The Punter's technique - Part 2

      My Grandma's home used to be my second home since childhood as almost every weekend, every holidays was spend there, my two cousins both my age was one reason & delicious food my grandma used to make being the other. I was quite familiar to my cousin's friends as they were used to seeing me since childhood, The quality of cricket they played was a bit low compared to what my friends back home played.. This was a huge advantage for me as here I was somewhat like a top player to them, considering the way I played. There were some new faces among the usual gang, one of them became my worry particularly the way he bowled, his bowling brought me unpleasant memories, I used to get out to this guy in almost every match I played against him & unfortunately he would always end up in the opposite team, as that team would use him as their trump card against me. One day on a calm afternoon while I was watching tv switching channels too often, something caught my attention.. It was the Cable & Wireless test series with West Indies playing Australia being aired, Ponting was batting against Mervyn Dillon.. nothing unusual one would say. I hooked onto this match as the other programs seemed boring to me.. As I was watching Ponting play I began to observe his batting closely, the way he took stance, the way he got ready to face the ball & the shot selection, Dillon was not some 130k bowler, as I saw the scorecard bar his speeds read above 145k+ & I saw & observed how ponting faced those deliveries. He had a clam relaxed stance on Dillon's run-up, & as he approached the bowling wickets, Ponting had a high bat-lift. He seemed like ready to face the ball & when the ball was released, he judged its pace & placed a shot. So no matter what pace the bowl was bowled at, Ponting was there ready even before that bowl was bowled. Some technique this I thought & as some math kid who just cracked a complex problem, decided to test it out that evening.


      The match was about to start & unfortunately the speedster did'nt show up. I badly wanted to try my new batting technique against him but he just was not there. Anyways I continued with the match, the blokes were quite surprised with my new batting stance, I faced some bowls & discovered that this technique actually gave me a lot of time to play the shot, I had few troubles judging the slower ones & the spinners, but very quickly adapted to this change. I felt quite happy that night knowing that solution to my batting weakness may have been found & I was right. The next day saw me bashing the speedster's bowling to all parts of the ground with some simple sensible strokes. That day I cut short my vacation at grandma's home & returned to my place. And what followed after that could be figured out. I finally had learned to play the speedies & after that there was no looking back. I cemented my place in our Street XI & soon became one of the dependable player, I also went on & played for my school cricket team. All this because I followed the technique of one of the best players in cricket, second to Sachin. And so is the reason Ponting remains one of my favorite player.    

The Punter's technique - Part 1

     'What is it that makes you idolize ponting?' asked a friend who saw my profile picture in Facebook. "His batting technique" I answer with a smile. Every-time I answer this question, a faint pointer to the childhood memories pops in my head.

     Those were the days when a large part of my time was spent playing cricket, times when not a day went by without playing the game. I was lucky to have played with such a talented bunch of childhood friends in my street, most of them my age with some a year elder/older. 5pm-7pm was our playing times on weekdays after school, 3pm -7pm on Saturdays, 10pm - 6pm on Sundays (at a nearby playground). We were some 10 - 14 boys altogether including few talented bachhas. Weekdays would be practice & weekends would be betting matches against teams of other streets/areas. I was an all-rounder with average batting/bowling skills & inconsistent to go by, Somedays I would be the standout player & other days equally miserable. Part of the reason was my weakness against fast bowling. I just couldn't face fast bowlers, by the time I played a shot the ball would have passed the stumps or sometimes taken them out. It was due to my slow response in my batting that cost me my wicket. My batting was fit for street cricket where boys would'nt bowl fast for the fear of  bowling off direction which would hit passerbys or the slightest knick or shot would fly off to some home or end up breaking neighbor's window panes. But in the playground it was carnage, they would bowl with all the strength they've got & the ball would cruise by you often hitting the stumps. My team had some serious pace bowlers which enabled us win majority of the matches, we also had few very good batsmen who could play at anything you throw at them, so making it to the final playing eleven would be tough, I used to be a regular initially but as my batting form dipped my place in the team was up for grabs. So I had to improve my batting by somehow getting across my weakness which gave me nightmares.

     I was nearly replaced for a match but was given a chance considering my bowling ability which hopefully was not bad for a medium pacer. I was out first ball in that match, clean bowled by a fast delivery on the stumps, we lost that match very badly & I was blaming myself as i had the opportunity to win the game but walked away first ball. I announced to my friends after that match 'I will not play in the upcoming matches, please find a replacement for me'. The blokes tried to console me but i had made my decision & stuck to it for the next few matches. I took some time off as it was summer vacation & went to my grandma's place.

1st C lab experience

      "Dude, I need help here" I said seeing all the error messages in my screen when I compiled my first written C program. Yuvi who was busy helping the girls with their errors said "Just a min man". I was burning inside thinking 'if only I could know how to debug those errors, I would be helping all my classmates around'. It was our first C lab session in the 1st year & everybody new to computers were to put up with these weird error messages. I could see Far & Allols helping out our classmates & the C teacher impressed by their skills. "What is the problem man?" said Yuvi who was now at my screen. He saw my 7 line code of the Hello World program with 20 odd errors, He quickly pointed to me the errors I had made, misspelled pre-processor statements, missing brackets, misplaced semi-colons, wrong parameters for the scanf statements etc. I still looked puzzled at the program trying to make sense out of it, Then quickly Yuvi modified the program & re-compiled it. The result screen showed '0 errors, 0 warnings' I could see a relieved expression on his face as though I had told him to solve a tough sudoku puzzle. He went back to the girls again. I stretched out to relax now, thanking Yuvi for helping me finish the program quickly. Slowly I started to observe the lab now as I was late to the lab & had to quickly start writing the program as soon as I came in.
       The lab was quite spacious, painted with light brown which perfectly blended with the color of the computers, There were 25 of them. The systems looked old, not a surprise as they were only running DOS. I tried now to have a good look at my classmates. Some were busy with the program while others looked anxious & worried about the errors they were getting. I could see Avi taking the help of our teacher in getting cleared his doubts about his program. I had joined the course just a week ago, so was trying to identify my classmates based on the  events which they took part in. For ex. Rav,Gunda,Tilak,Bharth & Co for pasting the Jogi cutout in the class, Madh as people kept calling him 'Busa', Veerana for his brand new handset which could play live tv videos & some girls for their frequent answering in the class. Suddenly out of nowhere I heard an announcement, "Write a program which prints 1 to n on onside at the same time n to 1 just beside it" It was SK sir, I didn't know what to think of this program as I was still struggling to come in grips with the 'HelloWorld'. Within moments I could hear the sound of a barrage of keystrokes, Few mins later I saw someone calling SK sir unto his system. "Very good Suhas" said the sir after he saw suhas execute the program. Now everybody's eyes were on suhas even Far's & Allola's, Suhas promptly turned back to his screen with a proud look on his face. I was still left wondering how do these guys crack it? I tried to write type something about the program & compiled it. '50 errors, 30 warnings' the screen showed. I didn't want to call Yuvi again as he was again seen helping out the girls. I started to worry as I found this C extremely difficult to handle, somehow it was not entering my head. I started to think about all the effects C class might have on me for not being able to learn & grasp it. Just I was thinking about all such bad things that could happen to me, I heard a freedom sound. A sound which will make any student of our college get excited & motivated, The sound, teachers disliked. It was the college Siren sound, indicating the end of the period. I gave a huge sigh of relief & quickly rushed to join my friends Avi & Yuvi to go out for our usual lunch at the sagar hotel.

A day during my college times.. (continued)

     Time: 12noon, its my favorite time now.. Lab time :)
               I rush in to take my favorite system, few systems are fast in lab & whoever goes first gets them. My friends join in beside me, Our lab instructor comes, gives us some programs to execute. She then sits in her desk & drowns in some book. Me & my friends continue our conversation, (Our conversation basically include topics about our college,indian cricket team,local news,our teachers,their family,their boyfriends/girlfriends, our class girls, their boyfriends,our crushes,ways to improve kannada film industry etc.)
     Time: 2pm, Lab session over, the instructor did'nt even bother to ask us whether we executed the programs. We head over to Samrat hotel to have lunch. On the way we keep an eye on our class girls & boys to see who's meeting whom, who's going with whom etc. & few known people as well (even teachers are not spared), At the hotel I order the usual bisibelebath, the hotel owner looks at me, I acknowledge him with a smile, my friend asks him "En saar enadve puliyogre ne madalla?"(What sir you don't prepare puliyogre these days?).. to which the hotel owner obliges.. "Ye..nav puliyogre maadidagella.. ninu barade illapa.. aa dwaraka hotelge hogbidtya.." (You dont come to the hotel on days we prepare puliyogre, you go to that dwaraka hotel).. The owner though is very kanjoos person.. compromising quality with quantity. After lunch we head over to our classmate's room.
      Time: 3pm, On our way we stop to pick up a nice movie to watch in our friend's room at a local cd shop near his home.. The guy tells our friend "Saar hosaadu bandide masala.. chinesedu.." my friend gets emabarassed n says "Amele bartini.. eega yavdadru olle comedy movie idre torisi..". The cd guy gives us a new hindi movie "Dhamaal".. We reach his home & make ourselves comfortable as though it were our home.. some sleep, some attend nature's call, some hang their clothes to dry. And so we settle to watch the movie..
      Time: 6pm, Movie over.. we all pack up our stuff to leave for our real home..  some stay as far as nelmangala, indranagar. so they now moan abt their long journey. we pacify them, & head over to the nearest bakery, We eat to our stomach's content.. veg puff, veg rolls, cakes, sandwich.. etc.. & finally order for tea. Bakery guy: "Saar 110 rs aaytu", I see some astonished looks on my friends faces.. as though they are being enquired by police about some crime or something. One of them quietly delivers his usual dialogue "Maccha nan purseali gaali ide, yaradru nange pay maadbidro, nalene clear maadbidtini.. we all try to gather as much money as we can from our pockets.. 10rs,5rs,2rs,1rs.. finally 50paises.. all amount to 90rs. we still fall short by 20rs, we look at each other's faces.. one says "Maga i saw a 100rs note in ur wallet, pay it maga.. we will return you the amount tomrw." to which immediately the other replies "Maga my mother gave it to me to keep it, she will ask it again".. now everybody starts pushing the guy to pay.. Finally he agrees (kuri hallakke bittu)..says while paying.. "le chappar nan makla.. yavaglu nanne idkondbidro" (dear friends, you always hold me responsible to pay the bill).
       Time: 7pm, We all head to the bus stop.. its filled with college/high school boys, girls from the nearby tution.. our attention turns towards the girls.. the bus to KBS arrives, our far staying friends board the bus.. we wave goodbye to them, one of them shouts "Saar num hudugru.. husharagi drop maadi.."(dear driver/conductor, please drop our friends safely).. the bus goes.. we are now 4 left.. we wait for the busses to our area.. usually some 3-4 stops away.. while cracking some jokes & enjoying some discussion, we fail to realize that one of the tution girl is busy staring one of us.. we realize quickly who the guy is, & pamper him to go n talk to that girl, the guy blushes.. & finally agrees to talk to her.. He starts walking towards her.. the girl realizes that  he is coming towards her & quickly turns in the other direction, however her friends still look on gigling.. my friend changes his mind & comes back blushing., the next few moments are spent teasing him about the incident. Our busses finally arrive & we head to our home.
       Time: 8.15pm, I reach my home, My father thunders at my sight.. "Elli haalagi hogiddo? College bidodu 2pm ge.. ishto tanaka elli alita ide?" (Where had you been? your college gets over at 2pm!) I say some lay excuse & head to my room.. My mother arrives asking "En tinadappa madyana,sayankala? eega en maad kodli?"(What did you eat in the afternoon,evening? what shall i prepare now?)Boy! I must appreciate the care she shows us.. My father intervenes again.. "Aden aalumoolu tindirtano eega barbekadre.. avanu first ooota maadtano ilvo kelu" (Who knows what garbage he might have eaten? ask him if he wants to have dinner or not).. I'm already tired for the day.. I tell her to give me some fruits & a glass of buttermilk.. While she heads to the kitchen, i turn on my PC & start playing some games..
       Time: 9.15pm, My eyes are now paining.. & i'm feeling very sleepy.. I eat the fruits & drink the buttermilk.. & hit the bed, awaiting a new journey for tomorrow..
    

A day during my college times..

      College class start time 10am. Time in my watch 9.50am. I leave my home.. On the way performing self check for all the necessary items comb,watch,wallet,handkerchief,college id card,mentos rolls & most importantly my spectacles. I stand at the ESI bus stop waiting for a BMTC bus, As I pop in my mentos, a bus comes, I board it.. my right hand quietly goes inside my pocket to take out a 2rs coin. The conductor arrives, asks me "Yellige?"(Where?), I say "Next Stop" & hand him the 2rs coin.. He gives me a cold look & says something to the person beside him.. "Eegina kalada hudgru estu somverigal aagidare!, Num kaaldali naanu 10km nedkond hogtide college ge" (Today's boys are very lazy! I used to walk 10kms to my college) I ignore them as my stop comes, I get down.
      Time 9.53am - heading towards the college gate.. spot some familiar faces at the samrat hotel,some known blokes of other departments, I wave my hand at them.. they wave back.. I see the watchmen staring at me.. he refuses to open the gate.. says loudly "ee gate bari teachers ge irodu., Aa kade inda baa" (This gate is meant for teachers, come for the other gate), I give a cold stare at him, head to the other gate, As I arrive the gates are open, I fold my hands pray towards the Lord ganesha temple on the left side inside the college entrance.. The temple bells are struck, I assume that my day would be good & head towards the department.
       Time 9.57am As I'm entering I see the HOD standing outside.. I greet her, she smiles, looks at her watch, doesnt say a word. I head towards the class, I can see our class teacher heading for our class from the staff room, I pretend as if I din't notice her. I move on, taking the staircase. 1st Floor:  I can see some of the juniors standing outside the lab waiting for it to be opened, They look at me & wish "Namskara guru" (Hello senior), I acknowledge them with a smile & move on. 2nd Floor: As i climb up the stairs, I can see some of my last bench classmates standing outside. I head towards them, they all offer me a handshake & say "Good morning maga". I talk to them for sometime & head towards the class, they follow me seeing our class teacher arrive. The class seems noisy as usual, with all the girls chattering, & some boys cracking some rib tickling jokes. I see my usual gang sitting at their respective places. They wave at me, I pass in front of them offering handshakes & sit at my usual place. (Offering handshakes in the morning to your classmates is a gesture of each others presence in the class).. The teacher comes in, no one wishes. Time 10.00am Classes commence:
   1st period: Our class teacher starts her lecture on Simulation, I listen attentively for 5mins the list of topics she's going to cover. Then I start my usual business i.e chat about a random topic with a friend beside me thereby preventing him also from concentrating, as our chat becomes interesting the guys around us also join in.The teacher immediately notices us, she screams my name "Deepak, you shameless fellow! Don't you have common sense, you start talking in the 1st hour of the class.. I'm tired of scolding you everytime.. Pls get out of the class if you are not interested!", I apologise & sit quietly this time. 1 hr passes. period ends.
 2nd period: (Same as 1st period, but this time the teacher do not notice us talking so we continue our discussion from where we left off in the 1st period)

to be continued.................

Lost !

Losing is a feeling which any living being doesn't like to experience. It makes them weak at heart, depressed, their confidence to plummet down, lose interest in any activity be it eating, sleeping or any other. I have noticed animals when lost in a fight with other animals for territory control, mating, survival etc. exhibit the above feelings, but they get over it quickly & soon gets back to its business. But in the case of humans its different, because we are so complex than animals, the feeling of losing has a much stronger effect on us. It plays a greater role in building an individual's personality. Losing makes some individuals strong, some immune to it, some to fear it & in extreme cases some to give up their life. It is how we deal with losing that determines our attitude. I believe a deeper understanding of this feeling called 'LOSING' helps one to cope with it better. I lost in a cycle race, I lost in quiz, I lost in clearing an exam with desired marks, I lost in pataising a girl etc. If i carefully analyze as to WHY & HOW I lost? rather than succumbing to after-effects of losing i.e getting depressed about it, helps me to learn my mistake which led to me losing. Some wise men say 'Life is lesson', I believe 'losing' would be a unit in it. Losing exposes our weakness, mistakes, limitations which if analyzed properly & learned carefully would not lead to 'losing' again. I came across this good qoute which is inspiring "Losing and learning to go on and live again is the only kind of winning that truly matters".
        Hence I feel losing is'nt a bad feeling its just that how we percieve it is what matters the most. Getting scared of losing means losing more. If one can manage to get over th after-effects of losing like embarassment, shame, loss of respect in front of our people, Then one can win. The main reason some people fear losing is because of the people around them. 'People respect winners, look down on losers'. This is in their nature & no one can change this. If we adopt the ' I dont give a f**k about what people think about me, I do what I feel is right for me' attitude then we need not fear to lose & losing will have least impact on us. But we have to make sure what we do right is really right & not wrong :) & if it turns out what we are doing is indeed wrong & leads to losing, we can always backtrack & do what is right.
        I came across this nice song of coldplay which  inspires me a lot when I've lost.
     
           

A long Order...

   The semester was coming to an end & D was very sad about it, He knew after this semester there would be some major changes in his life, No more daily hangouts at the college, cracking jokes in the class, playing pranks on his friends in the computer lab, gossiping, bunking classes, attending college fests etc. He had already begun counting his last days at the college. He had lost interest in life as each day passed by, always thinking whether he can in anyway re-live his college days. There was about a month and a half left for the final semester exams, & he realized that each day he lived from now on would be very precious. He had spent almost 5 years in the college now, 1st two years being his PU studies & the next 3 for his Bachelors. The 1st two years were totally irrelevant to him, As he had hardly explored the college life. The main focus being the 2nd PU exams & the CET. D was very shy, silent & hardly spoke to anyone. He had very few best friends. His parents dreamed of him studying engineering, so that they could proudly say when asked.. 'What is you son doing? or 'What has you son studied?' & the proud reply would be - 'Engineering/Engineer'. It dint matter in what field he would specialize at Mechanical, Civil, software.. etc. Just the word 'Engineer' was what they would be content with. Can't blame them as the word itself had a high place in the society, & whoever was an engineer or doing engineering would attract respect. And so he spent his two years preparing for the two exams that would make his parents dream come true. He was quite good at studies but very lazy which often was the cause for his bad performance. Two years went by & it was the day of the results, His 2nd PU final exam percentage was in mid-seventies & his CET ranking was 19K, Both average scores but not enough to get him an engineering seat in one of the good colleges. His parents were very sad, his father couldnt believe his son had shattered his dreams. Things were very gloom at D's home, with his parents now uncertain about D's future. D was good at computers, he did his 1st computer course when he was just 10yrs old. & the trainer had told his parents that D would do well in the IT field. D's ambition was to become a software engineer. And so he finally decided after much consultation from friends & relatives that he would do BCA, at that time not many people were aware of this degree & would mistake it for BSc. 
               He joined the same college & much to his luck, the hod for BCA stayed in the same street where he lived. So it made him quite comfortable as he knew the hod well. And so with new hope of repairing his career which had taken a beating recently and with a new dream of joining one of the IT giants, he started his 3 year journey. He was shy, silent initially, but was quite determined in his approach to studies & so ended up being a topper in the 1st year. He continued with the same determination and found some very good friends along the way, He was conistently doing well in studies & had ventured out into other activities like participating in college fests, orgainizing events in the college, getting involved in important discussion in the class etc. He was enjoying every moment of his college life now & hoped it would never end. He had become very attached to the college with his friends, teachers. He also got placed in one of the IT companies in his final year, his dream had come true & so for his parents as well. He was feeling uncomfortable now & felt someone poking him continously, he heard the sound of plate being kept on the table, some taken away, people engaged in discussion, some laughing, some eating.. the sound became increasingly louder as he felt more pokes, he saw faces staring at him, faces he was very familiar with. One of them said loudly 'Lo Maga ellidyo? Yava lokadali kaldogidyo?' meaning (Dude where are you? in which world are you lost in?). D suddenly gathered his senses, he saw Farooq poking at him, his friends  Avi, Deadly, Allola, Busa, Viru, Suhas, Somari looking at him puzzled. D had lost himself amidst the thoughts of his college life. He was so engrossed in those memories that he did not notice the waiter quite upset, staring at him.. The waiter had been standing at their table waiting for D who was yet to order something from the menu catalogue which he was holding for quite a long while now since the waiter had arrived.