Life goes on, doesn't it?

A little more than 2 years ago, as a graduate student managing his living expenses with part-time work, I failed to comprehend the necessity for a cell phone. As recently as a month ago, I wondered how I could ever survive without one.

Seduced by trend and under the guise of its necessity for the job hunt procedure, I signed up for a 12 month T-Mobile contract and opted for the Nokia 6610. Since Jan 11th 2004 when it landed in my palm, it has been a constant companion through thick and thin and on the few occasions that I left home without it, I felt handicapped and cut off from the rest of the world. The thought of it lying at home, unused and unable to fulfil its destiny, meant that I walked/drove back to get it, borrowed a phone to call up the rest of the world and find the one 'dear friend' who is closest to it and can bring it to me.

Now, all of a sudden, with one month to go on my current contract, it conked out. I guess I am partly responsible. I did soak it in water for 5 minutes...

Anyway, I expected a rough ride for the next week or so before the gleaming new Motorola E815 arrived. Surprisingly, it hasn't been too bad. While at work, if I needed to contact someone, I just looked around and found an abundance of landlines waiting to be used. Strange....I don't remember them being around when I had the 6610 in my pocket. And at home, I am using this old handset that a co-worker offered, which fails to hold charge for more than 5 mins talk-time. Life didn't quite implode the way I expected it to. On the contrary, I don't seem to miss it as much.

It's not the first time that such an 'integral' part of my life was taken away from me and I ended up not missing it as much as I expected. Non-vegetarian food and Star Sports have been two longstanding, dear companions who have gone missing for significant portions of time. And life did go on....

Made me wonder if there are actual technological friends that I can't live without...
1) Car - well, I do not need to party or go out every single weekend. Groceries and work are close enough. So, I can easily live without one
2) Digital Camera - no big deal
3) TV - recent history suggests, no problem
4) Internet - (impulsive reaction) NO WAYYYYY....Hang me instead! (after some thought) well, let's see. Though, hopefully, I would never have to see....

Farewell KEANO

This past Saturday, was the last day of the 2005-06 English Premiership season. With the winner decided a couple of weeks earlier, the element of MY interest revolved around two sub-plots
1) Race for second spot between traditional rivals ManU and Liverpool (to ensure direct qualification into the Champions league for next season)
2) Race for fourth spot (thus a place in qualifying stages of Champion's League for the next season) between bitter North London rivals Arsenal and Spurs

There was this third one that kept coming up.....turned out that Arsenal's season ending game would be the final game played at Highbury, Arsenal's home ground for the past godforsaken number of years. As I watched the preview shows, every single Arsenal player/fan seemed to use the occasion to reminisce and worse, gloat about the wonderful occasions that the ground had witnessed, thus conveniently forgetting the 30 point difference between the winners of the Premiership and their very own team. Obviously, this did not go down well with me and I berated and cursed every time I heard something that I did not want to.

After the day's action, with ManU sealing second spot and Arsenal sealing fourth spot, almost all the talk was about the events of the day at Highbury. I just could not see why they would not shut up, or better, talk about the 4-0 mauling that ManU gave Charlton. Talk of crowds exceeding 38,000 at Highbury was met in mid-air by "70,000 Red Devils' fans every single home game" chant from my side. The rest of the day passed by peacefully...

Today, as I finished up with work and checked out BBC Sport, I noticed that ROY KEANE had bumped 'any random' England World Cup news off the headlines. For a moment, I lost sight, lost my reading ability and comtemplated about what RK could have possibly done to cause such a monumental event. Anyway, that one second passed, and I realised that RK was staring at me from a picture taken today, at his testimonial match played at Old Trafford. RK, after 12 years of unmatched service, had left ManU earlier this year and moved on to join Celtics of the Scottish Premier League.

Anyway, I did not have a clue that this match was coming up and my reaction to the news was that of unbridled joy, enthusiasm and a little sadness at the passage of time. Did some reminiscing myself and and also conjured up a scenario where the RK of '99 was fit and raring to tackle the challenges of '06-'07. Arsenal's/Liverpool's/Chelsea's combined nightmare come true!

Already shaking with excitement, I started reading. So, the match was between Celtic (RK's current team) and ManU. RK played for the Celtics and the game was nil-nil at half-time. As the players came out for the second half, RK, came out as well, dressed a little differently. In place of the green and white horizontal striped jersey was one that was RED in colour. It bore the number 16!
Some moments transcend description! MAYBE, Highbury deserved it's farewell...