Need For Heat

We're halfway into the decade's first month and winter in Riyadh continues to fluctuate. Typical desert weather, really. Daytime while driving out air conditioner is set on cool and towards the night the heater is on duty. Weird. This is what they were fighting about in Copenhagen late last year. Climate change. Global warming. Greenhouse effect. Blah-blah. No, I'm not anti-earth. I just ran out of dramatic things to type.


The nights do get very cold here and this my friends and me found out when we attended a football match at the Riyadh stadium. Inter Milan played an exhibition against the local champions Al-Hilal. Inter won after they scored in the 85th minute. A first-time experience for me in a football stadium of international standards. Speaking of sports, every Friday we play cricket matches against different teams across Riyadh. Yours truly leads the boys and we win well! Why am I gloating here.. Sigh.


I watched the Hindi movie, 3 Idiots last week. Big fuss about the movie and everyone around me insisted that I watch the apparent "movie of the decade" (It was released a week before 2009 wrapped up!). It was marketed quite well and before the release itself the hype sounded as if it was already a super hit. Good movie but end of it all, one word came to my mind. Over-rated. The last half an hour was doltish and I felt I was suddenly watching a different movie. Whatever.


Last weekend the whole gang decided to take a break from cricket and instead decided to hit the road for a long drive. We ended up almost 100 kms away from Riyadh. Suzuki ATVs were on offer and all off-road and on-sand stunts were done. 2 hours filled with adrenaline, fun and speed. Good weekend. That's all for now. Cheers!

Wake Me Up When December Ends.

I'm in Riyadh. It's been a few months now since the departure from Bangalore. Feels good, feels at home here. Staying with parents after more than 5 years is a special feeling. Hanging out with school friends is nice. All in all, the boat sails well thanks to the Almighty.

I was skeptic of how things would turn out here and whether I would be able to blend in and adjust. But my fears were dispelled. When you grow up in a city with like-minded people around you, be it family, friends or school pals, coming back and starting over is actually easy. I thought Bangalore changed me but now funnily I don’t miss it in the least. It's nice and clean here. The initial excitement of the arrival here might be long gone but the right company of people around has helped me settle down well without a frown. A few creases exist but I’ll be fine. Thank you all.

Human brain is always (most of the time) buzzing with thoughts, ideas, memories and what not. But when it goes blank it’s weird. Like sometimes, I feel lost. Like oblivion is creeping up upon me. Gives me the shivers! Maybe it’s the winter here playing tricks. It's past midnight as I type this and am feeling philosophical. Bear with me. This December I grew older. But an extra year adding on to your age doesn't really change a lot of things. Except, if you want to believe the change and identify it. It's scary. And sometimes most of us like to stay away from the process of evaluating ourselves and find out where exactly have we reached. It takes a lot to stand-up and fulfill your own expectations sometimes. This is it? That's what this is all about? Grow up and do what you're supposed to do? Sigh. Questions galore, answers are better left to be collected over a period of time in our lives. I’ll wonder some other time.

On the brighter side, Inter Milan is in Riyadh for an exhibition football match against a local league team. I’ll be going along my friends for the game on Saturday evening. Catch me on TV!

Turn of the calendar will bring new avenues, changes, challenges and all those similar adjectives that by now people have put up on their FB status messages. But actually that's just complicating things. Keep it simple. Listen to everyone but in the end do what you feel is right. We'll figure it out. We'll get there. Keep smiling and praying. Cheers everyone!

PS- From regular posts here to zero posts in the last 4 months, I have officially become a blogger-for-the-heck-of-it. Could it be the winter slumber? Maybe! Don’t you worry. I’m back. I have missed expressing. Ciao.