Ashley D'souza

One Year Gone By and I'm Loving It!!!!

2009-12-29T14:35:00.000-08:00

28th December 2008.. Fast Forward 28th Decemeber 2009 and what a wonderful journey married life has been. I am blogging after a long time and it feels different, it feels like I am doing something for the first time, something I am not comfortable with. But let me continue anyways.

Firstly I would like to thank each one of you who took time out from your busy schedules and wished Lourdes and Me on our anniversary. We feel blessed to have friends and family like you around us.

Now, a special thanks to Rachu, Wilfred and Padma for personally coming over and being a part of our celebrations. There is nothing that I could have done, all by myself, which would have given Lourdes the happy feeling she kept glowing with all day yesterday if not for you folks.

I shall continue to write more regularly now and give you folks something nice and cripy to read.

Have a nice day and Take Care.
Ashley

Top 5 List

2008-12-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the Mumbai terror attacks have made us all sit up and think. It made me do so, and today while travelling I came up with the below list. It is 100% my intellectual proprietary material. Infringement will result in terror!

The list is basically of top 5 things that I feel have been a +ve effect, thanks to the terror attack.

#5
More global coverage makes us # 1 searched folks on the planet.

#4
Insecurity of our lives makes us more compassionate and loving towards our near and dear ones. The occasional hug and thanks is more often done/said now.

#3
24*7 Diwali atmosphere.

#2
We can call ourselves the first global tourists, because even places like Kabul, Baghdad are safer and hence give us more options to visit and enjoy.

#1
From day 1, I kept saying the name 'BOMB'ay was correct and should NOT have been changed. I stand vindicated!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Hurts Like Hell

2008-12-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

A two year old Israeli boy, Moshe Holtzberg, lost his parents in the recent attack. Reading this news online made me so damn sick in the stomach.

How can the Indian authorities even manage to go home and see their own children, when they have done this to Baby Moshe? As my friend Pradeep rightly put it, it is the self greed of these politicians that has made this country so poor today. Unrelenting self-attention and continuous ignorance to righteous governance has bought us to see these hurtful days.

Today, no Mumbaikar is safe. Walking on the road, at the bus station, in a train, at Gateway of India, or even in your local cafe, nothing is a safe haven.

I also happened to follow this crappy news item by CNN-IBN regarding India keeping all options open as a follow up to the attack. Dear editor, are you a foreign national or you just want to spice up the news and shoot up your TRP rating. India cannot and will never attack any country. Let the other country kill a million people or take away acres of land, we will never retaliate. This is in our INDIAN DNA. We are bullies, who are royally raped by all our neighbouring nations, day in and day out.

Of course, I do praise the quick response that politicians and their party members take when a few hundred jobs are not given to Marathi Manoos(proved incorrect as per a survey) or say when a legally transferred piece of land is made a national issue just because of a personal vendetta of a single party/person(read Mamta Banerjee). So as it has been happening for the past few years, not a single bullet will be fired, not a single politician will do anything meaningful other than try and gain political mileage out this incident.

A week from now, we all would have forgotten about this incident, but Baby Moshe will live life as an orphan who lost his parents on our soil and their blood is on our hands. We all are responsible for what happened, whether you like it or not!

Be safe, kill a terrorist!
Ashley

Plan

2008-12-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

So whats on the agenda, once I touch base back home.
I have some stuff planned out, some of it not.

But there are somethings that I most surely want to do. Some of them being:

Eating those hot samosas from MM Mithaiwala. Packing home the jalebi and having a nice glass of Kesar Lassi.
Having Kebabs from the vendor near Orlem church.
Visiting my old place and if possible, one game of football there.
Playing FIFA 08 with Adrian on our PS2. Barcelona will beat Arsenal!!!

Gosh, there are so many thoughts rushing through my head right now. Ill stop for now and update this space, when something interesting comes up.

Coffe Time,
Ashley

On the attacks...

2008-12-01T23:03:00.000-08:00

I heard about the attacks from my friend Manish at work. I've stopped visiting the Indian new sites very often, because all they give me is uneasiness and unwanted frustration. So I just skip the crap and spend more time on finding good online deals to shop for. I quickly ran to make a call and check if all were Ok at home. God's grace and everything is Ok.

But now that everything is over, almost 200 people dead, I recall a few incidents that have happened in my life over the past few years and I start to join the dots.

I was around 15 years old. My grandmother had come to Bombay from Mangalore. She was entering the building, when a young boy, grabbed the gold chain around her neck and ran. My grandmom, healthy and fit as ever, ran after him and screamt. Some folks caught that poor lil bastard a hundred feet from the scene of the crime. First, he got beaten black and blue by the public. Then the cops arrived, packed him into the van and took him to the station. My grandmom and dad also went there. There, as per what my grandma told me. They stripped him to his bare clothing, hung him upside down and thrashed the life out of him. As they hit that poor fellow, my grandma could not see that torture any longer and asked the cops yo stop, but they would'nt budge. When satisfied they stopped, my grandma got her chain back, the poor chap a beating of a lifetime and the cops, a satisfaction of teaching the unlawful a lesson in civilized living.

Fast forward to April 07, 2007. Saturday night, me sleeping at home. Big day tomorrow. Its my enagement. Wow!! The first tiny step to eternal bliss (!). I get a call at 2:30 AM, just 5.5 hours before my mass. My very good friend Glenn has had an accident at the club and is in the hospital. My other childhood friend Munny is in the police lock up. I got up, without telling my Mom and Dad, I left the house. I ran to the hospital, Glenn has had a bamboo hit on his head, 17 stitches to this head. Seems, there was a club fight and he just happened to find himself in the middle of it. He was not even at the club, had gone to meet a friend there. Once I seen Glenn was Ok, Adrian and I rushed to the cop station. Munny and 2 other friends, were getting the thrashing of a lifetime. The cops with their sticks going after them like crazy. Those guys begging for mercy, but no one to listen. I asked the cop to stop, he would not budge. I went at 4:00 AM, knocked on my cousin Ronnie's door. Got him to the station and got those 3 guys out. 6 AM and things look better now. Finally I made it to my enagement, but my closest friends since childhood did not make it.

What is amazing is the indifference in the attitude shown by the people governing us. If you are poor (like the robber) or without power(like munny), you will in all probability get beaten to death in your own country. No one to listen your side of the story. No one to sympathize. Even if you are right, it does not matter, you will be thrown down and beaten to glory.

But, if you are a terrorist country, things get a little different. You kill 50 odd people or 200 people, we do not do anything. We sit, cry, watch and then give the world the headline, 'Mumbai Spirit is Awesome'. I say, screw the spirit. What spirit? You pricks who rule the country, move around in 'Z+' security. No worries for you, you son-of-a-B*****. It is for people like me, my family and the million common men/women in Bombay that life is so unpredictable and hellsome.

Dear cop(who was beating my friends that night), have you ever caught a single illegal immigrant in Malad? I can show you shanties where there are illegal bangladeshis residing in the suburbs. But do you even care? Do you? Have you ever tried to stop slum development in Bombay? No. The politicians want to allow all slums till 2000 to be legalised. Yes, my dear dumbheads do that. All the illegal folks will get legal housing and common like me is paying 11% APR on his housing loan. Thank You!!! 200 people die and what reaction do we as a country have??? Some minister resigning? As if we give a damn for him? His incapability should not be a reason for 200 deaths and if it is, then he should be held responsible for murder of 200 lives.

To all those who think India is a growing super power, my 2 cents of advice, Stop Dreaming. Having the 4th largest GDP is not a sign of a super power my friend. If numbers were the decider, we are the second largest population, yippie...!!!
Economy growing at 8% per annum is noting great, either. Some nations are growing faster than us and believe me, infrastucture wise are miles ahead.
I say, show the people of the country, that they are secure and they can live carefree, in a land where they pay taxes and live as civilized citizens. If you cannot do that, they dont ever brag that we are a great nation, because deep down inside, even you know it, that we are not. Per capita GDP is still outside the top 15. Stats are there to fool us and make us feel nice. May be some are fooled, not me. I've seen a few nations other than ours and believe me, we are still decades(not even years) behind of other countries.

Make the citizen feel proud, kill those who hurt our people. Where is the MNS now? They beat the North Indians because they took their jobs, now some folks have taken innocent Marathi lives? Not one statement. Nothing. Everyone has disappeared. Hiding eh? Saving you own ass???
Is the MNS heading to the border with their SENA and going to rage a war?
I doubt, because all Politicians think the same way, our lives are worthless, unless they give a political mileage(ask Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan) for their campaign.

Cheers and Be Safe.
Ashley

Holiday Weekend!

2008-11-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

So a hectic weekend comes to an end, what awaits me is going to be a whirlwind of hectic and fun-filled weekends.

But the weekend did bring its share of scares and unforgettable moments. One of them being a scary accident on the freeway.

With Manish at the wheel and Rodney and Me for accompany, we were headed to the San Diego Sea World. We must have had another 45 minutes of driving on the freeway left, when just descending from a small sloping road, Manish noticed the traffic ahead (in the fastest lane) has come to a stop. He braked and braked like he had never braked before. Driving at 70 MPH and then braking with a car feet away, is tough, and we were lucky to escape with just clipping the bumper of the car ahead of us. It was very little damage considering what can happen on a freeway where all traffic is zoom zoom at 70+ MPH.

The cop came, heard our story and told us to be more careful going forward. We all thanked our stars and continued our journey to the Sea World. An hour and a half late, we still made most of the time at San Diego.

Now that I think about it, anything could have been possible. If we would have reacted even a couple of seconds late, we would have banged into the car ahead and then I cannot even imagine what would have happened.

But, lucky as we are, we came out unhurt and little damage. So the weekend is over, and its back to work from tomorrow. Another few days and then the trip back home.

Wow, I have so much to look forward to. Errrr, heading to Bombay, thats not very calming, is it?

Cheers,
Ashley

Taking you for granted.... Dont Let that happen...

2008-11-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

"Ashley you quit, even though you were onsite and promoted!", exclaimed my friend. I said "Yes". The reason life makes you take such decisions is sometimes not the circumstance but people you deal with.

In my case, I should say, more than my fellow Infoscions, it was the DHL client who made me quit Infosys. Unfortunately, they used to always have that notion, no worries, Ashley will do it. So keep loading him with work, assign him everything from functional analysis to performance analysis. He will do it all. He is our slave.

So it might have come as a shock to them, when I left them(all of a sudden) and soon they realised I was not coming back.
You deserved it, I say. Life goes on, DHL has moved on and so have I. But that pleasure that I got, to say ' I QUIT', is priceless.

But whats amusing is that life comes a full circle and it presents you the same challenges again.

Like today, after a hectic week of coding, testing, bug fixing by my track colleagues and me, our management expects us to come over on a weekend to test for other tracks.

Again, they are taking it for granted that my track, which has completed its task deligently shall waste their hard earned weekend to clean someone else's shit. The last time I felt mind-f****d like this I decided to quit the organisation. :)
And guess what, over a period of time the people forced me to do it.

Its, not only at work, but so many facets of life, that people whom we interact with take us for granted. Let it be our roomates, our colleagues, our family, our friends, almost everywhere there is someone, who takes for granted that you will do him a favor.

My advice for people who expect favors is, never assume that someone will do it, take a rational decision whether that work or thing you need from him/her is fair enough to ask for?

If not, then ask politely, if it is possible to do that task, and do give him the option of saying NO. The reason being, it was not expected of that person to perform that task in the first place. So its more of a request than a command. But when people keep pouring these requests a little too frequently, its time to understand that the expectation has changed, and its time to screw the person over. This is when the surprise, 'I QUIT' makes you feel the king of the world!!!

Its been a long hard day so far. Sitting and blogging with GlenLivet giving me soothing company is awesome. Thanks to the scotch I feel relieved and fresh. Time to hit the gym and burn the calories that LAYS just added into me.

Cheers and Nice weekend,
Ashley

Aura of invincibility..

2008-11-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

So after the recent India-Aus series, many have started to raise eyebrows of how dominant a force the Oz really are? Has the loss of Langer, McGrath and Warne too big a damage to continue that legacy? May be, May be not, only time will tell.

What is more interesting is the aura of invincibility slowly disappearing from other few dominant forces across the sports spectrum.

Lets take Mr.Roger Federer. Prior to 2008, he was invincible on all surfaces, but clay. Even on clay he had been sublime, but against Nadal. 4 time World Sportsman of the year to back his reputation, he entered 2008 hoping to complete the Golden Slam. That means, all 4 slams and the Olympic Gold medal too.
But, soon things changed after the French Open. FedEx was no longer invincible. He lost his pet grand slam, Wimbledon. He did not win the Olympic gold either.
Finally, as the year nears to an end, he no longer looks the same blow-you-away tennis genius he was a year ago.

For all those Ferrari fans, things have changed dramatically too. From dominating the F1 scene from 2000-2004, they have been quitely over-shadowed by McLaren Mercedes and Renault. Blame it on the exit of Michael Schumacher, but the decline has been noticable. Ferrari won a record 13 races in a season, they have been unable to dominate the sport since that season. Though, they did win the F1 Constructors Championship this year, their dominance is not the same though.

I feel much the same way as Australia(cricket) or Federer look beatable today, the Brazilian football team and Australian Hockey team have undergone a dramatic change in their respective fields and look vulnerable against a quality opponent.

Just goes to show, sooner of later, opponents do catch up to you. Of course, what FedEx did is unimaginable and mostly will remain a record for quite sometime, but he now has his task cut out to win more Grand Slams and silverware.

Becoming a champion is the easier part for legends like FedEx, it is continuing that legacy thats the hard part. For most of us(like me), becoming a champion itself is impossible, so I am spared the harder task of being at that level. So if you are a champion and reading this, it just got harder buddy. To stay up there, you got to work harder, else, you will soon be forgotten.

All said and done, one Mr.Tiger Woods, still continues to dominate like never before. His absence this second half of the year, is already hitting golf as a sport, with declining viewership and sponsorhip, but I am sure, he must be noticing the sudden disappearance of that unbeatable tag from his friends.

Cheers,
Ashley

Around the corner!

2008-11-14T00:07:00.000-08:00

Its down to counting days! A few more days to go, before I finally take that deep plunge into the unknown and 'cannot-argue' world of marriage.

The preparations for the wedding are going on pretty smoothly. The only bump I hit was the church related stuff. I hope I have got that sorted out, unless my parish priest wants to give me more surprises when I head back home.

That aside, its been nice going so far, The wedding cards are ready. Lourdes has her wedding gown getting sewed together. Adrian has his suit material ready. Mom and Dad have their own preparations going on. All the personnel incharge of various inventories and tasks have been booked and kept ready.

It should be one big party in December. Christmas has always been the best part of the year for me since childhood. Sweets, holidays, winter chill, parties and so much fun. The mid-night mass at Orlem church will be a memory forever.

For those who are unaware as to how we (rather I) selected the wedding date. The story goes something like this. I happen to be lucky enough to share my birthday with Uncle Mel, my Mom's brother. Uncle Mel, got married on Dec 26. I cant really remember the year. But I remember, how excited my grandmother's house was about the wedding. Lots of Christmas shopping, Relative pouring in from everywhere. To add to the excitement, I was page-boy for the wedding.

It was that day, I must have been 7 or 8, that I decided that I would get married during the Christmas season. To be frank, I wanted to get married on Dec 26 itself. But no harm done, Dec 28 is still close. So I made sure, that I get married in the holiday season, with the christmas fever adding to the glitter and shine.

So as time flies away, I near, what would be the most important, sacred and fun-filled day of my life.

Its one big party!

Cheers and Hope to see you there!

Ashley

Confession!

2008-11-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have to confess, the Indian cricket team today is a better team than the ex-invincible Oz. Period.

I have had a zillion discussions with my friends, discussing how the Indian cricket team could never match the Aussies in sheer talent or killer instinct. But from what I have followed of the just concluded Test Series, India have finally proved me wrong and in my opinion can claim the title of the best team in the world.

The record speaks for itself. The Oz had never lost a test series against India for 7 long years. Thats a sign of their stupifying brilliance.
During this period, they not only beat opponents, but mostly(during their prime) pounded them. But things have come a full circle.

India looked dominant throughout the series and beat them hands down. I still remember one discussion with Prasanna, Sourabh and Pankaj. Must have been one of the most intense debates ive ever been part of, Pankaj and Me throwing everything there is, against India.

Well today, to Prasanna, Sourabh and all those Indian cricket fans, whom I must have sarcastically laughed upon, yes, India is a better team. Sheepishly I agree.

All the best India, now its time to raise the bar and beat teams left, right and center, not only on home turf, but anywhere on this planet, just like how champions do!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Those beer guzzling days...

2008-10-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

The days I am about to mention, have to be the most carefree and enjoyable days of my life. No hassles whatsoever. No worries in life. Nothing! Just plain adolescent fun and growing up.

All we needed was: 5 close friends, 3 bikes, 50 bukz each, 'Dhana Paani' and voila eternal bliss.

I dont remember who among us decided to head to 'Dhana Paani' first, but whosoever it was, thanks buddy. Dhana Paani is a small strech of beach near to my home. The place does not have any lighting whatsoever. The breeze is a killer and the atmosphere at the place, fantabulous.

The fab 5, Gaurang 'Telia', Rajiv 'Kama', Vijay 'Pandu', Nikhil 'Bhangar' and Me 'Dosa'. The 3 bikes, Gaurang and his so-called 'Worlds Best Bike', Hero Honda Passion. Vijay and his ever-reliable Splendor and Nikhil with his super economy Boxer.

And 50 bukz, was for the Khajurao or Zingaro beer that he bought on the way to the beach. Of course the beer cost us 40, but 10 bukz was for the so-damn-delicious burjee pav that we relished at the breezy beach and the 'chakhna' to go along with the beer.

Nikhil was teetotaler and used to drink Pepsi. Gaurang would crack endless jokes on him but he did not change. We would leave somewhere around 7 PM and get back at 9 or 10 PM. One beer gave us quite a good kick then. More than the kick it was the freedom that we relished. Sitting on those rocks at 'Dhana Paani', the waves hitting the shore, the cool breeze blowing into us, the darkness that engulfed the entire place. It was simply awesome. We would discuss everything and anything. Girlfriends, college, career, fights, friends and more.

The toughest part would be to reach home and quietly go to sleep. My Mom was an expert at knowing when I had beer with my friends. :) Of course, soon she realized that when I slept directly after coming home, meant I had a drink outside. :)

The 5 of us have had so many funny incidents. One of the most funniest was when Rajiv got his own bike. A second hand RX 100, I think. One evening, heading back from one boozing trip, he notices a stray dog ahead of him. Next thing is unbelievable. The dog tried to go left, our Rajiv also went left and ran over that poor dog. Luckily, Kama weighed only 45 Kgs and his bike was a real goner(without most parts). So the dog let out a scream and ran away. But the laughter that the rest of us had was simple unstoppable. For the entire journey, till I reached home, I was laughing. How good a driver can you be to ride over a dog and not hurt the dog or lose your balance. Simple awesome Rajiv. No doubt that guy is a Pilot with Indian Airlines today!!!!

Beware you pigeons and crows, its Kama in control!

Surely, even you have such moments, that when you look back at, give you goosebumps and bring back a grin to your face.

Cheers,
Ashley

What will they say(think)?

2008-10-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

From what I have seen, there are usually 2 kinds of people. The ones who do what they want to do, not worrying of what others may think/do and the kind who worry too much.

In what aspect you may ask. Well, lets break it down a little. You enter a classroom late. There are 2 seats vacant, one on the last row and another one on the front row. Hurriedly you take the seat on the last row. 2 mins into the lecture, you realise the seat is broken and uncomfortable for seating.

So what's next? Well, for one, if it were me, I would continue to be seated on that broken bench, because, I am mostly afraid of what people will think. I am afraid of what the classroom will react like, if I make that long walk from the last bench to the first one, even though I have a perfectly legitimate reason for my travel.

But on the other hand, someone else will standup and walk towards the chair on the first row.

The difference in the attitude, according to me comes from the answer of a simple question:- 'What will they say(think)?'

For me, the answer is usually very complex and more often than not prevents me from doing whatever I need to do.

Do something without unnecessarily wondering what people will think about me. Mostly the people in the room dont even care what you are doing. But silly as I am, I will ponder as if I am Prince Charles and then decide against doing something unorthodox.

But this gets me to a funny incident. I have never been a good sportsperson. Never. I was mostly on the bench during my limited school-football days. In school, I was in RED house. So during the annual school football tournament, I was selected to represent RED house. Dont get carried away, I was still on the bench.

So fast-forward to the game. Red-House was losing to the opposing team. My coach had given up all home and did not know what to do. We knew we had lost the game. Now the coach comes to me and tells me, go and play. I was like 'Whaat?'. I said, 'Sir, whom do I replace?'. He says no one. Just sneek in and play.

Even then, I had to answer the same question, 'What will they say(think)?'. I pondered for a moment and then a slight nudge by my coach pushed me on the other side of the white boundary. I was part of the game. I ran towards the ball and must have played a couple of minutes, when the refree loudly blew his whistle. He stared and me and asked me, 'When did you come on the field?'. I did not say a word, just looked towards my coach.

The next thing the refreee did was, count the number of players. Ooops, 12! He asked me to leave the ground. Believe me, it was embarassing for me. But those 2 minutes that I was on the field, I ran like crazy after the football. Did not really do much, just ran.

We lost the game, I came home as quietly as I could. But I dont think anyone really remembers what happened that day. Just goes to prove, you dont need to worry about everything you do, asking yourself what the other person will think. I dont think even one friend of mine on the ground that day remembers this incident and how funny I was.

My point being, just do it if you feel it is the right thing. The world has their own worries to take care of, rather than worry what you are upto!!!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Just missed the bus...

2008-09-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

Does it not always happen with you?
When you are late at the bus stop the bus is on time and when you are ontime the bus never arrives on time!

Well, it happens regularly to me. Worst thing being that I find myself late not only at the bus station but also in other walks of life too.

For example, there was a recent Gold Price drop(in Mumbai that I know of). I sat on my buttocks and did not move a muscle. Then one fine day, it stuck Einstein(aka Me) that my folks should shop for the Gold now. I quickly ordered my Mom to do some shopping. My mom took off at the earliest and still we ended up noticing a price rise of 2k per 10 gm.

Next thing I encounter, the price hike on the booze. I asked my good friend Gautam to get me some Whisky, Rum and Vodka for my wedding. Even here, I was a tee bit late. There was a price hike in store for me here too. Even though the price hike was marginal if not negligible, it makes me wonder. Am I always late? Or is it just plain bad luck?

Another perspective is, Prices of commodities keep increasing every other day, but our monthly income rises only once a year(Hopefully!!!), unless we decide to loot a bank some weird day. So somehow we got to manage, not only with the constant income but also with the timing of heading out to buy those commodities.

Believe me, good timing can save some buck!!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Quietly.

2008-09-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

Chetan Sharma must have never really thought that Miandad would hit him for a Six of the last ball.Similarly, Dhananjay must have never really imagined me hitting a homerun during our game of scrabble on facebook.

For the record, I have never ever seriously played scrabble. My past record was 0-2 against Dhananjay. And today was no different. The same pattern continued.

I get off to a rollicking start. Make some good words and I look to be in control. Then like a seasoned pro, Dhananjay starts making inroads. Word by word he inches closer, then overtakes me and finally leaves me staring at the board.

But today was different. It was time for Miandad to play scrabble. So after the usual start, the climax was something like this. I had 7 tiles left. None left in the bag. My score was 263 and Dhananjay was 296.

Some more stats. The highest scoring word I had made so far was 39, using 3 tiles.
Also the longest word I had made was 5 tiles long.

So, assuming things went normally, I had no chance of winning this game. But the 7 tiles I had were magical. They were QUIETLY magical.

Yes, I was able to make the word Quietly on my last turn. Use up all my tiles, and even get a triple word score for this word.

And, I made an astonishing 129 points for this word. Final score, Ashley-400 Dhananjay-288.

Makes me believe that one should never give up. Miandad did not give up hope that day and won an astonishing game. Today, I felt a little like him.

Below is a memento of the amazing game!

Warm People! Really?

2008-09-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

This is a mystery, it baffles me. May be I have always been at the wrong place all my life. I genuinely hope that is the case, but it sure amazes me, how the same set of people can leave 2 contrasting impressions on 2 different set of folks.

Since childhood, I've always been left stunned by watching/listening to International celebrities speak so lavishly about India's warmth and care. The people being so nice and caring towards them. How they like India so much and they would like to visit the country again and again.
As a child, I never knew what the outside world looked like, so I presumed the backyard for the people from foreign states must have been awefully evil.

Reason being, lets look at it from my perspective. Back home, people on the road never smile at each other. At the traffic junction, people are waiting to run you over. The bus conductor never waits for you to safely board the bus, even if it is completely empty. The people in my society(building) never smiled at each other, unless you knew them personally. The shopkeepers would never give you change. A thank you would be as rare as finding a polar bear in Mumbai. Cops will never help. And atleast another millions incidents where nto warmth but hot-headed behaviour is on display.

Ok, so may be the people that I mentioned above were not really interested in knowing me or treating me with a smile. Ok, so we did not share any common ground, and that may excuse them from being courteous towards me and their fellow beings.

But, what really caught my attention was the people I worked with. At work, clustered with another 4000 odd other engineers, in a small 10 acre campus, things did not change much. I even changed to another campus and still no difference in the attitude.

There were so many people I used to see everyday at lunch break. Pass them when walking to the canteen or sit on a table next to them during lunch. Some of them, I must have seen on my floor for 3+ years, but that smile of comradrie or being a part of one organisation never came. Infact, people at work used to look at each other with a more ferocious look than I've ever seen. Call that peer pressure or what, it sucked. Peer pressure with folks at the same level is understood, but what about managers. The attitude that used to ooze out from some of them was, if I look at it today, was funny. I mean, what was he so proud about? That he sends across estimates which are made by a poor Analyst like me and just negotiates the project dates, which again are made by me. Suckers I tell you, those Infosys managers.

So where was that loving, caring, smiling, i-will-take-care-of-you India? Or does that India arise only if you are a celebrity or a foreign national or someone who can buy respect with lots of dough?
May be, may be not! My interaction since childhood, has still to seriously come across a scenario where, in a single day i meet more friendly people than rude ones.

Over here (States I mean), things are so different. People smile, are polite and make sure they have a kind word or two to say even if you are COMPLETE strangers. Let is be the bus stop, apartment complex, grocery store you will in all certainty be treated with a smile. At work, things are different too, infact very different. Almost everyone smiles, managers included. Still, the western people find our hospitality and scream on top of their lungs about it. Wonder what I missed and where?

Just to understand the situation more clearly. In a country where people of one state will beat people of another state, for no rhyme or reason, I really find it tough to find warmth.

As Black Eyed Peas say:- "Where is the Love?"

Cheers,
Ashley

Sacrificing phase!

2008-09-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

The definition very apt for Sacrifice (in my case) is:
Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

In the above definition, in my context:
Highly valued = Rice+Soad+Pizza and more
Greater value = Wedding

Giving up orkut turned out much easier than giving up rice! :)
Brought up on a pure rice rich diet, gobbling it since I started to eat solid food, to suddenly give up rice, is a tough ask.

But I am somehow coping upto it. Its been almost a month since I have given up rice for lunch as well as dinner. Add to that, Soda too. Never had an aerated drink for almost 4 weeks.

Also, slowly am avoiding oily stuff too. So those fried samosa's that my roomies enjoy, are a NO-NO for me. Period!

Why am i torturing myself you ask?

December 28th 2008!!! I dont want to be a ball rolling down the aisle. I want to be a decent human being, made sophisticated by the tuxedo, walking down the aisle. I want Lourdes, to stand besides a manageable fellow, who is atleast visually palatable.

It surely is tough, I tell you. 5 pounds in almost a month, current weight loss. Lets see, how much of a change I can bring about until December.

What I am worried is about the post-marriage-eating-syndrome!!! Might hog all the things I craved for and end up being overweight for the return flight. Those samosas, rosgullas, onion rings, cheeze pizzas, sodas, rice+chicken curry... might be too hard to resist once it is 29th December 2008.

Tough 3 months ahead and even tougher period after the 'D' day.
Pray for me.

Cheers,
Ashley

Google made me do it!

2008-09-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

As such, I am not a big fan of change. Routine is my inherint principle. Why change? Why new hassles? If the current way of doing things does not give me a headache, i'll continue using it, Forever may be!

But, what google makes me do, is amazing. I am sure most of you, also fall victim to googloomph!

Like many of you, I was a loyal YAHOO customer in the early 21st century. Then GMAIL came with the '1 GB' buzz and I was begging for an invite. Today, I dont even know if my Yahoo account has a million emails or none. The only use of that yahoo account, is for Video Chat, that too once in a while. Thats it.
Personally I prefer Skype for video chat though, but not folks have accounts setup on skype.

Also, during this yahoo era, I also had uploaded some of my pictures on Yahoo Photos. The most memorable picture being this one photo of me with Cyrus Broacha and Rajpal Yadav, when I met them at a party in Bangalore. :) Star Struck!!

Soon picasa came along and today, I dont even know where those photos that I uploaded in yahoo are. Last heard, Yahoo had closed the photo's department. Wonder if they can give my pictures back?

Yesterday, google realeased their web browser 'Chrome'. I have already made it my default browser at home. There are some short-comings which Abhishek and I discussed.:) We even managed to find a few defects/bugs. But, as google has already proven over and over again, its not long before many of the IE/FireFox/Safari/Opera faithful will switch over.

Amazing isnt it? Google comes along with a product and I change my routine. I wish google can open a gymnasium in my apartment complex, atleast it will help me change my routine(sleep!!) and hit the threadmill once in a while.

Being a tad more realistic, waiting for Google Operating System. Thats the only software I use which is not googlelised. As for the rest, there is a googlish feeling in everything I do on the web.

Must say, after a very interesting discussion with my good friend Amit, who works with Yahoo, I realised some of the change effect is because of the 'COOL' factor that google has tagged along with it. Just like how an Apple I POD is more appealing (atleast I think) than most MP3 players, even though they hardly differ in music quality and storage (and are more expensive), its almost the same with Google products today. It attracts you and once you switch, not many return.
'COOL' or no, they are innovative, appealing, fast and simple to use.

Later,
Ashley

See I told you...

2008-09-03T00:34:00.001-07:00

Don't recall the exact year and time, but I remember watching a news piece of when this Air-India flight was delayed by more than 18 odd hours and there was no food-accomodation provided to the passengers travelling. Pretty common news for an AI flight, isnt it??

The passengers took refuge at the transit stop and somehow made it back home. Back then, the TV crew made a hay-day capturing the intensely pissed passengers. There was this young lady with her young kid, who blasted profanities on the tele. Could Air-India be really this bad?

After all, the nations premier carrier ought some responsibility to build a image globally and quite logically should look to set achieve new higher milestones rather than receive abuses on live TV.

Keeping this incident at the back of my head, I booked my tickets to India somewhere in early May, for a travel in mid December. That is almost 7 months in advance. I had the option of going for British Airways at a slightly higher price, but I presumed Air-India, in todays highly competitive air-travel industry would be value for money.

Hence i booked what looked like a very good deal. Los Angeles to Frankfurt. A tiny stop for refueling and then to New Delhi. A tiny stop again and then to Mumbai. The return was using the same path. I got the paper tickets too. So I was all set. Or was I?

Today, my agent sent me an email. Saying, Air-India has cancelled flights from Los Angeles to Mumbai via the route I had booked. What could I say? Speechless!

For once, I went against my mind and took a bold decision. Believe me, it was not about $$, but I felt flying AI would be a good decision. And AI has proved that come what may, AI will always remain AI!!!

India may become the numero uno super-power, with all the power and might in the world, but our national carrier will always be a shame. Shame not for other people to laugh at, but for its own people to abuse and make a joke of.

Finally, I rebooked myself on a British Airways flight. And you wont believe this. I got a cheaper ticket. I also happen to be a BA Executive Class member, so the miles added on will enable me to procure one free trip soon.

Things always happen for the better dont they??

Lesson learnt:- NEVER EVER, I MEAN NEVER EVER BOOK AIR-INDIA WHEN TRAVELLING ABROAD. ESPECIALLY IF IT IS YOUR WEDDING!!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Pre-Marriage Pains - Latest Update!!!

2008-09-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do understand that marriage is a very sacred sacrament in the life of a Roman Catholic.
For me personally, it is the the most important spiritual milestone in one's life. But what really pisses me off is the amount of over-heads that the church has brought in. I might be wrong and may be these so-called steps must have been present since a long time. May be my Mom and Dad also had to go through them, but then, we need flexibility, dont we?

Take my case for example. I made a infrequent visit to my parish priest sometime back. Armed with the marriage course certificate(that Lourdes and I had taken together), baptism certificate and other church related stuff I calmly walked in to meet the priest.

I told him, that because I will be arriving just 4 weeks before my wedding, I would appreciate if he can start processing my case right away. With a cold-blooded look on his face he replies, "You will have to come to sign the document!". "What?" I screamt in my head. Does he think US is like next station or something. That I can come over to sign some document. Confused, I asked him again, "Can I sign this document in December?". "No", came a prompt reply with no hint of help whatsoever.

I mean, lets look it at from my perspective. I have a valid baptism certificate. A valid confirmation certificate. I have a valid marriage course certificate. Hell, I could have even produced a certificate that Lourdes and I have been courting each other for more than 5 years. So, who is he to obstruct me now. So instead of helping me, all he can think of is planning an impromptu trip to India for me, just to sign a document. That too, in the internet age, where everything is faxed, signed and scanned.

Doesnt 'Catholic' mean Universal? If so, then can I sign the document here (in California), at the parish where I currently am a member of?

It pains me to see that instead of helping, people will add more obstructions and unnecessary decrees to a process that can be streamlined and have its exceptions in place so as to handle various scenarios. And here I dont consider the parish priest as people, he is family. A very important member of my spiritual family. Can't he not understand that I have a limitation and it's not really possible to sign that document before December 2008.

For example, what if a person who is a shippy wants to get married. He comes home only once in 9 months. So does he need to leave his ship and swim back home to get this document signed.

'Change'- We can Believe In. Yes, thats what the church needs to look at. Lets be a little more flexible. More understanding and considerate towards our brothers and sisters.

The latest is that, the parish priest has changed at my place. My Mom is going to visit the priest on saturday. Lets see, what happens. Meanwhile, Lourdes has been told that her NOC certificate will take more than a week to arrive. Wonder if the church has a FBI like database where they will match the names to check for defaulters.

Whatever it is, God please save me!!!

Hoping the church does not compound me with more wedding planning headache. I have my hands full already. :)

Update:
My Mom did visit the parish and it so happens that the new parish priest is a bigger pain than the earlier one. He was rude and not ready to help one bit. Makes me wonder is that what Christianity/Roman Catholic all about. I'd rather move on rather than be a part of this community. Believe me, that priest is lucky, if I was sitting across the table, there sure would have
been a heated argument.

Lets see whats in store.

Next Update:

So finally Lourdes got her NOC from her Irla parish. I got my NOC from my Orange county parish. So the next step was to go the St.Anthony's Church, Malad and book for the wedding mass. Lourdes and her Mom reached there today, with the NOC saying that the Irla Parish has no objection in the mass being held at the St.Anthony's church. But is so happens that this church now has a freaking problem. The priest, like all his other brothers does not believe in helping and understanding problems. He fails to understand that travelling from Irla to Malad is not possible in 1 hours time. So if we have the mass at Irla, as this &^&**$%$ priest says then we reach for the reception at 8 PM. This, hoping the traffic is bad and not horrible. I mean, it baffles me, how disconnected the entire church system is. One church X says Ok, you can have the mass at church Y. Church Y says, i dont care about church X, i will not allow you to get married in church Y. WTF is this?

Dear Priests,
You think this is some kind of a joke. Lourdes is running about from Irla to Malad and back to Irla, just because you smart folks are dumb enough to understand a simple protocol between yourselves. She is alone, I am not around and poor thing had enough of headache already. And what I supposed was the easiest of tasks, getting a mass booked is turning out to be the worst hassel of all.

You wonder why people leave the church, this is the reason. Your egoistic attitude and self-belief that you are the ONE makes you turn people away from your doorstep, instead of helping them and understanding their problem.

Once the mass is booked and everything is settled, which I hope is posssible, I will personally make it a point to meet both the priests. My parish and this priest from St.Anthony's. I will make myself clear, if needed even show you my blog and how frustrated you so-called 'God's Servants' made me feel. For once, do you even think, that what you do is service for the Almighty. There should be no reason why I cannot get married at a particular church. You needed a NOC, i got that, now what? Why tell Lourdes you cannot have it? Whats the reason? Ego, supersmart, pain in your ass?

My idea is simple, if I believe in one christ, all churches are the same and I should have the privilege to get married anywhere on this planet, as long as I am not previously married to someone else. That prickly priest in Malwani cares nothing about me or Lourdes, he is just satisfying his ego by putting across a point of how important he is and that I need him at this moment.

FU!

Cheers,
Ashley

Audacious...

2008-09-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Football never fails to surprise me. Year after year, the transfer windown in Europe makes me realise that money can buy anything, anytime!

Take last year for example, William Gallas, a true Chelsea player so far. He had given his all to the club. On the other hand, Ashley Cole, a Gunner to the core. So far, I have never imagined both these players quitting their respective clubs. Come August 31 2007, boom! A swap and Cole comes Chelsea way and Gallas heads for Emirates. Surprise, Surprise!

So come August 31 2008, I was again eagerly awaiting the last day of the transfer window. And this years surprise was much bigger than last years.
Picture this:
Robinho, Brazil's wonderkid and star player organises a press conference, asking for a transfer from Real Madrid to Chelsea. Chelsea had offered around 28 Million Pounds for this transfer. The deal was almost through as per all the leading tabloids and Robinho was on his way to Stamford Bridge.

Come Monday, the Abu Dhabi United Group gets a major stake in the Manchester City Football Club. And what is the first thing the new owner, Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim does?
Tables 4 bids for 4 different players:
30 Million Pounds for Berbatov.
32.5 Million Pounds for Robinho.
And 2 bids for Spanish player D. Villa and Germany M. Gomez.

Both the bids for Bebatov and Robinho were accepted. Can you imagine what Manchester United and Chelsea were thinking at this moment. Just 12 hours before they were the only players int he race and must have slept thinking the deal is almost through. And here comes the Billionaire from the Gulf and hits their plans for a home run.

Only thing is that Berbatov decided to head for Man U, even though his club had accepted the bid from Man City.
Robinho did not do any favors for Chelsea though. He signed for Man City. A scoop that Chlesea management folks will remember all their lives. A player stolen from right under their noses.

So what does all this mean? Well, Man City have loads of cash now. Their next target, as expectedly, Christiano Ronaldo. Asking Prices, hold your breadth. A little more. 250 Million $$!!!!!! And that Al-Fahim has said this is an OK price for Ronaldo.

Money can buy anything, hence proved.

This weekend in the English Premier League, Chelsea Vs Manchester City. Can you ask for something better?

Can't wait for the weekend, as always!!

Cheers,
Ashley

Fear!

2008-08-30T01:15:00.001-07:00

As some of you must have noticed, I have pulled down some of my recent posts. Infact today I wrote a heart wrenched post regarding the Orissa killings. I wrote it with my heart, just penned down what I felt and I posted it.

Then I read the same post, it came out so well. May be it was too raw and hard-hitting, but I believe it was something that I feel is the truth. I then deleted the post, because I have my family who lives back home and people in India just need a reason to hurt each other. Especially when you come from another community or religion.

I want to write so many things, express myself, but the only thing that stops me is the thought of my family.

Have a nice weekend.

Cheers,
Ashley

India at the Olympics.. should we celebrate?

2008-08-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

So you think, India has shone like dazzling star on the Olympic horizon? I'll beg to differ slightly. I am proud of what Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender have achieved to bring glory for the nation, but I am sure their hardwork will not ignite any major revolutions to promote sports in a nation starved for heroes. Soon, it will be time for the Olympians to leave the stage and the for the next 4 years, our dear cricketers supported by the supremely talented Sania Mirza will hog the limelight.

Let me put forth a question. How much of Malleshwari did u see once the dust settled on her Olympic victory? How much of Rajvardhan Rathore did you follow? How many knew Abhinav Bindra before he hit the bullseye in Beijing?

Suma Shirur, a super talented sportswoman, whom I personally met, was without a coach before she left for Athens in 2004. She is the current world record holder in 10M rifle shooting (400/400). She stood 8th in the finals in Athens. Can you imagine what she would have done if provided a good quality coach and world-class training facilities.

There are many untold stories like Suma Shirur, that you and I are not aware of. But instead of giving the deserving atheletes an oppurutunity we turn our backs on them, only to cuss at them every 4 years, when they fail to bring us a medal. Whom do we blame? The Athelete? Us? The government? The media? Pakistan?

For a nation that is rated as one of the fastest growing economies, the Olympics is a perfect stage to showcase our prowess. Our GDP is just one factor to guage our rise. Sports success, Military powers, Scientific advances, Infrastructural improvements.. so many parameters to caliber a nations growth.

A simple stat that I discussed with my good friend Abhishek the other day. The top 4 growing economies of the world, labelled as BRIC! Find alongside the medals won so far.
B= Brazil:10
R=Russia:53
I=India:3??
C=China:83

Let us add another nation and make it BRICK!
K=Korea:26

This BRIC and BRICK is not made up by me, it is a thorough analysis done by Goldman Sachs.

Hereis the article to the BRIC study(pretty interesting).

Should we be celebrating our success, or dwell on the reasons why we are not winning more medals.

Please dont tell me, that we dont have the talent. I can name atleast 10 atheletes who if trained well and groomed for the 2012 games, will surely bring us glory. But who will provide them support. Support does not mean 2 crore on winning 1 medal, support means standing by one's side through their good and bad times. Ask Suma Shirur!

I have always raised the 'One-single-astroturf-in-mumbai' issue a zillion times. But one other interesting incident was when i visisted the Chhatrapati Shivaji sports complex in Balewadi, Pune. That place was in a mess. It kind of symbolizes India's thirst for success in sports. Zilch!

Last heard, that stadium was being re-done for the Youth Commonwealth Games in October 2008. Once the games are over, the shrubs will grow again, the rust will set in and the facility will be a Jurassic park in the midst of Hinjewadi, the IT park of Pune. Quite Ironical, aint it?

Cheers,
Ashley

Make Hay when the sun shines!

2008-08-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

But make sure you are in your proper senses and not too greedy. A current prime example is Mr.Andrei Arshavin. A sublimly talented Russian football player. He rose to prominence in the recently concluded UEFA Cup 2008. His versatility on the football field and immense talent have made him a must want player for top clubs.
He scores goals, provides assists, has a good engine and wonderful football imagination and visibilty. Ask the Dutch, how he single handedly brought them down.

Currently he represent a russian club, Zenit Saint Petersburg. This club is not Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester United. So, as it was meant to be, Ashravin started getting offers to join top notch European clubs. Barcelona, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and a few others.

But our dear friend (or may be his club), is so hell bent on making a zillion hay, that his transfer is just not possible. So Arsenal and Barcelona have given up on him. Today, Hotspurs are also out of the race, thanks to a zero negotiation strategy used by Ashravin and Zenit.

Outcome, he might continue to play in the modest Russian League.

Learning: Dont overvalue yourself, if you do be prepared to encounter disappointments along the way.

All the best Andrei.

An update:
So finally sense has prevailed and Zenit/Ashravin have decided to may be lower his price tag.
Here is the article.

Boybands...

2008-08-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

"What a wuss you are?", exclaimed my friend. "How can you even like Boyzone?". Yes, I admit it, I was a huge boyzone fan. So huge, that I even wrote a letter to them and sent it all the way to Middlesex, England!!! Btw, this happened somewhere in 1996-1997. No emails then, no internet to get online membership. My joy knew no bounds when I got a reply, for a moment I thought that one of the five must have personally replied to me. Stupid me, but yes, I did think so. So what did the letter contain? I was so excited to have seen the letter, opening it would have taken me to the next ultimate level of excitement.

Well, the letter only had a invitation to be a part of their official fanclub. It did not contain the boyzone tee which I had asked for. Nor did it have a autographed photograph of Shane. :)
To rub it in, the membership fees was quite an unaffordable figure and that too in pounds. To be frank I dont even remember the exchange rate that time nor the amount those freaks asked for.

But, that letter, it meant so much to me. I kept it safely in my draw. Hid the letter from Adrian, so that he would not laugh at me. Days passed, Boyzone was passe. Enter Backstreet Boyz, N'Sync, Bed & Breakfast, WestLife and so on....

What I really love about these boybands is that they were in perfect synchronization with my adolescent days.
From 'Words', 'Bye Bye Bye' to 'Escape', they have always been parallel and provided background score to my other-wise simple life.

The first CD I ever bought was 'Millenium', courtesy 'Backstreet Boys'. I would stand in front of the mirror and sing 'I want it that way' and 'Show me the meaning of being lonely' all evening.

Right now am listening to 'Back Here Baby' by BBMak... those good ole 'Ganga' days!!

Well Done India!!!

2008-08-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Miserable, Piteous, Shameful! This is how I would describe the performance of our so-called medal expecting stars at the Olympics.

By now, most of you guys must have read my sincere and heartfelt analysis of Miss Sania Mirza's professional tennis performance. I had, have and will always stick to the fact that she has stymied the growth of many other female atheletes who deserve more credit and recognition than an unworthy soul like her.
Her retiring at the games and disappointing loss did not surprise me one tiny-atomic bit. It was expected.

The media, both print and television are a wasted lot. Unnecessary hype, undue attention, undeserved praise and print space have made atheletes like Sania assume they are the bread and butter winners for our nation when it comes to sports.

Wrong, my dear lady. You have sadly been mistaken. Actually, our dear friend Sania is not alone. At the fictious mountain that she rests on, she has company. Company of self-believing, self-assuming and utterly disappointing atheletes like Anju B George.

The problem with Indians is that, success hits the head pretty fast. Blame it on the lack of heroes that India fails to provide or surplus media attention for their mediocre performances, suddenly these atheletes start advocating the role of being world beaters. They presume they are championship material and are good enough for anyone anyday.

Unfortunately, a little sensibility and a little more logic, makes me think otherwise. Performance is your report card. Not the number of headlines you made. It does not matter if Sachin Tendulkar came to meet you when in Hyderabad. It does not matter if you are having an affair with the Pakistani tennis player. It does not matter if you keep cribing about the facilities provided for your practice.

What matters is performance!!! It is the sole criteria to judge a sportsperson. And my dear ladies, you both have screwed India when it gave you such a prestigious platform to perform on. 3 failed jumps? Mrs. George, what the hell were you thinking. Is this some park in Kerala where you go and jump and come back. The whole world is watching, a million and more people have pinned their hopes on you. And all you can do is make not 1, not 2 but un-freakin-believable 3 foul jumps.

You know friends, whats the worst part about atheletes like them. They dont have one single ounce of remorse or self-regret to have let down a nation. A nation that so eagerly is waiting for another hero after Abhinav. All they care about is the spot-light. And our two-penny worth media, is all game for that. Of course, a story on Sania will give their TRP's a boost, rather than focus on Suma Shirur who is giving her 110% at a self-sponsored shooting range in Panvel.

The media is the biggest culprit to have created this hoopla about India's medal hopefuls. The bubble has burst this time, as always. Sania, Anju, Lee/Hesh all have delivered nought. Infact Sania and Anju have been an embarrassment.

But who cares, two weeks later, we will again read more about these hopeless folks who cant really standup a single worthwile challenge and bring us less-than-mediocre success.

Till then, Adios!!

PHELPNOMENAL - 8 Golds for Phelps!!!!!

2008-08-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

I know its not 7:58 PM, its just 3:06 PM here. Still another 5 hours to go to see Phelps celebrate his unique and un-freakin-imaginable record of 8 gold medals in one Olympic Game.

But, I know, he wont let me down. I wont have to revisit this post to make changes. No, I wont.
If I had any doubt regarding his ability of his achieving the 8 golds then they have been washed-clear by his last swim in the 100M butterfly.

All sportspersons will always tell you, 110% hardwork does not necessarily give you 100% success. Every single soul needs luck. A small percentage true, but it is a must. For Phelps, we all knew he had given his 110% preparing for these games. But was luck on his side? Oh hell yea!!

Winning the 100M Fly, by the closest possible margin, Phelps has proved that all the forces in this world have contrived to enable him win 8 golds.

About 4 hours to go and phelps will take another dive into history.

For my friends, the race is scheduled at 8 PM today, 16th (8*2) August (8) 200(8), where Phelps will aim to win 8 gold medals...

Amazing 8'nt it?

Adios,
Ashley

I Wish...

2008-08-12T22:29:00.003-07:00

Somwhere along this long winding road, I've wished....

I wished for Mom to allow me to grow my hair..
Long locks meant more headcare..
So I keep short hair!

I wished to wear full trousers to school..
Full pants(5th class and higher) meant getting up early to school..
So I cribbed every morning that I want to sleep!

I wished to play football for my school/college..
Football practice meant lots of running and kicking..
So I wished I was dropped and told to go home!

I wished to go to college and get rid of the uniform..
College meant rich folks wearing branded clothes..
So I wished we all were equal and we all wore a uniform!

I wished to earn my own money and spend..
Money brought along responsibilities and more headache..
So I wish instead, my dad gives me pocket money!

All long, I've wished..
Things have happened as I wanted them to..
But, I still cant find that peace, that comfort that I am looking for...

Wonder, what should I Wish for next??

Cheers,
Ashley

Prison Break in A Perfect World?

2008-08-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Now we that we are fast approaching Prison Break - 4, I thought of penning down this column.

I was not a big PB fan at first. Even though Joel and Adrian kept telling me about this dramatic prison escape series called PB, I was not really excited about downloading the stuff or catching it online. But once I started to watch it, there was no looking back. I have even watched 7 episodes on a trot. That is almost 6 hours of non-stop PB. The reason I had to stop was because it was dawn and I had to get ready to leave for work. I found the concept very refreshing and each character had a varied level of tenacity to fulfil their own goals.

Funny that I watched PB - 2 first, then I caught up on PB -1 and then finally PB -3. So you can imagine, the mess that I made, I had to watch PB -2 again to make sense of all those links which I failed to grasp during my first watch.

'A Perfect World' is a Kevin Costner movie that I recently happened to catch. It is a touching story of a prisoner on the run and his bonding with a 8 year old kid whom he takes as hostage during his escape.

The similarities might not be earth shattering or headline material, but they are quite interesting.
1. The escape from the prison is quite similar. The jump over the wall onto a empty street.
2. The escape involves the prisoners wearing white attire during their escape.
3. The protagonist and the lead negative character, (M.Schofield and T-BAG in PB, Butch Haynes and Terry Pugh in A Perfect World) share the exactly same chemisrty. They do mention, that once outside they would be on their own. They both hate each other's guts.
4. T-Bag and Terry are both paedophiles.
5. Terry is killed by Butch, and Scofield makes sure that T-Bag is left for dead in PB 3.
6. Butch and Scofield both had troubled childhoods.
7. The similarity that really caught my attention, was the behaviour of the 2 characters. There was this air of alikeness, a sense of deja-vu when you watch Terry in that role of a escape convict. He has T-BAG written all over him. The way he talks, his actions, his attitude and his screen presence. So damn similar.

I presume this was just a co-incidence, but then the similarities made me curious.
For all you movie buffs+PB fans, if you've not watched 'APW', do try and catch it. It is a Clint Eastwood direction and definetely worth a couple hours of your time.

Cheers,
Ashley

I Phelp(t) it!!

2008-08-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

The title is supposed to be read as ' I Felt it'. I am just trying to be a little more imaginative.

But, what a race the 4*100 M Freestyle turned out to be. Described by many experts as the best relay ever, I was priviledged enough to watch it live on the internet. Manish and I have become big M.Phelps fans.

I have been following swimming as an Olympic sport for quite sometime now. It all started in the 1996 Olympics, I was a Alexander Popov fan then. Then came the Ian Thorpe and Hoogenband rivalry and now Michael Phelps. All of them are legendary. They have aimed for the sky, raised the bar so high that other atheletes find it virtually impossible to get even close.

To achieve this kind of success when you are just 23, in the case of Phelps is un-freakin-imaginable.

Back to the race. This was one of the event that Phelps had failed to get a Gold in, 4 years back at Athens. There was ample pre-race media coverage for the race, one because US were not the clear favorites for the race and two, because the French swimmer, Alain Bernard, had said that ' They would smash the US'.

Phelps, ran the first leg of the race and it was not the best swim ever. But his average swim still meant that US was in the top 3. The 2nd swimmer, Garrett , did better and US was in the top 2. But then the twist, the turn in the plot. Cullen Jones, proved to be a tad slow and gave away the advantage and US were left rallying behind.

Perfect stage for the now-legendary Jason Lezak to step in. A small note here, Lezak is from Irvine, CA which is like 10 miles from my place. Go Orange County Go!!!!

So when Lezak jumped in, he was chasing Bernard, with 100 M to go and Phelps hopes of 8 Gold Medals hanging by a thread. Personally, I did not expect Lezak to make up the distance that he lagged.

At the 50M turn, he was 0.82 of a second behind. In terms of swimming lingo, this is almost impossible to cover in 50M. Let alone when the 100M record holder is whom you are chasing. But legendary stories are made of this. Fairy tales are supposed to be outcomes of impossible scenarios. Lezak found energy from some somwhere deep inside and kept pulling close to Bernard. Manish and I kept screaming for Lezak to reach the finish first. 20M to go and it was still looking like a French victory. "No, this cant happen!!" I said. Phelps needs 8 and this is not possible.

The 2 touch the end-board simulataneously, but Lezak had out-fingered Bernard to hand US what is now hailed as the Best Relay Victory ever in a pool. He made up almost a second in the final 50 M. Awesome!!!

The difference between the 2 teams, 8 hundreth of a second.

Just goes to show, what mental strength these guys are made of. The drive to achieve gold, to be the best in the world. I plan to catch all the Phelp swims live. I hope TVAnts does not let me down. His next race is in another 45 minutes and then another one an hour after that.

8 golds or no, that screaming Phelp photograph which is all over the papers today, is so-far the highlight of my Beijing Olympics.

Go Phelps go!!

P.S: As expected, Sania Mirza has AGAIN had an injury. She retired in the second set, after (of course) losing the 1st set. Sportpersons like her, who are made of media hype and not their sporting abilities should be sent to retard homes along with the media scribes who waste printspace on them.

Idea of an innovative mind!

2008-08-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

'The most amazing show on earth! EVER', thats how people have described the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic games.

I still recall the pictures that Adrian showed me of him participating in the Athen Olympic Closing ceremony, and it seemed to be good fun. His pictures with atheletes from different nations. The relaxed look on all the faces, the jovial smile and the hug of a co-athelete. The pictures had them all.

But, from what I seen of the 2008 ceremony, it was class apart. It was a stage the Chinese have been waiting for. It was a show of power, a show of how far they have come. And it has left the entire world stand up and look.

I am big fan of the Chinese dedication and focus of achieving capabilities. They very well know what they need and have set the path to achieve it.

They wanted excellence in almost all fields for this Olympics and mind you they have almost succeded in the plan. For example, take Field Hockey. 4 Years back, no one had even heard of the Chinese team. They were the whipping boys. Fast forward 2008, they are Asian Games Bronze medallist. They have beaten India and Pakistan more than once. Thats what commitment is, isnt it?

During the opening ceremony I hit upon an innovate idea. India is going to host the 2010 Commonweath Games. Presuming, the hyped comparisions that exists in the media, people will except a grand ceremony from India too. I know it would be tough to deliver the kind of excellence that China put up. But I have a nice idea.

Get the Chinese opening ceremony video. Replace the word China with India, 2008 with 2010, and Olympic Games with Commonwealth Games. Use some photoshop expert and modify the faces in the ceremony to look Indian.

Then, on the big 'D' day, just put up 2 BIG screen in the stadium and play the video.

Perfecto!!!!!

Save Money, Earn Respect, Indian ishtyle!!

Adios,
Ashley

Quality I hate the most in people!!!

2008-08-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

During my teenage days it would freak me out to see someone dig their nose to glory. Gold-Mining or Gold-Digging, as I used to call it, was stressful to watch. I would feel like heading to that person and clobbering him, because that act was blissful pleasure to him, but extremely annonying to me.

Now-a-days things have changed. I dont really see many gold-diggers around, I dont know whether it is the professional atmosphere thats to blame or just that I have been plain lucky to avoid those digging moments. Anyways, I'll take any of the reasons and carry on happily.

But, what does annoy me, is the attitude of some ungrateful friends around me. I mean, you genuinely help someone. And if for some reason that solution/input did not work, it so appears you are to blame?

Am I?
Did I really need to spend my freaking 10-15 minutes to figure out your problem, to screw you?
Then spend another 10 minutes explaining the solution to you?

And if because of some unenlightened reason, it did not work out, am I to blame?

I guess not. I do come across folks like these quite often. And the same old self that I am, I lose it pretty fast. If these were school/college days there would have been a couple of fists going here and there. Luckily, this is a professional set up. A setup where people (generally) dont gold-dig, so even I behave myself and dont clobber everyone around. I smile, say Sorry (then a Fuck Off in my head) and smile again.

Silently, i make a promise to myself. 'Never ever help that poor soul again'. Reason, ungrateful folks dont really need my help, do they???

So to all you people who come screaming back to me, if something i said does not work out, FO!!

Adios,
Ashley

P.S: Wrtiting this one from my office space. Imagine the stress I am under!!!

Shaken, Stirred and More!

2008-07-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Was watching the thriller 'Se7en' last night and this one particular scene grabbed my attention. Little did I know that 12 hours or so later, I would find myself in a somewhat similar situation.

The scene I am talking about is where, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are having this intense investigative discussion looking into the murders happening around them. All of a sudden, the entire house begins to shake. As all other men would have reacted, MF was startled and ready to take cover. But BP calmly tells MF that it is the sub-way and everytime where is a train passing, the house trembles. He cusses the estate agent and continues the discussion.

I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined being in a similar situation ever. Let alone today. So after I reached office at about 11:30 today, i was just getting settled. Logged onto gmail, said 'Hello' to Abhishek, Joel and Vasanth. Then a quick 'Later' so that I could complete my work tasks. It was about 11:40 now.

And then sometime soon, it happened. Earthquake!!!

What started as a small push, soon the stuff on my desk was all moving. People were standing and panic was creeping in. I did not know what to do. I was on the 8th floor. 15-20 seconds into the quake and it got more intense.

The first thing that came to my mind was, "This is it! It is all over.The building is going to come down I thought!" For a moment, I was blank with that thought of the anti-climax.

I followed my colleagues and they were headed to the fire exit. I went a few steps and realised I had forgotten my wallet and cell. Ran back to the seat and seen that the impact had dropped chairs in my cube to the floor. Quickly, grabbed my belongings and headed to the nearest exit.

All the running that I have been doing on the treadmill finally paid off. Was able to cover the 8 floors with ease.

Reached the assembly point on the ground floor. Nothing had come to ground yet, luckily. It was 12:00 PM now.

The first thing I thought about at the assembly point was the co-incidence of me watching that scene in the movie yesterday night and me going through almost the same experience.

And just like the movie, gladly there were no injuries.

As for what went through my head when I seen the floor move, I thought about my family. That should be our priority, should'nt it? The earthquake just makes me realise how unpredictable life can be. Anything could have happened, anything can happen.

So the simple solution to always have a happy ending is:
Be good. Do good. Feel good.

No matter when your life comes crashing down, atleast you collapse on a good note, is'nt it?

Good Luck and Take care,
Ashley

A movie that will move you!

2008-07-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, this is not 'The Dark Knight' I am talking about.

Just finished watching 'Into the Wild', a terrific piece of art. Movies are supposed to have an impact and this movie has left me hollow. It is an indescribable feeling that’s simmering inside me. Prior to this 'Fight Club' was my favorite movie. But 'Into the Wild' has just taken top honors.

The best part about this movie is the simplicity with which it attracts your attention. There is constant undercurrent that makes you wonder, can I take a decision like Chris? Can I abandon all these materialistic pleasures and just live a free life?
Basically, I don’t want to give much away, but the movie tells about Chris a young American who walks away from the materialistic world into the unknown.

As I write and as you read, there is something bothering us. It could be anything, work, family, friends, money, colleagues or some other petty issue, but it restricts you from doing what you would have done in a free world.
May be I would have packed up, left everything behind and moved to the mountains. May be Adrian would have left all his success and taken globe-trotting. May be, you would have left that multi-million $ paying job of yours and headed to the nearby islands to enjoy the waters and make a wonderful living there. May Be?

Alas, it won’t happen. I won’t leave my comfort zone, even though I might find more happiness and mental peace in the mountains than I do here. These decisions are tough and to be frank, inconceivable for an unadventurous being like me.

But, through the eyes of Chris today, I was able to take myself far away. I was able to do things that gave me unadulterated pleasure and happiness. What can be better than a sleep with no worries? A ride down the river with no hassles of knowing which way I am headed. A life without the burden of inner guilt and self pity.
Alex took this decision, because circumstances at home pushed him towards it. Some people don’t need that push. They just head that road and live their life. Yes, they live and we (materialistic human beings), to some extent, only exist.

Alex made sure that nothing held him back. Afraid of the waters, he was soon rafting down the Colorado River into Mexico. That’s what life is all about. Face your fears, your dreams, and your desires and make sure that you at least give one shot at accomplishing them. Success would not matter, but your effort would.

Don’t we all crave for this kind of a life? Carefree, full of surprises and unseen tomorrows?

But, unfortunately, I am not brave enough to take a plunge into the pool of eternal joy. I would rather live a miserly life with a handful of happy moments and perish.

I wish some of you can take that plunge and live like Chris. Chris aka Alex Supertramp!

Big B(aggage)!

2008-07-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Unlike the frequent traveller that Mr.Big B is, I dont have a million flight trips to boast about, but I have fortunately made dozen of international travels myself. But unlucky as I am, I have never lost my luggage. Period.

Our national treasure, Mr.Big B has lost his luggage twice in a week. Now thats what you call Lucky!

Wonder if his bags have, 'I AM BIG B LUGGAGE' screaming all over it or is it 'attention grabbing, cheap publicity' stunt by Mr.Big B to garner more news coverage of his 'Unforgettable' tour???

Btw, I too lost my sticky notes today. Any idea, Mr.Big B what do I do, incase I lost stuff? You seem to have good experience at 'after-losing-stuff' experience.

Bon Voyage and Safe Luggaging!

Cheers.
Ashley

Change is permanent!

2008-07-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

So its a different look. The background has become darker, but I promise to keep the writing light and interesting.

Hope the change has a positive effect on you. One should never get enough of change, thats what I believe in.

~Good Nite

What if ....

2008-07-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

Tough times make a man strong. This incident is one of the toughest I have faced so far. It just goes to show, how cornered you can feel sometimes in life and then the unimaginable can happen and turn things around in a jiffy.

Just to keep you interested (into reading my blogs), the toughest day(s) so far were those in Infosys, when during my training period, me and my friends had an 'incident'. Some were fired, some were disciplined and some escaped scot free. This 'incident' will be covered later, for sure!!!

Yes, so the second most toughest day of my life. A day, where I cried bitterly, I gave up all hope and cursed myself to death. I must have made a million and counting mistakes till date. But, this was not a mistake, it was the blunder of the century.

I scored a decent 269/300 in my PCM (physics/chemistry/math) papers during my 12th standard. Not a score to boast about, but not a very bad score either. I had never planned what I am going to do after my 12th. I did not even know what Engineering colleges were good. No research what-so-ever. No elder siblings to guide me.

Just because all my other friends were also trying for a seat in the Engg colleges, even I gave it a shot. Now, I had no clue of how to apply and what are the various rounds that the Mumbai University conducts.

My aim was simple, apply for the tough colleges first and the last two options should be those ones where I will surely get an admission. This was what MU called the 30% quota. I did not give a damn and applied using my simple logic. 'Tough colleges first, sure shot admission in the last 2 options'.

So I sat through the night before the forms submission. Finally, at about half past 2 ( I remember the time too), I had chose the 5 elite colleges. Filled the form and kept it ready.

Next morning, my friends and I reached VJTI for form submission. Not even once did I ever discuss my choice with my friends. Of course, it was my research, my effort, I did not want someone else to take advantage of the hadrwork put in by me. That's what I thought.

I submitted my form. I was relaxed, because I knew I was going to get a seat. Wow, I will soon be an engineer. Nice!!

In a few weeks the list was out. None of my friends had got admission, but I had made it through. So this should have been my happiest day right? Why toughest day?

Well, here are the facts of that dreadful day.
I had got admission in a C grade college called S. Jondhale College of Engg, Dombivali(E).
I had got admission into the not-so-buzzing department, Mechanical Engg.

Worse things were in store for me...
The seat that I was so proud about was from the 30% quota. 70% of the seats were still open for admissions.

And yes, the clincher was that I was ineligible to apply for those 70% seats. So simply put, I was royally screwed! I was stuck in a situation and there was nothing I could do about it. It was my 'choice'.

When my friends heard that I had made it through to S.Jondhale, they would not laugh at me, but sympathize. That evening, Sumeet, one of my best friends, came over to my place in Malad.

I looked at him, he gave me a disappointing look. Inadvertently, tears started rolling down my cheeks. I had just screwed up my career. All the hard work put through my school and junior college days were futile. I had goofed up, and that too big time.

He gave me a few words of courage. But I was inconsolable by now. Weeping, I told him, "Dude, I screwed up, what I am going to do now?".

At this time, I did feel disappointed in myself but not as much as I felt bad for my parents. They had given me eveything. Everything I asked for. And they never questioned me. They have never asked me during my entire lifetime, "Why are you doing this?". They had immense trust in what I did (even today), and that gloomy evening, I had let them down. But they did not show it to me, they tried to pep me up and told me to take it easy.

It was a tough day, I must say. I did go to S.Jondhale college for 2 whole months and then stopped.

But, thanks to my parents blessings, 4 years later. I was Bachelors of Engg. in Information Technology from Mumbai University. And the college was not S.Jondhale. It was not a SPCE or VJTI kind of top notch college too, but it was a decent college by the name of Vidyavardhini's College of Engg and Technology.

Life may have been different, if I was to do Engg from S.Jondhale. Hence the 'What if....'.

Thanks to my dear Mom and Dad, things turned out well for me!!!

P.S: The change in college and branch happened due to a change in the admission rule for that year (1999) only. It was an exception year, because the new Information Technology course was added.
How lucky was I? The exception rule gave me permission to apply in the 70% quota and I made it to where I think I deserved.

Value of your life?

2008-07-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

Not E-bay my friend!
E-bay may be able to quantify the monetary value of your life, but the social value?
How important are you to someone who is not related, someone who is not your friend, someone whom you have never spoken to, someone whom you know you will never bump into again(hopefully).

How will you measure that? Tough aint it?

Well, Manish( my roomie) and I have come up with a simple solution.
So you want to know the value of your life?
Read on...

Kindly head to the nearest crosswalk or zebra crossing. Wait for the WALK signal to turn green. Then a little carefully start crossing the road.

At this particular moment, you will know how valuable your life is, to the particular society you are in.

Try this at a couple of other signals, just to confirm the results and make sure there is a consistency in the attitude of the people in the society.

I hope you got the answer!

Adios and Be Safe.
Ashley

Disclaimer:
Please be attentive during the above procedure.
Ashley/Manish are not responsible for any accidents/fatalities.

Sania Mirza, India's most over-hyped sportsperson!

2008-07-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

"Carrying the hopes of a billion people". Just woke up on this cozy sunday to read this first line on rediff and indiatimes. Infuriated, i slowly calmed down and realised that, India lacks sports heroes. Hence it is but natural for the media to focus on very mediocre talent like Sania Mirza and project her as India's only hope for a medal.

Yes, she can win a medal if, she gets byes in all her rounds and is directly into the finals. There, if there is an opponent she will get Silver, else, she 'May' win a Gold. Reason. She has this uncanny habit of coming up with weird injuries at the most inexplicable times. So in the final she might withdraw with no one to play against. It is possible!

Yes, so why is Sania Indias most over-hyped sportsperson. Lets start with my basic reasoning.

Is she a sportsperson?
NO. A sportsperson is a cut above the rest, when it comes to physical fitness. I for one, know because I have friends and family who are professional sportspersons. I dont actually track, but Miss Sania falls sick more often than a new born baby. Blame it on the WTA or tennis, it does not fly with me. And the best thing about professionals is that, the time they realise their body cant take the toll, they quit. A prime example is Martina Hingis from WTA. But, out Sania will keep blaming the shoulder, knee, head, back and all other biological parts, which I take as silly excuses to compensate for lack of talent.

Even if she is a sportsperson, is she really worth the hype?
NO. India has better sports-persons to look upto. We dont need a flopshow like Sania to follow and waste our prayers for a Olympic medal. I mean, the statistics speak for themselves, she has been a professional for more than 5 years. She has one single WTA tour victory which came at her home turf in 2005. Since then she does not really have anything to boast about.
Her serve is the most pathetic I have ever seen. Infact, even i can serve better. Atleast I am more consistent.
She has not made it past the 4th round in any grand slam, but once.
Her inconsistency is her highlight and strong point. She does not win anything, is very mediocre and is more of a sex symbol than a tennis star.

I mean, I dont mind admiring a Sachin Tendulkar, he is class, he is talent. Nor do i not admire a Dhanraj Pillay. These sportspersons brough fear into the opponents minds when on the field. Do you think, Venus Williams gets scared when Sania is on the opposite side of the net?

The most hyped statement I have ever heard in my entire lifetime was this, "Sania has the hardest forehand in womens tennis". Pardon me, but I dont remember which blind, deaf, dumb soul made this statement, but it made me giggle and laugh at the stupidity that Sania-Mania has created.

What we have today is something like this:
A big bubble. Lots of pictures of a tennis player in tennis attire. A little bit of flesh and Indian hormones go into a tizzy. Zilch tennis talent required for a champion. Let alone a champion, a decent tennis player. More Zilch athletic physique. Hype created by Indian media folks. 1 WTA title to boast about till date. 0 career games that were classics.

And we, Indians look towards this bubble in awe and hope for a medal?

Dont bullshit me. Try someone else. Indiatimes and Rediff, go and hunt some better stories to publish. This is stale and crap buddy!

Cheers,
Ashley

Fire Exit? Where?

2008-07-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

It baffled me for almost 2.5 years. And yesterday it stunned me. India's so-called most admired company had a minor fire incident. 25-30 people were hospitalised. Luckily there were no fatalities.

But, sooner or later, one day someone will pay. The reason I say this is because of this weird system that Infosys has. It locks all the FIRE EXITS after 10:00 PM.

I never really cared to ask 'WHY', but it felt plain stupid to me. The reasoning I would like to put forward:
1.Like in all IT companies, there is always a sizeable IT junta working late hours. Blame this on the timezone or work pressure, I dont really care, but yes, there are quite a few people working their ass off and the last thing they have to worry about is whether the Fire Exit is locked or unlocked?
2. One cannot really predict when there would be a blaze. Can we? Parallely, we cannot predict the number of folks working late nights. So it is very possible that we have almost a complete floor working late night and the deligent security guy happily locks the Fire Exit, knowing as if there will NEVER be a fire that night.

The B10 building that caught fire was attached to the B11 building where i worked for almost 2 years. And this Fire Exit locking business happened all along. I am very sure, even yesterday the case must have been the same.

We are lucky enough not to have lost any Infoscion, but what we should really do is learn and keep the Fire Exits open all the time. The people who make the rules will never be in office till 11 PM, it is only the security folks and software developers like me that will be at risk. So time to consider and make a slight change.

Here is a link to the incident.

Trippin in Vegas!

2008-07-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

Firstly, a big thanks to my friend, Vishal Kalsi. He made my trip to vegas unforgettable. We met after 3 long years, had a couple of drinks together, discussed old times, gambled and had a mini bachelor party!!! But, it was absolutely fantabulous.

So, back to trip. Yes, 1500+ miles of sitting in the car, the heat of Nevada and Arizona and the heartache of losing 300 $, worth it ? Of course yes. Hell Ya!

The highlight of the trip was the gambling session at 'The Mirage'. The three of us, Kalsi, me and Sumeet were hell bent on making some quick buck. Now, Sumeet is a friend of Kalsi's. He is an absolute dude. I met him for the first time. And by the time it was 5 AM, i felt I knew this guy since childhood. The 3 of us were just killing it in Vegas.

Yes, so we are at 'The Mirage'. None of us had played 'BlackJack' before. Sumeet, called a friend of us and got a high level understanding of what the game is about and tried to explain to Kalsi and Me. Smart ass that we are, we said 'Ok, why dont you try, we will follow!'.

The sport that Sumeet was, he willingly picked a table to rest his ass for the night. Nancy was the dealer. A grandmother kinda woman, very enthusiastic and would mumble.. "Son of a ...", whenever she would get a BlackJack!

For most of the evening, she wanted the three of us to win and become millionaires. But as fate had it, Kalsi and I lost.

Ok, so Sumeet sits on the table and tells Nancy, "I am playing for the first time, can you please explain some rules". She happily explains that the others at the table are novices too and she would be more than glad to assist.

So Sumeet starts with a 100$ bill. The aim of blackjack as i understood that time, was to have cards that summed closest to 21. If you get 21 in 2 cards, then you basically have a 'Blackjack'. The payment in this case is not even but 3:2.

In the meanwhile as I stand there to understand the game, Sumeet has suddenly made about 50 $. I am like, 'WOW'. This guy did not even know how to play and is not making big bucks. So, your truly, jumped into the arena.

Got out some change and sat. Did not understand one bit of what was happening. Nancy, was helpful though. She would tell me whether I should hit or stay. Suddenly, even I started to make some money. As it happens, you win for sometime, then you start losing and it goes on and on and on.

But, what does not happen frequently is what happened to Sumeet. As I told you, getting a 21 is a 'Blackjack' or a 'Natural'.
So a 'A' (Ace) card is 11 and any other face card (Jack, Queen, King) or 10 is 10 points. So for a blackjack one needs a 'Ace' and a 10 point card.

After, about 4 Long Island Ice tea's tripped, Sumeet got 2 'Ace' cards. He decided to split the cards. Split would mean, play those 'Ace' cards are individual games. So he added more cash and played on. His third card was astonishingly another 'Ace'. So he decided to split that card too.

So now, Sumeet is basically playing 3 games. And all 3 have a slight probability of being 'BlackJack(s)'.

So Nancy, draws the fourth card for Sumeet. Please forgive my memory, but thanks to the LIIT, i dont remember whether it was a face card or a 10. But yes, he got 10. So he had one blackjack.

Kalsi, Me and another friend who joined us gave high fives and let out a small yell.

Nancy, drew the fifth card for Sumeet, it too was 10. 'Man this is crazy shit happening' I said. The yelling got louder. The high fives got harder and higher. We were enjoin this. 'Can Sumeet get a third BlackJack? Is it possible? I would get like 1 blackjack in 4 games. And here he was, a possibility to get 3 blackjacks in 1 game.'

So Nancy, drew the 6th card. And all hell broke loose. It was a another freaking 10.
We screamt like crazy. The entire bay would look at us. We stood, gave high fives!! I looked at the cards and it was amazing.

It was improbable that something like this would have happened. But it did. And it was rocking!!! Nancy, kept repeating 'I have not seen that in a long long time'. She was in her fifties. 'Her long time would have meant a real long time', I thought.

Sumeet, made about 75 $ in that single game. But money was irrelevant. It was the fun, enjoiment, thrill, excitement that hit us.

Soon, I lost about 200 $ and Kalsi about 160 $. We decided to stop. Sumeet, cashed out too. When at the finish line(losing money), 2 of my ex-college friends came to our table. 'Ashley!', one said. I wondered, who knew me in Vegas. Chandan and Sameep, 2 friends whom I had not met for quite sometime, were in Vegas too. Had a word or two with them and then the 3 of us left 'The Mirage'.

I was leaving for Phoenix the next morning. I would have loved to stay with these guys and enjoy one more gambling guzzle, but things were not to be that way.

To be frank, I was playing Blackjack for the first time. I dont know how frequently does a player get 3 'Blackjack's in one game, but it for sure is a thrill feeling.

Hope to make some money the next time I am in Vegas. What I do take from the last trip are good memories and the below picture of Kalsi and Sumeet.

Cheers and Love,
Ashley

Long Weekend!

2008-06-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

So its Independence day! It time for the real Will Smith to please stand up, Please stand up. But I am too excited about my trip to Las Vegas rather than worry about Hancock.

After approx 6 months that I made a trip to Phuket, I find myself lucky enough to make it to another tourist hotspot. Sin City, here I come.

Reconciliation, is something that I will do once I am back from Vegas.

My trip to phuket was one big party. Prasanna, Vikram, Satya and Me had a rocking time. One of the best part about that trip was that we managed to find an Indian hotel in Phuket. So it meant, chicken tandoori and paneer tikka as starters with our drinks. One more amusing fact was that we had booked 3 rooms between 7 of us. But we ended up with 6 sleeping in one room and 1 happy soul in the other. Blame it on the vodka or luck, but it was a funny incident. We enjoied every bit of that trip. There are no pictures (thank God), but memories a plenty. Nikhil, Amar and Kunal also were along. I am sure, we all carry fond memories and unforgettable incidents to remember all our lifetime.

One incident being, how we kept smuggling beer into the Banana club from the 7-11 outisde. So drunk, we lost count after 6 or 7 beers and kept doing it again and again and again.

Best part about that trip, I did not puke.

So on thursday, I leave for Vegas. Heard so much about it. Now its time to feel the heat. Vegas Baby, here i come!

Driver, Cleaner behind bars...

2008-06-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

All these years, I was only a entertained spectator to the nuisances of the police force. But it all changed that cold evening in Ratnagiri. Sitting in that bus, the police would firstly not let us alight from the bus. They had their own reasons, which were not only plain stupid but ridiculous. The assemblage in the bus was that of people headed to bombay to meet family, leave for better jobs or just head home like me.After making us sit in the bus for almost 1 hour and no communication as to why we were under bus-arrest, a wasted hawaldar entered the bus with a notepad and pen. He started doing the unthinkable. He wanted to note down every single individuals name and address. 'Ohh my God' I thought. Instead of booking the goon and getting things settled fast, all our police can think is spend time like this. Of course, not a single soul in the bus gave a correct name or address. That itself speaks for the intergrity of the police. No one trusts them, but their larger than life ego would not bear understand that. So our wasted hawaldar started to make a fictional list of people sitting in the bus. It was hilarious to watch people give the weirdest of names and even more funny places of stay. I played the game too and gave a fake address and name.

In the meanwhile, i was looking out from the window of the bus and noticed that the police took the driver and cleaner somewhere outside the station. I presumed it must have been for a medical check up, because the driver was hurt. Our super slow hawaldar took like an hour to note down the names. Once down he told us that we could now alight the bus, but not leave the station. It was almost 3 AM now. I was supposed to have been home by 6:30!!

I alighted the bus, and came out on the road. It was pitch dark, some vehicles passed intermittently. No sign of life here. So i went back to police station and took a peak of what was happening. The scene was something like this. The goon and his wife sat at a table and narrated some story to another hawaldar. He furiously took down notes, as he ate his pan in the meanwhile. Soon I seen the driver and cleaner returning and they seemed shaken. Not shaken because of the bullet that just grazed them, but because of what was happening. So I followed them to the police station and kept my ears wide open.

In the meanwhile, a white maruti 800 arrived. A white dhoti adoring gentleman alighted, went straight to the senior inspector and had a intense discussion. He seemed to be some kind of a local corporator or neta of the area.

Ignoring him, I noticed the goon was now near his car. I wondered, was'nt he supposed to be near the jail cell. He did fire, did'nt he. But who was the near jail cell were the driver and cleaner. Things did not look right. Not at all.

Simultaneously, some people in the bus, with whom i had managed to make friends with, came upto to me and told me that they were leaving. One of them had an ailing mother back home and the other had a flight at 3:00 PM to catch to head to the gulf. I decided my staying there was of absolutely no use so I too was game.

Now the question was, can we just leave because the hawaldar had asked us specifically not to leave. We decided to screw the police and leave. The next biggest question was how? Of couse, only 1 option. Hitch a ride. So we headed for the road and started using our thumbs to get a lift back to bombay.

I took a break from the lift asking and came back to the police station. The scene is still clear to me. It has since shaken my confidence in the entire system. The driver and cleaner were INSIDE the lockup. The goon was OUTSIDE the lockup and readying to leave with his family.

There was a man, from the bus who was standing and following the entire episode. He did not seem to have anything important to do tomorrow( I think). I asked him what happened. He told me that the cops have charged the driver and cleaner for molestation and drinking and driving. The goon has been allowed to leave.
Molestation? When did this happen? He told me that the goon's wife lodged a complaint that the driver and cleaner tried to molest her and hence her husband fired upon the two. So he is innocent and our driver and cleaner are guilty. The scene inside the police station was appalling. Our driver was an innocent guy. He was almost in tears. His lip was bleeding and eyes were moist. I felt empty. The goon, happily light another cigarette and smoked away to glory. I quickly ran back to the road, I could not watch that scene. It made my hysterical. If i had a bomb or a gun, I would have killed that day.

In another 40 minutes we got hold of a brand new TATA bus headed to bombay for a test drive. It would have dropped us at Vashi. I was ok. Took my bag quickly, and boarded the bus. He charged us 120 Rs till Vashi. The bus ride started at like 4:30 Am and seemed one of the longest of my life. I did think of calling the Press and reporting the incident to them, but do you think anything would have happened.

So i just forgot about it. Prayed for the families of the driver and cleaner and carried on.

Today, I realise that incident was not funny, It was life changing. It changed many lives. The driver, the cleaner, the goon, many folks in the bus and to quite an extent mine too.

And we head to Ratnagiri police station!

2008-06-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

So, still upset that I will be late to reach home, i got down. 11:30, wow, its getting late i thought. The scene was something like this. The goon, had moved his car onto the highway. He stood near his car, collar up, gun in tow and wife besides him. He had a small kiddo, who was inside the car. The entire junta of our bus had come down by now. They stood abt 50 mts away from the goon. The owner of the hotel, where our bus had halted for dinner, happened to be a good samaritan. He called the cops, gave ice to the driver and assured that he knew the DCP of the region and would surely help us. What was amazing at this time was the confidence and self-belief that the goon oozed with. But, then I realised, if you have the balls to pull the trigger for such a petty reason, you have the balls to face the 2 penny cops who were on their way.

So the nearest cop station was Ratnagiri. The cops came about 25 minutes later. Typical of what I have seen in movies, a Jeep arrives. 3 or 4 police folks come out. The first thing they do is treat the common man (like me) as a criminal and shoo us away. So the goon, walks with his confident guile towards the police. There was a small cabin, much like the watchmans cabin we have in societies. It was a little bigger though. We stood outside, listening to the conversation. I will put down the converstation in English, because my Marathi is not bad, it is pathetic. Of course, I can understand, but when it comes to writing and talking, I suck.

Police: So what happened?
Goon: Nothing, they burshed my car.
P: And?
G: And what, nothing, they were acting smart, esp the driver and cleaner.
P: So?
G: So, I had no alternative and I used my revolver.
P: Where is the weapon?

The goon placed the gun on the table. It was this sweet looking, silver coloured, shining weapon. Caught my attention immediately.

P: Where is the license?
G: I dont have license for the weapon?
P: So, what do you do?
G: I am a Judge.

Judge, I was like, errrrr. Not even laywer, he is a Judge. This is a twist. But i assumed, may be in this village, the judges are like this. Ignoring the questions running in my head, i presumed he was saying the truth.
The cops removed the cartridge out of the weapon and placed it on the table.

The goon, had all this while, been on his cell phone. I was sure, he was pulling some high strings and soon, the scene was to change.

In the meanwhile, the corrput cops came to the common man. i.e The Driver, Cleaner and owner of the restaurant. They asked what happened, took our side of the story. Spoke to a couple of people in the bus and went back into the cabin.

Another half an hour later, another jeep arrived. By now it was already past mid-night and I was getting restless. These were precious minutes we were losing here. All cops gave a salute. I put all my concentration to hear and see what was going on. DCP Joseph had arrived. Freaking catholic corrupt cop!!! His arrival itself was with him on a call. He came, pulled his cheap troupe into a huddle, they discussed something and he went into the cabin. He repeated the questioning.

Joseph: So who are you?
Goon: I am a doctor!

I was like, WTF, he was a judge, now a doctor, wat is wrong here?
J: So why did you shoot?
G: They hit my car.

In the meanwhile, DCP Joseph got another call. He came outside the cabin to take it. Much like how I come outside my office to take Lourdes's call. Simple, when the boss calls, you got to leave the public area. You never know when the firing will start. :)

So DCP nodded his head furiously for 3 minutes. He called one of the colleagues outside the cabin and looked like he was crying. His job was on the line. Typical hindi picture eh?

The DCP calls the driver and cleaner and says this:
"Mandavli kara na" (Do a compromise) "Kashasati tension gethe, jassth lagla nahin na" (Why take tension, you have not been seriously hurt, right?).

I was numb. I knew, the goon had pulled some high strings and this was a result. The smart chaps that my driver and cleaner were, instead of understanding that they were in the wrong battle, they decide against it.

Please Note: This is where the biggest mistake is made. At his point, if we had entered the bus and left, life would have been better for all. The driver would have had a small bruise. We would have been 3 hours or so late. The cops would not have to taken any more tension. The goon and his family would have been happily hunting for some other poor soul to shoot at.

But, alas, it was not to be. Our dear Driver and Cleaner decide to register a case against the goon and insist on going to the police station. The police try their best to make the 2 guys understand, but along with those 2 fools there were another 5-8 smart azz men in the bus who kept saying, "Nahi, Nahi, Police station chala, case thokwa" (No, No, lets go to the police station, register a case).

Ok, so at 12:30 odd, the entire bus load of people head backwards toward Goa, to Ratnagiri police station.

In the bus, I kept thinking, should I have left this bus and boarded another one, which had come for a dinner stop? May be it would have been a better choice. Or may be justice will be served and the goon be punished. I prayed the goon was taught a lesson.

So at around 1 AM, we reached Ratnagiri police station. Dimly lit, in the middle of no where. Looked like a police station on Mars to me. Only diff, Mars has water, this police station did not have.

So things have started to get worse. I have started to get irritated. People have become restless. All you want now is interation with the most wasteful people servicing the country. The police force.

The next part, tomorrow for sure. Things have just gotten worse. The unimaginable is yet to happen.

Good Luck,
Ashley

Can savages ever be civilized?

2008-06-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Life is unpredictable, and more so when people around you are just baying for each others blood. We all have this pre-concieved notion that street fights and community battles are between 2 different communities. Ludicrous as it may sound, but all these barriers were broken today when Sikhs started fighting amongst themselves.

Result? 1 boy dead, trains stopped, buses attacked on, common man (as always) has to suffer and so on and so forth. Again, there will be an enquiry, some people will be arrested, then released on bail. Those folks will never attend a hearing again. The case will go on for another 20 years. Then one fine day, a fire will break out in the room where all the case papers are kept and wooof, everything is smoke!!!!

Am I Bejan Daruwala, to have predicted all this. NO, I am an Indian!!! I know how the system works. I've seen it, like many of you, I have had at some point interacted with the system, and may I dare say, it is sickening.

I know quite a few of my friends, who question me. Why do I bash my country so much? Well, to all those folks out there, here is a humble confession. There have been thousands of petty reasons, which have accrued and had this ever lasting impact on me. But there are 2 distinct, disturbing incidents that have changed me forever.

The first one was when I was on a trip back from Goa somewhere in 2005. Heading to Bombay, the bus stopped for a dinner break some small place about 20 KMs from Ratnagiri. It was 10 PM or so when the bus took the scheduled halt. I did not eat much, just took a packet of peppy i remember. All folks boarded the bus and we were ready to leave. As per my estimate, we were going to touch base at 6:30 AM. So it was a quick nap and then home. Just as the bus moved, we heard a 'boom'. At first, like others even I thought it was a flat tyre. I cursed my luck that we would be later by another hour or so. Then i looked out from my window and seen that a huge guy, about 6'4 feet, well built, dark in colour (whom i will henceforth call GOON) got his hands on our driver and pulled him out. He kicked him mercilessly, until a crowd gathered and pulled the driver out. The driver was bleeding. Soon, I seen a gun in his hand. Just a reminder here, this is not a fake story or some mythological flashback, this is reality TV. He pointed the gun at the driver and cleaner and taunted them to come forward. A woman, who seemed like the goons wife, came toward the goon and pulled him away.

Soon, the picture was clear. As we were about to leave, this goon, who was travelling in a white maruti 800 also was leaving. He seen that he had a bump on his car. He did not know who did it, but as our bus was leaving, he assumed our driver was the culprit and decided to take action. And you may ask Action = ?

Yes, my friend. Action = Take a gun. Aim. Shoot.

He did that, the bullet had entered the bus, grazed our drivers lip and lie near the enterance of the bus. Suddenly I felt, is this bihar or what? So there we were, 11:15 PM, bus has stopped, people shocked. The worst part was yet to come.

I will write more tomorrow, but believe me, you are not going to freaking imagine what happened next...

Till then, be safe and God bless...

Want Inspiration?

2008-06-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been a treat for sports fan across the world. It just leaves me flummoxed and gaping in astonishment the commitment, energy, mental-strength and belief that the world best sportspersons get/bring. Let me start with tennis. Mr.Fed-Ex, has been trying extra-ordinarily hard to win the ever-elusive French Open. He lost the past 2 finals to Nadal and was hoping to be third time lucky. I myself have been rooting for him to win the French Open. But, that was not meant to be. The stupefying ease with which Nadal brushed aside Federer was remarkable. I did not expect it, not even Federer's harshest critic must have. But thats what Nadal was all about. He played almost flawless clay court tennis. Federer had no answer and just had to admit the fact that on court, "Nadal is King".

More recently, there was a baseball game. NY Yankees, 7-8 down. 2 outs and 2 strikes for Jason Giambi. And what does Giambi do?? You guessed right, a home run!! Yankees, score 2 and win 9-8. Isnt this stuff supposed to happen on TV only? Fairy tale stuff isnt it?

The you have the legendary, Tiger Woods. Trails all week in the US Open. Finally it all comes down to one single putt. 12 feet, drop it or drop out. Champions like this kind of challenges and they deliver, dont they. Tiger like the many times before did. He sunk the ball into the hole and tied for the lead. This meant, another 18 holes for the play-off to decide the champion. And what happens next day. Same story. After exchanging leads for the last 17 holes, it boils down to this. Tiger is 1 shot behind Rocco going into the final hole. At this moment, most if not all sport guys would have quit. A hurting knee, a weekend full of tough shots and tense putts. Who needs more of this? Tiger does!! He makes up that one shot on the final hole and we head to a sudden death. Tiger wraps up the US Open Championship on the first hole itself. No doubt this guy is the worlds most paid athelete. I mean, he even has his own freaking Gatorade!!!! Champion Tiger, we salute you.

Add to this, the performance of the Italian Football team and the Boston Celtics and we know why these guys are given so much respect and adoration around the world. The money they make is absolutely worth the talent and effort these guys put in so that they can entertain us and show us new levels of performance. Beating the lakers, or rather, thrashing the lakers in game 6 was no easy feat. Lakers had demolished almost all the teams en route to the finals. They did lose a couple on the way, but today, they were smashed! The big 3, Allen, KG and Pierce alongside Rondo were all over the lakers, and their desire to win, was overwhelming. Beating the lakers anyday is a tough task, beating them by a margin of more than 35 points, is unimaginable.

A hurting knee (Tiger), a non-favorite surface (Federer & clay), a massive opponent (lakers for the celtics) dont stop champions. They only make them more grittier. They wont whine, they wont make excuses. All they do is go out there and perform. And perform so damn beautifully that you stand and clap. Not always do they win (ask Federer), but their desire, appetite, self-belief and out-of-this-world performance makes humble beings like me realise that sports is indeed the best way to get inspired. Just when I think I am recovering from the Tigeresque performance, we have the quarter finals coming up. More moments of inspiration, more glorious moments to treasure and epic battles to cherish.

Ballack, we look forward to another wonder goal soon!!!!

Boom... and so the dal flew..

2008-06-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it was not exactly a loud, ear-drum bursting boom, but was a suprise for sure. And a surprise that I neither asked for, nor was called for. 8 something in the evening and I was all worked up about making dal. Asked my pal Manish if he would help me prepare dal using his out-of-this-world receipe. He agreed and I was on my way.

Put dal into the cooker and then the cooker on the gas, and started to cut onions, tomatoes and chilli. 2 whistles, Manish said. I turned the gas off after 2 whistles. Took another 5 odd minutes to finish the cutting.

Gave a call to Manish and he came to help me continue. He came to the kitchen and opened the cooker.

BOOM! The DAL exploded... did not understand what really happened!!! First thing i asked was whether Manish was burnt with the hot dal. Luckily, he did not go face first into the dal, like how yours truly would have done, so he was not doing bad. Just that the hot dal left some minor bruises on him and me. I hardly had a burn, but was acting as if I almost lost my life in that accident!!!

The kitchen was smashed. Dal was all over the place. Microwave, stove, cabinets, vessels.. you name anything in the kitchen and it had Dal over it.

So an unscheduled kitchen cleaning started. Manish and I got to work. Poor chap, he was only supposed to have guided me, but ended up cleaning the mess and even making the dal.

All cleaning done, he made a delicious dinner for us. All's well that ends well in the stomach!!

Thank God, the BOOM did not injure anyone.

Soft governance = Poor governance!!

2008-06-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

My friend Vishal Kalsi remarked the other day, "Isnt Malaysia not safe for Hindus?" I said, it is quite a safe place to live in. Infact during my stay there I must have hardly felt that I am in a state where 60% and more of the population follows Islam. Also, to add to the ironic situation, Sawan and I can vouch that we felt more mistreated by the tamilian folks in Malaysia. Especially the cab drivers who even wanted to pick a fight with Sawan and Me. I even told Vishal the reason why this mis-conception that MY is unsafe. It basically is a derivative of the arrests of the 5 Hindraf members for their alledged role in taking out a rally in KL. I am sure, it has a whole lot more to do, but what I would like to learn from that scenario is the direction the people in power take to overcome such a situation. There are only 2 options, aren't they? One, allow the assembly to take place and leave the rest to God or, show who is in control and make sure a democratic and systematic process is followed to address all issues.

The Malaysian government follows option number 2. It makes them look, anti-democratic, anti-social and a whole lot of other things. But, let us take a step back and look what happens when you allow the 'Junta' the freedom of assembly. Day-In and Day-out we read of riots, attacks on police, burning of vehicles, injuries to unsuspecting public and so on.

This is exactly what happens in my country. Not US, I am talking about India. Period. :)
But what I read today was disturbing for 2 reasons. One being that the place in questions was just visited by my parents less than a month ago. It gives me shivers to wonder what if my parents where still there, in the midst of the chaos. And secondly, the balant disregard for the law of the land. Let alone the law of the land, the audacity of the people to take on the people governing them and their threats to not only the administration but the public in general is deplorable.
The incident I am referring to is regarding the attack on tourists in Darjeeling, Siliguri and Gangtok. To be frank, I dont even know and dont give a f*** about why those morons are agitating. But what attracts my attention is the below statements made by one smart 'Gorkha Janamukti Morcha'. It seems, and I quote from the Times of India, GJM president Bimal Gurung had warned people at a meeting at Chowrasta to “get ready for the final battle’’. He said, “The (60-hour) relaxation has been given for people to stock up essentials. But there will be no more relaxation and the agitation will beintensified.’’ The deadline expires at 6 am on Saturday. Unquote.

A few simple questions that beg to be asked, also an opinion interposed:
1. Who the hell do these people think they are to take law into their own hands.
2. They need a separate Nepali speaking state, I say even better, get those pricks out of the country, take your shit and make your own country. Dont embaress our nation in front of the world.
3. Does the goverment(state or central) not have enough power to even curb the violent instincts of this small cadre of nepalis. I mean, we all know Nandigram happened because the entire Bengal went crazy, but atleast dont let people repeat the violence.

It is indeed shameful, that these incidents will keep happening and nothing can be done about it.

Vishal, if you are reading, this is the reason i say Malaysia is more safe than India. They wont allow a crowd to gather. Reason, its always better to be safe than sorry. And also, democracy is not about violence, it is a philosophy that was built to scratch violence and bring peace around us.

So much for screaming that we have the worlds biggest democracy.

A pic of a tourist stranded in Siliguri.

P.S: This is just one incident, everyday in our country there are 1000's of such incidents and we choose to ignore. it only hits us when we are victims. But then, that day it will be too late to even react and understand what the hell hit you and your family. Till then, be safe and pray hard!!!

Waiting for an answer... Any Infoscion around?

2008-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Infosys, the brand that puts values first and everything else second. True, most other companies would not dare take some steps that Infosys takes to maintain the tradition of 'Drive by values'. It is a proud feeling to be called an Infoscion. Yea, an ex-Infoscion is also pretty kewl. I spent 4 long years there, but when I left, I just had 1 question to ask.

This post is in no means to tell bad things about my ex-work place. Hell NO. I am a proud ex-infoscion. I loved my time there and it has given me unimaginable experience.

The question was:-

"Why is ICICI Direct not banned in office?". For those souls who dont know ICICI Direct, its a site that is used as an interface for share trading. Infosys somewhere in 2006 started getting serious about taking steps to track and correct the productivity of the resources.

This period also happened to see 2 thing, one was the sudden influx of employees (mostly fresh from college) and the two the meteoric rise of orkut, as a social networking site. So, someone in Infosys must have done some research and realised that orkut is dangerous. Dangerous from 2 perspectives, 1 it hurts the productivity of the employees and 2 it is a gateway of viruses. So orkut was banned. But still, smart software engg's that we are, we found proxy sites to access orkut. It meant, more risk involved(by accessing the proxy sites) and more productivity hit, because now we spent time on research too!!! Talk abt the plan backfiring. :)

But overall it must have been a success, or that is what Infosys would like to think. But then recently they even banned gmail. Reason: Productivity loss.

My question is, why is ICICI Direct not banned. Dont the managers see that their senior managers are glued to that site for atleast some time of the day. Isnt that taking a hit at the productivity in some way? Why different yard sticks for a poort software engineer and different for a Senior Manager? We should have an 'All Equal' policy should'nt we?

Secondly, if i understand correctly, money earned through share trading is a source of income. Hence we need to pay taxes on that money isnt it? I would like someone more technically robust in finance to correct/boost me here. But ill take the assumption based on my personal experience. So technically, you are earning money while at work in Infosys. Which is ethically wrong, isnt it? So even if you out aside the productivity question, 'Driven by values' clause should have got ICICI Direct banned? Logical right?

But no, that will never happen in Infosys. Reason: The people who make policies cant really axe their own feet. Can they?

Answers any Infoscions? I would like responses here...

PHL- Re-birth, Re-engineered, Re-energized!

2008-06-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

IPL, wow, what a nice way for me to be a Mumbai supporter.
"My MI", screams the gmail status of one of my friends. So on and so forth.

You know what I tell these people. PHL was first. PHL arrived in 2005. It gave you Maratha Warriors. A bunch of home grown Mumbai + Maharashtra lads who slogged their bloody asses on the field for glory. And that time, not one of you freaking so-called Mumbai fans even cared. Today, when Mr.Ambani spends XXX Million $, suddenly the Mumbaikar in you has risen? The irony, most of the players palying for MI are not even from Maharshtra. Infact, loyalty is a big Zilch. How much of Mumbai-giri did you see in those 11 players. Ok, leave Sachin, but the rest? How much?

I know how much of a Mumbai-kar Girish Pimpale, Viren Rasqhuinha, Dhananjay Mahadik or Adrian D'souza is!!! But did anyone really stand up and support those guys? Did Maratha Warriors not appeal to you, just because it did not have scantily clad cheerleaders? Or was it because there was no Preity Zinta hugging and kissing Viren/Adrian after a game.

But today I have a dream. A dream to see Indian Hockey touch new heights. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Only if the new hockey management can see the light. I can see it. I can feel the vibes. I can hell, even visualize the PHL next year. It is gonna rock your world guys!!!

Picture this:
Maratha Warriors: Home Stadium: Mumbai
Chandigarh Dynamos: Home Stadium: Chandigarh
Bangalore Lions: Home Stadium: Bangalore
Hyderabad Sultans: Home Stadium: Hyderabad
Chennai Veerans: Home Stadium: Chennai
Sher-E-Jalandhar: Home Stadium: Jalandhar
Orissa Steelers: Home Stadium: Rourkela

Friends, you know what is one major difference between Hockey and any other sport in India. Even cricket is part of the other sports comparison. The passionate fans that hockey has will never be found in any sport in India. Hockey is special to India, just how Kashmir is special to us. Hockey has been through hell, but I still know people who love the game the same way they did since day 1. There are fans who follow each and every hockey tournament and even the players. Sometimes, the fans know more about my brother than I do. But that is hockey. It has a place in every Indians heart. It is not just our national sport, it had etched a place in history for us. Indian hockey supporters have seen the team free fall into a vaccum, but as I look at it, there is a change coming. A change in regime may actually trigger a turn around for the better. I am sure, if we auction the 7 teams above, let alone the Indian corporate people, NRI's (who are wonderful Hockey fans) from USA, Canada, Britain who are passionate hockey fans will want a piece of the pie.

Ok, So we have 7 teams. These 7 teams have good stadiums. With a couple of them worth of holding an internation match also. Most of the stadiums have facility to play a day-night game. Wont it be as interesting as IPL? Wont that so-called junoon burn inside you. Infact, hockey is more aggressive, more entertaining. It can even leave you breathless. Action from one end of the field to another. WOW! It has already got me excited. :)

So all we need now is the right direction. Even though hockey should get credit for the ICL or IPL invention, we dont care. What we care about is the well-being of the sport. People should be able to recognise hockey with players like Gurbaj Singh, Sandeep Singh, Adrian D'souza, Bimal Lakra. But a sad reality is, hockey still is Dhanraj Pillai.

Ironically he played his last game for India, almost 4 years ago in August. But thanks to the wonderful print/video media, DP is still hockey to all Indians.

Looking forward to write more in how to make PHL a better and robust product.

Pre-Deluge!!

2008-06-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

Pictures speak a thousand words! The picture below is taken from the Times of India.
Place: Juhu, Mumbai.
Time: Around 1 PM on 5th June 2008.

The reason for the flooding was the high tide. Not a single drop of rain and look what happens? I wonder if we were Malaysia, a tropical forest region with rain predicted almost everyday....

Firstly, it rains anytime, and once it rains its no longer a rain, its a thunderstorm. Mumbai would have already become extinct.

Btw, I am sure, pretty sure that in the coming few days I will be able to share with you pictures with more of water and even less of land. Thanks to the hard(ly) working people who govern and maintain our city, we are blessed to retain so much water! Unfortunately, it is retained on the roads, railway tracks, housing compounds and everywhere but where it really should have...

So pre-deluge is over and done with... lets see what we have in store this monsoon season..

Met Dept, any predictions?

Albeit late.. petrol prices up..

2008-06-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

We did not hike oil prices even though the global prices have more than doubled since the last hike. But finally, the inevitable has happened...

Some crude info...

"Petrol and diesel prices were last raised in February when the Indian basket of crude oil was at 67 dollars per barrel. Today it is at 124 dollars per barrel. "

courtesy: Economic Times.

So the late-night drive will cost u 5 bukz more per litre.. some food for thought ...

The Inflation is going to be in double digits? Thats supposed to be good isnt it? India shining...???

And the icing on the cake would be you getting a 12% hike!!! voila.. its a receipe for a lifetime isnt it?

Professionalism exemplified...

2008-06-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

The wordweb definition of Professionalism goes as 'The expertness characteristic of a professional person'. Not too complicated to infer the meaning and apply it to our everyday lives. So, when someone says that, he is a IT Professional, it means he is expert in the IT field and in the given field/realm, he would behave in a responsible and mature manner. Bringing shame/disrespect of any kind to the organisation or the professional community of which you are part of, can result in adverse reactions and follow ups.

Mind you, the act because of which your organisation may take action might not be directly linked to your professional misdemeanor. I for one, am of a personal opinion that there should be some leverage to all professionals, in every walk of life. Quantifying this leverage is open to debate and has to be taken on a case to case basis. Coming from an IT background, we all know that as professionals we are supposed to be working on our respective projects for around 8 hours a day, pack up and leave. But are we being thorough professionals? From my experience in the past 4 years or so, may be 10% of the entire lot are thorough professionals, or even less. But, many of us, at some point of the day do check our personal emails, do read the news sites, check our bank accounts, the share market or even chat with friends and family. But there has to be a line somewhere, isnt it? This is where, the organisation employing the professional comes into the picture.

In the internet era, where communication is just a click away, there is always a threat of some employee bringing bad reputation by not behaving professionally and more importantly irresonposibly.

And yes, there are these kind of people everywhere, in every walk of life in every profession. The political sphere has ample people that we can look up as examples!! More realistically, we must be knowing someone who was punished for his erroneous behaviour and given a diktat of some form or the other. In sports, we have all seen players punished for being un-professinal. This behaviour may not necessarily be on the field. Even off the field events are taken seriously and players reprimanded more often than not. Let is be Andrew Flintoff (drunk and floating in water) or Zizou (head butting), all have faced the wrath at some point or the other.

But today, when I read, Mr.Aisf's story on the web, I realised one thing. For long, Ive always had my doubts about cricket being a clean game. For all those who prefer to live in the bubble, please do so. But deep down, every single person who hs followed cricket and is following it know, it was tainted, is tainted and always will be. There are truckload of reasons, I can write another 2 complete days and I still will not be done. But, Mr.Asif, a professional cricketer, who played in the PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE, IPL, is carrying with him some 'Hakeem' given substance in his wallet. He is caught at the airport and he says he does not know what it is made of. I mean, for heavens sake, you are a bloody professional player. Every substance you carry, consume, inhale, drink matters! May be not in cricket, but in most other sports. Sometimes you get away, but sooner or later your luck is gonna run out. It is during this bad hour that the 'fake' sport called cricket comes to the rescude and cleanses the offenders of all their sins. To add to the mess, this same player was cleared of all DRUG charges after his blood sample tested positive during a dope test. Why he was cleared, how it happened are questions no one really has answers to? To be frank, cricket fans dont really care. Do they? Another bright example of unprofessionalism in the sport is the sudden dropping of the ban of one Mr.Shoaib Akhtar. We all know why this was done, the Badshah from Bandra pulled the strings!!! This guy, has done everything that a HUMAN being should not do. Let alone a professional sportsperson, but his conduct puts a 3 year to shame... But, the professional sport that cricket is, Mr.Akhtar gets another chance to beat someone ohhh.. that was Mr.Asif was'nt it??? One big mess ... i call it cricket!

P.S: Please note, my writing is based on cricket, because all i get to read online on Indian news sites is based on this 'fake' professional sport called cricket.

Do it Anyway- Mother Teresa

2008-06-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, at Church, the priest recited, the most beautiful sermon, ive ever come across yet. It was about how we should do good to everyone around us. I (and may be even you) many times assume that by just visiting the church, I will be welcome by the almighty. But NO, what is more important is that we be good human beings. We love each and everyone around us.

Below are a few lines present on a wall in the Childrens Home in Kolkotta, where Mother Teresa spent her most wonderful years.

Do It Anyway

People are unreasonable,
illogical, and self-centered,

LOVE THEM ANYWAY

If you do good, people will
accuse you of selfish,
ulterior motives,

DO GOOD ANYWAY

If you are successful, you win
false friends and true enemies,

SUCCEED ANYWAY

The good you do will
be forgotten tomorrow,

DO GOOD ANYWAY

Honesty and frankness
make you vulnerable,

BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY

What you spent years building
may be destroyed overnight,

BUILD ANYWAY

People really need help but
may attack you if you help them,

HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY

Give the world the best you
have and you'll get kicked
in the teeth,

GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

I am sure some of you might have heard/seen these inspirational words before, but I thought it would be nice to still share them.

Truly Madly Deeply

2008-06-01T14:05:00.001-07:00

'I want to stand with you on the mountain.. I want to bathe with you in the sea.....", melodiously humming the tune in my head, i prayed. I prayed for Gautam's family and friends to change their mind. I am singer for whom you would not even spend 1 penny to listen too... And here I was, caught in the midst of this hooplah... people wanting to listen to me 'SING'. Add to that my dear friend Summet would add the ceremonious fuel to the already raging flame. Sumeet would add, 'He can only sing English songs, he sings well though'.

So, there I was, going to sing, 'Truly Madly Deeply', the Savage Garden classic. I loved that song and must have sung it everyday, those days. For whom you may ask? Well, it was for someone!!!

And I did take the plunge, I sang 'Truly ...', I gave it my best shot. I dont really recall what the reaction was, the first thing I looked for once I was done was whether there were people 'booing'. Fortunately NO.

But this was not my thrust with the inner KK or Eminem. I vividly remember another 2 incidents where yours truly has tried to sing.

The Eminem incident was something that can happen only in college. 'The Real Slim Shady' was a hit those days. Everyone was a Eminem fan. I was not to be left behind. I would listen to EN day in and day out. I rapped the entire composition with ease and grace. So during my college fest, there was an audition for the Solo Singing competition. And yes, by now, you must have realised what happened. I was on stage, rapping 'Real Slim Shady'. Abuses and all. It was an uncut version. The judges were shocked, my friends laughing at the back and I was left embarressed. I dare did not ask the judges how my performance was. But like 'Truly Madly Deeply' I did not get any boos, yet!!!

The only song that I feel I can sing well is the KK hit, 'Dil Ko' from RHTDM. I had sung this to my engg friends when in the bus from Bombay and Goa. The songs from the movie are all good, but this song in particular is very appealing. I can listen to this song over and over again. Just downloaded this song over the weekend and sang it again. With black label accompanying me, it sounded like heaven!!!!

One song that I would love to sing melodiously is "Last Kiss' by Pearl Jam. Any one of you guys want to listen online music for free, try this.. www.pandora.com...

Dreams! Dont we all wish...

2008-05-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

Dreams are beautiful. Dreams keep our flame burning. It could the reason for our survival. Just like the rest of you, even I have cherised desires that drive me to work harder to achieve them.
Personally, I feel life would be worthless, if we dont have any dream to achieve or fulfill.

Back as a child, I had this weird dream. I would find myself floating in the house. Like a helium balloon, I would drift from one corner of the house to another. It was scary, I have always been scared of heights and this dream tested my limits. 12 feet was enough to scare the hell out of me. But the feeling of floating gave me a sense of freedom that cannot be described in words. I prayed every night to have the same dream, because I enjoied the liberty to do my own thing. The closest I have come to flying is para-sailing in Langkawi. All by myself, way above beautiful clear blue waters, I can still recall. All I did was look up to the sky, said "THANK YOU JESUS!". It was an unforgettable adventure. Sandwiched between the blue waters and the blue skies, I was left speechless by the wonders of the creator. I was flying that day and to some extent, I fulfilled my dream.

Thanks to Vikram, I even have a video of my escape to heaven..

We all dream of a big house, a nice job, a fat pay package, a loving partner(:-P) and so on... These dreams dont really mean much do they. It is the stupid rat race that has resulted in our minds focussing for materialistic goals! Of course, even I have changed. Even I want a nice big house, ample of $$ to spend and unlimited happiness and success.

But one thing I know for sure, the feeling of fulfilling the 2 dreams will be different. If i get a house of my choice tomorrow, it will not bring me the satisfaction that I got up above the waters the other day in langkawi...

Dreams should be unadulterated, they should not be influenced by the rat race that we all are involved in. You and Me should not stop dreaming of floating like a balloon, because the day you will fulfill that dream, it will be a feeling of completeness!

Till next time, keep dreaming and dream different...

Those good ole days!

2008-05-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching Prison Break - Season 2 for the second time. Am addicted to it! My roomie calls me Michael 'Slow'-field. The reason being, I pretend to be smart and plan-it-all fellow like Michael Scofield, the protagonist from the TV serial. But unlike the real Michael, this fake Michael is very lazy, dumb and fails to even understand the simplest of puzzles. Hence the 'SCO' is replaced by 'SLOW'. I like it tho...

But PB, is nothing compared to the fun I had watching TV serials back in the days! Those good ole days as the title mentions. I have been a TV freak since childhood. I can watch everything and anything. I remember, mine was the first household in my society that took cable way way back in the nineties. It was a proud moment. All that came on TV for the first few days was ZEE TV in bold and no transmission at all. But soon the cable tv boom got going and my rendezvous with cable begun.

As i look back, I can still picture myself watching 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' with Adrian. We used to love that serial. Will Smith at his comic best and his numerous encounters with Carlton, his short cuz. We used to laugh all night. It was a time when i put my books down and took a break. It def helped me get a few good marks here and there!! Then there was 'Full House'. Another serial which I can proudly say that I have watched all episodes of. As a matter of fact, I have watched most of the episodes more than once. But I can still watch that serial. It has an innocence, a simplicity which attracts me to watch it over and over again.

But the legendary of all TV serial during THOSE days was 'The Wonder Years!'. This serial was my fav, simply because it was so real! Yes, it was more real than 'Scofield' breaking thru 2 prisons so easily!!! The serial was called a DRAMEDY!!! Yes, a overlap of drama and comedy. The serial aired at 5:00 PM IST. I used to finish my tea and wait for it to start. The music was legendaaary... Joe Crocker's music set up the atmosphere to an absolute best. Day by day, as Kevin Arnold grew, his interesting run-ins with his parents, siblings, friends at school grew more interesting. His love interest, Winnie Cooper was as innocent and sweet a gal can ever be/look!! Hence innocent smile and her ability to convey every message through silence made her my first TV crush!! I can still remember her first kiss!! Not with me of course!!! But yea, on screen with Kevin Arnold!! I was left speechless, not for a moment, but for more than a minute!!!!!

Once the serial was over, it was time to go down and play some good-ole cricket with my 'Ganga' building friends.

Friends, there are many things we all like in life. We all want something, we all dream of something. But it is how much far we can go to get our hands on them that makes the difference. Our dreams are not easy to achieve. Its not how tough or far our dreams are, but the effort that we put in to realise these dreams that distinguishes one person from another. At the end of the day, it could be the difference between success and failure too...

A small anecdote to add a realistic flavor to the above mentioned philosophy....

As mentioned, I loved 'The Wonder Years'. I wanted to have the DVD collection of all the seasons. I tried hard looking for it. I must have asked all the piracy-stuffed-filled stores in Malaysia. But none of them had 'TWY'. They would have everything else, even the 'Doogie Howser M.D' episodes. But no one had 'TWY'. I even checked the biggest piracy market in south-east asia, Thailand!! It was elusive there too....

Just when I lost all hope, Adrian got the entire collection. I did not really ask him, how he layed his hands on this collection, but he did. It is this quality of Adrians that makes him a super-achiever and me a very average fellow. I tried, I tried a little harder and then gave up. To be frank, I never thought anyone could have ever got hold of the collection. But Adrian somehow got all the seasons. He loved the serial too and now that I think of it.. he loved it more than I did!!

Blunder... Bizzare... Blooper....

2008-05-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, 2 things. 1, i cant stop laughing when i write this and 2, I hope it brings a smile once the read is done with. The reason for this write was an incident that happened in the morning. That incident is discribed at the fag end of the blog.. but because of that incident I thought long and hard of other incidents that I could recall where I have goofed up big time!!! So here we go.... Ive re-called a few incidents and ranked them from 1 to 3. The countdown begins...

3. BLUNDER:
Time: Junior KG. Setting: Small classroom in St.Anne's High School, Orlem, Malad. Question: So who of you children have brothers or sisters. I was the first to raise my hand. Slowly my other classmates also raised their hands. I looked around, almost everyone had a sibling. Next Question: How many of you have sisters? I raised my hand again. The teacher looked at me awkwardly, said "Ashley, you have a sister". I said "Yes, I have one sister and 1 brother". Teacher goes, "Ok, so what is your sisters name?". I go, "Premila". The teacher grins at me and says 'Ok'.
Here's what happened. The teacher knew my family very well. She was from my neighbourhood. She knew I did not have any sisters. Premila, was my Moms younger sister. She used to always take care of me and I till then (Junior KG) thought she was my SISTER!! Some days later, my Mom was in school and my teacher made it sure she told her that I think Premila is my sister. Think about it, Aunt Premila, took so much care of me then that I always thought she was my elder sister.

2. BIZZARE:
Time: Today Morning, woke up at 2 PM. Ok, it was technically afternoon. Actually, I was awake at 5 to watch Adrian in action against Argentina. We lost in extra time. Anyways, back to my morning time. Woke up, had a brush and headed straight to the kitchen for some nice filling breakfast. I took the bowl, added a whole bunch of cereal and opened the fridge. Took the carton of milk, kept at the daily place and added it in the bowl, until my cereal was buried in the white liquid. Took my bowl and spoon to my bed. Sat comfortably! Laptop ready, and YUCK!!!! WTF! What happened to the milk? The first reaction was to check the spoon, if it was clean? yiiiecks! What the hell was wrong here... why did it taste so damn wierd. Took another spoonful, it tasted unusual. My roomie, Manish was talking to me. I did not listen to him, but wondered, what the hell was wrong here. I was sure the MILK was spoilt and I was the unfortunate person to have had to taste it. Swallowed the second spoon of cereal and kept the bowl nearby. Thats when I realised the problem. What i poured, thinking was MILK was actually BUTTER MILK that my friend had bought last night. I had happily drowned my cereal in butter milk and hence the weird taste. Now that I knew it was not spoilt milk, nor was the spoon dirty, i finished the entire bowl, happily enjoing my cereal and laughing about the incident with Manish.

1, BLOOPER:
Time: Sometime in Pune. Its a cold chilly morning. And as always, your truly is running late to make it to work. My bus arrives at 8:08 AM, it was like 7:35 and I just reached the wash basin. I took the brush put some paste. And started brushing. Soon i got a feeling, something is wrong with my mouth. Or was it the brush, or was it the toothpaste. I did not know what, but something was surely wrong. This did not feel right. The feeling was like you are driving a car, and the brakes wont work. You know something is wrong. But you cant really pin point the issue. But my problem was not very tough. It was no brake failure. It was just a weird taste in my mouth. So the first thing i did is checked the toothpaste! And what i seen is unbelievable. It was not bloody toothpast, what I was brushing with was ODOMOS!!! Lolz!!!! For those souls who are unware, Odomos, is a cream which is used to keep mosquitos away. To be frank, till that date I had not even used Odomos on my body and here I was, my mouth full of odomos cream. And I did not know what to do. Laugh? or Spit it all out? Or tell my roomie and then spit!!!!! Well I did the most sane thing I could think of and spat it all out. Gargled for like 5 more minutes. Cleant my brush as if it had fallen into the gutter. Put some COLGATE on the bursh, burshed well. I checked the time, thanks to this misdemeanor I was gonna be late to work. So i skipped my shower and rushed to the stop. All day, I kept thinking of what a fool I was. Brushing with Odomos!!!

Well, we all come across incidents like these. For once we dont know whether we should laugh or take corrective action. But these incidents stay put in out minds for the rest of our lives and bring a smile anytime anywhere!

Till the next blooper... Bye...

How safe are the roads today?

2008-05-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

So the 'common mans car', NANO is going to hit the roads soon. Thats great news, a car for 1L buks, is unheard of. Super going India, well done! Bravo Bravo! But lets take a minute here. Instead of celebrating what superficial achievements, let us get down to issues which are more critical and important to the 'real common man'.

The real common man my friend does not need a car. He will travel from a place A in Mumbai to place B in Mumbai using the public transport and spend a fraction he would have spend on gas using the NANO. The real common man, does not need luxury, he needs safety. The real common man does not need the comfortable seats of the NANO, he just needs a small place to sit in the train/bus. Yes, it is true 1L is not a very huge amount for many Mumbaikars today. But its not the initial cost thats the concern. Spiralling fuel costs, lack of infrastructure, insurance for the vehicle and finally the maintenance of the car. These are what will desist the 'real common man' from going for the NANO. But screw the NANO, we have to look at an even bigger issue today and tomorrow.

I was just reading the Sunday Times. And what i read on page 2 shocked me. 6 deaths on the Mumbai roads and not one seems to have happened because the person using the public utility was at fault. So whom do we blame? The goverment, the other person involved in the accident, God, fate, Pakistan??? Well, the blame game will always continue. It always has!! Thats what is special about our country, The NANO is just a phase, but the governance of the country, the value for human life is what makes me feel ashamed about our country.

6 lives!! What the hell!!!! I mean, a mother and daughter are walking on the street and are knocked down by a car. 2 people are crossing the road and are knocked down. A speeding Air-India bus driver rams into a biker and he is dead. There are more on the page, but i feel too shaken up to mention about those.

You know whats the hard part. Those 6 could have been anyone of us, or our family members. Crossing the road, walking on the pavement, riding a bike... its part and parcel of daily life, isnt it? I understand some of you must be defending saying that accidents happen. I know they happen, but 6 lives in one day. In 5 different places. And that too this comes after 16 people died in 1 single accident. We would have expected the authorities to be more rigid and stern. But NO, they are busy gobbling the 50 rupee notes from poor motorists like you and me!!!

So what does the common man want? A NANO, or safer roads? But are we even striving to achieve better facilities? From what I have seen in the past few years, we can just forget about safer roads and just live on a prayer and God's grace. There is no law and order. And our politicians are quick to point that other states are having a goonda raj. My dear Politician, please ask a Mumbaikar like me. I can give you the real picture. People lose their lives everyday, you dont give a f***, you are busy in vote-banking politics and making strategies as to who will vote next for you and how are you going to please his a**.

I beg the authorities to make the law of the land a MUST BE FOLLOWED norm. But, I wonder if anyone is even listening. Even if they are, they will ignore me thinking he is just another fool with no understanding of what the common man wants. Of course, the common man wants a NANO, isnt it?

Birthday Gift!

2008-05-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

Who does not like a gift? Not me... and am sure many of you also love to recieve a nice surprise birthday gift. This is exactly what Adrian did yesterday... On a bright sunny afternoon in Ipoh, Adrian had the perfect recipe to produce one of the best recent goal-keeping performances lately. To do this against our arch-rivals Pakistan, just adds that much more icing onto the cake.

So, it was my Mom's birthday on the 14th of May. And as it as happened over the past few years, nor Adrian or Me were around to celebrate it. So my Mom and Dad had their little celebration. Cake cutting at home a small birthday party given by Dad to Mom at the Marriot. But this was not all. Adrian had other plans.

Adrian, was not going to let the distance matter and made sure Mom had something to remember about 'Shanu' and her birthday day.

I watched the game live!! Me and Manish, enjoied every bit of the game. Hockey is very exciting and if it is a India-Pak game, then the intensity is even greater.No team wants to give one quarter away. Pakistan, were playing at full strength. They had a small hiccup the previous day when Belgium got the better of them 3-5.But prior to that they were unbeaten. A win against India would have put them through to the finals. So they had a lot at stake, leaving aside the fact that they were playing their fiercest rivals.

India, on the other hand, were just about surviving. After 2 humbling loses, India just about scrapped to 2 win. Against Canada, we came back froma goal down to win 3-1 and against Belgium, we were leading 5-1 until it became 5-4 and finally we closed it 6-4.

But things were going to change. Of course, it was my mom's birthday!!!! India scored early through a PC and missed atleast a couple of chances to add to their tally. In the meanwhile, the Pakistan team looked lost on the field. The defense made silly errors, the mid-field would not release the ball and Rehan and Co up front looked isolated. Taking advantage, India scored a second goal and wow, things looked gr8. India took this 2-0 advantage to the lemon break!

This is where things change. coming back from the break, India were a changed side.The attacking flair seemed lost. The team looked as if they had no purpose and no attacking was happening. Pakistan on the other hand, came out all guns blazing. M.Saqlain was getting his rhythm back and looked ominious. His controlling of the mid-field is dangerous for any opposition. But we had a hero!! Pakistan,just kept hitting the wall... Adrian was not going to let the ball past him. He brought of saves using his stick, his kickers, his gloves, his pads.. whatever he had.. was used!! The only thing I did not notice was him using the helmet to save.

But, AD was tremendous.Excellent is too soft a term for his performance. He single-handedly took India past Pak. He last minute save was tremendous. He would have saved all day I think. Thats what confidence can do to you. Soon the 70 minutes got over.India had beaten Pak, 2-1. It was an upset win. No one gave India a chance. But the team proved everyone wrong. Ric Charlseworth is making the difference. A team with 12 juniors is on the verge of making it to the finals of the Sultan Azlan Shah cup. Go India Go! India pay Malaysia tomo and its a virtual semi-final for India. Win and make it through to the finals.

I am very confident that India would be able to out it across the home nation.

Coming back home, my Mom called me at 2:40 AM. She was not aware that I had watched the entire game live. I spoke to her and she was so excited and happy. It was nice to know what. Being so far away, AD was still able to make Mom smile and feel happy. Today when i spoke to AD, he told me that the WIN was dedicated to Mom. It was a small token of appreciation from AD to my family.

It is the zillionth time that AD has made us all proud. When i say US, it is not my family, but all of us.Us Indians, it is his hardwork and commitment that has kept him going for 4 years now. As a fresher who was selected in may 2004 to play for India to a senior pro taking India on his shoulders to the next level of hockey, he has come a long way.
.
thanks AD for the gift. Mom could not have asked for anything bigger or better.Now, yours truly has to decide what gift I can send across. I have already missed the deadline, and I am sure I cant even remotely come close to what AD gave to MOM.

So looking forward to India beating the host nation and taking Argentina in the final. its gonna be a rocking weekend!!!

enjoi and take care!

Things I hate to do...

2008-05-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

Well, how many of us like to iron our clothes in the morning before leaving for work? Not many i would suppose. Infact, for lazy bums like me, its Mission Impossible!!! firstly, my bed is a virtual warzone in the morning. My mind Vs My body. One wont getup and the other screams, its time for work!!! Finally, somehow my body gives in and I make it up. In this state, if my mind tells my body, please iron those clothes, my mind had it. :) As you must have realised this is one of the many things I hate to do. This is just the beginning of the day. We still have a long long way to go, dont we?

Ok, so ive reached office. Yea, am about 15 minutes late but ive made the long walk to work. Btw, I wake up at 8:40 AM. But for me that 8:40 seems like 5:30 AM.

Once at work, the thing i hate to do is open an email about a production issue, which i need to analyze. I mean, come on for heavens sake, could you not find the issue during System Testing, UAT or even Beta testing. If you cannot find it given so many chances, how dare you come to me now!!!! But thats the routine life of a software engineer. Develop(actually it is maintenance) - Test -Deliver and then FIX FOREVER!!!! Once all the emails have been opened and partially analyzed its time for worst task number 3. Lunch!!!

For all time that I have spent at Infosys, the most I must have cribbed about must be food. Yes, I cribbed more for food than for onsite!! It is true!! Day in and Day out, we cribbed, abused, cried, shrilled whenever lunch time came. Eating the food from the canteen was a painful experience. Growing up, I was always thought to respect food, but when I used to go to canteen, I wondered how come these guys dis-respected the food so bad and made such a big mess out of it. The Chole would be half-cooked, the dal would miss some flavor, the chappatis were like papad, the papad was like chappati. I can go on and on... But its not something I looked forward to. Just FYI, today things are much different, I come home for lunch and eat good home cooked food. Once my food ordeal is over, its back to work and analyzing the issue again. Somehow I used to scrape through the day and complete my day.

As already understood and clearly explained by me, I am one big lazy bum. One thing I hate to do is goto the gym. This is the next task. I used to be a member of the recreational center, it had a state-of-the-art gym, but yours truly would surely find one reason or the other to skip it. Its a natural skill that God has given me. For eg, today I told me friend that I am tired because I had a 1 hour 15 minute meeting!!!!! All I did in that meeting was sit and listen. Nor did i speak, nor did i think, i did not do one thing, that should have made me sweat!! But, Mr.Lazybones escaped the run on the treadmill... yahooo.. instead i played UEFA 2008!!!

So, i was able to cover quite a few interesting things that I hate to do, or have really detested to have done previously....

As a matter of fact, writing blogs was also something that I was not very fond of.. as always I could make a million reasons NOT to write ..... whereas there were a million and one reasons why I should have written....

But, things are changing.. slowly but surely!!!!!

No more hating writing blogs!! its nice fun to share experiences with the world!!

Thanks Atlee for pushing me to write... appreciate it....

adios!

Climax..... RK steals the show...

2008-05-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

So, there we were... 57 to win to make it to the quarters. A stronger batting line-up sans Ashley 'stupid' D'souza. There was already a feeling of making it through to the next round. I was very confident that we would make it through. The reason being, we had learned quite a few lessons from our previous two games.

So the opening pair left the dug out. Ravi opened with another Ravi. This Ravi was called red-ravi because he wore a Red tee. He was my replacement. I should admit he had better technique than mine. He looked more confident out there, more focussed and more resolute to make those 57 runs. The (Ravi) 2 pair gave us a good solid start. We were cruising at 14 for no loss. I say cruising because in all the previous games, we have lost the wicket of your truly very early and hence the early hiccup!!!

Yes, so 14 for no loss in 4 or 5 odd overs was a very good start. Now the win looked even more real and the new Ravi looked a real good change that worked very well for the team. I was happy too, cause I knew winning was important for my team. With or Without me does not really matter.

But just when things looked good, the worse thing in cricket happened. RUN-OUT, Red Ravi was run out going for a non-existent single. Out pack of cards got ready now. Soon, the most fragile middle order in the history of cricket crumbled like a pack of glass cards. Deja Vu, 17 for 5. Man-O-Man, this cannot be happening again, I thought in my mind. We were cruising, what happened.

The bowlers bowled pretty well. They kept a good line and their wicket-keeper brought a fantastic catch to get rid of the danger man, the other opener Ravi.

So could be re-do the magic we did against Infosys. Alas No, we collapsed under the pressure, Yarli played some good shots, but even he perished. We were short by some 20 odd runs I think.

But, the icing on the cake was my friend RK's wicket. Ok, let me just brief you about RK's style of batting. Picture this. Legs stuck to the ground. Batsman waiting for the bowler. Bowl comes. RK does a shakira and moves his hips 180 degrees towards the left(leg side). During this movement, his bat is perfectly horizontal and parallel to the ground. I hope you all got the picture, if not I can ask my dear friend RK to send a video of the same.

So RK comes to the crease. Last wicket batting now. RK plays a couple of confident defensive shots. Then comes the shakira dance, hips dont lie, do they??? And voila, his bat and hips move a complete 180 + degrees and he becomes hit wicket!!

The entire dug out burst out laughing. We did not care that we had lost the game and hence were out of the tournament, but the funny scene at the end was hilarious.....

it kind of sums up the weekend that I had. Good fun, Good time-pass and nice to make new friends. We again had lunch at rasthal. I ate like kilos of baingan ka bharta and chilli fry.

The good friend that RK is, he dropped me home and then even to my Church. It was a real nice fun weekend. Thanks to RK, I made new friends and added a wonderful new chapter to my blog!!!

Thanks RK for all the help you've provided to me since day 1!!!

So friends, Artesia(name of my team) is no longer in the LA Challengers Cup!!!

We shall come next year, better prepared and more hip thrust!!!

Till then, cya!!

Wow, what a finale!!!

2008-05-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, so lets fast forward... as it happens in the movies... the camera points towards the sky.. darkness falls and soon the sun rises...

"Good Morning Ashley", RK said at about 7 AM in the morning. I tried to get up, but could not. So what was wrong, i wondered. 2 things. Firstly, Adrian had a game against Canada. It was at 1:00 AM Pacific time. So I had woken up and watched the game and then slept. That means, instead of taking rest, I was watching Hockey. Secondly and most importantly, the elephant was hurt. Elephant = ME. Last evening, when i tried to save a single i ran a little too quickly and a sudden motion seems to have hurt my knee. So I was unable to run and even climb stairs. The pain still persists now. At this juncture, I would like to please reiterate that this is NO reason for my batting failure. The pain in my knee is genuine and I will not use it as an alibi for my horrendous failure.

Ok, so it was a problem to get my ass of the bed. Somehow i did get up. It was already 7:30 now. The game was to begin at 8:30. And yea, the drive was about 40 mins. So we were running pretty close to getting late.

I packed all my stuff, the laptop, tees, tracks into my bag and took it along. So we were off, heading to the ground for a pre-quarter final. I had thought long and hard in the night, about my failure. What mistakes I was making. How could I get back to earlier times. I did my analysis and was ready to make a bigger impact. The analysis was as follows. I was trying too hard. I was trying to hit the ball out of the park everytime. Giving no respect to the ball. My footwork was also not upto the mark. I should have come on the front foot to play the shots. Ok, So there I was. All set for the big game. This is when 1 thought crossed my mind.

"I was palying such a trivial match. It was not of a serious concern to any one of us. it was just a time pass game. But there was pressure on me. Just 2 failures and there was pressure. then i thought about Adrian. he has played over 120 games for India. Every time he must be going to sleep there must be so much of pressure. I cant even imagine the pressure before a India-Pakistan game. And him being a goal-keeper, things get even bigger. He is always in the limelight. Cameras are always on him. So here, ill take a moment to raise a toast for my dear brother. Bro, I always knew playing proffesionally is a tough task, but today after a long time ive realised its a taks of unimaginable pressure and expectations. I am so proud of you, you have given your sweat, blood and tears for the game and country. You are a real Hero. That Shahrukh Khan can only make money and sleep to glory. It is people like you, the soldiers of this country, who are the real heroes. God Bless you and people who strive to bring glory to our country, day in and day out."

Ok, so we were on our way to the game. We picked another 3 friends and headed to the ground. today the ground was another one. we reached there, the ground was different, but the conditions were the same. Chilly and Unbearable for me!!!

So i did a small jog. Suddenly i realised my captain, Laxman had 2 friends who were in tracks and getting ready to play the game. Now, this was interesting. So the toss happened, we were going to field again. I went to the dug out to keep my cellphone. RK came behind me.

"Ashley, there is a slight problem. We have 12 players and either you or me will have to sit." To be frank, I was not surprised. I kind of expected it. The team had added me as a batsman and if I was unable to make runs I was of no use. So I was dropped. I sat in the dug out cheering my team. The guys bowled really well to restrict the opposite team to just 56 runs. The score was similar to the chase we performed against Infosys. So how did it go?

Did Ashley not being there make any difference?

Did the team benefit from the 2 new players whom the captain had called for?

More answers and results in the next round!!

Till Den, good nite and cya!

Cricket..not my cup of team anymore?

2008-05-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well Well Well, lets jst see what has happened today. 2 matches, 1 catch dropped, 1 first ball duck and one run in the second match. So my batting average is 0.5. My catching average is -1 and I was of absolutely no help to my team. Add to the fact that I was the opening batsman and brought the pressure on the team thanks to my spectacular batting, things look even worse.

But, for all those who dont know about me and cricket, things were not always this bad. I am sure some of my friends can vouch that I was a pretty decent cricketer. Batsman to be precise. My childhood days in 'Ganga' Bldg and 'Mithchowki' were good starts. The best was my cricketing days in my engineering college. As a student of second year of engg, I one handedly took my team past the defending champions, the Final Year Mechanical batch!!!
It is easily my most cherished cricketing moment.

But things have changed. After moving to Pune, playing cricket was rare. And once i moved out from Ganga Bldg, it was over. No cricket. But when my friend RK asked me to play in the cricket tournament here I was excited. It was something I liked to do.

So there I was woke up at 7:20 AM, after a 'Friday Nite' party at home. We had like 4 large pegs of Chivas Regal + Black Label. Got up, packed my stuff and was all set to leave. RK came and picked me up and zoom, we were off to Glendale. A suburb about 15 miles from downtown LA. The scenery was awesome. A sight to behold. The ground was in the moutains. Surrounded with a lush green view on all the sides, the 9:30 AM match was gonna start in conditions ive never played cricket in. The temperature must have been below 15 degrees celcius. But what was even tough was the cold breeze blowing in the mountain area. Did a small warm up, I mean i ran onto the ground. Thats it!!! :D

The game started, we were bowling first. We had a gr8 set of bowlers. They restricted 'Infosys' to 55 in about 14 overs. it was a 20 over game.

Laxman, our captain asked me and Ravi to open. So there I was, just 55 to chase at an asking rate of less than 3. What a time to get settled and practice. But what happens next is funny and disgraceful at the same time.

Ravi takes a smart single of the first ball. I am on strike. My mind does a zillion calculations. I check the field again and again and store the gaps in my head. The bowler approaches. All hell breaks loose, stupid Ashley goes to hit a SIX of the first ball and CAUGHT BEHIND. ZILCH!!!!

What a come back i must say!!! Team mates are shocked. RK had told them Ashley is a good batsman!!! Nice joke RK.... I make the long walk back to the dug out. Sit quitely in the corner. Soon i realise team is 12 for 6. Wow, thanks for the positive start Ashley. 22 for 7. Btw, I just forgot to mention, we played a player short. So we had only 9 wickets to give!!!

Then Jagan started the revival. He and Kartik had a good 8th wicket stand. Things got interesting. We were now about 18 runs short, when Kartik was out. Last wicket. Can we do it.....

Yes we could, Shashank and Jagan got us through it. It was an exciting match. A very good experience after a long time.

The next match was at 4:30 PM. We had grub at Quizznoz, which now is my favorite Sub joint.
Came for the game. It was against a team, which happens to be one of the better teams. They made a good 120 odd runs.

Yours sincerely was out to open again. This time no FIRST BALL DUCK I thought. Played with a straight bat. Defended well. Second ball one run. Third ball, defended well again. Fourth ball, all hell breaks loose again, 2wice in one day!!!! ASHLEY goes for a big hit, caught about 15 metres inside the boundary wall. Just a single run. Made the long long really long walk back.

We lost the game. But we had good fun. Cheering our tail-enders. A real good fun time. Then ate good Indian food at Rasthal. Now its time to focus on tomorrow mornings game. If we win we are through to the quarters. If we lose, it may goto runrate and we might lose that race.

What I want to do tomo is show that I am not that bad a cricketer!! Lets hope and wait for the best.

I should know whether or not I should retire from the sport or not tomo!!!

Adios.

Ashley

Redefine Rediff... puhlz..

2008-05-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

Rediff.com and Indiatimes.com are the most common websites that I visit, to update myself about things happening back home. I suppose much like Yahoo and Google in the global market, they too make their strategies based one each others progress and initiatives.

But, over a period of time, REDIFF has absolutely lost the plot. Following the footsteps of many other over-hyped and Zilch news reporting agencies, they just copy+paste stuff from some other source and modify the headlines to attract consumers. What hurts the most is that, almost everytime the headline has a religious/sex/racial overtone to it. Dear Rediff, If you cannot market yourself well and cannot publish/report your own stories, i understand. Your incapability is sympathized with. But please dont use cheap and stupid tactics to make readers read the news you so balantly modify and publish. If I were an agency you took information/news from and modified the headlines for you own bloody benefit, I would sue the very lasy penny from you.

You buggers, like most other countrymen, just want to use someone else's hardwork, add your supposed flavor, which most of the time is offending and fake and scream loudly that you have achieved something.

Lets take a small example. Today rediff has a story which goes with the headline 'Religious concerns take beef off British Airways' menu'. Now I travel British Airways sometimes, and was curious. What has happened that BA had to take this step. Was there any mishap, or its plain pleasing to a particular community. I clicked on the link and read the entire article.

While reading the story I came across the following line too..
"It has nothing to do with the fear of causing offence -- we always offer alternative meals for people with special dietary requirements if they order in advance," the spokesperson said, adding, "We are still serving beef-based meals on certain menus in First Class and Club World and are currently deciding on whether or not to use beef on the menus for World Traveller customers for the winter season."

Now can someone please explain to me, why has rediff such a distracting headline when the spokesperson clearly states the opposite. Is there something which i have not read or failed to understand in the article. Why bring the religious sentiments into the picture. Why not agree that beef prices have sky rocketed and hence the change. REDIFF, just shutdown the server and go home! Stop the crap reporting you guys do now-a-days.....

Ok, let me check for some other fake, crap stories published on rediff.. just a sec... going to the stupid site again....

Ok found one stupid one.. 'Akshay: Getting a PhD better than an Oscar' Now, firstly, I wonder if Akshay has used the same words as mentioned in the headline. If he has then I have 2 questions. One, a normal person can do a sensible comparison only between things he has felt/known/understood. Akshay is a good actor, but we all know he will NEVER EVER win an Oscar award. So how come he can say that getting that fake Phd is better than an Oscar. I can be proven wrong if Oscar is the name of his dog and for Akshay getting this Phd was better than getting the puppy??? weird eh? Rediff has started to make me think like a crazy nut too....

But yes, I did not have the patience to read the entire 75 minute interview and I dont really care. What I do know is that rediff has lost its plot somewhere. The management or whatever is running the website needs to do some serious introspection and understand that using hatred against the west, using religious gimmicks, using fake sexual/racial discriminating headlines will not really work. Yea may be we will check the site, but once we read the article and realise that rediff has basically fooled us into reading it, we pray for the closure of the website and end of the torture you guys are giving us.

Dear Rediff Editor, please go and read some better website. My blogs, though totally amateurish, are real and not fake like ur headlines. You can sleep with a better conscience like me, rather than faking and sleeping like a bum.

Adios!

P.S: My fav site is www.cnn.com!!!

What cooking eh?

2008-05-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

Cooking is the best way to pass time! No No, its not something i proclaim or follow, but it is something my past flatmates have always said to me. Luckily for me, until now, ive never found it necessary to set up a full fletched kitchen at my on-the-move home. Of course for more than 22 years i was previledged to eat lovely home cooked food. But then things changed, I moved to Pune and home food was now only for 3 days a week. Still not bad, huh! For 3 years or so, that I stayed in Pune, the only thing i ever cooked was MAGGI!! yes, the 2 minute magic. I never made anything else in that kitchen in Pune. Only Maggi. Of course I was not on a maggi diet for 3 years. Some other places where i regularly ate from were Swad in Aundh, my home tiffin wala in Baner and a few restaurants here and there.
Then comes Malaysia. Exotic eh! Not really, when it comes to food, Malaysia is harder to survive than Pune. In Malaysia, the tamil food house at Cyberia was out fav huntdown. Roti Tulur, aka Egg Paratha was my fav for quite sometime. Once i got bored, moved to plain Masala Dosa. Once i got bored with that, moved to Egg fried rice(thanks to prasanna). And yes, the lunch time meal was fixed. Rice+Sambar+Baby Corn Fry(if available) else Chicken dish. I had this meal for almost 4 months. But it was fun. Malaysia thought me one thing. Dont try and act too smart. It will come to haunt you. Poor Prasanna and Me once went for Dinner. I heard the word Goreng many times in Malaysia, but never knew what it meant, or what was it made from. Prasanna was hungry(as always). I ordered safe, 1 plan dosa... Prasanna said he would eat a Maggi. Yours Sincerely, added.. "Aare Prasanna.. eat Maggi Goreng man, it is nice". FYI, I had never even seen Maggi Goreng till that moment. The sweet fellow that Prasanna is, he said YES. Maggi Goreng came, Prasanna almost puked. I was happily enjoin my Dosa. I said "Prasanna, why are you not eating?" With a very confused look he told me.. "Dude, it does not taste good and smells worse". How worse could Maggi be? I could not believe he was making fuss of Maggi Goreng. Btw, this Maggi Goreng, looked pretty normal. It has a blackish colour, which i presumed was because of the Soya Sauce. it had pieces of meat in it. Of course the vegetables were sprinkled all over. So kewl, isnt it. I was like, "Dude... come on.. dont be fussy.. eat the chicken atleast" It looks good. In the meanwhile, I ordered another Plain Dosa!!!
Prasanna stared at his plate, looked and me and ate one small tiny piece. He almost puked again. I did not bother. My Hot dosa came, i hogged it. Prasanna had not eaten anything.

Then the smart me came forward. "Buddy, how bad can this be" I got the plate closer to me and almost threw the entite Dosa into the Maggi Goreng plate!! It was ..... yuck!!!!

Poor Prasanna, he now ordered for 1 plain dosa. I paid for my 2 dosa's and the maggi goreng which i almost forced my dear friend to eat!!!!

It is funny that sometimes, we expect others to do things we presume are simple and easy. Only if we stepped into their shoes, or pulled their plated towards us and had a look!!!

More about the cooking stories in my next blog!!

Adios Amigos!

So what is love?

2008-04-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

So, what is love? Hmmmm... interesting topic eh....
Well, quite a topic for sure. For me, Love is a feeling of oneness, a feeling that i really care for you, a feeling that I can go that extra mile to make you feel good or smile.

Well, as per the above definition there are just about 4 people I really really love. And yea, they all happen to be my close family. My dear Mom and Dad, my loving brother and my soulmate, lourdes.

I love them too much to even tell them, that I cant live without them. Everyday, when i rise, I thank God for the wonderful day and thank him for giving me 4 wonderful people whom I can talk to and share my thoughts with. The funniest thing about the 'L' feeling is that sometimes you can easily say that sweet word, whereas sometimes, you cant say it, but there is a unseen connection that conveys this emotion.

My brother Adrian and I have not spent a whole lot of time together. He always had his set of friends and I had mine. The he got busy with his hockey career and left home for an independent life. Time passed and soon I left home for my job. And suddenly, it is almost 10 years since we have spent like 1 month together at home or even together.

But, if there is one person for whom I can goto any lengths in this whole wide world, it is Shanu. And I am sure, even he feels the same way. Unbelievable, but we dont even speak very often. And when we are at home the talking is even more rare. But deep inside there is this connection, an invisible cord, a strong power that binds us together. This is love. We dont speak much, we dont share much time, but yes, we love each other more than anything.

On the other hand, I have my dear Lourdes. I speak to her twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. We dont discuss the whole world, but just an update of what is happening, what is cooking, how was the day and whats new? I tell her that I love her atleast 15 times a day. She is a sweetheart. I cannot imagine living without her. She makes me complete. I make sure I call her and convery my feeling everyday. Else, my day would not be complete. Here i love the person and luckily i can express my feelings too.

Isnt it wonderful, that how the same feeling is expressed in 2 very different and opposite ways. The ingredients of the LOVE receipe are the same, but the way the dish is served is absolutely different. Life could not be any sweeter for me right now. The only reason for this is my 4 loved ones. Thank you guys, I miss you every second that I breathe!!

Love and Regards,
Ashu

Patience is the Key...

2008-04-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Life is the best teacher there is! Every second, every minute, every day it teaches us a valuable lesson. It is upto us whether we are smart enough to absorb that and put it to best use.

For me, my biggest problem has been my temper. I lose it at the slightest hint of an irritation. Let that be someone digging their nose, or someone chatting loudly on the phone. My dad always told me to learn and have a control on my temper. He has been saying this since i was 10. When playing cricket in the compound I would be screaming at other kids and my dad did not like it one bit.

Days passed, months and now years. Still, the fool that i am, I have not changed. If anything, I think I have become more worse. Sometimes, I happen to throw someone else's anger on someone else. And more often than not, it my dear Lourdes who is in the firing line.

But I plan to change. I want to change. I want people to see the difference. I am very impulsive. I have lost many a friends to my stupid temper. Sumeet, my best pal for many years, is the biggest loss in my life. We have spent the best of times together. But one stupid mistake by me, changed everything. Even today i regret that day, but I cant change anything. I cant go back.

All I can do is hope that things between Sumeet and Me become the same way they always were. He is one sweet friend.

But what I can do, is improve from today. I need to understand that the best way to overcome any tough situation is to keep quiet. Let the moment pass. Let the heat cool. It makes no sense to shout and hurt people. All you will end up doing is losing respect and one good friend. I have lost many friends. I almost lost another good friend, Ravi yesterday. But I have been blessed to have friends like Ravi and Sumeet, who keep quiet, listen to my crap and still approach me.

I thank God for friends like them. I also hope that God gives me the sense to be calm, composed and more patient when dealing with my dear friends.

So here I go, trying to be calm and sober. Lets see how this goes.

Cheers,
Ashley

Dear Moral Police, are u sleeping?

2008-04-20T21:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, So every year we have a drama session. This is held by the so-called moral police of the city. The Shiv Sena and its gang of goons. They rip posters, tear cards, hit the youth and do all sorts of natak just to generate cheap publicity for their flagging party fortunes. So the VALENTINES day bash, as these sainiks must be calling it, comes and goes, they enjoi the limelight. In the news, all over the papers.. wow!!! good job done...

And then we move on. Lets analyze what these goons are protesting against. 1. Is it the western influence? 2.Do they own a card selling brand which competes with Archies/Hallmark? 3. Are they plain jobless and idle?

Doesnt really matter does it? The goons repeat the same thing over and over and over again.. The authority which is supposed to safe guard the common man is a mute spectator (as always). Ask Mr.Amitabh Bhachan. Even he could not do anything regarding the bottle throwing incident at his residence. What can we humble souls do? Just take the beating... (yea, you can also leave the crap to rot there... )

So now, my point is, other than V-Day, dont these goons ever do something which is not freaking Indian??? Lets see.....

1. My recent surfing tells me that one Mr.V Mallya has got some hot chicks from the USofA to cheer his team. It seems these gals were in Mumbai recently. They were cheering for the Bangalore team. But i am sure these goons and useless fellows were enjoing that. No western influence here brother. They must have even molested a few gals if given a chance. Seriously, they can do that.... Doesn't common sense tell you that they should have disrupted the game, beat the bangalore team and sent those gals back? yes, that is what they should have done, what they did do is enjoy the view and wanked their dicks out...

2. The molesting incident on New year (2008), happened. Some goons from a nearby locality were pulled up. What happens next, the goons come and defend these other friendly goons... voila!!! Of course they are all brothers in the crime... No surprise there....
In comparison, so many principals.doctors are beaten just the hint of a crime. Many a times these professionals are innocent and just victims of some personal rivalry. But those desperate, sex-hungry goons get support from the political goons.. wow!!

3. If you guys are so against the western culture, please do me one more small favor. One small rule to be implemented. If (Caste = Goon type) please cancel/tear/burn/bury the PASSPORT. Cause anyways, you dont need the western influence. So you dont need that booklet do you???
But so many of these goons and fellow goons travel to the western country. Where is the culture then?? Speak up u filthy goon???

4. Why did you guys not burn Mr.Sachin's Ferrari? Isnt it from a western country whose influence is bad??? does it not hurt the sales of the Maruti(which is half Japanese anyways).

5. Half or more of the festivals celebrated are a pain. Noise pollution , Air pollution, Water pollution, Harresement of common man, Illegal structures being raised and other crap. And all you morons can think of is clamping and hitting people during V day.

Shame on you bloody hypocrites. Go and find yourselves a better thing to do. May be do what Shawn Michaels would have told you to do...
SUCK IT!!!

Adios Amigos...

Playoff Time

2008-04-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

Things change, and they do change for the better...
I was a huge Iverson fan during his Philly days... to add to the spice then, Adrian liked Duncan and the Spurs. So we would wake at 6 AM and watch NBA at home. NBA was not something even remotely popular then. A very few people, ardent basketball fans used to watch it.

But those days were awesome. I got my first desktop and we got the NBA 2000 game from EA Sports. And man-o-man, Adrian and I used to play it all the time. He was busy with his hockey career and me with studies, but we always made time for a NBA game. It rocked. We have had so many fights. I lost most of the time. One fight was so bad that i un-installed the game. :)

But those moments are unforgettable.

today i am the land of the NBA. The playoffs have just begun and I watched almost all the 4 games completely. It was a day of non-stop NBA action. Tomo there will be more NBA and my fav, Pistons get going too..

Today, Adrian is in Australia for a India tour. I am at the other end of the world. And my dear Mom and Dad are in Bombay. Just a few years back, all four would be in the same dining room, AD and Me playing NBA and Mom and Dad watching TV.

I really miss those days. I miss you guys.

The NBA reminds me of those good ole days....

Media that sucks....

2008-04-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I have to read the papers, because i look for some new about hockey. But thanks to the wonderful print media, that covers all the sports events, i feel fck*@ frustrated and mind fck$%. All these guys can cover is bloody cricket. From the first page to the bloody freaking last page there is cricket. Do these correspondents get some emotional/physical pleasure doing this.

Yesterday, the Indian hockey team was announced. I opened the E-PAPER and they dont hv a single mention. How crazy is that? And these guys create a hoolah when the players fail to perform. Yea rite, no work. All they want is to criticize and slam someone down. Come on u guys, get a life. I mean, does not one single correspondent from your company follow the poor hockey souls. Those guys are playing for pure passion.

On the other hand, our beloved cricketers, who are totally distracted by the IPL give 2 hoots for the country. They lost the 2nd match so tamely and i can bet my ba*&% they will not win the 3rd test. Does anyone raise a question? Where is the morality? Where is the commitment? where is the passion? Bull shit passion...

Dont give those crap stories to me.... the cricketers are a bunch of guys, who just wanna make moolah. They dont care about the country. All they play for is the BCCI. give them cash and they will kiss ur as& too.... serious man...

Anyways, read through the entire crap filled, shit smelling, dirt-rag looking paper.. no mention of hockey.

Thanks TIMES,
Get out and FO...

We dont need crap papers... id rather use it in the toilet....

cheers!!

Finally I Am Thru...

2008-04-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hard work pays off.. that is an old saying! Today, I can truly believe it does. I took a risk, a chance and today i find myself a zillion times more happy than I would have been. Many people dont want to come out of their shell. Their comfort zone as some people prefer calling it. Its all about priorities as they would say.

I got my priorities right, and took a giant step to the land of oppurtunities. The start was chilly(literally), but as time passed by i weathered the (snow) storm.

I had my highs and my lows. Sometimes, the lows outnumbered my highs. But I knew, that i would make it through. I had worked hard for freaking 4 years. Learn and Understand the system and then use my skills here.

But from Monday, i start a new begining. Its a beginning of a huge proportion. I am glad i have made it through.

I know i have the capabilities to reach new heights and achieve my goals.

Cheers,
Ashley

Hypocrits all..

2008-03-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well, i had been for my first US movie yesterday, co-incidentally was called 'Mad-Money'. Ofcourse they were not mad or anything, its just that money had made them mad!! Common eh? very i should say.

Relating this movie and the title to things happening in bombay is something i could not avoid. Almost every Indian today is aware of the 'North Vs Marathi' egoistic cum political battle taking place in the commercial capital of India. being a bombayite for all my life i have a few analysis to make. A few questions to ask?

Anyone who is capable and sincerely answers them will realise that the problem is self-made and IMHO should quitely admit, YES we are the reason for the mess. Common-Man please forgive me- This should be the lines they should utter next.

Ok, back to analysis. Firstly, let us all agree, Bombay is bursting. The alarms should have been rung atleast 3 years back. But No, even now people dream of making the MESS into a Shanghai. Btw, just curious, have the concerned people even seen Shanghai. For that matter, even an Infosys campus would be a better and realistic approach. sorry to divert again. back....

Yea, Bombay is over. Believe me. The quality of life is a BIG 0. The infrastructure is another bigger 0. The people, u give marks yourself. The governance, i dont even wanna go there. So yea, there is a problem and the politicians are correct in having raised it. So how did it all come into being? Was it over-night? JUST LIKE THAT or JLT as the slang would have gone?? Noooooooooooo, my friend.... NO....

So we have solved the first part of the supposed problem. There is a problem. There should be concern. There should be some action (reaction is imminent!!).

Ok, now for the reason. Let me detail to you a small little story that has occurred in my locality. I stay at a place called Malad, one of the fastest growing suburbs in bombay. In Malad, there is a locally-famous chinese restaurant called Uncles-Kitchen. Ok Ok, i do like chinese food, but the point i wanted to make was that i stay just close to UK. UK= Uncles Kitched duh!!!

Now, back to the analysis. Somewhere around 2001, a small paan wala started to run a small shop near UK's. Of course it was illegal. No one objected. So he had no hassles. A year went buy, he was minting. The reason, the Mithchowki bus-stop was bustling with people who were his regular customers. Fast-Forward to 2008. He has made a entire shop there. He has 2 people employed. And i am sure he makes more bucks than me. He does not pay a single paise of IT. He does not follow any rules. yet, the cops give him a smile and the common man a stare! Yea, so much for being sweet.

Ok, am feeling better now. :) Yea, so what is the second part of the analysis. Well if you were thinking about chinese food, u probably missed the point. The whole situation is a mess because of the people who are creating the fuss now. The people incharge did not/are not/will not do/doing a think to stop illegal growth of houses/shops/hawkers......

What happens is more and more people come to this crap city and crap in it. What we get is a sohisticated looking mess. I mean, bombay today is one big shithole!
Now in 2008 the politicians are blaming people from other regions to have spoilt bombay. My point, why did u let them make bombay their base when they did not have a legal house/shop? You took money and now u want them to go??? Thats not fair!!!

So, 1 solution only. Keep living in the shit buddies...

Cheers,
Ashley

Where are we headed?

2008-01-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

I always feel as a country we have underachieved. Now i feel differently, i feel we will never be able to be where we deserve. We have everything that a nation can ask for. All the necessary resources to make a succesful nation. Yet, we are just about chugging along. Dont go by the hype in the newspapers about India being the next BIG thing.
Come down to the ground, i mean roads and check. India has lost the plot. Somewhere along the way, governance was overtaken by self-conceited, corrupt and incompetent people. This has led to a mess. A mess which is visible from every corner of the country.

Although, i have been fortunate not to see every corner, but whatever i have seen, makes me puke. Lets start with my hometown, the so-called Commercial Capital, Bombay. Yes, i still call it Bombay, the reason is:
Just because some despicable politician changes the name of a city for his personal gains, does not mean i have to change. Bombay Rockz, Mumbai does not. This city was not beautiful, but livable some years back. Today it is one big garbage dumpster. The quality of life has not only degraded but the general atmosphere is riotous. As one of my friends told me, 'its a fight for survival out there!". How true! No one cares about each other. Everyone is just looking for a reason to kick the other persons arse. The city is absolutely devoid of LAW and ORDER. People get away with everything, this is not a falsity, but the bare truth.

Some few facts that a common bombayite like me can list down:
1. Illegal houses, garages, shops on the road. The same road which has been concreted for traffic.
2. People getting away with taking law in their own hands. No police action whatsoever. They are always invisible.
3. The lack of planning. The mess on the road, the crappy air we breathe, the fuc*^% public transport.

And worst of all, i end up paying the taxes which provide fuel for the outlaws to enjoy and live their life to the fullest.
If i increase the size of my window in my apartment by 1 inch, the so-called BMC(i use other syllables for BMC) comes to my place. If another 'i-dont-give-a-f***' builds a house on the footpath, there is absolutely no problem.

Well, well, its time to take a corrective action, isnt it?

Cheers!!!!!!

Managers-You get 'em all

2007-12-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well, unfortunately, i got stuck at my first job for almost 4 years. May be if i had switched more sporadically, i could have met varying kinds of managers who would enlighten me with information and strategies of how to treat the humble person reporting to you. But i should say, even my uninspirational, unrewarding and always-reprimanding stay at my job has bought me across quite a few managers.

But, i should say, the worst of all are the people who dont really care a damn for who you are, as long as they get their job done. I mean, there is no people management, its all work management.

A very good anecdote i can recall is the just recent promotion i got. For the love of God, i thought it was my freaking hard work and the blood(hyperbole), sweat and tears(again hyperbole) that i put in the company/project for the last 3+ years that had yielded me the feel of the next level.

But No, i got a realty check. I was not a deserving Software Engg. I had not done enough to convince my managers of my abilities. It required divine intervention to put me through.

Thanks Almighty!! Thanks!!

You know what, think about it again. I dont want this change. I would rather get it on merit rather than people begging for me. Sorry, someone had to beg.

Yes, friends, you guessed it right. I am a underachieving. poor soul with no capabilities and I have got a very undeserving present.

Please take it back someone, Please!!

Ok, forget... Ill take a leave...

Cya,
Ashley

P.S: All is fictional. no resembelance to reality, whatsoever.

Cricket Vs Hockeys

2007-09-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

All my friends frequently ask me one question, how much dough did Adrian get for the last triump? What are his match fees? Does he endorse any product?
I dont feel bad to reply no to most of the answers. I dont feel bad, because it is the bare truth. Its a fact that sport-persons other than cricketers have to live with in this country of ours.
Hockey for one is our National sport, but the support it gets from the government makes me ask them, whether do they even know that such a sport exists.

For example, there is one Astro-turf in Mumbai. It is present at Churchgate, near the Wankhede stadium.Ok, so now that i mentioned Wankhede stadium most of you guys have an idea of where is must be located. :)
Mumbai, has produced Olympians all the while. I will just mention the recent one's, Jude Menezes and Adrian D'souza. Both of them were goal-keepers. Here's the interesting part. I suppose, if you have even once seen the goal-keeper, then you must have thought, "Hey he is one big fella!!". With all the hand protection, leg guard and helmet, they do look burly.
The reality is different. Adrian weights 62 kgs, he used to carry the kit, nearly 1/3 his weight all the way from Malad to Churchgate. A complete distance of about 30-40 kms. He used to travel by train. Train is another nightmare all together. Yes, so why dont we have more astro-turfs?
Why can't the goverment spend some money for the poor souls who want to take up hockey, but cannot because of the unavailability of facilities.

JC, the current coach of the Indian Hockey team, has rightly blasted all the government folks who showered loads of cash bonanza on the cricketing demi-Gods. We are not against cricket. No, we are not. We are against being recongnised for our hard work. I have seen how hard the team works. I have a brother who has been playing hockey for the last 10 years. He has stayed away from family since 16. He has had numerous injuries and has visited 2 Appllo centres in unconsicous states. But, he has had absolutely no support from the quarters he expects from.
The support if any has to come from Family and Friends. AD, skipped the Azlan Shah so that he can compelte his graduation. I still rememeber when one cricketer from Gujrat was to miss his exams, his board rescheduled it for him. Can this be applied for a Olympian hockey player.
At the age of 23, AD has played almost all the top level hockey events. Olympics, World Cup, Asian Games, Asia Cup, Champions Trophy, Junior World Cup, Champions Challenge, Azlah Shah.

Its a sad state of affairs i must admit. But at the end of the day, My Mom, Dad and I are proud that AD took to hockey and not any other sport. He is a person who is living his dream and passion. And believe me money does not really matter much to him. It is recognition i think he deserves.

Go India Go!!!

Happiness!

2007-07-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

An emotion which makes one feel merry, a moment in time when all worries are forgotten, a time when u feel like embracing your worst enemy..
There are a quite a few things that we all mortals look forward to, things that we hope will bring happiness into our lives. It is this feeling of expectation that keeps us going.

Day after day, i walk into this Infotech Park(Pun Intended)! At 8:30 AM i reach my desk, read my emails, surf the net, update myself with news from all over the world. I make sure i dont miss any hockey news and search the microscopical hockey news for any updates.
Here is where i feel happy. If i find an article on 'Hockey' i feel nice. When half-done with the article, i call up my brother AD, tell him about the news and ask him.. "Did u know about this". Usually the answer is 'Yes'. :) then i say 'Ok' and hang up. Looking for more 'Hockey' news that the Indian Hockey team goal-keeper is unware of.. believe me this is hard!!! But once a while i succeed and then i am VERY HAPPY!!!

Going forward, i wait for my fiancee to buzz me. 9:21 AM sharp and 'Hoobastank' brings melody to my soul. This is what 'seventh heave' must be like, eh?More happiness, more smiles, more fun-filled childish talks...

And then abruplty my happiness is taken away, she's got to get back to work. Time for the call to end... I want more i say, can i just speak for some more time, can I? Nope!

Then for the next 3 hours, its pure anguish. Doing the same kind of a thing for 3 years does make you feel robotic!! Am i a 'Golem'?? Am I?
This is the phase, where i am least happy, least satisfied, least interested in whats happening.
I am as they say 'world-weary', tired, fagged out, jaded.. give me a break guys...

As i sit throug those gory hours and think, is it that they should give me a break, or should I be brave enough to take one for myself.
After all, this is my life, my spirit, my soul...

Its half a day gone, and all i am doing is longing for happiness. In the already spen 12 hours of the day, so far ive spent about 10 minutes, when i've really felt nice..

The rest.. time i can never bring back, moments which are lost forever..

Am i really that helpless, cant i do something?

Time to get real and think!!

Cheers,
Ashley

The remaining 12 hours, tomo! :) good nite

Tough Day!

2007-07-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Life sometimes make me stop and think..
What am i doing here.. so late? at work?

my friends, boss, colleagues all have left..
i am stranded all alone...

and mind you, this is not a rare case...
this is my state for the past 3 years..

now i really have started to believe that i am totally incapable of handling work..
i am bad planner and my productivity is negligible, if not "0"!!!

i just wonder, will this persist even after marriage!

i am sure not!! :)

cheers,
ashley

Better Late than Never!

2007-07-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the wait is endless...
The first blog i am about to pen is after an endless wait of almost 2 years..
My friends, Adi, Sharma and Co. had started a blog, we wrote, we laughed and we forgot...
But it was not my baby..This one is..I plan not to forget this one...
I have set some targets, some goals and i hope to keep to atleast meet them if not over-shoot them..

Anywayz, all said and done..here i am, sharing my not-so-unique story in a so-damn-unique world!

peace!
~ashley