snippets to continue.. ! I kinda like it that way !

Its quite intriguing how kids change their playing habits, for a while its something that they are obsessed with and then suddenly its something new that captures their fancy.

The latest obsession my son has with the toy doctor set is unbelievable… half of the day he has the stethoscope in his ears and is listening to all sorts of things investigating the refrigerator, the floor, the door the phone, his toy animals gee… !

If you give the slightest indication that you have some problem the doctor in the house will be breathing down your neck with solutions !!!!!

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As I read more and more people suggesting Dhoni to play 5 bowlers or stick to 7 batsmen… I sort of smirk… they all dont get it do they… even Gavaskar’s, Shashtri’s and Bhogle’s too… the fact that differentiates Dhoni from the rest is the fact that he is his OWN man !

The media, former cricketers, crowd et all can go jump in the lake but Dhoni will stick with what he feels in his mind is best for his team.

A captain must not get swayed by emotions and judgements made by others and only follow things that he himself believes in as if something goes wrong he then has back up plans.

I still remember one of the best pieces of advice that Naseer Hussain considers he got was from Richie Benaud, a very astute skipper and thinker of the game. Benaud told him when he was appointed captain,

“Either do things your own way or dont do them at all !”

India must be glad even without that advice Dhoni comes straight from that school.

If you would like to read a bit more about captains Please visit the following link : http://hitchwriter.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/ace-skippers/

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These days the one song that is always on my lips is Daaaaaarling…. aankhon se aankhen chaar karne do…. !!!! I just love the frenzy the song kicks up… ! Lovely twisty song I say… !

I infact even liked the movie…. Apart from the darkness in the movie… I envied Priyanka’s life as Madamji … wouldnt it be great to have such estates and such wealth which leaves you with nothing to do and all you have to do is to think of JUST living life… Seeking pleasures and satisfaction… instead of thinking all the time about how to earn a living to live a life…

the first week at home…

Before I start rambling off let me first solve the quiz …

The only guy to guess it correct at the first go was Karate Kid errr Brat and I have been rewarding him enough already !!!

Monu guessed it correctly too but in her third try ! The last pic was actually clicked by leaving the shutter open for a while and then in the balcony we were using the mosquito killing racket for about 2-3 minutes and all the lights are the number of mosquitos that were killed during that time… !!!!  

So finally I have a sunday today after two weeks, last sunday was in training and so didnt get a weekend off… but finally its a day to relax and chill and we have a plan to go to Valia (40kms from bharuch) to have some lovely home made chicken masala served to us… !!!!!! So looking forward to tonight’s dinner !

The last week has been eventful and have been rushing by… having to travel, train, settle, meet new colleagues and so many hours spent observing, understanding things and getting ready to put thoughts into action… ! Largely life has been rustling and bustling and thankfully everything has been good and no mishaps… well none but one…  when in over slept in the volvo while returning from Bharuch and travelled another 60 kms… !

It so happened my bus was late, instead of 9.30 it came at 10. My travel agent had told me it would reach Bharuch at 7 so the half hour delay meant 7.30. The bus conductor said 7 too ! At about 6 I woke up to see the highway and no hotels were visible… and I thought in my mind that I had to stop the bus as I had this huge urge… as I prepared to get down, luck, which has changed it seems for the better (touchwood), the bus turned into a hotel, we stopped !!

It was Galaxy Hotel, the name sounded familiar, the dining area etc too.. and I thought I had eaten Bhajiya’s here once.. I asked one fellow,

“Bharuch ketlu ?” (meaning how far is Bharuch)

“60kms” pat came the reply

I relaxed and did my stuff and took out a cigarette and was just enjoying the cold morning mist and breeze on the highway puffing & thinking of the training days gone by and the implementation to be done… when I noticed that if I were going from Surat to Bharuch I should be on the other side of the highway… I turned around and tried to figure this side or that side and it seemed I was on the side which would be right if I were going from Bharuch to Baroda… so I went to ask a guy at the counter of the hotel,

Where is this hotel situated ?

“Por” came the reply to my horror !!!!!!! I had crossed Bharuch by a good 60 kms and phew… I suddenly rushed and asked the conductor why he didnt wake me up and he said I screamed so hard… 5 people got down at Bharuch… Sigh… I still cant believe he drove from Pune to Por in 8 hours !!!!!!!

thankfully there were many buses going towards Bharuch on the same hotel and I did my changing but in that I forgot my Biwi’s shaawl in the bus sigh !!!!

The first week has been busy and hectic, the colleagues in the new office are quite nice, most are young and very energetic and quite co-operative I must say, the environment seems positive and it should help, now for me to work really hard… !

Also have started playing cricket in the mornings and the first day involved a finger injury and one ball decided to just jump as I bent to field it and decided it liked my Ear more than my hands… it was painful to say the least and the ear was ringing… Remember the doordarshan “teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” before it starteed….. yes, I could hear that same sound… thankfully no bleeding !

Feels good to sweat it out in the morning and the body is now quite well, after the first day’s play I was locked, I walked almost like a ROBOT !!!!!! but now its getting used to bowling 4-5 overs daily and that should help get the belly in…. !

Another blasphemy happened when one of my bro’s colleagues (I play with my bro and his colleagues) pointed at me and asked my bro,

‘Pela kaka kaun che ?’ (who is that uncle, kaka is gujarati for uncle ! )

SIGH !

Talk of giving fodder to my readers … but what the heck… I have been away and I want my legs pulled… Lol…

I will now be rambling for sure… hang on guys and I am now starting to read blogs and make my reader lighter… !!!!!!

Life is happening … !

a sunday morning at the barber’s shop… sigh ! :(

I have been tagged by Uma and Monu for the honest tag but somehow I am not able to write even one thing honestly, idea’s come but go again and I am left with only the rules of the tag written in the draft post…. so while I still try to write that, you girls will have to wait for a while… I am pretty desparate myself to put up a post but nothing seems worth enough to actually post, and then I just tweeted an incident and then I thought maybe its worth a post… so I deleted the tweet and thought lets try and write a post.. so here we go… lets see if I can actually write it and finish it…

I absolutely loathe going to the barbers shop on a Sunday. It is here that I realize that India really needs to curb its population… who wants to start a Sunday morning waiting for an hour in queue as one after the other unbathed male comes trying to influence the barber to seat him earlier than the ones already waiting reading the news paper or watching some silly tv programme or puffing cigarettes outside…

This is when I play my mobile game the most, though I hate it… Just as I get bored of the game and take out a cigarette to puff I see a guy with really long hair walk in and signals he wants a shave… when the barber asks him about a hair cut he solemnly shakes his head and says its perfect.

At times I marvel at people who have long manes and am always wonder how much patience it requires for such long hair to grow. I clearly am a guy short on patience… then I see a couple of people getting their heads shaved off… this one is short and sweet no style… simply get the hair shaved off… Shaakal type !!!

I want to get my head shaved off but always have resisted… once even we brothers had decided to do it… but I backed off after one brother of mine got his head shaved off… once or twice I have got myself a crew cut leaving just half a centimeter of hair on my head but… it looks awful on me with my round face and expanded cheekbones… its more suited to oval faces I guess…

however I have always maintained that when I go to Ladakh I will shave my head completely and go… don’t see the connection ??? neither do I … but I think its cool to shave the head off completely wear Raybans, puff a cigarette on the banks of Pangong TSO and get a pic clicked sitting on my jeep !!!! Sigh.. !

Anyways finally after an hour and 3 cigarettes later my turn came and as the barber was using the machine on my head… something inside me told me to get it shaved off… the whole head… but my normal self screamed no no no… !! Somehow I struck a balance and told the barber leave —– (yes those lines depict the length I indicated to him with my fingers) and shave off the rest… !!!!

The ordeal was soon over and I couldn’t believe I did it… as I looked in the mirror it was evident only one word was applicable, it simply looked nothing else but horrible… !

I told my barber….

(never mind the English translation)

Me : “Bahot bhayankar dikhta hai..”

Barber : “Main to pehle hi bola saab, aapke face pe suit nahi karega, hum experience se bolta hai”

Me : (trying to keep my chin up, with an ugly grin) “Koi nahi oye, bina kaante kaise pata chalta ??”

As I paid and started walking towards my Dio and looked at the mirror I knew it was not good still somewhere inside me something was still trying to grope for some help… like a sinking man trying to grab a slender piece of wood, I though… no at home they will say its different but cool… !

As I went in home my wife opened the door but she looked at me and was  

and I said.. “I know it doesn’t look good !”

She said… “oh why did you do it again !” (she had seen me in a similar cut in college and it looked ugly back then as well)

But she maintained her composure and she knows I always am too conscious about how I look so she said… maybe it will take a day or too for the eyes to get used to it… she also said… well it doesn’t look so bad after all (wonder what that line means) !! Her attempt to boost was very feeble… but she got busy in her kitchen probably trying to stop herself from saying anything that would rub me the wrong way more… !!!

As I went into the bedroom some noise came from the bathroom and I realized my son was inside… I went to look what he was doing and he was bathing and the moment he looked at me..

He simply pointed at my head, hair to be more specific and laughed out loud…just like this male Zoo Zoo in this Vodafone Ad :

and finally I knew I had now got the most honest frank opinion… !!!!!