The Empty Horizon

Its been a some time since college got over. Since then I have moved on. Joined my new work place. Have shifted to a new location. A new life met me. Some acquaintances got renewed. Some who were on the fringes of my college life became the new friends. Lost touch with quite a few people. Some have stayed in touch. And finally and I think most importantly met lots of new people. So in a sense, for me, the world has moved on quite a bit in the last few months.

After this boring background, I come to the point I am trying to make. I was chatting up with a friend today over the phone. During our conversation an intersting point came up. The point which I refer to as "The Empty Horizon". The fact is for probably the first time in my life i have nothing to look forward to in the coming future with certainity. So far life had been going on in quite an orderly manner. It was just a series of deadlines. Going to the first school. Year by year progressing through school. Then came the first major marker, the 10th board exams. Soon followed in a couple of years by the 12th board and the various entrance examinations. Then in engineering college came the semester system. One semester after the other went by and four years down the line I had become an engineer with a job in an oil company. I joined my first job in a totally new place but still I had something in mind. A certain target was still there in the horizon. I wanted to do an MBA, mostly to get out of the work conditions which I did not like. So over the next year, cleared CAT, cleared the interview and went on to join an IIM. 2 years of MBA came and went by. And now I am working for another oil company albeit in a totally different role.

After all this, I have nothing to look forward to in the future. There are no set deadlines. Except for some minor office work, which probably has no impact in the larger scheme of things. I guess now the time has come to take things as they come. Or the other way is to do things as I wish to do. And for whatever anyone might say, the only person who really matters for me is myself. Earlier I was living with targets which came and went by. Now have to find my own targets.

So in this sense definetely it is an empty horizon. And I guess this is what life really is.

And the only philosophy which stands true would be the good old Carpe Diem.

Best Performance Ever

August 20, 2008

A day which will forever be etched in the memories of all Indian sports fans. India has achieved its best performance ever. The Helsinki record of 1952 was equalled with unheralded Sushil Kumar winning the bronze medal in 66 KG Frestyle category. This came as a pleasant surprise on a day when all Indian eyes were fixed on the boxers Jitender and Vijender. Though Jitender lost, the icing was provided with Vijender reaching the semi-finals assuring India of a third medal in the Beijing Games.

With these performances India has achieved its best ever Olympic performance ever. Apart from the medallists their have been heartening performances by individuals like Saina Nehwal, Mangal Singh Champaiya, Akhil and Jitender Kumar and Gagan Narang.

Lets hope these performances lead to even better performances in the future and more importantly bing more focus on the development of these sports.

To end the post this memorable quote from Akhil after beating the world champion "Dreams are not the ones you see while you are sleeping, but the ones that don't let you sleep"

P.S. To top the great sporting day our cricket team also won the ODI in Sri Lanka.

India @ 61

This is in continuation with a post I had written on the same lines exactly a year ago.

http://nishantzworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/india-turns-60.html

A whole year has passed and I think its a good time to review what has or has not happened in the last 12 months. Quite a few things have happened in the past 12 months.

On the sporting front we now have our first individual Olympic gold medallist. We are the T20 world champions. Indian football team has reached the Asia Cup Finals for the the first time in over 20 years. And our national sport seems to be living only on past glory now. The team failed to qualify for an event which it once used to dominate.

On the political front, things are rotten as usual. Our so called honorable Members of Parliament continue to bring themselves further and further down in our eyes. The Cash for Votes scandal in the Lok Sabha being the latest.

The Kashmir issue still remains unresolved. Added to it we are confronted with major regional vs national debates.

Even the economy is not looking that rosy with rising inflation and slowing growth rate. We might not be able to make the big leap into the developed world soon.

We are still watching the same bad movies and nothing worth remembering has arrived in a long time.

And now on a personal front. Things have changed a lot. I have entered the corporate life. Not as hectic or fast paced as I imagined it would be but into a rather sedate and laid back approach to things. From a hostel room I have shifted into my own, albeit rented, flat. The college mess has changed to office cafetaria. Last year people around me were classmates and professors. Now they are colleagues and bosses. In more ways than one, now I am more independent. Certain rules have been removed to be replaced by some others. So, in short, life has changed. And hopefully for the better.

And as for The day... Well it still holds the same meaning for me. Its a holiday and I do not have to go to work :)

Jai Hind

P.S. This time Google seems to be in the Olympic spirit. So no picture in the post

The Olympic Gold

11th August, 2008

A golden day for all Indian sports lovers. For the first time in my lifetime the Indian national anthem was played in the Olympic Games. Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian ever to win an individual Gold medal in the 112 year history of the Games. By winning the 10m Air rifle event in the Beijing Oympics, Abhinav Bindra gave a perfect start to the Independence week. Kudos to him for providing a feel good feeling to the entire nation

Here is the link to the final score sheet

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/SH/C74A/SHM101101.shtml#SHM101101

With Rajyavardhan Rathore to follow and Saina Nehwal going great guns in the badminton singles, we can hope for more medals in the forthcoming days.

Let the Games Begin

As I write this post, the world's biggest celebration has begun. Its an event lasting for 16 days but whose memories will continue to linger for a long, long time. Probably the Olympics are the only event which bring citizens from the whole world together. It is said to be a celebration of people's achievements and not just restricted to the sporting events themselves. This time it has led to opening up of China to the world, a country forever thought to be hidden behind the "bamboo curtain". China is trying to showcase itself to the world. Even the Great Chinese Fire Wall has been broken down. The Games began with a grand opening ceremony watched by the whole world in the presence of many national leaders.

The Games would hopefully be remembered for the sporting perspective only. And hoping there are no lingering controversies or disruptions.

So as they say, "Let the Games Begin"

P.S. From an Indian perspective lets have some memorable performances and hopefully a few (not expecting many) medals as well.

P.P.S. The Games have already begun. I am a couple of days late. But better late than never :)

Bomb Blasts all around

Something quite sinister seems to be taking place. Yesterday it was Bangalore (8 blasts + 1 unexploded bomb) and today it was the turn of Ahmedabad (9 blasts). All blasts quite small in nature. The casualties were fortunately quite low in comparison to Jaipur serial blasts a couple of months back. However the question remains. Is this part of some larger plan to create anarchy all around the country? And if so which city is going to be the next target?

The Mystery Duo

So the star studded Indian line-up did not live upto its name. And Team India lost a test by one of their biggest margins ever. To put it simply they were outfoxed by the Lankan spin duo of the veteran Muralitharan and the newbie Mendis. Mendis actuaaly lived up to all the pre-debut hype surrounding him, getting both Dravid & Laxman in both the innings. The question now remains whether the line-up has any answers to the spin duo or is it going to be another abject surrender over the next two days.

I guess we will have to just wait and watch.

Horse trading and the Dark Knight

It has been some time since I last posted on this blog. In between shifted to a new city and started on my new job. All this activity and the fact that everything is blocked in my office has prevented any new postings in the blog. Today's blog is on a couple of totally unrelated issues. The inspiration for this blog is the daily blog section which appears in the newspapers.

The first issue is the victory of the UPA in the trust vote. It was something which I personally felt should have happened but the manner of the victory with all the allegations of horse trading which took place further lowered the already quite low opinion of our so called "honorable, elected" representatives. Wonder why we keep choosing such people for making our decisions.

And now to the second topic. The Dark Knight. An absolutely brilliant film with some fantastic acting all around, although Heath Ledger's Joker simply outshines the rest. The film did lead to a couple of conclusions
1. Comic books are for kids, but this movie is definitely not.
2. Batman does not have to play a central character in his own movie. He is more of a secondary character here.
But still overall a great film to watch.

And the India-Sri Lanka test series is underway. Hope our star studded batting line up has some answers to the mysterious spin duo of Murali & Mendis.

Till next time "Why So Serious"

The season's flavors: Facebook and IPL

With the league phase over and the knockout phase about to start, the IPL show is about to end. Surfing on the net found and interesting article about facebook and IPL. If IPL had a profile on facebook it might be something like this....

Here's the link to the article
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/facebook-and-the-ipl/

I am Back

After giving some thought to the friends who actually read the crap that i write, I decided to keep posting my random thoughts in the blog

Actually today's post is inspired by an article I read about a blogger who posts everything about her life on her blog which is more like a personal diary and is getting about a few million hits a month on her blog page. My blog has an average of 50 hits / month :(. I definetly do not want my blog to become a personal online diary but still here are a few things which I did over the last month. Visited relatives, got bored at home, saw a few movies and appeared on national TV (a telecast which I did not see myself) and got bored more. and so decided to re-enter the blogging world.

My learning from the previous month
"Doing Nothing is seriously boring work"