Boomshine

It has come to my notice that there are a few regular visitors to this blog who come here just to while away time during office hours to play Snake and Copter. It is a serious nuisance for employers and we say....HooHooHaHaHa (Thanks Prerana for teaching me that laff !! )

This here is a game that had picked up quickly but then suddenly got yanked out of my uncle's blog and then people stopped discussing it. On the face of it, Boomshine looks fairly innocuous but has proved to be surprisingly addictive.

Instructions

• Click on any part of the playing area
• Try and create as big a chain reaction as possile
• Sit back and enjoy the noise made by the bubbles( the high point of this game)
  

Cons

• There are only so many points you can accumulate

• Repeat Attempts are allowed

• Does not help in determining who is the better player

I guess this game is not about competition. Just enjoy the chain reaction

Warning

Turn off the music on the bottom right of the main screen before you start playing. It is very irritating and does not sit well with the relaxed 'ambience' of the game.

Special Warning

TURN OFF THE MUSIC







No wonder then, Addicting Games is the version sponsor for this game

To me Mum and Dad

When I was young, my sister was enrolled into a music school and her teacher always used to ask my mom to enroll me for music lessons. I don't know whether it was a calculated decision or they followed their heart but they were smart enough to keep me out of it. Unlike others who would push their children too much to make wonders out of them, my parents were smart enough to realise that only a vocal chord surgery would be able to fish out some form of musical talent from within me.

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Fast Forward to a few years down the line and I was this kid who used to return from school, change his clothes, have his lunch and go out into the balcony with a tennis ball in hand and a makeshift bat and lose myself to my own make belief world of sports. Most parents would have contemplated doctor's help for their seemingly deranged kid. My Mom and Dad never ever discouraged me from it. Maybe that was the time, the first thoughts of wanting to become a sports journalist crept into my head and it was not nipped in the bud. This, despite the fact that a few neighbours used to ask them "Aapka beta pagal hai kya?" :-) .In fact, I remember my sister's friend asking her the same question in front of me!!

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12th Class and my tryst with Brilliant Tutorials came to a rather abrupt end. The pressure got to me and it was just too much for me to handle. I had to quit and there was no other way out of it. All of a sudden, I began to doubt my abilities and I did not even know if I would be able to make it through the Board Exams. But my Mom and Dad were there with me, encouraged me to believe in myself again and provided the kind of support through that volatile period in July without which I would not have been able to make it through another 9 months in a board exam year. I don't know whether my results would be considered good or not but whatever it was, was due to their full support.

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End of college and there were many roads leading out towards a new life. I chose a path that would have met with a lot of skepticism and most would have chosen to obstruct that path. But not my parents. They encouraged me to take the step and follow my instincts.They chose to support my new endeavour. Now that I think about it, it must have been a terribly hard decision to support me down a path not oft traversed, but they did.

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They say you learn things along the way and my little honeymoon with my new venture came to an end. I decided to part ways and have started on another new adventure. While the past three months were truly educational, sometimes things don't work out and you have to move on. Most would have given up hope but my Mom and Dad still stood by me. They gave me the kind of support that I could only have dreamt of and helped me through the transition period. Buoyed by their support, I take a great degree of confidence into my new job and a belief that I would be able to move ahead with it.


While my 'pursuit of happYness' continues, they have always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and never ever discouraged me. They have stood by me on all occasions and as I drove down to office today I realised, they have always backed my dreams and stood by my side through out.

One day, I WILL make them Proud.

To me Mum and Dad, Thank You.

Compromise at what cost

It happened for the first time in Bombay as the Hawaldar next to Gateway of India took the 20 Rupee note and walked away. I squirmed, felt uneasy and remained silent for the rest of the night. My sister narrated to the others in the car how I would start crying just at the thought of someone bribing a policeman. Maybe that was how I was when I was a kid. Maybe I had not grown out of it.

That was 3 years back. Today we had gone to India Gate to play with the fancy 10 buck frisbee while the Sun God chose to express all his warmth on an unusually hot day. After having had a good time, free of any inhibitions and terrible renditions of some song in 'Rock On' , we were on our way back and I jumped the red light. Then came the man in the dreaded Khaki outfit and asked me to park the car on the side.

With 5 others in the car, the haggling process started, he stated the laws, painted the facts, said everything possible to deter you from going to the court and asked us to furnish 400 Rupees. We started at 100, he squabbled a little more and finally we struck a deal at 200. The money exchanged hands and we drove on.

While I sit in the comfort of my house and write this piece, there is a sinking feeling that has engulfed me. There seems to be this great sense of loss that I cannot describe and I can assure you it is more than just the 200 Rupees debited from my Bank Account. It is as if I have started to compromise with my belief system. Today I let go of something that I cherished and held close to my heart, I don't know what it could be tomorrow. I was told "Such 'minor' acts can be condoned as long as you are honest to your conscience and do not commit an act that would hurt or harm someone else". All this is nothing but a compromise that you are making with your own way of thinking and the only thing that I can think about asking myself is Compromise at what cost?

It's frustrating, irritating and a lot of other such feelings that I am unable to express. There is a small token that my school gave me before I left, which is my most cherished possession. Today, I feel like throwing it out of the window because I have let down the faith entrusted in me by my friends and teachers. There are still many things I hold close to my heart but just like this I don't know how many other things I will let go of; These are the little acts of compromise that one makes to be seen as normal in civil society.

I just hope the traffic cops on duty can weigh heavy on us and tell us that there is no scope for discussion, the law of the land is supreme and no point in exploring 'other' options. We cannot get into the cycle of blaming everyone and everything in the system because it is a vicious circle. I failed the test of character, I can only hope that I can muster up enough strength the next time around to do the right thing.

What I know for a fact is that the next time I speak about corruption, I cannot get myself to make a convincing argument because I have not been able to practice what I have tried to preach. The sad part is, after a good night's sleep I will wake up without a feeling of loss. After all, I have 'Grown Up'.

First Day at Work

How was my first day at work?

Hmmm.. Green Grass, Blue Skies, Cool Breeze and my first ride on a golf cart. Let me see, Not such a bad day, I guess. :)

That is not even the point. I did my first interview today. This was just supposed to be a 'get used to your team' kinda day because I am officially starting on Monday. Little did I know that I would be asked to go interview a player. I don't even know what answers he gave as he stared into the camera waxing eloquent about his game, future and god knows what else coz I was nervously playing the next question in my head before blurting it out.

For the record, the gentleman, was Gagan Verma, ranked 1096 in the World Amateur Rankings, but if it is any consolation, leading the seedings this year in India due to some impressive performances in the last few tournaments on the Amateur Tour.

Fine fine, you will see a small mention of the tournament in tomorrow's paper and an even smaller mention of Gagan's name coz he finished runner up and it will not tell you that he is the same chap who got interviewed by Mr Natarajan, but one thing I can tell you is that 3 weeks down the line when you see him speaking fluently on Ten Sports, you must remember then that it was me who was goading him to give a few decent answers!

Whatever be the case, I am pretty chuffed about the fact that I registered my first interview today. Last I heard, Tiger Woods was wetting his pants at the thought of being interviewed by me in the near future. :p

Yeay Yeay Yeay


My Workplace

Brand'ed

Ever wondered how many products and brands we end up endorsing in a single day. I made a rough list and there were more than 30 brands that I seemed to endorse just because I use them on a regular basis. And they say Shah Rukh Khan has the maximum brand endorsements...tsk tsk tsk. Let me tell you, I do all this for free. In most cases I end up giving the brands money for promoting their cause. I am sure that is the case with most of you and I have a sneaky feeling most of the women end up endorsing even more brands.

Here is a breakdown of my day that was( One of the weekends, a couple of weeks back, I reckon)-:

05:30 to 07:00

07:00 to 08:30

8:30 to 10:00

10:00 to 12:00

12:00 to 15:30





15:30 to 18:30




18:30 to 22:00



After 22:00
Sorry guys. Anything after 10 in the night has got to be restricted to the strictly private domian. I think one has to be allowed a certain degree of 'privacy'. Ah privacy, what a lovely word (Not!, but that is another issue we will tackle some other day)


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Quite unbelievable. Hard to believe we are so strongly chained to this highly commercialised world. I guess the advertisements obviously make an impact on our lives.

Try it out yourselves and you will realise just how many brands you end up endorsing in a single day.

Where the mind is without fear

A few years back Just before I had joined college, I had gone for a short vacation to be with my cousin. There I had a very disturbing discussion with someone and it left me worried. I was frustrated to see so many believe that the very fabric of India is a facade and how inter-religious harmony is something that is a Utopian thought. I was told I was a kid who would grow up and understand the reality of life and how I would change my thinking accordingly. That prompted me to search for an answer and for a reaffirmation in my belief. I share with you the reply I got from my teacher. Ironically I got this mail on the 15th of August.

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Dr Anuradha Ghosh-:

I have lived by what I believe and that is exactly what I teach too. It is so easy to hate and spread the seeds of disunity but difficult it is to fight for a just cause, for equality, freedom and dignity for all people no matter what race, caste, religion, region they might belong to. I was born in a family that suffered the ravages of Hindu Muslim riots during partition as our ancestral home was in Bangladesh. Yet my father as well as uncle never saw it as an affair between communities while all others do. The rise of fundamentalism the world over is only the facade behind which lurks economic and power interests of the ruling elites in all communities.

What we need as individuals is roti, kapra and makan. We have no answers when farmers commit suicide; we euphemistically term starvation deaths as deaths due to disease; we create a violent order and mask our failings as individuals to fight for justice -economic, social and political. We feel secure in a make believe cocoon world and target the weaker to feel ourselves superior. Hence the blind war over Ram and Rahim, chinky and non-chinky, and the thousands of divides that tear our beings apart in a world that has suffered so many ravages.




Yet my faith in the human spirit remains unchanged. I believe in no God other than the will to achieve goodness in our self.The future cannot shake you if your conviction lies not in championing dogmatic national/regional/caste/ religious interests. The more you read and think the clearer will it be as to where from such thoughts emerge. You are 18 and at your age there were the Khudirams and Prafulla Chakis who died for the independence of this land. One might feel to what end. Perhaps to create symbols out of their lives that keep talking to us in the form of myths and legends keeping alive the power that we have to write our own histories and change the face of the institutions that enchain us by creating spectacles of our lives.

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While the country continues to burn from Orissa to Kashmir, I think what she had to say gains a lot more importance today than ever before. I just hope there are people out there listening.

P.S. Where in god's name have you disappeared ma'am? We need to get back in touch. Let me see if I can hunt you down!

Yol and the sands of time

1. Apin-:











2.Anupam-:
3. Gautam-:













4.Siddu-:
5.Soumu-:















6. Mo-:
7.Adit-:









Dekh tere Sansar ki haalat kya ho gayi bhagwaan,

Kitna Badal Gaya Insaan !!!!


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The first pic with all the cousins was taken in Yol, a wonderful little army town next to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. It was probably my best vacation ever and this was in 94 or 95. The only one missing in this pic is Arti. If she had been there, I think it would have been the only pic with all the cousins together. We all have been together previously but a photo was never taken and whenever we made an attempt, invariably someone was always missing.

But yeah, if anyone of you is planning to buy a retirement home and has what in Delhi is called the "Approach", then get out there and book yourself a place in Yol. You will never regret the decision. Snow capped mountain peaks visible from the balcony, the pleasant weather throughout the year and the wonderful scenery all around, Yol is a place that must be visited at least once in your lifetime.

Add to that the playing facilities that are available and you will never ever want to leave that place. We were all so disappointed that the summer holidays had come to an end and we had to make our way back to the sticky weather of Delhi.

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Talking about the sands of time, Apin is now married and with Arti set to join the club, time is flying by and of course that little matter of me being the next in line after them :X :D:D:D