Fatherhod : An unparalleled emotion

What happens when a young one comes into this world.

When she opens her eyes for the first time and finds herself being cradled in someone's arms with a gaggle of doting people around her.

She looks confused. She is quiet. She looks so vulnerable. She at times make you feel sorry for her. She makes you want to just put barriers around her. For her protection.

She makes you nervous because of her feebleness. Heck she even makes you afraid of touching her yourself because of that.

Then you grow out of that phase. You begin to get confident about the whole thing. You begin to hold her, cuddle her, walk in the room with her on your shoulder. You begin to talk a lot of cute nonsense to her and make faces at her. You begin to start telling your plans about her ... to her. You know that she does not understand a single word of what you are saying, but thats just a way of you pouring out your feelings.

Mind you, it does not strike you when you see her for the first time. It just grows on you and you start to look for her and miss her when she is not around. You put her best photograph on your computer's desktop. You want to talk about her in every discussion. You celebrate and every new action, behavior, stunt (if I may say so) from her. You discard logic when interpreting her actions and in talking to her.

Wow... just three months... and so much. What will happen when she will start her cackling. Fatherhood has been some experience so far.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Saw the movie titled as above during the weekend. What is talks about is that, all other things remaining the same, if a person gets one's beloved's memory erased from the mind they would again fall for the same person if they come in contact with them.
Very interesting concept and presented in a very nice manner as well.

IPL 2008 Final

The event which had its non-believers and doubters has been a roaring success.

If Chennai wins it under Dhoni, he would have a BIG stature in the cricketing world, after the 20-20 world cup win and beating Auusies in the tri-series down under.

2008 - What a year!

IPL, European Cup Football and Beijing Olympics... has there been a better year in history for sports lovers in terms of Mega events? I dont think so.

He let me down

Harbhajan has let me down. I am embarassed that I sided and supported him in the controversy in Australia.
He has been banned for a number of matches and stripped off his huge renumeration for IPL. That is how it should have been.

I am sure that these are the feelings of all Indian fans and so no one is supporting him today. Sresanth seems to have learned his lesson and has sobered down.

Ricky Ponting goes and does what his soul makes him do.... talk crap about Indian players, even though he is playing a series against the West Indies.

The Indian board has done its job. Now what the ICC or CA do to make sure that the Aussies get punished for their boorish behavior remains to be seen.

Truth and open media

This is a kind of a response to my friend's post here about the many faces of truth which got me thinking about my views.
The media has only recently begun to be so active and open and reaching to masses at such a large scale after the advent of so many private news channels. In places like China, Myanmar etc this is still not true.
Old habits die hard and so the powers that be are still not adjusted to the fact that today in more open society it would be tougher for them to get away with improper comments unlike previously when it was possible to fool the masses by making pronouncements which masses had no means to verify.
Today in India, a Mayawati says that Rahul Gandhi washes himself with a special soap after visiting dalit homes because she still does not understand the free and open media.
China says that Tibetan Youth congress is associated with Taliban and expects the world to believe it again based on its own country's restricted media.
Myanmar generals mark international humanitarian aid with their names before sending it out.
Arjun Singh chairs a meeting to celebrate 150 year anniversary of 1857 war of India's independence not expecting anyone to realise that his previous generations had supported the British and so he had no moral right to chair such a function.

Its a different matter altogether that our media is covered mostly either with IPL or Khali nowadays and seems to have nothing much else to report currently.

Name - Humans and a penchant to organise

What is the first thing we encounter after we are born which symbolises the inate human desire to organise and simplify things? It is the name given to us. The name which differentiates us from the rest. The name by which in a crowd we can make out that we are being called and others make out that they are not being called. The name by which the lineage, caste, creed, religion, nationality is reflected. Yes, thats right.
To quote a cliche ... Shakespeare said 'whats in a name... blah... blah... blah'. Well it turns out that there is actually quite a lot in a name. Had it not been so, why would that have been the first and foremost thing to do upon a new one's arrival. Why would a number of people want their suggested name to be accepted and feel elated or disheartened when their suggestion is accepted or rejected ... in that order. Because a name signifies our unique identity... our very own individuality. A name also helps make remembering and refering to each one of us a lot easier than if we did not have a name. It helps the whole world to make sense of or organise the huge population on the planet and make it easier to refer to each one of us uniquely.