Freezing Thoughts

The end, of another year. The festive mood of Christmas is always a wonderful way to end a year and look forward to a new one. January 1st is just another day in every respect, but end of a calendar year is always a good time for some retrospection and introspection, for the best thing about closure is the promise of a new beginning. Personally, 2012 was an eventful year for me. I hope the lessons learnt from experiences stay forever and help in navigating through the future in an effective and fruitful way. Perhaps the biggest lesson of all came in form of a poem titled ' If ', by Rudyard Kipling. Though I've read it before as a teenager, it is a wonderful feeling to come across it again, after almost a decade and find new meanings out of the same words. I share it here in the hope that the reader finds it relevant and takes inspiration from the poem. Also, I came across a recitation of the poem by Sir Michael Caine and couldn't stop myself from adding some m...

During the early 2000s, I used to dream for an Indian cricket team that played like an Australian outfit. I wanted India to possess the attributes which defined that great Aussie team; the habit of winning, never-say-die attitude, immense self-confidence and thorough professionalism. I definitely did not expect India to lose a Test series at home, just a few days after Australia did the same, and bring about a face-palm moment. It is not right to be too harsh on the current Indian team which is clearly in the middle of a rebuilding process. But more than the defeat, what is not a pretty sight, is the manner and attitude that go with it. Without Dravid and Laxman, those two wonderful troubleshooters who worked with the knack of adept technicians and the grace of seasoned magicians to rescue India, the responsibility on bowlers is immense. Sadly, sights of wane and inexperience among pace bowlers and an alarming void in spin department are not reassuring.  And there is the b...

After kicking-off with a spectacular opening ceremony, the London Olympics remains one of the top topics of dinner-table conversations and social media posts. It is unfortunate to see news about match-fixing in Badminton taking the limelight and slightly spoiling Michael Phelps' incredible achievement of winning 19 Olympic medals. Let us hope we hear only positive things about the games from now on. India's campaign hasn't been without events. A Jane Doe walking with Indian athletes during opening ceremony caused quite a sensation, but six days into the games, India has just one Bronze medal to be proud of. Hockey team is not performing as expected and hopes are pinned on Badminton events to make sure the medal tally improves. With almost two weeks of Olympics still left, it is a tad too early to pass judgement on India's performance, but one can't stop wondering about the dearth of good world-class athletes from a country with a population of over 1.2 billion...

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...