Fun day!

The first weekend of the year 2012 was well spent with D, G and U. Thanks ladies for the awesome time!

Secret is out!

Yeah! Finally the secret is out and I got to know who my secret Santa is. Thank you Santa for being nice and visiting me before Christmas! We played the Secret Santa game in the office this year too. Like every year we handpicked the names and bought the gifts without revealing whose name we got. As per the rule each of us get to play the Santa for their secret child. Just before Christmas we put all the gifts under the Christmas tree, leaving some clues to guess the secret Santa. It's fun finding out who gave us the gift.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Monster Day

AOL celebrates its anniversary every year on 20th May and we call it as “Monster help day”. All AOL employees across the globe render their services for community help. They form groups and the entire day is spent in various places like orphanages, old age homes, eye-camps, serving food for the needy etc. This year I decided to be part of “The refugee home” for a day service. The service included taking 20 kids to Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium. Sharvari, Dhivya (sharu’s daughter) and I reached office at 8:00 A.M and with a bunch of other volunteers we reached the venue in two hours time. Before I narrate the entire day’s event, let me give you a brief introduction about this place:

The refugee home is a home for underprivileged kids, run by a lady called Buella. She has adopted twenty kids and looking after them as her own children. yes, you read it right, I am not kidding. Technically, she has twenty two kids along with her twin boys. Buella mam grew up admiring Mother Theresa and her charity work. She was her role model from her childhood days and always dreamt of doing at least a fraction of what Mother Theresa has done to the society. Buella mam's heart wrenched when she saw kids who were begging on the streets. She even had nightmares when she saw physical abuses with moms who delivered baby girls. Buella mam worked as a teacher till 2007. She quit her job and decided to do something to the society. With the support from her family she started this home for refugees. In the refugee home, we can see kids with different age groups, the youngest being close to two and the oldest being eight years old. She is taking care of all the children with at most care and affection. Her passion for giving life for the underprivileged kids is something significant.

We picked up the kids from their place and headed towards planetarium. On our way to the planetarium the kids entertained us by singing prayers, songs and rhymes. I was refreshed with all my nursery poems, not bad I still remembered all of them. We reached the venue at 11.00 A.M since the show was only at 12:30, we still had one and a half hour. We took the kids inside the park and let them play games (swing, see-saw). While they were playing, we distributed some snacks (biscuits, frooti, chips, and chocolates).What really impressed me was, the moment we gave them to eat, they ate only after the prayers, each one thanked god for that moment. It was simply touching!

The kids really had good time coming out of their home. They thoroughly enjoyed their outing playing with all of us. It was time for us to go for the show; though kids were slightly tired it didn’t show up on their faces, they were excited to watch the show. As this was their first visit to planetarium, they didn’t know what to expect inside. It was dark and with the air conditioners the place was cool inside. They had played some soothing music, after few minutes the lights were turned off. The first thing we saw was the stars all over the place, it was wonderful. The kids started clapping and screaming in joy. The show was for about forty-five minutes, most of them enjoyed the show, but the little ones were so tired they slept off. Once we came out, we played with them for some more time and the kids thanked all of us for the wonderful opportunity given to them from AOL. We took some pictures with all of them. The happiness on each of their face was truly priceless.

We just spent a day with twenty kids and that was tiring. What do we say about Buella mam, who spends every single day with them? My heart ached just listening to the stories about the kid’s background. It takes a lot of courage to step up and do such a great service. I am so glad we have people like Buella mam to do such things without expecting anything. What a selfless service isn’t it?

( Monster helpers at "The refugee home")

(The refugee home family)

(We with the kids)

(Nithya, who just turned three. Her father disowned her because she was a girl child and mom committed suicide out of depression)

(Anupriya, who is the youngest & cutest kid in the home is disowned by her father too for being a girl child)

A day in a jungle

I met R after a decade and he was very fascinated to visit Bannerghatta. I’ve visited Bannerghatta a couple of times earlier, but never done the safari before. I was a little skeptical initially because of the heat, thought it would be difficult to walk around. Thanks to Bangalore’s weather, it rained the previous night and the day was super cool. It was a perfect day for a jungle safari. We picked up the tickets for ‘Grand Safari’ and waited in the queue for our turn. After building up some rapport with the jungle guards, they allowed us to sit in the front, so we can take some nice shots. I was under the impression that it would be of a total waste and we wouldn’t get to witness any animals. As we headed towards the jungle, we saw a herd of deer lazing and wandering around. Other than deer and peacock, we didn’t see much. As it’s raining in Bangalore, there was lush green everywhere and all ponds filled with water. Elephants were relaxing in the water.

Our next pit stop was at bear safari. As soon as the gates were opened, we saw two bears playing and fighting with each other. Oh! They looked so cute. We clicked pictures and moved towards the lion safari.
Lions were totally in a chilled up mood. It looked as if the entire family were out on a picnic. The cubs were playing with their parents under the trees on a grass carpet. While everyone was busy clicking pictures, they looked at us and didn’t really bother. They got busy rolling and cuddling up with each other. Apart from this picture perfect lion family, there were other lions (individuals) busy taking a nap in Bangalore’s best weather.

We then entered Tiger safari. I was slightly disappointed as I could not witness any. Then the guard told us that they recently got some hyper active tiger cubs. They would wander all over the fenced area and it’s difficult to get a hold of them.

We saw few white tigers, some inside the cage and some outside. The ones that were inside the cage were walking restlessly and growling at each other. The tiger’s skin looked radiant like gold. It was so huge and classy. R desperately waited for one of them to yawn, unfortunately they didn’t. He managed to click some great shots of the animals. He has a wonderful camera that captures every minute detail.

After the safari, we reached the ZOO. Though I had seen them earlier went again inside. It was nothing interesting except the snakes, particularly the rat snakes. There were so many inside the cage. We saw one rat snake gulping a chicken. I had never seen that before.

There are so many endangered species now; I think we need to preserve all of them for the next generations. Otherwise the next generation would have to only the see them on Internet. It’s very disappointing to see the way it’s taken care.

"Cup of Pride"

Who doesn’t want to take this beautiful piece home? Everyone wants to own this right? At last India took away the cup tussling against Srilanka. What a magnificent victory for team India! We had to wait 28 years for this to happen again. When all of us were still rejoicing the victory against Pakistan, here comes yet another moment to cherish. Team India bags the world cup. We are the world champions for the second time. Way to go!! Men in blue made India proud. They also broke many myths about the game.

• First hosting nation to win the world cup
• First one to win without someone hitting a century
• First one to win without winning a toss and chasing the score.

I can go on and on about the wonderful day. It was an awesome match, worth watching every minute. It’s the best way to give farewell to Sachin, the legend of the cricket world. It was fantastic to see every player’s effort in winning this match. A true team spirit was displayed. Though there was a bit of disappointment initially, rest of the players picked up the pace and maintained the momentum. This actually proved that we don’t have to always rely on any individual (Sachin/Sehwag). Indian’s showcased a brilliant performance in terms of fielding and bowling (except the batting powerplay). The never give up attitude lead them towards the victory.

Zaheer: Mr. Dependable of the Indian team. Dude, you got three maiden overs. What a control on your bowling! Thanks for getting those two crucial wickets.

Sreesanth: Stop getting pissed and showing off your aggression for all wrong reasons. You were a good bowler, it is history now. It’s high time you show some action. You were fortunate to be a part of the winning team. Do not relax any more.

Dilshan: The pallu effect helped you to get some quick runs. Isn’t it? That was a brilliant catch. I loved the way you caught the ball

Jayawardene: Kudos to you for getting 103 runs! Your partnership with Kulasekara and Perera helped Lankans to post a challenging total to India. Did you actually followed what your wife said (stay there), when you finished your fifty runs?

Malinga: The bowler with the golden hair was unstoppable in taking the two big wickets. We know that you were happy for not letting Sachin hit his century, doesn’t mean you run all over the field like a maniac.

Sangakkara: A true gentleman and a sports person. You spoke really well during the presentation. Undoubtedly Srilankan’s are great players. As you said, the best side won the match at the end.

Muralitharan: A bitter farewell for you from your team. We all know how much this win mattered to you as this was your last match too. We all respect your contribution to cricket.

Sachin: We dreamt of you completing your 100th century in your home grounds. Nevertheless, your team bid farewell to you by giving you the World cup title. What more do we need? This is the moment we were all waiting for.

Sehwag: Oops what happened to you? Were you trying to give a chance to the rest of them? Never mind we are happy we won the world cup!

Gambhir: You are one gutsy player for rebuilding the innings for India. We give you a standing ovation for the spirit you displayed. If you hadn’t handled the pressure we would have collapsed. You were the one who stood and gave an outstanding performance, when we needed the most. It was sad seeing you getting out at 97.

Virat: A youngest kid on the block. You are one enthusiastic player in the team. I loved the way you spoke about Sachin in the presentation. Stay focused and follow your mentors.

Yuvi: A perfect all-rounder. Man of the tournament; it says it all. Thanks for playing this well in the entire tournament.

Dhoni: A perfect captain not only made wise strategies but also contributed individually. You played the perfect knocks. You proved to be there with your team when in crisis.

Thanks for getting the world cup and making us proud. It's a dream come true for every Indian :-)

Chak De India!

Phew! finally the much awaited, most hyped, heart wrecking, nail biting match between India and Pakistan is over. Our men in blue chased the men in green back to their homes. What an amazing victory it was! If anyone missed watching this match, you sure did miss something dreadfully. It is a match that would be remembered forever. Every minute was worth watching. I was glued in front of the TV for complete nine hours. Though I was a little tetchy about media hypes (calling this as a war) about the game, I turned to be a fanatic while watching it. I enjoyed every single minute. For once I am proud of Indian bowling and fielding. Our boys did really well. Sorry, Nehra for being harsh on you. You proved us completely wrong (Suraj will also agree with me). I take back my words. Now that everyone knows how the match went on, I am not going to write a summary on that. This is my version about the game:

Sachin: It was just not your day in terms of the performance but we all know that god was watching you play, so only you were dropped four times(made my heart skip a beat). Weren't you overly lucky?

Afridi: I liked your calm and composed attitude even when the wickets were falling. Anyways that didn’t really help you guys.

Wahab Riaz: Dude, what did you eat for breakfast? You got five wickets on a semi-final match against India. That’s a great achievement.

Kamran Akmal: Why were you shouting so much on the field? Are you so much in love with Shahid Afridi’s name? Felt like stuffing something in your mouth.

Nehra: You rocked the match, good performance in terms of fielding and bowling. I love the way you dived and caught the ball, though it didn’t fetch us Misbah’s wicket but good effort.

Raina: One reliable player in the Indian team. It’s wonderful to see your performance even under the pressure.

Yuvi: Bad luck dude,why did you collapse like that? We were expecting to see some good shots from you. Nevertheless you compensated in bowling.

Viru: A standing ovation for you. The way you kicked off the match it was like a blazing fire. We expected India to score at least 3oo runs. Good start and we are depending on you for Saturday.

Harbajan: You are a star by taking the most crucial wickets for India (Umran & Afridi).

Dhoni: You proved to be a good captain but what happened to your individual contribution? Aren't you getting enough time from your shoots(endorsements) to practice?

Zaheer: You played a vital role in India's win.

It was a match that every Indian will cherish for the rest of their lives. Go India Go, get the world cup and make us proud.