RIP Ramesh bhai

This is the first ever time i'm writing a kind of Obituary diary post. (Glad i didn't have to write one in the past) So i dont know how it is ought to be.

Today morning (22nd Feb), I got a very shocking news that my ex-colleague, good friend, and my SAP mentor , Ramesh KV passed away yesterday (21st Feb 2015) by a massive stroke. He should be in his mid 30's and has left behind his wife and two kids , the younger one hardly 6-7 weeks old.

I was speechless in the morning and did not know how to react. It's been 8 hours and i'm slowly coming to terms with what has happened. so just wanted to write whatever i felt.

2005 December, HP bay

I had invited my sub at office to watch Ind Vs SA cricket today as he doesnt have TV in his room, Even though India were winning, making it an otherwise 'perfect Sunday' for a cricket watcher, I remained silent for hours together. Couldn't deviate myself, couldn't celebrate.

I worked with Ramesh for around 3 years - 2002 - 2006, and been in good touch ever since. He was my senior at HP, and when i became the business process analyst for EMEA and APAC, he was already one and moved over to US region, after giving KT to me for above areas. He taught me several interesting things in SAP which aroused interest in me and inspired my decision to go after consulting role / jump to IT industry.

Even after handover, when he was part of US team working in night shift, he still politely made it to office at 7 am whenever i called him for some APAC issues without any sulking.

After few years, when i had quit HP, and then attended an interview to rejoin HP after couple of years, he still showed the same affection and gave some guidance for my career i was trying to shape.

He has given me various important advices , even if not intentionally as a gyan, which is helping me till date.  The last we met was during an alumni meet in Nov 2014 where i learnt that he was doing a free-lance consulting.

As many of you know, I'm not a fan of idol worships. But if there is a person in-charge of maintaining the balance on earth, then he/she must be given lowest rating and sacked with immediate effect. This is not how you balance things. there are people who are on deathbed, neither dying nor surviving, causing financial and mental stress to family members. and then there are rapists, thiefs, terrorists and all sort of cheats. Of all, taking away this young soul CANNOT be justified.

I saw my grandparents's feeling - when they hear almost frequently that their batch-mates / relatives in their level are passing away one by one. Being in similar age group, what kind of feeling they have while hearing such news - i can imagine.

Time seems to have changed now.

A healthy friend in mid 30's is gone, leaving behind wife + 2 kids. No disease, no accident. And we, a group of 10-15 of us, in the same bucket, are speechless. Life is unpredictable. Hell yes.

I still hope someone calls me to inform that this was a sick joke, or a wrong person tagged in facebook.

I wish his family is able to extract all possible strength to overcome this situation. I hope he was adequately insured.

If this news is true, Rest in peace, Ramesh. We all love you and we miss you near and dear.

If not , well then. In our next alumni meet, there will be a chair for you. I'll see you there.

I'm not going to do a spell check or do my usual reviews and checks, as i clearly dont have the guts to go through this again. There could be spelling and grammatical errors - E & OE.

Neither am i going to send a mail that blog has been updated.

I seriously hope Ramesh finds this blog and updates a comment saying - what nonsense have you written, i'm very much here"..

about to click on publish - just double checking whatsapp to confirm if this really happened or is it some bad dream. unfortunately...........

5 points that could win Team-India the 2015 cricket world cup!

Hi there,

With ICC cricket world cup 2015 around the corner, just thought of writing some pieces that formed in my mind.

I’m sure I’m not the only Indian who laughed at the Team-India promo for world cup with caption “won’t give it back”.  – Polite answer – as if someone is going to ask you to give the cup back. We ourselves are going to keep it there and come back without turning back.  Yes, Very optimistic.

So, as most of us saw the recent ODI’s that India played in Australia , it is evident that they are not quite in the boom-boom form which will guarantee them a place in the world cup quarter-finals. I thought they can work on a few areas which will help them, atleast outside the game.

    1. Men with beards:

It is very evident from history that men with long beards have all been very popular and wonderful at their work. Be it poet Vaali or fictional character Santa Claus, or Ex-prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. Cricket is not different these days. We have Hashim Amla in South Africa, Moeen Ali in England etc., So, we need to be having a similar guy in the Indian team – preferably an opener.

So, can some please tell Mr.Shikhar Dhawan to stop growing mustache, and start growing Beards ? It can probably help his footwork, if not technically, atleast  tactically! - dhaadi vecha dhawan, ada!

     2. Tattoo:

Well, Team India seem to have adopted this point, but only in the batting department (V.Kohli, M.Vijay etc.,). So, now when we see a Brendon McCullum, Kevin Peterson, we can be satisfied that we have a few in the team to match with. (But don’t ask me why Murali vijay – with a tattoo – in form of his life – is not in WC squad. Hell, I don’t know).

However, it is the bowling department that needs this. Look at Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson …forget about their bowling, they just look terror.  And look at our bowlers – Mr. B.Kumar – looks like he didn’t eat food for 3 weeks. (paeru vecheengle, Soru vecheengala’da ?) and Mr. Ishant sharma – when he runs up to bowl – it looks like if someone turns on a portable fan, he will fly back to India. They need to get some tattoo work done, (and probably Vadivelu style muscle like in movie Kadhalan ;-))
- this might work - If not technically, atleast Tattoo'ically!

      3. Spiked hair style:

Recently watched one bingo mad angle advertisement, where the guy puts some grains on his head and when the birds eat them, automatically a spike hair style is formed.

Reason I’m saying this – Most of the spiked hair style cricketers– like Steve Smith, Joe root are excellent fielders. We only have, again Mr. Virat Kohli, sometimes Mr. Raina.. not enough  - order one lorry of hair gels , we need 10 good fielders.  Give the first one to Mr. Ashwin (if he plays) for slip fielding.

People like Stuart Broad, Sunil Narine also sport spike-hairs and are great bowlers. So, maybe, Mr. Umesh Yadav & spring-hairstyled Mr. Jadeja can apply some of those gels too. They might get good swing or spin. Again - if not technically, atleast spike-hairly!

       4. Dancers:

Look at the west Indies team – whenever a wicket falls, or a six is hit, they all dance happily with simple good moves.  While their only problem is with their board and payment etc., - the players are highly talented. Like – Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo (who even danced in a Tamil movie), Pollard etc.,

The last dancer in our team was Mr. Shreesanth who , by-the-way, is still not 100% accused in spot –fixing. He will be raring to drop the towel and make dance moves on cricket pitches. Mr. Murali Vijay did some Caribbean style cameo dance appearances during some CSK matches, but then don’t again ask me why he is not in the squad – I don’t know yaaaa….

        5. Dhoni's signature-club-soda-master-mind-lucky-charm:

Like this Vaastu, Fengshui, Dhoni has his own brand – “lucky charm”

To be successful, you have to be different –That’s the excuse we have for bowling Mr.Joginder Sharma during that T20 finals last over. Whatever.

Sreeshanth – another lucky charm – was in the squad for 2011 WC, played first and last match , bowled 13 overs, gave 130 odd runs, no wickets. India won the cup!

But in this squad, I don’t see any one like that –may be is it Binny ? Or Ashwin ? well ,lets see.

I'm not a cricketer - so I cannot pin-point too much technical changes for the players, I can only write the above as a laymen cricket fan. But, in all, going by the above, its not going to cost a lot to get some aspects in our favor. 

Going by the current form of Team India, I honestly don’t expect them to win more than 2 matches in the tournament.

The below cartoon sums up the AS-IS status of 'wont give it back'.

Recently Misbah-ul-Haq was quoted saying – this time Pakistan will surely beat India.

A fan’s reply was – This is the weakest, out-of-form, out-of-sorts Indian team, in uncomfortable conditions that you will ever get to face. If you can’t beat India this time also, then you are really a horrible & waste team. - Pressure is off.

Fine then, lets see what this world cup has got to offer.  

I will be cheering for South Africa – very good team, talented , well settled team, but very very unlucky….. so far.!

See you later,

bye for now.

update on 28th March

Well, the world-cup 2015 is not over yet. But as India is not in it anymore, just thought of updating this blog. I must say that my anti-Jinx almost worked out !!  Just that i should have extended it to Kohli also.

The only problem was one Mr. Jadeja, who allegedly followed my blog and changed his hairstyle for the semi-finals and India lost. :-(

If someone had told in the beginning of the tournament that India would finish 3rd (SA lost to India, so being semifinalist, we will be No.3), any of us would have taken it blindly.

I don't think any Indian fan will complain of this performance, having won 7 games continuously, taking 70 wickets, setting a new benchmark. And those 70 wickets include 20 of Pakistan and South Africa - Wow!

As most of friends said,
If they win, we are happy that India Won.
If they lose, we don't care, as they are just a BCCI team and not even our national team!