To us, winning was a habit!

The smell of success,
The blood of opponents,
The belief that your team can come from deep down and win,
The strategy of successful superstitions,
The palpable change of mood from despair to ecstasy in the dressing room(?),
The moment of pride when you say your team is the best,
The once-in-a-lifetime inning played by your teammate in turning tables.
Yes indeed - We are the best, We beat the rest.

There were stunning catches held, vital innings played, quickfire momentum built, coming out on top even when some of the premier players were not involved, tight-line bowling spells, the occassional bowlers turned their golden arm, the men behind the stumps doing a great job.
All in all, it was a great team effort from a team that was rich in talent, effort, spirit and that believed in themselves. And I am personally proud that I went out to the toss everytime and did my job to some sense of satisfaction.

Yes, I am talking about the cricket tournament organized by the ISA here at UKY.

Some tidbits that I enjoyed during this tournament -
1. The stunning catch that Kay produced under the tree (doesnt he love the trees when taking catches?) that saved us some runs more than taking that wicket.
2. The beautiful last 2 balls bowled by Pradeep when all the opposition wanted was 3 runs off 2 balls. Man! that win I will savor for a long time because we were a make-shift team for that match and that was a huge win for us!
3. The bowling effort that won us our second league match by restricting the opposition to just 65 runs. We won the match during the break itself.
4. Semis was another beautiful bowling effort. Never were the opposition in contest. An easy win with new found bowling talent in Laka and Dins. Breathtaking couple of catches from Dharma.
5. Finals, still 77 runs from 7 overs with only 3 wickets in hand. The opposition thought that the match was in their pockets by then. They talked with a sense of air during the drinks break - "You guys have already lost the match, you have to wear the runners-up shirt". Alas! Dudeeeeeeeeeeeee! Vasu and DineshP really kicked some a*&e%. What a sweet win it was :)

No wonder, when I said "We were the best team in the tournament and we proved it", I really believed it so!

Tagged, me!

Subhashini had tagged me a while back - close to 2 weeks, and I thought long, hard, real, sincere and came up with this list of mine.

I went through a lot of blogs and was amazed by the range of topics that people read books on. To be honest, I dont have any of those style books (the classic ones) on my list. But reading all your blogs, I do came up with a list that I have put down as must read by the end of this year and believe me, that list is already pretty long.

My first few reads : The first 2 were from the school non-detailed section -

Oliver Twist (for some reason, I never felt sympathetic towards Oliver after reading the story).
Around the world in 80 days - easily the best that I read when I was young. I so liked the story and narration that I re-read it like 20 times within one summer. It was pacy, entertaining and thrilling to read.
King Solomon Mines - Again the non-detailed book for 8th standard English and man I liked it very much. It describes the quest of a team determined to find the gold mines in Africa(I guess!).
500 Panchatantra tales - I dont remember any one of them, but I borrowed this book from my cousin and read this one summer.
Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare.

My college day reads:
When I was in my 2nd year of college, it dawned to me that everyone around me is reading a fiction-novel and I started reading one too. My first one was Rage of Angels and so it always is special to me. Then read a series of Sidney Sheldon novels - If tomorrow Comes, Other side of midnight, Memories of midnight (not sure about the name of this novel), Tell me your dreams. Sheldon is like our typical masala movie director - has all necessary ingredients to his novel.

Then switched to Michael Crichton - read Congo, Jurassic Park, Sphere. I liked reading Sphere - it was riveting to say the least, and sustained my interest through out. But when I watched the movie later, I felt disappointed. :(

My friend Rajaram then introduced me to Robin Cook's novels - Outbreak, Mutation and Terminal. I read Mutation first and was spell-bound. The theme was different but then the subsequent novels lost that touch.
I read this novel - The Second Lady, not sure who wrote it (any one knows the author?). It is about a body-double that Russia develops who is trained to be look, behave, talk the same way as the first lady of USA and swaps them somehow. I liked it as well.
One more short writeup that impressed me was Seagulls. Although I am not a big fan of philosophical-spirit-lifting theories in books, I liked this one mainly because this was short and to the point.
Ok, now that completes my list of read books.

Let me finish this one with the list of books that I lent from the Lexington Public Library last weekend -
Rising Sun - Crichton, Michael
Debt of Honor - Clancy, Tom
Sons of Fortune - Archer, Jeffrey
Sphinx - Cook, Robin

I still have Thunai Ezhuthu by S.Ramakrishnan (published as a weekly article in Anandhavikatan) to be read.( aamam PB, unnoda book thaan, naan vachu irukken - dont worry!) and I borrowed Bhagavat Gita from Pradeep that I need to read as well.

My list to read includes top of the list - "Ponniyin Selvan", Atlas Shrugged, "Parthiban Kanavu", "It is not about the bike - Lance Armstrong","A brief history of time", "Not a penny more, not a penny less".

By the time I finish writing this blog, I feel good (I thought this will be my shortest blog, but turned out the other way) and thanq Subha! :)

My turn to tag people -
- VS (yes, my lesser seen roomie!)
- Moni
- Ananthu

Go on guys, I did it, you can do it too!
- Prabhu

ps : hmmm, on seeing Subha's blog again I left out one thing - The last book I was gifted? It was Love Story ( what 4 years back, was it?). hmmm, now that people know I have become an avid reader all of a sudden, I think can expect to get few more :)

My new(s) blog

Visit my other blog : http://swiftnews.blogspot.com

As the title suggests, its a news blog, that I was wanting to initiate for quite sometime.
Keep visiting the other one as well.
- Prabhu

Husky voices inside ...

I dont want to be called manipulative,
I dont want to be called selfish,
I dont want to be called egoistic,
I dont want to be called over-indulging,
I dont want to be called incorrigible,
I dont want to be called boring,
I dont want to be called flirtatious,
I dont want to be called biased,
I dont want to be called artificial,
I dont want to be called moody,

Everyday I try hard to satisfy the moderator in me who raises these voices!

Friendship - Winds of Change

Gangadhar was married happily to Revathy for 3 years. Gangadhar had a really close long time friend, Amitabh who also became a very good friend of Revathy. Three of them went together all the places and talked endlessly on every topic that could interest them. Amitabh's feelings towards Revathy was that of a genuine friend - no adulterations, no inclinations. The three of them went on a holy trip to Kashi once. The Ganges was surprisingly turbulent when they had a dip in her. They went pretty deep inside the river and felt Ganges indeed had the miraculous cleansing power. "Helpppp......" screamed a mother scurryingly attempting to save her 4 year old son carried away by the river. Gangadhar looked to his right and the kid was within 30 feet from him. He dived into the fast flowing river trying to save the kid.

Revathy was sobbing inconsolably. It had been 3 weeks and there were no traces of him. The police found the 4 year old kid the same evening washed away, but they could not find Gangadhar. Amitabh was trying everything within his realms of possibility and nothing had helped so far.

8 years since that incident happened, Gangadhar had taken to spirituality and that day he could not believe his eyes. In the streets of Kashi, he saw Revathy and Amitabh with 2 kids. He was so happy that day. "Thank God, Thank God" he repeated. "Thanks for providing just the logical solution to Revathy's life. After all not everything defies logic", he mumbled.
He did not want Revathy or Amitabh to spot him. He could remain out of guilt just this one day. The guilt that he decided to save his life ahead of the 4 year old kid when the currents were just too strong for him to plunge and save the kid.

Kings Island June 5 2005

The day hopeful,
The drive enjoyable,
The rides thrilling,
The water a blessing,
The talks amusing,
The group total fun,
The lunch just about right,
The winding queues,
The ssllooww train ride,
Choosing the next ride,
Following the leader,
Video shots, photographs,
Drive back awesome,
The talks rode laughter,
Newer relationships? :(
Late dinner feast sumptuous,
Before bed the heart lighter,
the age lesser,
the mind in unknown territories...

Simply put in blogging terms, the trip a classic! Keep'em coming :)

Recipes down the memory lane - 2

Chapter -1 : It's a perfect world, so far ...

Chapter 2: From present to past, via the future

April 2008:


Anjali's life has taken its own wild course through the last 4 years. Back when she was in college, not even in her worst nightmares she thought she would end up with what she is doing now. Just like every other fellow-student in her college, she too had dreams of getting a Masters degree from a reputed school in US, make new friends, make money that would entitle her of a good living, explore and ad-venture into some picturesque scenic places that she heard America possesses.

All her close buddies went onto top schools and started pursuing graduate studies. A fraction of them might be chasing a PhD degree now. The others might be with a handsomely paying job with a leading technology company. She least cares about them now. Its been more than an year since she last uttered a word to anyone. Just like the turbulences of a heavy gust of wind blowing away the sand castle along the beach, the unfortunate, unfathomable events put her life into astray.

Back in her college days, when asked what she considers her negative traits are, she would take almost a minute and reply " I dream big! and sometimes I get carried away with the dreams so much that I dont know where to land".And then she would continue on - " then the regulars for a girl - I tend to be overly sensitive over trivial issues, I would be disappointed badly if someone close to me hurts me". She would go on "But I am a sweet lass and that more than compensates for all the negatives". Could someone really go into her brains and alter her genes for their own benefits? How did she let that happen to her? Or is it just her figment of imagination?

It was ten to one in the night. The house looked deserted both from inside and outside - there are no neighbors, no houses nearby. That's not surprising - no one would want to live at a place in the thick of a forest, far away from the mainland. The room was dark, pitch dark that you could miss a glittering cat's eyes in the room. The trees and the guttering winds were making quite a noise and have gone silent for a while, probably informing about an impending rain. Anjali was lying on the floor like a dead-girl, her body stone cold, heartbeat erratic, breathing intervals irregular.

Her mom. Flash. Chemistry lab at her college. Flash. Photograph of her bunch of friends at an amusement park. Flash. Her closest friend. Flash. An ugly little creature. Flash. The wretched cell-phone of hers. Flash. A beaten-up herself. Flash. Rehana Begum's throat cut slit. Flash. The hospital. Flash. Her mom. Fla..

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh" - Anjali suddenly sits up with her heartbeat galloping like a horse, sweat pouring all over her face, breaths taking in more air than her lungs could handle and her face crunching with an excruciating pain in her body.
The past is yet to come ...

To be continued...