iRest

Me: Hey Tricky Ricky whats up man ?

Ricky: Steve Jobs dead.

And that's how I got the ping of death on my Google Talk, even as I was crossing the road to inquire about the iPhone 4S at the nearby ATT store. It took a while for that to sink in. And sink in it did! in an ocean of gloom, inside my head. I felt weird about myself, when everyone else around me took it as the purest form of news, with a nodding condolence. What was then wrong with me ? Specially since I have never even owned an Apple product.

The fact was, of all the deaths I stood witness to in my little lifetime , this guy had perhaps the highest possible influence on how my life has changed. It does sound an emphatic overzealous statement, but touchwood, I haven't had any close ones die on me.

I have LIVED that change! In a matter of years, starting 2007. things weren't going to be same. You needed a radical mind to view things differently. You needed somebody like Jobs to put a giant like Nokia out of business, and that's exactly what he did with the iPhone; by reinventing the phone. Every single mobile invention, ESPECIALLY Android owe their existence to him. And now when I look back at my Android vs iPhone arguments I have had with my mates , I realize what a losing cause that was. I wondered what Apple means to a passive, armchair observer like me, and here are the things that came to mind.

Design. The first word that comes to mind when one thinks of Apple, the way their products are made, look and even packaged. There is a sense of pride that the company takes in their products, a sense of care, a sense of being very very deliberate in what they do; which has reflected in how their products have become the Icon that a whole generation associates itself with; or must I rephrase it to "wants to associate itself with". There is a big gigantic gorge of a line that differentiates a company like Apple from a company that believes in market capture and monopoly. For a company like Apple doesn't need to strive to capture a market segment, but it inadvertently creates one. And pray don't misunderstand me, like the man himself said "Design is not how it looks, but how it works". That takes me to the next thing that defines Apple.

Software.My first experience of software or an OS was with Windows 95, which did not support SVGA or Multimedia; hence I was content looking at a pixellated Kate Winslet standing on the stern of the Titanic. Ever since I had only used Windows and things barely changed, and I somehow made my peace with concepts like the virus, the system slowdowns, the "error: send dont send", feeling it was all a part and parcel of the package and one had to live with it, I never knew I could ask for more. Little did I know that there was another minority who used Mac and were alien to these kinds of frustrations. And finally when I did see Mac, GOD it blew me away. It definitely was not software, it was art; or maybe it was the first instance of software being an art. Cause to be art you need to "serve no other purpose than yourself" and that is EXACTLY what the Macintosh does. It has no ulterior motives. You couldn't help but notice how the windows minimized like the flow of a genie back into the bottle; there are of course a billion other ways that the Mac is superior ; but its striking things like these that contribute to, not just customer happiness but delight and eventually the unflinching loyalty that we get to see. Its these subtle things that reflect upon the care and the due diligence that company has, and since it was Job's vision, it speaks volumes for the man himself. Its hard to imagine that in this capitalist, monopolistic , anti trust lawsuit world , that there was this company lead by this man , who were on their own, in a different sphere of activity, catering to a different set of people, with staunch belief in product quality and in the end competing only with themselves. Yes, I have never seen a Mac hang for a second or an application on an iPhone crash or restart. NEVER. And that too in a world where I had begun to accept these things, no matter how high I was willing to pay. This experience was indeed radical , and the software by Apple remains by far the closest thing to perfection I have ever seen. It would be very very apt to quote Jobs here "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected". True. Which eventually takes me to the greatest trait of Apple.

Getting the fuzzy stuff right: This definitely is the core design principle which I should have talked about under design, but it deserves a special mention and perhaps a standing ovation. If earth were to perish today, and somethings had to be embalmed and preserved; for the the possible future life to draw inference , a completely charged iPhone would be definitely be one of them. Nothing showcases in one shot the technical advancement of our race, EVEN AS it proves that we were not emotionally stunted. Yes, spare a thought for the times when multi-touch was not a word , smartphones had pricky stilus and you probably needed a crash course before you found out how you could go about your job with it. And today a pink blonde (no offence to anyone) carrying an iPhone and walking with a swagger stands testimony as to how the iPhone broke that mould , by catering to the FUZZY terms like "feel", "touch" and most importantly to your intuition amounting to "ease". Yes Jobs did stand at the intersection of where man and machine met, and what he managed to create was a remarkably human software. It is EXTREMELY hard to articulate what I want to talk about here, there are no words, hence the word fuzzy. You have to use a Mac or iPhone long enough to see , how they address some very very , very basic drawbacks of other softwares, so basic that they cannot be quantified but only be understood qualitatively; by purely catering to your intuition in such a way , that to put it simply , you. could.do.nothing.wrong. If you have worked with an Apple product you know what I am talking about , even if you hated it.

I could probably beat the topic to death with the tremendous verbal diarrhea due to the sheer emotion that I feel today. I was afraid I might get diluted tomorrow, hence I chose to sit and write, for the first time in half a decade, about a man whom I will always remember as the man who made computers fun, went away.. came back... to redefine the words 'phone' and 'beautiful' and ensured that for once they could be used in the same sentence. The death of Jobs came as a complete surprise to me like to the many in the world, specially my friends who had to wake up to it on a festive morning. The feeling of surprise in me is only exceeded by how bad I find myself feeling about it.

We have seen the death of a remarkable man today. A counter geek , who in his heydays was handsome, didn't much wear glasses, didn't have dandruff, didn't have pimples and most importantly didn't crunch numbers or attend a funky school. He just was a man who had his heart in the right place (in hind sight perhaps the best place possible), who believed in auditing (dropping in ) courses even if it was Calligraphy 101, who was like he admitted “was lucky -- I found what I love to do early in life," who for a change sought and delivered excellence without compromise and did not believe in competition , who was fired from the company he founded only to find something as legendary as Pixar that gave us WALL-E and TOY STORY and most importantly a man who got his basics right and believed in fuzzy terms like faith , gut, and instinct to the extant that it showed in his work. We will miss the iconic turtle neck + blue jeans clad man who was never seen in a tux, who kept changing our lives by revealing his latest at WWDCs with the passion that would befit a father speaking of his highly potent son. Utterly apt.

I excuse myself for the ecstasy of my lament, this is perhaps what it was going to take to take me out of my writing exile. 3 cheers then for the man who of all the things he did, immortalized the lower case "i" . May you rest in peace and "Make a ding in the universe", you will be sorely missed.

Steve Jobs

1955-2011

p.s: In his memory, if Amazon wireless allows I intend to return my 2 day old s2 and go for the iPhone 4S. It was like he waited for the following day.And no eulogy on Jobs would be complete without this video.

The 2851s

It takes smallest of gestures to make a day of ours.. We never do realise this fact until we have seen one... and once we do.. we observe , acknowledge and then relish . I was once privilaged to all three.. and here I am after a looong lay off to share the experience..
It was a day just like any other.. As i was returning from my college ( a place where i go with the sole intention of justifying my existance) I was driving my bike as i always do.. detahced from reality..( thus increasing the probability of me NOT returning home in one piece) TRust me it was a day of sheer commonplace , of routine and nothing else.
Before i proceed further it is essential for me to make a confession . My favourite fourwheeler (AFFORDABLE) Happenes to be the HONDA ACCORD . Not juts beacuse its a honda but also because its an accord. And its resmblance to an aircraft just helps the matters even more. So having given you this knowledge i can proceed.
Now as the archeoligical dept was digging up road no:1 Banjara Hills , and i was avoiding certain death traps... there was a charcoal black ACCORD infront of me..
And something caught my attention inspite of my passivity.. initially i thought itwas so because it was an ACCORD then my eyes fell on its number plate the number was 2851.. had seen it somewhere... and before my ruddy processor could furnish furtehr info the signal was green.. and the usually anti-apertheid hyd-baadis followed course (they somehow mange to see the colour green pretty well) .. and then i realize my bike number was too a 2851. And then as reflex to a stimuli i accelrated overtook the car and as providence had it the signal at the next crossing was red . ( soem ppl feigned colourblindness now .. and some followed nelson mandela) As fgor me i tried to frantically to make an eye contact with the ACCORD driver. Now this man was speaking on his cellular phone . My attempts did succed . I pointed towars my number plate .. and he cut the fone .. he was worried he had hit me.. and made an apologetic gesture.. i again pointed to my number plate ... and this time his face lit up...
He made a gesture which implicates wonderful ( index and thumb finger making a circle ) and then saluted me.. i returned the compliment saying..his car was osssum or rather osssssssum . we smiled... i turned thinking all this was to good. and then light turned green and we proceed.
I suspected i would make a fool of myself in the course of dumbcharates.. But on the contrary the mild mannered , well dressed executive, not only acknowledged my effort but also responded in the finest of ways resulting in me cherishing the moment..
It may not seem much to readers who might read this... But for me it was "an extra " in the commonplace ... and as holmes puts it such stuff is an embellishment of life and not a condition for it.. how true .. may GOD bless the guy

Mark this Waugh

Life throws strange results at times….. kings grow humble…..millionaires become paupers…. Even the demon Bradman got a duck in his last innings….

The same can be said of Mark Edward Waugh….. After entertaing people the world over…. At the Wanderers….. M.C.G……. Sydney….Old Trafford…. And our very own Chidambaram… he finished it up in the obvlivion of Sharjah… playing at 3rd party venue.. with feeble attendance and against a feebler team…. Waugh too like Healy must be thinking he needed atleast one innings more to show that he still had runs left in him..

Well as an ardent fan I watched his last innings in tests at sharjah fully aware that I was seeing the very last of him…. Runs eluded him … but he still was Mark Waugh.. elegance being his hallmark…. The wristy flick…. How the hell??? How can he conjure up something like that?????????? What a shame it can fetch only four runs… had Keats been the scorer he wud have given him a hundred…. I can very well sense the agony the fast bowler might feel at this….. so many calories spent meeting such a spiteful end…???? Just because of a flick of wrists??? The same can be said of the cover drive….. the off drive.. the late cut…. Everything had poetry in it…. Perhaps the only batsman who could freeze time…. I have strong belief that the bowlers through sheer agony must have known this was fine art at its best….. thus giving them a strong reason to fake their agony??? Who knows they too might have enjoyed it!! Who with eisthetique wudnt??

What a pity he was always compared with Tagga…. To compare them was akin to flair vs guts… talent vs temperament… though it would be preposterous to state that.. steve after having a 50+ avg.. didn’t have talent… or Junior having got selcted 128 times didn’t have temperament… They say for junior it was always style above steel…. What rubbish??? Style wud be prevalent only for a small period of time…. But for 13yrs..style wud come definitely a distant second to steel….

To watch him was to see a Da vinci pads on….. nah I wudnt demean him.. it was mark himself… taking batsmanship to the heights of craftsmanship….
Though pseudo wise men always made attacks on him.. saying he didn’t value his wicket… but good observance shall teach ye that… at the top of the order as an opener he neednt cut and slash and slog…. He seemed unhurried … but the scorers were kept busy….
What if he never valued his wicket?? What if his avg isn’t good??? Who asked u to judge him?? Who are we to do so?? Why not take time off to watch him… just for the sheer pleasure of watching beautiful batsmanship…. A treat to senses.. can be as relaxing as a Turkish bath…..
For a person who isn’t keen on records .. he might value his 181 catches a lott… an awesome 1.5 catches per match…. And also he is supposed to have been holding the (unofficial)world record for the longest ever…. He hit Vettori out of the WACA.. onto the street….. they say the same hit at Lords would have seen the ball ascending even after clearing the media centre…

Its all over as they say…. The past is dead…. But then again.. why do they say that the ghosts of the gr8 cricketers of yore lurk in the S.C.G??? whatever it is…. One thing is assured…. Whenever , upon the beginning of the season…. The scoreboards are read at the GABBA… ull sense a hole in the middle…..

Upon loves.. crushes.. and beyond…

Incredible as it may seem or even if it may not this is definitely not the subject anyone would assoiciate me with…
I shall not dare and get into trouble by asking what love is… but on second thoughts maybe I will…..
Primarily I shall get into the intricacies of defining a crush.. why a crush, why isn’t it the same as love.. or can it be?? How come a brain (even of a kid) have an infatuation on another? Why even at a tender age…. When we aren’t actually aware of the real reasons for our existence.. maybe its quite natural .. infact as natural as any other thing…. But how is a crush different from love????
The trusth is maybe it isn’t different…. I have amused myself by getting down to a more basic analogy the theory of a biscuit and a dog.. the dog wants the bisuit…(atleast for now) itwasnts only thaaat particular biscuit…. Now presenting a whole new tray of freshly baked cookies the biscuit is forfeited for the cookies….. hence cookies representing new infatuations….
So then what is love and what is commitment??.... I have a dog over here…. That first found a biscuit interesting….. then nutricous… then attractive….. and then lucious …. And then so… on until the dog realizes that infact this biscuit gives a whole new meaning to his life…… I might dare venture out to say that the dog has mades his realizations in installments.. or maybe he hasn’t… who the hell knows what that stupid canine did…. the biscuit might be on any hill top… or at the bottom of the challenger deep….. but the dog wants it….. and he knows that there are maaaany obstacles ahead….. so many .. that he can only have a picture of the biscuit…
So why did the dog do this….. it might be an illusion to this world that the dog has after searching a long while has found a reason for his existence…. But actually if we observe carefully the dog has eventually created a meaning for his existence… yah that’s the word.. he has created.. it….
The biscuit might be anything/anyone….. if it is anything it is ok…. But if it is anyone.. then the dog is in for trouble….. assuming the biscuit has its own brain….. then the biscuit might or mightnot wanna be eaten by the dog.. or perhaps the biscuit maker doesn’t wana throw it to the dog…
So now the dog… wants to do something great that will take it into into the goodbooks of both the biscuit and the biscuit maker….. So eventually whatever he had planned for his life takes a backstage…… and what the biscuit and the baker think about the doggie positions becomes more important than what he really wanted to becum…… so what they liked???? Wazzit a sledge dog?? Was it a watch dog?? Was it a hunting dog??.. the dog was willing to do whatever it takes…..
We then have the beautiful theory of favourability which states “When u really want something.. the whole of the universe conspires to help you achieve it”…. It can be any blessed thing in this world any thing.. yah absolutely anything/anyone….. and for one to be eligible for it to apply….u just need to be true to urself ….and willing to do whatever it takes (like the cnn-ibn fellas)……. So then if the dog needs the biscuit badly enuf… the biscuit .. will atleas theoretically will change its mind…. And if the biscuit itslf wants to fall off from the table and get eaten.. can the baker really help????
But then.. if it goes otherwise…. Things are happening against the dog…. Then how does the dog eventually know when to give it all up??? And even if he does…. Is it demeaning of him?? How does he know that the biscuit is unattainable?? And if he switches to another biscuit.. realizing the present one is unattainable.. is it demeaning of him??? Wont it be a compromise?? Is it not what the most of the caninekind does??? These questions need serious attention and need to be answered by a canine psychiatrist…

We call it a marriage.. a wonderful acronym for compromise….. it wudnt be flattering if we say that 70 percent of the marriages that happen are compromises.. out of the rest 30 pc atleast 15pc are fooling themselves by thinking its not a compromise…. And hence only 15 pc actually by default lead a happy life.. with kids and all….. I don’t implicate that the the rest aren’t happy…. But they have to make a special effort to be happy.. and many do it..even if it is a make believe…. who wants to lead a miserable life?????

Love is a word that has so many forms…. So many senses… we see it daily… if a boy says “I love you to a girl” his cheeks get disfigured for a day… if a boy says same to another boy its termed a s homosexuality… why the hell??? Why is love taken always in terms of sexuality??? Why has it always got something to do with whats present between our legs… why cant we assign a broader meaning to a thing sooooo simple and so wonderful… that it has never been quantitavily measured….. no theory was ever formed… why??? U ask why??? Its becuz every one understands it so welll.. that only a jobless fella like me shall go ahead and analyse it….but I sure feel a need for it to be done…. So can love evr be generalized??? Yah itsure can.. if we make an effort…

Let us not take things for granted…. I have always had this feeling .. that wahetevr love that we have for our parents/bros/sisters/cousins/doggies anyone.. let us not think twice b4 we express it to them…. Let us not wait for tmrw. Thinking ill earn and do this and do that….and stuff.. and letus also not assume that “they anyway will know..howmuch I love them”.. what if it doesn’t happen… what if u die the next day.. u wont get to earn and show off …. Then what?? How will they ever know how much u loved them???.. have we ever thought.. how easily we react to anger?? And the awesome effort we put in to show ppl that we are angry by breaking crockery??? If we put in even half such an effort in exhibiting our love… world wud be such a beautiful place…. The word ego shall for forever become obsolete…..

Through out…. this I haven’t made a point ….. oldmen like me don’t bother making points…. However if the points decide to make themselves then I cant help it… it was a pure bleed extempore.. so forgive me if it makes somewhat less sense than what I usually make…. However ppl trying to find a motive behind this shall be doing themselves a great disservice for they shall be shot at point blank range…. Hehe.. cheerio…. Lets make life better on the third planet from the sun….

fast bowling is a feeling!!!!!

The greatestregret ive ever had in my life has been my inability to bowl fast..... curious as it may seem i had bet my whole life unto it...... If ever i had pur a quarter of an effort i put into my bowling .. in studies.... I would have excelled in academics beyond a peer (thats my belief)....
Well i started of quite a revelation... with ceratin satisfaction i may add..... Nothing in my life gave me pleasure greater pleasure than to see the rattled stumps...... It lasted like a fairy tale...... and ended like one.......Itwas on my debut match for my school agains the best in the business.... My first over got me two wickets and an applause from hundreds.....and hooror into the minds of the opponents(quite flattering ..i felt).... And at the very first ball i dislocated my shoulder.... I quite confess that i had stretched my body to the very limit..... At that moment i knew that a cricketing carrier i had waited so long ... so eagerly for.... had begun and ended on the mid summer afternoon of Friday the 14th of may 1999..... and never have i bowled since then.....
Quite a misery....But if i had my life to live all over again , i would not ask for sucess alone sweet though it is... i only wopuld ask the almighty to allow me to bowl fast once more.... Because iknow deep inside my heart ... that for those who have bowled quick ... really quick there is no comparable feeling in the world. The sudden clutch of suppressed anticipation as u mark out ur run, The hesitancy that blossoms into arrogant confidence...as from a shuffling slow start,the stride quickens....and becomes smoother...two yards from the wicket and now time to give evrything ive got. The body swiwells...left hand plucking at the clouds..right arm swinging in a deadly ever quickening arc as the batsman appears in sights over tha left shoulder..the left leg raised high..ready for the final crash...the skull shakes and the muscles of the body jar screaminglyas the fron foot thumps like a pneumatic hammer and the ball rockets its wayat the cringing batsman pursued as if by an avenging angel ...thats me.
Ah!What power there is in bowling fast!!!!! What a sensation of omnipotence......and how great is the gulf between this sublime sensation and ordinary , mundane everyday existance.....
If at all ive ever cribbed in life ..... its now.
had it not been otherwise i surely must have been the fastes vegetarian in the world!