It was never just tennis...

A man with a limp , an irrepressible laughter and a shiny forehead said "keep bouncing the ball , till you can do it 20 times straight " . I started trying and i was nothing older than 11 years then . 10 years and a lot of bad tennis later , i'm where i was only the man , my coach , one of my inspirations isn't .

He had turned a weeded , parking lot into a tennis court (The National college tennis court) and i am proud to say i was one of the first students enrolled there . I trained for 5 years under him , i was never any tournament worth even as i shamelessly admit it , neither were most of my mates, much to his chagrin . But he trained us like we were gonna play the Wimbledon . Every month . Everyday . Every hour .

Patience took a whole new dimension with him , most of the audacious ones tried to skip the skipping (We were especially fond of skipping the 500 skips) and a whole lot of the calisthenics he had assigned to us . I was a straight arrow and he appreciated it . He invented ways to keep us occupied when the courts were wet , more often than not we got tricked into running extra rounds the National college basavanagudi grounds .

He gave us the greatest joy , that of winning , by conducting small tournaments in the court , guess what the prize was ? A masala dosa... The arousal he gave made it feel like it was worth the world...

He taught us discipline and how ? no white tee shirt ? no tennis that day... No tennis shoes ? no tennis ... the list goes on !! And guess what ? His kids ( :P) had to follow it too !

And i dare say everyone , around 25 kids at its pinnacle toed the line !!

I shouldn't forget to say he conducted invaluable life sciences classes for me which nobody else ever knows . It was between him and me only !

A lot of people passed through the court , many had a good time , not many are grateful and hardly any remembering the man who taught them tennis .

Here I am a month and a day later than what would have probably been his 68 ( he never divulged his personal life at the court) birthday , thanking and remembering him for he taught me NOT JUST TENNIS....

I spent a couple of years of my life dreaming of going back to training with him , alas it wasn't meant to be !

Words can't express what you mean to me....Thank you Goutham Sir !

Hmmm 42 crores .

Who would donate 42 crores in INR to a religious institution as jewelery ? Not a very smart person  , nor a very progressive person . One of the ministers from our states poorest districts can . What is most appalling is that he didn't give to charity , he didn't give to his constituency (which helped him get where is he is now) . Blind faith ! from a minister . Hope he doesn't take other decisions this way . 

 Well now what is TTD going to give away as charity if they have 42 crore as a humongous crown for the Lord ? There goes the argument saying TTD will do something in return as charity .

 As a manner of speaking 42 crores for now fixed for the next hundred years as unmovable jewelry in the unfathomable depths of the TTD treasury . What is the tax dept doing ? If they can tax a guy who wins just a crore on a game show why can't they tax TTD ? Why aren't the pesky television channels asking these questions ? Why am i asking these questions ?  

The namma Bangalore debate

All the hullabaloo about the metro , cutting trees i think it can very well perpetuate into the next decade . The people who planned the metro would have definitely been more than welcome for suggestions during the planning than during the execution , i pray . As for the defiant protesters , we all know how badly our city needs the " Namma metro " . So i think we should all take progressive steps towards development . Besides , I think little of their signature campaigns , it won't even scratch the surface . What they could do , is start planting samplings in other area's where there won't be a metro . I believe by the time the metro is completed(Given our govt's record if completing projects) we can still have the same number of trees in Bangalore . Also the metro is aimed at bringing down pollution In the city. ( As a whole the carbon footprint will remain more or less the same , i guess) The metro as of now is aimed the garden city a little more greener . Try and supplement it . 

Funny ad - criticism

Caught the New CBZ extreme ad on tv recently ?? With a special warning that the stunts shouldn't be reapeated , it made me feel that the guys at the ad-agency think we are deranged of the mind . Cuckoo , thats what they think we are !! The graphics are in infancy and stunts childish . 

And oh if your planning to base jump and ride off on a bike .

WEAR THE HELMET BEFORE JUMPING . 

I thot base-jumping needs you to keep your parachute half open when jumping ? 

STOP RIDING IF THERE IS AN EARTHQAUKE or a  TORNADO or BOTH . 

COME TO A COMPLETE STOP ON BOTH WHEELS . 

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THE KEYS MORON . 

IF THERE ARE SEXY GIRLS AROUND THE BIKE TAKE THEM ALONG FOR THE RIDE :)

The Tagline , '' LIFE AWAITS THOSE WHO LIVE OFF THE EDGE " is boring and meaningless . 

Bore Hell !

Here I am , All bleary eyed , unbrushed teeth , staring at a monitor at 7AM on a Sunday morning after my third set of screwing tests . I'm in a vexed mood . Very . There are loud jarring noises  which woke me up . Nobody gets angry for a little noise on a Sunday morning . Besides its 7 AM anyone has the right to start working their f%*(ing heavy equipment .

Yes it is , as it has become inevitable these days to start a construction without it , a bore well is being dug . Another bloody bore well . I'm at best , an optimist . Now definitely not . 

Every plot as a bore well these days . And the plots have been fractured , divided and disintegrated as they have been passed on from generation to generation . On my street , I think every 10 meters you walk in any direction will take you past another one of these holes in the ground . Bad . 

Not so long ago there was a " hue and cry " raised about about Yediyur lake . The government in all its Brilliance , Yes in a rare show of environmental friendliness , rejuvenated the Lake . Not just this one , most of the really polluted ones in and around Bangalore . Soon after the so called clean-up process every body waited for it to fill up again . It rained . They waited . It rained some more . The government waited . It poured . We all  waited . Finally during the monsoon 1-1/2 years after the beautification process , did Yediyur get filled with water again . I believe the water table and the Yediyur lake are reticulated with more than just the water . 

I make the prophecy that Yediyur will be dry someday . Doesn't sound impossible . All the water sucked out of it by all the holes in mother earth's bosom . 

All is not so bad you say , we have catchment areas . Where ? Lal Bagh and KR park . Is it enough to keep all the surrounding bore wells watered ? The parks are indeed swamped all around by this humongous city with its holes . 

I heard BWSSB going for Cauvery satge IV . We have already squandered the Cauvery . 

Aah a hot cup of coffee . And the din . Bore wells here sometimes go dry in the summer , think its a harbinger of harm . In our 8Th standard text book I remember studying about a city in Mexico . Parts of the city just imploded into the ground , because of ground water was depleted to such an extent , that the earth couldn't support the weight of the city ! God forbid Bangalore from having a similar fate .

All the narrow minded people reading this have already formed strong opinions in thy minds . If i put one more Bore well whats wrong ? Whats your problem ? Don't you have one ? 

I think the Government should step in when the time is calling with some regulation , as cliched as it might sound . For all the whole community , including my bore well too . We have to stop this mindless drilling , or mother will stop it for us . 

' Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need , not every man's greed ' - Mahatma Gandhi .