YAADEIN.....: My School

This is again a new feature in my blog, wherein I would be writing about the things which I cherish a lot in my life under the heading YAADEIN..... To start off I would be writing about my school- something which made me what I am today.

To begin with the name of my school was International School, which was situated in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. I started off my schooling from class 1 and a still remember the first day of my school. I was dressed in the school uniform which was white shirt and navy blue pants along with a navy blue tie. I had a red bag on me which was full of new books and new pencils. I somehow always had a fascination for red color. Even my father's car (Toyota Cressida) was red in color.

My school had a heterogeneous mix of nationalities ranging from Indians, British, Americans, Iraninans, Philipinoes, Bangaldeshis, Saudis etc. I was lucky to grow up in an environment which had such a diversity.

The medium of instruction was invariably english. There were instances when we would be punished if we spoke any other language other than english.

The area over which our school was spread was very large, might easily have been many lakh square feets. There was a separate ground for football, cricket, basketball, volleyball, classrooms, canteen, masjid, Indoor Stadium, parking arena, audio visual room, laboratories, admin block, staff quarters etc. Probably the biggest structure I have ever seen in my life.

And we used to go to the school in MERCEDES BENZ BUSES which had a TV and a built in loo inside the bus itself and a totally air conditioned. The seats in those buses could easily compete with the seats available in any International plane. The fees was quite high but was worth it and my father was there to take care of it.

It was here that I fell in love with football because the International community hardly knew anything about cricket and football was the only sport that almost everybody played. Baseball used to be played on the cricket ground. So maybe that explains my partial incompetence at playing cricket.

Apart from normal studies, our school authorities encouraged us to take part in various co-curricular and extra curricular activities. The Indoor Stadium would be resounding with cheers, claps and laughter as and when any debate or speech competition or quiz used to take place.

As far As I remember, I was mostly in the Red house. The entire school was divided into four houses: Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. The highlight would be the Sports Day which would be organized in our school. I don't have enough words to describe that event in this post. I am sure my ex-classmates or ex-school mates would be able to feel that if they read this post on my blog.

Occasionally we used to be shown movies in our school like Jaws, Gandhi etc. The canteen would be our best hangout zone wherein you got everything from the Switz Donuts, Sandwiches, Pepsi, Sun Top (Orange Juice), Sun Cola, Sun Fun etc.

Let me also mention the loos. Probably they were the cleanest loos I have ever seen in an educational institution.

Coming to our classrooms. Each classroom had two A.Cs and each student was alloted a separate chair and table. And all the classes were carpeted. And we had makeshift gardens outside almost every class.

There were several gardens in our school almost at every furlong. Learning was never a compulsion but an excitement in our school. We were taught each and every thing practically and the teachers there used to facilitate learning and not jam in information.

It was almost a different world once we entered the huge gates of our school. We loved going to school and always missed our school during holidays. Our school used to function from Saturday to Wednesday. Thursdays and Fridays were holidays as it was the norm in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia the temperatures rarely fell below 35-37 degree celsius. So everything from our cars to homes etc had to be centrally air conditioned. We lived in a double storied bungalow which had a garden in its backyard and a laundry room and servant's quarters within our bungalow itself. The bedrooms were on the first floor and everything else in the ground floor. Our school bus used to come right outside our door and drop us back in front of our door. So we rarely had to walk.

The article is getting very long and I have not even written about 1% of the excitement I had in my school. Well.....even my younger sister and brother also studied in the same school. My admission number was 622 and till the latest count the total strength of our school had crossed 50,000. So I can take pride that I was one of the oldest alumnus of my school. I had literally seen my school take shape in front of my eyes.

And lastly about my teachers. Though I can't write all of their names here but if it wasn't for them, then I would not have been here.

So to all my teachers, seniors, juniors, janitors, helping staff and everybody else who have worked or are working in that school, from the bottom of my heart all I can say is a big THANK YOU.

'COACH' Kuch Hota Hai

Finally I have to admit that cricket has once again become boring. You get to know the results of the matches even before they are played.

A couple of days ago as I sat watching India play (or should I use the word 'thrash') New Zealand, feeling quite tensed anticipating who might win the match. A friend of mine walked upto me and said, 'Don't worry, there is no way that India can lose the match.', saying this he simply walked away leaving me profounded.

And as he had predicted India had won the match. Now comes the million dollar question. Is a team as good as its players or as good as its coach?????

I see people heaping praises on Dhoni or Sehwag or Zaheer or Sachin, but can or should the same amount of praise should be levied on Gary Kirsten too??? One second.......Gary Kirsten, who?????

Well, I may not be absolutely wrong to say that nearly 50% of the people don't really know that Gary Kirsten is the coach of the great Indian cricket team.

Does Gary Kirsten too deserve a pie into the continuous success of the Indian team or can the team manage without a coach??? Well, I don't think so. A coach is like a battery who drives the team. Since Gary prefers to keep a low profile doesn't make him an alien to the success of the team.

I think he was responsible in creating a self belief in the team that could win matches from any position that they might be in. The phase after when he took over as a coach has been extremely rewarding for India and Gary Kirsten deserves equal amount of praise for his behind the curtain bravado.

Well, I feel that if given time Gary Kirsten can prove himself to be Sir Alex Fergusson and mould the Indian cricket team into the Manchester United of cricket.

P.S:- I have referred to Manchester United because in the current European Football Season they are unbeatable and it is virtually impossible to stop them in their quest to win an unprecedented quintuple of which they have already won two and are well on course to win the remaining three trophies too.

Triplem's SWEN: NEWS As It (DOESN'T) Happens.....

Welcome to a new feature of my blog.............

Coming straight to the point; What is SWEN?????

I am sure you might know what SATYAM is? Then I also assume you might all know what MAYTAS is??? (For the uninformed) MAYTAS is SATYAM spelled backwards.

The same is the case with SWEN, which is NEWS spelt backwards. NEWS is the collection of events that 'HAPPEN' across the world. But SWEN is the collection of events which 'DO NOT HAPPEN'across the world.

I mean in SWEN, I will be writing fictitious events which have a very very rare probability of actually occurring. It could be hilarious or thought provoking depending on your perceptions.

So lemme get started.........

1) Himesh Reshammiya wins the OSCAR for the BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE.

2) Sania Mirza makes history!!!!! She attains No.1 ranking in Women's tennis.

3) Triplem is officially rated as the best Counter Strike player in his hostel.

4) King Khan and Aamir Khan to come together in a film called 'Mere Kutte Ka Naam Kya Hoga???', to be directed by Salman Khan.

5) Amitabh Bachchan's cat's boyfriend is a gay.

6) Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) agree for a merger.

7) Vijay Mallya takes sanyas from drinking.

8) India defeats Brazil in FIFA football World Cup finals.

9) WALMART files for bankruptcy as recession gulps down its latest victim.

10) Virender Sehwag is a frequent visitor to HABIB'S hair saloon

THANKS for reading SWEN.....The best way to keep yourselves (MIS)Informed.

DISCLAIMER:- TRIPLEM is the editor, reporter, whatever etc of this SWEN. But he is in no way responsible for it. In case of any disputes, the decision of the highly qualified courts of Planet Jupiter would be binding and treated as the final authority.

So HAPPY reading and have lots of FUN!!!!!

P.S: This SWEN would be updated periodically.

Book Review: Love Story by Erich Segal

I was given this book by a friend of mine asking me to review it. So I thought I would write the review on my blog too. Actually I had heard a lot about this book but could never lay my hands on it. I also knew that some parts of King Khan's blockbuster movie 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' was inspired by this book. So I expected this to be one helluva kinda book.

The book starts off with Oliver Barrett describing that his wife Jennifer Cavilleri is dead and then goes into the flashback mode. The plot starts off well keeping you hooked to the book. The ending is equally absorbing and stays with you.

The main problem lies in the middle of the book. Since this novel is mostly verbose, so some readers might quickly lose interest in the proceedings as they all revolve around these two individuals and their interactions.

The novel is peppered by many characters, but only Phil and Oliver III register an impact.

All in all, this novel can be read if you have ample time to spend. Otherwise it can safely be left on the shelf in favour of other novels like 'The Alchemist' or 'Married but Available'.

Overall Rating:- 2.5/5

Are The Beauty Contests A Reality Or A MYTH?????

This idea occured to me as I was browsing the Wikipedia and happened to stumble upon the list of the winners of the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Asia-Pacific or Miss Whatever.......

What I noticed was that India won its first title way back in 1966, when Miss Reita Faria was crowned the Miss World. After that there was not a single title that was won by India till 1994. In 1994, India won both the Miss Universe and Miss World titles and after that there was no looking back for India till 2000-2001. And after 2000-2001 the drought has again begun.

Another interesting observation that I happened to come across was that prior to 1990, these titles were won mostly by the Europeon or the North and South American countries and other developed countries like Russia and Australia.

But what is more interesting is that after 1990 countries like India, Nigeria, Turkey, Namibia, Puerto Rico (if I have spelt it right) started winning contests. And we all know that it was after 1990 that the phenomenon of Globalization occured in most of these countries.

Is it a coincidence or a planned calculation?????

It maybe because the BIG companies like Lakme, Lo'real etc have a subsequent say in deciding the winners of these contests and when Globalization was sweeping across the globe, they felt it right to expand their businesses to foreign shores. And the best way to do that was to let the Globalizing countries win the titles left, right and centre.

It was the only way that they could enter these markets with their obscenely high priced products and arm twist the people into buying them if they want to look like their fellow citizens who had won Miss Universe or Miss World titles.

P.S:- What I have just written is my opinion. I am not saying that everytime these competitions are fixed. All I want to say that weren't there any beautiful women in India worthy of winning those titles between 1967 till 1993????? And when India achieved Globalization at the beginning of the 21st century, these titles have again stopped coming India's way.

Is The New Team India Uniform Jinxed?????

All it took was a couple of defeats in the T-20 matches for all the brouhaha to break loose. Is the new Team India uniform jinxed????????? This is what the news channels are running poll campaigns about and some reputed TV commentators too are echoing the same things. What the ........?????

After all its a game and there will be the victors and the vanquished. And if sticking to the same uniform would do wonders, then Australia should still have been the best team in the world??

I feel cricket has become more intersting after a couple of defeats to the Team India because previously be it any match India was winning and the outcome of the match would be known even before the matches began. These defeats will now enable Team India to shrug off any complacency that might have crept in.

At the end of it, it is the class that is permanent and form is temporary and Team India has this class in abundance and nobody can ever take that.

I could see the relief and happiness on the faces of the Kiwis especially after getting Sehwag out, because he is one guy who can simply tear apart any bowling attack. This is the fear that Team India instills in the hearts of its competitors.

Well, the One-Dayers would be beginning from Tuesday and it shouldn't be long enough before Team India again gets back its winning touch.

COME ON INDIA DIKHADO!!!!!!!!!!