This is something I read in Neha's blog and thought of putting it up here too ...
Its all about "me", and I am not sure how much true it would be ;-) lol !!!
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
i am: What I Am, but at the end I would turn out to be, what my God wants me to be ...
i think: Not ALL of us out here are "that" lucky, so try and make the most of what one has in his/her platter of life - good or bad without complaints...
i know: I will make it big some day !!!
i want: to educate poor children in the future ...
i have: lived 25 % of my life, committing sins, and it will take another 75 % to wash those sins away !!! So I have cut a deal with God to let me wash my sins till I reach 100 !!! ;-)
i wish: I can own a big business !!!
i hate: hypocrats, liars, people showing false attitudes...
i miss: each and every moment of past life so far and so i keep on trying to recreate those again and again ....
i fear: the God's stick which might come down any moment to punish me or warn me for my sins...
i feel: i am living in a dream world of my own (typical piscean trait) ...
i hear: my own voice, when I am at the lowest point in my life ....
i smell: great with Ferrari Black, Blvgari and Davidoff Cool Waterg !!!
i crave: to give a great life to my parents !!! (i m giving them a hard time right now lol ;-) )
i search: for wisdom and positive points in others ...but I rarely find the latter....
i wonder:what I would do without friends !!!
i regret: lot of important things which I did and without which my life would still have moved on if I had not done those ...
i love: to driveeeeeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!
i ache: for love from someone special !!!!!
i care: for everyone who I feel is worth caring for ....
i always: will remember one motto "Fight On" from USC !!!
i am not: able to control my emotions when I really have to ...
i believe: in Destiny !!! "One's story has already been written up there above, no matter who we are and what we do, we are just puppets at the end, controlled by our destiny"
i dance: alone in the bathroom...
i sing: when I feel people need to hear something soothing !!!!lol
i cry: only if I want to, not if someone makes me cry !!!
i don’t always: try and be emotional... I have learnt being practical too....
i fight: with almost anyone who sparks me off due to wrong reasons....
i write: in my blogs, some personal notes, some poems(newly found talent lol), some funny paras for friends ....
i win: when I have to - No matter what !!!
i lose: my appetite when I am under pressure...
i never: want to lose anyone or anything in life close to me, due to wrong reasons....
i confuse: people with my "Ha Bhai" style replies .....
i listen: ONLY to what my Parents have to say and not to anyone else ....
i can usually be found: pulling people's legs (people who know how to be funny and not react to it and are capable of enjoying the jokes.....)
i am scared: of being caught up in controversies !!!!
i need: to do sky diving, go to Europe, drive my car in the US at 100+ speeds, go on a cruise to Alaska etc etc.... the list goes on ....
i am happy about: this post as I never knew so many things about my own self !!!!!
Cheers
Samkit
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A Game to re-define The Immortality !!!
As always, came a perfect Saturday, bright summer weekend, with the tone for the weekend already being set the night before on Friday, at my friend Keko's (Karan) appartment, where the gang got together, to have some fun, chillax, enjoy and take a break from the stressful week...As always Aditya was at his prime best making people laugh and roll them on their bellies on the carpet with some additional support from Keko...Lot of new jokes came to the surface, lot of the old USC memories were re-lived and some new singing talent was also discovered...
The friday night chat went on for hours, and at the end my face was aching with all the great dosages of humorous laughter I had just received...
Start of this last week, and all the cricketing dudes had already started talking about the game against a team who called them "Chargers" in our group and they had a respectable reputation of winning matches and was to be one of the good teams we played.... The Game was to be held the next dayon Saturday, at 8 AM. Aditya just had one thing to say "We, The Immortals are gonna play this game tomorrow in such spirit and with such aggressiveness to WIN, that the Chargers are gonna repent playing us, and to add more to it, Aditya also said, that they are gonna FORGET that they used to play Cricket. Tomorrows game would make them repent that they played The Immortals" !!!
Will this turn out to be true ? Or will we be chewing our own words with faces hanging low ? Who knew what was gonna happen next, and who knew what the Cricketing Gods had in their mind for The Immortals ???
Will The Immortals display a show of their Immortality ?
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Hold on to your breath and just read further, as you get the shot of adrenaline up your veins, as what you are about to experience and read, will give you goose bumps till the last line and at the end you will feel the excitement which I feel even while writing this ...
Game Day : The Immortals vs Chargers - 8 AM
20 overs each side !!!
The grounds which we normally used to play our majority of the games, are all baseball fields, where the sides are protected by fences, whereas this ground where we reached was almost a 360 degree ground as we have seen in normal cricket matches all over the world ... We were all excited and stirred up to play after coming from a break of two weeks...
One of the setback we faced was when we got the news that, Manan who was our opening bowler and batsman was not gonna play due to some personal commitments. And so Kunjan was taken as his replacement... But nevertheless we were all set for a good tough fight and play our best...
The pitch looked rock solid, just like Old Leavey days back in USC when Ronak, Bhupesh, Keko, Me, Aditya, Vivek P used to play ... We won the toss, and we decided to field as we had no experience on this ground ...
Toss : Won by Immortals
Side Batting First : Chargers
The Chargers Innings ...
We started off nicely, with some nice bowling performances in the first 10 overs ... In a nutshell, there was some great tight bowling from Aditya, then there was Darshil who gave us a double break in consecutive bowls, with some nice support from Bhupesh's and Keka's pace and line, the Chargers were pushed on the back foot with just scoring 31 runs of the first 10 overs at a loss of around 4 wickets ...
Then as Freddie Flintoff has once said, "Cricket is a very funny game, and it has its own way of biting up one's ass, and one has to see it and feel it once" ...
The session between the 11th and the 20th over (end of the innings) - saw some simple catches dropped by us, some very bad mis-fielding which gave the Chargers some easy sweet runs and to add to it some bad calls from the umpires too...But still we somehow managed to keep our cool and restrict the Chargers to a total of 87 runs in 20 overs, with the help of tight bowling by Nirmam and to finish things up by Bhupesh and Aditya along with some nice catches and fielding from Kunjan, Nirmam, Vivek P ...
88 runs to win from 20 overs for The Immortals - Can they do it ? Or will it be another bad story of losing ? Will it be a confidence booster win ?
88 runs is a nice respectable score especially when your opposition is known for their great bowling strength as they themselves claim their side as a bowling side ... This was what one of the players from the Chargers had said "We are a great bowling side, you guys dont have the pace" ...
Lets see ...
The Immortals Innings...
DISASTER ? Will that be the word we would be putting besides our team name ? OR will The Immortals show what they are made of ....
Our innings started off in a bad way, with the openers Batti (Karan SJSU) and Sanato (Viral) - both our openers out very cheaply with the score reading 3-5 runs for loss of 2 wickets ... It was our Vice Captain - Darshil and a stroke player Nirmam who gave us a glimpse of hope by playing steadily and also hitting 1 four in that process of giving us a stable platform...
But as the saying goes "When you have to go, you HAVE to go" and thats what happened with Darshil out by a splendid catch by on of the players from Chargers, and the very next over Nirmam too was on his way back to the pavilion, dismissed by a nice catch by the Chargers Wicket Keeper...
Score : 20-24 runs for loss of 4 wickets...
With our captain - Savan already on the field, when Darshil was out, it looked that this is going to be a bad show today from the batting department as most of us were aware that the middle order batting ALWAYS used to collapse drastically where in a space of 10 runs one would see us losing 4-5 wickets ...
I joined my Captain at a crucial period where the Charger having put their foot on the gas pedal were all "Charged" up, trying to choke us up and inflict a humiliating defeat upon us ... With still plenty of batting to come up down the order, it was decided that I will go in right now...
I tried rotating the strike to give Savan a chance to hit some shots and give us some runs on the board, so as to setup a tone for more hitting later ... Everything was going on great and it was 9.4 overs with just two balls to go before we would take a break...
I was on the non-striker end, Savan on the strike, bowler runs in, bowls a nice line with the ball pitching on OFF side, and Savan made the stroke...Whack, ball went straight to the fielder standing almost at cover, CAUGHT, OUT !!!
Chargers - Celebrating in ecstasy by wiping off half of our side in just 9.5 overs - with one ball to spare before the break ...
The Immortals - Hanging loose, with the rope tightening on their neck, all morale down, all excitement disillusioned, and a WIN nearly next to impossible ...
SCORE at the break : The Immortals are 32 runs for 5 wickets...
OK - GREAT we are almost the same as what Chargers were at their 10 overs (31 runs) ...
BUT, as we know CHASING a target and that too in pressure is really tough and difficult ...
IN came Aditya and what was gonna come next no one from us (not even ME) would have even have had a hint about it ...
Me and Aditya started off from the 11th over and we were facing a mammoth task of scoring 56 more runs to WIN in 10 overs (60 balls) with just 5 wickets in our hand and on the top of it - the Charger breathing venom all excited trying to push us out of the game with some tight fielding and bowling ...
Me and Aditya started off cautiously scoring at a decent rate of 3-4 runs every over, until the 15th over ...The calls between the wickets for cheeky singles were perfect, no confusions, it looked as if we were playing as one body with one soul and just one aim - WE CAN DO THIS AND WE WILL WIN !!!
Then came a bit of luck, when Chargers dropped catches, one off Aditya's bat and one off My bat (which was a sitter and should have been taken) ... But as always, "LUCK FAVORS THE BRAVE" ...
So the scoreboard kept on ticking, thus mounting frustration upon the opposition... The Immortals still needed 28 runs of the last 5 overs (30 balls) - WILL THEY BE ABLE TO CARRY THIS HOME ???
Then came the over which turned the game a bit - The opposite bowlers getting tired, gave away some extras, were baffled by some nice shots from Aditya and were giving away to the pressure too ... The 16th over saw us fetch 14 runs between Me and Aditya thus giving us some breathing space as only 14 more runs were required from the last 4 overs ...
The next over saw some more runs and we scored 10 and thus we needed only 4 runs from the last 3 overs to WIN !!!
Start of the 18th over, with the fielders closing in, Me on Strike, bowler at its full peak, trying his best to break the partnership and give their team a mere glimpse of hope, as everyone knew can ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE ...
First Ball ...Defended solidly...
Second Ball - The fielders closed in ... trying to save the singles and thus contain us ... Ball pitched, Defended once again ...
Meanwhile the best part which I was enjoying all through the innings when I and Aditya batted was, that my team members, were so much charged up as they were hoping and desperate to win this game, that they were all slowly slowly approaching the boundary cones in excitement...Further, Ronak and Keko, were continuously boosting me and Aditya from behind the batting cage, with Ronak managing to keep his control even with his hand in plaster due to a cricket injury and Keko trying to remind me of the yahoo messenger chat hahahahha ... Also thanks to Pratik to come and support us even though he had loads of work to do for moving out ....
All this while there was great great support from my teammates from behind the stumps and from the boundary line, and I personally felt that I am lucky to be a part of this awesome awesome team called The Immortals which is made up of craziest cricket lovers I have seen and who share the same passion as me .... LOL ....
I took a deep breath, to face the next ball, the bowler came rushing in, pitched the ball, and for the FIRST time in this innings, I FELT MY NATURAL INSTINCT overcome my controlled batting (as the situation demanded not to go after the shots and I was feeling as if I was in a walled jail since a long time) and I hit that ball which pitched outside Off stump HARD, and it flew over on the leg side, and I watching it GO .. GO ... GO ... GO .... was trying to figure where it would land ....
GUESS WHATTTTTT ?????
That Ball crossed the boundary ropes right in front of MY TEAM .... AND half way down the pitch I heard the roar of my teammates, all the way from the boundary ropes, and also from behind the stumps, rushing, running, jumping in JOY, feeling on the top of the world, towards Aditya and Me...
I was like WHAT ?
THE IMMORTALS HAD WONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!!!!
I found my-self piggy backing on almost everyone's shoulders - Keko, Bhupesh, Kunjan, Darshil, Nirmam, Vivek, Viral, Batti, Savan, Ronak (who ofcourse could not piggy back me, but had some nice high fives) .... Of-course who would go away without throwing me in the air and kicking me and this time I felt it sweet and enjoyed it too ....
Aditya and Me had just SCRIPTED a great morale boosting WIN and even though the Man of the Match award was given to me, it is OFCOURSE TO BE SHARED by both of us - An unbroken partnership of 56 runs (Aditya 34 not out, Me 30 not out) .... It was a pleasure batting with him ....
WHAT A FEELING !
WHAT A JOY !
WHAT EXCITEMENT !!!
Amazing Game, Amazing Support from Aditya, Amazing Support from MY TEAM MEMBERS .....and overall for all of us Immortals - A GREAT CONFIDENT WIN to keep up the tempo ...
To my teammates - GUYS, WE CAN WIN, and WE WILL WIN !!!
Cheers ...
Samkit
(PS: If there are some discrepancies in this description than please forgive as I was too excited to write this ...)
The friday night chat went on for hours, and at the end my face was aching with all the great dosages of humorous laughter I had just received...
Start of this last week, and all the cricketing dudes had already started talking about the game against a team who called them "Chargers" in our group and they had a respectable reputation of winning matches and was to be one of the good teams we played.... The Game was to be held the next dayon Saturday, at 8 AM. Aditya just had one thing to say "We, The Immortals are gonna play this game tomorrow in such spirit and with such aggressiveness to WIN, that the Chargers are gonna repent playing us, and to add more to it, Aditya also said, that they are gonna FORGET that they used to play Cricket. Tomorrows game would make them repent that they played The Immortals" !!!
Will this turn out to be true ? Or will we be chewing our own words with faces hanging low ? Who knew what was gonna happen next, and who knew what the Cricketing Gods had in their mind for The Immortals ???
Will The Immortals display a show of their Immortality ?
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Hold on to your breath and just read further, as you get the shot of adrenaline up your veins, as what you are about to experience and read, will give you goose bumps till the last line and at the end you will feel the excitement which I feel even while writing this ...
Game Day : The Immortals vs Chargers - 8 AM
20 overs each side !!!
The grounds which we normally used to play our majority of the games, are all baseball fields, where the sides are protected by fences, whereas this ground where we reached was almost a 360 degree ground as we have seen in normal cricket matches all over the world ... We were all excited and stirred up to play after coming from a break of two weeks...
One of the setback we faced was when we got the news that, Manan who was our opening bowler and batsman was not gonna play due to some personal commitments. And so Kunjan was taken as his replacement... But nevertheless we were all set for a good tough fight and play our best...
The pitch looked rock solid, just like Old Leavey days back in USC when Ronak, Bhupesh, Keko, Me, Aditya, Vivek P used to play ... We won the toss, and we decided to field as we had no experience on this ground ...
Toss : Won by Immortals
Side Batting First : Chargers
The Chargers Innings ...
We started off nicely, with some nice bowling performances in the first 10 overs ... In a nutshell, there was some great tight bowling from Aditya, then there was Darshil who gave us a double break in consecutive bowls, with some nice support from Bhupesh's and Keka's pace and line, the Chargers were pushed on the back foot with just scoring 31 runs of the first 10 overs at a loss of around 4 wickets ...
Then as Freddie Flintoff has once said, "Cricket is a very funny game, and it has its own way of biting up one's ass, and one has to see it and feel it once" ...
The session between the 11th and the 20th over (end of the innings) - saw some simple catches dropped by us, some very bad mis-fielding which gave the Chargers some easy sweet runs and to add to it some bad calls from the umpires too...But still we somehow managed to keep our cool and restrict the Chargers to a total of 87 runs in 20 overs, with the help of tight bowling by Nirmam and to finish things up by Bhupesh and Aditya along with some nice catches and fielding from Kunjan, Nirmam, Vivek P ...
88 runs to win from 20 overs for The Immortals - Can they do it ? Or will it be another bad story of losing ? Will it be a confidence booster win ?
88 runs is a nice respectable score especially when your opposition is known for their great bowling strength as they themselves claim their side as a bowling side ... This was what one of the players from the Chargers had said "We are a great bowling side, you guys dont have the pace" ...
Lets see ...
The Immortals Innings...
DISASTER ? Will that be the word we would be putting besides our team name ? OR will The Immortals show what they are made of ....
Our innings started off in a bad way, with the openers Batti (Karan SJSU) and Sanato (Viral) - both our openers out very cheaply with the score reading 3-5 runs for loss of 2 wickets ... It was our Vice Captain - Darshil and a stroke player Nirmam who gave us a glimpse of hope by playing steadily and also hitting 1 four in that process of giving us a stable platform...
But as the saying goes "When you have to go, you HAVE to go" and thats what happened with Darshil out by a splendid catch by on of the players from Chargers, and the very next over Nirmam too was on his way back to the pavilion, dismissed by a nice catch by the Chargers Wicket Keeper...
Score : 20-24 runs for loss of 4 wickets...
With our captain - Savan already on the field, when Darshil was out, it looked that this is going to be a bad show today from the batting department as most of us were aware that the middle order batting ALWAYS used to collapse drastically where in a space of 10 runs one would see us losing 4-5 wickets ...
I joined my Captain at a crucial period where the Charger having put their foot on the gas pedal were all "Charged" up, trying to choke us up and inflict a humiliating defeat upon us ... With still plenty of batting to come up down the order, it was decided that I will go in right now...
I tried rotating the strike to give Savan a chance to hit some shots and give us some runs on the board, so as to setup a tone for more hitting later ... Everything was going on great and it was 9.4 overs with just two balls to go before we would take a break...
I was on the non-striker end, Savan on the strike, bowler runs in, bowls a nice line with the ball pitching on OFF side, and Savan made the stroke...Whack, ball went straight to the fielder standing almost at cover, CAUGHT, OUT !!!
Chargers - Celebrating in ecstasy by wiping off half of our side in just 9.5 overs - with one ball to spare before the break ...
The Immortals - Hanging loose, with the rope tightening on their neck, all morale down, all excitement disillusioned, and a WIN nearly next to impossible ...
SCORE at the break : The Immortals are 32 runs for 5 wickets...
OK - GREAT we are almost the same as what Chargers were at their 10 overs (31 runs) ...
BUT, as we know CHASING a target and that too in pressure is really tough and difficult ...
IN came Aditya and what was gonna come next no one from us (not even ME) would have even have had a hint about it ...
Me and Aditya started off from the 11th over and we were facing a mammoth task of scoring 56 more runs to WIN in 10 overs (60 balls) with just 5 wickets in our hand and on the top of it - the Charger breathing venom all excited trying to push us out of the game with some tight fielding and bowling ...
Me and Aditya started off cautiously scoring at a decent rate of 3-4 runs every over, until the 15th over ...The calls between the wickets for cheeky singles were perfect, no confusions, it looked as if we were playing as one body with one soul and just one aim - WE CAN DO THIS AND WE WILL WIN !!!
Then came a bit of luck, when Chargers dropped catches, one off Aditya's bat and one off My bat (which was a sitter and should have been taken) ... But as always, "LUCK FAVORS THE BRAVE" ...
So the scoreboard kept on ticking, thus mounting frustration upon the opposition... The Immortals still needed 28 runs of the last 5 overs (30 balls) - WILL THEY BE ABLE TO CARRY THIS HOME ???
Then came the over which turned the game a bit - The opposite bowlers getting tired, gave away some extras, were baffled by some nice shots from Aditya and were giving away to the pressure too ... The 16th over saw us fetch 14 runs between Me and Aditya thus giving us some breathing space as only 14 more runs were required from the last 4 overs ...
The next over saw some more runs and we scored 10 and thus we needed only 4 runs from the last 3 overs to WIN !!!
Start of the 18th over, with the fielders closing in, Me on Strike, bowler at its full peak, trying his best to break the partnership and give their team a mere glimpse of hope, as everyone knew can ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE ...
First Ball ...Defended solidly...
Second Ball - The fielders closed in ... trying to save the singles and thus contain us ... Ball pitched, Defended once again ...
Meanwhile the best part which I was enjoying all through the innings when I and Aditya batted was, that my team members, were so much charged up as they were hoping and desperate to win this game, that they were all slowly slowly approaching the boundary cones in excitement...Further, Ronak and Keko, were continuously boosting me and Aditya from behind the batting cage, with Ronak managing to keep his control even with his hand in plaster due to a cricket injury and Keko trying to remind me of the yahoo messenger chat hahahahha ... Also thanks to Pratik to come and support us even though he had loads of work to do for moving out ....
All this while there was great great support from my teammates from behind the stumps and from the boundary line, and I personally felt that I am lucky to be a part of this awesome awesome team called The Immortals which is made up of craziest cricket lovers I have seen and who share the same passion as me .... LOL ....
I took a deep breath, to face the next ball, the bowler came rushing in, pitched the ball, and for the FIRST time in this innings, I FELT MY NATURAL INSTINCT overcome my controlled batting (as the situation demanded not to go after the shots and I was feeling as if I was in a walled jail since a long time) and I hit that ball which pitched outside Off stump HARD, and it flew over on the leg side, and I watching it GO .. GO ... GO ... GO .... was trying to figure where it would land ....
GUESS WHATTTTTT ?????
That Ball crossed the boundary ropes right in front of MY TEAM .... AND half way down the pitch I heard the roar of my teammates, all the way from the boundary ropes, and also from behind the stumps, rushing, running, jumping in JOY, feeling on the top of the world, towards Aditya and Me...
I was like WHAT ?
THE IMMORTALS HAD WONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!!!!
I found my-self piggy backing on almost everyone's shoulders - Keko, Bhupesh, Kunjan, Darshil, Nirmam, Vivek, Viral, Batti, Savan, Ronak (who ofcourse could not piggy back me, but had some nice high fives) .... Of-course who would go away without throwing me in the air and kicking me and this time I felt it sweet and enjoyed it too ....
Aditya and Me had just SCRIPTED a great morale boosting WIN and even though the Man of the Match award was given to me, it is OFCOURSE TO BE SHARED by both of us - An unbroken partnership of 56 runs (Aditya 34 not out, Me 30 not out) .... It was a pleasure batting with him ....
WHAT A FEELING !
WHAT A JOY !
WHAT EXCITEMENT !!!
Amazing Game, Amazing Support from Aditya, Amazing Support from MY TEAM MEMBERS .....and overall for all of us Immortals - A GREAT CONFIDENT WIN to keep up the tempo ...
To my teammates - GUYS, WE CAN WIN, and WE WILL WIN !!!
Cheers ...
Samkit
(PS: If there are some discrepancies in this description than please forgive as I was too excited to write this ...)
Friday, May 9, 2008
Summer Vacations and Mangoes
Come April, Come May, Come June ... As soon as the summer season starts kicking in, some things that instantly would pop up in your mind, especially as a teenager (which I was some years back) are - Summer Vacations, No Schools, Only Sports - Cricket, Swimming, Sports Club, Ellisbridge Gymkhana, Karnavati Club, Lots of Movies and of-course the King of Fruits - Mangoes !!!
With the summer season going on back in India in Ahmedabad, the mangoes have already started making the rounds, with prices shooting up or going down(which is rarely seen), imports and exports increasing, be it a 7 year old child or a 70 year old elder, everyone is digging their teeth and treating themselves to the mangoes, in all sorts, mango shakes, mango rolls, mango pieces and the best of all - apdo "Keri noh Ras" ...
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
As a child, I used to devour upon these mangoes all day long in the summers. Mom would specially take out more "Ras" for me so that even after lunch I can take it as a desert later in the afternoon. I remember I used to hate the threads (resa) which used to accompany the sweet ras, but still couldnt help holding back and would gobble it up. "Alphonso" the best of the best in Mangoes, and it would be almost everyone's "noor of the eye" ...
Most of us, are also fond of sucking to the mangoes, with its skin on, then creating a hole on the top and just keep on enjoying the taste of the sweetness flowing from that fruit. Then comes the turn of the big seed called "gotla" ... Gotlas were favorites for cooking with oil and some spices to be eaten as a snack. Some small kids would also get a treat of a roll called "Keri noh papad" which is made by spreading the ras on a flat pan and letting it dry in the sun.
Its been almost 4 years now since I have tasted mangoes, and its other forms. Of-course one would get the same here in the US, but no fun like sitting in a patio, on a swing, in shorts, on a warm summer afternoon, having 2-3 mangoes by your side, swinging in the warm breeze, and eating and sucking those mangoes to the fullest...NOTHING CAN BEAT IT FRIENDS !!!!
My best memory during these summer vacations would be, having Keri noh Ras, Rice, Ghee, Sunth all mixed up and eating it with Papads....And then turning the fan on at 3-4 points, letting a cool breeze flow, cover the windows with drapes, turn the TV on, lay back and just drift away in a splendid summer afternoon nap snoring away feeling satisfied as if on the Top of the World !!!
Of-course then comes the fun part in the evening, just constantly tirelessly keep on playing cricket hitting the ball all over the ground, visiting friends, going for movies, especially Drive-In, enjoying to the fullest and then come back and have pieces of mangoes again at night along with some mango thick shakes ...
Phew ! What a Life it was and What Summers Were Those !!!
Alphonso, Cricket, Ratnagiri, Tennis, Devgadh, Swimming, Kesar, Movies, Langdo, Picnics, Payri, Afternoon naps.....
I know most of you would have experienced something of the same intensity and happiness and the lucky ones are still able to do so back home.. So feel free to share your best experiences from the Summers and the Mangoes season...
Cheers
Samkit
With the summer season going on back in India in Ahmedabad, the mangoes have already started making the rounds, with prices shooting up or going down(which is rarely seen), imports and exports increasing, be it a 7 year old child or a 70 year old elder, everyone is digging their teeth and treating themselves to the mangoes, in all sorts, mango shakes, mango rolls, mango pieces and the best of all - apdo "Keri noh Ras" ...
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
As a child, I used to devour upon these mangoes all day long in the summers. Mom would specially take out more "Ras" for me so that even after lunch I can take it as a desert later in the afternoon. I remember I used to hate the threads (resa) which used to accompany the sweet ras, but still couldnt help holding back and would gobble it up. "Alphonso" the best of the best in Mangoes, and it would be almost everyone's "noor of the eye" ...
Most of us, are also fond of sucking to the mangoes, with its skin on, then creating a hole on the top and just keep on enjoying the taste of the sweetness flowing from that fruit. Then comes the turn of the big seed called "gotla" ... Gotlas were favorites for cooking with oil and some spices to be eaten as a snack. Some small kids would also get a treat of a roll called "Keri noh papad" which is made by spreading the ras on a flat pan and letting it dry in the sun.
Its been almost 4 years now since I have tasted mangoes, and its other forms. Of-course one would get the same here in the US, but no fun like sitting in a patio, on a swing, in shorts, on a warm summer afternoon, having 2-3 mangoes by your side, swinging in the warm breeze, and eating and sucking those mangoes to the fullest...NOTHING CAN BEAT IT FRIENDS !!!!
My best memory during these summer vacations would be, having Keri noh Ras, Rice, Ghee, Sunth all mixed up and eating it with Papads....And then turning the fan on at 3-4 points, letting a cool breeze flow, cover the windows with drapes, turn the TV on, lay back and just drift away in a splendid summer afternoon nap snoring away feeling satisfied as if on the Top of the World !!!
Of-course then comes the fun part in the evening, just constantly tirelessly keep on playing cricket hitting the ball all over the ground, visiting friends, going for movies, especially Drive-In, enjoying to the fullest and then come back and have pieces of mangoes again at night along with some mango thick shakes ...
Phew ! What a Life it was and What Summers Were Those !!!
Alphonso, Cricket, Ratnagiri, Tennis, Devgadh, Swimming, Kesar, Movies, Langdo, Picnics, Payri, Afternoon naps.....
I know most of you would have experienced something of the same intensity and happiness and the lucky ones are still able to do so back home.. So feel free to share your best experiences from the Summers and the Mangoes season...
Cheers
Samkit
Monday, May 5, 2008
Childhood Memories in School Picnics
Vasona Lake Park, California ...
Sunday, approximately 2.30 PM ...
The game was on ... I found myself revolving around a small circle (made out of shoes) trying to grab a handkerchief placed as if imitating a pyramidal shape and simultaneously trying to save the same from my opponent's hand too ... The idea is to score a point, either by snatching the handkerchief and running into your own territory or trying to get the opponent out if he snatches it and tries to run .... sounds familiar ???
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Of-course this sounds really simple and less tiring than the game where one catcher builds his own chain of people by getting as many people out and then runs as a team to get other free players out... As soon as the catcher gets one player out, that player gets linked as a chain to the catcher and they go hand-in-hand to make others out and join them to their chain ... Phew !! Sounds tiring especially when the chain gets about 10-12 people long and players at both the ends try to run in opposite directions as soon as they find a "bakra" (free player) ... Thats where the fun begins for the players in the middle as the gravitational force tries to play games with their hormonal bodies, trying to pull and stretch every inch of that fatness developed in opposite directions with some even managing to break the chain and tumble or get literally dragged towards one end .... LOL !!!! - The game is called "Human Chain" ....
Well, guess what, I and a lot of my friends just experienced and felt nostalgic about this games, remembering how we used to play these when we used to go out on a picnic during our school days ...
Reminiscing those school days and especially those picnics ....
Turn back in Time to Year 1990s - 95' 96' etc ... School Days !!!
No matter how bad or good the school is, no matter how much we love or hate the teachers there, no matter if you are a bright student or a dull bully of your class.... everyone would always wait for this particular one day where we can just stay away from school and get out on the field and run and play as much as we can and that too with all our school buddies.... Just as the day for the picnic would be announced, one would get busy preparing for "the" day !!!
The preparations would range a whole different set of ideas ... Boys either preparing how to take revenge upon the teachers, by harassing them to the fullest, girls preparing how to look good and how to impress the boys, boys in turn looking to fight the class monitor if he has been trying to give all a hard time, further, some so called infatuated couples even try to plan out some private 5-10 minutes chat on the picnic day, away from the eyes of everyone as this would be the best day where they don't have to worry about someone prowling to catch them, and this in turn would lead to some new ideas and courageous approaches to woo and impress one another .... At the end everyone wants to go out and have fun and make it a day worth remembering as years go by ...
And finally when one finds that its picnic day tomorrow, that very night he/she is not able to sleep due to excitement, no matter where the school authorities are taking them, they just are itching to be out there and have a gala time...
Now speaking about picnics and the place where I am from (Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India)....I personally used to hate this picnics, for a number of reasons ...
Firstly, the teachers and everyone at the school would select the same place over and over again to go for a one-day picnic, either it would be Ajwa in Baroda (Vadodara, Gujarat, India), Maudhi, Sapteshwar, SaritaUdhyan, Akshardham etc ...
Year after Year, no matter which grade are you in, you would end up going out to either of these places ONLY no matter what !!!
Secondly, they used to call us at 5.30-6.30 in the morning, sometimes in winters when its freezing outside, and then make us wait till 8.30-9.30 before loading the bus and making a move, due to which they would cut short the picnic time and in a way also cut short on the various places where we can go ...
And at the end of the day all you have in your stomach would be "Bhel", "Ugly Sandwiches", "Rasna"...
Some of us would carry home cooked delicacies, but as usual the person who carries food from home never gets a handful, its his friends who feast upon that, and of-course thats childhood friendship for them ....
Well if luckily some schools are generous enough then you do get "BatakaPauva", "Puri-Shak", "Matho" etc ... but not all of us are always that lucky, atleast I wasnt ....
But having said this, I still used to love those one-day picnics, as it gave me a lot of time to stay with my buddies, explore all kinds of mischiefs, sports, talk to as many girls I want without any restrictions from my teachers, play as many pranks as I want without the fear of getting a bad comment in my diary's last page, bring as many gadgets I want and impress others, and do as much bossism I want with the weaklings of my class !!!!
Of-course while playing I would deliberately hit my enemy in class, accidentally I would bump into people I hated the most, and cautiously used to create situations where upon I have an opportunity to talk to the girls on whom I had my childhood crushes ...lol !!! I used to get lost somewhere and thus get teachers running around trying to find me and my friends as in those days there was no other means of communication except mouth and foot !!! so shouting and running around !!! (I used to end up with a lot of complaints in my diary but those were not official as it was "PICNIC DAY" ) ....
But still, Yup, all this in one day ? WHO WOULD WANNA MISS IT !!!!
Well, while playing the same kind of games at a picnic we had just yesterday, I lived those moments from the school picnics once again, and enjoyed every bit of it ... At the end of the day the entire body aches, but it turns out to be worth enough to have that pain... And of-course the best part in yesterday's picnic was that we still had the "BHEL", "SANDWICHES" and "LOLLIPOPS".... But this time the Bhel was nicely crafted to represent the Mexican cuisine, and the Sandwiches were a great deal better as they were home made, and we got ourselves a treat of Kaju Katri and Bundi Ladoo too ....
To sum up, the childhood picnic memories, after each picnic, every year, either you end up making a lot of new enemies or you end up screwing your chances at wooing a girl to like you or vice versa, you have a lot of new friends and/or you end up starting your love story based on infatuation which might or might not succeed, and of-course if you are mischievous enough - then you become "ankho ka tara" (to be like a diamond in one's eyes) for your teachers to keep an eye on you ... lol.... and also for the girls to keep an eye on you which of-course none of us boys would mind.... and thus you rise to a new STARDOM !!!!
But all this sums of to one simple word - FUN and INNOCENCE !!!
Cheers
Samkit !!!
(With helpful inputs and ideas for the places and food during school days from : Ruchi, Jaishal, Bhoomi, Karan(Keko), Jimmy, Aarohi, Vivek P...)
Sunday, approximately 2.30 PM ...
The game was on ... I found myself revolving around a small circle (made out of shoes) trying to grab a handkerchief placed as if imitating a pyramidal shape and simultaneously trying to save the same from my opponent's hand too ... The idea is to score a point, either by snatching the handkerchief and running into your own territory or trying to get the opponent out if he snatches it and tries to run .... sounds familiar ???
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Of-course this sounds really simple and less tiring than the game where one catcher builds his own chain of people by getting as many people out and then runs as a team to get other free players out... As soon as the catcher gets one player out, that player gets linked as a chain to the catcher and they go hand-in-hand to make others out and join them to their chain ... Phew !! Sounds tiring especially when the chain gets about 10-12 people long and players at both the ends try to run in opposite directions as soon as they find a "bakra" (free player) ... Thats where the fun begins for the players in the middle as the gravitational force tries to play games with their hormonal bodies, trying to pull and stretch every inch of that fatness developed in opposite directions with some even managing to break the chain and tumble or get literally dragged towards one end .... LOL !!!! - The game is called "Human Chain" ....
Well, guess what, I and a lot of my friends just experienced and felt nostalgic about this games, remembering how we used to play these when we used to go out on a picnic during our school days ...
Reminiscing those school days and especially those picnics ....
Turn back in Time to Year 1990s - 95' 96' etc ... School Days !!!
No matter how bad or good the school is, no matter how much we love or hate the teachers there, no matter if you are a bright student or a dull bully of your class.... everyone would always wait for this particular one day where we can just stay away from school and get out on the field and run and play as much as we can and that too with all our school buddies.... Just as the day for the picnic would be announced, one would get busy preparing for "the" day !!!
The preparations would range a whole different set of ideas ... Boys either preparing how to take revenge upon the teachers, by harassing them to the fullest, girls preparing how to look good and how to impress the boys, boys in turn looking to fight the class monitor if he has been trying to give all a hard time, further, some so called infatuated couples even try to plan out some private 5-10 minutes chat on the picnic day, away from the eyes of everyone as this would be the best day where they don't have to worry about someone prowling to catch them, and this in turn would lead to some new ideas and courageous approaches to woo and impress one another .... At the end everyone wants to go out and have fun and make it a day worth remembering as years go by ...
And finally when one finds that its picnic day tomorrow, that very night he/she is not able to sleep due to excitement, no matter where the school authorities are taking them, they just are itching to be out there and have a gala time...
Now speaking about picnics and the place where I am from (Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India)....I personally used to hate this picnics, for a number of reasons ...
Firstly, the teachers and everyone at the school would select the same place over and over again to go for a one-day picnic, either it would be Ajwa in Baroda (Vadodara, Gujarat, India), Maudhi, Sapteshwar, SaritaUdhyan, Akshardham etc ...
Year after Year, no matter which grade are you in, you would end up going out to either of these places ONLY no matter what !!!
Secondly, they used to call us at 5.30-6.30 in the morning, sometimes in winters when its freezing outside, and then make us wait till 8.30-9.30 before loading the bus and making a move, due to which they would cut short the picnic time and in a way also cut short on the various places where we can go ...
And at the end of the day all you have in your stomach would be "Bhel", "Ugly Sandwiches", "Rasna"...
Some of us would carry home cooked delicacies, but as usual the person who carries food from home never gets a handful, its his friends who feast upon that, and of-course thats childhood friendship for them ....
Well if luckily some schools are generous enough then you do get "BatakaPauva", "Puri-Shak", "Matho" etc ... but not all of us are always that lucky, atleast I wasnt ....
But having said this, I still used to love those one-day picnics, as it gave me a lot of time to stay with my buddies, explore all kinds of mischiefs, sports, talk to as many girls I want without any restrictions from my teachers, play as many pranks as I want without the fear of getting a bad comment in my diary's last page, bring as many gadgets I want and impress others, and do as much bossism I want with the weaklings of my class !!!!
Of-course while playing I would deliberately hit my enemy in class, accidentally I would bump into people I hated the most, and cautiously used to create situations where upon I have an opportunity to talk to the girls on whom I had my childhood crushes ...lol !!! I used to get lost somewhere and thus get teachers running around trying to find me and my friends as in those days there was no other means of communication except mouth and foot !!! so shouting and running around !!! (I used to end up with a lot of complaints in my diary but those were not official as it was "PICNIC DAY" ) ....
But still, Yup, all this in one day ? WHO WOULD WANNA MISS IT !!!!
Well, while playing the same kind of games at a picnic we had just yesterday, I lived those moments from the school picnics once again, and enjoyed every bit of it ... At the end of the day the entire body aches, but it turns out to be worth enough to have that pain... And of-course the best part in yesterday's picnic was that we still had the "BHEL", "SANDWICHES" and "LOLLIPOPS".... But this time the Bhel was nicely crafted to represent the Mexican cuisine, and the Sandwiches were a great deal better as they were home made, and we got ourselves a treat of Kaju Katri and Bundi Ladoo too ....
To sum up, the childhood picnic memories, after each picnic, every year, either you end up making a lot of new enemies or you end up screwing your chances at wooing a girl to like you or vice versa, you have a lot of new friends and/or you end up starting your love story based on infatuation which might or might not succeed, and of-course if you are mischievous enough - then you become "ankho ka tara" (to be like a diamond in one's eyes) for your teachers to keep an eye on you ... lol.... and also for the girls to keep an eye on you which of-course none of us boys would mind.... and thus you rise to a new STARDOM !!!!
But all this sums of to one simple word - FUN and INNOCENCE !!!
Cheers
Samkit !!!
(With helpful inputs and ideas for the places and food during school days from : Ruchi, Jaishal, Bhoomi, Karan(Keko), Jimmy, Aarohi, Vivek P...)
Friday, May 2, 2008
Cricbay League : My Team - The Immortals
The Immortals... ??? Saturday.. ??? Sunday ...???
Just as the weekend starts kicking in from Friday morning, that's when all the immortals - the dudes from the grave start waking up with excitement ....
Their immortality suddenly shoots up like a stock price from Google....
What's all this fuss about ???
Well Yeh Hai CRICKET meri jaan !!!
Playing, Breathing and Sweating in Cricket is what the latest hype is all about on weekends for most of us here in the bay area (silicon valley) ...
Cricbay - The league
The Immortals - The Team
Saturday/Sunday - The Day
Moore Park -The Home Ground
....
It cant get better than this ....
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Come what may, whether its a tiring week, whether it has been a long lasting Friday night for some, or may it be some social responsibility for the dudes who are married/engaged .... But when someone utters a word called "cricket" .... Thats when all this above mentioned excuses take a back seat and then comes the very same players' in the drivers seat to charge their way into the field and tear apart any opposition ....
Its been almost over two months since we started playing cricket on a regular basis on weekends here in San Jose.... It has been a great fun filled experience , not only for the sake of the saying that "Cricket is our religion"...But also that it gives us one more "reason" to get-together, crack some wild jokes, have fun and ofcourse WIN !!!
The initial phase did start with some hiccups as most of us felt a bunch of lazy, belly growing, oldies when it came to waking early, playing for 4-5 hours ... But it took us only some weeks before every one was up and roused to play some great cricket in the league....There were miserable days when we lost games, tied a game - but most of these were practice matches...
touchwood it has been going great guns for us as of lately with The Immortals having played 5 games and having won 3 of them ...
At some point of time some of us did feel that is this the same old repetition of the "Master Blasters" who used to play in USC (University of Southern California) .... We did not have great memories playing in USC ... But we did prove it wrong this time .... Master Blasters in USC was only FUN...But The Immortals in the Silicon Valley is FUN+Desire to Win !!!
Such is the aura and greatness of our team that people come from Los Angeles and Chicago to come and play for our team ... LOL !!!
Having said all this, we still have a long way to go ... There are going to be a lot of matches and we need to play real good cricket to stay at the top amongst the 64 teams that are registered in the league ... Lets see how this turns out to be ....
Will keep everyone posted about the progress ....
Overall it has been a fun-filled memorable experience which I hope continues for a couple of more seasons ... (as who knows who would be getting old enough NOT to play for the next season...)....
(PS: Waiting for comments from the players who are playing in The Immortals and who might read this post ... LOL)
For more reference :
WebSite : http://www.cricbay.com/
Our Team : http://www.cricbay.com/teammaint.asp?teamid=109
Cheers !!!
Samkit
Just as the weekend starts kicking in from Friday morning, that's when all the immortals - the dudes from the grave start waking up with excitement ....
Their immortality suddenly shoots up like a stock price from Google....
What's all this fuss about ???
Well Yeh Hai CRICKET meri jaan !!!
Playing, Breathing and Sweating in Cricket is what the latest hype is all about on weekends for most of us here in the bay area (silicon valley) ...
Cricbay - The league
The Immortals - The Team
Saturday/Sunday - The Day
Moore Park -The Home Ground
....
It cant get better than this ....
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Come what may, whether its a tiring week, whether it has been a long lasting Friday night for some, or may it be some social responsibility for the dudes who are married/engaged .... But when someone utters a word called "cricket" .... Thats when all this above mentioned excuses take a back seat and then comes the very same players' in the drivers seat to charge their way into the field and tear apart any opposition ....
Its been almost over two months since we started playing cricket on a regular basis on weekends here in San Jose.... It has been a great fun filled experience , not only for the sake of the saying that "Cricket is our religion"...But also that it gives us one more "reason" to get-together, crack some wild jokes, have fun and ofcourse WIN !!!
The initial phase did start with some hiccups as most of us felt a bunch of lazy, belly growing, oldies when it came to waking early, playing for 4-5 hours ... But it took us only some weeks before every one was up and roused to play some great cricket in the league....There were miserable days when we lost games, tied a game - but most of these were practice matches...
touchwood it has been going great guns for us as of lately with The Immortals having played 5 games and having won 3 of them ...
At some point of time some of us did feel that is this the same old repetition of the "Master Blasters" who used to play in USC (University of Southern California) .... We did not have great memories playing in USC ... But we did prove it wrong this time .... Master Blasters in USC was only FUN...But The Immortals in the Silicon Valley is FUN+Desire to Win !!!
Such is the aura and greatness of our team that people come from Los Angeles and Chicago to come and play for our team ... LOL !!!
Having said all this, we still have a long way to go ... There are going to be a lot of matches and we need to play real good cricket to stay at the top amongst the 64 teams that are registered in the league ... Lets see how this turns out to be ....
Will keep everyone posted about the progress ....
Overall it has been a fun-filled memorable experience which I hope continues for a couple of more seasons ... (as who knows who would be getting old enough NOT to play for the next season...)....
(PS: Waiting for comments from the players who are playing in The Immortals and who might read this post ... LOL)
For more reference :
WebSite : http://www.cricbay.com/
Our Team : http://www.cricbay.com/teammaint.asp?teamid=109
Cheers !!!
Samkit
Thursday, May 1, 2008
1st Anniversary at Job !!!
REWIND :
Day : 29th January 2007 -
I remember, that's when I was supposed to join the company where I was going to start my career ...
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
I had to part ways with Los Angeles (with awesome great memories in my heart...to be described some time later in some other post maybe...) .... I had to leave behind memories from USC that had made me grow from an adolescent to an adult in just a span of 2-3 years ....
But I knew more was yet to come ...
FAST FORWARD : 1 Year and 3 Months ...
1st of May 2008, I was awarded a nice little pin for completing 1 year of service in my current job ...(although the anniversary for completion was 29th Jan 2008...)
It was a very small recognition in terms of its stature, but it holds great value for me as it makes me thank God for making me survive this hardly hit economy which is playing a see-saw battle of its own...
So I pray to God to keep us blessed as I always say : "Everyone is not as lucky as we are" !!!
Cheers
Samkit
Day : 29th January 2007 -
I remember, that's when I was supposed to join the company where I was going to start my career ...
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
I had to part ways with Los Angeles (with awesome great memories in my heart...to be described some time later in some other post maybe...) .... I had to leave behind memories from USC that had made me grow from an adolescent to an adult in just a span of 2-3 years ....
But I knew more was yet to come ...
FAST FORWARD : 1 Year and 3 Months ...
1st of May 2008, I was awarded a nice little pin for completing 1 year of service in my current job ...(although the anniversary for completion was 29th Jan 2008...)
It was a very small recognition in terms of its stature, but it holds great value for me as it makes me thank God for making me survive this hardly hit economy which is playing a see-saw battle of its own...
So I pray to God to keep us blessed as I always say : "Everyone is not as lucky as we are" !!!
Cheers
Samkit
A Child's Frist Step - My First Blog !
Hi Friends,
Here I am, trying to explore a whole new world, an entire different environment which is famously termed as "Blogging"...
I feel just like a small child who is still learning to walk, who is excited to take that first step and thus walk on the path of surprises he would come across as he takes each step slowly - one by one....And that's what I want to do now with my first blog - Samkit's Reminiscence !!!
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Even though, not being an avid reader of blogs and articles, I had started expressing interest in some random blogs since last 2-3 years but had never gone deep into understanding it, until recently when one of my best friend also started blogging and I made it a regular habit to read his contributions and also comment upon them...
That's how I felt that this could be a great way of expressing one's thoughts, ideas, feelings involving any topic, event one comes across and feels it is worth mentioning and the best part would be that the "sky is the limit"...
So I too finally decided to be a "blogger" and thus become a part of this growing community and thus involve myself to reach out to other bloggers...
I am still not sure what I would be writing about on my blog but my overall idea is to bring out some interesting memories in the beginning that I have experienced till date in my life - good or bad, and then also talk about some interesting events which I might feel worth mentioning as days pass by ...
But on the whole, I am here to have fun and of-course express my ideas, my thoughts and my feelings and thus interact with you guys out there thus sharing views ...
I hope I am not disheartened by this new adventurous trip and that I get the support from you guys out there to help me make this a fun trip down the road ....
Thanks
Best Regards
Samkit
Here I am, trying to explore a whole new world, an entire different environment which is famously termed as "Blogging"...
I feel just like a small child who is still learning to walk, who is excited to take that first step and thus walk on the path of surprises he would come across as he takes each step slowly - one by one....And that's what I want to do now with my first blog - Samkit's Reminiscence !!!
Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...
Even though, not being an avid reader of blogs and articles, I had started expressing interest in some random blogs since last 2-3 years but had never gone deep into understanding it, until recently when one of my best friend also started blogging and I made it a regular habit to read his contributions and also comment upon them...
That's how I felt that this could be a great way of expressing one's thoughts, ideas, feelings involving any topic, event one comes across and feels it is worth mentioning and the best part would be that the "sky is the limit"...
So I too finally decided to be a "blogger" and thus become a part of this growing community and thus involve myself to reach out to other bloggers...
I am still not sure what I would be writing about on my blog but my overall idea is to bring out some interesting memories in the beginning that I have experienced till date in my life - good or bad, and then also talk about some interesting events which I might feel worth mentioning as days pass by ...
But on the whole, I am here to have fun and of-course express my ideas, my thoughts and my feelings and thus interact with you guys out there thus sharing views ...
I hope I am not disheartened by this new adventurous trip and that I get the support from you guys out there to help me make this a fun trip down the road ....
Thanks
Best Regards
Samkit
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