A lesson learnt

Life teaches us her lessons in so many different ways. Sometimes you learn by experience - your own or others, sometimes by failure or sometimes through some friend or stranger.

I learnt a lesson today... and I learnt it from a friend! Amit shared a beautiful story with me today in response to my 'Why Me!!!' blog series. It's his version of the story of tennis superstar Arthur Ashe and his take on life. It surely is a must-read for any of you who has 'ditto'-ed (or will 'ditto' in the future) my thoughts on 'Why Me!!!'.

Here's what Amit had to say...
The story is as follows.. it is in my own words since I do not have the original story... but the essence is well captured. I guess you can take the learning from this... this is MY FAVOURITE STORY !!!

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Arthur Ashe was a 3 time Grand Slam winnner (including the Wimbledon in 1975) who was later on diagonised with HIV in 1988, to which he eventually succumbed in 1993. Given that he was an extremely popular man, he used to get all kinds of fan mail when he was in hospital. One day, he received a letter from a woman asking, amongst other things, 'Why did God have to chose you for this dreaded disease?????'

To which, Arthur answered as follows: (again the numbers might not be accurate)
'Nearly 500,000 kids start playing tennis year...
Of which, about 5000 reach the proffessional level of tennis
Of which, only 128 are good enough to play in Wimbledon
Of which, only 2 reach the final
Of which, only 1 wins the coveted Wimbledon trophy'
So each year, out of the lakhs of kids that take up tennis, only 1 is chosen by God to win Wimbledon.

So when I was standing on Centre Court in Wimbledon all those years back holding aloft the men's singles champion trophy, did I look up to the heavens and ask God, "Why me????"


Here's what I said in reply...

Hey Amit,

Thanks for sharing the story with me.

Truly touching and definitely teaches me to take things as they come in true sportsman spirit.

I fully agree that life balances the positives we have with a few not so positive moments. It takes a lot of grit to accept that reality and move on with life.

I started off my 'Why Me!!!' blog only because I also believe that to 'move on' despite all odds you need to shed them away instead of holding onto them. Sharing stuff with friends and well-wishers will only attract sympathy and philosophy. 'Why Me!!!' gives me my own personal space to yell out as loudly as I can without still being heard :). Has helped me vent out my 'gussa' through my writing and makes me feel a lot lot lighter.

************

Thanks Amit for letting me put this up here. I'm sure it'll somehow impact those who spend some time around 'Why Me!!!'

Fraud Fraud Fried

I rather skip the 'Happy New Year' pleasantry here. Will be quite an oxymoron on a space dedicated to my cribbier side :))

First things first I'm proud of the fact that I lived upto my No 'Why Me!' Month resolution for December 2008 in memory of the barbaric act of terror in Bombay. Made me realize, in a way, that there are bigger problems that life throws on people. Fighting back and working yourself out of it is the challenge.

2009 has started off on a miserable note for me... on the job front among other things. I'm supposed to be switching jobs next week. And guess where I'm moving to... Satyam Computers!!!

For a dramatized and sensationalized version of the story thats haunting me I'll only have to advice you to browse through our TV news channels. In the middle of all the chaos I couldn't still hold back a giggle when I saw some news reports that covered the Satyam fiasco with fancy titles like 'Shri 420' referring to Mr. Raju :P

I had been looking forward to this job change and the new profile for a while now... and my obvious reaction to this whole fiasco was one huge exasperated 'Why Me!!!!'

PS: If you're a head-hunter or a potential employer... I've just made your day :P

No 'Why Me!!!' Month

I am terribly shocked, stunned and angry at what has happened in Bombay!!!

Terrorism has metamorphosed into something even deadlier this time. I am deeply hurt to see how so many people and their families have suffered for no fault of theirs.

I have been cribbing a lot... and I guess I may do so forever... but at times I feel guilty about it when I see people around going through so many ordeals.

I have decided to observe the month of December 2008 as No 'Why Me!!!' Month in memory of all those who lost their lives or near and dear ones in the recent terror strike at Bombay.

Karzzzzzzzzz.....*yawn*... zzzz!!!

The feeling of not having cribbed for a while was making me feel incomplete. I was worried my new blog series won't work out. And then came along a weekend when I happened to watch the Himesss Ressammmiya starrer Karzzz...(dunno how many z's the movie name has actually).

Take an old movie, pick up stars who are not doing too much work, use up latest filming technology and roll out a brand new movie - and there you have a remake ready. Yes, remakes are the latest fad among Bollywood directors.

This time it was Satish Kaushik's turn. Karzz is a remake of Subhash Ghai's superhit Karz of long time back.

Am not a big Himesh fan... but I'm not the 'it is fashionable to crib about Himesh' variety either. I had not seen his earlier acting attempt... so I thought I'll give Karzz a chance. Sometimes, thinking is criminal!!!

The movie was painfully boring. Himesh should stick to singing (??!! :P). The poor guy looked so uncomfortable while speaking, crying and attempting to emote, fight and dance. Guess that just about covers everything about acting. :P

Rishi Kapoor as Monty was a heart-throb. Himesh as Monty left a painful throb in the heart and mind!!!

The rest of the cast were overacting personified... total melodrama... no substance!!!

Urmila was a let down. She had such heavy make-up in the second half where she was supposed to look old. In the first half she had very little make-up... but that made her look naturally old :P :P.

Gulshan Grover... the Bad Man of Bollywood didn't scare me one bit. He had some weird gizmo arm... that he used to communicate as he could not speak!!! Somehow these oddities got generously ignored in older Bollywood movies. Nowadays I doubt it works!!!

I liked Dino Morea in his guest appearance. Looked good and did a decent job too. Wish he had more screen time :)

Songs were ok. The classic Ek Hasina Thi and its famous music recreated the old Karz charm. Tandoori Nights, Sisak Sisak Ke and Lut Jaoon are ok to hear... but don't really bother seeing the videos.

One thing that we must commend the makers of the movie for... their enormous foresight for the extra Zzz's in the movie's title :P :P

I wasted my time watching this one... please don't waste yours on it.

My rating for Karzzz... 'Whyzzzzz Meezzzz!!!' :P

Drenched :)

I stepped out of office last evening and there was a slight drizzle. Out of the blue... coz it was pretty warm through the day. Obviously I wasn't carrying an umbrella.

By the time I reached my office gate it started raining heavily. I had to cover a 5 minute walk to the railway station. The dupatta played saving grace cum style statement (I love draping the dupatta over the head - for the shy good girl effect it creates :P). Not to mention I was completely wet by the time I got to the station.

I've always hated getting wet in the rain... would have smirked at myself last evening and thought I found one more for the 'Why Me' series :).

But somehow I enjoyed the rains last evening. Didn't mind getting wet in the rain at all. Hmmm... just brought back some memories that almost made me forget that I was wet and drenched. Cribby me forgot that am supposed to crib about it!!!

Just read some 90-10 principle by self-help guru Stephen Covey. According to him 10% of life is made up of what happens to us and 90% of life is decided by how you react! He goes on to say that we have no control over 10% of what happens to us but the rest of the 90% depends entirely on how we react to that 10%. Guess the rains and getting wet in it was the 10%... and am glad I controlled the remaining 90% by not cribbing and sulking. What a fantastic parallel I've drawn :P

If Mr. Covey reads this blog he'll probably think he has been successful with his gyaan!!! Watch out Mr. Covey... I'll be back to cribbing and 'Why Me'-ing... coz every day is not a rainy day!!!

The Break Down

I usually take a share auto from Guindy to Adyar every evening on the way back home from office.

Last evening just as I stepped out of the Guindy subway I saw this bus that goes to Adyar. It was not crowded at all... for a change. The driver was slowly starting off from the bus stop. Had been a while since I had boarded a bus in motion... here was my chance. I did just that... but didn't enjoy it as much. Another lady shared the same chance and we almost bumped into each other. The thrill of boarding a moving bus was muddled by this confusion!!! I almost said 'Why Me' but then I found a seat to sit and I guess that took care of it :)

All of a sudden the bus screeched to a halt at the Little Mount signal. Apparently the driver banged into someone or some vehicle. I was in no mood to find out what it was. The driver was forced to pull the bus to a halt and we were asked to take another bus. I was so lost in thought that I got off matter of factly and decided to wait for a share auto at that busy Little Mount junction. I waited for around 15 mins... but there was no auto I could get into. The bright yellow lights of the speeding vehicles were scary and blinding.

And then, even as I stood there, I saw my bus moving... I guess the driver had settled scores with whoever or whatever he banged into and was on his way ahead now. There was no way I could get into that bus now coz of the heavy traffic... All I could do there was ask myself... 'Why Me!!!'.

PS: for the sympathetic reader variety who want to know what i did next to resolve this mundane nothing of an issue... :P... i Walked down to the Saidapet court bus stop after a while and got another bus to Adyar. Autos and share autos are extremely elusive when you need them the most :)

Just Another IT experience

I went on my first onsite trip to Munich. This was for a training on a new module that I was to work on for the client. I had a wonderful time there for 10 days (check out Munich Moments) and got back to India to work on things based on the training I had.

Barely a month down and I got a mail from my client that said the project has been scrapped due to unavoidable reasons. *LOL* was the instant reflex reaction to the mail... but that left me with a 'Why Me!!!' feeling too.

The Bulls, The Bears, The Me

The Stock Market was always something that I kept safe distance from. Somehow in the winter of 2007 I fell to the temptation of the bulls and the bears.

I am a safe player. I did all kinds of calculations, kept away from the costly blue chip scrips, chose some small yet promising ones and invested around 20 grands across 3 stocks.

I kept track of the market daily and monitored my portfolio on an hourly basis. This is what is called First Time Investor Syndrome... and it had struck me big time.

Over the next few months the market leapt to record highs... I was ecstatic. The small investor in me had made some extra dough. But then First Time Investor Syndrome didn't prompt me to sell my stocks and enjoy the extra dough :( I decided to wait till the extra became a little more extra... the 'thoda aur chahiye' symptom of the Syndrome perhaps.

After accounting for the global meltdown, record lows that the Sensex has fallen to... 20K now stands at around 8K. 12 grands may be peanuts for the rest of the world... but for someone afflicted by the First Time Investor Syndrome... I'm left asking myself... 'Why Me!!!'

an unfinished dream...

A clear dark sky... a bright white moon... a pleasant silence... the music like sound of the waves lashing against the sand... and there we were... he and I, hand in hand, trying hard to see what tomorrow holds for us. We barely spoke... but the silence said a lot more than words can weigh!

We were weaving a tomorrow for ourselves... oblivious to what the big bad mean world had in store for us. But then who hasn't heard of... Who Dares Wins!!! We dared... to dream.

Life was like never before... everything around just seemed so special. We did things we hated to do before... just coz it made the other happy. A perfect life is hard to have. But somehow our life seemed perfect and complete now.

Nothing comes easy in life. We had our ups and downs... downs more often!!! But somehow we tried hard to fight out everything that came our way.

Things were slowly falling in place... our tomorrow didn't seem too far away... we decided to have a fairy tale beginning to our tale...

There I was... all set to step into a new life... a new world... a new tomorrow... woven only for me and him... and there he was... just around the corner... atop a white horse... galloping away towards me with a smile on his face...

I stood there with a smile on my face and a tear in the eye... waiting impatiently for him to get closer and whisk me up close to him... and ride me into our tomorrow... the tomorrow we were longing for.

He reached me at last... stretched out his hand... I held it too... and then all of a sudden everything froze and came to a standstill!!!

There was a music playing out of the blue... wedding bells chiming... naaah... something that went like... 'Tujhse Naraaz Nahi Zindagi... Hairaan hoon main....' the song from the movie Masoom.... and the music just got louder and louder... till I woke up to hear myself tell...'Damn!!! It was all a dream!!!'.

It was my mobile alarm tone that put a mean and rude end to the tomorrow of my dreams!!! I was left all alone staring at the ceiling... and almost screaming out aloud... 'WHY ME!!!'

PS: I haven't given up dreaming... I don't believe in leaving things unfinished... dreams are no exception!!!

Hmmmm...

...as in... where do I start!!!

Was in one of those big time 'WHY ME' moods... and in all that josh n negative enthu decided to blog such 'why me' moments... went all out and created the blog, checked availability of all kinds of senti titles for the blog and finally settled for KyunMe...

You probably think the hinglish bug has bitten me real hard... yeah but not this time... my mind didn't go beyond 'Why Me'... unfortunately that blog name was taken... (guess some blogger in some part of the world was probably in one of those big time 'WHY ME' moods before me :P)... and i decided to settle for 'Kyun Me'... what an explanation!!! Hmmm... but thats how meaningless things seem when you're in the 'Kyun Me' mood... so the title stays as is!!!

Now where was I... yeah, I got the blog space up and running with a title, template and some gadgets here and there... and then when I had to begin ranting out my 'Why Me' tales... the Arian in me woke up... its tough you know for us high headed, stubborn variety of the zodiac to share our woes and cribs in public... so here I am... stuck for words... but I'll be back... soon... I've started wanting , more oftener than ever before, to stand up and scream... 'WHY ME!!!'