt. With the acoustic buzzing at almost every fret, and the electric tuned to a uncomfortable DGCFAD tuning which I can't play a single song in the absence of a capo, has really brought my guitarring down to a bare minimum. Good thing though is, Srikar is willing to 'lend' me his brother's guitar, the Fender Squier Strat for a few days so that I can get back to my lead guitar basics.

With a few holidays round the corner, I decided to pick up the pencil at last. I chose a very difficult drawing, and marveling at my selection, I kicked it off. It's been a few months that I even wrote consistently let alone drawing which I didn't attempt for an year, so I expected a really bad outcome from this effort. I noticed that I pick up things after a huge huge gap and expect the same efficiency as before. It's like trying to start an engine that's been lying underwater for years. And in my case the engine does start! Like this one below... I am not trying to boast, but I am quite astonished the way I pulled it off, in 2 hours, especially the fingers and the guitar frets which are the only recognizable things in the drawing.



Also today, there was a sudden rush of people and it felt good to be among a few as most of my time these days is spent alone, not to forget the rush of food too! I dare not forget to mention the tasteful capsicum curry made by Srikar's dad...

Today made me exuberant, and this post is a reflection of that energy.

Scratches, Cracks, Rust and Everything Broken

That's been my new inspiration for some artwork from recent times. Everything I create, involves scratches or cracks or a rusted look. Maybe it is a direct reflection of what's happening around me. I used to wonder how painters and artists create art themed on current happenings and observations around them. But I think I understood how this works. When it's music, I try to create and listen to tunes that have a soothing effect so as to neutralise the effect of the outside world on me. Something like a fire extinguisher. And when it comes to digital art, I try to mirror what's happening 'out there' and automatically try to create an effect that makes the image look distorted and cracked up... some examples below.

Spate of News

In November, I assumed that the terror attacks gave a good reason to keep the media busy, though I never expected it to go on for an epic 3 days. And the aftermath had more than enough in store for them again, with the investigations and probes and blame-games and truth/lies and everything else. "Okay Yeah! This will go on for a few days and die down and soon, the media will start gasping for news". But for some strange reason, incidents don't seem to be ending!

The last one week has seen such a big flood of 'happenings' that it's getting hard to take it all in suddenly. 3 countries were caught battling against either terror or whatever. Then the big Noida story sending waves across the country. Then the Big Lie from a company whose name means Truth. Then a thrilling test match (when was the last time a test match was thrilling?? I can't recall), and so on... All these stories have surely kept not only the news channels busy, but also the people watching them. Like me, for instance. At a time when everyone is supposed to feel happy about the beginning of a new year, people are busy watching news uncertain whether their city is safe after hours, whether their country is in war, or whether their damn job is secure. 'What a start!', I would say.

6-1-2009

This is my first post in 2009, so Happy New Year first of all though I am 5 days late. To be precise, nothing has changed since the new year began, at least nothing as yet. It's already been a bit of fun and misery within the first 5 days. I had some fun shopping on 3rd and ended up splashing good money. Lots of money went down the drain for chocolate, ice cream and stuff too.. I don't know when I got addicted to chocolate!! That was my share of fun in the first 5 days.
As for the rest, its all been like the time I spent most of 2008, depressive. My both guitars have been affected maybe by the weather, and are buzzing a lot. Apparently the truss rod must have got bent due to expansion/contraction. It's no fun without a single guitar to play. The results as expected came down harshly upon me, and sent me into a more depressive mood. The percentage has always been going down, sometimes in mammoth leaps and sometimes in miniature steps, but always down. The fact that I cleared all the subjects was actually a delight but the total score was pretty low and way below 'expectations'.
Anyway, one has to move on no matter what, and that's what I am doing too, or rather hoping to do for the last 3-4 days of college. It's getting over, and I feel I didn't start yet... move on, move on quickly...