My Heart Longs to be The Winner...

I have been a Cleveland native for a long time since 1991 to be precise.....

I have been a good follower of Cleveland sports...  Cleveland Browns (Football), Cleveland Indians (Baseball team) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (Basketball)..... unfortunately I am yet to see the day when one of them brings home a championship....

During the early nineties, I was an avid fan of the Cleveland Cavs....  unfortunately for me and the CAVS, the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordon and his croonies (Pippen and Rodman) stood in our way .... although we did have some great times with Mark Price, Dougherty and Nance...... (Elango am I taking you down memory lane?) it just wasn't enough to hold my interest....  and my interests shifted to Baseball.... Initially had an aversion towards baseball for the obvious reason - cricket ofcourse....   but was kind of forced into following the Cleveland Indians.... why forced? well, during my early career with Cap Gemini, I was working with a team which had this Cleveland Indian discussion after almost every meeting....  and I couldn't contribute for jack..... anyway once I got into it...   baseball turned out to be, not bad at all....  but even Baseball wasn't my saviour either....  instead of retaining the good players, the management traded them off and called each year a team building year....   we lost great players like Albert Bell, Loftner, Manny Ramirez, Sebathia to Chicago and Boston etc.... 

Amidst all this we had the obvious Art Modell situation which Elango and G Srinivas talked about in one of the earlier email threads. I am probably the only Clevelander who kind of supports Art Modell....  Art, the owner of Cleveland Browns( football team) had this old dingy football staduim which he leased to the Cleveland Indians to hold their baseball games...   The city decided to build a new stadium for the baseball team....  they also decided to build a new arena for the Cleveland CAVS but when Art asked for a new stadium for his team, the city refused since Art wanted not only the stadium built but also wanted the keys to the stadium...  basically wanted to own everything including Parking, concession stands, merchandize stands, ticket sales etc etc...  city didn't agree....  he threatened to move his team, city folks called his bluff and guess what - he did move the team overnight to Baltimore and named them Baltimore Ravens. And what is ironical is, the city did build a brand new statdium for the new team after Art left Cleveland.... wonder why? Art would have loved to own the Browns franchize but for the uproar of the fans.... It is the only case (I could be wrong) in NFL where a team moved but couldn't take the name along.... Anyway, the Cleveland franchize lost football season for many years while they built the so called expansion team. And for the records, I think Belichick is a great coach and Bernie Kosar was an overrated QB who did not perform.

Then all of a sudden....I heard about this high school player from Akron who was deemed the next Michael Jordon.....  he was awesome....   Cleveland CAVS got him in the NBA draft.....  a homeboy from Akron (Akron is 20 miles away from Cleveland) who joined the CAVS and brought new hopes to me and all the other fans....  Yes I am talking about the one and only Lebron James !!!!  And Guess what he does -- Self proclaimed King of Cleveland leaves Cleveland  to become the Chump of Miami. Go figure !!! If he really thinks he can share the limelight with the other two stars, he and the fans of Miami are surely mistaken and have another thing coming..... My proclaimation -- I don't know how but within 2 years, the trio will breakup....  Lebron's ego is too big and he cannot share the limelight.... You think Art Modell is the most hated man in Cleveland, not even close....  that title now goes to Lebron James !!!

So thats my history of following Cleveland sports....  ever hopeful but always disappointed. :-||||  Since 1964 (for me since 1991) when the browns won, I don't think Cleveland has ever won any championship...  so the pathetic, dissappointed sorry ass fans of cleveland including moi are taking solace in Veeramani's achievements.... Veeramani is a desi (abcd) and she resides in the same suburb of Cleveland as I do..... North Royalton Ohio.  What did she do, you ask ? Well she brought home a championship - Scripps Spelling Bee Champion for the year 2010  Yippeee !!!!! Shows how desperate we guys are in Cleveland, doesn't it?

GO Veeramani !!!!  :-) :-)

 Author:

Mr. Bharani

Doctors do have tears to hide..

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He answered the call asap, changed his clothes & went directly to the surgery block. He found the boy's father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor. On seeing him, the dad yelled:
"Why did U take all this time to come? Don't U know that my son's life is in danger? Don't U have any sense of responsibility?"

Th...e doctor smiled & said:
"I am sorry, I wasn't in the hospital & I came as fast as I could after receiving the call...... And now, I wish you'd calm down so that I can do my work"

"Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would U calm down? If your own son dies now what will U do??" said the father angrily

The doctor smiled again & replied: "I will say what Job said in the Holy Book "From dust we came & to dust we return, blessed be the name of God". Doctors cannot prolong lives. Go & intercede for your son, we will do our best by God's grace"

"Giving advises when we're not concerned is so easy" Murmured the father.

The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy,
"Thank goodness!, your son is saved!" And without waiting for the father's reply he carried on his way running. "If U have any question, ask the nurse!!"

"Why is he so arrogant? He couldn't wait some minutes so that I ask about my son's state" Commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor left.

The nurse answered, tears coming down her face: "His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was in the burial when we called him for your son's surgery. And now that he saved your son's life, he left running to finish his son's burial."

Moral-Never judge anyone..... because U never know how their life is & what they're going through"

Author: Unknon

Collection by

Sanjay

Recollecting my Pleasurable Moments...

By Mr. Bharani

Aadi was facing the wrong side, resulting in Amita getting a c-section. The whole labor process lasted around 20 hours, during which my voicemail was inundated with threatening voicemails from my in-laws and my better half's other family members from India. I guess they felt that it was more prudent for me to leave my wife's side and get out of the hospital premises (since cell phones are not allowed) to give them an hourly update. I promised them a live video feedback for our next kid. That seems to have got them off my back, atleast for now.....

Kiddo developed jaundice and I learnt to hate the word bilirubin. Kiddo got a tan under the blue lights and I developed an uncanny interest in the number of times he went peeppee and the color of his poopee.....  for the benefit of non-parents, bilirubin (causes jaundice) is flushed out of the kids body every time he wets his diapers. Was a lil bit scary coming home from the hospital...  didn't know if we could manage alone....  Piece of cake..... just too tired to eat it though..... Friends helped out with timely advices and food...   

Life CHANGES after having a baby. I knew that... but didn't wanna believe it. I felt that by not acknowledging the fact that "Life does change", I could somehow remain in this Peter Pan time warp thingee. I couldn't have been more wrong. With my limited 9 months experience as a parent, I strongly believe that parenthood cannot be taught, it must be experienced. It is sweet...  it is intoxicating.... like a vintage merlot.... ofcourse with a strong hangover minus the sleep. I have seen changes in Amita and myself that I never fathomed possible.....  Parenthood is a job, a permanent job with no raises and no vacation....  however, unlike other jobs, the interview process was quite pleasurable and you didn't even have to dress up for it. :-) :-)

Aadi was an angel until he was 3 months old and then his grand-parents (my in-laws) arrived. Whats up with these grand-parents? Do they have a hidden agenda or something? I think spoiling the grand-kids is their way of getting back at us for all the trouble that we gave them while growing up.... now and then I can see a glee in my mil's eyes when ever Aadi is being a handful.... I swear I can. I questioned my mil if Amita was a good kid....   she closed her eyes, she shuddered and gave a huge sigh and she hasn't stopped sighing yet.... yep... I know, its payback time and we are totally screwed.

Kids have a calming effect on you. All stress pertaining to work, life and other things take a back burner in Aadi's presence. Who knew that a baby could replace a Killians?