Feb 19, 2007 - Friends Geeta and Mohan were stepping into their 2nd year of togetherness. We were all set to have a Dinner party, I got to hear over the phone about Ayya's (that's how I address my father) illness. I panicked, as I heard it to be a mild heart attack. It was shocking, as Ayya had always done well with his health, agile and active. My parents accompanied by my cousins were heading to Bangalore that night. It was a very difficult night to pass through, all sorts of thoughts crossing my mind, being unsure of what has happened fuelled my scares, felt guilty or rather helpless at being unavailabe at this crucial time. That night was crawling...
Next morning, I caught up with ayya at the Narayana Hrudayalaya. It felt better. He was composed and looked normal, extremely opposite to how Mom was. Mom has always been over-anxious. Vishanna (Dr. Vishwanath, my cousin) felt Ayya is safe as he had crossed those crucial initial hours after the attack. There was a long day ahead of us, deciding our next course of actions. Ayya underwent a set of cardiovascular tests, angiogram reports were asking for his surgery at the earliest. Doctors suggested about 10 days of wait so that his heart tissues could strengthen. Things started to settle, the feeling started to sink in and we were in preparation and anticipation of the surgery.
Feb 23, 2007 - That was a Black Friday, a day that would haunt me for ever. After attending to my anxious Mom's call about Ayya being taken down to the CCU(Coronary Care Unit) due to fever and chills, I started early from the office. I found Mom and Shubhakka worried there. I rushed into the CCU to have a look of Ayya, I got devastated. He was literally on life support system. His Pulse rate was in the range of 150's and the Blood Pressure well below 80/60. Those were scary scenes, which I couldn't convey to my Mom and Akka either. He was being administered a high dosage of medicines to stabilize both his heart rate and BP. On strong insistence from Mom, I decided to take her inside the CCU. Mom was shattered, right then a sad demise of a fellow Muslim patient added to her scare. She was on the floors. By then I had realized the magnitude of the issue, and promptly called up Vishanna for support. We had a night to pass by, a crucial one. Deciding to take it all by myself I sent both Amma and Akka home with some false-at-that-time but optimistic assurances. I was alone. Shilpa, Smita, Geeta, Mohan came to help me pass through that dreadful night. I don't remember praying that hard for anything before that. There were Lot's of prayers, phone calls to the CCU to check on the Ayya's reading all through the night. With sun shine, it started to get better. Two more days at the CCU, and Ayya was out of danger for then.
March 7th was decided to be the surgery day. The big day was nearing. Doctors, Surgeon were up against a not-so-easy task. The anxiety was building. By God's grace, Ayya was successfully operated by Dr. Sanjay Dhaded. The surgery went smoother than ever expected. Our prayers were heard. Four days Post Surgery, Ayya was in the ICU. It was quite a feeling when I spoke to him for the first time after his consciousness returned. To be able to recover from those Black Friday's lows was truly exhilarating. As my doctor cousin puts it "It was quite a miracle!".
March 22nd, Ayya was discharged from the hospital. Ayya has always had a great zeal in what ever he does. We were in for a rehabilitation period, with lot of care required towards what Ayya does, eats, sleeps etc.
Last week, ayya met up with his heart surgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya for his 6 months follow-up. His LVEF (Left ventricular Ejection Fraction - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LVEF) was 50%, from a mere 34% pre-surgery. I believe its his zeal for life and will power which helped him fight this battle of life and emerge triumphant.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
A New Begining and a Lesson
T20 is (definitely) here to stay. I couldn't resist but add the word "definitely" after I heard my anti-cricket mate say it was refreshing after she was forced to watch it. With my own purist reservations, I started to watch the Indo-Pak encounter. What a match it turned out to be? This is what all it takes to make any version of any game popular, a nail biting thriller.
T20 is believed to be heavily loaded in batsmen favour, with the rules tailor made for batsmen. But this match could well be a lesson in how to balance the favour between both the batters and bowlers. Under the overcast conditions, with a damp pitch good disciplined seam bowling was required. And Mohammad Asif just produced that. He was well supported by Gul and the awkward actioned Tanvir. It's never easy to set a target with no benchmarks available handy, but Utthappa and Dhoni managed to get India to 141, a not so compeitative total.
Indian seamers started off well. Both RP and Sreesanth swung the ball admirably and they were backed by the best fielding by an Indain side in a long while. Coming from the fielding-blues of English summer, this side has reemphasised the importance of youth in the shorter versions of the game. And the Paki Batsmen's over defensive approach combined with good spells from Irfan and Harbhajan. A late burst from Misbah-Ul-Haq and Arafat tilted the game towards Pakistan by the last over. But Indians held their nerve with fielders bought in and tied the match.
It wasn't over, there was Bowl-Out to follow for the first time in the T20 history to decide who would carry 2 points forward to the next round. During Bowl-Out, five nominated bowlers from each side have a GO at the stumps (with no batsmen to defend them), similar to penalty shootouts for Hockey, Football, the Side with the more hits gets home. In that kiddish affair, pakistanis unbeleively missed all three times while their counterparts managed it every single time to take home two points forward. Another typical Indo-Pak match.
Its only fitting that this thriller had less than 300 runs produced in it. Let the bowlers not die a thousand deaths for the sake of entertainment, that's brutal. Not only would that discourage youngsters taking to the role of a bowler, but also devalues their roles. No team game should belittle any of it's own facet for their needs to be an opportunity and challenge for everybody in it to be lived up to. The administration can take care of the bowlers by not producing belters all the time, may be relaxing/adding a couple of rules against the batsmen. Only then will this game do well in the very long run.
T20 is believed to be heavily loaded in batsmen favour, with the rules tailor made for batsmen. But this match could well be a lesson in how to balance the favour between both the batters and bowlers. Under the overcast conditions, with a damp pitch good disciplined seam bowling was required. And Mohammad Asif just produced that. He was well supported by Gul and the awkward actioned Tanvir. It's never easy to set a target with no benchmarks available handy, but Utthappa and Dhoni managed to get India to 141, a not so compeitative total.
Indian seamers started off well. Both RP and Sreesanth swung the ball admirably and they were backed by the best fielding by an Indain side in a long while. Coming from the fielding-blues of English summer, this side has reemphasised the importance of youth in the shorter versions of the game. And the Paki Batsmen's over defensive approach combined with good spells from Irfan and Harbhajan. A late burst from Misbah-Ul-Haq and Arafat tilted the game towards Pakistan by the last over. But Indians held their nerve with fielders bought in and tied the match.
It wasn't over, there was Bowl-Out to follow for the first time in the T20 history to decide who would carry 2 points forward to the next round. During Bowl-Out, five nominated bowlers from each side have a GO at the stumps (with no batsmen to defend them), similar to penalty shootouts for Hockey, Football, the Side with the more hits gets home. In that kiddish affair, pakistanis unbeleively missed all three times while their counterparts managed it every single time to take home two points forward. Another typical Indo-Pak match.
Its only fitting that this thriller had less than 300 runs produced in it. Let the bowlers not die a thousand deaths for the sake of entertainment, that's brutal. Not only would that discourage youngsters taking to the role of a bowler, but also devalues their roles. No team game should belittle any of it's own facet for their needs to be an opportunity and challenge for everybody in it to be lived up to. The administration can take care of the bowlers by not producing belters all the time, may be relaxing/adding a couple of rules against the batsmen. Only then will this game do well in the very long run.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Hilarious Sarabhai's
Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai has to be one of the best Indian comedy show. But what makes it elevated to an all new level are it's amazingly witty script and fine performances by all the lead actors. The Sarabhai's make one hell of family, where you find a father relish teasing his poet son, the mother-in-law who never misses an opportunity to have a GO at her untidy daughter-in-law and many more.
Sarabhai's are one of those sophisticated, high-class Mumbai families, living in a very posh apartment. Indravadan Sarabhai, the Father is a jolly fun loving fellow, who lit crackers under the chairs at his own marriage to have fun at the expense of his scared guests. Maya Sarabhai, a synonym for sophistication, who believes in doing everything with class, so much so that she renamed her daughter-in-law from Manisha to Monisha to help it not sound middle-class. Sahil Sarabhai, the first son to Sarabhai's is a cosmetic surgeon by profession, never-say-no-to-anyone-for-anything by nature. Rosesh Sarabhai, another son who is a perfect Momma's boy and a poet, theater artiste, whose roles could be that of Wind, with him making the noise of the wind in the entire play. Monisha Sarabhai, is a middle class Punjabi girl and Sahil's love turned wife, who doesn't mind feeding expired cookies too. Sonya, is the only daughter to Sarabhai's and is deeply into tarots, she is always called for to find the missing. Dushyant is Sonya's husband and a BIG time Gadget Freak, who demonstrates their working using humans, mostly his mother-in-law.
With a family as diverse and mad as this, one is in for a roller-coaster. It's being replayed on Star-One everyday at 21.30 Hrs. A Must Watch!!
Sarabhai's are one of those sophisticated, high-class Mumbai families, living in a very posh apartment. Indravadan Sarabhai, the Father is a jolly fun loving fellow, who lit crackers under the chairs at his own marriage to have fun at the expense of his scared guests. Maya Sarabhai, a synonym for sophistication, who believes in doing everything with class, so much so that she renamed her daughter-in-law from Manisha to Monisha to help it not sound middle-class. Sahil Sarabhai, the first son to Sarabhai's is a cosmetic surgeon by profession, never-say-no-to-anyone-for-anything by nature. Rosesh Sarabhai, another son who is a perfect Momma's boy and a poet, theater artiste, whose roles could be that of Wind, with him making the noise of the wind in the entire play. Monisha Sarabhai, is a middle class Punjabi girl and Sahil's love turned wife, who doesn't mind feeding expired cookies too. Sonya, is the only daughter to Sarabhai's and is deeply into tarots, she is always called for to find the missing. Dushyant is Sonya's husband and a BIG time Gadget Freak, who demonstrates their working using humans, mostly his mother-in-law.
With a family as diverse and mad as this, one is in for a roller-coaster. It's being replayed on Star-One everyday at 21.30 Hrs. A Must Watch!!
Monday, September 3, 2007
A Moonlight Trek to SkandaGiri
Inspired by an email forward, there was a group of enthusiastic trekkers planning for a moonlight trek to SkandaGiri, close to Nandi Hills. Luckily, I was invited to fill the vacancy left by some other fellow trekker. I'm glad that I made it for it will remain to be one of the most memorable treks for me.The day Urrrr, rather night began with a visit to Durga's home. There were pakodas to prompt the taste buds, Deepak's hilarious PJ's to tickle the funny bone and a 3 year old Kachwi (is that what a female tortoise called?) to amaze with it's texture and relaxed motions. It was a great beginning to an exciting night ahead.
Apparently, the 2 hour drive from B'lore had its share of enquiries and difficulties. But none were to trouble my sleep, as I had an irresistible nap due to the early-rise that I had in the day.
At 3.30 AM, we were at the base of the monstrous SkandaGiri under very little but moon light to daunt us of the task ahead. The Greenery of SkandaGiri, was fresh from the monsoon. The rocks were misty, a little wet at some places, with the limited visibility (Thanks to our torch) one were to be a little careful.The entire trek till the summit was chilly and foggy. As we were half the way through, we felt to be among clouds, our winter coverings seemed less. We made it to the summit at 5.45 AM hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun rise, but the foggy weather spoiled our hopes.
There was enough jubilation among us after reaching the summit, for it was one of its own kind. The view did get a little clear along the time. That top-view ridiculed all the happenings at the bottom, life at the bottom appeared to be silly. There were quite a few camera flashes before we settled down at a less chillier hiding to have our breakfast. Again there were delicious pakodas and more.We began climbing down around 9.00 AM, relaxed and in no hurry. There were more flashes and more eatings before we finally made it to the base. It was more riskier to climb down as there were quite a few slippery rocks. It was only on our way down, did we realise that "Gosh!, is this what we trekked in the dark, Kudos!!".
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