The Wonder Years

I think it was sometime before the short recess...there was this girl...Gopika Malkan...She was tall, i think taller than i was at the time, beautiful, fun loving...all the things that can make a boy about 12 years of age fall in LOVE with a girl...so i did...most of you who know me, know that my crushes change in a matter of days...and like the great shakespere once wrote and my tenth grade class teacher acknowledged...I wore my heart on my sleeve...so crushes came and went...never ever really did anything about them...maybe once, but that is another story...for another time...but i knew that one girl in my class, of fifty some people...would always be on my top list of crushes...and the things that i did for that girl...i dated another girl in tenth grade so i could be closer to gopika...i used to want to change houses...now this concept of houses in a school messed me up the first time i heard it...my sports teacher came upto me and asked me whats the color of your house ?

CHOICES: A-BLUE
                    B-GREEN
                    C-RED
                    D- Yellow

And my dumb answer was BROWN...you should have seen the look on that shantaram's face...priceless.....it made sense at the time though....but i wondered why my sports teacher would want to know that kind of personal information...the color of my house/apartment building was none of his business...i was probably 8 at the time... so you can understand the confusion...but anyways...she was in blue house and i was in yellow...and i couldn't stand the camaraderie that the people in the blue house shared during sports events, debates or any such activity...so i bought a t-shirt one time that was for blue house students...and wore it to school, hoping gopika would share just one day of that camaraderie with me...when questioned about the change in color...i had said that my older cousin was in blue house and i accidentaly took hers...i thought that was a smart answer because the t-shirts for guys and girls were the same...but stupid ol me forgot that she was in the yellow house too...so my attempts to come close to MY GIRL continued...while my other crushes continued...i remember once i stood outside a bus...after school for ten minutes staring at this girl...coz i thought that she was so amazing...she was two years older and a friend of my sister...so i stood there staring at her lifting that heavy bag and putting it into the storage shelf...how beautiful she looked...there was a time when i went to mauritius on a school trip in ninth grade...with 14 girls and two guys who were in 5th grade...or standard...whatever you may call it...on this trip there were five girls that had been top contenders on my crush list over time including the great, beautiful, untouchable, unreachable, GOPIKA...so you can understand how totally AWESOME that trip was....and to add to it...there was another one that was added to the list after the first day flying....so yeah...to describe the true feelings that i had for my unicorn is a feat that i would die trying to convey...or maybe i'll just die of embarrasment because of what i'm about to write down

I love your hands
I love your eyes
I love your love
Beyond the skies

This is the poem i wrote for her when i realised i was in love with her...at the age of 12...sitting in class...three rows behind the goddess...wondering what it might be to sit next to her

Sunday beautiful Sunday

Damn!!!  How many times does that happen?  From smalltown Akron to Cleveland...on 8 North...where you will find three stop lights on a frigging highway...we (myself, sunny, puneet and hari) didn't catch one red light...and when we got off at the cricket ground exit...we caught a green again...I have never ever caught all greens on that 8 north....so we were joking around that it was gonna be the driver's day....the driver being my humble self....
So we got to the ground and it was an overcast morning...I didn't think that we would be able to finish the game...but the game began....and our strike bowlers, namely hari and manpreet, got one striking wicket for us...the second wicket partnership was a good one...and it nearly took us out of the game...all our bowlers toiled hard...but be it because of dropped catches or misfields...we couldn't get that partnership broken...finally, our captain, hari, realized that it was time to use his frontline, supreme bowler...so sachin of Akron cricket club (myself again)...came into bowl...at first i was a little nervous...but soon i settled down...i was suprised how difficult it was to control the ball in those conditions...i mean...i know i am a slow medium pacer...but....i guess i swing it too much...just kidding guys...anyways...two overs of mine down and one good over by our chappar captain...and they felt the need to go for some runs...and then it happened...how was thatttttttttttttttttttttt......sohail...their best batsman...was caught plumb in front by our team's best bowler...brijesh sujan...then came another one...and another and another...so the budding all rounder did it again for ACC....starting at 118 in like 24 overs with one wicket down...they were all out for 181 in 34 overs....manpreet CHIPPED in with four wickets too...but they were all lower order batsmen...so now it was time to BAT...
Kiran and myself...opened the innings...and trust me there aren't many better 2 hours in life than going all out against decent bowling and dominating....that's a rush i felt yesterday...i shouldn't get addicted to it though...i know its not my game...kiran is the aggressive one and i stay...thats my role....so i stayed till the twenty something over and got out...but i must say that...kiran had 9 runs...when i had 42.....booooooooo yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh......thats probably the first and last time i'll do that...so i'll rub that into my buddy too....but he played a good innings...that was fun...so yeah back to boasting....i scored a 69 and hari, puneet, kiran bhaskar, and batula all chipped in with a few runs here and there...myself and hari have been fighting for the tag of sachin on the team for two seasons now...but come on now...i think it's a well established fact...i can bowl anything....from offspin to medium pace...JUST LIKE SACHIN...lately i've been batting decently...JUST LIKE SACHIN...and i open the innings...JUST LIKE SACHIN....
ALL I HAVE TO ASK MY CAPTAIN, HARI, TO FINISH THE ARGUMENT "HOW MANY RUNS HAVE YOU SCORED IN THE MIDWEST TOURNAMENT BUDDY?"
 
NO HARD FEELINGS GUYS...ONLY INTENTED TO BRING SMILES TO YOUR FACES...OR INVITE THE MIDDLE FINGER  

Sunday bloody Sunday

To think i could have had a PERFECT WEEKEND....there aren't many of those...there was this one time when the wolves, vikings, twins and the wild all won important games over one weekend...that was pretty perfect...but this last one....it came pretty f... close...it started friday afternoon....basketball and tennis for four hours....thats what we used to do in the much heralded days of 15-18 years of age....but yeah....i realized how old i was when i got home after that...in that...my body creaked, like those doors in the cheesy scary movies...and when i finally decided to stop being sympathetic to my needs...i got up and ran a quick errand...and then went out for the italian festival over in cuyahoga falls...the festival was greattttttt...or so i heard...coz as soon as i got there...it was time for the shops to close....so yeah...after that we went to the battle of the bands at gillians and got pretty wasted there....after which....i came home passed out....and woke up to the most brilliant saturday morning idea...indian food for $6...all you can eat...pani puri....chole...the works...now you might be thinking....can this guy not think about anything else...its always about food, sports, women, cars....there is this one thing i want to write about...sooooooooo badly....its like acceleration you have never felt before...and to feel it everyday...is almost mind numbing....i wish i had a 1300 cc Hayabusa....which im working on...someday...someday...that's what losers like me say....
anyway back to my weekend...watched one of the best superhero movies....spidey 2....brilliantly done...as much as the first part was a let down...this second one....rockedddddddd....the elevator scene was hilarious....anyways....got back from the movie...was late and exhausted for cricket practice....so just watched th guys play...then went for poker night...which i won.....forty dollars in the bag....it was sweet...i wish i can find about seven guys in india to play poker with...that would be cool...i wish i find this beautiful, both inside and out woman someday....i wish i had a porsche carrerra gt....i wish i die base jumping and not in some bed somewhere...i wish i could have one bite of tandoori chicken sometime....i wish...i wish...i wish the vikes win the superbowl ring...this year...and im here to watch them do it....i wish the twolves win it all this year and im here to watch it....and i wish that life stays this awesome...all the time

You Better Go Get Her Humphrey

Was watching this sweet ass movie about half an hour ago....I've seen it about three times now...seems to be an HBO favorite and consequently has become one of mine...as embarassed as I am to admit it...it's more of a chick flick...it would make a great bollywood flick too...Brown Sugar...
It's so real....that's the appealing part....and it confuses me...challanges me...and basically messes me up everytime...it gets me to think....and most of you know i'm not the thinking kinds...my phone just rang...and the reason this movie messes me up is the one who just called...my life is an open book...and sometimes...you know when you kinda come back to the reality...after a super long high...you start to wonder...when...and how?
Shit i'm just gonna say it now...no matter how many people I meet...it dosen't seem anymore than a distraction...it's like the main event has passed me by...it's like something inside saying exactly what the title suggests...

"You better go get her Humphrey or you will be walking away into the fog with some dude!"