Freezing Thoughts

Standing in front of security check entrance at the airport, the mother tried to hold back her tears and failed. Her son, who was there to send her off, tried to lighten the mood by telling how much he enjoyed having her over for vacation and how much he was going to miss her. At this point, the mother's tears grew so heavy that her eyes could no longer hold them and seeing this, words failed the son. He embraced her, trying to take away the sorrow that was making his mother cry. For an instant, they foolishly hoped for the moment to sustain forever. But then reality stuck soon enough, she walked towards the gate with her suitcase and he moseyed towards the exit. The above scene is an attempt to portray the beauty of an overcast July sky on a Sunday midnight in Stockholm. As I walked outside for a midnight stroll, a cool breeze caressed my face and for a moment it felt like I was in an Indian hill station for winter vacation ! Just like the son from above scene, the night sky ...

After a lackluster season last year, it was very important for Indian Premier League to kick-off well this year. With their association with Youtube continuing and thanks to a wonderful internet service here in Sweden, it is a treat to catch the matches live (HD quality!). IMG Media is doing a superb job with the broadcast, commentary is better, nice highlights packages and most importantly, several of the less fancied teams are challenging the established super-star teams. It is still early days in the tournament, but looks like it's going to be a really tight race to the top four this year. Teams suffered from a slight identity crisis last year due to shuffling of players, but things look better settled this year. Chennai Super Kings Two time champions are finding it hard to really get going. Are they becoming a tad too predictable? Though not many of their players are suffering from loss of form, things are just not happening their way. But they surely have a knack of ...

Regular viewers of 'How I Met Your Mother' must be wondering when the writers of the show are going to finally introduce 'The Mother'. Almost in the end of 7th season now, the sitcom is getting quite tedious nowadays; Lily-Marshall are not very funny anymore, Ted is so predictably hopeless and apparently we are not going to see a great deal of Robin in the coming episodes. But as always, Barney (or should I say, Bro-ney ?!) keeps the show going and his recent episodes with Quinn were just LEGEN, wait for it. There are a lot of clues littered throughout the past couple of seasons about 'The Mother' and they seem to point at this: Ted ends up marrying Barney's half-sister, Carly ! She was mentioned in Season 6, Jerome Whittaker showed his family photo to Barney and said, "This is my wife, my son JJ and daughter Carly, she is in college." What do we know so far ? * 'The Mother' was in the Economics class Ted mistook as architecture...

A day which will be remembered for Sachin Tendulkar's remarkable achievement of scoring a hundred international centuries, will ironically not be a very happy memory for Sachin Tendulkar himself. A man who proudly wears a helmet with an Indian flag on it every time he walks out to bat, would have preferred an Indian victory over him scoring a hundred. There are these die-hard Sachin fans who consider him God and worship him. To them, cricket starts and ends with Sachin scoring runs. If Sachin scores a century and India wins, he is the guiding force of India. If he scores a century and India loses (which seems to happen more often), then it is the team's fault that they ruined a Sachin century !! This is testimony to a sad fact that we prefer individual brilliance and flair over team effort when it comes to sports in India. Sachin is an amazing cricketer and a more amazing human being. When you start branding him 'God', then it becomes necessary to argue irration...

When the first Indian wicket falls in India's next Test match, Rahul Dravid will not walk in at No.3. His perfectly balanced stance and steady poise in wonderful Test whites can only be seen in video recordings, for earlier today, Dravid announced his retirement from Test cricket; his final Test match was in the Adelaide Oval in January earlier this year. It is fitting that he marked the start of a new era in Indian cricket at the same venue by guiding India to a famous win in 2004.  When Dravid debuted in 1996, my Dad pointed him out to me and said, "It's not just that he scores runs, he works very hard for them, but makes it look easy with a touch of class." Apart from the cricketing aspect, it was an important message for me, a 10 year old boy just starting to get the grips of life. The message I got was that while Dravid did not possess the natural flair of a Sachin Tendulkar, his performances were still in the same league as Sachin's. When I realized t...

(இது நான் சென்ற வருடம் Munich to Amsterdam பஸ் பயணம் செல்லும்போது எழுதினது, இங்கே பதிவு செய்ய விட்டுபோய் விட்டது.)  பஸ் ஜன்னலின் வெளியை லேசான மழை தூறல், கேசம் கலைக்கும் மெல்லிய காற்று. இளங்கருப்பு மேகங்களால் சிகரம் தெரியாத மலைகள், அடுக்கு அடுக்காய் தீப்பெட்டி போல வீடுகள் கொண்ட பெயர் தெரியாத கிராமங்கள். பச்சை புல்வெளியை மீறி திமிறி வளரும் நெருப்பு மஞ்சள் பூக்கள், என் எழுத்து பாதிக்காதவண்ணம்,  பேருந்து வெண்ணையாய் வழுக்கிசெல்ல வழிசெய்யும் சாலை. செவியில் சுவையாக ஷங்கர் மகாதேவன். மனதில் இந்த ஜேர்மன் நாட்டு அழகை எனது தாய்நாட்டுடன் உடனே ஒப்பிட்டு பார்க்கதூண்டும் பழைய நினைவுகள். இவை அனைத்தையும் ஒருசேர நெஞ்சில் நிறுத்தியும்  இறகுபோல் லேசாக இருக்கும் இதயம்.  எனது இந்த அனுபவத்தை நேர்த்தியாக இயக்கிகொண்டுஇருக்கும் இறைவா, எல்லா புகழும் உனக்கே. பி.கு: நல்ல தலைப்பு கிடைத்தால் சொல்லவும்.

To all people intrigued by ' Why this Kolaveri ' song and not sure of the meaning of 'Kolaveri', take a look at Virat Kohli's innings today and the way he helped India chase down 321 runs in merely 37 overs. That, ladies and gentlemen, was 'Kolaveri' in it's purest form. Captaining India's Under-19 side to World cup victory in 2008 and then helping India win 'Emerging Players Tournament' in 2009, Kohli is not new to top-class performances. But to perform consistently on the big stage alongside some of the greatest names of world cricket is no easy joke. It is heartening to see his success in Australia this summer, hope he continues the good job for a long long time. Whether India make it to finals (riding on Sri Lanka losing to Australia on Friday) or not, this victory of Himalayan magnitude will sure do a world of good to the embattled Indian team. With injuries, talks of rift in the team, big questions begging for answers in the Test ...