2

Foot ball- ‘Just a wish to go..!’

Ever since my childhood, I remember my family being a huge cricket fan. Ofcourse except my dad -who can watch any sport under the sun irrespective of the countries played and now, with this numerous sports channels and leagues in place, he is literally having a sports fest in his retirement life. Infact, his latest passion in sports is to buy my niece FIFA football every four years and make her to have a collection. Well, hope one day my niece captains Indian women’s football team!

Though my dad’s behavior on watching sports is infectious, unlike him, my mom is a loyal cricket fan. She not only watches all formats but also understands test cricket concept. That’s something I am unable to get till date….phew!! But these days to my surprise, I have seen her watching football matches more than me. It is unusual to see her talk about late night matches as soon as I get up in the morning. She is like the first update I can get on FIFA happening. Pretty soon it prompted me to ask her as to what is making her watch football so interestingly and here is what she said- “ these matches are short and sweet and to be played with so much intelligence”

Yep, she said it all! It’s nothing but a cumulative intelligence of eleven people. For instance- in cricket, at a time tricks are done either by the batsman or the bowler or the captain. But here, the entire eleven got to be collectively doing the magic almost constantly! It is so amazing to see them all work together towards a ‘common goal’ with so much commitment. By and by, there are so many qualities that these players need to possess- like, first and foremost they should be patriotic, should be excellent team players, should be able to coordinate & communicate well, should be extremely confident, should be fearless, should be knack-full, should have tough legs, should take quick decisions, should be innovative on their strategies, and to some extent should even have the sixth sense etc., Oops, I almost forgot one more important criteria…they should compulsorily have handsome looks..duh:)

Overall everything is so classy & stylish about this game- like the football jersey’s, the discipline in the way games are conducted, the dignity of referees, the gracefulness of the coaches, and how can I let go K’nann’s celebration mix!! It gets me the goose bumps every time I hear it…wow... music speaks it all!! Ok… now back to football;). It even offers one of the main behavioural skills which is indeed by giving an opportunity to have ‘fair play’ with their opponents! Gosh, sounds like a complete corporate game to me though. I think the companies should limit the cost on classroom trainings for enhancing soft skills and let their employees just play football. Let’s face it- It certainly helps in skill building, its fun and moreover can help in avoiding their employees building tragic body figures!!

Finally, coming to the ‘one & only’ football wish, I recently got to hear from our media friends about coca-cola also having sponsored under-16 Indian football team which is a great thing to do supporting youngsters!! When we can manage to play Hockey, I think we can manage football too. India should definitely make its place in such delightful game!

I wish- I see India one day qualified in final 32 FIFA teams and then, we all Indians proudly travel across to just ‘cheer them’ in such a ‘passionate intelligent game’!!


Signing off for now,

Achu

5

Creativity- A Ball Park in all creations??

I was driving on a Saturday evening to the temple and happened to stop my vehicle in one of the cross roads for my other vehicle friends to pass. In corner there was this new, a small place called “Water Colours”! At first, I was only able to get a glimpse of the outside setting as it had a veranda. I could not make out what it was about?? It was a store with extreme brightness yet having pleasant colours on its board with an attractive font. Now, what could this possibly be? I was curious as it took me back to my school days to my most favourite art class. Is it a painting workshop?? If it is… boy, I am going in there as it looked so interesting! I was very inquisitive to know about it. Whilst my mind was swirling around with various thoughts in 100kms per hour, my all other vehicle friends passed and I got my chance to move on. I made an effort to peep inside to know what it was and apparently, to my very surprise it was the juice bar!! Isn’t that the idea of someone thoughtful? Call a juice junction like that and make a set up which can play with your mind especially taking me to the very golden days back…that’s a place where I would like my juice…yeah! The name and set up did not leave me until I got to know what it was! Huh…. that’s creativity!

Creativity astounds me! Off the top of my head- the one thing that I think really floors me is the advertising world of the modern era. It is so unconventional these days and does such a great first hand sales. The attention grabbing is so tricky and some geniuses do it so well. Some of the print ads gosh…unimaginable…I recently read somewhere that most of the Indian and the global brands believe in using blue colour in their logos as blue stands for reliability. And I am sure, there would be lot more conditions & restrictions that one may have to keep in mind and yet create the best! Wonder how the right brain of humans can make such a larger impact!!

On the other hand, creativity has so much to contribute in our daily life as well. You may want to manage your time creatively, you may want to work out your office schedules creatively, you may want to tackle your family problems creatively, or you may want to come up with great life style creatively. Apparently everything gives a room for a creative work out.

Once, one of my colleagues requested me to contribute some material for his abroad university applications wherein he had to write about knowledge-vs-imagination. I was thrilled to just think about it. It apparently boils down to creativity-vs- logical thinking. As much as logical thinking is important, I could not resist giving an upper hand to the creative thinking. Imagine some of the finest men and women who are extremely good in their logical thinking- concepts, facts or procedures but can’t expand it due to lack in creativity. It is as good as garaging their knowledge. Imagine scientists with rich concepts but had no imagination or creativity, we would have been denied of so many inventions today. The same goes with musicians or painters. Wow- What a great loss that would have been! I somehow feel that having vague idea on actual concepts or basics is still better to create something outstanding or to make difference. Just like Henry ford, who understood little of engineering but demanded a great deal from his employers to transference his imaginations into reality. Ultimately they had no option but just to do it.


Overall, I bank upon the contribution of creativity to be not just the ‘ball park’ in all creations but the ‘whole all’. Infact, one of the best creations of the ultimate creator is that, he has bestowed a creative thinking into human life!

Signing off for now,

Achu

4

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I guess I got introduced to the popular TV show across globe - F.R.I.E.N.D.S on the day I was hitting silver jubilee of my life. Before that, my best friend used to always insist me on watching it but, somehow I did not make enough efforts to time it on TV. And then, she gifted me all of the ten seasons on my b’day!

As it’s an irony these days of having million channels and yet a limited choice on TV, one sat’y afternoon I finally started watching it from the beginning to see what the deal is. And since then, I am hooked to it like inseparable buddies. It literally became a part of my life. I could finally see my friend’s conviction and I am really thankful to her for one the best gifts I’ve ever gotten!

From then, I watched it every single day making time for it and used to be my greatest stress buster after day long work and traveling. It rejuvenated me to the core and this routine went on for next one and a half years on a daily basis. My parents were also used to me watching it as my day’s regular schedule. So far, I have watched it repeatedly multiple times and is worth quotable as one of the weirdest things I could imagine myself doing!

In my view, the obsession is due to the incredible characters, superb acting, excellent synchronization in the story line, and most importantly it is so simple and sometimes so touchy. It has all realistic elements which allow one to easily associate themselves to the characters and perhaps, I starting with the right age of watching must be an add-on factor to be more attached towards it. What so ever the factors be, the bottom line for it to get place in my mind is – “It is Funny”. It definitely made me laugh for the most of its scenes with insane jokes and kept my laughing muscles all alive!

As once, I was chatting away to glory on the same topic, one of my friends felt that f.r.i.e.n.d.s is not funny at all! This came in as a hell of a surprise to me!! ‘f.r.i.e.n.d.s.’and ‘not funny’ does never connect according to me. I felt that as a fishy remark at first but later, talking to my friend made me realize that he happens to like Seinfeld better which has more of a quality comedy and is funny. So I suggested him to watch one of the hilarious episodes in f.r.i.e.n.d.s and still he came back telling that there was nothing funny at all about it. This is the guy who has watched f.r.i.e.n.d.s. quite many times and is familiar with the characters and the story. The fact that he does not find it funny dint sink into me easily. I could not think that anyone could find it ‘not funny’. Ofcourse I agree that not every bit is funny but most of it all does make one to laugh out their lungs. While I was wondering on this, he got me couple of seasons of Seinfeld. I made an effort to watch two seasons of it and all I could get was, they are totally different yet both go in parallel when it comes to its comical nature. What so ever, in my opinion f.r.i.e.n.d.s still cracks me up!!

Somehow, till today I can’t digest the fact that he said that. Btw, is there anyone else who has the same view of f.r.i.e.d.s not being funny at all? It does not make much difference to my obsession towards it but, I am pretty much keen to take a toll on my humor quotient…

Signing off for now,

Achu

2

Why I started it after all...

Though it’s been such a long time since the blogging period has started, strangely I was aloof with the whole system till date even when it actually reached its boom stage. Today, if I sit back and give it a thought on the reason to be, it’s merely coz of me being fastened with my own blogging mechanism all through.

I was working in human resources domain in one of the companies up-until last year. I was fortunate enough to have had good friends and was extra-fortunate who had an opportunity to interact with lot of different levels of people in my profile. Seemed like, I had entirely made use of the comforts of the blogging system out there. There used to be free flow of topics, opinions, updates, events, interchange of ideas, chatting and not to miss the witty talks and the gossiping!! I got to hear what I wanted from various sources and it met my needs.

Now, whilst I am trying to pursue something of my own interest professionally, I am left with selective people to have the same things moving on. Having limited people to interact is something that I am feeling unusual about!! Hence, I am certain that it’s the time to enter into a new larger dimension and explore. Honestly, I am excited about this and especially about much more that this can offer. It’s a relief to know that on this platform, I will be able to shell out those thoughts which have been swirling around in my mind and thus, keep me going active!

So here I am saying Hi to you all! I am a rookie in here to see how it goes on and yet to experiment! But all I can say for now is “do expect from me more”

Signing off for now,

Achu