For the Respect of the Game and the Man.

For me the name, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, brings back a lot of memories. If today I am sad, its not because I follow cricket like its my religion but because there are just too many memories associated with that name. Might it be the memory of picking my bothers bat up and pretending to hit a sixer (yes, I remember doing that on numerous occasions as a kid) or begging my brother to let me play with him and his friends or the memory of a huge poster of Sachin Tendulkar between the twin beds in the room that I shared with my brother.

So today is an emotional day for most of the Indians. Entire media, social media, everything is filled with updates about Sachin Tendulkar retiring and log on to just about any site and you will see the grief of people. Admist all the grief, there are idiots and absolutely thankless creatures who have statuses like "Enough with the Sachin Updates Already" or "Yes, fine he retired. The cricket fanatics can shut up now.". Some even went to the limit of wondering whether or not Sachin deserves a Bharat Ratna. This post is for all those people and I am telling you if I hear you say anything like that again, I will punch you in the face.

I am not a cricket fanatic. I don't follow i.. Heck, I don't even know the names of all the 11 players in the Indian team currently. I just follow it once every 4 years during the World Cup or if any India-Pak series is on. But sure as f*ck, I am sad about Sachin retiring. I have heard Sachin's name from as long as I can remember. The fact that I didn't follow cricket did not stop me from being glued to the TV. every time Sachin Tendulkae set his foot on the field to play. And here are the reasons why you should be thankful that he played for India, sad that he retired and most of all, shut the hell up.

1) He was an amazing Sports person.
Cricketers came and went but he played for the last 24 years. He has played with THREE different generation of cricketers and if you cannot identify with Sachin, then you should be sad about the fact that a great sports person who will be an inspiration for the aspiring cricketers in the generations to come has retired.

2) His achievements.
If I started listing his achievements, that list will be longer than this post. His list of achievements do not end. So by saying "He has retired. No big deal" you are just disrespecting the person who has been regarded as one of the best sports person in the field of cricket.

3) 24 years of a career.
Do you even know how long twenty four years is? I mean don't you feel a little sad for a person whose cricket career outdoes your age? You all have heard about Sachin from the day you were born and you all have had your hopes on him when India was losing. So really people, if you aren't feeling sad, at least don't try to act cool by posting crap like that. It does not make you cool but just petty in the eyes of millions of Indians.

4) He is one of us.
One of the reasons why everyone is going crazy and why I want to kick all the idiots who are acting like its no big deal is because Sachin Tendulkar is one of us. This one man has united most of India and made us cry with his speech. Its not some firang footballer or tennis player over whom we are crying. We are crying over the retirement of a great player who represented India and was respected by everybody internationally. We identify with him and we identify cricket with him. He deserves all the #ThankYouSachin posts and the crazyness that has taken over the media.

5) He is an amazing person.
You do not need to know people personally to now whether or not a celeb is a nice human being or not. So many times, Sachin started walking away from the pitch before the umpire gave his decision. Not once did he stay on the pitch to fight against a wrong decision. You can see just how genuine he is and you can see just how humble he is every time he gets an award. So respect him for the person he is.

No body HAS to be sad about Tendulkar's retirement. You aren't obligated to to put up a status message either. If you aren't a sports person, you aren't even asked to understand the gravity that this one name, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, holds but yes, maybe you should just keep shut and not log into your twitter and facebook accounts if it annoys you so much. Face it, you might not have been in love with cricket or Sachin Tendulkar or you might not even care about any bit of it but every time when India was losing, you all have had your hopes set on this man and hoped that he will save our ass and make us win. The respect that he is getting is justified. He deserves every little bit of it. So don't ask us to stop already.

#ThankYouSachin

The grief.

 "Anna could hear her mother talking to her father in a terrified voice. She thought it was just a dream and all those noises will go away. They didn't. Not till she woke up and realised that all of it was happening for real. She could hear her mother say "She couldn't breathe. Jack is also reaching there. She just got out of a bath after cleaning her clothes and.." her mother went to answer the phone that had been ringing for quite some time now. Few minutes before she realised that her mother was talking about her grand mother, she wondered where her uncle jack was going.

And then it hit her, that it was her grand mother who couldn't breathe and her mother was talking about her nanna. She was horrified. She woke her up brother who was sleeping next to her. She told him about what she heard their mother say. The two children heard the click of the phone and then the door close. Annabella peeped out of the room and saw her mother. So she was right, it was her father who had gone out.

Her mother caught her eye. Annabell ran to her mother and asked "what is the matter, mummy?"  her mother just tried smile and said "Nothing, darling.Everything is okay.Don't worry just get back to bed." Anna obeyed her mother and went back to the room. She told her brother, Eric, that nothing was wrong and the mummy had asked them to go sleep.

Anna tried, tried and tried but she couldn't sleep. She heard the phone ringing again. Something bothered her. She got out of bed to go and hug her mother when she saw her coming to their room. Anna was smart for her age. She knew something deep inside told her  why her mother was crying. She just went back to bed and when the truth dawned at her, she cried. She cried so much.  She saw a tear rolling down her brother's cheek. Their mother entered the room and hugged them. She told them tat nanna was now free, that nanna was at peace. The truth hit Anna hard in the stomach like she didn't have any energy left. She had dinner with nanna last night. She remembered nanna promising her to have birthday lunch with her the day after She remembered her laughing and telling her that she was going to get a really big surprise on her 13th birthday, Anna felt hollow  She'd never felt like this before. Lost in the jungles of memories and tears she felt the coldness that told her that she could never hear her nanna laughing again, the coldness that reminded her that she couldn't talk to nanna ever again, the coldness that reminded her that nanna was no more and that she had died. That icy feeling made her realise and accept that nanna would never come back again."




This was one of my first attempts at writing. The names are changed, the story is a little tweaked, but the emotions are real.

The coexistence of everything.

I see the entire world fighting over religion. Obviously, each thinks that their own religion is better.But I don't understand why is there a fight over it and why can't everybody just make peace with following whichever faith they like, because ultimately they are different religions.

If at all there should be a problem, it should be in India. There are 1.2 billion people out of which approximately 80% population follows Hinduism. Now out of those 80%, each state, each region, each sect has their own version of a God. Here are billions of people following the same religion yet following different forms, and still they somehow manage to coexist. No, this isn't a post about hard hitting questions about religion or if there is a God or whatever. This post is just about the beauty of India and the power of festivals, traditions and our Deities to unite us all.

Today, I went and attended Durga Puja for the first time in my life. I must say here that i am not a religious person. I don't know the religious songs nor have I read any religious texts. But since the time I came back, I have been questioning myself as to why I never went for it before. The entire spiritual feel of standing in front of the Pandal and looking at the evening Puja was surreal, almost dream like. The entire place was filled with this energy of positivity that made you want to believe in the power of Ma Durga. Standing there, mesmerised by the Puja, by the beauty of the pandal and by the smiles on everyone's face, I realised the power that these festivals have of bringing everybody together.

Different regions have their own deities, their own huge festivals. In West Bengal, Assam. Odisha and the areas around believe in Goddess Durga, in the northern part, Diwali is the biggest festival, while Mathura and Vrindavan have Holi as their biggest festival, even though they are a part of northern India and not to forget, Maharashtra on to the south Ganesh Chaturti is the biggest festival.

We all have our own God, we have our own ways of celebrating them. I might not be a bengali, yet I loved being there in the Pandal and being a part of the divinity. The entire feeling of belonging and the aura of the power that Ma durga  has could be felt at the evening aarti. Looking at the statue of Ma Durga, never did the thought came in my mind that 'This is a bengali version of a deity I believe in' and I am very sure, someone from any part of India other than the north, celebrates Diwali doesn't think twice.

The number of Gods and Goddesses we have, the fight should be between us, as to which one is better which one should we follow, yet somehow the beauty of this country is that we all know how to enjoy our festivals, we know that ultimately its just three God, Vishnu, Bhrahma & Shiva  along with their women counter parts who, we believe, gives them the power, are our Goddesses. There could be a thousand names given to these 3 Gods and we all, a country of a billion people, will find a way to believe in each other's belief and keep alive the traditions and have the statues or photos of all the Gods even if we believe in one specific form a little more.

And as for my first time at Durga Pujo, all I can say is that if getting everyone together and creating that sense of belonging and divinity isn't a proof of Gods existing, then I don't think anything else is.

Its happy time of the year!!

I have just been swamped, like literally working so much that I has absolutely no time to write. It feels good to be back to posting here and what better time than the happiest time of the year?! :D

So yes, as a North Indian, I am a Diwali nut. A month before Diwali, the entire festive feels starts building up. Plans to go for Dandiya or to accompany the Bong friends to C.R.Park and go to the Durga puja or to hear my we-don't-follow-navratras friends going on about how they can eat chicken and I can't. The entire feeling that starts with the coming of October is amazing.

There are 4 weeks left for Diwali and the planning of Diwali parties, clothes, gifts, decoration, everything has already started. The happiness of this season and the festivals is just in the air. You hear everyone talking about happy things and the holidays that we get. The deciding of mithais and menu for the  Diwali parties all of it has to be perfect with all the lights and the decorations.

This is undoubtedly the happiest time of the year. Its when you meet your friends, get new clothes, decorate your house. Its a reason to throw a party, a reason to open your bottles of beer and chill while playing a game of Poker with your friends. Diwali time everything is allowed!

Its the happiness in the air, the happiness of traditions and festivals that make an absolutely boring year amazing. And the weather to sit outside and light diyas and make rangolis is perfect. Its the joy of giving each others gift, meeting everybody and giving sweets and gifts to the under privileged that makes this time awesome.

This the time of the year when the entire North India goes all hyper and the markets are filled with bright colors and you see smiling faces all around. Its the best time of the year.

So here is a wish for you all, HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON, everybody! :S 

The Break Up Season

I've heard more lets-break-up-its-not-working-out stories in the last few weeks than ever before. All of a sudden its like the universe is acting against the happy people. But well, we'll never really figure out the way universe works but we do know how the heart-broken's would.

Break ups are always messy. The longer the relationship, the harder it is to get over it. And you know what sucks more than that? Being dumped. One moment you are all determined to make it work but the other asshole just decides for you that its not working out anymore. So yes, the worse is to handle a recently dumped broken heart. How do we deal with that? Well, here are a few tips that might be helpful to cheer up a broken heart around you.

1. Leave them alone.
Immediately after the break, a person is going through major emotional upheaval, they need time to sort things out and reset their priorities and get back their life on track. So yes, if they ask you to leave them alone for a while give them that time. When they are ready they'll probably call you up themselves to share it and to make it clear that they need someone.

2. Ice cream.
Give them ice cream. Like get them a bloody tub that is huge enough to have ice cream supply for the next 10 days. The heart knows not of the gender, all it knows is the good feeling after eating ice cream. So its a guy friend or a girl friend, doesn't matter ice makes everyone feel better. And mark my words, in times of grave depression, ice cream works better than chocolates.

3. Treat them normally.

After the break up, people wanna stay alone. But we all know that staying alone will do nothing but just make them sad. But what makes it worse is when you are around them and you treat them like they just told you that they have cancer. Don't give them the overly concerned looks. Your concern should be shown with the help of your actions, not your eyes. Remember that.

4. Talking about it.

Do NOT ask them to talk about it. Thats a rookie mistake. They need to get over it and repeating the story of their worst nightmare isn't the best way to start the getting-over-process. If they want to talk about it, they will, on their own. Trust me.

And while we're at it, don't even keep on asking them how they feel. It won't take a rocket scientist to figure out how they are feeling right after being dumped.

5. Sing them "Fix You"
Everyone is a coldplay fan. There is no song better to make them realise that you will fix them and you'll be with them to pick them up from the lowest point that they feel there at. And if your voice sucks, it'll just add to the charm, it'll make them laugh.

6. Control over the phone.

Sad, desperate take-me-back calls are the worst and they'll be embarrassed after they get over it. So take their phone away from them if its post paid or blow up the balance in their phone so that they don't beg that rat bastard to take them back.

Also, delete the number for them if they haven't already. Yes, they'll put it back probably but after a while they'll be tired of saving and checking the bastard's whatsapp status and won't probably message either.

7. Alcohol.

Yes, alcohol is not the answer. It isn't. But if someone has gone through an emotional blow, they deserve one night of that awesome light headed feeling. They deserve that much. So give them a break from their misery, open the bottles, get the shot glasses, let them free and take them to a karaoke or a party so that they can probably enjoy.

8. Gender biased remedy.

So if its a girl friend who just got dumped, take her to the market and force her to shop and insist to pay for the one of the things she picks up. If not that then take her to the market and get her something yourself that you think she would like, a top, earrings, bag, clutch, whatever.

If its a guy, give him your collection of porn. Really. Its better than them sleeping around with different chicks or over thinking the break up and getting sadder. And lets face it, porn is something guys love.

9. Hugs.

The best remedy ever. After being dumped all that a person automatically gets into the self-doubt-mode. They think there is something wrong with them. No amount of words is going to make them feel better. So give them a hug. Its the best way to tell them that they are wanted.

We all know the crap about how a broken heart is hard to mend and and how its upto the person who is going through all this to get over it. But one of the other truths in life is that the best friends play a major role in it. I mean yes, you'd always have your "better-halves" breaking your heart but its the friends who are your real forevers :)

Bitching for Dummies!

So there are things you just have. Like, capacity to drink if you're a Punjabi or the creative skills and beautiful hair if you're a Bengali or maybe the ability to study and do engineering no matter what, if you're a South Indian.
Well, yes all those are stereotypes but to an extent they are true. You get all the traits right from the beginning and it defines you who you are. Its almost as if you've grown up with these things. But one thing that doesn't come to you almost since birth is a CHARACTER.

Now, in today's modern world, everyone is so busy pleasing every second person that they'd do it at any cost. So much so that they're ready to bond over conversations that lead to bashing a random person's character. Now everyone gossips and bitches. Yes we know that. But there are some ethics related to that too. Here are a few ground rules for all the idiots out there:

1. Definition of bitching.
You all geniuses out there first get this one right. Bitching is insulting someone to make them feel bad or to make yourself feel better or both. Not character bashing in public. And I fail to understand just why would you want to insult someone you barely know? Really people, do something better than wasting energy on this. 

2. Never bitch about C to C's best friend.

Now, how hard is it for you to realise that C and his/her best friend talk about everything? If you missed that that two people are best friends and go go bitch about one of them to the other then I think you either need to start paying more attention to the obvious or do something about your dumbness.

3. You don't let it reach to his/her ears.
Now, even if you are "bitching" about, say Y, to get a little bit satisfaction in your pathetic little life at least make sure it does not reach Y's ears? Because Y doesn't want himself being judged by random people just so you get that satisfaction for 5 minutes. Y doesn't believe in such kind of social service, probably.

4. You don't pretend to be "friends"
 I mean you idiots,did it EVER occur to you to probably hang out with the ones who have a spine so that by some miracle you could grow one too? If, you are bitching about B to the entire world, what you absolute asses don't realise is that B probably knows, you don't have to pretend to like B because B also doesn't give a f*ck about you after listening to what all you've said about him/her. 

So, please follow some of these to guidelines while bitching about anyone. It'll make a better place or else one day the person you've been bitching about will take your case so bad that you'd want to crawl up in your bed in a dark room a never get out. :)

When Internet becomes Dear Diary.

So, remember the time in class 5th or 6th we were made to do a writing skill called "Diary Entry"? I'm pretty sure at some point of time all us, especially the girls, had their cute diaries in which they wrote about how cute the guy in their class was.

Sadly, the pen and paper got replaced by something a little more public than the pink diary. It got replaced by the internet. Now, I know internet is a place where you can do ANYTHING. From putting up naked pictures of yourself to putting up a video about "how to solve calculus questions". I'm sure anything varying from your naked pictures to the vids about calculus sums, all of it would have its own audience but one thing NONE of us are interested in is your e-diary.

So, good that its your 30th month anniversary or your love for your significant other is deep and pure or the way your love looks at you gives you butterflies in your stomach or how your boyfriend gave the the perfect gift on Valentines. All of it is really nice but you know we're genuinely really not interested. And this is not the only thing that we don't wanna read about, we don't wanna know how sad you are because you were not invited to a party you best friend was invited to or how hard it is to be a teenager or just how "cool" saying "fuck" or "cunt" makes you. All it tells us is that you're old enough to know these words but childish enough to think it makes you "cool".

Stop thinking that putting EVERY bloody thing on facebook or your blog is going to make your life a "happening" one, because kids, if you think so you probably don't have a life and its definitely not going to get better if you keep this up.

Somethings are really better done traditionally. You've probably forgotten what a Diary Entry is like but since most of you have internet access, I suggest Google it. It'll help you keep your stupid emotions to yourself and a little less idiocy for us to deal with.

The purpose of having that "secret diary" was so that no one read it and if you haven't realised, internet is kinda an open platform where anyone and everyone has access to anything and everything. And i really doubt we have people using search engines to find out what your group of friends is like or how your non-existent but apparently "cool" sex life is like. So yes, lets try to make internet a better place by not making it our rosy pink diary. :)

A city of youngsters, Vada Pav, Dabeli and the BEST Cold Coffee.

Last year, standing right outside the gates of Hindu college trying to get in, to attend Mecca, their annual fest, I saw an old acquaintance from school walking out and handing me a chit with "Participant - Premchand, PD" written on it. Thanks to her and that chit we got in the campus. After entering we called her up and thanked her after which I looked at the chit and tried to make sense out of what was written on it. I saw pamphlets of Premchand were stuck around and that was when I got to know that "PD" stood for Parliamentary Debate. I wondered to myself what exactly a PD was. Little did I know that within a year, I'd be PD-ing myself and enjoying it so bloody much.

So, Last year November, I did my first PD. A brilliant experience. Mostly because I had nothing at stake. I watched some of the best teams debate and pick up the best things from their styles. I made amazing friends over the break-night party and somehow as crappy a place Bhopal was, it was an amazing experience to meet new people, to make friends and to eat tasty food all day long. Of course a lot of credit goes to the people at NLIU, they were amazing hosts and a lot friendlier than expected.

But in the NLIU debate, I was a trainee. My opinion didn't matter much even though I was marked high by my chair and she thought I did deserve to be promoted, there was nothing much that could be done. So probably it was the competitive spirit that I missed out on. But this time, my second PD at ILS, Pune, I was going as a speaker. Tagged as the good-but-not-so-good team, my two friends and I were teamed up together. That is when the competitive spirit took over and I protested against it and I was made the bitch of our contingent. But that didn't bother me. Three good but unorganised people together when none of them was sure about their own performance irked us a bit. But maybe it all worked out. We worked rather well together in our brain storming 20 minutes of prep time, we worked more as a team than expected. So, as a speaker, you have a completely different type of rush in you. The adrenaline rush it something to experience.

On the first day in Pune, I met a friend at MG road. Roaming around there, eating Quiche in a tiny bakery followed by Mac and Cheese at Marz-o-rin and eating chocolate at 11 East Street Cafe, I was in love with the city. The number of youngsters and the hustle-bustle of the city made me fall for it the first day itself. Sitting in a 100 year old building, looking out at the MG road sipping Butterscotch shake with the nice cool wind blowing my in face and talking, it was pure bliss. A much needed break from the extreme Delhi winters and one month of exams.

The second day, the day when the debates were to start, we had a couple of hours before the rounds so we went to the ILS canteen and ate there. We all went for the safe stuff and ordered Cold Coffee, I mean how much can someone mess with cold coffee, right? So we ordered our Cold Coffees and this and that and then finally when we drank those coffees and all we went was like "F*ck!! This is the best coffee we've had, ever!!" and I swear I am not exaggerating, it really was the best Cold Coffee. Then after drinking almost 3 of them we left for FC road. Oh, FC road, lined up with food joints, malls and tiny shops I fell in love with the place even more. From walking the complete length of that road to Raushan buying her awesome bright pink watch to the fake Zarra, it was an amazing start to the day that we all were nervous about. We all knew that in a couple of hours we'd be debating for the first or the second time in our lives.

We got back at the campus around 2 in the afternoon. waiting for the rounds to start. Getting nervous our of our wits, the rounds started. Nervous about if we could work together or not, Aman, Vrinda and I found the stairs empty and we sat there brain storming. Luckily enough, we worked with immense understanding and somehow bonded over the nervousness.  we didn't realise when the 20 minutes went by and we had out runner coming and telling us that time's up. We walked in to see that one of the scariest debaters (this opinion was given by a lot of people who watched the mock match up) was adjudicating us. We lost the round, by a very close margin and we knew we could get better. We took all the advice that our adj gave us and till date, Partha, I'd like to thank you for being SO nice and patient with our feed back in both the rounds.

The second round started. The round in which I was the best speaker (Woohoo!!). I swear I wanted to kill our Adj then because we were good, but then his feedback probably even better than the round before but still losing that round with a margin of 0.5 almost got tears in my eyes and thankfully that day was over. To make myself feel better I met up with the friend I had met the day before and we went for South Indian food which apparently was the best place to get South Indian food but trust me, when Dosa is as crisp as a Papad, it can not be the place serving the best South Indian food. :P

The next day also went by. We were just so absolutely unhappy with the way things were going. Its very annoying when the Adjs are snobs and will give the stupidest of reasons to make you lose. That was when we just thought of having fun and practicing our skills like we didn't care anymore. That was the best day for debating, I swear, That was when we tried all that we could without any pressure and the last round was the best one ever, def chal when it wasn't needed and the speeches of the Symbi guys, absolutely brilliant. :D

The third day we had nothing to do. We slept till late, went to ILS canteen hogged on Vada Pav and Cold Coffee (best breakfast!) and trekked on the ILS hill. The ILS hill had one of the best views of the city. And since I was free, again I met my friend at his college, AFMC, in the evening. Followed by the extremely pretty campus tour of AFMC, I had Dabeli at Fatima Nagar market. Oh what awesome-ness Dabeli was. Its funny how when you bite it, its sweet and as you chew it, it becomes all spicy. The next time, I go to Pune, I shall have one whole meal of just Dabeli. That's decided. After the Dabeli, eating melted chocolate with hazelnut, blueberry cheesecake, buying shrewsberry and shopping for Oshos, we ended up having dinner at a place called Sheesha. Oh, Sheesha was one of the nicest places. There we sat talking about everything under the sun until it was time to leave.         

After returning to the acco, we met our friends, finally Namit, (a friend from ILS) decided to visit us. everyone was going crazy looking for their stuff and packing it because there was no way in hell that we'd wake up early and pack. Talking about random things, laughing at anything anyone said, to Raushan's shoe hanging on the hook, all in all the trip was one of the best ever. And to be the best speaker in 3 out of 5 rounds, just made it better.

If anything that this trip did for me was make me realise just how much I loved debating and how much of a break it was from any other kind of ECA in a law school. PD was one thing that gave you the on-the-spot adrenaline rush and just how the 20 minutes brain storming sessions can be relaxing from other activities. I shall never forget my first time as a speaker and right now, I am looking forward to many more tournaments coming up that I can participate in. :)

Ps, ILS people, you and your canteen is thoroughly missed. It was awesome to meet you guys finally and hope to see you guys soon. :)