Achilles' heel

Hector: Why are you here? Achilles: They'll be talking about this war for a thousand years... I was on a long distance drive and there was this particularly steep slope ahead. I could see a couple of nuns making their way up to the church at the top. The good Samaritan part of me wanted to stop and give them a ride. The other part thought that this was beginning to sound to like a really bad joke "Two nuns get into a car...". In the end, I decided it was best not to sound like a serial killer. In the mid nineties when I used to go home for the summer, my grandpa used to take me for the occasional drive in his ancient Ambassador. It was jet black, and at first thought, you start picturing a getaway described in cop shows, "Be advised, suspect is headed North on I90 driving a black SUV". On one particular ride, I was sitting in the front. All of a sudden, he slowed the car down near a near bus stop.  This particular bus stop was pretty close to the col...

We live very busy lives and sometimes we don't take the time to see how truly blessed we are. The first friend I added on Facebook happened to be my best friend. When I told him, he told me that we were best friends from fourth grade, who gives a shit what Facebook shows on timeline. My brother from another mother! Thank you for being a part of my life...Thank you M! The English teacher who used to pinch my cheek for getting the grammar questions right. You have had a profound impact on my life. I'm sorry my grammar has strayed in recent years.  Thank you for being a part of my life...Thank you S! We don't get to choose family, they may annoy you, they may push you harder than anyone else, but most of all, they will love you without limits.  Thank you for being a part of my life...Thank you R! I grew up in a school which had a partition from the girls section. Growing up, I had very few friends who are girls. After I graduated, a g...

Some one once told me that my dislike for masala dosa highlights the fact that I don't like "hidden" surprises. I'm the type of guy who likes to make a plan and everything has to work like clockwork. As life would have it, when I take a gym membership for 6 months, I get shipped to another city, I join a coaching course, I get shipped to another country and just when you think things are finally starting to go as planned, dad goes without giving me a chance to say goodbye.  There truly is nothing  more certain in life than uncertainty. The few things I am certain of is that this is going to be my first Christmas without him, my first birthday without talking to him and a whole lot more firsts I'm not looking forward to. They say time is then greatest healer, but some voids cannot be filled. Most super heroes have dead parents in their past, this is because the fear of losing a parent is something any reader can relate to, the death forcing ...

Truly Asian experience in 10 points: 1) Even though it was past 3 am when we were racing across the streets of KL for the first time, the streets were empty, except for the girls on their last shift, still managing the high heels and red dresses. All the signals were green, but in my head all the lights were red... 2) The annoying thing about working on the 50th floor of a building is that your ears pop each time you go up, even on your lunch break! But the view is to die for! 3) Had dinner with a princess (I'm not joking, but I didn't know till half way through the main course) 4) Currently working with a ex-national team hockey player, I understood not all sportsmen don't end up rich! 5) On a culinary side I ate sushi, sashimi, squid and snails. Yes I'm a vulture, my stomach digests anything! 6) Bollywood is popular even in places you least expect it 7) Felt good that for a change, a majority of the Indians in this country are not from Kerala! In fact, t...

"As I woke up in the morning, I saw him next to me..." Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are non fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is not purely coincidental. The great Theodore Mosby once said that "Nothing ever good happens after 2am", for those of you who do not know who he is, please look up "How I met your mother". It was the night of April 17, 2007. It was to be a night of legend-wait for it-dairy proportions. After almost four years of college, the ups, the downs and the in-betweens, I was in the last stretch of the marathon. As seniors, it was tradition to throw the annual "Hostel night". Unfortunately, the party had to be in the middle of the week and I was one of the unfortunate ones to have a lab exam the next day. Photos show that I reached the party at around 7pm and between 7.15pm and 7.20pm, I remember gulping down three shots of Whiskey. By 7.40pm, a lot was going though my head... ...

When it comes to pillows, I always say, the more the merrier! Back in college, I had two of them, I called them Natalie and Natasha. The origins of the names are for another day, this story however, is one of MURRRRRDER! After growing up in the desert, winters with the temperatures going below five degrees was a new thing for me. However, the engineering student in me had found a considerable ally in the form of insulation. On one particular cold night, I was fast asleep under my blankie. I had no intention of catching the 8 am lecture the next day. It was shortly after midnight when I was woken up my a strange smell. I looked around and quickly took attendance, but Natalie was missing... I turned the lights on and to my surprise, she and the room heater had decided to make babies on the floor. The "sparks" were quite literal in this case. The room had already filled with smoke and insulation had turned it into a death trap, clearly Natalie didn't like me spending ...

Every now and then we come to a point in our life when a decision we have to make will change everything. The worst part is that we can't go back if we went the wrong way. As a kid, like all other kids, I wanted to end up rich when I grew old. I also always wanted the easy way out. As I grew up, one thing I did learn is that nothing in this world worth having comes easy. Money was no longer my priority. All of a sudden I wanted to help people. When I realized this, I was already way past the fork in the road. Only then did I know that I should have become a doctor. What can I do to redeem my self? At this point, I have no idea and I hope somewhere in this journey we call life I will find the answer.

Ever heard the theme song from Star Cricket channel add? It's very apt but most importantly it's ever so catchy. There are those moments in life you will never forget no matter how small or how big they are. For me the first time was when I read something that everyone ought to have read atleast once. Funny that this is on almost all text books and nobody reads it! Its called Gandhiji's Talisman, take a look at it! Over the years I have had a lot of these "Always on my mind" moments. I'm not going to elaborate on most of them since most of them were on the cricket field! India showed what passion can do this T20 world cup, a team with passion can beat a team of talent any day. I felt this kind of passion every time I played with my friends back in my hostel days. I hope I feel the same way some time in the future too. Passion need not be just in sports... it is in every moment of our lives, in every walk of life.

"When I get older I will be stronger They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag" In 1995, a nation reborn was attempting to rebuild itself. A captain inspired by Madiba's words, inspired not just his team, but 43 million others. Despite all odds, Francois led his them to glory, a victory that transcended the realm of sport. Looking back, 63 years have passed since we became a nation. In 2007, MSD lifted a cup as we became one nation, a billion united in celebration. Since then, we have been rocked by terrorism, recession and scandals. Today, we are in the midst of trying times. Let us unite and celebrate for there is not one, but two world cups in our presence. In one we look to not just 11 men, but a billion people, in the other, we look to 6 billion!

I rarely take the quizzes in Facebook, why? Probably because I don't want to see what I already know. One of these thousand odd quizzes is the 'Are you good or evil quiz'. It is our choices that make us what we are and every now and then we come across choices which will reflect back upon over time. In October 2009, I had to make one such choice. I was at the airport waiting in a long queue to check in. I had already checked in through the web, but since we still need to get a stamp on the so called "e-boarding pass", we still need to stand in line just like everybody else. While I waited in the line, sleep deprived at 4am, I saw an old couple (Will now be referred to as the OC for the rest of the note). Mr OC was fidgeting around asking people all sorts of questions all over the place. He came up to me and asked "Where do they X-Ray the luggage?". I promptly replied that they don't do that at this airport anymore. He gave me that "This kid does...

"A phobia is an intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people." Over time you tend to realize that everybody has one or may be more of them. How often do we remember things that happened to us when we were kids. I wish I could remember more, but all I seem to remember are repressed memories. In the early nineties thousands fled the gulf in fear of one man's tyranny. Some stayed on cause they knew no other life. I was just over four years old at the time. It was a dark night, a night like none other. The lights were off and the television was on, with the only channel on air. In the corner of the living room, my dad kept those big masks ready... you never know when it would come in use. As I stared out into the horizon, from my balcony, I could see flashes of light going up and down. They looked like fire crackers. In the meantime the television would show red warnings with a blue background... the next one is coming, take cover. So am I ...

A much awaited lifestyle has begun. Long before college was over I had started thinking about joining the workforce. Everyone seemed to be of the opinion that life would never be the same, not in a good way at least . Six weeks into my first job, I can see a lot of positives. The only con being that I am now a full fledged corporate bitch! I eat, sleep and drink what "the firm" tells me to. While delivering the commencement speech at Yale University in 2000, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said: " Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser....

There comes a time in life where change in inevitable and change often means saying goodbye to a lot of things. For me the first time was when I stepped out of school for the last time as a student. The next time was when I finished college. Weird that the major changes are marked by phases of education. Now I see change in a different light. A major portion of my life and most importantly my childhood has been in foreign soil, a place where every thing feels so different that its pretty hard to believe . The day after tomorrow, I must say goodbye to this land, probably for the last time. What lies ahead? Only time will tell.

Cricket has always been a passion for me… and the passion turns into an infatuation during exams. Unfortunately, cricket and exams always seem to go hand in hand for me. It all began with the ‘96 world cup, probably the first time I saw live cricket and it was also the first time that I saw the little maestro.  The ‘03 world cup was so wonderfully scheduled that I had four out of my five exams the day after a match with India playing. Surprisingly I did quite well in the exams despite the fact that I had watched almost all the matches. School turned to college and the routine continued. India’s first tour of Pakistan in ‘04 was exactly during the mid semesters and again I did pretty well there too. Third year didn’t  turn out to be any different.  A friend of mine and I always had something in common, we get carried away with our emotions on the pitch. On one particular day we lost in the so called quarter final of an intra hostel tournament. For the first time we weren ...

This year I have gone to church only twice… the first was on January 1, mostly because I was at home and my parents wouldn ’t have it any other way. What happened on that day was that I saw someone I didn ’t want to, after a very long time. Life has this funny way of changing things at any moment. Then I decided this is the way to go… god himself was giving me the detour.  After I left home for college, I stopped going to church for a while. It seems human nature causes a person in his most vulnerable state to turn to god when he sees no other way out, well that is the case every time I write an exam, for that matter probably anyone. So during the exams I made a promise to myself that I would try my level best to make the church going thing a weekly business. I usually never meet any of the targets I keep for myself, but I promised myself to try and keep this one, I even made a spot for it in my personal routine. So the first Sunday after my exams, like a good Samaritan I went to c...

Its past 3 in the morning, another sleepless night. Staying at home all day has drastically affected my sleep cycle. As I look out the window I hear the sounds of the city, the sound of a thousand air conditioners happily working their asses off to provide comfort for all those happily in their beds. Kudos to them! It's a miracle how people existed in this god forsaken country before they were invented. You would think that people are sleeping, but in Saudi Arabia things are a bit different . You don't have to be someone special or pulling off an all nighter to be awake at this hour. For thousands, it is the beginning of just another ordinary day. It's not that people don't sleep in this country, its just this is the normal time they' wake up to go for their daily prayer, the first of four every day. Such is the power of faith. No wonder I can't get out of bed before noon.

Do you sleep till past noon everyday? Do you lie on your couch and watch television all night? Do you check your mail twice a day even when your not expecting anything in particular? These are all classic symptoms of what I like to call NTD syndrome aka Nothing To Do syndrome. During my last semester I had to study a subject called Principles of Management. I learned a valuable lesson from that subject. It taught me McGregor's Theory X of Management, which states that "Humans are inherently lazy". It is this inherent laziness that causes NTD syndrome. But it is this NTD syndrome that has made both the acronym and my blogging possible.