Squaring life's circles

"You never know you are ready unless you go out there and try it." said She, The Ortho Surgeon who gave me my legs back last summer with an ACL reconstruction.

My third point playing, I am feeling good, about having scored the first I played and making an assist in the second.

There is a turn around by the opposition near our endzone. The woman handler on our team picks up the disc. I set up the deep run and cut back in. Running in the path of the white disc in an Attempt to reduce the distance I make haste like a person with a rapacious appetite having been kept away from his desert by the waiting staff.

I leap in the air off of my right foot towards the last few yards. Because now running is too slow. I am wolfish and my need is not just get it but to absolutely get it faster. I grab the disc mid flight, and land on my left foot a few milliseconds before my right is slated to land and support the weakling leading the charge.

In those milliseconds , an impact worth three times my body weight jars my left knee into submission. trying buckles inwards and I hear a snap nay..a crack of a whip and I tumble like a house of cards.

Instinctively I roll after the tumble. A roll that took me through a state of paranoia try to comprehend what had just happened. A knee that buckled inwards and a cracking noise. Is it the case of the cruciates again. I pushed my self off my hands dropped the disc and jogged off the field. I convinced others, and myself that no harm was done. Aah but the paranoia will it haunt me forever every time I get out on the field.

Chennai Heat '10 T Shirt design

I don't miss a thing : Heck ! I hardly remember a thing

It’s the end of my third week in New York. It’s a big change in every possible way, but I am not daunted by it. Travelling by public transit was what really got me comfortable.

It’s what got me to know Chennai, (don't ask me directions, but I get from one place to another on time every time.) Public transit is efficient, hassle free and it keeps the maps and roads out of your head (this was my experience in Chennai). When in New York you add to it 24 hours subway service, double the level of filth from MTC busses and contain it in an enclosed capsule, quadruple the amount of commuters, and halve the time of travel. Give and take it’s the same experience.

The weather here is computer controlled. I head to office at 6.45 every morning. I wake up at 5.30 and after stretching just enough to get into the shower I am in front of the TV by 6.10 to catch the weather forecast on NY1 [for some reason this comes on channel 11]. They haven't been wrong even once.
"Today they predict rains tomorrow, and in the evening I go to the dollar store and pick up an umbrella for 99 cents." -- Mental note made on 3rd May.
 Wow, wonder how the weather men at NDTV, DD Podhigai, CNN IBN etc goof up so bad. But ummm..., Sun TV. I am sure they are way more accurate about Chennai weather than any of the other Indian channels. Yeah they may occasionally show Delhi in Rajasthan and Ranchi in West Bengal, but who the hell cares. We all know anything North of Hyderabad really isn't counted because they are all Punjabis, except for the rest who are family of Kaushal Sanghavi and that just makes them Guajarati. Or is it Marathi?

The most important thing about life in the city that made me feel right at home is Ultimate. The practice grounds over hear are no better than the ones at Gandhi Nagar, though I haven't seen Randall's Island as yet. This weekend I am playing my first Mixed Division league game with Hells gate Ultimate at Randall's island. The game I played at Central park was over rated and left me disappointed, I expected something better than Bendy's at Kodai, but this one was like Bendy’s' with male pattern baldness. I have been here just two and half weeks and I have had as many games as I would have had in Chennai. Just like home, except games are in the night instead of the morning and instead of heading for coconut water and idlis after the game the team heads for beers and fries. A change I can live with.

I am terribly forgetful, in Chennai it was easy to cover for but out here it’s different. Yesterday was the worst attack of absentmindedness, I walked out to the subway a block away without a wallet, I had to walk back in and get the wallet and then in the evening I walk to the subway from work without my laptop, I had to walk back in get the laptop.
Well it’s because my hands are full trying to remember each and every daily chore I need to accomplish from the moment I wake up to when I shut eye. It’s far from natural. On my way to the train, I feel my pockets every 10 steps [the jacket pockets just add to the confusion]trying to remember which one I put my keys in, which one has my monthly pass , which one has the wad of tissues, which has the earphones, which has the phone..Yup nothing goes in the same pocket. I am such a wreck till I get to the subway, but then I reach out to the right pocket pick out the pass swipe it clean and walk out through the turnstiles. Well luckily it all turns out fine. Now why don't I miss a thing???

Miscellaneous list of other things that haven't changed

Nose bleeds, access to anti histamines, cold hands in office, punctuality, dislike for cats, love for dogs, No hair cuts and so on..

Moving On: A three week agenda

The facts are plain - Reporting date at new office in Long Island city, May 03. Decisions are made. It takes three weeks to get from right now to New York. Week one is a shortened work week, April 14th is a holiday. Plan to head out with the team at work, one last time.

New Office location:


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Also need to break the news about my travel to the Frisbee folks. Have to send out an email to the groups.
The Frisbee folks have been my life line for the past three years. Week after week, through tough tournaments you see their best and their worst, their early morning sleep depreciated faces, their cheering at the tournament. It’s really tough not to get to know people really well there.
 
Work weeks two is on the late evening shift, transitioning into the new project speaking to clients, getting familiar with the applications. Will try and spend lazy mid mornings with the dogs, and visit the grandparents. Work week three will be unpredictable right unto the time I depart. Which reminds me I need to plan a get together with the friends before workweek two? The extended shift will leave me with no bye-bye time at all.
I hope tonight counts as something. I will be watching CSK take on DC with Arun and meeting up with old friends from school after that, not all of them though. On the spot decision made. I am wearing the DC tee tonight to freak Arun out.

Fly Baba '10: Team Chakraa Notes

This note was made a day after the Kodai Fly Baba'10 tournament. Chakraa, the team I played for finished 2nd. This was my 8th tournament with Chakraa. March 22nd, 2010.

The Chakraa squad for Fly Baba'10 [FB'10] was in some ways a totally different team from the Chakraa squad of Chennai Heat'09 [CH'09]. The restructuring was accidental, intentional,as well as opportunistic. This was a tournament where we experimented a lot with team strategies. Strategies that focussed on rounding the team as well as an individual's disc skills on a whole.

The squad for CH'09 was a group of individuals playing well within their limitations to a settled game plan. It was our opportunity to showcase what we were most comfortable doing, and why we were the best at it.

On the other hand for FB'10 we played out of our comfort zone, played new offensive strategies and backed up on defensive strategies that we were copping out off every time we faced failure. This was by all means a Scrappy squad of people that were daring to do things they hadn't done before and yet showcase that there weren't any trade-offs on quality and levels of play.

Chennai Ultimate Frisbee couldn't have found ourselves better future ambassadors than Stall 7 and Blitzkrieg. Our Semi-Final game against Stall-7 was truly a bitter sweet experience. After that game I saw players from Chakraa and Stall 7 choked up with mixed emotions of love,mutual respect, pride and a tinge of motivating pain that shot across the two teams.This for me was an instance where our most looked forward clash with L2F was overshadowed by another game.

The L2F game was by far our smoothest game of the tournament, every thing clicked, and we made very few mistakes. Part of the reason being that we've play them for three years and are so well tuned to their dynamics and were able to read and anticipate their moves with a lot of ease.

The Finals of FB'10 was a great experience. This was my first game against the Sholakadoos, or the Kodai Cheese as they were called in the previous edition of the Fly Baba. Defending Bryan and standing mark up to him in the cup was the best view of a passionate player and experienced handler exhibiting his craft. We had him at times, and did force a few errors in judgement but the Sholakadoos is far from being a one man show, and each and every one of them more than compensated for these.

On a personal note I had a new role in this team, a challenge that I had set my self. And the truth is that the day after the tournament is still too early to know whether I have made it there yet.[more feedback from players and captains would help me ascertain this]