Dont know!

IMG_5229, originally uploaded by shreedhar_rajaram.

Dont know what bird this is, but its mood seemed very poignant, when I took the pic! Love the fact that the hazy morning made for a nice background!

Stuff that dreams are made of!

Lazy Sunday morning in Delhi....big game in the evening..two of us are sitting at the breakfast table....and in walks the man himself - Anil Kumble - requesting us if he can join us at the table...!!! One hour later, we have chatted about almost every batsman in the IPL and heard a couple of stories about his captaincy days.....!!!!
Stuff that dreams are made of!

That Time of the Year..

Its that time of the year again - My third IPL season. Strangely enough, I seem to be enjoying this particular season more than the earlier two. Dont know why!
Back to travelling non-stop and with it the hope that this time atleast, I will get my Gold Card..:)
Close interactions of the kind that I am going through is however, bringing forth some stark realities.
Respect for a few senior cricketers has only gone up, while it is the exact opposite for most of the others - losing respect by the day. Gods on the field, but not the greatest role models off it. Well, if one were to rationalise, they are human after all! But they carry a bigger load on their shoulders than the rest of the 'Aam Junta' and it is imperative that they live up to it. Alas, very few of the youngsters seem to realise that!
But they have been pure magic on the field. The first half of the IPL has had its share of surprises, but the team has been wonderfully consistent and look set to go places in the tournament.
Just ranting around now in this post...Clearer updates shortly!

The Hassan Adventure

Pics from a long awaited trip to a friend's coffee estate in Hassan. With the alluring Western Ghats as the backdrop, the day went off wonderfuly well, only to end in disaster with an accident on the way back. My first accident and the resultant fracture have given me a well deserved break from office..thats the good part..:) Anyway, enjoy the pics!

One more loss!

The PES college grounds seem to be a big jinx as far as our cricket playing streak goes. One more match against DNA, one more loss. This is now getting beyond mere embarrassment. Beautiful the ground may be, but its getting on our nerves. We have lost every damn match played there apart from one and that one win was also earned the really hard way, puffing and struggling home. So there has never been a comprehensive win over either DNA or the RPC.
Coming to today's match, we got them out for 104 and we couldnt chase it down! Need to take on more resposibility from my end as captain. Though a collective failure, it is now leading to voices of discontent within the team, with the batting order being questioned. Dont know where the answers are going to come from.
We seem to be a good side, but extremely bad when it comes to playing as a team. How do we get the motivation going up again, is a moot question that needs to be answered.
Questions and more questions, with no sign of answers coming from anywhere!

Cricket, Formats & the Matrimonial search

Almost a year since I last wrote! Gosh! It almost feels like I have to learn to blog again.

Nothing much has changed..still single and looking, still have the same car, still work in the same place, still playing cricket with friends every sunday. So when I thought I would update this page, I was left wondering to myself - what do I update this page with???

So here goes, the three things that my life has centered around in the last 10 months -

The cricket, both, the one I have been playing regularly and the one that I have been intrinsically part of thanks to IPL -2, have kept me going all the while.
The formats and new processes at the workplace have been overwhelming (something that I had not foreseen when I joined the place).
The matrimonial search has been, if anything, even more overwhelming! Its a pain to go through profiles every other day and keep rejecting them. Evenings at home are spent doing this over and over again. Shall keep this story for my next post...

And I am hoping not to make this post an annual affair, like my last two posts.

Pretty bland post, if I may say so myself...but I hope to get better as I get back to writing

Cheers

Feels nice to be back!

Its been close to a year since my last post here. The year just gone by has had its share of ups and downs, but I would like to believe that the positives far outweighed the negatives.
A year that presented me with the most unexpected career gift, a year when a new member came into the family, a year when I understood the value of a good negotiation when joining a new job, and lastly, also a year when I seem to have increased my waistline (slight increase, mind you). Damn Corner House, I say!
The biggest opportunity of my career came knocking on my door when the IPL franchisees were announced last Feb. Little did I know what would hit me over the next 4 months. Pitchforked right into the cauldron that the IPL was, I was handling activities that are the stuff of dreams for many people that I know. I was building the brand Royal Challengers Bangalore, deciding what the team uniform would be, what the home ground should look like, strategising and putting in place marketing and communication campaigns for the team, building tie ups through sponsors for the team and best of all, travelling with the team to all the matches!
To sit in with your heroes on meetings, to travel with the people you admire so much (Kumble, Dravid, etc) is what dreams are made of and in my case, fortunately for me, most of them came true.
Swoosh….4 dramatic months passed by, with many days and nights spent in the office trying to put all of these together. With the team not faring too well, the job got more difficult as the days passed. I guess the advantage of a situation like that is that there is very little expectation from the team and consequently very little pressure on people surrounding the team.
On a personal front, my brother got married and it is strange how different the same old home can start looking within a matter of days of the arrival of a new member to the household.
Lots more through the year has happened, too much to be able to share in a single post.
But I shall come back soon and update this page, for all those close people willing to stop by.