Here, There and Everywhere

"To lead a better life,

I need my love to be here"

I don't really know what this post is about, just some general things here and there. Its been a rather turbulent period in my life. Starting December, till about now, there were only a 100 issues to sort out: prize money, EMC work, make up forms, lost ATM card, an application for the negotiation competition in Leipzig, visa applications, CPC repeat, TP carry-over, projects, Client Counselling work (those of you from outside law school, who read this are forgiven for not understanding some of the jargon used. Nonetheless, please note: it was a :LOT of work). Now, I can finally say that everything has settled down and I am left with nothing but my academics. One would think an exclamation of 'Phew' followed by a long sigh would be very much in order at this point. While I have been causing minor hurricanes with my 'sighs' and 'phews', I can honestly say that after a very long time (those of you who want to know why, refer to this and this), I am quite proud of myself for coming out of it unscathed, except for, slightly strained nerves and a suspected increase in blood pressure (subject to medical opinion of course). I can also honestly say that I had a reasonable amount of fun during the process and was not collapsing in nervous breakdowns all over the place.

Have you ever gone away at the brink of it all? Just when all affairs were rushing towards a dramatic, filmy climax, when everyone was calling you with more and more work for you, when things were on the verge of being sorted out, but not quite yet...and you suddenly say "Sorry folks, I gotta go now. See ya when I'm back?" Its a good strategy and it worked beautifully this time for me. When I came back, everything had fallen neatly into place. Even the weather had finally made up its mind and had turned hot (which on reflection, is not all that great).

I'm proud of myself, I'm happy, after ages I actually am..I've even lost weight!

There are a lot of disadvantages about probing too deep..somethings should be left unknown, just to preserve their beautiful, mythic quality. It might be good to distinguish fact from fiction, but sometimes, you should just let things be, just allow them to carry you away into the realm of dreams and fantasy..In my case, this proved one wikipedia entry too many for me...
Ingrid Bergman on Humphrey Bogart about their roles in Casablanca: "I never really knew him. I kissed him, but I did not know him". I don't know about you but that kind of ruined the movie for me..It would have been nice to know that they were atleast freinds off screen. Sigh, sometimes, the truth is best left undisturbed...............

Canine Therapy

My blog is getting waaaaay too gloomy. I am feeling as embaressed reading it as I used to while reading my weepy journal of class 9. So now I shall talk about something or rather certain creatures which always manage to cheer me up even when I am in the blackest mood..namely dogs. This post is inspired by a walk I took the other day in a bad-temper. The presence of a few dogs along the way however unfailingly produced a smile on my face and I felt that this phenomenan deserved a mention somewhere.

I have always been pretty crazy about dogs since I was a kid, having tried several times to bring home strays, much to my parent's consternation. Of late, playing with dogs in the hostel has been the closest I have ever come to owning some, and although I have realised that it is a huge responsibility and not just fun and games, I have only grown more determined to have several pets. So what is it about dogs anyway? How is it that all the chocolates, good wishes or apologies in the world don't make me feel as good as when a single dog runs towards me, wagging its tail?

I think it is simply because dogs are just so cute. Actually, make that adorable. Everything they do is just so, well, cute! The way they randomly look around, when they walk or trot, they way their tounge hangs out, the way they scratch, the way they roll on the ground with their legs in the air and try to bite you while playing, the way they follow you looking expectantly for some treat, the way they poke around for things and land themselves in unexpected situations which they struggle to get out of, the way they eat, they way they wag their tails, that complete peace on their face when they sleep, they way they close your eyes when you pet or scratch them...everything they do moves you to smile, you simply cannot be in a bad mood in the presence of a friendly dog, its like his/ her every action is to make you feel better about life!

So here's to the loveliest creation of nature/ God, whichever way you want it (yes they even beat mountains and hot men)...Someday I will own 8 dogs! (4 strays, a Retriver, a Lab (black), a spaniel and a German Shepard)

I don't know why, I really like these Slambook kinda things :)

If I were a beginning, I would be: far behind!
If I were a month, I would be: December
If I were a day of the week, I would be: Sunday
If I were a time of day, I would be: dusk
If I were a planet, I would be: saturn
If I were a season, I would be: winter
If I were a sea animal, I would be: a whale
If I were a direction, I would be: north
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be: a chair like the one in FRIENDS
If I were a sin, I would be: gluttony
If I were a liquid, I would be: tea
If I were a fraud/scare, I would be: Harshad Mehta (what a stud..seriously!)
If I were a gem, I would be: sapphire or amethyst
If I were a tree, I would be: eucalyptus
If I were a tool, I would be: a hammer
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: a creeper
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: windy
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: a veena/ piano
If I were an animal, I would be: a dog
If I were an emotion, I would be: content
If I were a vegetable, I would be: a carrot
If I were a sound, I would be: a soprano :)
If I were an element, I would be: platinum
If I were a car, I would be: any SUV
If I were a song, I would be: 'Over the Rainbow' from The Wizard of Oz
If I were a food, I would be: Masala dosa
If I were a place, I would be: Wellington/ CubbonPark
If I were a material, I would be: cotton
If I were a taste, I would be: sweet-ish
If I were a scent, I would be: Ponds Sandalwood Powder
If I were a religion, I would be: universal
If I were a sentence, I would be: 'What's up?'
If I were a body part, I would be: arms
If I were a facial expression, I would be: smiling
If I were a subject in college, I would be: Corporate law / Music
If I were a shape, I would be: a circle
If I were a quantity, I would be: 55 kgs..someday!
If I were a colour, I would be: blue
If I were a thing, I would be: my guitar
If I were a landmass, I would be: the Deccan
If I were a book, I would be: Alice in Wonderland
If I were a monument, I would be: Mysore Palace/ Eiffel Tower
If I were an artist, I would be: Bob Dylan
If I were a collection of poems, I would be: err...the songs in Lord of the Rings
If I were a landscape, I would be: the tea gardens around Wellington Gymkhana Club
If I were a watch, I would be: the Swatch skin which I have now
If I were God, I would be: a little kinder
If I were a vowel, I would be: O
If I were a consonant, I would be: L
If I were a formula, I would be: "All You Need is Love"
If I were a Science, I would be: Zoology
If I were a theory, I would be: the Pythogoras Theorem
If I were a famous person, I would be: a tennis player
If I were an electronic equipment, I would be: anMp3 player
If I were sport, I would be: Badminton
If I were a movie, I would be: 'The Sound of Music'
If I were a cartoon, I would be: Josie in "Josie and the Pussycats"
If I were an explorer, I would be: Bill Bryson
If I were a scientist, I would be: a bad thing for science
If I were a relation, I would be: a sister
If I were a river, I would be: free
If I were intoxication, I would be: beer
If I were alone, I would be: listening to music
If I were a question, then I would be: 'What's up?" again
If I were a hobby, I would be: collecting memorablia
If I were a habit, I would be: drinking tea
If I were in an atom, I would be: bobbing around peacefully
If I were an end, I would be: never-ending
If I were you, I would be: madly in love with me

One step forward, ten steps backward

Sania Mirza today announced that she won't play in India for a bit, pulling out of the Bangalore Open in the process. The reason cited: the controversies that have been dogging her. Is she being fussy and stand-offish? I for one think not. First criticised for her 'attire' on the court (which is really nothing scandalous..merely a shortish skirt and a decent top that 'covers' everything) and then for apparently showing disrespect to the Indian flag. To her credit, she still had a good run at the Aussi open despite the emotional trauma of the incident. Imagine being one of the four ambassadors (the others being Paes, Bhupathi and Amritraj) for a sport that is internationally so well respected, even if the rest of the country is blind to it, representing the country repeatedly, managing to do reasonably well despite the poor facilities and support, being ignored and given less importance despite performing (why was the fact that Bhupati and Mirza reached the finals of the Aussi open, a grand slam, so underplayed? Because Harbhajan Singh was in great peril of course, what's a grand slam anyway?) and then being accused of undermining the country because of a small error, the small indiscretion of being caught on camera at an inopportune moment. And then comes the decision to not play in your own country because your own country deems you unworthy, guilty of undermining her culture. What culture I ask? Its a wonder that she resisted her initial impulse to stop playing tennis altogether.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have Bombay, a beautiful, cosmopolitan city falling a prey to the parorchial temperment that so characterises our 'culture'. Streets have been filled with mobs ravaging the homes and possessions of North-Indians, roughing up taxi-drivers and attacking homes (some South-Indians I know might even ask me why I'm so bothered). What is more shocking is that in the poll conducted by CNN-IBN, 40% of the people actually said that North-Indians are 'outsiders' in Bombay. Its really awful to see that such petty issues still rule the roost in India and watch politicians making irresponsible statements such as 'the character of Bombay has been spoilt'. What character? When I went to Bombay, I was struck by the freedom and openess of the city, the feeling of being accepted at once..it is one of the few cities where I have almost immediately felt at home even though I have hardly spent anytime there. I always thought this was Bombay's character. Evidently I was mistaken..we all were.

A host of Indians who trusted this country, wanted to do something for her, wanted to develop her, bring her on the international map in more ways than one...software engineers, sportsmen, industrialists, academics, thinkers and several others..and are constantly being pushed back in more and more ways..hurt and betrayed. Is progress ever possible here, you ask? Can you blame people from immigrating? Frankly I don't think so. Immigrate to what though? Racism and a whole bunch of other problems. If you are not loved in your own country, then where do you go?

Oh Dear

So I finally turned twenty. And I started work in a place where I..well, work..Actual constructive stuff which makes a difference, which is used..not the chilling on orkut/ wikipedia/ in malls kinda stuff that I'm used to. So I have been fully introduced to the life I am expected to lead..
"The legal profession, and it is a truly beautiful profession..At least at the trial court stage, you actually see the law you learned being implemented..those very procedures and practices being put into good use. Going to court is good fun...The judges are always interesting to watch, you're not struck so much by the majesty of the law at this stage (the civil courts being largely weird, badly lit, rickety places with insanely smelly toilets and no refreshment facilities whatsoever), but you still get the feeling that you're helping people in someway. You see the other advocates and notice how hopelessly incompetent they look and you feel proud of yourself..proud that you are worth so much more and yet, you are practicing this profession at its most basic level..hoping to actually reach out and make a difference somewhere. Also, there's the thrill of legal research..finding that one case which says exactly what you want, looking for loopholes in the opposite party's argument, finding ways to corner a witness and so on...one of the best feelings in the world! Really, being a part of the legal fraternity is pretty stunning!"

Funnily, I don't really feel any of the above. Well going to court is nice and all, but its just for entertainment value really. And finding a case...well that makes me happy because my boss will be happy with me then, its pretty mind-numbing work otherwise...Of course I don't really care too much whether my boss is happy because, I don't want to work in this place again. Mind you, its got absolutely nothing to do with anyone else and everything to do with me...which brings me to the essential question:
What the hell am I doing here? Its too late to turn back now, gotta move on. To where?

The Underdogs Rule the Roost

Aussi Action!

Its been one of the best Australian Open's ever, with some of the most scintillating tennis being displayed on the court. Apart from the usual drama that accompanies any grand slam, this year's open has witnessed the rise of the underdogs, who have stolen the hearts and minds of tennis audiences throughout, even if not always the wins.

I'll start with Philipp Kohlschreiber. His name is so complicated that I had to copy and paste it from the net. But this man rose up to the challenged posed by the immensely powerful Andy Roddcik, in a thrilling edge of the seat five setter that went on for four hours. So who is Philipp Kohlschreiber anyway? Seeded 29th in the Aussi Open and reaching his highest ATP ranking of 27 this year, the man has know to upset veterans in the past including the indestructible David Nalbandian, whom he beat to enter the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters Tournament. On the Grand Slam circuit he has been rather low profile; the 3rd round of the US Open last year is the furthest he's ever got. However, in the marathon match played on 18th January, he displayed a real talent for the game, finishing off the match in style and finesse. I have been growing disillusioned with Roddick for sometime, though a few years back, I was hopelessly in love with him. Though his service is undoubtedly one of the finest in tennis today (he came up with a whopper against Kohlschreiber, 231 kmph, after having an altercation with the chair umpire about a disputed line call), that's pretty much all there is to him. He has specialised in the art of coming into the net and playing, but on a hard court surface, that's always not the right strategy. Nevertheless, he was unable to produce the aces when most required, in crucial games for the set. Kohlschreiber on the other hand, played beautifully under pressure, with his Fedreresque winners in the last game, including a massive cross-court backhand that seemed to defy all laws of physics. He succeeded in breaking the Roddick serve and winning the match in style. Today unfortunately, he lost to Jarkko Nieminen, being unable to convert 11 set points. But he has earned himself several fans and the name of a force to be reckoned with.

Talking about magical come backs and foiling people in their attempts to convert match points, the man worthy of mention here is Marcos Bagdhatis, who yesterday gave the Aussi hope (and decidedly irritating) Lleyton Hewitt a real scare, before finally losing the match. Bagdhatis is one of the most charming players I have seen on court. His good natured smiles, constant wonder at winners that he produces (always accompanied by a delighted, childlike grin and an improbable shake of the head) and general fooling around, while producing quality tennis make his matches a joy to watch. And yesterday, versus the jumpy and aggressive Hewitt, he was as irrepressible as ever. Imagine being down 5 - 1 in the fourth set, with your opponent serving for the match, and then breaking back, evening the score to 5 all, forcing a tie-break and winning the set! This is what Bagdhatis managed to achieve, with a sprained ankle and a bleeding knee, and having also played a five setter against Marat Safin just earlier in the week. Of course, he was helped quite a bit by a panicking Hewitt's unforced errors, but there's no denying the man's spirit! The fifth set was a bit of a let down after the titanic battle of the 4th set, but Bagdhatis had managed to turn the match into an entertainer of the highest order.

Another match which will probably go down in the annals of tennis history as one of the greatest matches ever played is the epic Roger Fedrer v. Janko Tipsarvich. Fedrer rightly remarked post the match "Sometimes, there should be a draw in tennis as well". Anyone who saw that match will probably agree wholeheartedly, and even despite allegations of "doubting the champion" would feel that may be that was one match that Fedrer should have lost. The tremendous scoreline of 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 6-1 10-8 itself indicates the titanic nature of Fedrer's struggle against this talented Serbian. Tipsarvic has changed his style somewhat this year, last year, he had piercings almost all over his face. This year however, he turned up in black framed glasses which never seemed to slip off. After watching him play, my sister and me were convinced that those specs had endowed him with super-powers. The sheer power and depth of his ground strokes, with stinging returns required Fedrer to constantly come up with something new. Look at the stats for the match: 39 aces from Fedrer; from a man who doesn't normally rely on his aces to finish a match; from a man pushed absolutely to the limit. In the end, it was Fedrer's championship mentality that allowed him to prevail. In the midst of all the pressure, he was able to come up with a sweeping forehand, when the score was 8 all in the final set, which showed why he is regarded as the emperor of this sport. Tipsarvic soon crumbled under the onslaught of winners, but it was a valiant fight.

A personal heartbreak for me was Sania Mirza's loss to Venus Williams, with an impressive score of 7-6, 6-4. She is a very talented player and certainly has the potential to become one of the biggest hitters in the game. The depth of her ground-strokes even had Venus stumped for a bit. Her only problem is her serving as her first serve percentage is rather low. But I was impressed at the fine tuning of other aspects of her game. I really hope she does well and gives these cricketers a run for their money and respect.

There are several more matches going on and a lot of upsets. Both Kuznetsova and Chakvetadze lost their matches as did Fernando Gonzales while Henin, Sharapova and Serena sailed through. But I am not going to talk about all that here, my sole purpose was to highlight the magnificent role that the so called underdogs have played in this Aussi open. I will however, blog about the finals, or any other matches which deserve a mention (and I'm sure there will be). I want to finish off with an entry by Serena Williams (can you imagine!!) in her blog (it is pink in colour and has butterflies on the borders), which I stumbled across the other day:

Hello Fans,

I can't thank those of Y'all who were with me through Thick and Thin (literally) enough. You know life sometimes come at you strange. One day you are on top of the world, and the next day you are fighting to hold on... physically and mentally. U grasp onto a small string that's holding u between sanity and insanity.... groping in the dark trying to find the light that can lead u out of the dark tunnel.... then and only then u find and realize the true people that are your friends, and the ones that love u dearly... the ones that are willing to be there for you whether or not you are extremely successful, or just normal..... the ones that don't disappear because u don't have the face of stone. So I wanna thank my God Jehovah, my family, and my Fans, my True Fans for being there for me for always supporting me for making me hold on to that string. For making me keep looking for a light at the end of the tunnel.... though at times I almost let go... I have finally found it, I hope everyone enjoys the newly refreshed, newly revived Website.

Serena

That is so sweet!! Now who can not support her after that!? Serena, you've got yourself a fan..although in matches versus Henin, I'm afraid my loyalties lie elsewhere!

Facebook - Generally prescribed for Sociopaths?

I just did two interesting quizzes on what kind of a kisser I am and what my kissing style is. I got rave reviews, one said I was a romantic kisser and the other said that I kiss better than 85% of the people in the world. This is pretty interesting because I have never kissed a guy and had to fake some random answers, based on what I thought I would do.

I just did another quiz "What kind of music are you?". And the result was "Dance". I am pretty crushed by this, as you can imagine..I wanted the result to be psychedelic rock, especially since when I did "Which Rock Star are you?", the result was Jimmy Hendrix.

Now I wish there is a quiz which asks the question "Why the BLEEDING HELL do I do these quizzes and add these applications in the first place?!?!"

Facebook applications are probably the most charmingly pointless things on the planet. They are even more addictive and useless than a bag of potato chips after a heavy meal. The quizzes have you hooked, they convince you about various facets of you personality that you never even considered (though I'm still not convinced about this dance music thing), they tell you what kind of eyes you have, which movie star you are, and make you believe that you are secretly a homosexual or have a major anti-social personality disorder. In short, they are probably the most life-changing things you'll ever do. Then there are the Facebook applications, which range from "Oh that's funky" to "brainless, but I'll do it anyway". Through these applications, you can send gifts, send booze (I added all possible applications of this type, people barely send me stuff though), compare your personality traits, throw food, throw pillows, bite people and turn them into zombies, buy fish for an aquarium, buy shoes (virtual of course) and such other things which you can't for the world think of a reason for doing. But you do them anyway. There are slightly more sensible ones such as a virtual bookshelf, the flixster movie application and the i-like music application, and the dog book..all designed for those pompous show offs (like me) who have read/ watched/ heard/ possessed lots of books/ movies/ music/ dogs.

There are downsides also. Firstly, there's the endless business of inviting 20 friends when you add an application. This is very embarrassing especially when you do a quiz like "What is you secret sexual orientation?". I felt pretty shady inviting people to do the "What kind of a kisser are you?" quiz itself, but thent that's all a part of life. You win some (not sure what) and you lose some (your respect and brain among other things). Otherwise, the whole thing is pretty pointless. But the worst about this is, when you add more than 20 people, a red dialog box pops up saying "20 people is the limit" or some similar terse message, like you have committed a crime of breach of privacy or something like that. You feel shocked and cheated, after all, you're inviting people only because these application buggers asked you to do it in the first place. But of course, your dignity is anyway kind of in the mud, so you just click the send button with a feeble, accepting smile. Also, you need a really good net connection to actually send invites to other people. When I try these quizzes in college, the net just protests and stops working in anger and exhaustion. But of course I try again and again, sitting like a zombie in front of the comp to know "What my birth month signifies?".

Thus, days and months pass, and you go on discovering things, sending things, infecting people (this is what the zombie and vampire applications do), writing on people walls, funwalls, super walls, graffitti walls, poking them, x-ing them, hugging them, rating them...and the list goes on for ever. Your eyes grow wide and red-rimmed, you look like you've been infected by all possible infecting applications, you don't mind the fact that you fought with your best friend because you sent bought shoes for her, and you discover old friends online and promptly buy them a round of drinks. What more of a social life do you need?! (unfortunately, thats not a quiz offered)