A True Story

There are perhaps only a few who have really understood the rationale behind my career decisions. I doubt even if my parents have fully comprehended them. And looking from their perspective, I really don’t blame them either. And perhaps my story might give significant insights into the real problems (including sports of course!) of our nation. Or rather I assume so. So here goes my story, as they say, from the horse’s mouth.

A simple son of a tyrant farmer manages to graduate in science and like the typical Indian during those times migrates to a city in search of good job, good life. Manages to get a govt. job where he realizes rather late that he is being exploited. Meanwhile he gets married and soon his family increases to 4…as its said…hum do hamare do! One of the two sons happens to be yours truly. Survival becomes a real challenge: 1 room house, daily household expenses, education of the kids, his own underemployment and to boot a totally new city, new language and hardly any support from his native village. Somehow the family copes up with the challenge taking many sacrifices along the way. As an instance the kids never celebrated their birthdays and didnt have the luxury of having their own tricycles.

Fortunately (or was it unfortunately), the kids were a bit too mature for their ages. (Let me generalize the case and call myself A~). A~ was kinda reticent guy aware of all the happenings. Very early he understood the importance of studies and made it a point to excel in the same. His methods of studying (like parroting the answers) were actually not the correct ones but what mattered was securing those marks which will clear his road for admissions in good colleges and lessen the burdens on his parents. But he secretly loved sports and did manage to excel in whatever his school (which unfortunately wasn’t a convent one) could offer. He knew that his parents couldn’t afford the best of sports gears for him and he used to manage from whatever was available to him like using his dad’s torn shoes for cross country training. And approaching his parents for requesting to be sent to coaching was unthinkable for him in those circumstances.

The parents were oblivious to this. And of course their main concern was to see that their son gets to lead a comfortable life and he doesn’t encounter the kind of struggle they had to. And so sports were really never even something to be thought over of. A~ knows this and takes it in his stride. The best possible route to self-independence was undoubtedly engineering and like the thousands of students joins the bandwagon. He needs to avail of the education loan in the process. He manages to complete his graduation from one of the city’s premiere colleges and takes up the first job he gets, his only real reason for the entire engineering degree. Not very difficult to guess, the job is of a s/w engineer. The job makes it possible to repay the education loan. But of course…this really never was what he was meant for and he relentlessly pursues to break free in a field that is connected to his childhood love. So though he could not become what he really wanted to but at least he might be able to do that for other kids. And this step again comes with its own sacrifices…taking a pay cut…stepping into a new territory where there aren’t many options.

The question he is often confronted though is whether he is right in taking such drastic decisions. Shouldn’t he rather be investing his energies in seeking the riches and realizing for his parents the materialistic benefits which they can only dream of and which they had proudly boasted to their relatives? He may fulfill those too but will he run out of time? His parents don’t know what to answer when somebody asks them what their son is upto. So they fake and answer that he is doing good and earning heftily. Is he selfish in not looking beyond himself? Not easy questions to deal with. He is trying his best to do. Form your own opinion and let me know.

A true girl friend would have been really a good support in times such as these but he isn’t as lucky in this field too. Rather whatever he had at one time was actually an illusion. Life is indeed not easy sometimes.

Concept of Life

Wont bore with a long philosophical post. :p
To sum up in one line....here's my concept:

"Happiness is the sole purpose of my life and i shall strive to acheive it."

Aint it simple? :)

Eventful

Life has been quite eventful here in Mumbai. And its been a mixture of everything....good, bad and ugly.

Good - I forgot my travelling bag with 2 digital cameras in the local train. I realized that I had forgotten it after some 3 hours when a colleague enquired if i was going to my native place on that day (a friday). Then began the frantic quest with a faint hope of finding it back. And thanks to some noble soul who had deposited the bag with the station master that I got my bag with all my belongings intact. Of course, I had to gift some stuff to the station master but nevertheless it was one big relief especially because the cameras belonged to my friend. :)

Bad - I had to undergo sonography tests for a possible hernia. And though the results are normal(which is good news) there is some nagging pain which is a concern. :( And aah...how can i forget those embarrasing moments (more so to the female intern) where i was caught with my pants down literally! Frankly....i was not that embarrased. :D And those female interns at the hospital literally had a ball. :))

Ugly - Never thought i would be reported to a police station. Our idiotic neighbour complained to the police, that too at late night, about suspicious elements in the neighbouring flat i.e ours (I stay with two other room-mates). So the police makes a grand entry with their typical meshed van. Though the ACP was a nice person and wanted to resolve the matter then and there itself, our psycho neighbour was adamant on us being taken for an interrogation. And so we quietly obliged and were frisked to the police station along with the neighbour in the police van. Thankfully the police were helpful and didnt make much fuss. So much ado about nothing!

***

Things are a bit lull at our sports end. Though i am getting to learn a lot, I feel guilty of not working upto my full potential. Of course, many things are not to my liking but certainly, my n/w is increasing. Am contemplating my next course of action. Hopefully, some of my ideas should be realized...or rather i need to work hard enough to make them realize.

Oh...yeah...courtesy our Vice President, I could get to watch the Davis Cup tie b/w India and Pakistan at the Cricket Club of India. Leander Paes was in his full elements where he won the tie once again. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed this tie.

Lots to write....but dont have the luxury of a s/w engineer anymore. :D Shall try my best to be regular. Stay tuned!

My first Press Conference

Being an employee of the organizing company, I had the privelege of attending the press conference for the charity results of our Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2006. We had Yana Gupta and Sanjeev Kapoor as the celebrities for the same. And as expected, there was no dearth of media persons to cover the same. Shared here are some snaps taken from a yet-to-be-decided-to-be-bought Yashica 5 MP digital camera. :) Damn me for lacking the knowledge of operating the cam. :((

I had the opportunity to interact with some media persons too. (I try not to miss such especially when you have some good gals doing the reporting. :p). It was indeed heartening that i got a patient ear from some of them (especially from a DNA correspondent) regarding sports management issues in my country. Hopefully, an article would emerge probing the same in due time.

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. :((

Living The Alchemist!

A very happy new year to all of you! Apologies for not posting for quite a long time now. Actually i am a bit disappionted at this moment that i have lost all of my composed post which i had been working on since last 30 mins. And now am in no mood to start afresh. I had so many good things to write about. But now i dont have the time as well the luxury to sit for another hour in a net cafe. :((

Well, as the title says, i am living the alchemist! And the below quote from alchemist sums up my journey so far: "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true".

This has been particularly true in my case and in the post which i have lost now, i had carefully elaborated on this aspect. But now no use of brooding. I will write the why n how of this story some other time. Let me just add that my new year has begun with a bang and my marriage with my love - sports has been realized. The relentless pursuit has borne fruitful results and i look forward to this marriage.

Firsts

Many firsts are associated with this post. Namely

• My first morning post –
  For someone like me, it is an achievement in itself. After a long long time, been to the office before 9 am and am challenging myself to finish the post before 9 am. :)
• My first sponsorship deal –
  I will be involved with Bangalore Half Marathon event. And the so-called beginner’s luck has been with me. Though the deal aint a big one, but certainly is a morale-booster and signifies a small +ve step towards my goal.
• My first official sports event –
  Actually this can be clubbed with the previous one. Though I was involved
  with the 1st Lipton Bangalore International Marathon held on 15th May, my role was limited as a volunteer. Now I will be getting my first opportunity at sports event management and get a chance to dirty my hands. Oh yes, apparently I am paying quite a big price for that. Chucking a comfortable highly-rewarding (in terms of pay)s/w job to take up sports mgmt at a salary equivalent to a stipend at the moment. Of course, the satisfaction I gain will be priceless and I am ready for the hard grind ahead.
  
  ***
  Overcoming testing times

As I had mentioned here, me and my roomies were going through testing times wrt our careers. And like true victors, we all have stood our ground and have taken our first small steps towards our dreams. So P~ too is chucking up his mainframes s/w job in an MNC and joining a small company specializing in embedded systems. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, V~ too has got his first break, again in a small embedded domain company.

And a punchline to sign off the post:

"You can take me away from the sport but you can’t take the sport away from me."

PS: Missed my 9 am deadline by 13 mins. Have to be a bit more disciplined. :(