Love of the Game

I am what you can call a dyslexic when it comes to sports. Sports have never interested me and even as a child I used to hardly participate in sports day. Let me tell you that when I’m talking about sports, I’m not talking about the games that we played as kids like ‘Lock and Key’ or ‘Colour, colour, which colour do you choose’ etc. I used to love playing games but not sports. The only time I won a prize in a sports event was when I won the third place in a running race when I was 6 years old. Though I was fortunate enough to be smart in other things, sports was something I just couldn’t get a hang off, that’s why I use the term dyslexic.

As a kid I tried to fit in with other children. I tried playing throwball but I realized I was not strong enough to throw the ball. I was not tall enough to play Basket ball and I was not fast enough to participate in relays. I was completely frustrated, though I was not good at sports I desperately wanted to play one. It used to be embarrassing when relatives would come home and ask me about my favourite sport and all I would give them was an ugly glare. It was when I was 12 that I resolved that I would try my hand at Badminton, it looked like a game that I could play and there was an excellent coaching academy near my house. I enrolled for the summer course but again playing badminton was not as easy as I thought.

To start with my racket would not make any contact with the shuttle cock which was definitely a huge problem, how else could I play?? It used to be humiliating because all the children were able to do it and me being the dyslexic person that I was in sports was not able to do it. There was this one incident that I can never forget where all the kids were made to line up and each of them was given a chance to serve 3 times. Every kid was eagerly awaiting his turn except me, I was just cringing about the future that I could already see. Finally it was my turn and as anticipated I could not make contact with the racket and shuttle cock. I died a thousand deaths that day.

My coach at that time was Ramesh Padukone, father of the legendary badminton player Prakash Padukone. He sensed what my problem was and made me do a few exercises which would help me make contact with the racket and shuttle cock. He gave me a lot of encouragement and I was determined to succeed. A week after the devastating experience, I could not only make contact with the racket and shuttle cock but my serves had also improved. In fact my serves were powerful. After that there was no looking back for me, I had gained the confidence that I needed and it was just a matter of time before I learned everything about the game.

It was almost a month and half since I had joined the summer coaching classes and I was playing fairly good. The summer camp was coming to an end and Ramesh Padukone told us that there would be a small tournament at the end of the camp and the winners could get a temporary membership in the academy. Though I wanted to join the academy, it was plain fear that hampered me. It was like I lost all my confidence the moment I heard about the match and I backed out. I never attended the match and I never told my parents about it. It is something that I am ashamed of even to this day, the fact that I accepted defeat even before trying.

My dad however was excited about the fact that I was playing badminton and wanted me to join the academy and was all set to talk to Ramesh Padukone about it. No words can describe the uneasiness that I felt upon hearing it because I knew what I had done by not attending the mini tournament. When my dad learned about the fact that I had not attended the tournament, he was very disappointed in me but it was Ramesh Padukone who agreed to give me a membership. I do not know what it was that he saw in me that he thought I should be given a second chance.

I played Badminton for nearly two years without missing even a single day because I had developed a love for this sport. By this time I was good, I could even defeat the kids who had joined along with me during the coaching camp. However I could not continue it any further as I had to give a lot more attention to my 10th board exams and somewhere along the way I got too lost in my studies to think about Badminton again.

It was only a couple of days ago when I played Badminton again during a team outing that my company had arranged for. I was apprehensive as I did not know if I could play. I felt just like the way I felt on the first day of my coaching camp. It was only after the first serve, that I realized that I had not forgotten anything, I could still play. Probably a little out of touch but I could definitely play. It was a moment of euphoria, it was like going back in time when I was 12. I knew that even if I was not the best, I was good enough. Sometimes I think if I made a mistake by not pursuing Badminton but then again I’ve come a long way from being dyslexic to actually loving a sport.

The Past And The Present

It was one of those days when I had nothing to do and my mind just lingered between the past and the present. It surprised me how I and the people around me have changed so much in the past couple of years. When I was in school, I would look up to all the college going guys and wonder how different and cooler they were when compared to me and when in college I would look at all the people who were working and would think to myself how sophisticated they were. Now when I look at any school or college going person, I can’t help but wonder how I smoothly transitioned through these years of my life without realizing the changes each phase brought in me.

When I was in school I learnt how to play different kinds of game more than the subjects they taught in the classrooms. Popularity was directly proportional to your grades and the feeling towards the opposite sex was that of sheer hatred considering how different they were from us. It would be a feat to show the report card to the parents and get their signatures. I still remember pleading with my sister to show the report card to my parents because I was so afraid to face them directly. It was that phase when you hardly bother about your appearance and whether or not you are following the latest trends.

As years go by you finally start paying a lot of attention to looks. The guy whom you hated in primary school is not so bad after all. You are no more the topper and your grades have become quite average. You are tired of the uniforms, you want to wear something cooler and you envy the college goers for that. The one thing on your mind is to clear your boards and get into a really cool college and have fun. It’s a sudden leash of freedom in college, you would prefer to eat in the canteen than pack lunch from home. It’s a great feeling when the most popular guy in college smiles at you and you are dying to tell it to everyone around. You no longer want to be uneducated in fashion and you very much care about your looks. Popularity is directly proportional to your personality and studies are just one of the things you are in college for.

This is the time when you start realizing that you need a hike in your pocket money as you are frequenting the canteen, movie theatres, coffee shops, malls and the money just doesn’t seem to stay. When you approach your parents with this problem, all you get to hear are rants about how your grades have dropped, about the company of “Spoilt” friends and an ultimatum that the pocket money will be raised only on conditions of securing better grades. What’s worse is the fact that you very well know you won’t do too well in your next exams and you are going to hear the very same dialogue again and this truth sucks big time. You begin to wonder how life would be once you get a well paying job. All the money is at your disposal and you get to decide what you want to do with it.

In the last year of college, we are all striving hard to pass the placement interviews more than passing the semester exams. We wonder how we are going to look in formal attire and how cool it would be to make money. Our thoughts are more inclined towards the freedom that work will give us. When we finally report to work, we are so excited that we don’t even realize that the good ol’ college days are gone and a new phase has started in our life which is not going to be half as fun as our college days. It’s only a matter of time before you realize that you can’t bunk your office like the way you would in college and not meeting the required standards will land you in great trouble unlike college where you could carry forward your subjects. Days become monotonous unlike the days in college where every day was something to look forward to. “Bunk classes when you are bored” was a common dialogue then and now it’s a privilege if you get weekends free for yourself.

Those were the days when we had all the time to do what we wanted but didn’t have the money for it and these are the days when we have all the money but no time. When I think of this, I shudder, I do not want my life to just go by, I want to enjoy each and every moment of it. When my mind wanders to the past, I always end up smiling thinking of the good times and also the times when I screwed up and I’m pretty sure today will be a past ten years from now and I want to smile again.

Fear of the Paranormal

It was going to be a great weekend. Friends were coming over from Hyderabad and the agenda was to just have fun and nothing else.
It was the morning of 29th May when my friends ( Snehal, Sravanthi, Sirish and Chaitanya) came to our (Me and Santosh) house. We had an awesome time in Bangalore for two days, we partied a lot, played paintball, ate at good places and caught up on a lot of things. We were to leave for Coorg on 31st which was a Sunday. As usual we were never really on time, the plan was to start at around 4.30 AM in the morning but the previous night's partying took a toll on us and we were able to get out only by around 9.00 AM.

The drive to Coorg was a memorable one. There's no better fun then to travel in a car filled with friends. It was an 8hr drive as we stopped at various places for a break. We finally reached this home stay after driving around for quite some time. A little insight about this Home Stay, it’s a good 30 KM away from the main town of Coorg, somewhere near Kakabee. To reach the home stay we have to take a deviation from the main road and travel 3 KM on a really bumpy road. Driving on this bumpy road is no easy job and definitely not in our city cars, so we asked the owners to pick us up. We were waiting for the guys from the home stay to come pick us up when this dog came near our car wagging its tail. At first we thought it was one those friendly little dog’s that had come near us with the hopes of getting some food from us but it came as a bit of a shock when it started howling looking at us. It sounded like a very sad howl and all of us were terrified as we are a bit towards the superstitious side. The jeep then came to pick us up and we got into the jeep and we didn’t talk much about the dog. We had opted for a cottage with 6 beds so that all of us could stay together. The cottage we stayed in looked archaic, its architecture was very native to Coorg. Once in our rooms, all we could think of was about the dog and the reason behind its howling. Each one of us had an interpretation, some thought that it howled because it saw a spirit and some felt it was a sign of impending death. We finally decided to stop the topic as we were getting freaked beyond our wits.

After dinner, we all sat by the fire to talk but for some odd reason all of us were very uncomfortable, we constantly kept looking around. The minute the fire burned out, all of us were more than happy to go back to the cottage. We then played Uno till 3 AM in the morning and then retired to our beds. I instantly fell asleep as I was very tired from the travel.

The next day everyone woke up excitedly as we had planned to go on a trek and in all the excitement we completely forgot about the ‘Dog Incident’. After the trek all of us were exhausted and most of us were bitten by leeches including me. At this point, I would want to classify leeches as one of the most disgusting and ugly creatures to have been created on this planet. After returning to the cottage, I started noticing that there were a lot of flies in the room and I remember the room being almost pest free the previous evening. Snehal had to unexpectedly leave as he had to catch a flight to Delhi the next day for a Visa Interview. I was constantly on the phone because there was an important presentation that I had to give two days later and I was totally unprepared for it and Chaitanya was suffering from severe stomach ache right from the time we got back from the trek. All this sobered down our mood a bit and we were all serious.

We decided to hit the sack as we were not really in the mood for anything that night and we noticed that Chaitanya’s stomach ache grew worse by the hour. He was sleeping on his stomach in order to reduce the pain. This got us all a little panicked because there was no hospital in the near vicinity but Chaitanya assured us that it was no big deal and that we should all go to sleep. It was not long before we saw Chaitanya shivering like crazy and it was really strange because he did not have fever and he is the kind who is extremely resistant to cold. Along with the shivers he also started to moan in a very peculiar fashion and all of us were scared out of our wits. No one wanted to wake him up, such was the level of hysteria. We were so scared that we kept the lights on and tried to sleep and precisely at that time two dogs started howling and crying right outside our cottage door. We were just horror struck and some of us also started experiencing temperature variations in the room.

It was just impossible to sleep that night. Even the ones who managed to sleep had only nightmares to welcome them. We were so relieved when we finally saw the sun rising and it was not long before we packed our bags and left.

That night was the longest night for all of us. We don’t know if it was logical on our part to have gotten scared that night or if we were just behaving like a bunch of juveniles. Whatever it may have been, it definitely did change our definition of fear. Fear of the paranormal.

Whatever Happens, Happens For The Good

Let me start off with a brief introduction about myself. By profession I'm a Software Test engineer and by qualification I have done by B.E in Biotechnology. As you can all see there's no logical link between what I have studied and what I am doing and I know there are many others who are like me in this respect. Many a times I think what the fuss is all about when we are deciding the stream that we are going to specialize in when we are ultimately going to do something unrelated.

I remember very well how hell bent I was about doing Engineering when I was done with my 12th but I couldn't figure out which stream I would fit in. In 2002 the IT industry was not doing too well so Computer Science was ruled out, Mechanical and Civil were meant for guys and not for girls was my opinion. So Electronics was the best suited option for me at that point of time. When I went for my CET counseling, I realized that there were many likeminded people like me because Electronics was 'THE' subject and it was selling like hot cakes. With great difficulty I managed to get a seat in a fairly good college during the first round and I was very happy even though somewhere in the corner of my mind there was always a doubt lingering in my mind if I could really excel in it.

The second round of admissions was something that everyone was looking out for. Some wanted to get into a better college, some wanted to change their course and some wanted to change both the course and the college. This was when the much hyped and talked about subject, Biotechnology came into picture. They were introducing this for the very first time in Karnataka and when I heard about it, I knew that BT and I were meant to be. I always liked life sciences and to actually do Engineering in a subject that dealt with it was like a dream come true. My parents were very supportive of this fact and I decided to go for it with dreams of getting into glamorous jobs like forensics where people are actually unraveling crimes through the help of DNA or genetics etc.

I finally managed to do my Engineering in Biotechnology and because of my interest in the subject I got good results as well. I am pretty sure I would have had numerous back logs if I was in Electronics. It was not very long before everyone realized that the hype surrounding the subject was just hype and all the big proposals of setting up a BT park and millions of jobs being created remained a dream. The course no doubt was one of the most interesting things to learn about but the job scene was not quite impressive at that time. During the 6th Semester, everyone's focus was more towards getting a job, not many people really cared if the job they were getting had anything to do with what they had been studying for the past couple of years. Everyone wanted a job that would pay them well.

Many of the companies were really apprehensive about the role of BT engineers in their software company and didn’t want us attending the interview. That’s when the frustration set in. It’s a strange feeling when you see people around you getting job offers while you are just sitting around and gaping at them. At that time it doesn't matter if you were better than that guy academically. Many people had plans of higher studies but even they wanted a job because getting a job was like a confidence booster. I would get irritated when I would see people having more than one job offer attending yet another interview. When everyone had almost attended 30-40 placement interviews, I had attended only 3 interviews because there were no BT companies who came for interviews at that time. When I had almost given up hopes of getting a job, Cerner happened to me. I really wanted to get in here because it is a Healthcare IT company, they were paying well and they were also keen on having Biotech students along with others.

Today it’s been nearly 3.5 years since I got recruited into Cerner as a Software Test Engineer and I have no complaints about not getting into a hard core Biotech job. It was because of my interest in Biotechnology that I managed to get good grades in engineering which in turn helped me get a good job. Your happiness and unhappiness all depends on how you look at life. Trust me when I say whatever happens, happens for the good.

Tuition Woes

It was semester vacations when I enrolled for GRE coaching. Everybody was doing it so why not me was my opinion. I had no clue what I would be doing after my MS but then again I had all the time to kill so I thought enrolling for coaching was a good idea. Besides the tutor was a very good family friend of our's and my dad was very keen about it too. Competitive exams like this scares me a lot mainly because I dont belong to the league of brilliant minds, I'm just another person with an average IQ.

It was the first day of coaching and that was when I met Anup, a very innocent looking guy I must say.We were the only two people in the coaching class at that time. Very soon we both realized that the tutor was a tyrannical person, we would literally get terrorized by him sometimes. We had this practice where in he would teach us something in the beginning of the class and then we would work out some exercises for the rest of the class. We were then given a set of assignments that we were supposed to complete at home and we would then discuss the answers for those in the next class. Discussing the answers was the worst part of all, every human being makes mistakes and everybody knows that but we had to undergo so much of embarrasement if we gave out wrong answers. He would behave like we didnt know the answer for such a simple problem as 2+2. So all the time me and Anup would dread to give away the answers and we would also look at each other's faces, just hoping that we were giving the right answers.

I still remember the time when a new guy joined the coaching class. All the poor thing did was tell the tutor which school he was from and that was the end of him. Our tutor went on about how schools like his dont teach proper English and how careless the teachers are and on and on. Anup and me felt really bad about what was happening and we both felt that the man was really rude towards the guy and we were quite relieved that we were not in the guy's position and were wondering how terrorized he must have been. The next day we were expectantly waiting for the guy and he never showed up. The second day went by and so did the third and fourth and the guy was nowhere to be seen. Thats when we realized that the guy must have just hooted and scooted from the coaching class, vouching to never return.

There was this one fateful day when I couldn't make it to the class and I was really upset that I didnt have Anup's phone number to inform him. So there Anup was all by himself, terrorized and having no one for company. The next day he told me how petrified he was while giving out the answers and having to bear the brunt all by himself. That day we exchanged our phone numbers and decided that if one wasn't attending the class, we would inform the other and both would not turn up. We actually started doing that and the tutor and his wife were amazed how coincidental it was, little did they know about our devious plans.Finally it so happened that I never gave the GRE exam as I got a good job and I decided to work and Anup gave the exam and got a brilliant score and now he is in the US. Its something we always reminisce and laugh about.

The Never Ending Goal Chase

I'm sure many of us have faced this situation where never ending hopes are given to us by our parents that things won’t be hectic once a particular exam is over and life will be a piece of cake after that. Like many others even I have heard that all through my life but the point is even after writing the much coveted exam and doing well in it, I would hear the very same words from my parents a couple of years later for another exam.

I remember before 7th Standard, exams were no big deal. They were just means of getting to the next level and my parents were happy if I did fairly well. Then came my first board exams when I was in the 7th standard and this whole new concept of some anonymous person evaluating your papers and not your dear teachers really scared me a lot and at the same time I suddenly saw that my friends had gotten more serious and they were glued to their books. Like everyone else even I put in that extra effort and finally wrote the exams with flying colours and thankfully I got a good score and I joined MES. Till then my parents aim for me was to get a good percentage so that I could join MES. MES apart from being a damn good school, also had a very good junior college offering PU courses and it was easy for the school students to get in there.

After 7th I was spared of these board exams but not for long. Then came the dreaded 10th Board exams that had double the hoopla, double the hype, double the tension and every damn thing in double. At this time I started hearing this famous dialogue from my parents which continued a lot even after my 10th and that was," This exam will determine your career, if you do well in this your life will be set. Now you have to get a good score to get into a good college". What I really couldn't understand at that point was, I was anyways going to join MES Junior College which was also a damn good college, then why the greed. I was asked to do well in my 7th to join MES and now what??? Anyways I did my best but my percentage was not so very great to get into MES Main College so I settled for Junior College.

Life was very unfair to me at this stage because it was just a year of fun and frolic before the super dreaded 12th Board exams came into picture. Now this was triple the hype, tension and everything possible. I remember at this point of time everyone's immediate aim was to get into a good tutorial. I remember Gururaj, Shastry and many other tutorials for which people were trying to get into. Since the venue of Gururaj Tutorials was very close by to my place I was trying to get in there. I still remember the cut off percentage for getting in there was so high that for a minute I felt that getting into a good college was easier than getting in there. By the grace of my dad I somehow got a seat and I still vouch the fact that I have never toiled so hard in my life like the way I toiled during my 12th.

Days were so hectic. First and foremost there was nothing like summer holidays or public holidays, we had to go every single day including the weekends and secondly an encore by my parents about how important this exam was for our career and how getting into a good college would help us achieve that. During summer holidays, we would attend tuitions twice a day. The commencement of college was a harbinger of doom to everyone. We had to attend college and then attend tuitions and then go home and do assignments for both college and tuitions which hardly gave us any time for ourselves. On top of that almost all the lecturers in college knew that 90% of students were attending tuitions and were attending college only for attendance so we had to bear their brunt as well. It was one big, never ending year for me. Finally I gave my board and CET exams and did very well in my boards but badly screwed up in my CET. All the hard work just went into the gutter.

I then joined engineering and I'm sure everyone will agree that this one of the best period in anybody's life. Just when I was beginning to think that everything is settled and I have joined a good college (MVIT) and things should be smooth now, I got one more lecture about how doing well here will get me a good job and after that life will be a piece of cake and I will not have to worry about anything. So I managed to do fairly well and even got recruited into a good company through campus placements.

So life is set. Finally I don’t have to bother about exams and no more lectures from parents. Just when I was going about with my work, I get a mail from our HR regarding the annual appraisal. Gawd when will this ever end????

Blob Of Mercury

It's surprising how the child in us comes out when it is least expected. I attribute it to the company you are with. If you are with a group of friends whose company you really enjoy, there's nothing like it. I have one such funny instance happen when I was in my second year of Engineering.We were a group of 6 girls and I have so many good memories with them. College would never be the same without them. It so happened we were seriously performing some experiments in our "Momentum Transfer" lab. We had a lot of defective apparatus in the lab that would give false results and we were extremely frustrated with that. All of a sudden this instrument called the "Venturimeter" gave way ( I seriously dont know how) and there were blobs of mercury all over the floor as mercury was used to take the pressure readings. As soon as that happened, all I can remember is that we all surrounded it like a bunch of monkeys and we desperately wanted to collect it. It seems so juvenile when I think of it now, all of us just stopped working and gathered around it and started playing around with a surprised professor gaping at our reaction. The next thing was to find a way of keeping it. Fortunately my lip balm was over so I had the empty box with me and as an added bonus it was also transparent which added to the fun. That day I remember how much I took out the box and played around with it. I still have that blob and it makes me smile whenever I look at it, it really brought out the child in all of us that day.