30 days

I've been away from home. My heart is yet to arrive and reality is yet to strike the inside of me.

The emotional turmoil diminishes, the bizarre signboards become familiar, the sound of silence invites me into the world of seclusion where my thoughts linger around with no destined direction.

Sometimes I dream of where I was or where I want to be, other times the trance takes me to the mystical chapters of my life. I've been the hero, the thief, the cunning, the caring, the cruel, the compassionate, the friendly and the fake and I wonder how can all these diverse traits exist within a single being.

We all remember the past and can easily classify the times we have spent into categories that we take pride in or that we are ashamed of. But how many times do we stop to think before we commit ourselves into an act(of pride or guilt)?

30 days have passed since I've seen my mother's face. My brother's voice is comforting as I close my eyes when I speak to him over the phone(It brings him closer to me). My father, a man in the evening of his life feels deep inside for the love of his son who is away in a foreign land.

My aunt who has the love of a mother holds back her tears, puts on a smile before she calls. My kid sisters are busy with thier daily chores, soon they'll grow up and I miss being a part of their childhood days.

I've had the best of friends which obviously means that I've had the greatest of times. I miss them too.

The opportunities are immense and there are several learning experiences waiting to be unravelled . In order to keep the balance sheet of my life on the profitable side I'm on this pursuit far away from my dear ones. I hope the returns will be worth the investment.

When each step gets steeper the peak of the mountain has arrived, we all know we cannot walk down to the peak!

When it is Time

"My life has been a collection of ironic events. One day I wake up to find that all the love in the world is right there next to me (feel so mostly when I'm home) and the very next day I find myself all alone, struggling to fill my emptiness with vagary and the void inside kills the man in me for the rest of the day, but I bounce back stronger than yesterday. One evening I meet all the dead lines and the very next day I realize that it all did not matter and what mattered was never even thought of. What seemed difficult wasn't that tough in reality and what seemed like a walk in the park invariably ends up as a mountain that seems to get steeper with each step. I hate to give up when it mattered. Be it people or opportunities.

Just when I thought how wonderful life has been I've been dragged to where I started, emptiness. That’s why I don’t like the snake and ladder game, one wrong number decides your next move. And when I'm almost there I most often end up tossing the wrong number and destiny drags me to where I do not want to be, from where I've struggled to stay away from and I'm muscled right into the middle of the pain I never wished to feel another time.

When I thought that life was tough yesterday, today proved that yesterday day wasn't. Not that it got better, its just because it could not get worse now. Sometimes everything has a reason in life, if not I try to find out until now. Now it does not matter if there was a reason."

I know its away from my core area(Human Resource) but now I guess I have moved a level above and core areas dont matter. So I request you to ponder over the topic and debate over it. Looking forward to a healthy discussion and hope you'll will be engilghtened with the Greater Truth.

- On behalf of Roy J George. (If he was to write one last blog from Heaven)

The worst irony I’ve ever faced: Laugh one night with some one so dear and then find out that he is no more in the next couple of days. The people who have been around ever since I was a kid are the ones who I have very strong feelings about. The positive ones get stronger and the others diminish into the background with no role to play in my future life.

"He(Roymama)" by far has been the best man I’ve ever known. No, I’m not saying because I wish to praise him now that he is gone. Its only because I wanted to tell him some day when I saw him achieve all that he wanted to. But now that day will never come. So many memories, desires and dreams shattered when you left us Roy Mama. They say that every one leaves " When it is Time". I don’t trust you have left, i know you are right here.

And I’m sure we'll meet " When it is Time"

Love You Always

Your Kunju.

And he lived happily ever after...........

Back on top - ATP Ranking World No: 1

If you thought that was the end of the fairy tail story you got it wrong. The most successful tennis player in the world, Roger Federer is far from finished. His wife wishes that his kid should see him play and Federer says it’s not impossible. 15 times he has emerged as the winner and he’s still hungry for more. To do something like that it takes more than just desire, more than just commitment and more than just discipline more than a coach(like many said), more than some journalist predicting the end of his era, more than many other things that all great players of the past had.

The Swiss won the Wimbledon 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 to surpass Pete Sampras's 14 Grand Slam wins and regain the title he lost to Rafael Nadal last year. This time it was Andy, the surprise he brought was the body line service which proved to be effective. May be Fed was not expecting, may be it’s because Andy never did that in the past. But the success it brought could not get him past the finish line. Federer once again played the mind game, kept pushing and kept his head above the water as Andy Roddick did not make life easy out there in Centre court. The end result, Andy could not hold on to his nerve and yet another time Fed walks away with the Cup. The longest rally in men’s tennis ever, Pete Sampras in the Royal Box (Past acknowledged the Present), Russel Crowe (Glam meets slam) & Sachin Tendulkar (Front foot v/s Forehand) in the audience all added color to the most delicious dish named Wimbledon that Federer relished last Sunday.

Now the one last dream we all have - a sweet victory against Nadal, the wall that runs around, the bowling machine that that pounds the tennis ball one after another, the marathon runner who never runs out of steam, the craftsman who flicks, flips, slashes and slices.

My Learning from Wimbledon
If you thought of victory too early you lose, and if you think of failure then the result is no different. Just do what you can for as long as you can and the reward is yours.

Just when you think your feet are tired, think of how tired your opponent should be and you'll generate the energy to keep going.

"Remember the Time" Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson's demise leaves us with a void that will never be filled. Guess Herald's blog says all that I wanted to or even more.

www.haljosgeo.blogspot.com

Our prayers to the Greatest Musician & Performer we've ever seen.

And yes, we will "remember the time, we fell in love" with your music and dance as long as we live.

Just to see how good he was even after decades of entry into the world stage, "You Rock My World", Video:- http://myplay.com/video-player/michael-jackson/?bcpid=14508199001&bclid=18584191&bctid=13406370

Dedicated to the ones affected.

Name’s G*****….. B***** G***** (For our convenience we call him JCB, and of course for the way he rips his friends apart)

It’s been a while since negative things happened to me and hence I finally decided to take the risk of my life. You’ll know what I mean by the time you finish this brief description of the MAN (Most Affecting Negative influence in our lives).

I choose to write in few(wish both of us had the time to write a descriptive one)points for each instance in the order to cover more ground and to make sure you’ll don’t faint reading it. One more word of caution, if you are superstitious I request you to quit now rather than repent later.

I met this prodigy in my MBA days in a prominent B-School in Coimbatore. Soft spoken, intuitive, had strong opinions but seldom vouched for them as he thought the rest of the crowd was not up to standards to comprehend.

I heard, then saw and of course have been the victim many times only to realize that I’m luckier than the other victims. So here we take a plunge into the life of the Negative Magician (I fondly call him) with no particular order.

JCB goes to Chennai, rather hot and dry place in mid 2006 and his friends welcome him with a grin. It rained for two days straight and no wonder the place was flooded.(You never know what you can become)

A Friend invited JCB(he was the first one to receive his wedding invite) for his marriage (Love marriage,both the groom and the bride have know JCB for years). And the next day they decide to walk different ways and not get married.(The inverse of Nokia, Disconnecting people)

He said bye when I was heading home from college and a normal 30 min drive took close to 3.30hrs. (I have to mention that a drunkard’s 6 year old daughter puked on my feat and the only money I had was spent in buying a water bottle to wash my feet and had to walk home).

He poses for a photo for another friend’s sister’s wedding and “boom” all the camera flashes went off. (Logical reason: Power fluctuation, but we think some thing more had come into play).

JCB visits Agasthyarkoodam for a couple of days trek and as they were mid way through the trek smiles at the trekking party which was on its descent. The next thing we know is that the Kerala Police had to escort JCB and the team out of the area as the elephants attacked two from the trekking party which was leaving. Yeah, the same trekking party which exchanged smiles with the JCB. And now Agasthyarkoodam is closed for public.

He joined a US based Investment firm in 2007, and you know how the US markets crashed. It’s still not recovered and even the experts dont know when it will be back up(Guess we have a piece of advice). I have requested him not to be disheartened and join the Indian financial Market for the benefits of the millions of people who thrive on the markets.(Poor Lehman Brothers, did'nt see this coming. Survived for over 158 years)

I do not want to mention names, he had applied for his certificates in one of his previous educational institution and by the time he received the same the signing authority (the head of the institution) passed away. (We assume that it was JCB’s certificate that the person had signed L A S T. Its one fact that the person was old and I don’t blame JCB for this one but yet sometimes a signature can change your life).

Last week it was a long time since I spoke to him and so in good intent I called him when I stopped for dinner, spoke for some 5 odd minutes and walked out to my bike and in just a hundred meters I found that my rear tyre was flat. Had to push my bike all the way (4 kilometers) to the nearest refueling station to refill the air and rush to the nearest puncture station. Guess what, all puncture shops in my area were closed(it was 11 plus in the night so I don’t blame him) and I had to head home before I ran out of air once again. The best part is that the next morning I found out that the air was still in there and there was no problem, it’s a couple of weeks now and no one knows why the tyre went flat.

As I sat down to write a few lines, I could recollect of so many. The ones who where there would understand and recollect. The trip to Udumalpet, the swimming session in Coimbatore, the dinner you had in my place, the juice shop tragedy in Trivandrum, the wedding trip from CBE to Trivandrum, the wedding mess up in the hotel in Thrissur, the key locked inside the indica car in the same hotel and so on. Anyone who has known him would sure have many such tales to tell.(JCB should have been the brand ambasador of Addidas - Impossible is NOTHING)

Hope and wish that the Blog Spot servers don’t crash. . . and by the way I have got yet another negative info from a friend of mine as I wrote this blog. I know it sounds fabricated. I can email my friends number if you want to verify.(The last brand you can associate JCB to is our own MRF - "Feel the power")

Tour de force - Career Grand Slam

The only grand slam that eluded him for over 8 years is finally in his kitty, The French Open.



" Every time I play against Federer I feel that I did not play as well as I could, now I understand that he makes me play bad"-Soderling, runner up French Open 2009.

Just when many wrote him off, just when the evening skies where visible at a distance, just when one man named Rafa terrified him final after final, just when everyone said oh he needed that or he needed a coach or a bubble bath, he rose.

The Swiss Star will now go home and look at his trophies and say," finally everything is in place". His dream as a kid was to win a Wimbledon, he lived way past his dreams winning it five times. Today he joins two great tennis stars who created a unique league. He joins Pete with his 14 titles and Aggasi who won all the majors. And if some one still doubted if he was the greatest, he wouldn't care.

Federer was obviously in an emotional mix way before the last set, "It was very hard mentally for me to stay within the match during the match, because my mind was always wondering, What if?" he said. "What if I win this tournament? What does that mean? What will I possibly say?" said Federer in the post macth press conference.

Sorry for Nadal, elated for Federer.

14 and counting!

Signing off with one last wish - The brave conquer what most men fear, defeat Nadal before its time to hang up those "pushed to the limit" tennis shoes!

Soderling (SWE) Federer (SUI)
1st Serve %55 of 91 = 60 %52 of 79 = 66 %
Aces 2 16
Double Faults 3 2
Unforced Errors 22 24
Winning % on 1st Serve 35 of 55 = 64 % 44 of 52 = 85 %
Winning % on 2nd Serve 20 of 36 = 56 % 18 of 27 = 67 %
Winners (Including Service) 24 41
Receiving Points Won 17 of 79 = 22 % 36 of 91 = 40 %
Break Point Conversions 0 of 2 = 0 % 4 of 6 = 67 %
Net Approaches 13 of 20 = 65 % 9 of 11 = 82 %
Total Points Won 72 98
Fastest Serve Speed 221 KMH 213 KMH
Average 1st Serve Speed 197 KMH 190 KMH
Average 2nd Serve Speed 159 KMH 152 KMH

Mementos

What do you remember?

Long hours in school or the fun you had in there,
Your first kiss or the first day you met,
Your first girl friend or the first break up,
First day at work or your first salary.

What do you remember?

The dreams you realized or the ones that remained just dreams,
The fun you had with friends or the friends, who were fun to be with,
The day you said, “I do”, or the day you thought you should not have,
The time you spent with your loved ones or the hours you spent elsewhere for them.

What do you remember?

The shoulder they relied upon or the support they were to you,
The Love that you had or the love that never was there.
The words that you spoke or the words, you should not have spoken,
The one you want to be or the one, that you wanted to be.

What do you remember?

For you are what you remember,
And will be, what you choose to remember,
And they… they will remember you,
For good or for not, so what do you remember?

Double Fault

Not "let" this time, got to wait for another day to equal Sampras's record

“Federer won 174 points to Nadal’s 173, he served 6 – 8 km faster, served 11 aces in comparison to Nadal’s 4 and came up with 71 winners against the Spaniard's 50“.

What would a tennis coach say? Serve with speed and precision, move fast, make sure you manage to get your angles right and make those winners when you have an opportunity and soon you will be the next Grand Slam Champion.

But anyone who watched the match yesterday would know that the obvious as per these stats did not happen.


Rafael Nadal 7 3 7 3 6
Roger Federer 5 6 6 6 2

It was superhuman v/s supernatural; Federer’s fore hand was sublime. He kept getting those winners down the line or cross court and every time he sliced and took the pace off the ball Rafa had to collect himself to respond which he did but not as well as he would have wanted to. Nadal on the other hand did not push himself too much at the start. Ideally you would see him running from corner to corner, but after a strenuous semi final against Verdasco even the supernatural showed signs of fatigue, he got what he could with out stressing or physically draining. But then when it was needed he bounced back, Federer kept slamming and like Vijay Amrithraj commented, “The ball just bounced back every time, it felt like he was playing against a perpetual moving human wall”


Match Summary Nadal - Federer
1st Serve % 112 of 175 = 64 % - 90 of 172 = 52 %
Aces 4 - 11
Double Faults 4 - 6
Unforced Errors 41 - 64
Winning % on 1st Serve 74 of 112 = 66 % - 66 of 90 = 73 %
Winning % on 2nd Serve 30 of 63 = 48 % - 37 of 82 = 45 %
Winners (Including Service) 50 - 71
Receiving Points Won 69 of 172 = 40 % - 71 of 175 = 41 %
Break Point Conversions 7 of 16 = 44 % - 6 of 19 = 32 %
Net Approaches 15 of 26 = 58 % - 43 of 60 = 72 %
Total Points Won 173 - 174
Fastest Serve Speed 196 KMH - 204 KMH
Average 1st Serve Speed 179 KMH - 183 KMH
Average 2nd Serve Speed 143 KMH - 156 KMH

For the second time I felt emotional watching tennis. First, when Pete bid adieu to professional tennis and then yesterday when Fed smothered in front of the Aussies.

But both Federer and Nadal proved that there could be no better ambassadors to the sport,

Federer recovering from his agony rushed to the microphone for the second time and said, “I dont wanna have the last word, this man deserves it, So.. Rafa Congrads. You played incredible, you deserve it man. you played another fantastic finals so.... all the best for the season”

Nadal on the other hand walked straight to Federer after collecting his Trophy to console and started his speech with, “ First of all Roge ... sorry for today, I know how it feels but you remember you are a champion, the best and you are going to break Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam Victories for sure”. To see such great sportsmanship from Nadal was a consoling fact for an avid Federer fan like me.

Great Rivals, Great Friends... Nadal & Federer proved that tennis is a gentleman's game!

No matter how big a star you are its just a matter of time before a bigger star emerges.

- “If you got something easily, it would not matter much as anyone could get the same with little efforts”

Renald

Picture used is borrowed from www.Australianopen.com and will be removed if any objection is raised by the copyright owner.

Protip

Wanderlust - Past and Future

Destinations change, directions don't. Wishes do, not their efforts. People change, relationships don't. Even if we wish to stop the journey, wishing good things for ourselves and our loved ones, establishing and retaining relationships.......we simply cannot. Life offers the same old gift in a freshly wrapped cover, opportunity. Nothing is really changed if you notice, we ran to school, then college and now work. We wished for a bi cycle, then a motor bike, a car and now what not. Life is an opportunity as long as we exist in the real sense.

Nature takes its own course and follows its own set of principles irrespective of what we own or wish to own. It detours our journey at times and delays our arrival but never acts as an irrepressible force which qualms our desires.

The past year has been more rewarding in many ways, Herald, Harianna, Sam anna and James anna all said, " I do" last year, I guess those are the only two words they say when their better half is around. Its great to see that they all are doing well professionally and personally.

Got to travel to new places like Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kollam and Chickmangloor and I realise that the more I travel the more I find out how unique we are and how diverse we choose to be.

Its been a year of learning, I've made my share of mistakes at work and at home. But i've learnt quite a bit from them. One dream of mine came true in the form of a Nikon D40. And I realised that money can get you a good camera but not a great photograph.

I'd like to thank Anand (Vijay Anand A R) for being patient when I was going over the top and for being my friend all these years, I miss those days when 25 rupees could not just get us a coffee and puffs at Nilgris but so much happiness of seeing the world for the first time independently.

Guess its too much of the past, but I'd have to mention a few things that I remember and I'm sure the ones close to me too do:-

• A Maruthi 800 going past a Mercedes E 280, Pajero, Endeavour, Cedia, Swift Diesel and a hell lot of cars. My navigator was a pleasure to drive with, Herald. He would keep finding an exterme left (outside the road) or suggest the inside line on a hard right hander when a truck would naturally oversteer.
• The Chase - Hyundai Accent v/s Maruthi Swift (Diesel) A high speed drafting in front of Mechri Police Station (enroute bangalore from coimbatore) could get us ahead of the Swift but could not keep us at the front. We emerged as losers but we fought the battle with fire. Taking into consideration that Harianna owned the Accent and still managed to sit tight in the front seat without a worry amazes me, Sam Anna as usual was silent but amazingly watchful.
• Meeting Arun (Neo) and Bijo in Chennai, late night dinner near Guindy Station, Arun paying for the tea and biscuits (yet another time). Walking down the memory lane, Bijo's workout regieme and Arun's Chai banana ..... simply unforgettable.
• Late Night Dinner, Anand and I. Paramount or Imperial.
• Darryl's Amazing Music, it simply seems to overwhelm us by many fold each time his fingers touch the piano or writes some music (especially vocals).
• Sahil, Shajan, Benny and I sitting outside Karunya until 3 in the morning and walking down the memory lane.
• The Mysore Palace, Tippu's Tomb and pictures of Mia and Meeshma all shot on our D40.

Guess I can go on but I'll rather move to the future part of the blog. These are what I'm actively looking forward to in 2009.

• Waiting for Two couples to exchange their wedding vows, Bijo & Lulu and Arun & Vidya. It would be a treat to watch them walk as man and wife.
• Professional growth at my work place.
• Anand's Master's Degree in the US.
• Meeting Niresh who is here in India now and spend sometime with him.

With New Destinations and Wishes here is wishing you the very best in this year!

- Don't give up and don't give in.

Renald