Was God the DJ today?

Do you believe in Divine Interference? Have you ever had the feeling that there’s someone out there looking out for you? Ever felt that you are just a pawn in the entire clock-work of the cosmos? Did it ever occur to you that, what happened could have happened in a very different way, but it happened as it did, because someone else orchestrated it?

This morning, I woke up to the sound of the alarm, but was too lazy to get out of bed. So just to get over the grogginess, I thought I might as well sit up and acclimatize myself to the early hour before getting out of bed. With nothing else to do in bed, I got the laptop from the table to check on the file downloads of the previous night & the power adaptor not being long enough, I had to remove it. Once I finished with it and was prepared to get out of bed, I logged off and kept the laptop on the table, and attacked the day starting with my daily activities to get ready for office.

As I finished getting dressed, I put the laptop in my laptop bag and headed for breakfast. Just at that moment, before I could switch off the Worldspace, they started to play Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen – one of my all time favourites. With that beautiful song playing, I couldn’t switch it off, so I got my breakfast on to the table and listened to the entire song. As the song got over and I started to go, I noticed that I had forgotten to put the power adaptor in my laptop bag. If I wouldn’t have stopped to listen to the song, I would have had no power cord in office and without it, my laptop wouldn’t have been able to sustain for 2 hours resulting in my going over to colleagues and begging for their power cords, while answering all the embarrassing questions about the missing cord. That song definitely saved me from that situation.

Divine Interference? Would you say that? Joan Osbourne wonders in her song, “If God was one of us”…I wonder, if God was the DJ today?

And that develops character!!!

Australian Open 2008 – Two 20 year olds won the men’s and women’s championship finals. Maria Sharapova triumphed over her 3 months younger opponent Ana Ivanovic in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 to clinch her 3rd Grand Slam. Novak Djokovic (20 yrs) defeats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (22 yrs) after losing the first set (the only set he lost in the entire tournament).

Post match ceremony, Novak – the favorite to win, 3rd seed against the unseeded Frenchman, wins over the crowd with the statement – “I know the crowd wanted him to win more. But it's all right, I still love you guys, don't worry.” The crowd cheers him on as he steps off the podium and poses for photographs with Tsonga.

20 year olds participating in championships and winning it!!! Makes me wonder, if I can ever attain that much in my entire life. These young men and women have probably given up their childhood and focused on their dreams, which would make them icons in this world. They would have been through so much as kids. And not only them, but their parents as well. But now they are living their dreams. They have attained so much maturity and character with their journey…and I believe that’s what has made them champions. To quote from the Maria Sharapova’s blog:

“I know it’s as tough for my fans to handle my losses as it is for me,” she writes. “But let me point something out. I didn’t leave my mom at the age of seven for nothing. I didn’t spend six hours a day practicing in the Florida sun at the age of nine for nothing... I didn’t sleep in little cots for three years, eating oatmeal out of a packet while playing in the middle of nowhere for nothing. All this has helped me build character and there’s no better asset than being able to stand up for yourself.”

Cut to the same country, hosting the Border-Gavasker Trophy, with the Aussies and the Indians sweating it out on the field with not only their cricket talent but also their tongues. Suddenly, cricket doesn’t feel like a gentleman’s game anymore. These players ranging from 19 years to 37 years have left no stone unturned to express their desire to win over each other…but at any cost, even at the cost of the game. Maybe not all of them, but definitely some of the 30+ year olds can take a leaf out of the young Aus Open stars to analyze their own approach to the game.

Is it easier for sports people who play on their own rather than teams to excel in their chosen areas of sports? Does the group mentality affect a sportsperson more than an unsatisfied hunger for individual glory? Or is it just that lone players have developed more character because they have sweated it out by themselves in their triumphs and defeats?

If you look at footballers, they never seem to grow up. The only thing they know is to do their stuff on the field and then have a wild time with the opposite sex soon after the game. If they're not in the newspapers for their on-the-field antics, they'll definitely be there for their exploits off the field with the WAGs. But then, they also have given their best to the game, and no one can blame them for what they deserve.

Come to think of it, tennis has it’s own bad boys – John McEnroe, Goran Ivanisevic et all. And cricket has it’s gentlemen like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Andy Flower & Stephen Fleming. And all of them had one thing in common – the desire to win against all odds.

In the end, every sport is different & has it's own challenges. And, I guess, you need to have it in you to develop enough character to be competitive in them...to face and overcome those challenges...to excel. It’s just that these sports put you in different stages in your life and instills in you the need to stay afloat when every situation might endeavor to pull you down.

And that develops character!!!

And they lived happily ever after?

The other day, I was talking to a friend. She was complaining about her relationship - the difficulties of a long distance relationship, the misunderstandings and the ever increasing gaps in expectations and achievements. I just listeneedd to it all without really venturing with any opinion or advice. Not that she needed advice - over the years, I have understood that when women talk, they generally don't look forward to advice; it's enough for most of them to have someone to listen to it all. It's very easy to be friends, but once you cross that line and go the next step, most people would agree that suddenly the equations change. The same people who were so much fun as friends, suddenly become responsibilities - never easy to please, always ready to pick on your shortcomings & sometimes extremely difficult to understand. Maybe, I'm only giving the darker side; sometimes it turns out beautiful as well, with easier communication and understanding. And thats how it should turn out, since it's the same person - the friend who understood you so well, that you chose to spend your life with him/her.

But then, most of the times once you start sharing your life with a person, you start having extremely huge expectations from the person. During your friendship - the issues you used to laugh at and erase from your mind, suddenly the very same issues turn out to be the basic reasons, you start getting angry. You forget that, you were able to have a great frienship with the person, just because you never had hang-ups or problems with your partner's way of life - you might have actually adored them and fallen in love with them.

Once you start thinking that your partner should adopt the way of life you choose, it turns ugly, since two people might have completely different outlooks towards life - and even the outlook might keep changing over the years. Most people believe that their partner should always treat them as special, but is it necessary? Why is it necessary? Weren't the days of friendship when you were not treated so "specially", much better? And then there are others who insist that their partner shouldn't have a separate life other than the one with them. Why? Isn't it better that both people have their own life and share those moments with each other, rather than completely fuse their life together - alwasy doing the same things together.

Maybe it's fun for some, but would definitely take away the independence of others.

It would be so much happier for both the members in a relationship to accept the other person's view and if not in agreement, just mention it, rather than having expected something and having your expectationos blown off. But I guess, these things will never change and there will always be complaints about partners. Guess thats how life stays interesting to people.

Over n Over again!!!

At this very moment in time, I’m listening to Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen – for the third time in repeat mode. I have this habit of listening to a particular song over and over again, for days. Once, I listened to Boulevard of Broken Dream, in repeat mode, for 5 days continuously, pausing briefly when I slept. The guy in the neighboring room got so frustrated that he threatened to take away my speakers. My senior who used to stay in the room just above mine, had commented once that he loved the songs which I used to play in repeat mode. I bet he did; he took my entire music collection to burn into cds when he left.

People do consider this habit of mine irritating, not that it matters much (other than someone threatening bodily or monetary harm). Everyone has habits which irritates others; guess this can count as one of the irritating habits of mine, among others.