Sachin- My Man

Sachin as never been my great cricketer of all times.All these years,I some how felt he is the most selffish cricketer on this earth. I admired his style and technic. But whenever a debate popped up , "Is Sachin the Greatest Cricketer"... I was against it, and supported the Lara and the Ponting as the best. But I argued with just one point ..is he a match winner ?? even though he was.. but every time we(India) had to chase a big target , he would fail and that made me so upset...was just against Sachin.

When Manjrekar criticized sachin for his selfishness... I supported Manjerakar with his comments.It possibly hurts you a lot , when you have big expectations on a player and then they fail.He has been around for 17 long years and there have been five world cups during his time and we have not won any of them.

Is it right to expect to win a world cup .. just because we have the greatest player ?? No..Cricket is a team game and you expect a team to excel when everybody performs and not just one.In all this world cups , he has been one of the leading scorers for India.

But , what really impressed me , was his (most likely) last series in Australia and winning the VB series and he being the reason for winning. The kind of innings he produced in the finals is just amazing. It was not a typical master blaster innings .. but really mature innings from a great cricketer.I would rate this innings better than the one in Sharjah in 1998 against the same opponents, just because it had all the class.

During this australian series , people were keen to know the performance of Yuvi,Dhoni and Sehwag.But , all these players are good but definetly cannot match Sachin in technic. There consistency will no were be closer to sachin. Take Yuvi career as an example.. he has been for around 6 years , he has been a great match winner .. but has had frequent failures too.. and in Test cricket . he would take years to get established.

It makes u feel for him... being the best ..but still being doubted by few(like me) for his creditability.I am really happy that he proved me wrong with his majestic innings in the first finals.That too chasing against Aussies and being unbeaten...really marvelous.....

Not just is his cricket so great .. but he is the most humble and calm person in the Indian cricket team.It is great to have a player like him in our country and hope he produces few more innings like the final(typical Indian attitude-- never satisfied) before he retires !!!!

Indians I met in NZ

The first week was just browsing at home and talking to people at home .
so did not get to meet or go out and see the new place.

In office , interestingly I met a Indian... Vijay , who happens to be my project mate and what else he was also from banaglore.So he was very helpful to me in finding my accomodation and the things that I must know in a foreign country.
Another surprise , the client place which is at Ministry of Social development, which is a government organisation and I could find lot of Indian faces in my floor where I work.Something that I had not expected when I left home.Still have not met all of them , but have known few like Dhiraj , Darill , Satya , Neela who happen to be working in my project.
Others in my project are mostly Kiwis , who are helpful and are more serious about their work.Something that I have not seen in India.People tend to do more of their personal work than for what they are paid for..
It is not that all of them are like that .. but many are.

Work wise , it was difficult to understand their process , the project back ground , as everybody was busy with their work. After a month , looks like I have the hang of most of them.The process is very methodical , heavily documented and follow the standard software cycle.
Nobody interferes with others work, and hence it is a calm environment with 8 hours of work.

The second week was interesting , met few
Indians(Jaya,Shiva,Saravanan,Shankar,Mahendra,tarun) from EDS company in my apartment who had just arrived . All of them were from chennai or Bangalore and hence it was easy for me to communicate in tamil or kannada.Some thing that I am known for .. behave like a Kannadiga in a Kannada group and as a tamilian in a tamil group.

The second weekend was fun , met my room mate vijay..guy form chennai ...who was moving to wellington , whom I had not seen before but had contacted thrugh email... thankfully .. he is a nice and calm guy and hence it was no problem in getting along with him.
The weekend ended with all of us visiting a Murugan temple in wellington, the pooja took almost an hour and it was nice to pray for some time in a foreign soil..

Suddenly it was feeling at home , talking in Tamil , Kannada , Hindi.....never felt I was in wellington.Thanks to the friends I have made here .. and all have been good to me ....

First day in NZ

Its almost Fifty days since I left my home and have been working in a new environment with lot of new people. It has been a tough and a good learning experience.

Day 1 will be remembered for just one reason - I arrived at wellington on jan6th ...sunday evening around 730 pm. I never knew a city would sleep that early , the roads were empty and bright as it was summer in NZ.

I arrive at the appartment and realise that the glass door(entrance) is locked and there is no one at the reception, so had no clue how to get in to touch with people as I had no mobile nor any local SIM to call people. With 30 kgs in hand .. was just thinking have I made the big mistake in life ???..thank god, the taxi driver realised I was in trouble and offered to help me call the manager of the hotel and then could get in touch with the Manager and I got my room key from the security lock in front of the door.

It was bit of a drama on day one , but it ended well as I met an Indian Shivi leaving in the same apartment who took me to the nearby shop to buy some thing for the dinner.

The next day was at the HP office , where I met my manager and then got some HR papers to fill and then came back home.
The first week was not that great , firstly my manager did not agree for my relocation expenses and then I had to run around to get my bank account and IRD number sorted out. All this had to be done , with no help .. which was a pain .. but understood everything cannot be done by help .. few things you need to sort out yourself.A real good learning experience!!