A simple life lived the extraordinary way!!: July 2008

This incident happened in January last year after our placements got over… it was the annual Sports extravaganza of TAPMI called SPEED and all the 4 senie and junie sections with names like Diehards, Mavericks, Azurras etc crossed swords for sporting supremacy… something they can brag about until the next edition!! I was not in good shape due to my troublesome ankle n knee (thanks to endless overs bowled in the cricket field) but I got a call from my team captain at 6am in the morning stating that since I was a known sprinter (?) I’ll have to run in the sprinting events… winning or losing doesn’t matter!! Half asleep and still fearing about any major breakdown I decided to turn out for my team.

After a few moments of warming up I knew in my heart-o-hearts that I wasn’t fully fit… and the hard track of the MIT sports arena was making it more difficult.

I ran in the 400m heats and after maintaining my tempo for half the distance I couldn’t run… it was as if someone has tied a heavy stone under my legs and it wasn’t allowing me to surge ahead… dejectedly I lingered off the field… knowing well that the 100m will be more tougher.

And then in the semis I ran… and ran hard… came a comfortable 2^nd and qualified for the finals… the fact that one is competing with 2 junie sprinters who were professionally trained and naturally gifted was something that was playin on my mind. But I moved on without many expectations except the inner thoughts that I’ll give it my best.

The whistle was blown and 8 of TAPMI’s fastest sprinters flew along with the wind… the atmosphere was charged with such nervous tension with scores of fellow people cheering their teams… my lungs was gasping for breath… I could feel my blood rushing through my veins and the thumping of my injured legs…

After 50m I could see that the 2 junie sprinters have created a lead of around half a meter… and they had the momentum… and there were people breathing down at my neck… then suddenly something happened… as if some wild animal power has been teleported into my legs and I was running as fast as I could... without any feeling of the pain in my ankle and left knee…

As I pushed for the finish line the 2 junie sprinters managed to brush the tape in a brilliant 1-2 and there was a guy and myself in a virtual photo finish for the 3^rd position… and then I fell down… down and hard with all the mass and acceleration that comprises Newton’s Force!!

There was blood all around my left shoulder and the hands were scaled and blood oozed out… and beneath the torn T-shirt I could see white-flesh…

I was trying to edge out my competitor in a photo-finish and just managed to bend my head and body ahead of him… and in the result I fell down… but not before coming 3^rd for my team… I won’t forget the adulations that I received from my team mates… I gave it my all when my body told me to keep away…

The marks on my shoulders are still there… a constant reminder that in a small little place… in a small little game… I tried my best against all odds.

I don’t have any answers for why I did what I did… coming 3^rd wasn’t a big deal… but still why I literally threw myself to come 3^rd I don’t know!! Maybe it’s the sportsman spirit within us all…!!

Lush green scenes of my birthplace
The breeze sweetened by bloomin flowers
The morning crispness...
romancing my heart's innermost corners
Faded memories...refreshed in an instant mix
The old red river of my childhood yore
dried down and sullied
it must be crying... I am sure it is
Big fella the river... now only the quaint memories remain
in dried up silt!
Freshly bloomed flowers... in nature's myriad hues
swaying and dancing through the entire route
welcoming my homecoming as the long-lost son
Softly caressing me into a trance
My journey..tracing the roots from the past
as the distant miles came to a nigh
And there I behold my childhood home
My steps being halted by a sea of emotions
Smiles and tears all rushed past me
My childhood home... waiting still...
finding comfort from the good ol' days!!
Within its faded walls... memories sprang up in flight
Pangs of sadness engulfed me...
knowing very well that...
very soon strangers will paint away my childhood memories
Silent tears brewed within...
and then I turned my back and bid adieu
to my sweet childhood home
for the last last time...

Black is me, black—my soul!
You may be white and laugh the longest
but I’ll accept black even with tears.
If black’s death, it can be life too!
If it isn’t then do I care a hoot? Hmmm…
The purest black, the deathly black…
Nothing can be as intoxicating as that.
You can be white and dare to leave me in tears but…
Still I’ll have what I’ve started with--- BLACK!
I win; I lose… its black what I’ll end up with.
The new hope—that’s Black!
The nude dance of death--- yeah! That too is Black!!
Dare to kill me O’ white…but….
Will you remain white then?! Hmmm…
Mix any hue within me but
It’s black that you’ll always get.
Black was my love….
Unchanging, unflinching, ageless
Perhaps it didn’t care to change… for change’s sake!
The darkness before eternal nirvana…
Isn’t it something like BLACK?
The method in madness…. What it is called?
…. BLACK?!....
You endure your whiteness, I’ll enjoy my opacity.
Will Black and White ever meet? ---forget it!!
It can’t get worse than BLACK…
So there’s nothing for me to fret!!
Without black what is white’s worth anyways?
Why I’m asking questions?
Don’t I know the answers to them all?!!

Don't know why I am so blank today... probably it's the momentary pause between nothingness and infinity. As if a new body is taking shape casting aside the older version and just waiting for the kiss of life!!

"If"

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

The epic Wimbledon final clash between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was so riveting and at the end of it all I was really not sure whether to be happy at Rafa's victory or sulk at Roger's loss. It was an awesome display of mind over the elements... and the gusty wind and rain-breaks only added to the folk-lore. I am sure this match will be remembered for a long, long time. Rafa has been a constant threat to Roger Federer and Wimbledon was the ultimate frontier as far as he was concerned since in Wimbledon there is no greater God than Fedex!! I am sure it's the beginning of a long, long rivalry that will match the Borg-McEnroe rivalry ball by ball, serve by serve and what not!!

Congratulations to both Rafa and Fedex for such an awesome display of tennis. Very few people know that lines from Rudyard Kipling's immortal poem 'If' appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court - a poignant reflection of the poem's timeless and inspiring quality. I am sure this will continue to inspire a generation of players who try their best to transcend the physical barrier and raise their game to a metaphysical level.