Sachin Tendulkar and Me!!!

I've been a die hard fan of the master blaster Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for ages and have done so many things that appear really funny today.. I was three years old during the 1992 world cup.. My mom used to watch cricket and that time I thought cricket is a game played against many teams and the funniest part is I thought the different teams who played the game were India, Paskistan(I used to pronounce Pakistan as Paskistan during those days, Pakistan is more easy to pronounce than Paskistan, still dunno how I could get it as Paskistan rather than Pakistan ;-)), Sachin Tendulkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Imran Khan etc.(Didn't know that Sachin, Sanjay were all players rather thought they were all countries like India)..

I read that Angoor in Hindi means Grapes during my first standard.. If anyone asked me who my favourite cricketer is, I used to answer as Azhar.. I never knew how Md. Azharuddin used to play when I was at the first standard.. I thought there is some resemblance between the words Angoor and Azhar(though there is nothing common in both except for both starting with the letter 'A' and ending with the letter 'R' ;)), I like grapes and because of that Azharuddin became my favourite cricketer at that time..

I knew what a proper game of cricketing is when I watched the 1996WC with my parents and uncle at home.. And at that time only I recognized that Sachin Tendulkar is a player who plays for India and I started loving the way he plays the game.. Since then am a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar..

I bought a big blue ball and used to play catch and catch with my mom.. I used to represent India and mom would represent Sri Lanka.. Who ever misses a catch loses a wicket.. Me and mom both will have 11 wickets each at the beginning of the game.. And whenever am to play for Sachin's wicket I used to be double the times more careful than the other wickets..

Once parents took me and my brother to an exhibition and they bought two cricket bat type boxes one with Sachin's sticker and the other one with Ajay Jadeja's sticker(box with two different stickers just for the sake of differentiation between mine and my bro's) .. I demanded I need the box with Sachin's sticker.. My brother neither knew who Sachin is nor who Jadeja is.. Just because I am asking for box with Sachin's sticker he too wanted that box only.. How much ever I try to persuade he never agreed.. Being the elder one I had to give him that box.. But, I learnt a good lesson from that.. Whenever there is a selection to be made by me and my bro I need to ask for the one that I like the least.. He will also ask for what am asking.. Ultimately, I will end up with what I wanted :).. This trick worked for many days..

Whenever Sachin gets out, I used to switch off the television and will never watch that match after that.. I used to write lot of letters(but won't post) addressed to Sachin Tendulkar(without knowing his actual address) before beginning of a match(to wish him all the best), after Sachin's achievements(congratulating him), also during the occasions of his birthday and wedding day.. The to address of those letters would be To Sachin Tendulkar, S/O: Ramesh Tendulkar, Bandra, Mumbai..

I used to celebrate every 24th of April(Sachin's birthday) by giving chocolates to my friends.. But, I won't give chocolates on my birthdays(like Sharman Joshi in Airtel ad asking money for celebrating his friend's birthday by telling he won't celebrate his birthday)..

I used to play cricket cards with my friends and cousins.. The trump cards could even be used as ordinary cards.. Sachin Tendulkar's card contained 'A Spade'imprinted to it.. I would always want to have that A Spade card with me.. In the game of Ass loser would get the A Spade card.. Even when am not the loser of Ass I used to request others to give me the A Spade card :).. I would always want to buy Mumbai in the game of business and build lot of houses and hotels at Mumbai :).. Me and my bro used to play hand video game.. There would be different levels and we used to have an agreement that each one of us would play the alternate levels.. I used to tell him, (since he is the younger than me) to start(though that was not the actual reason of I asking him to play the game).. He gets chance to play all odd numbered games and I would get the even numbered games.. Yeah, i will get the level '10'(Sachin's jersy number) :)..

During my seventh standard I started collecting his photos from the Hindu newspaper, CSR and Children's Digest magazine.. I used to stick all of them on the wardrobe doors.. The front side doors had no place for anything to be stuck further.. So, I started sticking the pictures even on the backside of the doors.. Daily I used to wish him good morning as soon as I got up from the bed..

I used to go to the Anjaneya temple in my locality for praying two things- I need to get good marks in my school and Sachin should always lead in the number of runs, number of centuries, number of man of the match and man of the series.. I remember I've prayed to the god that Sachin should surpass Saeed Anwar's record of 194( and also that Sachin should be the first man to get 200 in ODI), Shahid Afridi's record of fastest century etc..

Within somedays Sachin became a God to me.. I used to write his initials before starting the answers in my exam papers.. My answer sheets would contain the letters SRT (which stands for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar) at the top right corner.. The first time I wrote SRT was in the answer sheet of Maths paper during seventh standard.. That paper was really tough.. I was the only one who scored full marks in that paper.. I used to make mistakes in addition or used to write numbers different than that given, sometimes also used to carry over wrong data from the previous page.. Because of all these I used to loose one or two marks in the total.. But when I got full mark in that test, I was of an impression that SRT proves lucky.. Soon, started writing SRT everywhere(not restricted only to answer sheets)..

My brother became a fan of Sourav Ganguly when he started watching cricket.. We both would be fighting by debating on Sachin vs Sourav- who is the best? And it was on 31st March'2001 when Sachin became the first man in the world to score 10,000 runs in the history of ODI cricket.. Sachin scored 100+ while Sourav got duck out in that match.. That match had put a full stop to our debate as he too became Sachin's fan..

Hindi is the only subject which I really hate reading.. That's mainly because there were three text books and a vyaakaran book all to be read for a single subject.. Moreover all questions from the back side of each lesson alone would be asked unlike other subjects.. So, I without reading inside the text would read only exercise questions.. In a hindi cumulative exam at my school, we were asked to write an essay on a topic Chota Jaadugar.. Chota Jaadugar was a lesson from our Hindi main text book.. The essay question carried ten marks.. I clubbed the answers of all exercise questions to form an essay.. But, the answer came only to one page and our Hindi madam would give only 3 or 3.5 marks for essays of one page.. She always expects an essay for three pages(six sides).. To fill up the remaining two pages I started writing about the little magician(Chota Jaadugar) Sachin Tendulkar.. Again Sach turned to be lucky for me.. I got 9.5 on 10.. ;)

I always like the ads featuring Sachin Tendulkar.. All pepsi ads of Sachin, especially Dil Ki Patang Hai became my all time favourite ad.. I started liking him even more after watching him playing KBC for helping out people who suffered due to Gujarat earthquake.. I can never forget that episode of KBC as two of my favourites(Sachin Tendulkar and Madhuri Dixit) were the guests.. I also enjoyed Sachin's performance at the ICC 2003 WC held at South Africa.. It would have been nice if India had surpassed Aussies on 23rd March'03 finals.. But still, Sachin got the player of the tournament award..

Though am not that much craze on Sachin(or anyone) now, Sachin will always be my favourite personality both as a cricketer and as a person too.. I've a twitter account and the only account am following is sachin_rt.. It's Sachin Tendulkar's twitter account..

I strongly believe that if Cricket is a religion, then Sachin Tendulkar is the god.. I am really proud that Sachin Tendulkar belongs to the same country as mine.. I wish Sachin Tendulkar creates more and more miracles in the game of cricket and make India proud of him always.. Jai Ho to Sachin Tendulkar..

The fever has atlast come to a halt!!!

I had been suffering from fever since last month and had experienced many sleepless nights during this period.. Yes, it was the FIFA WC fever once again and this time I decided to support the Germans.. Though the Germany line up didn't contain Michael Ballack due to his injury, there were others like Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Philipp Lalm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Mueller who I thought could take Germany to the first position.. The grand opening took place on June 11th at the Soccer City stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa.. The Wavin' Flag of K'naan completely rocked.. There were 32 competing teams each with an appetite of tasting the WC victory, but I wanted Lahm to lift the trophy..

With this dream, I sat out to watch the Germans taking against the Aussies in a group match.. I was elated when at the eighth minute, Lukas Podolski opened the scoring for Germany.. The 26th minute goal from the veteran striker and my favourite player Miroslav Klose added to the delight.. The Germans with the score of 4-0 romped off the Aussies..

I had a hope that the Germans can easily win against Serbia in the next match.. But, my dream got shattered.. But alas, Kloser received red card, Jovanovic scored for Serbia and the equalizer attempt of Lukas Podolski's penalty kick was saved by the Serbians.. Germany lost to Serbia and Kloser missed the next match..

Germany had to face Ghana in their third match.. Ghana gave a tough fight, but Germany won the game by 1-0 with Mesut Oezil's goal at the 60th minute.. With this the Germans reserved a place for the pre quarter finals..

Germany being the winner of Group D had to take against England, the runner of Group C.. The Germans got the green signal to the quarter finals with a 4-1 win in the round of 16.. Klose was back to play from the suspension he had received in the group match.. Kloser came between John Terry and Matt Upson, poked the ball right into the goal post, which took Germany to the lead.. Lukas Podolski shot the second goal for Germany, but within 5 min England opened their account with Upson's shot.. England could have had an equalizer but Lampard missed it out.. Thomas Mueller confirmed Germany's ticket into the quarter finals with two breakaways..

This was the big match in which the Germans had to face Maradonna's side.. And there was a big match in my house too- between me and my bro.. My bro is a big fan of Lionel Messi.. He took side of Argentina and we both had a debate on Argentina vs Germany.. I had talked too much and was watching the match with my fingers crossed.. The third minute goal from Thomas Mueller humbled the hopes of Argentenian supporters.. Kloser, in the 24th minute, could have made 2-0 but it didn't happen.. In the middle of the game Argentina got the ball into the net but it was of no use.. It was declared off side.. Bastian Schweinsteiger was excellent through out the game.. The disappointment caused by Klose was completely forgotten when he hit the balls to the net in the 68th minute taking Germany to 2-0.. Schweinsteiger assisted in taking Germany to the 3-0 lead in the 74th min, Anne Friedrich completely utilized his chance of scoring the first international goal.. It was Kloser in the 89th minute who scored another goal that made him score 14 WC finals goals and he equalized Gerd Muller.. Kloser completely rocked in the second half.. The Germans pulverized the Argentanians and got qualified for the semi finals..

It was Germany vs Spain in the second semi finals of the 2010 WC.. The German line up had to lose Mueller who got the yellow card in the match against Argentina.. I expected Klose to set history by surpassing the Brazilian legendary Ronaldo's 15 WC finals goals, also win the Golden Boot for the second time and write his own records of the only player to have won the Golden Boot for the second time.. I wanted Germany to head to the finals.. But, Spanish were really powerful.. They had a flawless team each one playing splendidly well.. It was Carles Puyol's and the Spanish day.. They made no mistakes and completely outwited the Germans..

After the Germans had been thrashed by Spain, I felt Germans should atleast retain the position they had earned in the FIFA WC'06.. Was in a hope that Kloser would recover from his injury; if not he surpasses, he would atleast equal my all time favourite Ronaldo.. The match started with no Klose, no Podolski, no Lahm and no Neuer in the line up.. Schweinsteiger took up the responsibility of being the German skipper.. Mueller, assisted by the long range shot from Schweinsteiger, started the points for Germany at the 19th minute, he levelled David Villa and Wesley Sneijder who had already 5 goals added to their cart.. It was soon equalized by Cavani.. The first half ended with 1 all.. Diego Forlan took Uruguay to the 2-1 lead in the 51st minute.. He became fourth to reach the five goals in FIFA'10.. Jancen's score at the 56th minute brought back the Germans into the game.. Mesut Ozil's corner onto Sami Khedira's 82nd minute header took Germans to the third place..

I was happy that the team I supported finished third among 32 contestants.. I dunno if I should be sad in Klose not being able to level Ronaldo or if I should be happy in my all time favourite football hero Ronaldo of Brazil remaining unbeaten in the list of top WC goal scorers.. I will surely miss Kloser in the FIFA'14..

Paul, the octopus' prognostications can never been forgotten.. He made eight predictions in the FIFA'10 by eating away the mussel in one of the two boxes that also contained the flags of the competing teams.. All the eight predictions(involving seven Germany matches and the FIFA'10 finals) of Paul the psychic has been right.. I was of an opinion that the oracle could be wrong in predicting the Spanish as the winner against Germany in the semis.. Some angry and nefarious German fans want him to be fried for his predictions becoming true.. I believe Paul would be protected to give his auguries in the matches to come..

The much awaited FIFA'10 came to an end atlast with Spain bagging the title for the first time after defeating the Oranje.. Diego Forlan of Uruguay got the Golden Ball for his outstanding performances.. Thomas Mueller of Germany was awarded the Golden Shoe for five goals and three assists in the tournament.. He also received the Best Young Player award.. Iker Casillas of Spain bagged the Golden Glove award as he emerged as the best goal keeper.. The one month of FIFALARIA has come to an end!!!

Tribute to my dear friends!!!

FRIENDZ4EVER is a friends' gang comprising of Achu, Jay, Kiru, Gayu, Rads, Sowmy, Nive and Arch.. The origin of our friendship goes to the beginning of our college life.. After finishing the hectic twelfth standard with different entrance exams like the IIT, AIEEE, BITSAT, TNPCEE etc., we (last five people in the above list) landed up at PSVPEC to persue our engineering.. I first enrolled for the EEE department at SASTRA.. Due to many reasons, I had to leave that college. I ultimately had to attend the tnca counselling for getting into the engineering colleges affiliated to the Anna University.. I opted for ECE department at PSVPEC.. The college is nearly 20km from my home.. The college bus was the only means to reach the college.. The first day of my college came.. I waited in the stop for the bus.. All faces were new to me.. But, the four people other than me from the above list had previous acquaintances with each other.. Sowmy and Gayu were from the same school.. Nive, Sowmy, Gayu and Rads went to the same tuition centre.. I was from a different board and hence didn't have any chance to have anything common with the four.. For the first few months, I would get into the bus, sit alone and will be peeping out the window to look at the road outside to time pass the travel of 1 hour.. As days passed, I was surrounded with weekly tests, internals, practicals, assignments etc... I started spending my morning hours of bus journey for skimming through the various test topics.. That was the time when I was very much concerned about doing my works with 100 percent perfection..

The days passed by.. And I started mingling a little with the quad.. By the end of the first year, Sowmy and I became really close that we started sharing everything that was between us.. We both prepared together for the semester exams.. And during the sem holidays, we went out to the Citi-Centre.. That was my first outing with friends.. Though me and Sow were of different departments, we had three subjects in common during our third sem.. We prepared the common subjects together.. Then time came when the first year exam results were to be released.. I didn't get the marks I expected.. It was Sow who was with me, consoling me, encouraging me by telling that marks aren't the only factors used in judging people.. At this moment of time, I would like to thank her a lot for being with me at that time (when I faced disappointment for the third time in my life). She was very much caring towards me.. Her care and concern mitigated my pain caused by the disappointments.. We started solving maths every saturday evenings.. I still remember the concepts of the Fourier Series, Fourier Transform, Z Transform, PDE and the Boundary Value Problems we learnt together.. Before the internal exams of Data Structures, we used to discuss the various topics.. And EVS will always turn to be the ultimate comedy piece.. I still remember the way we went to senior's house in the rain to get the book of Digital Electronics by Salivahanan.. :)

We prepared well for the exams.. We saw OSO together in her house during the semester hols.. It was on Jan 26'2008 that we got our results.. And because of our efforts and mainly because of Sowmy's encouragement and prayers I could be an achiever for the first time in my life.. Thank yu Sowmya, once again..

Our group studies kept continuing for the fourth sem too.. Saturday evenings we spent time solving probability.. I had so much of problems in my class.. Not only Sow, but even others- Nive, Gayu, Achu, Jay n Kiru helped me a lot in comin out.. That was the time I realized how caring were the people around me.. Thanks a lot to each and everyone who helped me overcome the distress I suffered..

Though Sow, Gayu, Nive and I belonged to the 4 different departments, and, though, Achu, Kiru and Jay were one year junior to us, it was the route 2 PSVPEC bus that united us.. I can never forget the bus journey in the evenings.. We used to have a lot of fun making fun of each other, making fun of other comedy pieces.. Petrol thaatha, Smoker, Cycle Hero, Kamalakanni( and other staffs) are all worth mentioning.. The games of Antakshari, Dumb C, Who's Who, multiples of 7 we played were all the best moments we have had.. Kiru's Dumb C homework is another piece of comedy..

Beyond the route number 2, there was another factor equally responsible in strengthening our bond.. It's nothing other than our favourite Chat Shop at the Nilgiris.. Our dear uncle Lal Chand(as we assumed it to be) would damage us by preparing paani puri as soon as he looks at all of us.. :-P The Sabari flats of Rads is another thing we can never forget.. And I do remember our dialogue- "Hum treat ke liye kahin bi jaayenge" .. :) In between we attended Shylu akka's marriage.. We went to the photo session with the seniors.. All these were some of the enjoyable moments we had..

Within no time we 5 became the seniors of route 2.. :) Being our final year we celebrated each and everyone's birthday.. The final year was the best time I ve had in my life.. Spent 75pc of the time with the friendz4ever gang inspite of projects and other academic works.. And the way my friendz celebrated my birthday is ultimate.. Words are not enough to thank my dear ones.. I really love all of them in that gang.. Love them all soooooooooo much..

Thank yu all for being supportive in me getting placed.. I know how each one of yu had prayed for me during my two days of aptitude and interview rounds.. I could feel how happy yu all felt wen I told I got placed in the Cognizant.. Thank yu all so much.. I ve never had such loving ppl in my life before.. I wish our friendship keeps rocking always as our gang name says.. :) And I believe that we all will always stay in touch, message daily, talk frequently, do online chat, meet once a week and remain the best frenz 4 ever..

This post is as a token of tribute from me to all my friendz belonging to the friendz4ever gang.. THANK YOU ALL, INFINITE TIMES.. LOVE YU ALL LOADS AND LOADS..


-Archana Parthasarathy

A disaster caused by my love.. :(

Today I had to go out and so as usual I took my dear with me.. Every time I go out, I would take him with me.. Today also I did the same.. I had to travel nearly 6 km today.. And so we both started from home.. He co-operated with me and the journey went very smoothly for the first 3 km.. After that, something had happened to him.. And he created a disaster.. I really didn't know what was the problem with him.. I tried all possible ways to bring him back to normal.. But nothing helped.. How can I travel another 3 km without him? This was the question running in my mind.. But, what can I do when he is not changing his state.. :(

I will have to take him to the blue bikes to recover him from his problem.. Blue bikes? Yeah, it is the place where I bought him.. My love Scooty pep+ got struck in the middle while I was coming back home after leaving my cousin (from Hosur) to the Brilliant Matriculation School where the IIT JEE coaching is undertaken.. The school is nearly 3 km from home and hence to and fro takes nearly 6 km of travel.. Walking 3 km is no deal at all for me as am fond of walking with my headsets and music player on.. But, walking 3 km pulling 96kg all along is really a big deal.. :( I was put into this condition today.. :( Poor me.. :( I should immediately do up with scooty's problem as I have to bring my cousin back home after his classes..

Mobile Radio Propogation

Mobile radio propogation is the topic I started today.. And this chapter is still going on.. Am really afraid of whether I will finish the portions before exam.. :( Reflection, diffraction, scattering and all seems simple.. But I don't know why those topics are consuming more time.. I should definitely finish this unit today some how, inspite of feeling bored.. Twelve more days to go.. After that no semester, project, assignments, internals, externals, practicals, syllabus, prescribed books, xerox materials, local authors etc. .. :) I can read what ever I like, when ever I like.. :)

A wonder ------ but true :)

Today is the second day I sat with the mobile communications book.. But, after a long time read very sincerely without wasting time and could finish the unit on modulation technique, equalization and diversity.. The main reason for me finishing it is because I read the unit from local author.. It is easy to learn things from local author.. But am always afraid as I have a thought that the local author might have skipped many things covered in the prescribed books.. At this moment, I feel its very important to finish off the portions rather than sitting with the prescribed books, sticking on to the same page for an hour, yawning for the next hour and sleeping over it for hours..:-P With only five more days to go for the exam, I can't afford to waste time by sleeping over prescribed books.. With the hope that the local author would have covered all the contents given in the foreign author, am going to continue the remaining units.. :)

A full day with the book of mobile communication!!!

The final semester exams are nearing and I ve to read to clear them.. :( With the first exam being mobile communication.. Five big units to be finished before the exam.. I was sitting with the Wireless Communications book by T.S. Rappaport from the morning.. Yet, could finish only 4 topics of the first unit.. Hope I shall finish the first unit today.. The first half with the evolution of mobile communications is really boring.. Skipped it and started with the cellular concepts.. Thought it would be better than the first half.. To my wonder, this half is also too boring.. :( But no other go.. Have to finish off.. After all only three more papers to finish off the graduation.. But these three papers are like as if am having thirty papers.. Hmm.. Be it three (or thirty), I have chosen this stream and I have to finish it.. With this mind set, am getting ready to continue with the co-channel interference..

My first post!!!

Why did I take ENGINEERING? This is the question that always arises in my mind when I sit with huge pillow like books while preparing for exams.. May be I took it just because so many other people around me have taken engineering.. I really don't know the purpose of reading the books without knowing the proper applications of the various topics.. What is the real use in obtaining marks without knowing the things properly? With all these questions unclarified, I have finished seven semesters of engineering with just one more to go.. And that too will get over by the second week of may.. Just waiting for the exams to end.. And thinking of devising methods by which I can know the real purpose behind all the subjects I have had in the engineering curriculum.. Am also awaiting to join the Cognizant with the hope that I will know the real purpose of me being there.. :)