You Choose...?

While in between doing things, you suddenly hit something to your hand. You stop & notice it, check a while to see if its badly hurt & soothe it a little & carry on.

Steadily but surely over the days, you start noticing a pain in the hand at where it hurt ...& the pain has begun to reflect at surrounding places too.
You sit to inspect & find out; there visible inside the skin is a fine chaff of something you may have acquired while working.

It is so embedded by then that you cannot remove it & yet it is visible from the upper skin.
That it pains & constantly makes itself felt totally takes your concentration off from everything else.
You keep looking helplessly & try to do something about it, just don't know what to exactly..& how to precisely.
It may eventually dissolve in the skin & you'll become immune to it or you may have to take a decision on getting it removed through a drastic type measure, which is tearing open the skin & removing it.

Either ways very painful to undergo. Either ways there will be a scar.

What will you choose?

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Talkative Mind

When my thinking caps are on... & the mind is at her talkative best, rather than opening up 4 different windows to scribble 4 different thought trials, I wish I had 4 arms so that I could manage to scribble & regulate every thought befalling; .....to be able to reflect on it later.

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Love, Duece & many Aces.

Wimbledon 1994.

I had just started following a bit of tennis at that time. Did not understand much of it, so was only into watching a few matches in bits.

One day I followed the match of a very tall & lanky guy & he instantly caught my fancy. His spirit & attitude was so individualistic. Started keeping track of his progress & watched all his matches.

The more I watched, the more I liked him more for his selfhood. The way he carried himself on court & the kind of person he came across to me as, I was hooked onto his matches.
His quotable quotes were good chew to the press & his admirers.

Luckily he reached the finals & by then I had discovered a little of him. A Croatian, had been playing for a long time, had the most powerful serve, held the record for serving the most number of aces in a year & he had a long cherished dream of winning Wimbledon someday.

There was something which was very honest & endearing about him to me, even though for his temper tantrums & acts on the courts.

Already a runner-up once, this was his second time in the finals. Obviously I was rooting for him.
The match between Pete Sampras & him had him at tenterhooks. It was evident in the way he reacted on court. That match he lost. Looking at him, I felt as if I had lost the match!


Then after a long break of injuries & unavoidable breaks, he got back to Wimbledon in 2001.

By then my interest had waned too, coz there was no other player with such passion & life to the game.
So, when he got back, I made sure to watch all his matches as this was pitted to be his swan song of sorts. A wild card entrant, nobody much had hopes pinned on him. Yet, I was all hopes & fingers crossed for him. One by one he crossed the stages upto the quarterfinal.
By then there was an excited buzz getting generated about him reaching that far.
Then came the semis & he won! Everybody was dazed by his unanticipated victories.

The D-Day. Wimbledon Final. 2001.

Patrick Rafter was against him. I was on tenterhooks as if I was playing the match myself...I do remember it too well. If I was so that way, I remember thinking what he must be going through!

The match lasted Looonnnnnnnnnnggggg!! Such a thriller it was becoming that it was actually nerve wrecking to wait for it to end.
& then he Finally Won!
That moment got etched forever in the history of Wimbledon. A wild card entrant becoming the Wimbledon champion for the first time ever!

That guy was Goran Ivanisevic.



There are a few people in life one watches while in their growing up years & get charged by. He was one such person for me. & though I watched him play for a very short time, the way he played & pursued his goal till he finally did achieve it; was something I always associated with him for a long time.
Today when I watched a few kids play Shuttlecock, I remembered the days when I used to confuse Tennis with Shuttle. :)

& that memory got me writing about the best tennis player I have seen till date.

As he is retired from professional tennis from a while now & me almost from watching tennis, it was good to revive those teenage memories & put them here.
Sometimes the muddle which overpiles our daily lives hides away such distinct memories, that when they suddenly come knocking, you are left with an incredible joy reliving them.

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All Rights Reserved

The marriage/commitment season is on. All around me suddenly I find the people older, my peer group & many younger ones too getting committed left right & center!

Feel I'm the only one left out.
Really can't complain on that though, as it's been my choice to wait for the one whom I'll feel sure & happy to part with my 'All rights reserved' tag which I'm protective about.
It also brings the favorite follow up question that any singleton faces:
"So, when are you giving the good news." [Good news, as in getting hitched...not the traditional "good news" thankfully!! ;D ]

I have nothing against the question, except that sometimes people ask in such a way that one feels one has committed blasphemy by remaining single!
Am I choosy or am I NOT choosing well enough..or is plain destiny at work?

Often I feel like asking the ones who ask me, what are the deciding factors one should get married on; but I know few's version is going to go with mine & thus their lack of my understanding & my lack of their sensibilities for settling for someone, makes me jot down what would be the factors for which my All Rights Reserved tag, that I'm in control of now, can be forsaken.

All Rights Reserved. Such a nice ring it has to it. Of Independence & of exclusivity. Once parted, the term shall not be in use anymore. So, doesn't a little more thought go in whom I part it for?

To begin from the beginning. Why does one wish to get married?

To fulfil an obligation? To find security? to take care of a duty? to live upto our parents expectation? To follow a social norm? To procreate? to get rid of loneliness? To prove we are responsible citizens...?

OR

Because we find someone we wish to get married to? wish to belong to? becoz we found the one whom we wish to settle down with, somebody who we can make a home with, who believes in the similar value system of life, who shares our general common sensibilities? whom one can respect for the person they are? to get home to somebody special everyday... the one whom we are/could stay in love with?

Really, what are the factors one looks for when deciding on such a huge life changing decision?
The first seems practical & commonly followed & the second is heartful & thoughtful.

The most common norm is, becoz we found someone who is good natured, nice, honest, pleasant looking, from a nice family...the usual "good things."

Those are the typical traits one comes out with. Nothing at all wrong with that, except, honestly, how does one come to know the truth of all this? Except for trusting the given facts.
Good natured & nice everybody usually is at the beginning...coz we Do NOT have anything to differ on in the beginning of knowing someone. Lookswise - looks are perceptive. What is my beauty may not be someone else's. Nice family - Sure in India we get married to the family too.. yet I do personally believe that even if the family is good, that cannot be a criteria to say yes. People are distinct individuals.. & ultimately one marries an individual. Family is very important, but not as important than the person in question himself.
Also, listening to the heart is very important for me. Heart does give bad reality checks but it says the truth, if you hear honestly.

Apart from these, a very important trait would be, a desire to be with someone who believes in the word "marriage", "commitment" & the life sequels following the decision.

Ummm..Tough!!; Isin't it to find all this easily? So, even though the single tag gets over bearing at times, my grounded head reminds me of my belief system & then my current independence doesn't seem that bad. :D

Till destiny does not part with its cards, I'll trust I'm in control of the choosing part. :)
For I am a conscious, thinking & evolved person. & my All Rights would go to someone special only!
Wish me luck. :)

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VIBGYOR

Many many Suns ago on a winter noon, I remember when I was in the IVth standard in school, for some reason we were having a social studies class in the lovely campus outside my class & not within. Ofcourse everybody was more than happy to be outside the class for the while.

The warm winter sun & the huge trees were giving a light breeze to enjoy & no mood to pay attention to the class.

Obviously more distracted with what was happening everywhere around me except the class, I suddenly spotted a rainbow!

My first ever rainbow!! A good semi circled one! Wowww!!! I had only known about it from the books...& here it was right above me!

My mind shouted: VIBGYOR!

& I did first check the sequence:

Violet

Indigo
Blue

Green

Yellow

Orange

Red.

Yes, all 7 there..& in order!! As if they wouldn't! :P But seeing it for the first time always makes you to check on them! :D

I felt I was watching the 8th wonder of the world! I remember we were all so excited. We spent the period counting the colours, distinguishing one from the next, trying to connect the rainbow from one end of the horizon to the other...

***************************************************************************

After a decade & a half today, at almost dusk time.. I was busy on deciding upon some colours for the paint of my home from a very colourful paper shadecard. A glance toward the sky -- & I noticed the very natural shade card out in the skies!

Yes, I saw a rainbow today!! The 3rd of my life, but it always reminds me of the 1st time. Excited & with childish enthusiasm & falling in love with nature's beauty!

Though it was there for the shortest time, it still gave me enough time to run down to get my camera & capture a few clicks.

While I enjoyed the the beautiful sight & the flash of nostalgia, here are a couple of pics that you may enjoy too.

Makes me feel childlike happy again! :)

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Lord save my nation!

The CM of my state met with death in a helicopter crash yesterday.

Honestly speaking, apart from the sad way death descended on him, it did not affect me one way or the other.

It wasn't like that when he was there, it made a difference to me. Hundreds of people whom I don't know die daily in accidents, this was one of them. I do deeply condole the death of the rest of the staff onboard, as what would come on their families is very sad & unsure.
Too shrewd maybe, but that's the way it is.

As usual the media circus was in full swing from the time news of his vanishing came to light.

Okay, Maybe being a politician & an acting chief minister at that, he would merit such coverage. But it does get unreasonable after a while.

After being subjected to watch the same news over a period of 24 hours or so, today morning brought a piece of utterly farcical news. The news was, that the late CM's son was being touted as the next CM.

Now that news discomposed me more than any amount of coverage I watched in the preceding 2 days.

What the hell is that?

This guy, new to the political arena, just a first time MP & that too just 100 days old, having a controversial profile, not having proved his mettle as an MP; HE being touted as the next successor?

Really, What the hell!!!

The problem bugging me since is, exactly how many amount of losers & no-brainers have we voted back in power again?

Just because a chief minister dies in a mishap, I fail to understand, how does the son get qualified to become one?

This ofcourse is not a new thing to observe, we have a history creased with such unproved beneficiaries.

So, why am I still bothered? Coz, we as a nation are getting mature is a faith I trust in, so when I see something like this which negates the whole meaning of what sensibility is, I get rued.

What exactly makes the party people root on such deniable candidates? Is only being a son/daughter/wife of a slain politico victim enough to guarantee the charge of leading a full state?

News has been trickling in that if he is not approved to become the CM, there would be mass suicides across the state.

Beats me. This is not for real. Or is it? Fanatics are no less in numbers anywhere!

As I started scribbling this, I also learnt that the entertainment channels in the city have been shut off for a good 24 hours now. Only the news channels are being allowed to run with the minute my minute progress of the post death coverage & funeral procession.

Thankfully I do not have to depend on local cable TV for my entertainment. But makes me ponder, what a democracy we call ourselves! Or maybe I got the meaning wrong throughout?
It would a little easier to understand a ban on having public celebrations..that did happen yesterday with the regular Ganesh immersion celebrations in the city; but monitoring what I watch in the confines of my home? Its abhorable & strongly condemned!

As I wind up here, I fervently hope sense prevails over idiocy & the state does not fall in the trap of another heirloom saga.
Lord do please do save my nation!

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