Soccerholics then .... Titans now

I have just returned to my desk after a Pre-Thanksgiving lunch in the conference room. Nancy , who is a proud mother of Daniel who plays for the Lawrence Free State Soccer team (Fire birds), arranged the snack for all of us. She played the soccer video cd which was given to each of the students who was graduating from the high school. She does this kind of stuff everytime, she keeps updating the staff members about the game fixtures / results, she shares the photos in which Daniel is captured playing. By the time I finished watching the entire video, it left me with nostalgia and I pondered over a few thoughts.

My parents never really thought about watching me playing soccer. They really don't know what sort of a player I am. They never let me down when I wanted anything, their answer was always a Yes, either it is summer coaching cap in Class 5,6,7 or participation in tournaments at Bits Pilani (for 2 consecutive yrs) or Football Selections in Anantapur. But I always wished they watch me playing. It was not only with my parents, many of the parents (in India) do not choose to be present at a camp or a match when their childre show their talent. Probably, this might be one of the factors because of which most of the athletic talent gets burried before it raises to a good level. I never had any of the girls watch it either. I had so many friends among girls in engineering, they all knew that I loved playing football and I'm good at it, but never did any of them intended to come and watch us play. The only people who showed up to the field were juniors and my friends. (They were plenty of support to us). We used to drive to different places to support other teams (cricket, basketball, volleyball) and they used to cheer us when we used to play tournaments.

The video also stirred up Nostalgia in me, I got back to all those moments when we used to celebrate / grieve upon victories and defeats. I used to bunk the last two clases eveyday not to miss out any chance of playing a game. Not just me, but I used to provoke a couple of others to join me. We used to play inside the classroom during lunch breaks, sometimes the ball used to go out of bounds and it scared the girls a couple of times ;). I cried non-stop for 30 mins when we lost the final match against ECE during my 1st yr. I used to save all my money that I earned to buy a good pair of studs. We collected donations to buy the balls as the P.E.T (Pithapuram) was a big headache in providing the eqipment for us.

We named ourselves "Soccerholics" after we gained some self-confidence that we could make a good team. As a team, we never had any significant victory outside our college but the passion for Football never really died. Everyone was as enthusiastic as I am which gave me the extra inch to do all this. The team name was eventually changed to Titans and I read that they had a few victories under their belts and I was glad to hear that. I felt very good everytime I see a new person joining us on the ground. Just that it gives me more and more satisfaction to meet people who have similar interests just as I do.

Ever since I bid farewell to BVRIT, I thought I'd never get a chance to play soccer again. But friends keep me alive by showing me alternatives. I very well remember my last days in VA when we played soccer with 10 people in each team, I never thought I could see myself getting such a wonderful farewell. If it was Keral, Sai and Polu in ODU, it is these Jayhawks here in KS.  Cheers!

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Being late than ever but still ON TIME!

I know its not just me. I know that none of you are always punctual, okay atleast half of you guys; okay lets make a deal, most of you try to be punctual but you get late at times. I'm a guy who idolizes people who are punctual, I also try to be punctual but I end up failing all the times. I won't say that I'd be the last one to be present at a meeting or last one to come to the office but I'm almost always late for most of the schedules (be it office or meeting friends or a movie ).

The last weekend, I overslept until 10.00 and 11.00 AM, taking full advantage of the weekends. Sunday night's sleep bossed over me, by not allowing me to see the clock until 8.45 AM. I heard the alarm, I muted its voice considering it to be my arch rival since ages and i thought all this was in my dream. At 8.45 AM I smell something is not right and I wake up to see if the earth has stopped rotating (Its always easy to blame others ;)) . The next thing I remember is waking up Madhuri and giving her the breaking news that we are going to be late to our respective offices. Surprisingly, her brian worked faster than mine (:p) and asked me to call my boss and intimate him that I'd be late to work and so did she.

Having decided to report to work at 9.00, I thought I had ample time to get ready but somehow by the time I reached my office, I didn't have a second to spare. I was there in the office exactly at 9.00. I was so happy that I was on time to office after so many days but then realized the fact that I was actually an hour late.

No matter how early I wake up, I end up reaching late to work. Sometimes it is the traffic but most of the times its just me! At 7.00, I push away all the snoozes and try to barge into the real world from my dreamy senses. At 7.15, I merrily brush my teeth and chalk out the plan for the rest of the day while in shower, which will keep me occupied until 7.40. That is when I realize that I still need time for sipping my coffee and gulping my breakfast, if any! Finally, I curse myself for starting off at 7.55 and ending up at my desk at 8.05 or 8.10.

The whole concept of running behind time dates back to school and engineering days . I know how I used to pedal my bicycle so fast that I would not be marked late for the first period in school.  Even after I grew up, I had to walk at least a mile to catch the bus to college and I used to run all the way to the bus stop in 3 minutes. Sometimes, when things get much worse, I used to ask my dad to give me a ride to the bus stop and as expected my dad used to scold me all through the way until I board the bus. Sometimes I used to take the riding seat, so that my dad doesn't get enough time to scold me (I drive pretty fast, so half the time my dad used to hang onto the pillion tightly ;))

But I am still proud of myself for managing so many things while I drive. Wearing my socks and shoes, looping my belt, talking to parents / friends back home ..... and I'm still surviving because of the fact that:

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The new guy @ Work

Just as I do every evening, I went to work at I.P and I see this new face, glancing everyone and everything with a bland expression. When I refer bland, I intend to say zero / nil / null. A few minutes later, I overheard the conversation between Raja and Madhuri, he asked her to train this new guy on board. We were asked to teach him everything right from serving to cleaning the tables. 

Initially, that guy looked very perplexed. I can understand how one feels on his 1st day at a new workplace, so all of us tried to bring him into the comfort zone. After a couple of days he was doing okay and that is when I could see the real picture. This guy is basically a Gujju and has the typical accent (the  ---- ne ---- suffix). As in, "aap ne kaha na" is pronounced as "aap ne kaha neeee(nay)" and he mixes that with English. Just after interacting for a couple of hours, Madhuri asked him if he knew how to speak English :D

Everyone gave him their share of tips and advices and then there was a day off for me while Madhuri had to work that day. That day she comes and explains this scene: " I was giving him the dishes to be served at the table and the next order was Chicken Tandoori (usually it is served on a hot plate, so it has to be handled carefully). Accidentally, he burnt his finger and just as any Indian does, he put that finger in his mouth! The next minute a couple of customers entered the restaurant and he ended up showing them where to sit. Can you guess how he directed them to the table????    


 
The next day, after I came in to the restaurant, I taught him how to accompany customers to the table with a smile on their face and how to greet them. He started to receive them at the door the very next moment with a broad smile which never ends until they get seated (Just like the Happy Dent White ad). He was standing there next to the table just like the traffic signal. I am sure the customers might have had a hard time with this guy around. 

Added to all this, he walks as if he was former Mr. India with heights of attitude and does not want to follow anyone's order. He does not care to turn back and see if everything is fine at the table once the food is served. He needs his assistant (ME) to go and see if everything was okay. With zero body hygiene , he feels like he is the celebrity there at I.P. 


These days, I made another striking observation. Whenever someone walks into the restaurant, he ogles at them until they get seated and order something to eat. Non-desis would definitely get offended with this behaviour someday and I'm sure he's gonna get it really bad. I pity Boss's condition, the numerous ways he has been trying to lose his business. Someday it would go to the docks and the start of that is right there merrying around in the restaurant.

 

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