Thoughts in general

Last time Abhinav took a wicket was in the practice nets.  Last weekend was his match and he succeeded in getting a wicket in a real match.  He was super excited and so was I.  As a father, there is never a better moment than seeing your son do well in a sport or any activity he participates in.  More than the wicket, the joy on his face was priceless and I will probably cherish it till I die. Other interesting thing that happened in the past 2 weeks was Abhinav losing his his first tooth. ..And then came all kinds of questions on why the tooth had to come out.  What are milk teeth? What happens when the permanent ones fall off?  and on and on and on.... For now, we were able to satisfy his curiosity but his next tooth is also on its way.  Fun times indeed.

To start off, I have to say I did not know what to expect in the movie.  I knew it is about a atheist man who sues God.  This story is based on a Gujarati play "Kanji v/s Kanji", which is insprired from an Australian movie called "A Man who sued God". This movie tells a story of a shopkeeper who is an atheist, where as his wife is a deeply religious person. Kanji is a shopkeeper who would sell statues of Gods by lying how old they may be or that they were dug up during excavation etc.  Anyhow, one day, earthquake hits Mumbai and only his shop gets destroyed.  People start blaming his non-belief in God for this destruction. Kanji had an insurance policy on the shop and was happy that he would not lose any money due to losing his shop.  However, the insurance policy has stated (and I am sure we are familiar) that it doesn't cover any "Acts of God".  Kanji decides to sue God and court accepts his case. More than the story of the movie itself, wha...

Last weekend, more precisely on Sunday October 14th, Abhinav took his first wicket ever.  He got some boy out leg before wicket.  I have heard the story about a million times about how he ran up real fast and how the batsman try to pull his ball and how the ball hit his back leg and the coach declared him out. It was pure joy and innocence on the face of Abhinav that I saw, something I wish I still retained.  Sometimes, I feel this is what sports are all about or rather should be.  His tiny 6 year old friends told him that they will inform everyone in their school bus that Abhinav took his 1st wicket.  I know many say that you should teach your kids to win at any cost, to make them winners.  I tend to disagree. I have always believed that means to an end are more important than the end itself.  I try to inculcate the same in Abhinav.  Play the sport the right way and respect all the players even when they may not be as good at the sport as yo...

This movie looked very promising from the promos.  It seemed like this movie would be an uplifting one and after watching the movie, I can safely say that it was. This is a story about a woman, a housewife, a mother (Sridevi) who is constantly chided by her husband and her daughter for not being able to speak English.  She felt as if she is unable to please her close ones with what she does.  She runs a small catering business from home. One day, she gets a call from her sister in the US to visit her as she needed Sridevi's help for her daughter's marriage.  Sridevi would have to go alone to a foreign land (her close ones would be coming late). She is dreading her visit to US alone since she does not know English. Once in the US, she is not able to communicate and gets a bit disheartened by it.  Once while visiting a place in New York, she saw an advertisement on a bus about learning English in 4 weeks.  She quietly decides to join these classes wi...

Continuing the theme of Abhinav's cricket camp, I am writing about the first ever cricket match that Abhinav participated in. It was held in a smallish ground on a matting wicket.  It was to start at 10.30am but rain played a spoilsport and they started almost 45 minutes late.  Abhinav was very excited about his first match and was a bit confused as to what to expect.  He had me do some catching practice as well as fielding practice with him, as his coach had asked him to do.  He wore his entire ensemble at home one to get used to it one more time. It reminded me of my 1st match in the camp.  I remember being very nervous, trying hard to not have sweaty hands and not to fumble.  I remember we batted first and while I don't remember how many runs I scored or  whether I muffed any balls while fielding, I do remember my heartbeat was pretty fast that day.  I am assuming I must have done ok since I don't remember being sent for 1 round of running...

Most people I know are very ambitious - about job, money, fame, big house etc.  There is absolutely nothing wrong.  I seem to be on the other side where I seem to enjoy spending time with family or doing absolutely nothing. One of my hobbies is to spend time with Abhinav.  The 2 hours I get once I am back home from work are the best 2 hours of my life.  Right from making him do his homework, which includes getting mad at him from time to time, to playing with him, teaching him nuances of cricket or football are probably the highlight of my life.  In all of this, I try to stay away from imposing my idea of how to do certain things and make sure that he enjoys the game for what it is - a game.   Beside cricket, Abhinav has developed interest in playing football as well.  I have played football at state level as a goalkeeper and those memories are still fresh in my mind. During those days (1987), I used to go for football practice at my school in...

I think there have been quite a few posts written on it but I seriously feel strongly about a need to drive some sense into the drivers.  Some things I would like to tell the drivers here: Making a right turn does not mean you come into the right lane (blocking oncoming traffic) to make a turn When it says “No Free Left turn”, it precisely means that.  When the light is red, you CANNOT make a left turn.  Please do not expect the guy in front of you to move if the light is red no matter how much you honk. When there is a traffic jam, no amount of honking will get you out of it Please be considerate to pedestrians and don’t stop you car 1 feet from the pedestrians feet, as if you are the king of the road If you pass a car/truck/bus etc on the left, once in a while please expect to get hit as well Just because the lane for oncoming traffic is empty does not mean you start driving in that lane When making a right turn at light, there is only one lane to turn right....

As a young kid, around age of 7 yrs, I used to attend a cricket coaching camp with the Saurashtra Ranji cricketers.  it was split in to 2 sessions - morning and evening. The morning sessions consisted of exercises, sprints, duck walks, frog jumps and some tennis ball practice.  It was strenuous but a lot of fun.  being 7, I seemed to have a lot of energy and loved to participate in this regimen with people who played at the highest domestic level and I used to be in awe of them. In the evening session, we practiced with the leather ball.  Before that, however, we used to master our defensive shots (forward and back foot) with the hanging ball.  The whole point of this article to is to describe all the emotions that I felt when Abhinav started practicing his defense with the hanging ball.   I think the teachers are not as strict nowadays as before and kids have an option to explore things a bit more.  The regimen is not as strenuous and the empha...

Just like any father, I feel proud when my 5 year old son does something that makes you go "damn...how does he get these ideas?". Recently, he wrote about our trip to my hometown of Porbandar in his daily notebook that he has to ready in school. He had gone to see Peacocks and saw a lot of them. Here is what he wrote about it and then drew a picture. Looking at the picture, the peacock on the right is standing with his feet firmly planted on the ground. However, the peacock on the left has bent his legs and is getting ready for take off. I was zapped since I didn't expect such thinking from him.

Finally, I got a chance to visit my home town of Porbandar during Christmas holidays. Porbandar is a small beach town located near the west coast of India. It is better known as birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. I love visiting the place because unlike Bangalore, things are generally within walking distance. It is totally laid back and more importantly, there is not much to do. This ensures that you relax :-) We live 5 minutes walking distance from the beach and it is my favourite past time in Porbandar . Even as school going kid, we used to go every Sunday to the beach with friends and families and play, eat etc for hours on end. We also visit a farm in village of Khapat every time I visit Porbandar . The greenery, Keshu bapa's family make it the most relaxing and soothing place to be. The Bajra rotlas , fresh curd/butter milk are amazing there. The smell and the sounds makes you want to stay there and not return to the hum drum of the city of Bangalore. The 8 days we s...