The ODI retirement of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

All the recent happenings notwithstanding, it's sad that I won't ever again watch Sachin Tendulkar walk out in India's colours, nor see his name on the scoreboard for a one-day international. I won't ever again feel the anticipation of him walking out to open the innings, squinting at the sky to get his eyes adjusted to the sunlight. I won't wonder if he's going to help us achieve that huge total, get us off to a flying start. His lustre and that of the one-day format might have diminished in recent years, but when I was growing up it his batting in the one-dayers was the most entertaining thing you could watch.

Thank you, Sachin, for all the years we secretly woke up to watch matches in Australia, for the years we stayed late watching you bat in the Caribbean. For the all the times we switched off our TV when you were declared out, because we cared less about the team's chances than about your performances. Not that the two were very disconnected. Thank you for your batsmanship, for standing up to the world's best fast bowlers, spinners and for your cliched lines at so many presentation ceremonies. "It's the team that matters", you've said. It did, it does. But not every die-hard fan of you always thought like that. Your poetry mattered, your ability to whoop ass mattered, your centuries mattered, your records mattered.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, thank you for being a huge part of my generation's childhood. Fare thee well, old man.

Three weeks without a smartphone

I thought I'd give it a shot. In the ghostspace between the wait for a new smartphone and the sale of my old one, I experimented with going back to the early 2000's - I used a phone that could only make calls and send messages. And double up as a flashlight. Here's what came of my attempt to live the old days in the new.

Sold my old smartphone. Waiting for a new one. #FirstWorldProblems

The hardest thing was being on the crapper. I just sat there, carrying out nature's business. Gone were the millions of possible apps I could download from app markets. Forgotten was the evil joy of killing all apps lurking in memory even at the cost of general system instability. No more being in touch with the news of the world and labored tweets of attempted humor. Instead I had a grand total of three choices: staring at my thighs, staring at the door or trying to telekinetically move my shoelaces. The only smartphone action that survived was the swipe. After the job was done.

It goes unnoticed how quiet interaction with our personal rectangles of light has become. This became apparent to me when I tried to use my dumbphone in a long meeting to reply to an sms or play the ultimate game of intelligence, skill and conviction - sudoku. Those situations turned into unfortunate Mr Bean episodes. I played the guy who made loud noises, oblivious to the knitted eyebrows and pursed lips of displeasure around me. On occasion, I've even had to go back to attending meetings again.

The lack of social apps also left me feeling a wee bit unsocial. I once traveled in a bus trying my best to focus at the gap between four faces. I've had to wear a fake smile on my not pretty face through 10-11 floors of slow elevator ascent. Strangers aside, people like my brother always accuse me of not responding to their one-word (usually a childhood twist on an expletive) instant messages.

It's not been an easy three weeks, but it ends tomorrow. And brings with it one realization - I'm too dumb to go without a smartphone again.

What do you think - can you live without your smartphone? Leave a comment below.

The Large Hardon Collider Ballad

Song #3: Not suitable for work or children. Enjoy!

Maushichi G*** - the remix

I created a track and remixed the Maushichi G*** to it.
You can also download the original track here: Maushichi G*** soundtrack

Our second music video: White Collar Molar Killer / Bakin' bacon (Heavy metal bacon song)

Maybe, you don't really like heavy metal. Maybe you are a Coldplay fan. We don't care. we welcome you to subscribe to our Youtube channel and enjoy our bacon song.
Please subscribe if you like it:

Our Debut Music Video!

Wondering what I've been busy with recently? No? Well, THAT'S NOT VERY NICE!

Anyway, for those who care (there has to be someone!), I've been getting back in touch with music, the guitar in particular. I'm part of an awesome band: Experimetal.
Please do 'like' our page to get the latest updates.

And here's our first music video!

Please feel free to replay many thousand times, like, share and do all kinds of other nice things to it.

Sssh

Since I've nothing to say, here's something. Please share, like, comment. Please.

At least listen.