The Pleasure and Pain of Golf

In what is the fulfillment of a decade-old dream, I've finally started playing golf. For a long time my excuse was that I simply couldn't afford it. Then when I could afford to buy myself a set of golf clubs, though second hand, it was incredibly hard to find one.
(Side note: I'm left-handed and golf equipment is different for right and left-handers. Clubs for southpaws can almost never be found in South India).

So till recently, my involvement in golf was limited to supporting Greg Norman through various golf majors broadcast on TV, reading up about his Open Championship win at Turnberry in '86, collecting Sportstar clippings of his come-from-behind win at Royal St. George's in '93 and sitting in disbelief as he collapsed in a heap of nervous errors and a final round 78 in Augusta in '96.

This past week though, life took a wonderful turn. Golfing with a client last Thursday and wandering by the golf pro-shop afterwards, my brother discovered a new Dunlop set of left-hander's golf clubs. I got the call about them on Thursday night and by 11am on Saturday after a small cash outflow, I was the owner of golf clubs.
Monday morning was also my first one-hour golf lesson and though a bit of a killer on the wallet, it has so far been incredible.

Having watched the sport on the telly for years now, it was incredibly tempting to try to step up to the ball and give it a fearful whack and then stand by, hand over brow watching it (hopefully) slice through the clouds. It is a lot harder than that.

If there's one thing I've learned about the sport in 2 days, it is that TV makes it look far too simple.

Not only is it painful to have spent 18k on clubs, another .75k on golf balls and having to spend a further .5k a week on green and caddy fees, its worse when my golf swing sucks. While the key is to have a golf swing that's simple and more importantly repeatable, the only thing I seemed to be able to do repetitively is have people ducking for cover. Well, I exaggerate but the point is that its easy to feel down that you're quite simply unable to hit a stationary ball well enough with a big metal club.

After the first couple of days, the pain is also not just mental as even those muscles, previously thought of as non-existent, hurt.

However, towards the end of my little stint on the driving range, I struck a 5-iron so sweet that I can still hear that 'thwack' in my head. It soared through the clear sky and though I didn't lift my hand to my brow to watch the ball flight or raise my palm to acknowledge non-existent applause, it is enough to get me back on the driving range tomorrow and day after.

And that's because golf isn't just sport and isn't just about hitting a little ball with an enormous metal club. It is about finding that one swing, that one moment where the arm, hip, wrist and whatever else that goes into that golf swing, is in perfect harmony and then trying hopelessly to recreate that moment as much as possible.

The Anatomy of a Late Night

Light from the sodium streetlamps filter in as I part the ash-coloured venetian blinds. Ever so often a white Indica cab speeds past on the otherwise deserted road. It all seems clear and fresh outside and the streetlights reflect and shimmer as though there has been rain.

An office boy wanders about mechanically switching the lights off. He pauses as he walks by my desk and falters near the light switch. His finger hovers uncertainly and he finally thinks better of it. The single light now shines bravely on the dark carpeted floor.

My chair creaks and seems a little too flexible to be good for the spine. The creaking seems unnaturally loud on this solitary night.
Servers churn and process at speed as America reaches late afternoon and occasionally the CPU fan seems to kick in and spin a little louder. Several chairs nearby sit, still pristine in their wrapping paper. It is uncommon, I think to myself, to have companies where the infrastructure grows a little faster than the workforce.

The airconditioner seems colder with noone around. A loose strand of clear plastic flaps against part of the vent distractedly. Its just me in here and the aircons are at full blast. Somewhere way up north an iceberg sadly and disconsolately melts.

Black ants wander aimlessly around my laptop. Here and there on desks and the floor, remnants of late night snacks lay scattered about. I wheel my chair over still-crunchy bits of chips. Bubble-wrap would have been so much better.

My work is finally done.
I find that it is indeed raining and rather heavily. Music, a constant companion on my drive back home seems unnecessary. Thought clouds, of a bedroom with a rumpled bed and 3:30am light, fill my mind. The normal 30 min drive takes shorter but seems longer. The minutes spent honking outside my apartment gate trying to wake the watchman but not the neighbours seem the longest.

Life is stressful and yet strangely fulfilling. I skip the dinner that awaits me on the table and return it to the cold discomfort of the refrigerator.

I hit the bed in my vest and boxers. I think I am asleep in minutes.

The Boss is Here... and How

In what is a rite of passage that repeats every two years, I recently went for a Rajni movie. Expectations had been sky-high in the city and initial reviews had heralded a welcome return to form.

I went in a little unsure, considering 'Chandramukhi' had been a massive hit and I wasn't particularly taken with that movie. Chandramukhi didn't seem like a Rajni movie - it was more like a Jyothika movie that had Rajni in it, like he'd compromised on a lot of what made a Rajni movie to try and ensure that it became a hit and ensure that the debacle that was 'Baba' was quickly forgotten.

Well, let me reassure you. The Superstar is back.

The first half of the story is a setup for what proceeds after the interval and has several weak moments, most of which occur during Rajni's courtship of a very stunning Shreya. I shan't bother you with the basic story, which can be found in various reviews on various websites. The love angle is a little weak and the story is only a prop on which to hang Rajni's presence, the SFX and the songs and these positives completely and totally redeem every weak aspect of the movie. In that sense, you feel his presence more than ever.

Rajni looks a cpl of decades younger, the song sequences are exquisitively shot and even better staged on sets that are at times breathtaking. Rahman's songs don't sound as good on the cd and the film picturisation and sets add immensely to them. Vivek is excellent at salvaging what is, at times, a slow and not always engaging pre-interval period but Rajni comes into his own after the break and this is the Rajni of old.

The 2nd half has what is, for Rajni, an extremely risky look and character (whose look and name drew wolf-whistles aplenty) and he pulls it off splendidly. I'm convinced that he must have agreed to this look only after seeing the rushes of his look from the first half of the film (which can also be seen in the film's posters and publicity).

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is how a movie experience should be - tremendous fun, dialogues worth memorizing and a star for the ages, back and shining as brightly as ever.

The Return

Its been over 6 months since my last post and I have recently heard that the 4 people who actually read my blog may have been wondering what I was upto. That in itself is sufficient cause to re-start bogging and supply them with the answer, which is... a lot.

After having successfully graduated out of b-school and lived to tell the tale, I've been working for the world's leader in for-profit language education. Its seems a far cry from the Indian software industry but come to think of it, it isn't all that different. Its equally chaotic, uses software to manage a lot of its operations and occasionally gives you several reasons to bitch about your clients / vendors but what it also does is pay significantly more, let you travel a great deal and be very entrepreneurial. If you want something done, go ahead and do it yourself but make sure you tell someone what you've done. The last three reasons is why I've joined them and nothing that I've seen in the last six months has given me any cause for regret.

...but this is on the work front.

I've also found to time to (some might say, 'finally') decide to get engaged (Aug 27th this yr) and married (July 14th '08) and this is cause for excitement, tension, mass panic, shopping, bankruptcy and delight all rolled into one big sensation / emotion. People around have slowly started the first stage of headless chicken imitations but I haven't yet caught up, though I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunity to do so in the coming year.

In the spirit of the update, I've also updated my photo website at Pbase to let people know where I've been and where work and other travels have taken me. Photos from Barcelona, which is the site of my most memorable work trip yet, are yet to go up, simply because there are several fotos to go through and its going to take a while.

Admit though, that these updates are a good thing and, since I now promise to try and keep these going for as long as I can, rejoice. Can you now reaffirm your faith in mankind, especially the 1980 Trivandrum born, lop-eared variety?