Mere Bol Bachchan...

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2008 if they asked you about it in, let's say, 20 years' time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2008, what would the question be? The year that markets collapsed, or perhaps the year that Obama became US president? Or the year Heath Ledger died? Well for all these events there is always wikinews, for now I would like to summarize the significant events of 2008 that affected me in one way or the other.

January:  Cyprus adopted the currency of Euro as official currency with an exchange rate of 1.71 euro per Cypriot Pound. This had a huge impact on us as when the local currency was Cypriot pound we used to get paid in U.S. Dollars. The conversion to local currency with high commission rates was killing and to keep an account of income and expenses was a really arduous task. After the island adopted Euro as its official currency, we started getting our salaries in Euro which eased our life here.

February:  I had a business trip to U.S. Although this was my second visit it was a very special one as this time I had spent weekends with two of my best friends. Everyone was busy in weekdays with work and hanging around in the night. But weekends were wild, we used to drive hundreds of mile every weekend to check-out new places. We went to New York, Washington D.C., Atlantic City etc. 

March:  I was supposed to return back to Cyprus in the first week but there were change in plans and my stay in U.S. was postponed for a month. My friends who were doing M.S. had a vacation of a week in the first week of March. This was the best time for me to take a vacation. Me and Monish left from Baltimore for Los Angeles while Sonu (DivyaKumar) was supposed to travel from San Francisco and meet us on the airport. L.A. was fun especially six flags where they have the craziest roller coasters one could not even imagine. We headed to Las Vegas after the L.A.  I could write a new blog just for this entire trip of 2 months but may be some other time. After returning back to Philadelphia work continued on weekdays and so did our escapades which included driving more than 400 miles to Niagara Falls.

April: Coming back to Cyprus from U.S. was a feeling of coming back to home just that I miss my family and friends. 

May: Luckily, few of my friends from Amdocs, India had a chance to visit us for a month. They were on a business trip. We used to show them the places around. The sea - water is usually very cold during these times but still we had dip.

June:  Living on an island for a long time could get really boring if you don't know how to swim. I realized this after an entire year of just watching the people relaxing on the beaches after the swim. The turquoise waters of the island were very tempting and I could hardly resist them this year. I started to learn swimming. By the end of the month I was so comfortable that depth of the waters didn't matter anymore. Another blog post soon on this one.

July:  After 20 months I visited my home. Just don't have any words right now to express the emotion. Drought hits Cyprus. Following a succession of droughts in Cyprus, water has become a rare luxury for many residents. Is the water being shipped from Greece enough to significantly tackle this problem? Check out the video for more info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxywr7l9mGc

August: Perfected swimming to such an extent that I jumped into the sea water from a cliff which was around 30-40 feet in height. 

Witnessed live by at least 90,000 spectators and a million others on television screens, the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium — nicknamed "Bird's Nest" — in Beijing China at 8:00 pm on 08/08/2008. The spectacular opening ceremony has already raised a high bar of expectation for London 2012 Olympics and questions were raised if ever Olympics were to be hosted India could it match China.


"With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination," said Phelps after realizing he had set the new medals record for the most gold medals won in one Olympic games by winning his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympic games, beating the previous world record of seven that was set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games, which took place in Munich, Germany.

September:  By this time I know around five or more people who had suffered from the problem of slipped disk. But this time it was a very grave situation for me as this time it was my mother  who had to undergo an operation for the same. These were one of those worst days of my life when I couldn't be with someone who needed me the most.

October: I don't remember any significant event in this month. That's shameful I guess.

November: Obama becomes the first African American to be elected President in U.S. His election campaign is what impressed me a lot. An older lesson learnt again, market a product well and it would definitely be a HIT!



 Not to forget that this was the same month when the city of Mumbai was held at ransom by a handful of people. I was filled with anguish and anger because all I could do I sit helplessly and watch television praying moment after moment to ease of pain of the affected. Lesson learnt, it is not the time to say “The Spirit of Mumbai ” mourn the martyrs and the innocents and just move on with life with that “chalta hai” attitude. It’s time for CHANGE. More on this in my future posts.

December:  An Iraqi journalist for an Egyptian Newspaper named Muntazer al-Zaidi was tackled by authorities after he threw his shoes at United States president George W. Bush during a press conference on Sunday in Baghdad. Before throwing his shoes at Bush, the reporter, Muntader al-Zaidi of Al-Baghdadia, a local television station, stood up and said, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!" The words were followed by the reporter's two shoes being thrown at Bush, who had to duck in order to avoid being hit with them. Shortly after each shoe flew within a few inches of Bush, authorities quickly neutralized the reporter and took him out of the room.

In Arabic culture, hitting or throwing shoes at someone so the soles hit them is considered a great insult. Now, this reporter should win the man of the year award because he is the first great Gandhian of the 21st century. He may not be a Gandhian by Indian ideals, but he is certainly one by Iraqi standards. If it's Gandhian, it must have a moral. There is one. A single alphabet separates 'shoe' and 'shot'. If al-Zaidi had aimed a bullet, he would have been vilified and his country could have been burdened with another decade of war and misery. A thousand cartoons celebrated the miracle of a shoe ripping up Bush's reputation with a thoroughness no arsenal could have achieved. A hundred American stand-up comics could not have asked for a better Christmas gift.

Sources: Times of India and WikiPedia

Our office had organized a Christmas Charity Bazaar in one of the local government schools. They had plans to have Indian dance along with other programs for the entertainment of the people.  We were informed only requested to arrange something if possible. We agreed and had only 9 more days left with us. We were a group of 8 guys. Everyone worked very hard to get the steps right. The dance was of around 6 mins with five songs. The task was challenging but then everyone was enthu about it.  The result: ROCKING!  The crowd applauded and cheered everyone.  More info. in future posts for now check out the video. I have a better one will upload it soon....

I had been to Israel last week for a vacation of five days. I will say it's a geographically diverse holy land. The people are very friendly especially towards Indians. In the span of five days we encountered deserts, sea, snow, waterfall and many such exotic natural beauties. More on this in future posts. 

For now I wish you all very happy new year filled with good health, new hope and new beginnings!

I received this very well written poem in one of the mail forwards. I can relate to most of the lines may be thats the reason I liked it. Full credit goes to the original author.

The event started off with everyone arriving in their colorful and traditional attire. Few of them arrived with their decorated aarti thaalis(see picture). Most of them were teamed beautifully with all the required pooja essentials for the occasion. Then a wonderful heart and soul touching and cleansing Aartis were sung in praise of the goddess. Following the aarti was the ‘Garba’ where people were dancing in a circle clapping rhythmically. At every step they gracefully bend sideways, the arms coming together in sweeping gestures, up and down, left and right, each movement ending in clap resulting in a highly energetic dance. The garba event lasted for an hour after which there was a break for refreshments. The trademark of the Navaratri festival is the dandiya dance – where men and women join a dance circle, holding small polished sticks or dandiyas. As Amdocsians whirled to the music, they striked the dandiyas in rhythm.

“When I was young, I used to dance on the nine nights. There was so much excitement. Navratri is the time to celebrate. This is a festival which brings in so much of colour. Girls dress up in their traditional dress. Everybody is in a festive mood. When I was a student, we used to do garba together at the campus. I have very fond memories of those days. It was a community affair.”, said one of the enthusiastic players. “Navratri is a vibrant festival. There is so much of colour, music and spirit associated with this festival. Everyone seems to enjoy this festival. I am proud to see that even though we are distant from our country we are not distant from our culture and traditions.”, added another. “I enjoyed it a lot. I tried my best but sometimes I got the beat wrong but it was lots of fun.”, said a participant of non – Indian origin.

The whole atmosphere was very joyful. Some people enjoyed by playing while others participated from a distance as they were watching others playing garba. The colorful dresses and jovial mood during the revelry was a big motivation to the localites as even they joined into the celebrations. The following prizes were given on the night: Best Aarti Thaali, Best Dressed Male, Best Dressed Female, Best Dancer Male and Best Dancer Female.

Not many people knew that one of my passions is DANCE, until they saw me dancing at the Ganesh Visarjan, my cousins wedding or the parties thrown at our college. I do not specialize in any particular genre of dance, by the way there is no specialization required to dance at the places which I just mentioned. ‘Dance like nobody is watching you’ – this is the mantra I follow at these places. Of course, this mantra helps me and is only a problem for people around me. But then there are places where you cannot follow this mantra for example Raas Garba at Navaratri. Being a Gujarati no wonder the craze for Garba flows into my blood but then I was a master at it only till I was fifteen. After that my exams clashed with the festival , not that I was a bookworm, the number of movies which I have seen and the novels which I have read during my exam days might easily outcross the figures of the regular days. But then we had changed locality, there was no company and bullshit like that in which I know you are not interested. So while I was away from the festival the steps kept evolving and for me the struggle begins to catch up with it.

Being in Cyprus, I cannot expect Navaratri festival to be celebrated for 10 days where I can catch up with my dance experience but as they say there is always a room for improvement and here it was for Ballroom Dance. In February 2007 the Ballroom Dance session for beginners were conducted in our office premises. A beautiful Greek lady worked hard to get our steps, posture and rhythm right. The experience was unforgettable, and after the sessions were over I simply could not wait for the intermediate sessions. Not hearing anything about the intermediate sessions and after a few months of patience I started looking up in the local newspapers for some dance academy where I could continue with my passion. And my search ended when I found The Panicos Charaloumbus Dance School (name changed!) right near my office. I called up the number, and a lady answered the phone. I enquired about the sessions and was fortunate enough as they were planning to start sessions for beginners in one or two weeks of time. Then she asked me my date of birth. I understood from her later that it was required so that she could pair me up with students of appropriate age. Having done with all the formalities I could not wait for the sessions to start. The first session was on Wednesday 5:30pm-7:30pm. Our ‘official’ office timings are till 6:30pm, but I had already got the permission to leave early on that day. After the meeting, which we managed to finish off by 5:30pm, I rushed to the school. I didn’t want everyone at the school to think of me who follows I.S.T. (Indian Stretchable Time). It is important because what I believe is that when you are staying away from your country in a foreign land; you not only represent yourself but also your country.

When I was there the school did not totally appear as a school from outside. In fact it wasn’t, it was typical bungalow with a small garden around the house and a board saying the name of the school. I confirmed with the lady watering the plants if I was at the right place. After her affirmation I managed to get on the first floor where after a series a right turns and left turns I was in a big hall with big mirrors on one side and a group of girls facing it and doing some warm up. With some hesitance I entered the hall but then had a thought that may be I am in a wrong class and should check out the other classes in the school. But the school had only one class. Then I thought may be the sessions which I had to attend must be on a different day and not Wednesday. What amazes me is the speed at which your mind thinks and the thoughts which you process. All this just in a flick of a second and I turned back and was moving out of the class when I heard someone call me.

‘Rajiv? Is that you?’ – questioned me someone from the class. When I turned back and replied ‘uhh, yes … I had registered for the Ballroom Classes , but may be I missed my sessions or I am in a wrong class’ . Then she told me that I had not missed any of the session and I was at the right place. She was the dance instructor and requested me to join them for the warm up after which she had plans to proceed with the session. I swallowed a gulp of air and placed my bag down as I started the warm up session with group of nine girls and me being the only boy. The dance instructor was the only person who understood and spoke English rest all only Greek. I know that at this point of time many of you must already be envy of me and wish to be in my position. Who wouldn’t like to have some warm up sessions and one hour of ballroom dance with beautiful Cypriot girls? But for now I was not at all comfortable and the only thing I could do is to try and resist my laughter. Yes I had to laugh because except for my dance instructor the tallest girl in that group did not even reach my shoulders. Yeah, they were all school girls from the age of 9-12.To dance with these school going toddlers was the toughest job ever. They don’t speak and understand your language and just want to drag you all around the room. They were divided into two groups with one group to do the rehearsals with me and the other one with the instructor. And the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’ – such a beautiful song but it was quite unpleasant experience to dance with these kids because of the height mismatch and many other things. But then we heard some footsteps, someone climbing up the stairs to reach the class. I prayed for it to be someone of my age or at least a guy so that he could share part of my suffering. But alas, there she was another 8 year old sweet cute little girl. I could have continued dancing with them as a mentor but then I was a student myself and had to learn many things. Also with no guy around, I did not want to end up dancing like a girl. So I made an excuse about my work and was out from there in few minutes.

With my hysteric laughter I ran out of the school while the lady still watering the plants noticed me and was obviously shocked with such expressions of mine. This was one of the most unforgettable moments. The intermediate sessions have now started at our office premises and unquestionably I was the first one to register. It was Rumba that we had to practice today and the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’. This reminded me of the dance school incidence and I had a big smile while my dance partner was confused about the reason for my smile and we continued dancing. Dancing with those kids was perhaps more like singing a lullaby to a child sleeping in the cradle while you are swinging it. Moreover it was I believe it was a LIVE joke performed by GOD almighty with his friends around laughing at me. Even I enjoyed his joke on me which will always make me, and whoever I narrate this to, smile in future.