A long one due

Hi all! Apologies again for the vanishing act. But I am back….though not with a great bang. Blame it all on myself – procrastination. Am working on improving myself.

I have finally landed myself in a sports management career. The prospects look good as of now. But its too early to conclude anything. Nevertheless I am happy and most importantly it keeps my hope alive. My story has been like the true alchemist type. And along with myself, it gives hope to many others who are struggling to shed their inhibitions and listen to their inner calling. I would like to emphasize that one has to be as level-headed as idealistic. I have had hours and hours of discussion on this topic and it seems difficult for some people to accept that its really possible to be practical as well as idealistic. They maintain you gotto compromise. But I have and will always differ. And I suggest you all to read BUILT TO LAST, a book which reiterates this point throughout.

Ok ok…enough of gnyaan. Coming back to the interesting world of sport, well actually….its not as rosy as it seems. And I never expected it to be either. There are n things that run in the background of any successful sporting event. There is lot of donkey work too, which is easily overlooked. My first assignment here, Standard Charatered Mumbai Marathon 2006 went off well. Yes…there are things which we can improve and we are working towards it. Overall the event was pretty well done and I had my share of catching up with Indian celebs. I was standing right there at the flag off stand handing over flag to the celebs. So I could get a close up view of Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Priya Dutt, Vinod Khanna just to name a few. And yes…did the routine handshake and thank you with some like Azharuddin, Sangeeta Bijlani. My friend, Pradeep, who was there for the event as a volunteer has a nice picutre account of the event on his blog.

In case, any of you participated in the marathon and would like to suggest us anything, I would be more than happy to get your comments. Critics might argue such events are nothing but mere money-mongering tools. Yes…it involves big money but we cant brush aside the fact that money is as much needed for sports as talent. And it requires professional approach to stage sports events, which again cannot happen without sound finance. And having such events naturally provides a platform for our own athletes as well. So may be in 10 years down the line, we might have an Indian winner as well.

Coming back to the alchemist story. Anyone staying in Mumbai will agree how tough it is to find a decent rented flat here. Luckily for me, it wasn’t much of a struggle, thanks for my friend, Girish, whose brother stays here and who was looking for room partners. Can you ask for a better timing? And though it requires me to travel in the famed(or infamed?) Mumbai locals for about 40 mins, still I consider myself immensely lucky. And oh yeah…my office is on Marine Drive, one of India’s richest roads.

And now you know….how aptly my life portrays the alchemist theme: "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". :)

PS: Watched Rang De Basanti. Good 1st half. But a lot to be desired in the 2nd one. A separate post on that some time. And yeah.. i know...i have to update my profile too. :((