I gave my heart to a stranger

I have goosebumps as I sit down to write this piece today. And more than ever I can't wait to get on writing.

Thoughts are running at breakneck speeds and I even finding it difficult to put them together to paint the picture I want. To begin simply I might as well say the reason behind it all. Adam Gilchrist retired, and perhaps for the last time went to the middle with that famous bat in hand.

And today.. just for today I'd like to give farsan an off.

While "Gilly" walked down to the sunset, Harsha Bhogle kept saying.. "perhaps there is more than just a lump in his throat" .. Gilchrist himself had admitted in an interview to Bhogle that he would be shattered when the day came. I can't say anything about others but I assure that there is at least one soul more that's feeling the same (ya baba.. me only).

I searched the web to find what people have written about this surprising turn of event. And I was left disappointed to say the least. There was nothing to match him.. I am sure the odes will follow soon once the match finishes and we get a lot more time to reflect on his glory.

I never thought I'd feel like this for a player from another country retiring. I mean I admired Steve Waugh a lot but didn't feel all that much when hung his boots at Sydney four years back. This was different. I almost didn't want him to get out. I couldn't watch when the cameras followed when he was walking off the field, and when he finally crossed the ropes I didn't want the walk to stop., nor the cameras.. perhaps I was looking to seize that moment forever.

I have no special reason to feel this way. Adam Gilchrist was not my hero like a Tendulkar or Dravid. In fact I am at a loss for words here to describe anything. The fact is I never realized that I harbored any sense of bonding with this guy till the news broke yesterday. It was almost as if he had been taken for granted and then you realize..

"wait a minute, he won't be there the next time this team takes field"

And as these words lie before me, I am sure they echo the feelings of many others the world over.

I do not know Gilchrist, never met him, I don't even know anything about him apart from what he did when he came out for his country on the cricket field. Yet my heart sank today. I gave my heart to a stranger.

Gilly changed the game, he turned it on its head showing how a wicket-keeper isn't just about ..well wicket-keeping. He gave careers to men like Dhoni. Many more might come to stake claim but Gilchrist will remain the one.. the one that started it all.

It is indeed a proud moment for many of us that we saw on the greats of this game walk in our generation. On a personal note it just makes me wonder what will happen to me when Dravid and Tendulkar bid adieu.. can't think of it!

A decade of destruction will be celebrated every time Adam Gilchrist walks on to the field this February, and ..

man this is unreal.. let's just say.. the lump was not just in Gilly's throat today..

Why do you blog?

Seth Godin blogs to promote his books I feel. But then he is promoting some gems, and doing it so well. Anyway, am sure a lot of people have asked a lot of people why people blog. So there is nothing new here. However, I needed to get certain things in perspective. Especially when going through intense blogstipation. Now this sounds like the death knell for any pro.blogger (something that I fancy myself to be) and I felt the need to rise out of it.

Since the 20th century it has always been my left brain that is working, I know it is my left..I have never been right. That leaves me with an eye for analysis and detailing. Figured I need to go deep down to figure out how to get back to blogging after nearly a month out in the wilderness.

So tracing back history. I started blogging quite some time ago to honestly impress people with my astute thinking and mesmeric writing abilities (ah woh din bachpan ke..). Pretty soon I was sharing out unnecessary details of my life to absolute strangers (mujhe pyaar hua tha na..) and felt I needed to rein my thoughts.

Then came the phase of showcasing capabilities, my creativity. I made this blog validate my claims at being a social stooge, made another one thelimitless to polarize my thoughts at the other end of life the deep and the poetic. Of course even poetry found its space online which was particularly aimed at one person who it seems never happened to read it.

Point of the matter being that like most wannabe attention seeking pup my blogging was always for the others. A place to vent my insecurities of acceptance further. There was a not so marked shift in this thought while blogging at thelimitless blog, where I genuinely felt I am preaching my school of thought about life irrespective of what the reader makes of it. Yet, like I said before here again the style of writing and basic premise of the blog was showing off.

I guess that makes me a showcase blogger.

Times have passed and blogging has taken over my life and brought it to an altogether different level. To the point that I am contemplating making a career out of it. I have written more posts in the last 5 months than an entire year before that. IF writing daily is not a criteria I am managing around 5 blogs at the moment with more lined up.

Again the purpose this time around is not so much appreciation of the man that I am as much as it is to add value on a general level to whosoever reads my blogs. A more steadied and business like approach to most of them. At this juncture it feels nice to be back here and list my experiences as it is. Will this thought remain.. honestly am not too sure.. I make vows to break them.. let's hope this stays.

Babalog Farsan Uncle Back Again

The last time I made a post here I was just testing waters of an Internet business. It has nearly been 6 months since that and I am now in the midst of a career turmoil..life presents so many options man!

Anyway, more on that later. The good news is farsan is back. Let 2008 be the year they remember as the single biggest force on the web claimed his foothold. In the meanwhile we will satisfy ourselves with me.

Also I am deeply contemplating moving this blog elsewhere with a nice name and kickass design and all. What is toda thinking?

i am also domainer

i guess it's a habit.. most wannabe entrepreneurs who suddenly feel the urge to make money end up doing what they think they are best at. Start a business in the industry you work in. I've been bitten by the bug too, and being part of the domain name industry figured it is high time i got a couple of my own. I guess more than 3/4th (i don really have a fixation with 3/4ths, it is jus coincidental) of my company are domain name holders in some way or the other. There are people with domain portfolio ranging multiples of powers of what I have.

Anyway, I have got on two insignificant domain names to begin my tryst with domain monetization with. Bestdomainholder.com and gamesntones.com ... In aviraj's words they are FUCKALLL!!.. but theek hai, if no one buys this I will develop a website on my own. The idea is kind of neat, open a forum for discussion between domain name holders, owners, etc. (I have always been a forum fan)

Now what about games n tones.. here I will develop a portal for mobile games and ringtones. There might be sections dedicated to mobile phones itself, or even caller tunes or mono poly and real tones. These domains are very recetn ones, so I haven't been able to develop a website..

So you wouldn't find a bestdomainholder forum or a mobile gaming and ringtone portal.. but you can surely check out other people who have.. I have put it on parking for the time being so maybe one can find relevant stuff out there about premium domain names or gamesntones..

now don't go about clicking unnecessarily please.. :p

the point of being aimless

now strolling unnecessarily at the worst times during the day is something I think I and my friend rohan even more so can claim expert specialisation in. I really hate doing it.. getting sweaty for no apparent benefit, like most others is not something I seek or enjoy doing. However, like the crow club targeting my car every morning at 7 30, such plans invariably find me and drag me and then later make me crib like i am now...

err.. actually no.. they don make me crib.. being what we r.. a blooper or a strange observation is always at hand.. leadin to silly laughter and senseless jokes being stretched beyond their suggested limits...

so one fine sunday morning kya idea aaya aaj 3 4th khareedne ka! i meet rohan online and i tell him wish to be trendy.. he says lets go to bandra.. 2 hours later we both r in a rick to the station..

"why are we going to bandra?"
"mujhe purani yaadein taaza karni hai.."

on the way we see a BMC dustbin.. the big green ones with 10 meter radius within which all the stinky waste were happily strewn making merry in the sun.. this one was no different.. i noted the point to rohan..

"people are aimless in Bombay man!" was his philosophical conclusion of what he saw..
and before I could interrupt.. he furnished is logic..
"unka aim acha nahi hai.. everything falls outside the bin"

the local train that day had a surprise in store for us.. it was full..jam packed.. that meant the only effort we needed to getting was to try and grab anything that came in the way... now train journey on the mumbai trakcs are well documented ones and its a topic very well molested by all bloggers who want try to be funny...so i d rather avoid all the interesting things that caught our attention during the half hour ride..

but i was curious to note how the Mumbai local and its people defy Newton's third law so blatantly ( well not exactly very blatant.. but thought i can use it here)

we can jump of a fast train which slows down a bit on slow stations.. but its equal and opposite.. gettin on to a runnin fast train.. its my sincere belief it can't be done.. and there goes the world famous law for a toss..

the next 3 hours went roaming in the sun looking for the perfect pair of 3 4ths .. ok actually just 2.. after which we realised the human urge to quench thirst is worse than the need for sex.. and that the human need to drink something exotic when it is totally drained is even more than the former..

so we went hunting for a good place to sit and drink.. of course it wasn't an easy job satisfying our varying wants... we went into crosswords to go n sit at the bistro or something cafe, the same one that' there at juhu shoppers..

unfortunately the three seats there were already taken... and we had to shuffle around trying to look like we are trying to find a book for around 5 minutes before getting out...

finally we found a place somewhere in between... i think it was lemon grass...

we go in.. everyone there were a couple.. a boy n a girl all sharing rice and a weird green liquid.. we felt almost alien like there.. two guys sharing a drink.. but its ok... me n rohan have gone diaper hunting together and lets not talk about the endless retail therapy we have sort as comrades in arms...

so we settle down to drink.. till the temptation of satisfying the curiosity of what the green drink was about surfaces.. we figured it was kiwi and raw mango.. but was it worth drinkin.. or maybe we shud try it.. everyone else s having it.. so after a good 10 mintues we decide we want to have lemon ice tea... that s what we do with our time.. we suffocate it and torture it...

both of us knew we weren't gonna drink it.. we are not very adventures with drinks and food.. but we still need to pretend that we are..

without stretching things further i will conclude...

we didn buy 3 4ths .. we did go to rohan's old french class.. though we don understand y.. but nevertheless his purani yaadein did get tazaa so its fine.. we found out that we are hopeless when it comes to deciding.. like when we called a rick and were standing behind laughing coz we didn know what to tell him.. we didn know where we wanted to go.. we called him so that we stop walking in the sun pointlessly...

its getting late now.. i will put a stop here...