Happy 39th Birthday - My Idol Rahul Dravid

Happy Birthday Rahul :)

Picture Courtesy: Rajasthan Royals Official Fan Club

One of the greatest Cricketers ever to have played the game, the one who has been an inspiration and role model to many budding Cricketers during the course of his 15 year International Cricket career, turns 39 today.

I am going through really strange and mixed emotions right now because from the past few days I feel like I am about to lose something precious, something which has been a part of me for a long long time. I get a strange feeling Rahul Dravid is going to announce his retirement soon, maybe as soon as the ongoing series against Australia concludes by the end of this month (if rumors are to be believed). I know he is 39 now, he can't carry on forever but still I really can't fathom the fact that I am not going to see my Idol play Test Cricket much longer. I know that retirement will be least of the worries on Dravid's mind right now. He would really want to concentrate on the remaining two tests and level the series by winning the next two tests. It will be a daunting task indeed (well almost impossible), considering India's poor showing with both bat and ball in this series. I am probably not making any justice to this post by cribbing only about Dravid's retirement on a day I am supposed to be happy. My thoughts are very emotionally clouded right now and I just can't think straight.

I had a lot of things planned to post here today. I had been collecting picture cut outs and articles of Dravid from various News Papers and Magazines from maybe 1997 on wards. I was planning to post all the pics here, all my collection over the years but heartbreakingly I can't seem to find those precious pictures and articles. I don't remember where I have kept them since we moved to a new place a couple of years ago. I know it is in a safe place in my home but I can't seem to find them right now. I am so distraught and frustrated. I am sitting here and typing this and my heart feels heavy.

Anyways I am not going to bore anyone with my whining anymore on this post. I am going to conclude with this lovely tribute to Dravid on his 39th Birthday, made by a fellow Dravid fan. :)

I'll try to enjoy this day and not worry about Dravid's retirement even though its hard for me not to think about it. No matter how much longer he plays now, I'll cherish each and every moment.  

Happy 39th Birthday, Rahul Dravid. Thank you for being my Idol and my Inspiration since the past 15 years and will always remain so. :)

Self Motivational Thoughts

Image Courtesy: Google Images

I had written this a few years ago on a piece of paper when I was going through a really terrible phase in my life. I always stay positive even if my life is in absolute dire-straits. I am a fighter and I have always fought my way through tough situations in my life. So I had written a few lines to motivate myself to overcome that tough phase. And it did help me a lot to a great extent. Now, I find myself going through another lean phase in my life. But I don't get bogged down by my failures, I don't get depressed, I always see a ray of hope. 

So here are some of my motivational thoughts to overcome failures/obstacles. Hope it helps, at least to a certain extent:

• Visualize your goal.
• Work out all the possible routes to reach your goal.
• Choose the best route (legally) achievable by you.
• List out the possible rivals and threats.
• Always stay focused on your goal and never lose the sight of it.
• Be supremely confident about your abilities.
• Believe in yourself.
• Don't let distractions affect you.
• Again remind yourself what your goals are and don't lose focus.
• Work very very hard.
• Always have a positive outlook.
• Don't let failures bog you down.
• Never ever give up, no matter what!
• List out your positives and negatives. Work on your negatives and turn them into positives. 
• Work harder on your positives and make them even stronger.
• Try loving the things which you are not good at or which don't come to you naturally. You may not be the best at it, but certainly you will the worst at it, if you try.

There is absolutely nothing in the world which is not achievable by you, only if you mind. Its time to put words into actions.  

Cox Town Annual Fair 2012

Before I begin, let me start by wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. May all your hopes, dreams and aspirations come true.

Every year on the 1st of January, I used to welcome the New Year by visiting the Annual Fair, held near Frazer Town area of Bangalore meeting up with my old friends. It always used to be that way until 2008. I had missed this fair since the past three years due to unforeseen circumstances. But this year I really didn't want to miss it, my best friend Rajiv and I finally decided to grace the event.

I used to live in Frazer Town, since my childhood, I have some wonderful memories there, until I moved to Banashankari 3rd Stage in 2007. The Fair always fills me with nostalgia and yesterday was no different either. Even though for me there's nothing much in the fair to look forward to, because it mostly caters to children and women. Everywhere you either see children's toys or balloons or girly stuff like artificial jewelry or make-up kit. But still, just to be in that place on 1st of Jan gives me so much pleasure and happiness.

I did find something which really excited me and that was the only thing I bought in the fair. I am really happy because it was the most precious Rs.10 I have ever spent in my life.

A priceless possession with Mi Amor's name encrypted on it

The Fair starts from the Frazer Town Police Station stretch up until a place called Doddigunta (Cox Town) and also some parts of Wheeler Road. People from in and around these areas mostly flock to the fair, and also from places like Banaswadi and Jeevanahalli which are close by. People from various strata of life come here every year and I even spotted a few foreigners as well.

After a lull in the afternoon, people started flocking in large numbers.

The crowd we felt this year was a far cry compared to what we used to see, like 10 years ago. In those days, the fair would have opened a day earlier and the crowd we see in the above pic would have been the crowd on 31st Dec and not Jan 1st. The numbers would have almost doubled on the New Year's day. But still it was a decent crowd and the crowds kept coming in, and by 6PM on wards it became very crowded. And moving through the crowd became really difficult. I felt like I was in a densely crowded BMTC bus all over again.

Along the way I managed to meet up with my old school friends after many many years, and some of them are married and even have kids. Yes, that was indeed a WTF moment of the day for me. 

From Left: Mahesh, Murali with his kid and my best buddy Rajiv.

Also I found a few other interesting things that I wanted to share. I guess this would really interest the ladies, more than others.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

The Glow

The crowds in the evening kept increasing and that's when we decided we have had enough and its time to get out of there. Before we left, I took a few shaky pics in the midst of the crowd.

The shake was not intentional but I feel it looks kinda good though

Managed to click a proper one finally

And all of you remember this guy?

A Robot which predicts your future

The above robot predicted that all the nice people who will read this post and comment below will have a fabulous new year ahead. And he also says that if you promote this post on IndiBlogger, you will have an even better year.

So what are you waiting for?

Read, Comment, Promote and Share. :D

Nostalgia - The TV Video Games

A friend of mine on Facebook had shared a pic couple of days ago which evoked a sense of nostalgia within me. And that's what inspired me to write this post. It was the picture of Mario trying to jump over the Dragon which is coughing up fireballs and kill it, to save Princess Peach. 

Image Courtesy: Google Images

After going through so much trouble of killing the dragon, the girl says, "Thank you Mario! But our Princess is in another castle". And we had to go through that all over again. 

Image Courtesy: Google Images

But it was so much fun playing these TV video games, we never used to get bored. Me and my brother with all my cousins used to play these games all day and sometimes all through the night. Being a kid in the Nineties was so much fun, much before the advent of the PlayStation, XBOX and the PC Games. 

My favorite game used to be Spartan X. I was the absolute champ in that game. I still cherish it. :)

Image Courtesy: Google Images

I got my first video game back in 1995 after nagging my Dad to buy it for a long time. In those days these things used to cost a lot, like Rs. 3,500 and for the purchase of the ROM, we needed to shell out extra. Just the 64 in 1 ROM used to cost like 800 bucks. In the coming years these things became very cheap and by the year 2000 we used get these TV video game console for less than 500 bucks. And 64 in 1 ROM had become as cheap as Rs. 50

Now, they have completely vanished from the market but they still give us sweet memories whenever we think of those days as a kid playing the video games. 

I was just checking online whether we can still play these games on the net; I'm sure many of you might have come across it already. We can download these 64 in 1 ROM's or any other ROM and start playing these games and relive our childhood all over again.

Let me just post the download links of the 64 in 1 ROM and its Emulator file and give a brief description on how to play the game below:

You can download the 64 in 1 ROM file here.

You can download the Emulator file for the 64 in 1 ROM here.

Procedure:

1) Click on the above links and download both the files.

2) Extract the 64 in 1 ROM file and place it in a folder. (Downloads folder in Google Chrome, by default)

3) Extract and install the Emulator file.

4) After installing the Emulator file, you will get an installed file icon, (which has Mario's pic on it) double-click on that file, run it and a window opens up.

5) Click on File and select Open and Play ROM - Click on the file name which says 64-in-1 [p1].pes and open it.

6) And Voila! You see the 64 in 1 screen where you can play any of the games which you would have definitely played in your childhood. Use the Up and Down arrow keys, Shift to go to next page and Enter key to select a game and play. I'm sure you will find a way and relive your childhood again.

I am doing that right now! :)