Tennis, David Foster Wallace & Federer

If you like Tennis and if youve even heard of Roger Federer to say the least, you have to read this...

Federer as a Religious Experience - David Foster Wallace
(Read it here!!!)

My thoughts...
This article is a tribute to Federers game. Now, I admit, though i really like tennis, I have stopped follwing it of late after the departure of greats like Pete Sampras, Monica Seles and Ivan.
But this piece leaves you breathless. You get the sensation of actually being there on center court, whiplashing your head from side to side as the greats battle it out. You fantasise about watching the next Federer game. You dream about going to the next game :-D
You curse that day when you put down your tennis racket coz u were "busy" (ha!!! fat chance!!!)
It makes you fall in love with Federer without having watched more than a game.
You can feel the exhileration, you get an adrenalin rush, you can hear the soft perfect thud when the racket makes contact with the ball...you can smell the grass.

I dunno about Federers game, but this reading this was definitely a spiritual experience..Can't wait to watch Rogers next game (sorry, but I feel like i know him intimately after having read that piece)

If you are a Federer fan, then THIS IS YOUR TEMPLE...
(Read it here!!!)

My love, my books

Reading a pirated book feels like making out with your lovers twin brother. It might look the same... but the feelings and excitement are not the same. When you curl up in bed with it, you feel like you are cheating on your lover by being in bed with his twin. The irony being, they say the same things, and even touch the same chords, but at the end of the experince you feel unfulfilled and are left with a feeling that something was missing from the experience. It just isn't the same.

And besides after youve finished reading it, and its sitting there in some corner of your room...when you steal glances towards it, a pirated book just doesnt bring a spark to your eyes. I rarely go back to it. Even now when I look at an original book lying on my table that I read some time back, It brings a loving look into my eyes and warmth all over. I remember the long cold winter evenings spent with it and the nights spent curled up together. The brief affair might be over, but the feelings are never dead. I will keep going back.

Someone once asked me, about a very good book, whether it was worth the price I paid for it. It felt like a slap across the face. It felt like he was asking me how much i paid for my love. The fullfilment and companionship doesnt come with a price tag, mister. It comes with unquestionable faith and unconditional love.

I'm going back to goa!

I'm dreaming of white sands and blue waters of the sea,
I'm dreaming of the swishing of the river water against the walls
I dreaming of the barges making their way home
I'm dreaming of goa

I'm thinking of snow white steeples
I'm thinking of sleepy buses
I'm thinking of vast grassy fields
I'm thinking of goa

I'm seeing the college gate
I'm seeing the open quad
I'm seeing the parking lot
I'm seeing goa

I'm smiling about the open doors and opens arms
I'm smiling about everybody being an uncle's cousin or aunt's cousin
I'm smiling about the love and warmth
I'm smiling about goa

I'm remembering the glasses of wine and beer
I'm remembering good friends and good food
I'm remembering good times
I'm remembering goa

I'm missing the classes and assignments
I'm missing the music and movies
I'm missing the bike rides
I'm missing goa

I'm going back to the wide open roads
I'm going back to the fresh air
I'm going back to the open skies
I'm going back to goa

Check it out...
(Samarth Kholkar's site :http://picasaweb.google.com/samerth/CharmDeGoa/)

General wellagiri...

Good friends, good food, good "spirits" make for a great saturday night. Pathetic jokes, that everybody laughs at, bitching about work and bosses, pulling each others legs, cursing a "single" death, talking @ the past and future, shopping, movies, gupshup- Its a life!!!

WOO HOO!!!

Read this somewhere.....i think this totally describes what life should be.... Get high! Be Merry!--

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!"

The 4 Walls

This is your world, this is your universe
This is where you rule, this is where you falter
This is your kingdom
This are your four walls...

The walls have seen many a lives
They have seen the sweets of successes
They have seen the tears of failure
They have seen shoulders bent forward
They have seen heads held high

These are the 4 walls which have seen it all
Many before you, many after you who will come and go
But the walls remain motionless against this passage of time
Only the scars and stains on the wall reflect on the times gone by

As you leave after another long day and return every morning
The walls welcome you into their arms
As you come ready or not to face a nother day
They wish you a soulfilled goodbye as you trudge home into the twilight

These walls have seen hearts filled with love and hate
Plotting scheming heads and malicious hearts
Restless bodies and souls
Grateful and gracious minds

They have seen nurturing friendships,
Budding romances and broken hearts
Sideways glances and stolen chances
Entire dramas created in their womb

They are a selfless lover who gives all
And never asks for anything in return
Protects you from looks and glares
Gives you your space but are always around

This is your world, this is your universe
This is where you rule, this is where you falter
This is your kingdom
This are your four walls...

A place called home

Another place, another time,A place called home
Its not a city, or a flat, its a place where you own the streets
Where the roads are yours, the air is yours
You are not an intruder in somebody elses air
Where every person on the road knows you belong...where you know you belong
Where the nearest family or friend is a stones throw away...so is the farthest.

Where things around you change but yet they dont

Ina strange land , the possilbilities are endless
the roads are always exciting, always new.....Where every turn can bring a new surprise.. or shock
Slowly, the road starts to turn automatically under ur feet....ur feet find their hold on the cracks in the pavement and roads become familier
You start to own the air u breathe....
You start to feel like its ur city....
Here too, u feel like u belong, here too..

Things around you change but yet they dont

Learning for today

Date: 16th Jan

Venue: Pricing Strategy Class

Great Big learning : If you are gonna screw with the law, don't leave the condom behind.

The Sailor

There were a 100 sailors
Looking new and peachy clean
In their caps and hoods
About to go a-sailing

Each one thinking of his journey
Wondering in which direction to set sail
Wondering where the wind was blowing
Where is the easy sailing

There stood one man in that crowd, young for his age
Not wondering where the wind was blowing
Looking at the sun on the horizon
Knowing where he wanted to go

The sailors set off
All in his own direction
The undecided following another bunch
None knowing where the wind was pushing them

They who were pushed by the wind
In the wake of the boats ahead
Sailed around mindlessly
Seemingly enjoying themselves

The young sailor set off
In the opposite direction to the wind
The wind, she beared down on his little craft
But the sun guiding him...

He pushed ahead, enjoying the strain
Enjoying the thought of reaching that island on the horizon
He pushed against the wind
Didnt hear the other sailors laughing at him

He reached his island
Throwing himself on the sand
The other sailors wondering why...
The young sailor feeling the sand

And then the storm came wrecking everything in its path
Every sailor tossed like a dice
All those whom the wind was helping
Dying...just like our young friend

The storm subsided,every sailor in his watery grave
The easy sailors lying in the water, still in the harbour
As the young boy breathed his last
He smiled, for he carried the sand in his hand.

Memories of MBA

As the sun dips slowly and the day moves towards twilight, the barges chug their way slowly up the river. The students let out a collective sigh of relief as the classes and tests for the day are over and ...THE MADNESS BEGINS!!! Our days consist of group meetings, project work and plenty of fun. Staying up all through the night, pretending to being completing an assignment, but actually arguing about some arbitrary theory about life, propounded by some genius amongst us, is a regular sight here. And then the clock strikes 12 and its time for our midnight meal, accompanied by the same genius, who insists on convincing you of his theory. You have a glass of ice-cold creamy bournvita in one hand, and the latest finance case in the other (which, by the way, you are still pretending to be doing). At the same time you are trying to kick the idiot(or rather, genius) of the life theory fame while try to stealthily eat french fries, egg rolls or noodles from the plate of the person next to you. That, my friends is how you learn multi-tasking at my B-school, which as managers of tomorrow, blah, blah, blah.....(lets leave that gyaan giving for the professors and the sorely kicked genius) But don't think you can get away here just like that. We did do our work, whether we planned it days in advance and finished it 1-2 days early or stayed up till the wee hours of the morning the day before the submission (with me..normally its the second option). We’ve done the days and nights of theories of marketing, gotten blurry eyed doing accounts, traveled to the industrial complexes for our projects, struggled to sleep without getting caught in class, with your neighbour nudging you every time the professor looked at you over the top of his soda glasses and heard about how "CHANGE IS THE ONLY THING CONSTANT IN OUR LIVES" :-)) Visions of volleyball and football matches, the cricket cup, with throngs of supporters crowding the quadrangle, the colours of holi, the lights of diwali,and the rafi, kishore, juggy D, metallica or some very famous tamil number vibrating through the corridors of the hostels, will forever remain with us.