And I miss Singapore...

Am at home with parents! Been here for a couple of weeks now.

But am really beginning to miss my beloved Lion city now. Part of the reason is that in the past 4 days or so, I have been engulfed in just way too much negative energy. I should be a transition person & ensure that the negativity stops with me, but I find that my spirit is now waning. It's just been too much to handle.

The problem's also been compounded by the fact that I don't really have any friends here now that I can talk to. Or atleast talk about the kind of matters at hand.

The best part is (& am I thankful for that or what!!) - none of this has anything to do with my engagement on 23rd. Yep, in 5 days from now, I shall be officially delisted from the market!! More on that in a separate post.

For the moment, I need a strong dose of some cheer & positivity. I am really looking forward to meeting the Infy gang tomorrow & Ankit in the evening today. I need to get out of the house.

After that, I am longing back to Singapore. Getting back to work & focus in life.

My first tag!

Oye, I picked it Niks!!

Here goes...

The Alphabet Tag

A -Available? Nope

B-Best friend: Umm... Niks, !Xobile, Nishad.

C-Cake or Pie? An ice-cream n a waffle please. Thank you very much!

D-Drink of choice: Hot = Nothing comes close to a nice, hot, mountain masala chai. Cold = Mango juice

E-Essential thing used everyday: Umm... Food & TV remote.

F-Favourite colour: Red - The Ferrari Red!

G-Gummi bears or worms: uhh...wah???

H-Hometown: Patan, District Mehasana, Gujarat :)

I-Indulgence: I, me, myself (i.e. none really!)

J-January or February: February - fewer working days!!

K-Kids and names: How about asking me after my engagement is secure!

L-Life: Will live my life a 100%, 100% of the time.

M-Marriage date: Calendar year 2008. Updates - come back in 3 months.

N-Number of siblings: Zero

O-Oranges or apples: That's a lame one! Flip a coin - pick whichever one you like.

P-Phobias: Umm...none really. Maybe just of dying suddenly one day without telling my parents & Niki what they mean to me.

Q-Quote: Umm...I'd have put some wise words of my own, but then...

समय समय बलवान
नही मनुष्य बलवान

काबे अर्जुन लुट्यो
वही धनुष वही बाण

R-Reason to smile: Happy parents & a happy Niksie

S-Season: I love 'em all.

T-Tag three people: Adil, Baanu, Nishad

U-Unknown fact about me: Umm...it's unknown to me too!

V-Vegetable you do not like: I am not picky :P.

W-Worst habit: Oh common now - How can I improve on perfection, ya?

X-x-rays you have had: Chest. Niki tells me I should get one of my cranium done soon!

Y-Your favorite food: This is torture yaar... How can you ask a man to pick between Angelina Jolie & Catherine Zeta Jones!

Z-Zodiac: The Smug, intelligent archer - Sagittarius.

Saturday, March 1 '08 - The first MMS

Something this funny hasn't happened to me in a long time now! It so happened...

Nice, breezy Saturday morning. I am browsing thru a million varieties of a million items (most of which are avoidable & unnecessary) at Takashimaya when I get this MMS! My first MMS on my uber-kool new mobile, the Nokia e6500s.

So, you can imagine the alacrity with which I'd have fished out my phone, slide it open with just the flick of my thumb...and the MMS waiting for me is...

Msg from S'pore Police Force: Please call the Police at 999 immediately if you see Mas Selamat bin Kastari. He is short (1.58m) & limps on left leg. Thank You.

Man, this city is something! 1 criminal got away & within 48 hours they have mobilized the city to try n snare him back! Posters are up all across the lion city - at public joints, in MRT stations, in residential blocks. As if that wasn't enough, they have sent out MMS'es (yes, MMS'es - complete with a really creepy looking photo of the creep!) to everyone in the city. That takes some efficiency, resolve & resourcefulness.

The reason I was laughing my self off nutsy was that it reminded me of India - I come from a land where some goon or the other escapes from some prison or the other every single day! Who the hell knows how many get away, let alone mounting reconnoiter missions to catch hold of these mischievous buggers. And the IPS would run the exchequer to bankruptcy in 2 days if they started sending out MMS'es to every Tom, Dick n Harry about every Steve, Buck n Roe that got away! Rotflmao...

No wonder then that the Singaporeans can do ad-campaigns like "Low Crime doesn't mean No Crime." (this when the crime rate in the city is in single digits. it is less than 3%!!).

P.S. - That man really looks creepy! Is there some God-ordained, sacrosanct law that all goons have to look this creepy?? I don't get it - why can't no goons look like handsome hunks / baby-faced candies! Where is Arundhati Roy - I want to start the Equality in Photogenics for Criminals movement!

One good deed, deserves many others!

Did a good deed today evening. Donated some money to the blind man playing his keyboard in the MRT walkway. And it was a spontaneous reaction - not pondered over, not broiled over a million n one times in the cauldron of rationality.

Ever so often I have remarked to Niki as we see needy, elderly, disabled people on the road that we should do something to help them. If we can't give them time, should atleast help with some money or clothes or food. But, these high-sounding, altruistic intents never materialized into any concrete actions. And I kept wondering why my mind held my hands back, while my heart was moved by the old lady in the wheelchair proffering snacks. By the blind girl playing her mandolin by the roadside. By the 5-year old boy bringing me the hot cuppa tea on the highway stall as I take my breather on my way to my winter, snow capped retreat :(.

And one Sunday evening over dinner at the food court in Balestier, as a blind, elderly Chinese couple passed by urging us to buy 3 packs of tissues for $1, things fell in place in my head.

I think my reluctance stemmed from the environment I've seen while growing up in India. Fathers making their children beg thru the day, only to enjoy their shot of Ethanol at night (which quite often turned out to be the deadly Methanol). Ladies at signals asking for money using a prescription for her kid as her plea, only - neither is the kid real, nor the prescription. Stories of that pauper who actually had a million bucks in his bank account. Such incidents & many other hearsays serve as strong deterrents against letting my compassion getting the better of my mind.

However, somewhere along the road, this intent of not encouraging begging gets transformed into a rocky wall of not having a heart. Which I think totally defeats the purpose - It just moves the pendulum from one unstable extreme to another, rather than pegging it in its equilibrium middle path. And, when the same culprit rationality is applied to analyzing the situation, I couldn't find a cogent reason to not give.

1. At a moral level, one should give, just because you should. That's exactly what Karmanyeva Aadhikaraste means. It is your duty to give & not to worry whether your giving is used for drinking or as offering to a deity.
2. From a more worldly pragmatic point of view, the assumptions that put barriers in our mind are more hearsay than anything else. And given the Indian media's record for "veracity", it is most likely that the bad stories are amplified & blown out of proportion than their actual occurrences. Why then should the truly needy, deserving suffer for a handful of miscreants?
3. From a philosophical point of view - and this I find the most convincing - if you don't bother about what a person does with that expensive gift in a fancy wrapper you brought him/her, why should you bother with what the beggar does with the 5 rupees that you give him?

Made me realize that giving to people, having a heart, being compassionate is A CHOICE. You can choose to do your two-cents worth or just be indifferent (or apathetic). However, it is a choice you make & is independent of how conniving & evil the world might be.

That day onwards, I made my choice. I will help. I will give. Without bothering about what will be done with that measly little contribution of mine. I have enough & more in life, and extending that small arm of support once in a while won't stunt me in any which way. There are people who aren't as fortunate as I have been in life (only due to God's quirks in casting the dice & no other reason!) and they deserve to be helped. Even if one soul benefits from what I do, it's worth it.

And I'll do it with a smile. That little gesture will earn me well-wishes that I could very well do with. Somewhere in my heart, I'll also have the small, selfish pleasure of clocking up some goodkarma miles.

The couple sold 6 tissue packs that day. (My chronic cold also helps!). The smile on the musician's wife (who isn't blind & probably has a day job somewhere), tenderly feeding him some rice while he played on, as I moved towards their tin box was priceless. It was one of genuineness & gratitude.

We should never lose sight of the fact that we wouldn't have evolved to where we are today without a million, unknown, benign helping hands. Like that star who ripped the Sun open & gave birth to our planet. Like that meteor who triggered some chemical magic creating life. Like that first playful Pisces who jaunted on to land & took on a hairy, ape-like form.

Who knows what unintended & magnificent effects our small actions might have in the future!

V - The "innocent" player

Yo came up with this awesome one-liner today in office about V.

"Don't fall for his innocent looks! Never go for the innocent ones, they are all PLAYERS!"

Hilarious stuff, Yo!
V - you totally rock...

Catbert - The correct way to use the office entry card!

Catbert said this on how to use the office i-card!

That's me, that's me!! But the strip clearly proves I ain't the only weirdo around!! Yippieee :).

P.S.

1. Image courtesy - Dilbert by Scott Adams.
2. The awesomest Dilbert archive is found here. (Thanx buddy, whoever, wherever you are!)

Addendums:

1. My dearest Niksie was the one who first showed me this strip! Many thanx dear :).
2. @ Harish & all - No, I DO NOT wonder about what body part of mine opens the damn door! Dirty minded buggers...
   

India vs. Aus, CB Series - Bring Rahul Dravid back!

Déjà Vu. Times New Roman, all Caps, Font size - 80. That's what India's performance against the Aussies had written all over it yesterday!

And there were countless Déjà vu's about the team's performance yesterday.

1. The perennial problem of the 3 sub-units - batting, bowling, fielding - not clicking together resurfaced. The bowlers had almost served the match on a platter to the willowmen, only to see them smoke it up!
2. The Indian batting line-up's strength is now only on paper. In reality, the team doesn't have a backbone & is quite frail. They'd come out as raw as wheat husk playing under bowler-friendly conditions (like in the Windies or England). After a long, long time, the team has gone back to it's days of being over reliant on Sachin to do the bullwork.

The eerie part is that when I read the team line-up in the morning - 6 batsmen, 1 trying-desperately all-rounder & 4 bowlers, I went uh-ohh. Any sizable total to chase & if Sachin gets out cheaply, we're gonna have trouble. And that's exactly what happened - Only worse, it was a paltry total on a reasonable good batting track!

To my mind, the issue is that we don't have a solid No. 3 batsman who can play the sheet anchor role. Irfan Pathan at No. 3 is clearly not working for the team & the next best option is Rohit Sharma or Robin Uthappa who are both dashers rather than grafters.

While I agree with the strategy of developing the team for the future & hence grafting young blood in as early as possible, I think the transition period could be better handled. If not, some of these blokes are going to find the going tempestuous & can easily become the next victims of the "Kaif syndrome". (Getting opportunities to bat only under dire circumstances & then being blamed for scoring too few runs, too slowly!).

I think a better way of going about this is to bring Rahul Dravid back at No. 3. Let him do what he does best - tie down one end & graft, while the junior crop can come & showcase their stroke making prowess around him. Groom Dinesh Karthik / Suresh Raina to fill Dravid's shoes in the future.

Hence, I feel a potent Indian squad would look as under:

• Sachin, Gambhir - Openers. Left + right combo works well.
• Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina - Sheet anchor
• Dhoni, Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa - Middle order
• Irfan Pathan - All-rounder
• Bhajji - Spinner
• Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel - Pace battery.

Depending on the conditions, choose to play the extra middle order batsman or the extra fast bowling option.

The Sri Lanka game on Tuesday has now become crucial, thanks to our own idiocities. Ironically, the hope for India is that Sri Lanka has just as grave batting problems as us!

My money is safely in my pocket.

Someone wise said... (err, twas me ;) )

Just a mere trophy of success will hold no sense of accomplishment, unless you know what to do with that success.

One of the many interesting conversations I had with my friend B during our 2 hour Macritchie trek last Friday. B - awesome company, conversation & trek!

The other note in the conversation which I found quite insightful was B remarking about her perception that I would always live my life a 100%, 100% of the time. (Yes, I live in distributions & am definitely not "normal"). My resolution of last year seems to be on-track. Touch wood & smug smile :).

Best luck B! Hope you clear your hurdle by a distance in March.

P.S. - The post is mostly about me & seems to be in self-glorification. Bad, bad boy Horsie!

Farewell to DB

It's been a year of farewells at CMK. Lots of people have moved geographies, life stages or companies.

1 of these was the erstwhile head of AAI CMK, DB, moving to Geneva. She came in as the head of AAI CMK in 2000, with total CMK strength in single digits. Under her tutelage, the function evolved & grew to its current strength of about 70. So, in a way, I owe my current job to her.

But more importantly, she was loved by everyone for the personal touch to her leadership. Conversations with her were rarely about the state of the business - it was more about what's happening in our lives, things we like/dislike. She could talk to me as another 25-year old than someone almost double that age. I feel that is the hallmark of a leader - can she build people bridges.

So, the poignancy at her departure from AAI after 7 years was palpable. For both her & the CMK community at large. Hence, to see her off, a facebook was to be compiled where everyone could leave their messages, pics etc. which she could take back as a memoir. Here is what I wrote for her:

Bright shines that distant star

Being a guide to many from her throne afar

Yet silently she delights

At the success of those guided by her light

Worshiped is her legacy

She, who weaved life as she passed by...

Forever remembered will be her glow

For her spirit, her charm and her know.

P.S. - At the actual farewell night, someone used an almost identical quartet as her opening line. I have a lingering suspicion. If it's true, I feel ambivalent about her having used it.

I finally have my online albums :)

Yay, I finally have activated my Picasa account & uploaded photos :).

Check out the works of art here.

Will upload snaps of Tioman Islands, Poovar Islands (Kerala) & others soon!

Turmeric Latte from Coldworks! ;)

I took my first sick leave of my P&G days this Monday. Was down with a wicked chest congestion, runny nose & a mild fever. Had I spent the day in the Antarctica of the equator that is my office, I'd have been coughing my way to the hospital like an 80-year old!

So, I promptly set-up the following Out of Office note on my email -

Hi guyz,

As I am grappling with almost a Jakarta-esque congestion in my respiratory channels, I won't be in office today.

I am gonna take this opportunity to savor some heady concoctions like Ginger juice, Neem tea & Turmeric latte! Open invitation to one & all who wishes a refreshing drink after a day's hard labor!! ;-).

Have a great day!

Regards,
Harsh Shah

Hehehe...
Am quite proud of the fact that the illness didn't get the better of me this time. I didn't get grumpy or morose at all.

Best part was - colleagues in office actually found it amusing! :).
I hope my spirit stays indomitable & positive always. Amen.

India Chak De'd...Yoohoo... :D

Queen crooned "We are the Champions" back in '77. Last night, a group of 7 men (more like overgrown boys actually!!) & a gal hooped around in total hysteria, miming Freddie Mercury's lyrics as they witnessed a spectacle of a lifetime!!

What a final!! India-Pakistan. Doesn't get any bigger than this. Nothing in the English language can quite qualify these encounters.
And the match lived up to its billing. Thorough humdinger. 80 fingernails dug deep into the sofa set and almost ripped the cushioning out!!

It's a well-known fact that I am a long standing skeptic of the Indian cricket team. And I have reams of historical data & heartbreaking experiences for my cynicism. We, in the past, have pulled off miracles that for most teams, in the game of cricket or otherwise, would be outworldly. Except that our miracles weren't really in the "I am beaming with pride" category. They were more in the bewildering "Is this really happening" category!! I rationalized the events thinking that given our famous Indian hospitality bindings, our teams felt waves of graciousness for our opponents & did not have the heart to inflict defeats upon them. Ever since, have priced my faith safely out of reach of the Indian men's cricket team.

However, an India-Pakistan game is a different ballgame. There I blend in with the 1-billion crowd & root for the Men in Blue. When the two neighbors clash in a sport, for me it's never just about the game. It's about patriotic loyalties - no jumping ship here.

Yesterday (Monday, Sep. 24, 2007) was as loud a call-to-arms as any. And no one on the east of the Indus was disappointed :).

At 77/6 with Pakistan’s tail exposed & 81 to get from 8 overs, celebrations had begun early. And then Turbanator Singh came on. Misbah-ul-Haq, sensing his last draw in the battlefield, unleashed his final backlash. 3 towering 6's from the cad in Bhajji's over & it was déjà vu all over again!! 2 more sixes to Sreesanth & suddenly we were staring down the barrel. Just 20 to get from 12 balls for Pakistan…

You have to doff your hats to the guys who conceptualized this format at this point. It’s designed such that the game is always treading a knife-edge. Even a whiff of an effort & the momentum swings. Its teleported cricket into the realm of soccer – non-stop, nail-biting thrill through the game.

1 tight over from RP Singh later, the game hangs in limbo at Pakistan needing 13 off the last over with last man standing, India needing 1 wicket but with all its best bet bowlers used out. In my head, I am begging God to not let this become the “Javed Miandad slaps 6 to Chetan Sharma off the last delivery to dent India’s joy” match of my generation. As my silent prayers pick up fervor, the young Jaat Joginder Sharma sends down a wide with "pressure" written in font size 160 written over it & I gasp – "Okay, here we go again!!" Misbah heart stoppingly sends the next delivery into the stands & a billion lachrymal dams are on the verge of bursting. I wonder how many people in India would have got strokes as Joginder delivered his next delivery & Misbah lofted it 5-storeys high again. Only this time, instead of some unsuspecting spectator receiving the projectile, a blue-clad Sreesanth latches on to the white orb the way a famine victim would cling on to air-dropped foods!!

And with that… Yoohoo, India won the Twenty20 World Cup!! So what if we were mauled out of the "real" thing back in May in the first round! The mind takes a minute to register the unbelievable & then pandemonium breaks loose. Hugs, hoots & high-fives all around the tiny living room.

Amazing stuff. India is in delirium the next few days. Just check out these videos of the “Victory Yatra” & the Wankhede Felicitation ceremony as the champions arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday (Sep. 25, 2007) morning to see for yourself.

1.a. Home coming video at IBN Live.com
1.b. Home coming video at YouTube

2. Felicitation video at IBN Live.com

The Gods of the country’s most widespread religion showered the most fulfilling & blissful of blessings on their legions of followers. That too without the involvement of the so-called supreme trinity of the pantheon!! What a phenomenal slap in the faces of their highn-ass-es M/s. Tendulkar & Ganguly…

Chak de India!!! Long live Twenty20...

Hello World!

Void Helloworld()
{
printf ("Hello World \n");
printf ("Horsie is back. \n");
printf ("Was busy, had gone galloping as well. \n");
printf ("Got some interesting stories to tell. \n");
printf ("Keep reading. Have a great day! \n);
}

क्या पता...कल हो ना हो...

One of the very, very, very few dialogues mouthed by SRK on celluloid that I actually appreciate n don't mind recounting in public is this particular line from the movie Kal Ho na Ho

"जीयो, मुस्कुराओ, झुमो, गाओ, खुश रहो...क्या पता... कल हो ना हो..."

Loosely translated, it reads - Live, smile, dance, sing, be happy....who knows...there may or may not be a tomorrow.

It's such an awesome mantra to live life by. From my perch, I have seen Addie, my Guru, practice this motto daily like a true devotee. Inspired, I have been trying to "reapply the best practice" since the last 3-4 months. And life's been truly awesome!! Even simple things have taken on prismatic, spectral hues. The smiles have propagated to back home n got amplified in the voices, mails n faces of my family - that's worth more than anything else.

But today, in keeping with the "Live life Kingzise" spirit, I bungled up. Yet again.
Like the train that doesn't realize it has rounded a bend until after doing so, I too realized it after the events had transpired. For the umpteenth time, my comet left a wake which was never really intended. :(.

How I wish Addie were here today. For reassurance & reinforcement to stop my faith from teetering. How I wish life weren't so critical & demanding of faiths ever so often...
How I wish I could do an SRK, standing with my arms outstretched double their length on some overflowing waterfront, saying

आज में जीयो, क्या पता...कल हो ना हो...

The faith shall stand though, a little shaken but by no means vanquished. The horse will learn, make amends & keep walking on...

A Utopian life in Guyworld!!

I have been thinking about that age-old dictum saying that a man would have a Utopian life if he can claim propriety over the following worldly possessions:

1. An Indian wife
2. An American salary
3. A British house
4. Chinese food.

Hmm. Now, the first thing that struck me was as I was mulling over the list is how remarkably incomplete it is. I mean, this is the 21st century and we men are material minded, carnally driven, insatiable, obsessive maniacs, having sold our "mojos of higher living" to the devil in our past lives!! How can the list be complete with just 4 simple entries as above?

Hence, I embarked on the noble task myself of completing the dream life of a man. So, without further ado, here goes.

Addendum to list above

1. A Singaporean city/standard of living
2. A Korean car
3. Japanese gadgets
4. French wines
5. Arabian land estates
6. A Russian mistress
7. A Dutch orchard
8. Spanish music
9. German factories

There. I think now the list can at least claim to stand on veritable grounds of being close to Utopian.

(Note - The list is restricted to worldly, material possessions. Hence, things such as looks & **** cannot be enlisted in this bracket).

Hmm...all ye guyz out there...have I missed anything? All contributions are most gratefully welcome :).

The adventures of KV - Part 1

Kunal had planned this vacation with his mom n sis to Singapore, KL, Langkawi since 6 months or so. He had taken uncharacteristic pains to meticulously plan all the details to the T, had driven me up the wall to plan out his itinerary and stuff!

He was to fly out last evening from Delhi to arrive in Singapore today morning. After which I was to become his walking-talking Frommer's guide to Singapore!!

Well, he's just had a phenomenally auspicious start to it. He sms'd last night that he'd missed his Indian Airlines flight to Singaopore (and that too the only flight flown out by the airline from Delhi). Lol. Rotflmao.... Double rotflmao...

These things always happen to him! I can so imagine his sis giving him a nice hiding for this.

The recourse he has taken his that he has flown to KL & is taking a bus to Singapore from there. Which means that he loses almost whole of today!!

Hilarious stuff. KV rocks!!

The Week end syndrome

Just concluded that I have a compulsive need to spend the night before a holiday out i.e. Friday evenings / the evening before a mid-week break necessarily means I graciously contribute to the coffers of a restaurant & to a movie hall.

In my mind, I earlier thought that this was driven by a functional, first order physical need - food. Background is that our maid comes to cook dinner from Monday - Thursday, with Friday being a scheduled pit-stop. Hence, Friday evenings till a couple of months ago necessarily meant a hop over to some eatery in Little India. However, off late, we have had the option of calling her over on Friday as well - an option that we've almost reverentially stayed away from exercising.

But this belief was busted by the recent spurt of midweek holidays when I have had an irrepressible urge to not spend the evening staring at either of my LCD screens - the TV or the laptop!! Was myself amazed at how helpless and subjugated I felt to this surge inside me!!

So, I guess the verdict is out on me - I am afflicted with "The week end syndrome".
Symptoms - Extreme restiveness on a Friday evening, arbitrary mood swings ranging from being king of dullsville to childlike buoyancy, uncontrolled irrational dashes to smash through the office glass-doors.

Cures - Lungful of 6pm evening air, indulgences spanning दाल मखनी , सेविया to popcorn n ice-cream, 3 hour therapeutic x-box sessions :).

Do you also suffer from the same? Get yourself diagnosed. Paint the town red (or whatever color you fancy)!!

Cool guys & Hot gals

Just realized another point of difference in the classic debate - boys vs. gals. Stated as under:

Guys aspire to get/stay 'cooler' as they get older while gals aspire to get/stay 'hotter'!!

Hmm...interesting...

Mama, see what I won - My own star :)

Was at an office offsite the last two days. The published purposes of the offsite are twofold:

1. Share the past fiscal's (our fiscal follows a July - June calibration) business results, successes/failures & learnings.
2. Lay down the goals, strategies & vision for the current fiscal.

The unpublished, flunkie's eye agenda is..... PARTY!! ;-).

And that's exactly what it turned out to be. The business review sessions weren't half as bad as I had dreaded, and the awards night + party simply rocked :). The second day's physical workout + outdoor team building activities were tons of fun and eye-opening (yes, I need to move my lazy bum n exercise!!).

And amidst all this rejoicing, I got a personal reason to celebrate!! I won a "Special Appreciation" award :).

The awards are meant to recognize those individuals whose work produced some sterling results/gave new direction to the business unit. It's one of those awards that got my mind going "Jeez, I wish I could win one of those" while I sat in the aisles applauding other winners at past functions!!

As it turned out, I could feel those butterflies start their "catch me if you can" games inside my tummy all over again as the function kicked off. And as the muster rolled on, I could feel those little aahs inside my head getting louder with each announcement that didn't yet call out my name.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the spotlight zeroed in on a slide screaming "Harsh Shah". And I was... stunned!! Took me a few seconds to get out of my reverie and realize मेरा Number आ गया!!

The applause as I went up to receive my blue star seemed to be coming out of the ether, the faces seemed to lose features, the notes crooned "I believe I can fly" and for 2 minutes I wasn't on this planet as the hormones n chemicals in my junkyard rocketed me into orbit!! It took Karthik's raspy voice n firm vise on my wrist whilst I was floating back to my seat to get me to land :). Fumblingly, accepted his congratulations, mumbled out a thank you & parked myself on my chair with a long breath as the realization sank in :).

Well, the party started almost immediately after this and I let my hair down (well, whatever there is of it anyways!!). The hormones carried on with their alchemist dance well into the night :). Woke up the next day as usual to a star - albeit a blue one with my name inscribed on it instead of a yellow one!!

Small joys these, but truly ones that permanently color my memory with joy n pride!

The Da Vinci Code - It could be true...

Watched The Da Vinci Code again last night. Though people the world over lambasted the movie, I liked it.

Yeah, the movie has its pits - no character development & a virtually plastic Audrey Tautou. But the screenplay is very loyal to the book (perhaps a bit too loyal, choking the characters out) and is well-paced. Ron Howard has commendably brought the history of the Grail & the multiple associated, abutting legends to life. I could feel those goosebumps again as I watched the movie unfold.

Now, here is a thought which has nagged at me ever since I read that best-seller.
Could it be true? Could there be a descendant of Jesus Christ walking among us?

I have heard a million n one folks point out the poetic licenses the book has taken with some locations & historical facts in the story. However, I think they miss the larger picture.

Look at it this way - Arguably, there could exist a secret brotherhood, a la the Priori of Sion, protecting the bloodline over the centuries. They could ostensibly have a mission of revealing the truth at what they saw as the opportune time.

That time could be now. The Da Vinci Code could be a first in a series of plots towards achieving this mission. Dan Brown could be a member of this secret clique (one of the Senechaux, or perhaps, the Grandmaster himself!!). Or he could be a pawn in a larger scheme of things. Whichever way, the wheels of history could be in motion again.

Think about it. Think about what can be & not what is. How sensational it would be - it promises to throw every aspect of human belief into throes - history, religion, world politics. It'd be an event of true apocalyptic proportions!!

I'd love to be alive when such an event if & does ever happen. Conspiracy theories rock...