R.I.P.

...just back after observing 2 minutes of silence for the Father of My Nation.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14597180

Twenty one and counting

Karthikeyan, Shyam, Shankar, Sivakumar, Divyachapan, Daniel, Vikas, Amit, Abhik, Sundar, Anandan, Mandar, Harish, Prabahar, Santosh, Senthil, Manish, Sudhaker, Shailesh, Sridhar, Aakaash,........


EDIT(April 5, 2008)::: ...Gurmeet, Vikrant,...
EDIT(September 15, 2008)::: ...Deepak,...
EDIT(August 7, 2009)::: ...Ramesh,...

EDIT(August 12, 2010)::: ...Ranga, Sambi, Raj(Srujan), Dhana, Sasi, Udhay,...

EDIT(January 8, 2012)::: ...,Jayachandran, Shikhanshu, Akshay, Amuthan, Harish B.

yes, that's a full stop. No more roommates, hopefully! :)

Getting back to the basics

Happy 59th Republic Day, India.

Had To Happen

Just when i was starting to feel happy by the thought of Federer taking on Djokovic in the Semis and Nadal in the Finals of the Australian Open, this had to happen! Federer, as much as he is talented, has been lucky enough to not play quality opponents in consecutive games of big tournaments. A fair bit of that has got to do with his opponents themselves(losing in early rounds), ofcourse. Nothing like a Sampras-Courier quarters, Sampras-Becker semis and a Sampras-Agassi finals or a Lendl-McEnroe quarters, Lendl-Connors semis and a Lendl-Wilander finals. Grrrrrrrr.

One To Rule Them All

It's very true that there cannot be two swords in one scabbard...one starts to acknowledge that more and more after being one of those two swords too often. Many is good; Single is even better; 2 is as wicked a number as it is a lovely number...

On a different note(seriously), i got the date of births of two of my old friends wrong this year...one i wished late, and the other i wished ahead of time. An old wise man once said that it is the thought that counts...i wonder if it's that simple. Before i forget, let me wish another old friend of mine Happy Birthday. பிறந்த நாள் நல்வாழ்த்துகள் பாரதி!

It's an old wide world...

Moment of Truth

What will be running through your mind at this very moment if you knew that an hour from now you'll either be too happy or too sad?




EDIT::: 12/6/07, 3:30 pm
So much hype for nothing in the end. Turned out to be just another moment. No joy, no sorrow, only evasion...

The Best

The Man:
Age - 36
Retired - 5 years ago (and hasn't played any competitive tennis since)
Grand Slam Titles - 14
Wimbledon Titles - 7
Last Title Won - US Open, 2002
Name - Pete Sampras

His Opponent:
Age - 26
Retired - 2 years from now, probably :P
Grand Slam Titles - 12
Current Rank - 1
Last Title Won - Masters Series (less than a week ago)
Name - Roger Federer

Now, when these two men take on each other in a tennis court, you can expect even hardcore Sampras fans to think that Federer would beat Sampras 999 out of 1000 times. If it's a 3-match series, they can be excused for thinking that the odds of Sampras winning 1 set is about 1 in a hundred. Now, if you had told them that Sampras actually won 2 out of 6 sets, won one out of 3 matches, 3 out of the 6 sets were tie-breakers of which if Sampras had won all three, he would have also won the 3 match series 2-1, they'll tell you they knew he was capable of doing it :P
I believed that Sampras would win the third match after he lost the second one in 2 heart-breaking tie-breakers, and he did. Some people are so convinced about the invincibility of Federer that this will not change their opinion one bit....but for people like me who believe that Sampras is way better than Federer, well, it doesn't change our opinion one bit either.

Bow to the King, the only KING! B-)

Seven Fours are...

...the number is getting bigger by the year.

Breaks My Heart...

I have a small picture of her(cut out from "The Hindu" daily), taken after she won the Olympic gold(s) in Sydney(2000), stuck in a corner of one of the two huge blow-ups of Aish that adorn my bedroom in India. Her cherubic smile was energizing and inspiring. And now i hear THIS:

it breaks my heart...

My First Water Fast

Association for India's Development organized candle light vigils tonight in as many as 58 cities in India, USA and the Netherlands(in Amsterdam). This was to show solidarity in fighting for the Indian farmers, many of whom committed suicide in the last two years, and to tell the Indian government that people are watching and that there needs to be significant changes in the government policies concerning farmers. The agenda was also to spread awareness amongst the masses about this agrarian crisis that is plaguing our country.

What better day than October 2nd(Gandhiji's birthday, for the uninformed) to do this? Mahatma always had a special place for farmers in his heart. He believed that rural India was the backbone of our country. So, it was only apt that the candle light vigil was scheduled for today, despite it being a week day.
There was an option for people who were organizing the vigil(s) to also fast for one day, to show support. I decided to fast too...
It's just past 9:30pm now and i have two and a half more hours to go. Let me tell you that it has not been an easy day at all. I woke up at around 7:30 am, skipped the usual breakfast, went to work, drank gallons and gallons of water, missed the two cups of coffee i take for granted each day at work so badly, got tempted a few times in between by the apple that was lying on my desk and by the various vending machine food, but stood my ground, came home at 6 pm and took a nap for 45 minutes so that i wouldn't have to think about food, went for the vigil which started at 7:30 pm and lasted for about an hour, got tempted again because the venue was in the heart of Indian restaurants, 3 fellow fasters, each of us looked like we'll give in, finally decided not to and came home. The last one hour has been particularly bad that it even forced me to blog, something that i have been avoiding big time of late. Another 136 minutes to go...
Half way through the day, i started thinking about all those people who fast for days and days. My God. What resolve. What strength. How important their goals must be for them! That's when i thought that when you want something so badly, you wouldn't mind the suffering that comes along the way, in order to attain it. I was also thinking about those farmers and poor people who are not assured of even one square meal a day. What will it be like for a small kid to starve? Will they get used to it after a week? a month? maybe a year? knowing that that's what their destiny is...it was painful to even think of such people...what must it be like to be one of them? I thanked God for giving me so much in life...
Mahatma Gandhi fasted left, right and center for many many worthy causes. He fasted in his old age- something i can only look at and admire. What was the need? Where was the motivation coming from? It's simply unbelievable. He has been on 21 day fasts like it was some fun thing to do. Hats off to his mental strength.
There are thousands of social activists like the Mahatma and hats off to every single one of them. They'll continue to inspire people like me in a million different ways on a daily basis- maybe not to do big things that will move mountains, but to do small things that will move a heart or two...