Happy Independence Day!

On 13th I did my fourth Toastmasters speech and my subject was "My Country". The comments from the audience really made me feel happy and I thought it was well received. I did make one mistake when I included reference to a religion along with other "Western Invaders" who had ransacked India over the past 1000 years - but it was not at all intentional. Anyway - the key is that the passion was evident.

On another blog that I was reading, someone had mentioned that over the years the meaning of Independence Day had got lost - kind of diluted or withered away. Not that I disagree but then I feel it is how one sees it - lets not worry about how others percieve it - if each one of us have that feeling - it doesn't matter how others see it. if each one of us can at least make a difference to the veiws in our group - the change will come in.

We had a get-together yesterday and had our own flag hosting ceremony and also sang our National anthem - felt kind of good.

When was the last time you celebrated Independence Day or called someone to wish "Happy Independene Day" - if you haven't done so - do it now...!

Coming back to senses...

Have been out of touch for quite a while...! Last one year has been quite a roller coaster ride....unexpected things have thrown up lots of questions for which answers are hard to come by.

Over this period I had though about lots of topics to write on...one of them being this year's  wimbledon...but then didn't reallyget around to DO it....!

Hoping that this post just acts as the inertia to keep things flowing....

Love & Pride

As I was sifting through some old stacks of paper, I came across a scribbled note that had this quotation. As I sat about thinking about the two key words in the quote, lots of thoughts crossed my mind. Some old scenes flashed before my eyes. I searched for other quotes on the subject and collected a few of these (in italics - with all due credits to the various authors), to form a case for my view.

The quote goes like this:
"It is better to loose your pride to the one you love than to loose the one you love because of your pride"

Agree, Disagree? It really depends, you say. On what, I ask? The situation, the person you love, or the degree of pride at stake? It might be, but then isn't love all about giving?

Someone once said "Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give - which is everything." We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists...in the loved one - perfection and it is this baseless notion that sometimes leads to troubles. We must, however, understand that in the absence of love, there is nothing worth fighting for. You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

While it is good to have Pride as it is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity. Pride is your own view about yourself. As per a Hebrew proverb, Pride is the mask we make of our faults. Pride has sometimes been linked to temper as well, as someone once said Temper gets you into trouble. Pride keeps you there.

You might have your own view on this but I definitely know what I would do, for, no one ever choked to death swallowing his pride! For me Love is giving more than I can, and pride is taking less than I need.

Giving back

I am really thankful to my parents for I had never to worry about anything while growing up. Though I wasn't born with a silver spoon or had a golden bathtub, they had enough to see us through easily. They provided me with everything I needed. From early on we were taught about budgeting and keeping spending in limits. There is a difference between need and want and that formed a part of our life learning. Although I now realise the essence of value before paying the price, I still get carried away at times and go for impulse buying...

Of late, while talking to friends, one thing that came up quite often was "how much is enough". We go through the daily grind, working day in and day out, but for what? Some bits of paper? Perhaps to be able to lead the same lifestyle when we retire, perhaps to give to our children all that our parents gave to us and much more. But then the key question is when can we stop? Will it ever be enough? However that is again a matter of separate discussion..for another day...:)

Coming back to this entry...I got a chance today to attend my organisation's chapter of Toastmaster club. One of the speeches there was about giving a part of you to someone who can't repay you back. The person delivering the speech said that study has proven that a person is most happy when he gives up something that he has. Spending money on yourself can bring you happiness for a few days but spending money on someone who needs it will probably earn you years of happiness.

His speech was good as it was quite motivating and inspiring, but for me, this is not a new enlightment. I love helping people and I love doing things for the needy. Bringing smile on someone else's face gives me immense pleasure. However there is a difference between loving something and doing something about it. Although I have donated money for good causes and keep doing that regularly, I wish I could do something more - donate some more time and energy. If you look around, it won't be difficult to find reasons or avenues.Its just a matter of standing up and making the first move.

In his speech, he quoted a saying "The world is composed of givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better." I too, would also like to have a good night sleep. Its just a question of "when". I would like to quote the lines from a Robert Frost poem that was part of my curriculum in my secondary school - lines that have been ingrained in my heart - lines that mean - there might be lots of wordly pleasures but there is no end to these and they are distracting, but that before the final end, there are lots of things that I need to complete:

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Price Vs. Value

In this material world, everything comes with a price-tag. As they say there is no such thing as free lunch - so you have to pay for everything. On the other hand, when you pay for something you expect to get something in return, some good or services in return. The"expectation" can be termed as the value of that thing.

Although price, can be calculated, value is quite difficult to arrive at. Same things can have different values for different people and the same thing can have different "values" for the same people under different circumstances.

Understanding and identifying the value of something before you pay the price for it helps you determine the true cost of it. When you are out shopping you should not buy anything that is available for a good price because its value to you might not be the same. How many times have you asked yourself if something is "worth" the price? This "worth" is the value that you will derive out of the transaction. There is a one-to-one straight relationship between these two things. The more the price, the more the value it is supposed to deliver.

As per Einstein's theory, the total mass remains constant and if you put that theory to the price and value scenario, you may as well say that "the value that you derive from something should be equal to the price that you have paid for it". If this is the case you tend to enjoy that thing more and you end up saying "worth the price". So in general Price/Value = 1;

Sometimes it is difficult to ascertain the monetary price for something - the same way as it is sometimes difficult to ascertain the true value of something. Things for which you can't ascertain the value become priceless. For everything else, as they say, there is always a MasterCard.

The Championships @ SW19

I had thought and had hoped that my first post would be an ice-breaker and the waters will flow straight after that...didn't happen so. Lots of thoughts came and went by but none of them hit the black and white typeface.

Here it is then - my second one on the experiences of the evening spent at the Wimbledon rekindling the hope that I would be able to churn out a few good ones...ooh..that is so modest of me....!

The famous 'SW19'

Wimbledon.....I am pretty sure even the non-tennis lovers would have heard of it. It is probably the grand-mother of all tennis championships and rightly so. I have been in London for probably 5 of the previous seasons but I had never been there and this was definitely one thing on my to-do list. It was this Thursday afternoon, Day 4 after the start that I scooted off early along with two very good friends of mine.

The 'Journey'

Surprisingly, even though there is a tube station named Wimbledon, the tennis courts are nearer to the Southfields station. This is however very well publicised. The walk to the area from the Station exit is pretty straight. Someone early on in the day had mentioned something on the bbc website about free give-aways like free water bottles and other munching stuff - but there were none in the evening...a bit of a let down as I was looking forward to it - anything free is welcome...:)

As we were walking along we saw a huge crowd gathered on the other side of the street which seemed like a gate for a park and which on nearer inspection looked like a temporary car park. My initial thought was there was something being doled out for free...(oh how much I love those free give-aways, perhaps I have got too much of a Brit mentality now - this however is a topic of another discussion - "the saga of give-aways and the guilt"). So then, eager to find out what the queue was for, we went towards a steward who said - "this is the queue for entering the grounds tonight". I have heard stories that people do camp over-night even for festival tickets & DVD releases so it was natural that Wimbledon was high on this kind of a list and I thought well, what about the evening today? Perhaps the old lady understood my expression, and was quick to clarify - "for the evening tonight". Having never been to Wimbledon before, we were not sure what to do. We were told that sometimes people coming out do resell their tickets and it is easier to get in that way but that was a bit 'iffy'. We decided to go with the flow and we were directed to reach the end of queue and then wait for Queue Cards.

The 'Queue'

Wow....the queue was probably more than a mile long - more than 1000 people and the time as 4:45 in the evening. June probably is the month of the longest day of the year in England but the hopes that we would be able to make it were setting down already. We were then handed out our queue cards with a unique number on each of them. A handy booklet explained everything about the process. Being curious, I asked one of the steward if we would be able to make it before the end of the day and the curt reply was "depends on your patience". Before our queue had even started moving we saw people coming in with their camping gears and then the reality dawned as to how much crazy people are. A group of people were just back from the games and were camping again for getting in the next day......such dedication...wonderful. We were at the end of one serpentine queue and before we could even realise, there was another queue being formed and I could very well see another 500 odd people and it looked like they were queuing for "tonight's tickets" as well. That gave us some hope. Slowly after 5, the queue started moving or should I say crawling. We were toying with the thoughts of what we would do if we were unable to get in that day.

The 'patience' game

The next hour and a half were really the test of one's patience. But the signs started appearing...400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards and the feeling was great. Then we could see the security hut and once the airport like scanning was over it was a dash to the ticket gates. Once the tickets were paid for we were IN. There was a sense of achievement coupled with the feelings of hurrying up - the desire to see every nook and corner. It was already 6:45pm and the weatherman had predicted some rain for the evening so we didn't want to be let down after spending so much time. Also there are so many courts so where do we go first was one of the key question. That question was made easier by having a look at the Scedule of Play boards - we saw that Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes had their doubles match in play (albeit with different partners). While walking towards the courts. we were swept away by the aura of the Centre Court and the big Rolex watches and then we saw the food court and we headed straight for the famous...

'Strawberries and Cream'

No mention of Wimbledon is complete without these natural delights. Its the Strawberry season here in the UK and what better way to start the first visit to the Wimbles than this. We went over to the counter and had those delicious bowls and God they were sweet.

The action

We then headed straight for Court 9 where Bhupathi was trying hard to stop the rout and was facing the last set of his 2008 championship. Although there were occasional brilliant sparks, it was not hard to see why they lost out in straight sets. After the end of the match, the feeling was not that good (that the team you support loses and that too in the fist match that you see 'live'). We then moved over to other courts trying to work our way through who was playing. Since it was just Day 4, and probably the first round of doubles, it was quite difficult to find any regular names. We then moved to Court 10 where Paes with his partner Dlouhy were treating their opponents with the same contempt that Bhupathi and his mate were on the receiving end for. I had heard that Paes is arrogant and we could see this first hand. Though I must say they were also playing quite good. They have 'now' reached the third round as I wrire this so I will be looking out for them to go further. While we were watching this match, a big crowd was gathering behind us in Court 11 and we could sense the reason. The match was a Ladies Doubles and the William sisters were in playing. No wonder then that there were queues to get into the seats although they were free for all.

The 'aura'

While watching the Paes' match one of the volunteers handed me a Debenture ticket for Court 1 - it was probably my lucky day. I dashed towards the Court leaving my freind behind. Although the match was nearing its end as the British hopeful Chris Eaton was being taken to task by the fiery Trusnov but the feeling of sitting in Court 1 was really great. Specially as it was almost unexpected. I saw the last set and really enjoyed every bit of it. I can very well understand the aura that surrounds the Centre Court. How I wish I had got the tickets for that...so it was not my luckiest day then...

The final few minutes

Once the match at Court 1 was over we re-grouped and then spent some minutes going around trying to read the player's names and racking our brains if we had ever heard them. We clicked a few photos for keepsake. We saw the media centre (albeit from outside) where they interview the players and also saw the press room from where the hacks keep informing their respective media companies. The weatherman's warning was starting to take shape and we could feel the first few drops. We want over to the Henman hill and saw the giant screen were the William sisters were making their opponents sweat. All this going around had definitely made us hungry and the body was craving for a recharge. Though we could have stayed on but in the interest of 'health', we decided to start back and headed straight for some food.

The sum-up

All in all I would say it was a good time spent. A tick in the box and a wonderful experience. If you plan it correctly, and have freidns and food, you can have a good picnic out there. Always plan for getting in early as you can see the big names on the practise courts. Not everybody is lucky (or rich) to have access to the ticketed seats but you can always give it a try as they run a ballot each year. As we walked down the towards the tube station, the words that I had read in one of the magazines came to the mind - Though the British might not be good at producing a winning player (I think 1977 was the last time a Brit won one), they are bloody well good at organising this 2 week extravaganza.

No longer a Virgin...

Ok...here I am...losing it..with my first blog. I have read others' and saw others with jealousy when they did it....but never got around to having one of my own. They say "you never know the depth of the water unless you dive into it"...so this is my try at finding out how deep (or dangerous) blogging is.

All throughout a normal day there are lots of things that cross my mind but then die there without an oomph. Lots of times I have thought of putting that to pen (or keyboard in this digital age) but it is today, as my little daughter tuns 2 months old, that I get some time to write my first entry. Ok...I am not a great writer or a "writer" for that matter...just a normal person but then this is how great things start...they start small...:)

After much ado I chose the link for this blog as http://fursat-ke-raatdin.blogspot.com/ The words are from a very famous Hindi song. I am not sure if I am due for a royalty for using those words but all credit to Guljar sahab for penning the wonderful words which are so true....The heart yearns for those days and night when the mind was free from all those clutter....Fursat ke raat din...