Good bye Lucknow.... I hope to be back soon, someday.

As I pack my bags getting ready to go to the airport to fly back to Delhi, I am feeling a little nostalgic. After all I just cut lose the last umbilical chord to my home town, my divorce having come through (finally & thankfully) the only close connection left is my beloved La Martiniere Boys College.
I came to this city as a nine year old and went into my boarding school early 1986. Thereon till I graduated from the University of Lucknow in 1998, this beautiful city became my home and now my home town. This city hold some of my fondest memories and some poignant ones too.

• This is the city where I first made my mark in sports, having being selected into the under 19 Indian Hockey Team selection camp
• I attended my two of my three NCC Annual Training Camps and appeared in two republic day parades representing the NCC, one of them in Delhi
• I learnt the tactful art of bunking and cheating in class test :)
• Had my first two girlfriends

This city has some very unique traits, and is probably the most unrecognised architectural cities in India. One of the traits that seems to be slowly losing it's way these days it the very apparent lack of urgency. No one ever seemed rushed, if office times are 10 am what it actually means is 11 am (10 am is the time everyone gathers for a cup of tea and share expert opinions on things like gardening, cricket, politics etc etc). Another thing that this city can say with pride is that almost every home is a house with a garden and not pigeon hole flats. No wonder them men in this city are too busy gardening in the morning rather than getting to work on time :). And the food, there is no place on Earth that can make your palette dance to it's tune like the food here.

Then there are the not so nice aspects - Some of the guys here are total jerks, eve teasing is a problem in areas that aren't very prominent. I guess the lack of ability to get laid spurts hormones that give these guys a fake sense of manhood. I really pity them, if they were decent and smart, they would all almost have a beautiful girl walking with them, rather than them following the ladies. The second is they have a Chief Minister who has blown vast sums of money on building monuments and TASTELESS statues of herself (one of them in the middle of her city where she actually poses with a hand bag)!!! Had she spent half that money on the development of this city, roads etc etc! What's the point of complaining.

All said and done, this is a beautiful city. One thing that I will always thank this city and my school for all my life, is making me a decent man. The land of the Nawabs, Tehzeeb and Tunda, I salute you.

Barca show how it's done

Barcelona were doing the waltz, while Man U simply played the part of awe filled on lookers. Well I don't blame them. Xavi and Inieasta simply willed the ball at their feet. With a successful passing percentage of 92% and 90% for Xavi and Iniesta respectively, which is unheard off, there was no other result possible.

What was amazing to see were three things: 1) Fergie didn't foresee Messi not playing down the right flank and rather through the centre. Even I foresaw it and actually Esmond Lama my dear friend would attest to that fact. Pep Guardiola simply out foxed the so called "Fox"! 2) Fergie needed to over haul the midfield with his changes as that is where they were being killed, what did he do, was throwing the proverbial "Kitchen sink", by sacrificing the midfield with two more strikers! What use are strikers if they don't get fed with good balls from the midfield, Fergie played right into Barca's hands. Nice touch dufus! and finally 3) Messi all of 5'7" beat two central defenders all of 6'4" and a goal keeper towering at 6'5" - Any questions of comparing him with Christiano Ronaldo hence forth will be nothing short of blasphemy! He is streets ahead of any striker in the game today.

Chelsea were smart enough to know Barca's strength was the midfield, and they played with better tactics than Man U, they almost kept Barcelona out of the finals is clear testament to that. There lies the relief, Barcelona can be overcome.

Anyway, I am glad Barcelona won, not because, I am a die hard Liverpool fan, but because they just have one tactic for every game, pass - pass - pass - score. They are a joy to watch, they are simply BEAUTIFUL!! I just can't wait for the season to start again, for me August 2009 can't come sooner!

Sometimes a little hurt/pain can mean saving someone from a lot of hurt/pain...

My father had a very interesting way to make me realize what was good for me and what was not, well in my case he probably had to do a lot for the latter as you'll see from a couple of examples that I would love to share.

1. Like every toddler, aping what the elders do is so cool. One my obsessions as a 4 year old was to want to eat green chillies with my meal just like my old man did. So every night at the dinner table I would grovel for some. So one day my father decided to put an end to my stupidity, and gave me one. Well that was the last time I wanted one for a good 15 years or maybe more.
2. As a toddler (yes again!) I had this unexplainable curiosity for electric sockets. At every chance I would be sticking my finger into them. So one day my father joined me in the game. He picked a low voltage socket and started to play with me, my game!! Can you believe my excitement I had just converted my old man to my side of the alley!! That's of course until he turned the switch on with my finger in it. Well that was the last time I went near an electrical socket for all toddler hood!
3. And of course like every kind there was that customary releasing of the cycle despite promising he wouldn't! Some bruised ankles, elbows and egos, but hey what I learnt how to ride a bike!!

Well for those I have shared and the ones I didn't share, my Dad got the dog house very often and I got to sleep with mommy :). Now who's the wise guy??!!!

But for all the times he spent in the dog house, it's only in hindsight I realized he made me a better man. He taught me always protecting a child from anything that could hurt him or her, would mean, the child may not value their parents cautions when it really mattered. Besides these incidents were always worth a laugh!!

Son you didn't write Harkawal's name on your answer sheet....

Now my computer science teacher was a really smart guy. Leslie Godin was the kind of guy, who could deal you straight in poker, but you'd just fold in thinking it was crap. He taught me an important lesson in quite a funny way, I hope you like it.
It was our 12th board exams prelims and as my computer science teacher, he wanted to ensure we were well prepared when the real boards came in a few months time. So he set quite a difficult exam.
I was however supremely confident that I was going to beat his prediction that over half the class would flunk, me included!! Why, you ask? Well sitting next to me was a whizz kid Harkwal Singh, and sitting next to him the Danny Ocean of my class, me!! Perfect!!
Now during the exams, I knew only 4 out of 12 problems and I had to attempt at least 8. No problem, I got to work. Leslie invigilated the exam and to my surprise some of my brazen moves (cheating wise) just didn't register with him. Cool, I was too good for the so called "fox in the box"!! I had it so easy that, I attempted 9 problems, needless to say, so did Harkawal.
Come the day of the result, Harkawal gets 88% and I get 44%!!!!!!! WTF!!! I confidently walked up to Leslie believing he must have made a mistake. I told Leslie out of the 9 problems attempted I was certain at least 7 were spot on!
To my surprise Leslie looked up to me and said,"Son you're wrong, you didn't get 7 right, you got 9 right, well almost right. You just forgot to put a name on your answer sheet!" I replied,"Bu sir, I did write my name." He replied,"Yes you did, but it was the wrong name, had you written Kaushik Harkawal Singh Majumdar, you would have scored 94%!!" He continued,"son if you must cheat, then cheat smart!"
I knew better than to argue, just melted into my seat, loving every mark of the 44 I did get!!
So long :)

Don't chase trouble, let it come to you....

Well I start my first foray into blogging with this little story of an event in my life, the learning was such, it's stuck with me ever since and I hope it gives you some food for thought....

November 1993, 45 cadets from La Martiniere Boys College (Lucknow); our school's NCC battalion drove into the Army Butchery Grounds in Lucknow for their first NCC Annual Training Camp.

Anyway, our training camp started and we were perhaps into the 5th or 6th day. The routine was set, 4:30am rise, 5:30am breakfast, 6:00am to 10:00am parade; 10:00am tea break 10:30am to 12:oo noon weapons training/para gliding etc etc, then lunch. Before again regrouping at 2:00pm for the daily two hour lectures, before signing off for the day by putting in 2 hours of camp duty, followed by dinner and if you were lucky and got no sentry duty 6 hours of sleep.

This one day, during the afternoon lecture session our camp CO decided to give us a lecture on morals and the importance of saving ourselves till we got married. He got under way, and next to me was my pal Kaushlendra Singh. He obviously had a good lunch and ten minutes into the lecture he was dozing off. Now that's asking for trouble just like telling your girl she's fat!!! Inevitably the CO caught Kaushlendra in his state of slumber and hauled him up to front and center!! Retribution obviously had to follow.

The CO saw a dog loitering around nearby, and with a devilish smile he ordered Kaushlendra to go around the dog and then report back on the double.
Kaushlendra in his state of terror, shot off like a bugs bunny, seeing the this the dog shot off like the road runner, and pretty soon both the dog and Kaushlendra were out of sight. Now as you know in the Army, "you follow orders" quote from A Few Good Men. 45 minutes later, Kaushlendra bundled back in drenched in sweat and beyond repair!

The CO then asked him what his objective, and struggling for breath, Kaushlendra responded to "circle the Dog, Sir!" The CO laughed and said, all he had to do was lure the dog and complete his objective, rather than, chasing it and make his objective even more difficult than it was in the first place. "Son don't chase trouble, let it come to you and trust me it will. Isn't it better to fight it on your own turf?"

Hmmmmm.......