All that he could think of were the moments they had spent together. Each one of them were etched in his memories, they were amongst the best of his life. He had always been in search of something like this, something special, something to remember. He had had enough of hypocrisies and false talks.

It had been 2 years since they first met.They seemed to have a lot in common, but a lot more different.They got to know each other slowly.He could not have possibly asked for anything more.In a new place, in search of companions, he had found a person he could go to when in need of a few comforting words, for a few good laughs, most of all for some great moments he could always relish. He started appreciating the beauty of a lot of things which he had never even cared to look closely before. Their conversations never seemed to end,there was always something more to tell, a few more jokes to share and a few more secrets to reveal.Things kept changing a lot as time progressed,they seemed to be always for good.


At some terrible moment it all started falling out of place.He made a mistake ,a very costly one. He had betrayed the trust shown in him during those great times they had spent together. He had done the same thing that a lot of others had done to him. He did not live upto his promises.He could not lift his head due to guilt and shame while the other pair of eyes no longer wanted to see him in front of them. A barrier had crept up between them, one which seeemed to be very difficult to be broken.He begged for forgiveness, but he knew he never deserved it for what he had done. He just hoped that someday, the anger would subside and his apology accepted.He was ready to wait, however long it took. He had to feel the pains of losing something he could never do without. He had to suffer the agony and pain all on his own. He no longer had anybody to go to. He had destroyed something special.

But would everything still be the same between them ? Could those golden moments be relived ? Could they ever meet each others eyes again ? Would the scars of the wound ever vanish ? He would never know.

( Dedicated to someone special, who I hope is reading this. )

'Men in Blue' are back in business. We have a new young captain, the members are standing up to the occasion and the young guns are staking a claim to oust seniors from the regular team ( but with the great BCCI selection panel will never happen :)). The entire country is back to its usual routine, rooting for the team at a world cup even though it is a new and much shorter version of the game they are just getting familiar with - T 20 .

T 20 is designed for the spectators, no longer do they have to endure slow painstaking batting. There is complete entertainment for the 3 odd hours it goes on.Teams are no longer in the pavillion, it is the dug-out instead. You move from your seat and the game has turned on its head. There is no changing of channels between advertisements. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to finish it off. But, where has the beauty of the game gone ? Where have the coaching manuals gone ? Technique,timing, placement- where have all these terms disappeared ? You can enjoy the game, but you cannot avoid the ironies of it. Most of the nerve wracking situations in the games in the past 2 weeks have been resolved in the weirdest fashions - edges flying to third man, free hits and what not. Despite the belief that orthodox techniqe would fail at this level of the game, it has turned out to be pretty much the opposite. Such batsmen have been the best to watch. A pity that the trinity from India preferred to sit out, the form all three of them were in England, it might have been a greart sight to watch them score through sheer brilliance .Exquisite shots have been played, runs have been scored all in the proper cricketing fashion( only six of "those maginificent 36 runs" was a mishit ). But the young blood does prefer to take the risk element and score runs in their own fashion- the ugly unsure way ( Gautam Gambhir in the indian team for one, all his edges have landed in no mans land so far ). The bowlers though have been the surprise of the tournament, expected to be made mince meat of, but have come out on the top on many occasions. Most bowlers have adapted well to the format, the have realised that they will be smacked for runs, but the ugly hitting is bound to fail at some time. Stuart Clark,Mornie Morkel and our own R P Singh being examples. It is a great venture , but should not be the future of the game for it destroys it beauty.


At my hostel, a room with one TV whose channels change on its own and volume cannot be adjusted is the place to be during the games. Despite having tests, showing the regular BITsian attitue we have all been there standing to applaud the indian team in it's victories, to appreciate the fighting spirit of the team. We have won from improbable situtaions. But there is a topic that crops up whenever the team starts performing within the audience - Match Fixing. There are wickets tumbling for South Africa chasing a small total and the consent was that this could be the result of nothing but match fixing. How else could the Indian team make the mighty africans eat dust ?

Everyone seemed to agree , then why the watch the match in the first place !! If you think that the match is fixed and there has been external speculation that lead to the result how can you enjoy the sport ? In any game, the result should be and is farily decided on the ground. In case you do not believe such things happen, do not follow the game is my suggestion.It is my belief that every sportsman gives his all when on the field and lets nothing external influence him . The result is a mystery to the true supporter till the game is over. Celebrating their teams hard earned victory at the end of the game is what a true supporter hopes for while the duration of the match not a victory earned through the back door . Such a sight is what can be seen in our common rooms at the end of every game. Despite all the doubts of match fixing, not a guy moves from his seat till the last ball has been bowled and victory assured. That is the essence of sport and what a supporter/follower/fan celebrates everyday.


P.S:
Of course, attempts to taunt the opponent and induce a change in the course of the game are plenty - Flintoff pulling one on Yuvraj and the reply will haunt Stuart Broad for his lifetime, sadly in another game what Materazzi did and Zizou's response wil also haunt a lot of lives .

That is the title of the autobiography of my favourite cricketer of this age- Rahul Dravid. Readership seems to have increased over the past few posts and I am sure that by the end of this post, I will end up angering most of you who worship the one and only GOD of Indian Cricket- His Majesty Sachin Tendulkar.

Dravid stepped down as the captain of the 'Men in Blue' a few days ago. After what most cricket experts would have termed as a 'safe, non- aggressive' stint. The period under Greg Chappel was even attributed as one in which he had absolutely no control over the team. Also he also lead India to it's worst performace in the world cup for a long long time - one which was supposed to be the swansong of the mighty trinity.Of course, there were a few lucky moments which included test series victories in West Indies, England and a maiden test victory in South Africa.

To me the highpoint Dravid's captaincy will be the declaration of the Indian 2nd innings at Lahore ( I think ) against Pakistan leaving His Majesty 5 runs short of a magnificient double ton. And this was when he became a stand-in captain. That was the best sign of intent any captain could show - the team always comes first, no individual however high or low gets a preference. Dravid was always the team player, both as a captain as well as a member . He did everything demanded from him - keeping wickets , open the innings, bat as low as No:6 or 7. Each demand opened up a new dimension to his batting and also delivered a treat to the eyes of fans. There were no complaints, no requests for the captain to change the team's plans or press conferences called. India defeating Australia at Adelaide -a 233 in the first innings, Dravid deservingly came back to score the winning runs - a glorious cover drive ( show innumerable times on espn star ) and some 50 odd runs in the 2nd innings. And lest we forget THE Kolkata test match, the famous victory scripted by Laxman's magnificient innings and the once efficent turbanators doosras, but there too Dravid had a small contribution in changing the script of the match.The number of innings he has played on foreign soil that changed the course of the match are just too many to list. He has always been the man who does all the work, but gets close to no praise, is always criticised for a failure in a single innings. But Sachin can always be depended upon to come back from his failures and rescue the team ( for Dravid has a human elbow, but he has a tennis elbow :P ). Lest I forget to point out he played in some 96 that the indian national team played without being dropped/rested or fitness troubles since his test debut. Nobody else on the international circuit holds such a record.He has scored five double centuries with each one being bigger than the previous one.

As far as captaincy goes, Dravid has always been compared with the most successful captain in Indian cricket- the prince of calcutta . But it was very obvious that both captains had completely different styles - while one wore his heart on his sleeve, the other always had the same calm face. Dravid never displayed aggression enough to satisfy the pundits, he seemed to be silent always. But the team that he took over consisted of a few seniors who doubted themselves, got frequently injured , youngsters who had had lived upto expectations cemented their place in the team and a new bunch of bowlers for every test match.Under Ganguly's captaincy he scored nearly 23% of the total runs put up by India (with a batting average of 102.84) in the 21 Test matches won. This is the highest percentage contribution by any batsman in Test cricket history in matches won under a single captain where the captain has won more than 20 Tests. But he could not repeat the same in his captaincy nor could anybody in the team help their captain in troubled times.

Now, I shall dwell on a topic which I will forever argue with my best friends. Many of them would have already heard me saying everytyhing below at various points of time. Remember the day after the declaration the front page of The Hindu had Sachin complaining about the decision . Another instance - Sachin being forced to play at No 4, after repeated failures , he just went public that he was 'unhappy' with the team management for not giving him his favourite position. The team could fail but not him ! The 2003 world cup - Sachin was indeed the man of the tournament playing brilliantly in every match , but the so called battle of the world cup - Brett Lee Vs Sachin Tendulkar just never happened because he was out in the 4th ball of the innings when the team required a massive contribution from him to even stand a chance of chasing 358. I have no memories of how much Dravid scored or how he got out, but plainly Sachin may deserve praise but not all of whatever is showered upon him. As recently as the England test series - an innings in which Dravid and Karthik had scored something in the 80 + regions and Sachin some 40's the report had a single mention of both of them but every single stroke - offence or defence had been admired by the writer.I shall stop it here for I do agree that Sachin is a great player without doubt, but not as great he is projected to be is my arguement.

If the captaincy of the now strong Indian team goes to Sachin , there is a course of possible events that might have lead to this - Sachin dropping a hint to the selectors/ Pawar/Dravid that he might consider taking up captaincy once again before he calls it a day. Either Dravid would have been commanded to step down or he would have done so graciously. Doesnt that seem like a brilliant story ?? Of course it is ( I at least hope it is ), I made it up for I am no lover of Sachin Tendulkar and seemed to make an interesting end for this long long post of mine :).

But if all this does mean that I get to see more of the ever stylish innings built from brick by the great indian wall, I am all for it .

The difference between "Teachers" and "Professors" just cannot be said enough. Despite the fact that our Professors are much more qualified and learned, I am sure that most of us would have preferred the teaching style of the school teachers and also that we would have learnt much more from them than from the gruelling of our professors in college. Even though they used to stare back at us when confounded with doubts and come up with the forever dependable replies such as : " That is out of portions " and " Such Questions will not be asked for your exam". We could always get away with a laugh in the class , the back benchers could enjoy their snacks , listening to cricket commentary or in todays world of GPRS equipped mobiles check the mail , browse the net and what not. Then we were those 'innocent' kids who could always be spared with a good scolding and the familiar " Do not repeat this in the future " accompanied by a an attempted but never threatening cold stare.

When we join college, we do expect our professors to behave a bit differently, for after all they are paid more and we are 'matured' . But the attitude is just too difficult to handle. Especially in a college such as mine when professors are supposed to be the only ones to whom a student should go in case of any problem. They are supposed to be friendly, accommodating and understanding. Out of the some 300 odd faculty here ( I hope the number is close to the actual value ) , an extremely small number would fit the bill above and a tag of students favourite. Most of the professors derive pleasure by laughing at students and pointing out that we do not know stuff which they know by virtue of the 5 or more degrees in their resume. A few of them even try to impart the knowledge that they have gained by stuffing up everything into our heads and get disappointed when we cannot perform in the examinations. Why do they have to try so hard to teach us these things, if we will anyways learn ithrough the next step in our education ? Then there are those chaps who possess so much of an ego that they do not even consider us worthy of standing in front of them , let alone gain knowledge from them. They look at us with disgust as though we are some vermin from the earth. The best of all these highly qualified professionals come forth when a doubt is asked, the answers given just leave us dumbfounded. Most of the times it is their practical experience over so many years that gives an answer for lessons completely defied by theory. In other cases, the answers that they give are just to make sure that we never ask a doubt again, either they give up a huge explanation from one of their Ph D papers or just outright insult us telling that it is a basic concept that we should be knowing( from where God Only Knows ). An answer that would have been recieved only by bitsians : " Please come to my chamber during the Chamber consultation hour" during which there is a 99 % chance that the room would have a lock on it.

What prompted me to write this was a simple incident : In BITS, we have to submit an outstation form when we leave campus to the hostel warden. As it goes with any laid down rule this is never followed and they cant even find out for there are so many places where we could be in .But still there do exist fools like me who make my father send a fax whenever I visit him and make it a point to inform the warden. So, this time around I went to the warden's house at 9.30 to give in the form . He replies "I usually take these only till 9.00 pm .Please come back at 7.30 tomorrow morning and submit". Damn it, he was standing right in front of me and all that he had to was sign the form. Who do they think they are, kings who rule the land ? They are supposed to help us in case of trouble and not keep troubling us for such simple formalities . If they cannot be accommodating, why take up the responsiblity ?


Professors do not have a few extra horns with which they can torment students. But they are trying to frighten students like any raging bull would do to a new inexperienced matador. I would any day prefer learning from a school teacher, who would work hard to clear any of our doubts rather than duping us with high level nonsense. They used to care for us, not treat us like slaves !!

P.S: The hit rate has been simply amazing for me, what magic can some stupid piece of poetry do ! Finally the hit counter is not increasing by just me checking whether there have been any visitors .:)

There has been a lot of thought,
But there is always plenty of doubt.
I am in great plight,
For I dont have anything to write.
My blog is being read,
As of now there is nothing to be said.
This is absolute tomfoolery,
And I am not asking it to be called poetry.

Do pardon me for my stupidty for trying out something as bad as this. This is my first attempt at writing a poem and is like a kid's first step. Hopefully, I will learn to walk pretty soon.

For all those people who have been checking the blog . I know I can even name them :) .Thank you all .The stat counter does help even though out of the 21 it shows now, 11 have been my own visits, still I have been visited 10 other times and that is good enough for me to keep writing.A blog has been deleted once already and this time around it shall not happen.

This is inarguably the finishing statement of every fairy tale story and most of those romance flicks. But this is also what some of us would like to happen to our lives after some point of time. Why cant we just live happily ever after, without having to live everyday with the fear of where the next turn of life will take you ? Why cant there be a fairy godmother who can transform our lives just like she did for Cinderalla? You have nothing to complain about, all your dreams have come true and you live "happily ever after ".

For others it is exactly the surprise element of lives that makes it an enjoyable experience. What fun is it if you can predict everything that is going to happen to you over the next 24 hours of your life ? How can you enjoy life when decisions have already been made for you ? Life is like a jigsaw puzzle, when playing you should have the freedom to put the pieces in various positions and admire the results. You really cannot enjoy it when all the pieces are always in position and you have nothing else to do except looking at it and adoring it's beauty.Besides, why would you want to live "happily ever after" when you define happiness differently at different times. You should have the right to decide where your happiness lies and whether you can remain happy while pursuing it .

So would you rather design your "happily ever after" or let somebody else make it for you and just enjoy that ?

For Starters, the title means " What you see is Not What you get " for life is not as simple as a Graphic User Interface on which you can work magic.Thats where my beliefs are as of now. What i would say is What you see is restricted to What you want to see, applies on a practical, spiritual and all kinds of basis i suppose ( does sound like a very bad cliche though) . But I do believe you can work magic by having a clear idea of what you would like to see in the future and making sure that you see it by working towards it. Having to stop this in pursuit of useless education.Carpediem is what i will end this with.