Quote

"Life's not too short to live with regrets, hate and missed opportunities. Life's too long to live with them all. "

-yours truly

A California Sunset

The angel flew the space between the mountains and the ocean, the sun teasing the horizon, bathing it in a brilliant orange. It's rays like lava, fell and floated on the ocean water. The trees watched as the angel flew high in the calm, bathing in the glow. The calm shattered, the wind and the waves splashing against the rocks, the screams not heard. The waves couldn't conquer and the rocks wouldn't fall but the lava fell and the setting sun went bright one last time. Darkness fell, and so did she, not to rise again nor to fly.

Something true..

"Being broken hearted is kind of like having broken ribs, - from the outside it looks like everything is fine, but every breath you take hurts."

PS: Something I heard from somewhere. Don't read too much into it. Not everything here is personal.

credit: Amir

More memorable lines

"Jag ne cheena mujh se, Mujhe jo bhi laga pyaara

Sab jeeta ki ye mujh se, Main hardam hi hara"

-"Honthon se choo lo tum" Indivar/Jagjit Singh

Watching gods at work

Or as I say, one of the best days of my life.

Date: Aug 22 2009

Venue: Cincinnati

Event: Cincy Master's cup (Tennis)

What tanspired:

Watched Roger walk in in all white (RF shirt) to practice. This close.

Watched Roger demolish Murray. They hit the ball harder and faster than you see on tv. It's freakin' amazing

Stood under a tent in the rain eating crappy chinese and italian food. Note to self - have enough time to go out of the stadium to grab a bite. The food is invariably crappy.

Djoker walked in to center court to practice. Among the 5 people watching him.

Heard a yell and checked it out. It was Nadal practicing. A friend was so excited, she almost toppled into the court. Yes that close. (It's me on top drinking coffee in a white cap like I don't give a shit - truthfully, I want to jump down and hug him)

Djoker vs Nadal night match. Capacity crowd. ooh's and aah's filled match. If you get to watch only one match in your life, watch it under lights (unless Roger is playing during the day).

Summary: One day. Stars watched - Roger, Murray, Nadal, Djokovic. Life - fulfilled.

Dil ki baat

" Whisky jakham ke liye achi hoti hai
Jitna bada jakham utni jyada whisky "

- Nasseruddin Shah (Maharathi, 2008)

Coffee Roast

Long have I heralded the almighty coffee. Our dependence, our affection and our cocaine-like need for coffee as working adults is no secret. One who knows me well, knows how inane I am about my coffee to the extent of being snobbish. I love coffee and will go to any extent to savour it right. It was a while ago that I started choosing my whole roasts and grinding my own coffee. Having done that for a while now I got thinking about the fickle nature of the whole process and the amount of us we invest into it.

Roasting and grinding coffee is a love affair. There are different aspects to it that leave you with different after tastes and feelings. First the bean. There are beans of different kinds and flavor and complexity. Some are ok, which you do get used to and that’s fine but you know it’s not the one. But you nevertheless use it. You roast it and you have to do it right – the right temperature, the right amount of time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it goes wrong. When it does go wrong, you throw it out and start off with a new batch. All forgotten, all forgiven and a renewed vigor for that rich coffee taste. Some beans are just very good, and it is tougher to digest when you screw it up. Throwing it out leaves you with a feeling of let down and you might think for a while if it is worth roasting coffee at all. You might even switch to tea for a while but eventually you find your way back and start over again – roasting, grinding and savouring.

Some people are just unaware of the sinful pleasures of coffee. They know not what it is to smell that lovely waft of freshly ground dark roast. They are happy without it and would savour a regular off the shelf coffee as much as any other. That’s good. Infact I do feel it is one of the best ways to be – know not, miss not. Yes, because if you are a true coffee connoisseur, there will come a time when you find that perfect coffee. You know it is just the best thing you can ever have. You start off with a lot of love and care for it. You roast it and there are two ways it can go. You roast it to perfection. The smells, the aroma, the grind – everything is perfect. You brew it and it turns out to be the perfect cup of coffee you ever had. It’s blissful as you sit there enjoying and savouring the heavenly blend, lucky to have found the perfect bean. It is giddy. Or, it goes very wrong. It is so perfect that it is temperamental and has to be handled with utmost care. A slightly higher temperature or roast it a little longer and you can spoil it very easily. The perfect coffee spoilt and reduced to mere cinders and bitter tasting brew. There is no turning back. You are left with the same feeling of let down as before except there is no turning back this time. You know you had it and messed it. It is not in you to do it again, as the trepidation of screwing up again and facing the angst, as only a true coffee lover can feel, is too much. You start the slow recess from the heavenly dark brew and pull away – no more coffee.