some more thoughts as it rains outside!

Loneliness is a state of mind, I have come to learn. We all try and make sense of how to complete ourselves and when we do, I can tell you from experience: it's the only feeling worth living for. We are social animals, I learnt in primary school. Never quite understood how, but then it all makes sense. We all have animal instincts. Every need of ours has a parallel in the animal kingdom. The only one that's markedly different is the need for other people to invest in. Emotionally, spiritually, physically, and to truly realise the meaning of doing these without expectation or reciprocation.
As I wait for the best part of my life to join me here in Singapore, all I can do is get my head down and go to work. And I'd like to think I do a decent job of it. WorldSpace is a good place to work. Play is a great place to work. Play, that's the name of the sports channel I work for on the WorldSpace network (how's that for a plug!), is the sort of place where you get a chance to meet like minded people, with the same passion and the same zest to do the things you want to do. The stuff that excites you when you're a kid. Sure, I may not get to hob nob with Dravid and Agarkar (the few cricketers I feel really comfortable chatting to), but here I am, talking to our listeners out there, about cricket. Giving my opinions, my 'expert' analysis of a situation and getting them to respond, putting our 'experts' like Gaekwad, Hogg, Ranjit Fernando in the spot while I sit smugly in my shorts, sipping my coffee or Milo as the case may be! How cool is that? Who would have thought a overweight, cranky kid from Bandra would be able to wax eloquent on his favourite game for hours on end.
So, life comes full circle. As it has for my significant other and me. We started wanting to immigrate to another country about 10 months back, without really knowing how we were going to go about it. But the answer pretty much fell into our lap. Just like that. So, here I sit in Singapore, about to embark on a journey I can barely contain my excitement for. So, Play might have come as more than a job opportunity, it's perhaps been a life altering change that I hope we can do justice to. That I hope does justice to us. Actually, I know it will.

another warm day in singapore

Life is strange in so many ways. One of the most striking is how the frailty and the vulnerability of life is exposed by the fact that we're reminded that it can be threatened in a flash, but then almost immediately we're assured that all's well with the world. Still reading that one again, are you? So much can be said but so much is best left unsaid. There in lies the lesson of life, there in the wisdom of knowing when to shut up.
Anyway, the Ashes are beginning to take their toll on the English, but they've put up a fightback on Day 1 of the Perth Test. So, they might be 2-0 down in the series, but at least they're beginning to show some pluck, and finally it feels like we might have a contest on our hands. But it is Australia they're playing, who probably have a sadistic streak in them somewhere. Each time, in recent memory, every time a team seems ready to overthrow their suppression, they find something in reserve, and crush any chance of a fightback. Just like they did in the Adelaide Test.
Well, that Australia's unique there is no doubt, but what's also unique is that Glenn (my colleague, and former Radio Mid Day Mumbai jockey) just discovered that guava's in Singapore can be seedless. What have you discovered today.

hope and other things

So, yes, it's been a while. And things sometimes do get a little delayed. And then sometimes things have their own pace. Like the making of a new life, like the seeds of a beginning you have no clue to, like the morning you had no idea was about to dawn. Like Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage and all men and women merely players.' We do all play our part here, don't we? (is there a more trite question you've heard?)
Like me asking a girl to dance with me, after much deliberation and then with some inebriated confidence. Like me deciding that I can handle Pakistan on my own, like becoming a sort of recognized face in the world of sports broadcasting, like knowing that there's always just one person who is the one for you. Like, every little choice made and every little outcome that you have no way of predicting. But we must still all take our chances. All scripted, but unscripted. Perhaps, now I'm beginning to explain to myself why the url of my blog is the way it is.
There's so much to say about life, but we humans really don't have the words. We might think we do, but all we manage is verbose, circumlocative combinations of words that say absolutely the same thing. WE ARE REDUNDANT.
Singapore is my new home as of now. It's also the site that the Vyavaharkar's (one born, one converted!) are about to embark on a mission to keep each other happy. I'm excited that the SouthEast of Asia will be where the life of my adulthood and beyond will begin. Would I have it another way? I don't think so. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm making sense, and I'm sure with each additional word, I'm failing miserably at that task. But that's the pace of life. Frantic, maddening and yet at once serene, calm and hopeful.
I'm hopeful that life ahead is going to be a blast, I'm hopeful that I can keep blogging, I'm hopeful that I can lose weight, I'm hopeful that life will always be this good. Hope. A good thing like Andy Dufrense says in Shawshank Redemption, perhaps the best of things. And I intend to keep my faith in that belief, perhaps even invest in it, if I can.