He was never no.1, always India's no.3 batsman!

He never was India's no.1 batsman and never can be. He was and shall remain India's no.3 batsman.

He was India's best no.3! Ever!

It's the end of an era. The wall has left. Rahul Dravid has retired from all domestic and international cricket for good. He leaves behind what is a Rahul Dravid of a hole! 16 glorious years of Test cricket, One Day cricket and a one-off T20. He has given us infinite memorable moments.

223* at Adelaide, 180 At Kolkata, 145 at Taunton, that quickfire 53 off 22 balls, those two slam-bam towering sixes in his only T20 appearance! The man has time and again done what many other greats could not. Face the toughest of situations with a straight bat. From once being labelled as a Test-match only cricketer to being picked up in the T20 side in 2011, to scoring India's second fastest fifty to captaining the side to wins in Pakistan and West Indies to keeping wickets in 2002-03 just to get the balance right and play with an extra batsman. Rahul, err...Sir Rahul Dravid has done and seen each and everything he could in his tenure as a cricketer for India.

I remember how at one point of time, kids playing in the building would ridicule batsman who played slowly by calling them Rahul Dravid. It was a synonym for batsman who cannot score runs quickly. It is very important in building cricket to be able to score runs quickly. To not waste any balls and get off strike if you cannot hit the big ones.

From that to now any player who can give a straight bat to the fastest delivery hurled at you and manage to drop it dead right next to the bat and be called Rahul Dravid and be respected for it, things have come a long way. Tables have turned. From being hated for 'boring' people in Test Matches to people longing for guys like him in the team.


I remember how I myself would look at Sir Rahul Dravid when he would come to the crease and score his 152 ball-50! He would bring the run-rate down from 4+ to just hovering around 3. He would tire the bowlers by showing them the 'Britannia' bat! Only for players like Sachin, Mongia, Sehwag, Azharuddin, etc to run amok in the last session and the last hour before end of day's play. Who will do that now?

A lot of the Indian fans must be wondering who will take his place and who will survive in tough situations like the ones we have faced in England, West Indies, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Do we have any batsman half as talented as Sir Rahul Dravid? We are scared to admit but we will be worried every time a new no.3 steps out on the crease. We will all secretly are waiting for his son to be big enough to be taller than the stumps and willing to play for the national team.

He has got statistics all on his side, 164 tests, 13288 runs, 210 catches in tests, 10,000+ runs in ODIs, 93 test appearances without a break, and the list goes on and on and on. One list which he most definitely is not the most proud of must be the nervous 90s list. In his early days in Test cricket, Sir Rahul Dravid would often get out in the 90s. Not that he had a fear for them or would act nervous and edgy, but it just was so that he was too unlucky at times. At one point of time he had 9 90 plus scores and had equalled Steve Waugh for the batsman with the most 90s.

The fact that he did end up getting 36 is a testimony to the patience and perseverance of this guy. Add those 9 90 plus scores which so easily could have been hundreds and you have a number that is even more impressive.

Well, we can go on and on about his achievements and his victorious knocks and memorable matches. And to be frank there are hundreds of writers who will do that. Taking a note out of Sir Rahul Dravid's book I shall call it quits before someone else asks me to stop.

Thanks a lot for all those concentration-filled hours you spent at the crease and made me feel as if I was part of that fight India was putting up. Thanks for the amazing cover drives that give me the goosebumps even now. Thanks for those pullshots that I shall use one day to teach my son how to play the shot better than what the coaches and books can ever teach. Thanks for those straight bat defence shots which I try and emulate in my room to a invisible ball and yet get it wrong. Thanks for the moment when you decided to don the gloves just so that India can have a well balanced team and can pose a threat to the world. Thanks for showing us how without saying a word, without chirping from the slips, without arguing with the bowler you can still be as aggressive. You can still be as respected. You can still be as feared.

And mostly thanks for making the defense shot the most aggressive shots ever! Sir Rahul Dravid...LEGEND! 'Enough said!

Why do we blame Mondays?

The week begins with it and has so many great things to offer, yet most of us hate Mondays! It has reached that point in my life that I have now started feeling bad for Monday. Think about it, it was not as if Monday was given a choice to be some other day, Saturday may be? or even Friday for that matter.

Then why blame the poor chap?

Look at all the good things it gets and then be happy for it, for once! It marks the beginning of a new week. A new week where you will have a good days at work so that you can party hard over the weekend. A week where you will plan what to do in the next few days. This week could also be the one where you might get your salary.

A Monday is the perfect day to begin something new, since it gives you about five days to complete it. A Monday means even if you had pending work on Friday you had a couple of days to cool off and not think about them. Aren't you thankful to a Monday that it comes after two days from Friday?

A Monday is the day when some of us get to meet our office cuties, our crushes in school, our colleagues whom we love to hang out with. A Monday is the day when we are sure we won't be drinking too much alcohol on a Sunday, so no hangover. A Monday is the day when we can log on to Facebook and check what the world did over the weekend and ponder over that.

A Monday has so much to offer that it really feels wrong to 'hate' it or have the blues on the first day.

Stop doing it, for my sake, for Monday's sake?

God, you cheated on me!

Again and again and again. Why does this keep happening with me? Do I attract only a certain kind of people or is it one of your tricks to make me stronger?

I've had enough, I do not need this.

Things were moving smoothly, a little quick by my standards, yet quite well. After a long time I saw things going in my favour and was anticipating greater results.

But she did exactly what by now I've been accustomed to. Use me as a throw-away pillow. Hold me when you're scared, snuggle upto me when you want to get cozy, lie on me when you need a friend and throw me at the instant you see a different room!

I thought I had made a deal with you God. I thought we had a pact. I thought you'd keep your promise. I thought you'd understand.

She meant a lot to me, she could've been the one. All was not to be and we ended up on the opposite sides of the road.

She is going her way and has asked me not to look for her. I am left clueless without a map and have been asked to find my way.

Nahin socha tha kabhi

Nahin socha tha kabhi ki yeh din bhi aayega,
Tumhe dard ho yeh hamari khwaish hogi,
Dard tumhe hoga aur mazza humein aayega,

Tumhe dard mein rote bilakhte dekhenge,
Man hi man khoob hum hasenge,
Aur yeh dua bhi karenge ki yeh din kal phir aaye

It's slow

Things are moving slower than usual,
I feel a little detached,

A strange feeling has gripped me
and now I want to relax.

The surroundings have changed,
The expectations have risen

I am supposed to take it up a few notches,
Yet the bricks are missing, the cement is gone

Someone somewhere just does not want
for me to succeed or continue for long

But I will fight and not let them win,
Because I haven't learnt to give in,

I try and do whatever it takes
to make work and life fun always

This is no different but all the same
A win, a win, a win - that's all in this game!

It has just started

Tomorrow I complete a month at my new job and things have just started to get going. Work is happening at a very slow pace. I am caught dozing off in office quite a lot. I am not sure this time like it used to happen in class, I cannot run away unscathed.

The reasons for these could be many, the lack of sleep, general boredom due to not being given enough to do, may be I do not like the job here as much.

Things have been a little odd here. I like my profile and I know there could be a great challenge in months to come and its a great industry and a real good place to start from scratch and build a team. In short, a great learning experience. Yet, somewhere I am not as confident about this job just as yet.

Let's see, today a small interaction with one of the guys did get me excited once again but not as much to get rid of this fear.

There are fun things happening around - like that Phalguni Pathak ringtone a colleague had, then this spring-bed crunching sound, mangal bhavan amangalaaa bhavaaaaa - ringtone....stupid girl flirting, these characters help me have a smile around here. But, I am yet to go miss work!

I took a day off and was not feeling as guilty of having missed something. Hopefully, things will change in days to come...

The grown-up!

Torn jeans has given way to formal pants, clean-shaven tidy gelled hair have shown the door to unkempt ruffled hair. Loose t-shirts with silly one-liners are passe and crisp striped shirts are the in-thing. Stupid kitos with socks are a thing of the past and black leather shoes now adorn the wardrobe.

Funky looking bar-stool-laden office has now been replaced by a simple retractable red and black cushioned chair. A workstation is a luxury and a cubicle is what I have now.

Is it the end of the creative and the beginning of the marketer? Is this growing up or growing old? Is this becoming serious or becoming responsible? Is this a change of responsibilities or change of industry? Is this a change in working or a change in living?

I love the fact that every once a while life puts you in a position where you ask yourself some questions. If you are not asking any questions you are not doing anything risky. And if you are not taking risks, what are you doing then?

Things have changed so much in the last one year that sometimes I myself cannot come to terms with it.

Good or bad only time will tell me and keeping my expectations fairly high I think a mid-term review is only fair. Haha, the marketing lingo! I think I am getting there. Well, it does not matter what I think what really matters is what they think. And once they tell me what they think about this, all that will be cleared.

Now don't ask me what is what!