What’s easy to make is easier to break.

Life is a teacher no matter how philosophical it may sound but is true. Right from the childhood, either we are self content and well provided or we just cover the needs with a sublime covering of the future. The growing stages of life also takes us through the forest of experience. Some we put it in our hearts and accept them as the companions for the journey. Others we might consider as a stumble upon the way, at times it may just give us the wake up call to be alert, at times it might just throw us on the ground and bruise the false belief of a shield. Maybe its just a matter of opinion. What would be your highlight ? The cursed stone you stumbled upon or the experience you got ?

I used to think that I have the most extra-ordinary life. That was till I met the extra-ordinary people. Then i realized that time has tested nearly everyone and I am another one among many to pass it. As I entered the next phase, I was introduced to a chapter everytime. I have a bag full of such experiences. Not that I didn’t have my embarrassing, some I wish my mind doesn’t remember, the ones when the heart detests. I have experienced a broken faith. A moment when the dreams are shattered. Ironically the previous line is something I used in my poems. Life gave it an existence.

So far I was content with the way everything was going on in my life, until I stumbled. So big was the stumble that I dropped the crystal of faith from my bag and it broke into pieces. When I came across it, it said it was looking for someone to walk the journey and I was appallingly glad to have a companion. The tiresome walk of life gave us the shelter of an accomplice. And we were more than glad, even ended up making promises like rainfall. Later just remembered that it rained but have no clue where the water went. Coming back to the crystal, my faith was broken, my beliefs were shredded. The eternal vows remained in the rugged path. Man has lost the syndrome of care. The voice within reminds of just another step when the legs don’t live with you anymore.

I started coming across more people on the path and started sharing acquaintances. Everyone had their story to tell. Everyone had a bag on their back. There were none who didnt take the fall. I was not alone. The crystal was just the additional weight that reasoned my stumble. The devil wanted me to give up the journey, I ended up giving it back nothing. Afterall the greatest trick that the devil pulled is in convincing people that he doesn’t exist. The devil took days to build the faith on the crystal and to teach a lesson, life broke it in a moment.

Phoenix un-wired

Courage dares pain,
History has witnessed
And hailed the glorious.
The heaviest thoughts are backed by lasting experience.
Some moments to live till eternity ,
Some takes a lifetime to forget.
With the blink of an eye,
The space for freedom is unveiled. Reality shaken and vision is cleared,
Oh what a dream it had been.
Braving whirlpools of deception,
Running through the maze of broken promises,
To the cliff to embrace the raising sun.
The heart is filled with hope.
The mind is wild.
Life is looking at the morning dew.
With the freshness of being new.
Every time its been wounded,
The phoenix flies over and sheds a tear,
Strengthens the weakened thread of faith.
Life has seen itself over generations,
Though to one it may seem like a mirage.
The truest human emotion has been surpassed by time.
Before the plunge,
The last anticipation for the unheard voice is sought.
Alas, it doesn't reach us.
Maybe that is meant to be left behind.

Untold Stories : The Stalker (Horror)

Piya works in a leading BPO in gurgaon. She hails from the north-eastern parts of India and had been carrying the load of expectations on her shoulders since the time she ventured out of her village. She is the 3^rd daughter in the family and the prior are very successful in their own fields. Currently she is working as a Team Leader of an outbound process, US market dealing in wireless tele-communication products. Her team consists of 17 members and she has made sure its 17 only in numbers but 1 in spirit. Her beauty made most guys have a crush on her and her personality commands respect from every soul she meets. A woman with a good heart made her a complete human being. Trojans as her team was named, have been breaking all records and was the best team of the organization for the last 14 months.

She used to stay in Moti-Bagh, about 30 minutes away from her office. She shares the 3 room flat with another girl from Sikkim who is pursuing bachelors in English from Jesus & Mary. The Trojans were doing a 6pm-2am shift. So Piya used to return home by about 3:00-3:30 am. Her usual routine after reaching home be a nice long bathe followed by some food and television. She didn’t have anyone to talk to at this wee hour of the day. But she was happy with her life as she earned good money and held a nice position at work.

This incident happened some weeks back. As she was ready to retire from the day, she said her prayers and shut her eye-lids. After about an hour, probably as she started dreaming, she felt as if something heavy was kept on her chest. Thinking it was the weight of the blanket, she tried to remove it but the weight did not go. Now even her hands and legs were slowly getting heavier, as in as if some weight was placed on her. She tried to call out to her room mate but her voice was lost in the darkness of the night. Suddenly she saw a strange cloud formation at one corner of the room and it was getting brighter and larger until it took the shape of a full grown man. She still couldn’t move, nor could she utter a word. Slowly the figure climbed on top of her and lay on top as if it was a blanket or lemme rather put it across as if the figure was trying to sexually molest her but it didn’t. Rather it kept staring directly into her face, the distance between their face was about 6 cms. This went on for about 10 minutes but it definitely seemed like years. Eventually Piya passed out. When she woke up in the morning she saw strange marks on her arms and legs and chest. The marks resembled that of a grip when held very hard. Her room mate was very scared and they visited the doctor and relatives. The doctor thought it might be some form of a multiple personality disorder scenario and gave her medication and recommended vigilant observation. But the marks were strange. However, she was admitted in the hospital with the best of doctors taking up her case. But she just couldn’t get rid of the cloud stalker. It was there everywhere and now the figure was growing stronger and more evident as each day passed by. If she would be sitting with people in her room, the cloud would appear at one end of the room and take the shape of a full grown man and keep staring at her, some saw it too while others didn’t and dismissed it as a figment of imagination. Piya was getting berserk each day. If she traveled by a vehicle, the stalker would follow her, it would appear in the bathroom, it was everywhere.

One fine day, a tantrik after getting in terms with the case visited her place and performed some ceremonies and advised her to leave the city, if possible the state at the earliest possible. But she had to clear the house of every sign that led to her, even a strand of hair.

Its been more than 3 years since the incident took place and Piya had moved to another country (un-disclosed) but she lost her mental balance. Life wasn’t same for her anymore and the mystery of the stalker was never solved.

Deja-vu deciphered (concept)

At times when we walk to the cafeteria to re-fill our coffee mugs and a colleague pats on the
shoulders and says "hi", we reply back but we stand struck in time – confused but affirmative
that this incident has occurred earlier. We feel as if we have been through/seen this exact
scenario. Scene by scene, every moment appears to be so familiar yet so mystic/distanced. I used
to feel that I was blessed with this unique phenomenon. My assumption was however shredded
when I ventured to learn more about it. And then I was introduced to the world of ‘Deja-vu’. I
was somewhat relieved that a huge section of people experience it.


Not going by the physics of time or principles of chemistry, I put forward a concept that might
be a relative probability that leads a person to experience the phenomenon. This concept as I
enumerate below is based purely on personal experience and understanding of the world and its
characteristics.


General physics has proved that everything is made up of energy – consisting of positive as well
as negative charge. For a moment let’s assume that our universe is a single charge and there is
another universe with the opposite charge standing parallel to us. Existence is a mirror image.
The only difference is it is ahead of us in time. Whatever motion takes place in our universe
happened exactly ahead in time in the other universe, this includes me writing this article and
you reading it. You in this universe are reading it now but you in the other universe read it
sometimes back.


I put this theory forward questioning the possibility for anyone to experience deja-vu without he/
she physically having been through the situation before. How can someone predict a future when
he has not seen one himself? Well this is possible as the sub-conscious mind connects to the
parallel universe and the suspense of the future in our universe is revealed in the history of the
other universe.


So next time a sooth-sayer predicts your future, it’s not because he is holy but as he could
connect to the parallel universe with his sub-conscious mind.

Girl’s PG prank (Horror)

The Gurgaon-Mehrauli horror incident left Joy in a different state of mind for good. He just couldn’t believe in whatever happened. At 1 point in time, he even referred himself to a shrink. Most of us thought that he was going through the recovery stage. Only he knew what was happening to him. Life was not the same for him anymore. He became obsessed with knowing more about life….the stories that were told as well as the ones that were never told.

I met him last winters in Noida. It was a fine evening with some more old friends around, over for drinks and smoke, some were non-drinkers. It was then where we realized that Joy has spent sometime in the wilderness. He told us tales of rural-legends and unheard stories of boundless mystery. There was 1 particular that nearly froze my spine.

It was a story from Pune. A girls hostel  of a renowned institute. New season got many bright new faces during admissions. Some could get into the college hostels while others had to make accommodations in flats…a world known as mess. Guys give the actual meaning to the word. I have been in many. Coming back to the story, I will introduce Mae to you. A beautiful, enthusiastic new face from the north-east, Manipur.  She has almost broken all records in her academic resume. The guys of the college, both old and new were inspired to be at their best. The girls envied with jealousy. She was the talk of the complex almost all the time.

Though Mae was dynamic with her intelligence as well as personality, she was missing the company of more people from the north-east. I guess this is a common thing at the beginning, eventually the new places becomes a home. And she was not used to the way of living, as in from how she used to stay at home and how she has to stay now. This is actually the moment of truth for a person. Either he/she can break down or be propelled to exceed. Mae was a strong willed girl, she hasn’t given up ever in life. She did have to win many battles staying in the girls hostel which has girls who were dumped by their boyfriends to woo Mae. She had nearly made friends to half the people in a month. The other half were conspiring in the dark. Attempts were repeated but none could stop the power of will of the little girl.

The girls dormitory were of 8 beds, 1 bunked over the other in sets of 2. Mae had a habit of going for a shower after all the girls almost started snoring. The she would climb to her bed, switch on the reading light, drag her favorite book from under the pillow, read for about 30-45 minutes and then go off to sleep. Riya  the master mind was so focused on bringing Mae down that it felt like she was born only for this. She was on the verge of giving up when she wanted to play an evil prank on Mae. She asked her gang to get her a human hand from the specimen jar of the institute laboratory. When it was provided, she kept the hand under Mae’s pillow. She anticipitated that Mae would scream like a crazy women and the rest would wake from their fake sleep and laugh at the girl. The plan was executed the very might.

When all the lights were down at 10:45, Mae took a shower and as usual climbed onto her bed and rubbed her hair with her towel. She was humming a song, she did sound like an nightingale.  All the other girls were pretending to sleep with blankets over them. They heard Mae throw her towel on her chair and a click her reading lights on. She was still humming her song. The shriek was anticipated just round the corner. But nothing. No-one wanted to turn around and break the suspense until the event was triggered by Mae. But there was loud silence from her end. The humming had stopped and the excitement was building up. After about half an hour, Riya  turned back to look at Mae and screamed at the top of her lungs. The other girls quickly turned their lights on and turned their focus towards  Mae and saw her eating the hand that was kept in place of the book. Everyone was stunned, the land had slipped from below their feet. No-one moved for minutes to come.

Mae was admitted in a mental institute and it was declared that she would require to undergo treatment for unspecified time. She was expecting to read her favourite book and what she found out under the pillow was an absolute horror. Something snapped in her brain and she could not control her mental balance from there on. Riya and her gang were punished but the intolerable harm has already been caused.

Another story which got buried by the authorities, by time.

Untold stories : Gurgaon-Mehrauli road (Horror)

I have been working in delhi-ncr for some time till now. I met many people while traveling from 1 place to another. I work in a BPO so get to listen to some stories from the cab drivers who at times talk about strange incidents. I have as always been fascinated by such stories as much as I have dreaded being involved in 1.

Hari bhaiya was assigned to drop us home one morning at 2:30 from noida to delhi. He was a nice young jovial person and seemed to gel very well with the staff. He went to crack jokes and narrate stories of his experiences. Originally from Haryana, so his accent was as pure as it could get.

As we crossed noida, he confirmed the drops that was assigned to him. A thunder struck him when Sharma from behind said that he is from Gurgaon. He requested us to first drop Sharma and then return to drop the rest. We were not at all happy about this idea and revolted with full conviction. He said he is afraid to come back alone from the Gurgaon-Mehrauli road. He has heard many stories of evil that lurks there....he has seen one. The look on his eye confirmed that this has changed his life. We asked him to stop the vehicle and assured him that we will not leave him alone on that stretch. Our hearts were inquisitive. Scared but hungry.

Hari Bhaiya is 33. This happened when he was 29. It was a morning drop at 3:30 from a bpo, gurgaon to south delhi. At that point in time, the staff usually dozes away in the cab with the open windows bringing in the cold night wind. It was a Tata Sumo with 8 staff and a driver. The complete journey till the last drop estimated to be around 1 hours and 15 minutes. 5 staffs went into their dream land the moment they got into the cab. 2 were cribbing about their managers, an usual scene in the cabs. Joy was a loner. He sat on the co-passengers seat and put on his head-phones and he was gone. At a distance of about 15 mins from base was an accident prone area. And this area has been hot with incidents and stories, mostly rumors but some they use were true. The locals had constructed a small Ganesh-ji's temple to ward off any evil spirit in the area. This place was about 100 meters from the village. A little secluded but in the night it feels like a mile.

Being repeatedly true to its reputation, drivers usually reduce their speed and get more focused. This area is a bend with little visibility of what's beyond the other side. There will be less life at this hour, again as always. Hari Bhaiya, as per norms reduced his speed and kept his eyes fixed on the road. However, he failed to see a block of concrete on the road and the vehicle suffered a big jerk as its tires rolled over it. All the staff woke up with surprise and anger and screamed at the driver for such rash driving. What can the driver do except to apologize. Everyone settled down and make an attempt to catch up on the sleep. At the moment they were crossing the bend. As the vehicle crossed the curve, both Joy n Hari bhaiya noticed a woman waving her hand, asking for a lift. The cab was full and sting operations posing as prostitutes were very common so they didn't respond and continued. Couple of the guys from the rear part of the vehicle joked that she might be Hari bhaiya's girl friend from the previous birth and has come for him. Everyone had a laugh on it. Joy, an introvert did share a smile with the gang. Now the vehicle had crossed the danger area and Hari bhaiya put some weight on the accelerator. The crowd settled down and Joy put on his headphone again and looked out of the window to let the cold summer night wind blow his mind out. As he turned his head to the left he screamed as if his life was at stake. Everyone turned to the left to see the same woman running along with the speed of the vehicle at a speed of 60 kms per hour with her face towards the vehicle and her tongue out off her jaws till her chest. Hari Bhaiya and the rest couldn't believe what they saw and just sped off to the 1st drop.

Life changed for these 9 people in about 2 minutes. Most crossed this stretch but it seems some have seen the same.

Even the Gods played Holi

Sachin Tendulkar

As the clock stuck 9 days away from the ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011, I would like to dedicate a couple of articles on some of the players who I think will create a storm in the upcoming series with some of their statistics.

SACHIN TENDULKAR :

Full name : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

If ones tries to google his name, the result will show about 8,710,000 results (0.09 seconds). He was born on April 24, 1973, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, a place where cricket is next to a religion and he is considered as none other than a God of the game.  Currently standing tall at 37 years 291 days of age with the experience of 5 world cups and 21+ years of dominating teams from all around the world with his swashbuckling style of batting par elegance. He has just about written his name on every batting records that one could think off. Let me show you some of his statistics :

Batting and fielding averages

(courtesy: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/35320.html )

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	177	290	32	14692	248*	56.94			51	59		64	106	0
ODIs	444	433	41	17629	200*	44.97	20456	86.18	46	93	1929	185	134	0
T20Is	1	1	0	10	10	10.00	12	83.33	0	0	2	0	1	0
First-class	280	442	48	23585	248*	59.86			78	105			174	0
List A	531	518	55	21181	200*	45.74			57	111			169	0
Twenty20	44	44	5	1516	89*	38.87	1171	129.46	0	11	201	21	19	0

Bowling averages

(courtesy: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/35320.html )

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	177	135	4096	2388	45	3/10	3/14	53.06	3.49	91.0	0	0	0
ODIs	444	267	8020	6817	154	5/32	5/32	44.26	5.10	52.0	4	2	0
T20Is	1	1	15	12	1	1/12	1/12	12.00	4.80	15.0	0	0	0
First-class	280		7461	4280	70	3/10		61.14	3.44	106.5		0	0
List A	531		10196	8445	201	5/32	5/32	42.01	4.96	50.7	4	2	0
Twenty20	44	8	93	123	2	1/12	1/12	61.50	7.93	46.5	0	0	0

Currently Tendulkar holds the record of being the most capped player in tests as well as one day internationals. His tally of 97 international centuries is by far the most by any player who has ever played the game. While talking about his stats, one cannot dare to mention that Tendulkar became the first man to reach the milestone to score 200* in an ODI ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7HVsU6LzL0&feature=related )

Sachin at the world cups :

World Cup	Matches	Innings	Not Out	Runs	Average	Best	Strike Rate	50′s	100′s
1992	8	7	1	283	47.17	84	84.73	3	0
1996	7	7	1	523	87.17	137	85.88	3	2
1999	7	7	1	253	42.17	140	90.04	0	1
2003	11	11	0	673	61.18	152	89.26	6	1
2007	3	3	1	64	32.00	57	110.34	1	0

 Some quotes on the master blaster :

Andrew Symonds: wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin. ” To Sachin, the man we all want to be “

Virendra Sehwag: Both of us have come a long away and it is a great honour that Tendulkar thinks I come close to resembling him as a batsman. It is a great honour, like a dream come true. If I die tomorrow I’ll be the happiest man because I played this game because of Tendulkar, and Tendulkar himself saying that I resemble him – there is no bigger compliment than that.

Mathew Hayden: I have seen GOD , he bats at no.4 for india in Tests.

Mark Taylor: We did not lose to a team called india…we lost to a man called Sachin.

Brain Lara: Sachin is a genius , i am a mere mortal!

Paul Strang: What we [zimbabwe] need is 10 tendulkars.

Sir Don Bradman: I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two…hi compactness, technique, stroke production… it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar.

BBC Sports: Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

Wasim Akram: “I dont know what to bowl at him. i bowled an inswinger and he drove me through covers of the front foot. then i bowled an outswinger and he again punched through covers of the backfoot. he is the toughest batsmen i ‘ve bowled to. he shold live long and score lots of runs, but not against pakistan(smiling) “–LEGENDARY WASIM AKRAM  SACHIN on 24th april 2004 on espn Sachin’s 30th B day program.(i think) on his knock in 2003 worldcup.

( courtesy : http://www.sachinandcritics.com/quotes_on_sachin.php )

First take at the world cup in 1992.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x01ieCwhu88 (Sachin Tendulkar 84 vs New Zealand)

The war of the sub-continent in 1996. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WeZf9fFPMA (Sachin Tendulkar 137* vs Sri Lanka)

The heart-broken innings, 3 days after his fathers demise in 1999. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA_6utZU3MQ (Sachin Tendulkar 140* vs Kenya)

The explosion of mastery of the game by the god in 2003.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmArxGgNss (1) / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc2vgeyay9I&feature=related (2) / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd2hsBvNMA8&feature=related (3) / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCxYaHkFL7A&feature=related ( highlights of the masters innings on the 2003 outing)

The biggest upset, 2007.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqd8ARQW4hE&feature=related

Individual honours and appreciations

• Tendulkar was the only player of his generation, and the cricketer to have played for India, to be included in Bradman’s Eleven.
• ICC Award-Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for cricketer of the year 2010
• Padma Bhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, 2008.
• ICC World ODI XI, 2004, 2007
• Rajiv Gandhi Awards – Sports, 2005
• Player of the tournament in the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup
• Maharashtra Bhushan Award, Maharashtra State’s highest Civilian Award in 2001
• Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award, 1999
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest honour given for achievement in sports, 1997–98.
• Wisden Cricketer of the Year, 1997
• Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in Cricket, 1994.
• In October 2010 he was awarded for Outstanding Achievement in Sport and the Peoples Choice Award at The Asian Awards in London
• On January 28, 2011, he won the ‘Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year’ awar