Jingle all the way!!!!!

It’s 6 degrees and am freezing!!!!!

This is got to be the weirdest Christmas of my life.

Weird and lonely…… no family, no friends……

If you have spent the whole Christmas on Facebook, you know there’s something that isn’t going your way.

Choosing a career of your dreams is never an easy option…..but a rebellious heart and a wafer-thin salary packet can make one take a few bold and may be not so clever decisions.

Settling in New Delhi has been a struggle…..the last five months has been nothing else but tough! Seriously tough!

But still, when watching cricket matches on a giant LCD becomes a part of your profession, one can’t complain much. Camera, editing, cricket matches, stories, media stalwarts, visits to the Lok Sabha, Fashion weeks have all been like a dream but the reality hits in every morning when one has to get out of the blanket to make your own cup of coffee…..especially in Delhi winters….trust me it’s no fun!

I took it as a part of professional hazard but suddenly the Christmas Eve brought in a few memories that made me a little week in my knees.

Christmas back in my city is a little different……friends, Park Street, breakfast with cakes and oranges, the hanging socks for Santa and of course the gifts……well, we had our Santa too….

I have always been a part of a joint family where we are five brothers and sisters (well….you may call cousins!) and Christmas Eve we used to run for our beds because Santa used to visit us at Midnight.

Christmas morning we used to wake up and look for our gifts only to find nice packed boxes near our pillows…… chocolates, pens, books and on my 18^th year I even found a shaving kit!

We used to wonder how Santa knew what we want. We knew the answer; still we loved to the feeling of amazement and the happiness it brought along!
This Christmas I woke up….and suddenly looked beside my pillow, I found nothing……

I closed my eyes and thought about my Santa……

I saw him smile at me giving me a thumbs Up saying, “MERRY CHRISTMAS SON…”

That was my present.

Well….my Grand Dad is my Santa……and I can still hear him singing his Jingle all the way!!!!!!!

JOKER of the PACK

“May I come in Sir?”

The whole group turned towards the huge metal doors of the Engineering workshop.

“Sir, I have just been transferred to the Chemical Engineering section…..” the big eyed girl went on,”….I am roll no. 68.”

She uttered the words with much trepidation as the whole group kept staring at her.

That was the first time I saw Miss Malini Guha….Oooops! Then Miss Malini Guha…..

As she ushered herself into the workshop, a few whispers began, a few hearts skipped a few beats and a few meaningful smiles emerged. I kept looking at the newest member of our class. Her eyes were filled with much discomfort as she managed a meek smile at me as she settled into the worktable.

Well….. Those eyes have matured by 6 years since I saw them but they still have the pureness and the anxiety in them. And when those eyes displayed the gentle jitters of a bride, I could hear a few sighs of despair and a few hearts breaking!

Yup! Malini, as expected, finally exchanged vows.

As I was getting decked up for the occasion in front of my mirror, I suddenly realized that I am actually approaching the wrong side of the twenties! The shinny bald scalp, hidden by a strategically placed Mohawk, suddenly peeped out confirming the fact. As I walked in and handed over the gift, those eyes again greeted me with the question, “How do I look?”

I am perhaps the last guy who would come up with a “Wow! So Beautiful……”

Even Malini didn’t expect it! But to my surprise I showed double thumbs up!

“No ways dude!!!!!” I told myself.

I even tried to be the pain in the ass that I normally am but the harder I tried the more I disappointed myself.

I was astonished at my poor form but the thing that hit me the hardest was the lack of connection. There was a clear disconnect between me and my FRIENDS!

I tried to gel but the chemistry was simply missing!

May be I am growing up or perhaps my FRIENDS have grown out of me.

Whatever it may be…….It was a fabulous wedding….the first among my friends. All of them were there…..the Kings, the Queens, the Aces but the JOKER of the PACK didn’t quite make it!

The Wounded Tiger!

After Shane Warne’s wrong one’s it’s time for Tiger Woods to surprise us with his not so golfing swings!

After being in the limelight for nearly 15 years as an international celebrity, Woods probably figured out that the media can rip you apart cut when it came to explaining -- or rather not explaining -- what happened in the wee hours of Nov. 27 when he crashed his car outside his Florida home.

Now, Woods finds himself neck deep trouble and trauma, with several women popping up, eager for their 15 minutes of fame, divulging details of their alleged sexual affairs with the legend.

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. ... Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means. For the last week my family and I have been hounded to expose intimate details of our personal lives. ... Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions.”

Sure …..Woods couldn't be more right. He’s the greatest golfer of his generation because of his golfing talent and not because he's a paragon of personal virtue. But in today's wildly invasive media universe, being a champ isn't enough to protect your privacy. When a role model turns out to have feet of clay, we as fans feel a need to know every detail about his transgressions, no matter how little they have to do with the hero's public performance.

But the latest sex scandal makes people wonder — why do men cheat? And are the famous and powerful more prone to indiscretion, or are they just under the microscope more than the average Tom Dick and Harry?

Well, whatever it may be we all must pray that he should return to the golf course fueled by the same competitive fire that he has shown us over a decade.

Perhaps Rocky Balboa’s Coach Mickey was right,” women make a sportsman weak!”

Even the Great Tiger has been caught in his Woods swinging it the wrong way!

View from the TOP!

Malcolm Speed must have watched TV on the 6^th December 2009.

His comments on India being the “biggest bully to ICC and non performers” must have been shoved under the carpet after we attained the coveted pole position in the test match rankings for the first time in the history of Indian cricket!

Till date India was the financial nerve center of world cricket, in fact, questions were often raised as to why the money power doesn't translate into becoming the world's number one team? The ghost has finally been buried. It has also established that while boasting of the money and the market that propels cricket forward, India also has the best Test team in the world.

Though India has been always looked upon as the next big thing, we have never made it big in the sporting arenas. Like most of the Olympic Games are dominated by USA and China, even smaller countries like Jamaica produce Usain Bolt and Ethiopia produces a series of marathon winners. We do send in our entries only hoping that someone does a Bindra or a Peas! 1 gold in 88 years of competing does make us a misfit in the schema of being the next superpower!

Soccer is even more far stretched….. We are perhaps one of the most soccer frenzy nations yet we struggle to clear the qualifying rounds. Countries like Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Serbia, and Slovenia make the cut and we still stay glued on to our TV sets rooting for Argentina and Brazil.

In sharp contrast, when we turn our attention to cricket this despair ceases. Cricket remains the only realm where Indians can flex their muscles on the world stage. Two world Cups, number two in ODIs and now numero uno in test matches does make the situation a whole lot brighter!

In a nation where the cricket enthusiast oscillates between adulation and vandalism, playing cricket is no less difficult than governing the country. In fact, the Indian captain's job is as tough as the prime minister's. At a time when social strife is never far away, the camaraderie in the present team is striking. And it is for this reason alone that Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs to be applauded. We must not forget the role of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble as well. This team deserves all the accolades because no cricket team in the world is forced to carry the burden of a billion, trying to prove to their countrymen that unity is still an achievable dream in Indian national life.

Amidst the Naxals, Mr. Liberhan, nuclear treaties….MS Dhoni and his team has given us a chance to rejoice…but still we will remember 6^th December for all the wrong reasons and Cricket will always be a strict NO NO in the headlines of our premiere broadcast channel!! J

“DE DAN A DAN”----test cricket!

If Ahmadabad was the worst advertisement for test cricket…..enter Dunedin. It produced the best test cricketing action for the year till now! Five days of high voltage drama…..the contest between bat and ball…..Swing and seam and pace….Stirring batting. …Wickets falling in a heap and then the batsmen fighting back. It just had everything.

The first day ended with honors shared; New Zealand pulled away on the second; Pakistan combusted in the first half of the third, and then a debutant stood up and stroked his way to a hundred. On day four, a 17-year-old left-armer and one coming back in from the cold, blew the New Zealanders away and day five began with all results possible.

Day 5 saw a wobble at the top followed by a fight-back involving, inevitably, the debutant, left the last session poised evenly. The final breakthrough was provided by a bowler who had worked up steam all match without a wicket. He bowled into the wind and swung it New Zealand's way after taking a blow to the finger so severe the physio had to pull the digit back into shape. That merely made it more poignant.

If it failed to move you, cricket will be never be your game!!!!

Overall it was a great week for test cricket……be it the return of the maverick Sreesanth at Kanpur….or the rise of the blitzkrieg Barrath at the Gabba! Even Sehwag and Gambhir’s batting displays showed there’s more to batting than just slam bam hitting in the T-20 mould!

Abandoning test cricket will not only be stupid but suicidal. The roots of the game lie in test matches and without it the core values of the game would wither away!

Cricket is a game that is blessed with a buffet of three formats…there’s enough space for all three to co-exist and only if the administrators keep the wits about them all three formats will flourish with great élan!

Test cricket needs a retaliator. It needs men with vision. It needs ownership and drive.

C’mmon Lalit…….just do it!

All izzzz well!!!!

White Balance thik nahi hai yaar…..oye focus hi galat hai….abe sale behen**** edit mein audio jump hai……transition laga yaar….slot nahi mila ya…

Whew….

This is what exactly I have been hearing throughout the last week.

What was I up to?????

Well, all of us were assigned to make short films of 6 to 10 minutes.

Initially, everyone was elated but as soon as one hit the floors what followed were confusion, fights, bitter rivalry and some serious hard work.

All this while I either wowed or bashed up films sitting in the cozy chairs of the glitzy multiplexes but trust me from now on I won't. When my group was assigned the film on the SONY PD 170, I had no idea how much effort will go in to make an 8 min 39 sec film.

To kick off the shoot we needed a script, and I had to make it. Scripting has always my nemesis whether be it C, C++ or VB on QTP! And I found out scripting a short film that to a technical one was no walk in the park. It took me two days and lots of GOOGLE-ing to finally land up with a seven page long script.

If scripting was a pain, shooting the film was an agony. Whatever I thought as a shot turned out to be shabby, shoddy and not upto the mark……then came in the famous lighting problems. We decided to shoot in a three point system and tried setting it up. We kept at it for more than an hour only to switch them off! At times I felt like banging my head against the wall. But I realized whenever someone has their back against the wall …..you just have to keep trying. We got our minds together and finally shot the film in a matter of 13 hours! Imagine thirteen hours of shooting for an 8 minuter…..imagine shooting a feature film….. Mid Longs, close ups, extreme close ups, over the shoulder….. You name it; we had it!

The footage was in……. and now came the toughest part……editing!

It’s more important to know what not to show rather than what to show!!!! So the real struggle began. Visual jumps, audio glitches, voice over laying…..arrrgggghhh!!! Sitting on the edit bay for hours with headphones on gave me bonging ears and dizzy eyesight! After three rough cuts we finally had a film ready to premier! It was hard work…..trust me guys me and my group worked our asses off. Night shifts….long hours…..no food….no change of underwares…..life literally seemed out of control….but then again we had fun and the 3 idiots of group 7 kept singing…..

“Bhaiya all izzzzzz well!!!!!”

“SACH…….Impossible is Nothing!”

The grandma keeps counting her japmala, the nuns keep praying, the young guns run home from school, the phone keeps ringing, the cup of tea remains unattended……..

An early ADIDAS ad claimed that the world froze frame when Sachin Tendulkar took guard!

Well….nothing’s much has changed even after the batting Maestro completes 20 years in international cricket.

Who is Sachin Tendulkar?

Is he just a cricketer, a batting legend, a role model or God to a few of us?

To categorize the magnanimity of Sachin Tendulkar in words would be as stupid as bowling him half volleys on leg stump.

To me he is a metaphor that signifies the common man of India. He is truly Mr. India. He represents the middle class of India at the highest level and through his game he keeps on spreading the deep rooted values of us all Indians.

The legend of the man started at the greens of the Shivaji park of then Bombay (sorry, Raj, can’t help it!!!!), where the Dronacharya of Indian cricket found his Arjun! Both Shivaji Park and Shardashram Vidyamandir had made it into the Indian cricket folklore thanks to the towering achievements of this 5ft someone….

What makes this man a legend?

Lots have been spoken about his technique, shot making, array of strokes, and the weight of his bat….. But very sparingly people actually focus on his real might, his intent and his adaptability. His intent is evident when he says I care playing for India….and his adaptability is visible when he pulls out the uppercut from his repertoire at Johannesburg, against the likes of Allan Donald, not to play it again in the entire series!

As the evening shadows lengthen over his cricketing career, we still expect him to perform like God every time he walks into bat, which in way reveals the place he occupies in our hearts. Ironically, we still recognize the hold he has on our psyche, especially in the venom that we spit on him whenever he fails to deliver. Ironically, the more we curse him, the more we express our need for him!

Perhaps, its only apt that he wears the SAHARA logo on his chest because that’s exactly what he has been for the past 20 years where he has marched on braving the tennis elbow, the back aches, the pulled hamstrings, the painful little toe and of course the hopes of 1.2billion ….

“SACH…….Impossible is Nothing!”