Moments.

Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away.

Wait a second, does drowning count? Cos' that’s the only moment I lost my breath, and that too for a very short time. The swimming instructor pulled me out.

Josh was never good with humor. Much like the one above, his anecdotes were untimely and unnecessary. Always trying to win friends and blend into groups. But he never really succeeded. Most of the time ended up making a fool of himself in front of others. But Marie wasn't like the others. She was different. Josh never had to make an effort to strike a conversation with her. They just happened. Well, most of the time they ended up arguing and quarrelling. But you know kids.

Marie was eight. She was in the same class as Josh. They had been neighbors and classmates right since kindergarten. Marie was the quintessential tomboy. All she was good at was climbing walls and trees, beating Josh everyday in the race back home from school, and swearing. In fact, it was Marie who taught Josh his first swearword. So all in all, Marie was better in everything that Josh liked to do. And boy! did Josh hate that.

But there was this one thing that Josh was particularly jealous about. Marie rode the bicycle since 2nd grade and Josh was yet to set his foot on the paddle. Not that any of his other friends could ride the bicycle. But the fact that Marie could, was all that mattered to him.

Every evening Marie used to breeze past Josh on her green bike (She even had a name for it 'Green Queen'. Why do girls do that?). Josh pretended that he didn't give a dime. But then, he was never good at pretending. It was a routine, after getting back from the playground every evening Josh would sit on his porch and watch Marie ride. Of course he would pretend he was admiring the sunset!

One day it happened. The threshold was breached. Josh couldn't take it anymore. Much against his willingness, he approached Marie and popped the question, "Will you...... Never mind!". Marie was like "Huh!". Josh continued, "Ok....Ok...I want to ride your cycle. I mean first I want to learn to ride it, and then I would be able to ride it. It’s not like I can't ride a bike, its just that I can't ride it that well. And don’t think I cant get....". Before Josh could utter any more nonsensical gibberish, Marie intervened, "Josh STOP!". With her jolly smile she continued, "I will teach you." Our hesitant champ made a quick survey of the neighborhood and confirmed that not a soul below 15 was in sight. With a little push from Marie and some awkward efforts, Josh was on the seat, with Marie holding to keep the balance.

"Step on it, you fool!" shouted Marie. Josh was spellbound by the sheer feeling of sitting on a bicycle. After a few shaky starts, couple of falls, small bruises, lots of heated arguments, Josh finally rode a couple of yards before calling it a day. There was however no 'Thank You' in store for Marie. Josh had this obscure smile all night accompanied by the unusual humming. A few bandages and he was ready for bed. Sleep did elude him for quite some time. He was too mesmerized after riding the bicycle for the first time.


New day, new challenges; asking Marie for the bike again. And that was not the end of it. The fear of Marie letting out 'the secret' made things worse. All through the day he was restless, but there was this sense of delight that if everything goes well, he would be riding his dream machine again. Evening on the playground was Josh's favorite time of the day, but not today. After returning home, he was sitting on the porch waiting for Marie to show-up. But she was nowhere to be seen. Every passing second was taking its toll on Josh. He was cursing himself for not asking Marie about the evening ride, in school. Finally she showed up. Somehow Josh controlled his anger and put up the biggest fake smile on is face, which was scary in a way coming from 'The Bully' himself. Josh was never good with the pleasantries or the casual chit-chat. But he had rehearsed a mock-conversation so that Marie wouldn't refuse for the bike. But before he could say a word, Marie offered him the bicycle. Maybe it was the fake smile that he put up before, that did the trick.

Josh was picking up fast. But it was mostly because of the fact that he knew Marie was holding the cycle at the back. But how could she keep up with his growing pace. His first look behind, and Marie wasn’t there. 'O My Goshhhhhhh....' and down he went. Marie came running, laughing her gut out. There was no consoling Josh. Shouting was accompanied with few abuses and some tears too. How could she break his trust and leave him to ride all alone, Marie is mean, I am never going to talk to her again; some of the thoughts that were going through his mind that night. But the fact that he rode the bicycle all by himself was a very good soothing factor. That too just on the second day. He felt like Superman.

Next day in school, Marie came to apologize. Our pretentious Superman did forgive the poor girl, but after much persuasion and a promise that she wouldn't let go of the bike when Josh is riding it. That evening Josh seemed to have an innate confidence. He started paddling slowly and picked up speed. Marie was shouting for Josh to slow down but he was just too engrossed to listen. In spite of Marie's best attempts she couldn't keep up with the bike's pace and eventually had to let go. Josh realized that he was riding all alone, but he wasn't scared this time. He reached the end of the road and stopped. He couldn't believe that he had just ridden the bike this far, all by himself. Marie came running and Josh was like "Did you see that? Did you? I rode all by myself". Marie had never seen such a big smile on his face before, and it wasn't a fake one this time. She too felt as if she had accomplished something, having helped Josh learn to ride. This was a very awkward moment for both of them. For the first time they were not fighting, but were smiling at each other.

Next day was a cakewalk for Josh. But he did need Marie's help for sitting on the bike and a little push to get him started. Josh went from fast to faster, shouting 'Yuhooooo....' at the top of his voice, which made the whole neighborhood realize his achievement. He turned at the end of the road and sped towards Marie. As he approached her, he applied the brakes. But unfortunately he was too fast and headed straight for crashing into Marie. Marie tried to move aside but the cycle went over her left foot and the handle slammed into her jaw. Josh lost balance and crashed into the nearby wall. But he got right up and ran towards Marie. She was moaning in pain. There was blood coming out of her mouth, she had broken a tooth. Not to mention the broken foot. Josh was terrified, couldn't utter a single word. He helped Marie stand up, but she couldn't walk with the pain in her foot. Josh put her left arm around his shoulder and they both started walking towards her home. Josh was still speechless and surprisingly so was Marie. Suddenly Josh realized that he is supposed to apologize.

Josh: "Marie, I am so sorry, I was so stupid to ride so fast. But I did press the brakes. I swear I did. But the stupid thing just wouldn't stop. I would never ride that fast ever again. I promise!"
He was a compulsive talker when he was nervous.

Marie smiled and replied, "Did you notice that your knee is bleeding".

Josh: "What! Oh My God! I am bleeding. C'mon, walk faster. We need to apply something on my knee. Its gonna burn like hell wouldn't it. When did this happen though. How did I start bleeding?"

Marie: "Duh! When you crashed into the wall."

Josh: "Oh yeah! I crashed into the wall, didn't I? It was pretty kool wasn't it. I mean I have never crashed into a wall with that kinda speed before. Did you see when I crashed. It was kool rite?"

Marie: "Kool.... It was stupid! You made the stupidest face when you were about to crash."

Josh: "Oh really! I should have taken a snap of your stupid face when you were lying on the ground....moaning."

Marie: "Hey! You have no idea how much pain I was in. You broke my jaw."

Josh: "Oh C'mon! The handle just brushed your jaw. Stop making a fuss over it"

Marie: "Brushed???"
She showed him the tooth that came out.
Josh was taken aback seeing the blood covered tooth. But he soon got a grip of himself.

Josh: "It’s the molar tooth. It was time that it came off. Don’t worry."

Marie: "Stupid fool! The molar falls at 18, not 8."

Josh: "Stupid...... Do you want me to drop you right here and leave. I swear I will."

Marie: "You threatening me? Just leave me and go. I don’t need your help. And yeah, don’t come begging for my cycle".

They both paused and thought for a moment and in chorus they yelled, "THE CYCLE!"

Marie: "Josh run, go get the cycle".

Josh: "But I can’t leave you like this".

Marie: "Just a moment ago you said you were ready to drop me".

Josh: "I was kidding, stupid. I'll take you home and then come back and get the cycle."

Marie: "What if someone robs it by then".

Josh: "Don’t worry, no one is going to steal that piece of junk".

Marie: "That’s it! You are never again to touch my cycle".

Josh: "You know, your home is still too far for you to crawl from here".

The war of words continued, and so did their friendship. But during this whole cycling experience, there were moments which neither of them would forget easily. Moments that neither of them talked about, but cherished for a long time. Moments that forged their friendship.

Learning it the Hard Way

Josh had never seen apples hanging on a tree before. He loved apples, relished them almost everyday, but they were never so tempting as they were now, hanging in bunches, waiting to be plucked and eaten. But he couldn't quite reach them. And the stick lying on the ground wasn't of much help to his 3 feet something stature. Ofcourse, he could always resort to stones, but this being his first day in the neighbourhood, the fear of some fat, bald orchid-owner can be pretty discouraging.

So, much like the fox craving for grapes in his storybook, he too gave up, muttering 'They aren't that ripe anyways'. But fate as it seems, had fresh apples in store for Josh. As Josh was about to leave the orchid, he happened to meet his accomplice. Enter Ben. Ben was a couple of years elder than Josh, and hence litte taller. So, now the stick could be put to use for fetching those bright red apples. There is something about the apples that you sneak out from the neighbourhood, they taste ten times better than the ones Mom gets from the market. Soon, Josh and Ben became fast friends.

Ben had no siblings of his own. But, not anymore. Our little Josh too was the lone kid at home. So now we had our very own version of 'Brothers in Arms' shaping up. Their houses were a couple of blocks apart. They went to the same school. Ate lunches together. Spent the evening catching butter-flies for Marie together. Josh being little younger, faced some hinderances joining the local gang of adolescents in the neighbourhood. But with Ben's persuasion, he soon got assimilated in the group. If Josh was in trouble ever, Ben had his back covered.

Ben was someone Josh always looked up to as a mentor, but never admitted or exhibited. There was this certain 'take-for-granted' feeling which Josh had about Ben. Josh thought that no matter what he did, Ben would always be there for him. There was also this subtle difference between them, Ben was the jovial, happy-go-lucky one and Josh was the tempermental one. Everytime they had their differences, Ben used to be in the receiving end of Josh's anger. But it wouldn't take much time for them to get over it. Thanks to Ben's soft-spoken apologies. But inspite of these differences, they were best friends. Josh was becoming exceedingly dependent on Ben, right from his completing homework to saving him from the school bullies.

Sometimes, in Ben's absence Josh would get into trouble and he would blame Ben for not being there for him. It was during one such occasion that Josh stopped talking to Ben. He wouldn't even meet him, inspite of Josh's repeated attempts to reconcile. Almost a week passed and they had not seen each other. Eventually Josh grew restless and went to visit Ben. To his very surprise the door was locked. After enquiring from the neighbours, Josh learnt the bitter truth. Ben's family had shifted to some other town. He couldn't believe his ears. He ran home and told the whole thing to his Mom. His Mom didn't take the matter that seriously, because she didn't know what Ben meant to Josh. She took it lightly and casually told Josh that it was because of his harsh behaviour that Ben had left. That was the last thing Josh had to hear.

Josh got upset but the worse was yet to come. That night he had a terrible fever. He wouldn't talk, just stared at the ceiling, lost in oblivion. The doctor had no clue. Finally after a couple of days of medication his condition improved. He started talking and crying profusely. He told his Mom how he felt about Ben leaving him. It was then his Mom realised the reason of his illness. She consoled him and told him the truth that Ben had left because his Dad's job demanded so. But that didn't make Josh feel any better. He had lost his dearest friend and the worst part being he didn't even let Ben say 'goodbye'.

Josh couldn't make contact with Ben since that day, inspite of his sincerest efforts. Days became months, months became years. Josh repented his mistake every single day. He realised the fact that how often we ignore people when they are with us and realize their importance when they depart. There was one big difference in Josh now. He wasn't the same arrogant, tempermental Josh. He was completely transformed. He learnt the value of friendship, the importance of it. He realised how he had taken one of the most important person in his life for granted. The new Josh had many friends now, and each one regarded him as his best friend. But Josh had lost his best friend forever. In return he learnt one of the most important lessons in life; the people around you are the most important part of your life. Money, fame, honour, self-esteem, pride etc. dont even come close.

I am not quite the story-teller. But this ain't just a story anyways. Charlie Chaplin once entered a 'Charlie Chaplin Look-alike' contest in Monte Carlo and came in 3rd. Thats a story.
This...This is a lesson, which many of us learn the hard way.

Partners in Pursuit

How often do you meet someone, with whom you share an inherent resemblance of thoughts. I am not talking about 'Bush is an idiot', 'Angelina Jolie is sexy', 'Ronaldinho is the best footballer'.....I am talking about the innate interests and thoughts that geeks like me have, which are a "taboo" in the social circle. I mean, I could discuss Black-holes, superstring theory, origin of the universe, particle accelerators and many more topics like those for ages with someone. But finding that 'someone' is the hard part, not those topics. Maybe if I had done my majors in Astrophysics that wouldn't have been a problem.

My friends say I think a lot and spend a lot of grey matter pondering over petty things. Something a "cool" person wouldn't do. And when something I say, goes over their heads, they say I have left my brains at home. I so wish I could do that.There are only a handful of people I have come across with whom I could talk about anything and everything, you know, right from 'Versace' to 'Event Horizon'. Very few people would be familiar with both those terms. (Chances are, you don't know either of them. No worries, google them or go to en.wikipedia.org for a more precise answer). Ok, back to 'finding that someone'. Until few days back I used to think that I am the lone soul on the face of this planet, with a vivid range of thoughts. Thoughts about the very existence of mankind and the universe and about having such a limited knowledge about the 'bigger picture'. But I finally found that 'someone'. Someone, who spends time pondering about bigger picture like me. Name is 'Oihane'.....pronounced as 'O-e-ann'. She is from Bilbao, Spain. Thats like 5000 miles to the north-west from where I stay.

I've known her for more than a year now. But it wasn't until few days back, that we really came to know each other. Oh! did I mention that the only communication we have is through Instant Messenger. So, the conversation began with Spain beating Ukraine 4-0 in the Football World Cup encounter. Followed by some casual leg-pulling, the quintessential element of our chat.
Then things started to unravel. I think the question I asked was, 'From where did the universe come'? I was so scared that like all the others, this would drive her away too. I was so wrong. Apparently Oihane, like me, was pretty obsessed with the whole 'understanding the universe and the purpose of our existence' thing.

I am guessing that you too, like other 'normal' people I know, have become bored. But you might wanna hang on a little more. It gets less boring from here. Let me give you some background on Oihane. She is a Computer Engineer from the University of Deusto at Bilbao. Wanted to study Robotics, and become an astronaut. Carry machines into space. Is that cool or what? How many girls you know, dream of that! If that aint enough, currently she is pursuing History for her post-graduation at the university. Reason: She is fascinated with 'Time'. Back to our Apocalyptic conversation, next on the cards was Time-travel. Theories like, what would happen if I travel through time and kill my grand-father, the Butterfly effect that would ensue. That was followed by 'wormholes' and 'singularity'. I was on cloud 9. For the first time I was actually talking with someone about the 'dark matter' inside my head (pun intended!). I so wanna talk more about the technicalities we discussed; Antimatter, gravitons, 11-dimensions. But I wont! Lets just say, I have an outlet to my thoughts now and that gives me an immense sense of satisfaction. Am so looking forward to tons of more geeky, spooky, out of the world conversations.

Somehow, the inner voice inside me tells me that I might never find answers to my question in this lifetime. But the problem is, I just cant 'let go'. I believe the pursuit is far more significant and interesting than the goal itself. Because once we know the answer to the 'Theory of Everything' there wouldn't be anything to pursue. Just imagine how boring that would be. How boring it would be when we know Everything!

SEARCH n DESTROY!

This one is not related to 'George Bush-Iraq'. Instead, it scrutinizes the Next Big Thing in the dotcom rivalry: Google Vs. Microsoft.

Google is a rival unlike any Gates has faced in a long time. In previous battles, Microsoft always had a powerful trump card: Control over the Windows operating system. That meant that when consumers bought a PC, Microsoft had a powerful say in which products and services they saw first. It had pricing power and distribution power over competitors. Because of that, its applications didn't have to be superior to those of the competitors-just roughly equal. Windows wasn't better than the Macintosh; Word didn't improve on WordPerfect, or Excel on Lotus. Even Explorer was only as good as Netscape. Microsoft genius was integrating them seamlessly to make them easy for customers to default to, and then using its marketing,distribution, and pricing clout. It won by attacking competitor's business models, not their technology.

Microsoft's array of weapons has so far proved next to useless against Google. For one thing, any attempt to bundle search with its products will probably be scrutinized by antitrust regulators. Meanwhile, you no longer need a PC to use Google. It works fine from a Treo, a BlackBerry, a cellphone, a television, an Apple, or a Linux computer, any device with some kind of keyboard and Internet access. Nor can Microsoft undercut the price of Google software as it did with Netscape, Google is already free. There's no quick and easy way to lure away Google's online advertisers either. They pay based on the price of a keyword in a search and on how many times users click on the ad, but Google doesn't control that, it's set by auction. Says a former Microsoft executive: "Microsoft can play its old game to compete with Linux and Apple. It has to play Google's game to compete with Google."

Now lets look at what Gates has got in his arsenal. Google may be hugely profitable and a Wall Street darling, but it is also a young company, largely controlled by its founders and dealing with the unavoidable pains of torrid growth. Oddsmakers would say the likelihood of its stumbling is high. and no one is better at outlasting the competition than Gates. Certainly the search game is still in its infancy. Only a fraction of the content available online is actually searchable. For instance, even subscribers can't search current and archived issues of the Wall Street Journal or most other publications with a search engine; you have to go to the publication's site. This suggests that the search engine that can get the world to list premium content or its platform will have a leg up on the competition. Microsoft has plenty of money to buy the rights to such content; it also owns powerful digital-rights-management software, which helps copyright holders control who uses their products and how often. Those should be advantages in negotiations with companies worried about losing control of copyrighted text, music, and video on the Net.

Another advantage for Gates & Co. is that search engines are still technologically primitive. They can't understand context. For example; if you type "chip", they can't tell whether you are looking for a snack food or high-tech equipment. As a result all the big search engines are scrambling to find ways to make search more personalized. The thinking is that the more a search engine knows about who is searching, the more accurate the results will be. Both Google and Microsoft have the foundations of such a product in its desktop-search software, which can tell what you have on your hard drive. Perhaps Microsoft, because it understands Windows better than any other company, will be able to offer faster, more accurate searches.

It would be far to early to arrive at a concensus, as to who would emerge as a winner in this War.
Rest assured, its gonna get very fierce in due course and ya, there shall be fireworks.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

People do it everyday, they talk to themselves... they see themselves as they'd like to be, but they lack the courage, to just go for it. Sarah was 11. She wanted to become a dentist. What kinda 11 year old wants to become a dentist. But atleast she had dream and maybe someday she'll be a dentist. What about you? Did you always want to become a computer professional. I didn't. I still can't remember that unfortunate moment or day, I decided that I would be wasting 8-18 hours a day sitting in front of something that can only interpret 0 and 1, for the rest of my life.

I dont believe in destiny, yet somehow I have evolved into this pitiful creature, that wants to leave everything at the whim of destiny. When did I become so obnoxious. Again, I dont recall. And its all hitting me now, on a friday afternoon, when I am sitting at my desk, waiting for the small hand of the clock to hit 6. Speaking of which, its Friday today, I hope I'll convince my friends to have Pizza.

A wise man once said, Everything has a purpose. But I guess I am an exception. I mean, tomorrow if I go berserk and somehow manage to escape from this mundane life, would that hinder any purpose? Ok, my family and friends would grieve for a while, 1 month max. Yes, 1 month, believe me, no one is mourned more than that. Its like an universal, unwritten law. After that everything would be normal, except for the occasional tear in my mom's eye or the awkward silence during conversations that are related to me. But beyond that, I dont think anyone would be even remotely affected. See, I dont serve any substantial purpose. Its high time that I start preparing for the MBA entrance test and get into a premier MBA institute. Then I can be the manager in some multinational corp. There, I have my purpose now. Do I? Nope. I am one of those 2 million managers that are churned out every year. Anyone could take that job and maybe do a better job. D@mn! how hard is it to get a purpose for my existence. It cant be that tough to get a worthwhile purpose. May be I need a liberator, a liberator who can realign my perception. Enter, girlfriend. Who am I kidding, girlfriends are anything but liberators.

Ok, enough with purpose, lets look at something different. Advertising, it has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate, so we can buy sh!t we don't need. We are the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

When will you learn, you are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not the khakis you wear. The way I see it, you are nothing, nada, zilch! The sooner you accept it, the closer you get to Nirvana.

Perpetual Deja Vu

Beep. Beep. Beep. That was the alarm of my cellfone. Unfortunately, it never serves the purpose. Its the stupid sunlight that does it. Whats more disturbing than having sunlight all over your face at 7:30 am? This is how my remarkable day starts.

I am a newborn in the ever expanding IT industry. Its the usual 9 to 6 routine for me. The moolah is good and lets face it, I kinda enjoy the work too. But hey! its not like I meet Beyonce everyday at work, hence the gloomy face every morning.
Office is a warehouse, refurbished into a corporate workplace. Surrounded by a Soap Factory, the feeling of being besieged by chemicals takes over as soon as you step out of the front door. Not to forget the flyers saying 'Caution', 'Danger', etc. which further heighten the thrill. I ain't complaining. In fact, I somehow feel the surrounding is contributing to the increased productivity of our Delivery Unit(DU).

Inside the facility, it’s a closely knit beehive. We are a big family of 100+ striving towards a single goal, keep the project going. And we are getting exceedingly efficient at it. The project is with us till eternity now. The workload is quite bearable, we get a decent bonus, parties and outings have ultrasonic frequency. All in all, its pretty overwhelming. Life's Good.

Its like an unwritten law, the first place to go after you reach office is the Cafeteria. By the time you are done with breakfast and discussing the match last night, the small hand of the watch reaches 10. The next big hurdle is getting into the Client VPN. Believe me, it might be easier to log into a CIA database than to enter our Client's network. If you have an average memory, you might actually have to maintain a file that contains the list of innumerable pass codes, required to log onto various networks and databases. So once you are done sweating over the Login process you are required to take a much needed break. And whats better than listening to some music for a break.

One of the most important tasks of an IT professional is checking e-mails. E-mails are the single-point source for News, entertainment, scores, eye-candy and ya, sometimes Project related matter too. But office hours are not just a bed of roses. There is a very high probability that you might have to actually work on some issue. You are assigned to an issue and finally when you are done cursing the villain who raised the issue, its already time for lunch. The chances that you meet the villain at lunch are also very high, since the cafeteria is smaller than a box.

Post-lunch is the time when you have to work on the issue, but you have the two most soporific hinderances; the food in your tummy and the workload of the issue at hand. Somehow you manage to decipher the issue and the sense of accomplishment makes you ecstatic. Time to enjoy the accomplishment with your friends over a cup of coffee....or 3 cups maybe. The coffee gets rid of the sleep but what about the desire to work. Its almost 5:00, how can any normal person work after 5:00? But the issue is still not resolved! Where there is a will, there is a way. Here, the way out is called 'Transition Document'. Just send a mail to the onsite team, transitioning the residue work. Even though you are absolutely sure that it would be transitioned back to you tomorrow (without any further development), still, the optimistic voice inside you ignores this fact. Unless you have meeting with the onsite team, you are done for the day. There you go, wasn't that difficult, was it?

That was my normal weekday schedule. In a nutshell, my daily activities are not as dull as the US Marines serving in Iraq and not as colorful as Richard Branson's life.

A Season of Faith's Perfection

Think of something great you had achieved by the time you were 17. Like, watched Die Hard 47 times, gulped 15 boiled eggs in 20 minutes, co-founded the 'I love Steffi Graff' fan-club. No? Not even one of the above? How pathetic are you? Hold on, dont quit on me. I was just kiddin'.

Lets begin with the article now. This article, is dedicated the teenage sensation, the blonde bombshell from Russia, the cutie who begins every other interview answer of hers with "you know" - the one and only Maria Sharapova.
This eye-candy caught my eye back in 2003. It was the first round of Australian open and altough she had lost, she had the crowd drooling and shouting for more. And did I mention those legs. The famous 'Nicole Kidman - legs' were completely wiped out from my memory after the match.

In no time it was July, time for Wimbledon and I had a new favorite this time. I had been looking for one since Hingis had the whole ankle thing going on. Even though Maria was an underdog, doubtful even to clear 2nd round, I still rooted for her. She did clear the 2nd round, in fact she reached the 4th round, where she was defeated by a fellow Russian. She had shown enough character to keep me rooting for her for the years to come. C'mon! who am I kidding, all I was impressed with, were her looks. She was this Hottie, who I felt was the perfect successor of Anna Kournikova. And like Anna, I was expecting Maria to be seen alongside some Latino amigo in two years.

Lets fast forward to tournament that proved me wrong. It was Wimbledon, 2004 and Maria was getting better by the hour. The stage was set for this teenager to make her point. I was always more interested in the women's matches for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious and the second being, Federer. That guy made Men's tennis so predictable. Although he wasnt at his peak, the scarcity of formidable opponents made his job easier. Not that I wanna take anything away from the current God of Tennis.

One match that I distinctly remember is the one against Daniela Hantuchova. Though it was a piece of cake for Maria, but watching these two angels play was sheer bliss. Maria sailed through to the semis with no real scare. But I wasn't expecting her to win against Davenport. I mean all credits to Maria for making it to the semis, but her opponents so far were 'Nobodys'. As expected, Maria lost the first set, that too 6-2. I wasn't expecting a comeback either. I mean, c'mon shes playing against the top seed, WTF do you expect?
To my surprise, the second set reached tie-breaker and Maria conquered the second set. Then there was no stopping her.......or me. Then and there I knew she could do it. And believe it, she took the third set 6-1. She was like 'Neo' from The Matrix, unaware of her real potential. Given the time, I knew she would come into her own.

It was D-Day. The enemy was the monstrous Serena Williams. Just one glance at her on the other side of the nets is enough to send jitters down the spine of novices. Was I asking too much of the Russian beauty. For the first time in the tournament, I thought, she looked fragile. And this was even before the match started. Even though Serena was not at her physical best, still she was threating enough. But all my demons were put to rest when Maria took the first set 6-1. It was like David ripping Goliath's heart out. It was awesome, ecstatic, euphoric....I am out of superlatives here. In the second round, Serena tried to make a comeback, but in vain. Maria had not only survived the Serena scare, she had walked all over her. There was a new kid on the block and she wasn't going to be the underdog no more.

Maria, In a Nutshell

'Namaste'. Being an Indian, I am supposed to hear that word too often. But in Mumbai hardly anyone uses it as a greeting. 'Hi' and 'Hello' had taken over long back. But, Maria makes it sure that I am greeted with a 'Namaste' atleast once everyday. Maria is a latina from Spain, thats like 5000 miles west of where I stay. Boy! is she loud.

I know her for more than a year now. We hardly talk. Maybe thats the secret of our friendship! Instant Messenger, the new age communication joyride, thats where we meet.

Maria works in the same organization as mine. Its a monster of an organization. But enough about that. We are hear to talk about Maria, the QTpie. She is the most adventurous and fun-loving girl I know. There is not a single weekend that she wastes on her couch, sipping coffee and watching TV. A complete travel freak, she has been roaming around entire western Europe since she got her passport. That should explain the graduation in Tourism. She knows all the islands in the Mediterranean and the Aegean by heart. She loves India, has travelled most of North and Eastern India. Too bad she missed Goa. Recently Mexico had to bear the brunt of her invasion. And, she didn't get me anything from there. I hate Mexico!!

We chat almost everyday, you may call it occupational hazard. Mostly the chatting sessions are related to work.......ok, I am a bad liar. Its hardly related to work. We discuss her travel stories, her grudge against our organization, future plans and what not, among other things. That doesn't mean she enjoys a light workload in office. Believe me, what Maria does is way beyond tiring and boring. That should explain the grudge against the company. And its not like she is making big bucks. Poor thing! I wonder how she manages her trips across Europe.

Another striking feature is her sense of humour. Chat with her for a while and you will know. She aint like other girls, you know, the ones who go bantering along and all you do is 'Hmmmm...'. You dont get bored while chatting with her, but theres a high possiblity that she might get bored of you.

It doesnt take much to put a smile across her face. The best example to support that - all she wanted for her birthday was a piece text describing her. I doubt if I have done justice to that. Also, its almost a month late. But hey! better late than never :-)