"2 States" Couldn't agree more!!!

Yes! I had it. "2 States The Story of my marriage" by Chetan Bhagat.The book that most of India's "youth" had forced upon themselves. As is my habit, I read the teaser on the back cover, and prepared myself for what I believed would certainly be worth it....

I opened the book and seeing the first page, a smile flickered across my face. "With Love" it said, and there below it was her signature. Don't raise your eyebrows! There is still no place for a lady love in my life( I guess that is about the best way to put that am still single :D ). I'd borrowed it from my friend and there is no prize for guessing who had gifted it to him. And so, I turned to the Prologue of the book, with my mind telling me "here is another story while you start off reading one" and hoping that "they would cross the finish line as well :P" .

Over the next couple of days, I spent a number of hours (having become a so called Corporate I can't even spend those few hours at a stretch and finish the book at one go! Guess I'll have to blame myself!) and I was through (as I read the last 100 odd pages from 10pm to 12.30am on Friday night, it gave me the opportunity to wish my mom at 12 on her birthday as well :D ).

I was impressed! Here was a book, with which I could relate in almost every possible way (is that why Chetan is called a "youth icon"?).

The story revolves around Krish (a Punjabi) and Ananya (a "Tamilian".... now, does anyone call us that way??); how their lives intertwine while at IIMA; and how, having wanted their parents and families to accept them and smile at their wedding, they fight all odds and scrape through, just when you start thinking its all doomed and over.

The style is simple, humour aplenty (what with two communities to go at!), conversations taut and most importantly, gives a flavour of India as it is! Every character in the book, however small their role might be, is well carved out. Be it Neeta, the psychotherapist, who comes in passing; Manju, Ananya's brother, who calls out gold's atomic number and name when given a gold ring; you start predicting how each one of them in the book is going to behave given the situation!!!

It does seem strange that the country which boasts as the world's largest democracy, which talks a lot about unity in diversity and all such rot, fall flat out when it actually comes to people from different regions or religions coming together, not just in cases of love and marriages, but as such, in any phase of life.

Somehow, it seems to me, that the younger lot of today's India are more open when it comes to regional, communal issues unlike the older generations who still seem to fuss over things that seem so trivial to us (or would it be the same case when we become a part of the older generation as well?!!?).

I kept the book down, hoping it would have changed a few hearts, if not the whole nation's!

P.S. I was talking about the book with one of my friends at IIMA who'd brought it home with him while he'd been here in Chennai for his holidays. It seems, his father, who'd read the teaser at the back cover, enquired casually over breakfast if he had any such plans! My friend was left aghast, and had some explaining to do as to why he'd took to the book :D.

Makes me wonder!! Chetan, I think you should see to that this book of yours reaches the parents as well!!!

A Dream come true??

It was one of those days when you are online, and you have absolutely no idea as to what to do! You've checked your mails, you've sent away a couple to keep the threads up and alive, you've done your bit of chatting(more than what you are capable of actually!) and you've even gone about managing the fantasy league football team!!!

As a person who does not take to social networking(it somehow seems inherent now, I cant take to it,try as I might! :D), and who does not know what videos to search for in youtube, I was basically in a position to just close down all the browser windows and switch off the system.

And then, a change of heart. I wanted to visit espnstar's website and have a look at all the fantasy games available, now that I have revived my interest at it, thanks to EPL which i hardly follow....

So, I did just that. I went to their website, and checked out what all they'd come up with by now. Super Selector was still on(I guess it'll never fade away.... As long as cricket goes on, so will Super Selector!!!). There were a number of events regarding football, F1,... Anything that anyone could possibly think of!

And then, there it was, popping up in front of me, asking me why it is taking me so long to notice the inevitable....

Now, how many times have I told that I'll give anything to Harsha Bhogle to swap places with him(though I wonder what there is that he'll want of me!). Harsha Bhogle!! Hmmm... The first thing that the name brings to mind these days is the way we exploited it at college(For those who know what i mean, well and good. For the others, don't ask me how... it is quite inexplicable!) Getting back to the point, Harsha Bhogle has always been someone whom I've admired. Be it his simple style at commentating, his quick witted one liners("In the past, cricket in India was organized, but now it is promoted" he said at the recent TED India Conference at Mysore and "I like his optimism. Every time he swings the bat, he looks at the boundary lines. But the ball is in the keeper's hands!" on Ravindra Jadeja are some of his recent ones which have left me gaping with awe), just about everything that he does. If I had been impressed with his cricket commentary, I began to look upon him after he played host during the FIFA World Cup of 2006 for ESPN STAR sports. A commendable job for someone who hardly followed football till then! ( I still can't forget it. Towards the later stages of that World Cup, when he made his first mistake in the show, the expert panel who were sitting along with him at the studio actually appreciated him for the phenomenal, near flawless performance he'd been doing for a first timer!)

Once again, I seem to be deviating quite easily! Where was I? Yeah.... Here it was, popping up on me... An ad for the event "Skype Star Commentator". An event that allows you to post auditions online, and the winner, amongst other things getting to host a show with SportsCenter on ESPN. After being a little skeptic about the whole idea, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. It took me a week to put the thought into action, and yet another week to post about it and make it public :D

Yes! I did three auditions, two on cricket and one on football, namely,

Cricket - The Legend of the Little Master

Cricket - Looking back at India's eastern son

Football - A devilish bite

Hmmm... I guess it might all boil down to what we call welllllll (well tried that is). But in any case, it was a dream come true, irrespective of what the result is gonna be. After all, its not every day when you do something you've always been craving to do :P