10, what a small number...

10 was a small number till a while back, my sons knew that from times I don’t remember.

If you want to test me about “Times”

I know all the important details…

Their names, as they are spelt in official papers with the exception of a stray “d”, “h”, “t” & “a”

Their dates of birth, to the year plus or minus 2

And believe me, even the class they are in, at least 2 in 12 times

Ok, coming back to the story… 3,650 days, many things have happened in the interim

A big move, geographically

A bigger move, the birth of a son

Even bigger, setting up a young family at a distant land unknown

And bigger, getting a school admission for the son

More, when the second son was born

Much more, when he got to the same school as his elder brother

And yes, the biggest of all…

Something that was the BIG, great start of these small big things above

The day when RoopaK took up a great challenge, the greatest of her life till

Anirudhha & Anantaa got together

Yes, it is 10 years since she committed the blunder of her life

I have no shame in admitting that I am Mr RoopaK and it is 10 years since that name change of mine happened

Thank you RoopaK for the wonderful and most adventurous 10 years we have had…

I am sure I haven’t lived up to your standards and I am not sure I ever will

Sweets, here’s to many more…

The feeling of saying a goodbye...

As “The Corrs” song, “Goodbye” blasted through my little big car stereo I was driving out of MEC, Dubai’s parking. As I waved off to one of MEC parking’s many friendly neighbourhood Pakistani security guards, I was feeling different. Very different from the last time I did this, apart from the fact that it was Jethro Tull who was with me as I waved off and it was 8p, there was a major difference.

I had a joblist ready for the next day in office and I had told Ashwini, Agnello & Raju that I would meet them on Sunday.

Today was my last day at office, I had already given away the access card and the parking permit which were like Karna’s armour for me. Mathew had already read the list of my end of service benefits, how they added up to that handsome sum and when he would deposit that crossed cheque into my loan laden ADCB account.

Mani had sent me the two cardboard boxes, slightly bigger than 5 year old Anirudhha’s pencil box to which I loaded my belongings. After a hearty lunch with my team, a cake cutting and a ceremonial opening of my parting gifts, I was ready to go. End of sentence.

As I waited at the exit of the lane next to the office, to join the main stream Media City I was feeling heady, gasping for breath. I felt like one of those Zardari’s non state actors. Not what they exactly were, but someone who didn’t have a state or as someone who just lost his state, his identity.

I had just renounced my rights at MEC / mc2. I wondered who I was, of course when Sidhartha renounced he was Buddha and me ?

Four years of relationship, new office, pitches won & lost, fights, appraisals, less bonus, low increments, four birthday cakes, one more son in the family, it was a fairytale journey. If there were rollercoasters in fairytales that is exactly the journey I’m talking about.

I don’t have a joblist for tomorrow, I can wake up anytime I want. I can wear my favorite jeans, T-shirt and sneakers, watch television, even have a drink at 11a in the morning. But it wouldn’t be fun, it wouldn’t match the moment every morning when I picked my phone up and said, “Ya, Andy tell me…”

Miss you MEC / mc2

More than anything, I’ll miss you Andy… God bless you for all those good things you have done to me !!

Vin Sinners: Howz that ?

VIN SINNERS, I am proud I know this guy.

Listen to the first track “Something to believe in” and you will know why.

Some truly original music, mind blowing stuff …

My untrained ears can hear strains of Mark Knopfler in the first track (who actually rocks like he never has !!).

The second (Book of faces) is something that gets me reminisce "Indus Creed" the foremost of the popular Indian bands to reach out to the public. The track for me sounded a bit of an “Indian Rock” the mandatory you see in the Bollywood movies these days.

“The wise man” compensates if at all are disappointed with the “Book of faces” like I have. It would actually be a wise bet listening to this track before one proceeds to the “Book of faces”. This one is a truly rocking track. Here, I can hear James Hetfield & a Bruce Dickinson and more.

The next track is an alternative version. And frankly the untrained me doesn’t understand what an alternative version means.

Overall, as you are driving in your car am sure this is an album which would make your way back home lively and the one that would get you charged-up as you are one your way to work.

In total an album I would want to have in my car.

PS: I haven’t talked about the lyrics as yet as we only have one song in full “Something to believe in”, you get to read bits of it on the left side of the reverberation screen if you are like me, smarter people would realize how brilliant the lines are hearing !!

It is exactly 5 years as of today…

I still remember…

How you apologized for being 10 minutes late to Coffee Day, the place where we first met in Madras

I do remember how badly I was hung over and how best I tried dissuading you, not to fall into the trap

I would never forget that 5.32p call I made the same day, confessing how I’d fallen for you

That sincere “Will you marry me” from my side

And that playful “That is a serious question. I might have to speak to my parents” and of course the “Let our families meet formally" decision you made

The number of F words I uttered during our marriage, facing up to the customs, friends, relatives and others. Whom I had never faced in my life in such fearsome frenzy

The way you tried freshening the air inside our (first nights) bedroom when your mother knocked for coffee, post that smoke I’d just had

How you cried on my lap when that month and a half disappointment happened before Anirudhha happened

The smile when you saw me gate crash in to your ward at 6.15a the day after Aniruddha was born

Your eyes when I smelled Aniruddha’s forehead for the first time, the day after he was born

That “Leaving on the Jet plane” of Janis Joplin (which I love) you played when you, with Anirudhha in your arms sent me off to Dubai

The hug, the day when you and Anirudhha landed in Dubai after three months of his birth

And the good life you have made possible thereafter

It’s five years and I don’t think it is. Feels like we just left that Rs 3 tips for that coffee at Coffee Day, I can smell that Lavender room freshener that camouflaged the smoke, our wedding video, the stupid look I had on my face just after I had uttered that “N^th” F word, our faces when we met for the first time with Anirudhha on your lap. And all those difficult things I can never write about, the way you made me see them through.

I love you Roopa K

I was also there...

Thanks Bhaskar for ensuring I didn't miss out...

The shark of a story…

Sammy, the whale shark.

That is the most familiar name across newspapers, radio and internet in the UAE for the last couple of weeks. Sammy has pushed Subprime, Henry Paulson, Barack Obama, John McCain & Sarah Palin to one column by ten centimeter spaces. We see pages dedicated to Sammy, we have seen Save Sammy stickers going on sale and amusingly we have had a leading Pinoy singer strumming for Sammy. We have also heard RJ’s speaking passionately about Sammy and his rights cutting across radio channels, sometimes conveniently forgetting that they love their seafood platter.

Although I am not an active or professing member of PETA or likes, I come from a family that loves animals. Importantly we respect their rights and their habitat. That said I cannot quite understand the euphoria and this, “I give a column or second airtime more than you” attitude of the media here. After all Sammy is safe in an aquarium and I am sure as at least some of the saner souls would agree, didn’t up as a biryani in somebody’s plate.

Pardon me if I sound gross or uncouth, but that is a fact. While millions of tons of habitats of the sea are trawled out as seafood, we must be happy that Sammy didn’t end up that way or being thrown out of a speeding car, as many cats are in town. He’s part of an aquarium that might, of all things serve to educate kids, the next generation who otherwise might never get to see a whale shark other than in a book or when they google it out.

I repeat, I don’t support or oppose Sammy being held captive. As long as Sammy is being taken proper care of, let him be wherever it might be. Those who claim Sammy might lose touch with reality, the independence of his habitat should also think about those thousands of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, and giraffes etc. who are part of the various zoos around the world. Think, have we ever printed a sticker of say, Simba the lion? And asked the zoo authorities to release him in his native habitat?

I loathe this frenzy, the senseless hysteria of save Sammy. Can we ask ourselves

1. How many column centimeters or seconds do we devote for those labourers who toil in the hot sun sans proper food, shelter or remuneration? Forget those occasional sensational stories filed...
2. Was there any follow-up to see if the school transportation system and safety has improved after sensationalizing the death of a kindergarten toddler in Abu Dhabi for one week? Did we ever care about it?
3. Have we guys ever worried or cared about those numerous cats that lie dead on our roads?
4. Have we ever seen stories in the newspapers or cared to talk about people who chain monkeys or other animals to their steering wheels, making them sit on it and drive their cars with an open window just to show the world how macho they are?
5. And finally a simple question, how many times in your life have you ever used a zebra crossing or a designated facility to cross the road in the last 3 months?

Please, for heavens sake let’s dust our own back before pointing out a peck of dust at our neighbour’s. Let’s be responsible. I agree sensationalism sells in media, but please understand that we don’t need to either sell or buy stories at this obscenely suffocating sensation levels.

I would also ask the Pinoy musician to first strum for those hundreds and thousands of her Kabayan brothers and sisters who live a life of agony and suffering. I would ask her to do something for them before she grabs her next column centimeter at the expense of a Sammy.

Guys have some sense, let’s show at least 10 – 15 % of the concern we show on a Sammy on the fellow human beings we deal with day to day. The poor taxi drivers, the labourer, the guy who serves us at a hotel and thousands of others we encounter in our daily life. If we are able to do this first, I am sure we would end up feeling prouder and satisfied, than cutting a save the Sammy motif from a newspaper, pinning it on our kids and clicking a photo. Hoping we would see it in the next morning’s newspaper.

Let me reiterate, I am not saying don’t care for Sammy. Please do. But before that think, think how many times we ever care for our fellow human beings and their rights. At least now let us resolve, to care for our fellow humans.

Long live Sammy, the whale shark!!

China would have been very happy listening...

It is about Tibet again.

With all the agitation and the protests happening around Tibet issue, the way the Chinese are handling it and the Olympics, every news channel / paper / magazine is clamouring for their bit of breaking news.

The latest to break this fantastic news is an FM radio in Dubai. The news...

"The Olympic flame would do its round of 20 countries including Tibet before it makes its way to China, the hosts of this years games."

The Tibetian' would certainly have been very happy listening, I am not sure what the Politburo's reaction would have been.