Mi encuentro con Rafa

It has been 5 months since I saw Rafa, time surely flies. Before you start conjuring theories about what iam talking, let me explain. The story dates back to january 1st 2007. I was in India, saying adios to two of my lovely friends. I was leaving to USA for my masters in 3 days. I told one of them “Meghu whether I finish my masters or not, I am not coming back without seeing US Open (Tennis)”. My poor friend was dumbstruck; she was scared where I would spend my time exploring ways to see US Open than study. I said ,“Joking Meghu I won’t do that but I will see US Open and I will see Rafa” . I was determined, undoubtedly confident but never knew when.


Came year 2010, I thought my time had finally come. I started requesting, pestering, annoying; you can give whatever name you please, to convince my friends to accompany me to New York if not US Open. None were insane to spend so much money on my fantasy. The game came and went; I was sitting in Arizona cheering for my icon while he walked away with the cup, I will never forgive myself for that. Then came 2011 and I asked my friends again but all in vain. This time I wasn’t giving up and decided to go alone. I researched about everything from fraudulent sites to best viewing location while frantically searching for tickets. Many were sold and most of what was left, could only be availed as pairs or more. I was surely fighting the unseen force which seemed equally determined in abstaining me. I had to win of course. Now a new problem cropped up; 100$ ticket or 1500$ ticket, thankfully I couldn’t afford anything above that. My mind had transformed into a tennis ball between the two price courts. 1500 seemed too little for Rafa, I said Vamos.

I sat glued to the television set while Rafa smashed Murray all over the court.Murray had managed to clinch the 3rd set. My pulses were rising, I was thinking aloud “iam not paying 1500 to see murray”, unfortunately amidst the 4th set I had to leave for my parlor appointment. Did I have to take an appointment that day only??? Pheww….. but I had to look amazing for the finals ( you are thinking ya right as if she going to propose Rafa). I had my poor friend providing match updates over the phone, yes I do pity my friends. Rafa was through; my investment wasn’t going down the drain. It didn’t end there, next was the semifinal between fedex & djoker. When the match was 2 sets in favor of fedex I was thinking again “ Iam not paying 1500 to see Fedex play (sorry to fedex fans but I can’t help)”. I was blessed there too, it was nadal vs djoker and finally my time had indeed arrived.

After returning from a month long trip to Oregon in the night, I had to board flight to La Guardia the next morning. Thanks to rain the match was rescheduled leaving a hole in my pocket. After a flight across the entire nation I finally landed in La Guardia. That didn’t even remotely resemble the new York I visited. Throughout my cab journey, I was nervously looking out hoping to see a sophisticated NYC. My journey ended and my horrors had come true. I was to stay in this hotel in a filthy neighborhood, “but the reviews said otherwise” i was thinking. I locked myself up in the room until it was time to leave the next day morning.

The match was to start at 2pm and I was in Arthur Ashe by 11am. I couldn’t believe I had made it there, it felt like a dream. I walked around the park like a kid in Disney land, constantly looking at my watch, waiting when it will be time to see him. Thanks to my kindle I killed time reading how Hitler came to power and then we were allowed inside the premises of Artur Ashe. The whole place was swarming with people, happy to know I was not the only tennis fanatic. There was chain of shops selling souvenirs made after the popular tennis stars. I managed to get a decently fitting cap with Rafa’s mascot on it. Like the walk of fame was the wall of fame which carried all the names of players who had participated in the tournament, with one place empty and I knew then who would fill it.

Finally I went into the arena and looked for my seat. My efforts weren’t wasted; I had one of the best viewing seats. Many who joined me were jealous of my location and I was proud about myself. People came and went, the formalities were conducted, two kids singing but I was waiting for the other two. I was clicking away trying to capture every moment I possibly could. The stadium began to fill up slowly and within no time was completely occupied. The stadium ruptured with applause AND I saw him, I saw him “OMG iam seeing him in flesh here now”, gives me goose bumps even today. My dream was fulfilled, I had finally seen Rafa, I only wish I could shout “quieres casarte conmigo Rafa?” crowd was too loud for me to be heard. Initially, I struggled, I was so used to the 34”view, my eyes were refusing to adapt to the live view. It was weird, it was different, was this what I was seeing all these years on a small box in my living room, it was appalling. I saw Rafa, play his fore arm swings, his slices, his midair fist punches, his serves and how can I forget, girls!!!!! his body was worth dying for . It was enthralling to be a part of the huge crowd, cheering when their player won a point, encouraging him and booing when he lost a point. There was someone’s passion, someone’s prayers, someone’s disappointment and someone’s cheer, it was a whole big emotional potion brewing there. The pin drop silence despite the thousands just made me realize, how serious the game was, how grave were the points being lost or won, not only for the players but for the spectators too. They were there for the passion of the game and wanted to see an epic in the game of tennis. It was truly said; the roman amphitheater had come alive, with the two gladiators fighting each other, fighting like their life depended on it.

For all the fun and excitement I was let down at last by none other than my hero, my idol. Rafa had lost. He had gone down without a fight. I felt let down, wanted to leave before I saw the cup in wrong hands but I couldn’t, I couldn’t miss even those few minutes of glimpse that I could get of Rafa, I knew I may never see him again……



This is how i saw Rafa, in the US open finals of 2011.Thanks to my friends who rekindled the zeal in me to account my entire experience of US Open which had died down once I left the Arthur Ashe. Their Rafa oriented gifts invoked me to finally write this in the middle of the night on a weekday.

Akshaya Patra Foundation – Working for a noble cause

I love to tell people “my favorite hobby is Blogging”. Their immediate response is “hmmm…. But I haven’t seen any blog from you in last 2 years”. “Errrrrr……Well.. ahh… my job is hectic, ahh… didn’t get time” snap, comes my response. To tell you the truth, I have been very lazy to tickle my brain to come up with some inspiring ideas and not to mention the degeneration of my writing skills. Thanks to my very good friend who told me about this contest. He has been instigating me to start blogging again but failed to drive the “Stale brain me” to get started with it, restarted to be precise. Recently, mentioning about this contest he told me “Nivi, please write this time at least, it is for a good cause. Your blog can help feed 50 children. Do it for them”. This cause was enough for me to get started with my favorite hobby once again. I will try my best to do justice in honoring this foundation’s noble cause, with a few words of mine.


A YouTube video posted by my friend on one of the social networking sites enlightened me about the Akshaya Patra foundation. I was fascinated and deeply moved by the kind of work this foundation did, to cater to the needs of the poor, especially children. My mother always sympathized with the kids who had to work in hotels, sell articles etc in order to sustain themselves. She often tipped these kids and bought articles from them ensuring they returned with some money at the end of the day. She sighted them as examples when I used to show displeasure towards food, homework or school, only to make me understand the importance of what I had. Since then I had always wanted to eliminate the need of labor for these children and promote their education. When I read about this foundation I was delighted to find out that a person had actually gone ahead and implemented this which till today remains as an idea in my head. By starting this foundation not only are they helping the children in distress but providing an opportunity for many individuals like me to contribute towards their society and fulfill their desire to help which otherwise would just remain a thought.

I had heard about several government run midday meal schemes in practice but was surprised to know that they were born out of inspiration from this foundation. When preparing food in such large quantities one would be concerned about the process involved, the hygiene and the type of vegetables used. They had an answer to that too; upon seeing the huge technically advanced facilities, the hygiene maintained in the kitchen premises and the vegetables purchased, I was highly satisfied. The safety and accuracy ensured in the supply chain, the transparency in accounting for the utilization of the donated funds and their efforts to provide highly nutritional food with the available funds not resorting to in-expensive means, builds the confidence of the public in them. All these highly valued characteristics of this foundation, gives us the comfort and belief that our donations are being utilized for the greater cause and in a right way, inspiring us to continue to contribute.

Having 100% literacy in India was envisioned by several great political leaders and governments. Introduction of this scheme is the first step towards achieving it. By this scheme Akshaya Patra foundation has addressed the immediate needs of the children; healthy food and chance to attend school which will snow ball into a big revolution, when in the future, we have higher percentage of highly educated, smart and potential young men and women leading our country in several areas of expertise. This would also mean minimizing crimes, illegal activities, and objectionable behaviors etc which occur predominantly due to lack of education among the people. This move by the foundation gives children, their right to education which would eventually brighten their future and the nation’s as a whole.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Akshaya Patra Foundation for being magnanimous in starting this noble task and setting an example for the nation to follow. It is a great responsibility they have undertaken. Being citizens of India it becomes our duty to share this responsibility and encourage such activities, by helping them with whatever little all of you can.

Donations can be made here - http://www.akshayapatra.org/online-donations

Evil but still the BEST!!!!!!!!!!

This blog of mine will surely fill my inbox with hate mails but still continue to write it, like how Lord Voldemort continued his quest for power despite the wrath earned from the wizarding lot. Harry potter occupies the highest place in the long list of my personal favorite books; it has the power to converge the world of fantasy and the reality, which only Harry potter fans can sense while the others laugh at us concluding it as mere nonsense. Each character in that book comes alive as you read along, causing your emotions to follow theirs, you smile when they are elated and cry when they are depressed. Each one of us are influenced and moved by different characters for our own reasons and so was I. Who is that character? Well I have to tell, since he is the main reason why I am writing this….. He is Lord Voldemort…. Surprised? Feeling like slapping me? … Well don’t be yet… until you hear my reasons for this.

Harry Potter was indeed the hero of the story and Voldemort the villain, still I would say that Voldemort was one of the best wizards, the only one who could match Albus Dumbledore. The only difference being he hated love while the others loved it which made him the bad man. There was a time, before Voldemort was reduced to a trivial soul, when he was the czar of the wizarding world, he was feared by all while he feared none, and all followed him while he followed none. He single handedly ran a huge army and ruled all, whereas his opponents were searching for aid and were forming allies to defeat him but all in vain. They had to finally rely upon a baby shielded by this supernatural power of love laid upon him by his half blood mother, by the sacred art of sacrifice…. But the sacrifice to whom? None other than lord Voldemort himself.

After his downfall too, people feared to take his name. They relented to speak out about his deeds, wanted to wipe out the memory of him, wanted to convince themselves that he was destroyed, which, never happened. They were under the constant look out for danger, his presence and each one dreaded his return. How can any ordinary wizard have such an impact on people? Though it was for bad reasons. He was a meticulous planner, a clever executioner of his plans, brilliant student who had the potential to manipulate magic to conquer his passion “the power”. This was what made it difficult for his rivals to guess his game plan and none except for a few could think about the extremities of magic the way he did. After his return at the end of fourth book, it took him only a couple of months to rebuild his army and a few more months to create a chaos in the peaceful wizarding world which had taken the rest many years to build.

In the end Harry Potter came out victorious, he had to, after all the good has to win and the evil had to loose but at what cost? He had to loose his parents, Cedric, Moody, Dumbledore, and Snape. He needed Hermione’s intelligence to crack the mysteries, escape dangers, Dumbledore’s wisdom, talent and experience to see him through, a lot of people to safeguard him and finish off some of the tasks for him, above all luck which favored him time and again. One may argue that Voldemort too had his own supporters but all his supporters were his mere followers, a dumb mechanized lot who did nothing but just blindly follow his words. He was one mind but worked with several bodies, intelligence, talent, experience etc was all his none contributed by others. In the end too it was a mishap with the wand that saved Harry’s soul from Voldemort which otherwise was impossible. I say it was the circumstances that defeated Lord Voldemort not the so called vouch for Love gang.

Learnt is to what life is and how to lead one………

Born with the silver spoon was I and grew up, with the spoon making transition into a golden one. Being a daughter was a feather in my cap, I could manage to get all the attention in the world. Like most of the daughters , I was given what I asked for, taken care like I was still an infant, fed like I had been deprived of food for ages, loved like I was the first and the last of the kind, protected like there was voldemort awaiting me and what more I had the world at my disposal. Where I was gifted with so many luxuries by my elders, I had bequeathed lots of lessons on modesty, humanity, kindness, benevolence and lots more which would turn me into a philanthropist. I used to wonder why am I supposed to know all this when I have everything, who cares about what others want or not want. But there were some lessons which I valued and followed and I am glad to have done that. I was moved by the stories of the hardships they faced in life to reach a position where they stood now and realized that I was the blessed one, as I didn’t face any. I had learnt the most valuable lesson of my life from these stories, “one can’t achieve anything without having to undergo pain in life”. This remained lost in the back of my memory until I made my Journey to The United States. A voyage which not only made me recall these lessons but understand and respect the others too, which I once passed it off as mere nonsense.


It was the first time, I was away from home since birth, to top it all I was in a different country where I was an alien. I had to look for my shelter, hunt for means to earn my bread and butter, learn to handle the culinary, wash my dirty linen, clean my surroundings, a very few of the activities to name. I was frustrated and agitated with myself. Every single day I shouted at myself “Did I need to lead a wretched life like this when I had a life which was bed of roses? “ To me my life seemed like the story of riches to rags. I used to cry in my bed, hiding the tears from the world which would otherwise laugh at me, this was when the long told stories of my elders came to life, gave me the strength to fight the odds and move on. Today, I have coped up with the difficulties and have learnt to be optimistic about them.

I was apprehensive about having to share my apartment with the three other strangers, but it was a blessing in disguise. I couldn’t expect to have my way in everything like before, I couldn’t expect people to take my responsibility and do my work like my parents. I learnt to be responsible, manage my things and people. No two persons are the same in this world, I saw that clearly here, this taught me to handle people of different personalities without rubbing them in the wrong way. In the due course of time, I had learnt to control my emotions, learnt to be patient, I hadn’t lost my temper for a long time now, I was amazed with myself. I think I can consider a HR position , I will do justice to the job I bet.

I managed to find a job of a cashier to feed myself, I would have been looked down upon in my country for doing a job as menial as that but the concept of “no diginity of labour” here managed to save me. I had always been on the other side of the cashiering machine today I was in the opposite court, I learnt what it meant to give a smile and say thank you to a cashier, whom not even once I had cared to look at when I used to empty my purse into the his/her cash box before. I pledged, that in the future I would never to grumble or frown at any shopkeeper or a cashier or anyone who would serve me at their best, after all they too were earning their bread and butter like what I was doing now. I learnt to respect all the jobs and people doing it too.

Earning the money in the hard way taught me its value, the same me who used to throw it away to buy every commodity which would please my eyes, now knew what deserved it and what not. My parents used to categorize my shopping as extravaganza and unnecessary but still, never stopped paying for it because their daughter craved for it, sorry pa!!! Now I know what pain you took to earn it. But now, I can judge what is necessary and what is luxury for me. Large sum or small, money was hard to earn, unless and until one went about doing it the wrong way. There were times when I hated to travel in train, because I felt the people there were down market, dirty and threw tantrums when mentioned about it, which used to earn me the wrath of my dad. Here we Indians shared the same fate in the eyes of an American. Now, I realize that it is just the matter of good luck to be born to my parents, that I was so clean and sophisticated, my birth among those people whom I called dirty would have left me one among them. I respected them all now.

Apart from the grooming of my personality, I acquired several new skill sets which I never intended to. I, who didn’t know how to cook Maggie was now a decent cook, I earned a lot of appreciation for some of my explicit dishes, rasam and bisi bele bath being the people s favorite. I managed my monthly needs, bills, expenditure and home too, without flaws. Hmmmmmm…. all in all I had become a household management expert. My friends mocked at me saying “you are all set to be an expert house wife” well that was never what I wanted or want to be. My aspirations to do my MS had made me do all the other things which otherwise I would have never dreamt of doing.

My goal of studying aboard undoubtedly is proving to be a worthwhile decision to have made. I would say more than enhancing my technical knowledge, US has groomed me into a better human being. Though at heart I remain the same, most of my principles and ideologies unaltered, this experience has curbed my arrogance, ego, pride and has pushed me into maintaining a low profile. Though according to me I have changed in several ways into a better person, I am awaiting my trip to India which would be a litmus test for the same which I hope to pass. Now I knew that life is not about wearing brands, roaming in cars, eating in posh restaurants, throwing parties, living at the cost of your parents income, but it is all about earning the eligibility to do all the above by attaining your goal, fame and money and above all, the reverence in the peoples eye for you. Hope these wont remain as mere words in this blog, in my life and will look foward to write a part 2 to this after my graduation.

Prince charming of Indian cricket team.....

It was 1999 World cup, one among the many World Cup tournaments where Indians bowed out of the series with a bad performance. I was tired of seeing this never ending failure of the Indian cricket team. Each of the members of the team had made up their mind to take turns to perform well, hence as a team they never performed...the result they hardly won. There were innumerable defects in every department be it bowling, batting or fielding. The last best fielder I had witnessed in the Indian cricket team was Jadeja and with him being caught up in the intricacies of match fixing the fielding suffered badly. There was Sachin , Sourav, Rahul but still there was something the Indian cricket team missed, the hot blood and the talented. Their search for this ended soon but before that I had broken all the contacts with the cricketing world.

It was probably in 2002, a few months before the 2003 World cup that I again sat down to watch the cricket match , out of compulsion. It was the mini world cup tournament that was played before the actual huge one, so my dad didnt want to miss it at any cost, sad for me though. The match was between India and Srilanka, the match continued at its usual pace, I didnt know anyone in the Indian cricket team, all new faces had made their way into this team. Who cares was my attitude, as it is the result will be the same. It was Zaheer Khans over, when a miracle occurred, I didnt blink my eyes for a while. Oh my god what had i seen just now, an Indian player had just then taken a brilliant catch, diving over a few feet to his right. I was wondering over the next 2 mins of the ad break as to when and how had Indian cricket team manged to get a fielder like this. Believe me the catch was absolutely superb, the Jonty kind of a catch from Indian player ufffffff, I was already his fan . I was desperate to know, who this Indian Jonty was, thanks to replay technology, I did see the catch all over again, hoping to see him but all I could manage was to see his T- shirt and it read 'YUVRAJ' in bold letters. When I finally got to see his face, my face turned bright, I was smiling away, what a handsome man he was, "hmmm talented, young,charming and hot... all in one" was my first thought. A combo for any girl to go gaga over and I bet many girls would agree with me. After that there was no single match I missed. He had completely taken over me , he was there on my calculator, my notebook, my wallet, my bag ...... just everywhere.He had become my hero overnight.

His fielding capabilities is just impeccable, his throws hardly miss the stumps, the ball rarely surpasses him and his hands seldom drop the catch.He has been doing justice to his job as a part time bowler, giving India a break through in several instances when they were craving for one.With the bat he is just a Satan, you dont belive it???? check out his strike rate and average, they say it all. His exhibition of aggressiveness as a batsman is a feast for any of his supporters, for which the ball and the bowlers pay the price. His energy packed shots are capable of sending the ball out of sight in no time, the miracle is the ease with which he plays these shots . This ruthless treatment to the bowlers has earned him several stares, a few words ,which only compelled him to continue his triumph over them. During world cup 2003, which was the best show put up the Indians ever, next to World Cup 1983, he proved his potential as the most reliable all rounder of the future Indian cricket team.

This was the story only about the ODIs. He silenced his critics by playing a magnificent innings with a score of 100 during his first test match against Pakistan on their soil , where the other demigods of Indian batting line up failed royally. He displayed that he too can play a game with patience and temperament when called for. Now he is the major contender for skippers position, this goes to prove the depth of confidence the cricket board has in this mans leadership quality.So does the nation.

There have been bad instances during his tenure as a cricketer, most of which was the hype created by the media. The story about his lifestyle makes it to the front page while his achievements are given a step motherly treatment, when it comes to prioritizing them. As a consequence the public image he creates is of a party goer, rich , famous and an irresponsible individual, who has loads and loads of attitude. My argument is that, who cares about his personal interests and his private life as long as he performs well? This way of thinking from the public,would take the load of putting up a good boy image off his shoulders, which would only make way for more and more cricket.

All in all Yuvi is one such cricketer who gives his fierce attitude a tinge of charisma adding a feather to his cap of masculinity. He is an idol for kids who aspire to become batsman, an awesome entertainer for the audience, pain for the opposition and above all a dream boy of many young gals. Entire nation will surely look forward , to see great things from this youngster in the near future and so do I.

To my dear friends here it is finally the blog that you were awaiting, a blog abt whom Iam crazy ,which i guess by now many would be aware of.

RAJINI..........Paere kaete odanae adhuradille????????

Yes very much..........the name of this Tamil oops Indias superstar will no doubt send shivers down the spines of his rivals. He is an immortal superstar of the Indian film industry. Like many other Indians he is my all time favorite hero. Why I, like many others look upon him as
a superstar???as they sing in the movie avan nedapadhu istyle, siripadhu istyle..... yes he has style in his walk, talk, smile, its just in his blood.

Now let me get to the topic....SIVAJI..the awaited film of the year was released all over the world on 15th of June. While there were people in India waiting to get their hands on the ticket, I already had them in
my pocket. I was all the more delighted to know that I had bought the tickets for a very low price of 16 USD (640Rs) when there were people back in India buying it for a price anywhere between 1000 to 2000Rs.The week of release, my prime time pass was to read the flashing news about the movie, the crowd craze for the movie etc etc and enjoy the hype surrounding his movie. This only aggravated my desperateness to see the movie.

Finally, the D day arrived… I would be watching my first Tamil movie and that too Rajini s movie in the theatre. We reached the theatre at 8:30pm for the 9:30pm show. I was perplexed to see such a long queue for a regional movie in United states. Queue was full of people with overflowing enthusiasm and why not it was their superstars movie after all. They had his face printed on the front of their T-shirts and the movie name embossed at the back of it.

Despite of going so early we could manage to get only the second row in the middle. We had this group of Rajini fanatics sitting in front of us. They were so much taken by the fact that they were going to see the movie, that they clicked numerous photos, shouted slogans in favor of Rajini.This was not all. After one hour of me restlessly moving in my chair, I finally got to see the movie start. The appearance of the name of the movie was received with a round of applause and hoooooooos.Then came flashing across the screen the name 'Rajini Kanth' this had the crowds adrenaline rush to high levels making the atmosphere electric and I mean seriously electric.8 mins after that what we have..... here comes our hero finally, the crowd went ballistic on seeing him, there were people at the screen kissing his image, saluting him and were on their knees before him. The waste shredded papers made their way into the hall only to be thrown at him, it was meant to be the flowers by the devotees alias the fans to their god RAJINI.For few minutes,I sat there agape, looking at this and had my consciences shouting "hellooooo..... can anyone tell me whether Iam in Chennai or USA".Phewwwwwww that day I realized what an impact Rajini had on his fans.

The movie had all in it, Rajini's style, the punch lines, action good music but the director failed to maintain the story line.The first half was a only comedy with lots of songs, and off the track. In the second half the director tries to focus on what actually should have been the theme of the movie but again it wavers off which he tries to pull it back on track. The songs were shot utifully,and with loads of extravaganza, the last song being my personal favourite.Rahman was at his best with music composition as always. Overall it was a mediocre movie garnished with
the element called Rajini.

At the end of the day, I was neither happy nor disappointed with the movie. I was totally enthralled by seeing the magnitude of craze people had for this man. I can confidently say that no Big B no SRK,no Rajkumar or no religion has fanatics following them in such a large number. Till now I have been pondering as to "what does this man have, in him that has made whole world go crazy over him” ...I had no answer. I can only conclude saying that this man certainly has some extraordinary talent and power within him, which is unseen and can only be felt.