Its Saraswati Sabatham bro..... Chill

Its nice to recollect old movie but its a different thing to call it the gospel truth, in reference to Agara Mudhala Ezhuththellaam       its from Saraswati Sabatham is a 1966 Tamil mythological movie which had a host of stars in it including Sivaji Ganesan, Savitri, K. R. Vijaya, Gemini Ganesan, Manorama and Nagesh

It basically when Narathar goes and poke the 3 Goddess of Wealth, Knowledge & Strength which was the most. So the three Goddesses, each decide to choose someone on earth and bless them powers so that each of them can prove their power and make the other two Goddesses lose. Saraswati (knowledge) blesses a mute person, Vidyapati , to speak and gives him all the knowledge in the world. This song comes from that scene sang by T.M.Soundarrajan




Agaram - is how the letter a (அ) is written in Tamil  - So the kural says just as அ is the beginning of language or speech or the written word

Full lyrics

agara mudhala ezhuththellaam ariya vaiththaai devi
aadhi bagavan mudhalendrae uNara vaiththaai devi
iyal isai naadaga theebam yEtri vaiththaai neeyae
eendravar nenjai indru kuLira vaiththaai thaayae

uyir mei ezhuththellaam theriya vaiththaai
oomaiyin vaai thirandhu pEsa vaiththaai,ammA pEsa vaiththaai

eNNum ezuththenum kaN thirandhaai
yEtram tharum kulumai aatral thandhaai
aiyam theLiya vaiththu aRivu thandhaai
oLi thandhu mozhi thandhu kural thandhaai
Omkaara isai thandhu uyara vaiththaai devi

It breaks my heart, that you had to become something so wrong, to do what you thought was right!!

Where do you draw the line, even when your feet on the ground, we tend to change position based on facts, events that we come across or is put before us. Sometimes its crystal clear and sometimes its on different shades of grey.

We wrestle with situations such as these, in our day to day lives, more so when you in a position where you have a judgement call you need to make, more so when it will affect your friends.

Do you be honest and make the call and hope your friend understands or do you like and become something you are not just to save a friendship.
A while back a 'brother' of mine decided to leak a story to the opposition as he was disgruntled over the fact that I made a policy decision for the good of.  It backfired as I was proven right but the repercussion was far more bigger as I has lost the trustin that person. I did not have  a vendetta, I merely resigned my self to accept that the kind of person he is.

This quote came to mind " It breaks my heart, that you had to become something so wrong, to do what you thought was right!!"

Today was such a crossroad, I had to be honest to the position I hold and if that friendship is true then it will survive this test.

Nice way to end the year

Tomorrow marks another milestone, a nice way to end 2013, its the Div 2 finals of SHL2013, a state without a turf that continues to run the league, take part in almost all national tournament and winning some of them.

However, there is not enough recognition given to people behind the scenes that make it work, the people who not only have a FULLTIME job, but a family, responsibilities, commitments and  shit load of other stuff. Despite all this, they spend time, to come together to do the job or carry out the task assigned to them and do it to the best of their abilities sacrificing their time especially on weekends. 

 

Of course there are mistakes, sometimes somethings over looked,  but I would work with people like these on any day of the week and twice on Sunday as the saying goes. Not just the league, even preparations for tournaments, people who work behind the scenes to prepare the team often get the short end of the stick.

What I find today is a growing culture of unappreciative amongst the participant and teams, the way people are hung out to dry should anything goes wrong seem to be getting more vicious and crude. Words that are used in public is not the way we were brought up.

Over the past few days I have had to fight off the urge to scream or swing the bat over the silliest excuses by teams and officials, sometimes I had to bite my tongue because of the position I hold and the image it creates if I lash out... oh yeah, patience  if not my strongest virtue. Part time people helping to run the league the best they can, are ridiculed, scolded and at times held for ransom, and I HATE it.

There are many a times I drive my team up the wall, I have a simple rule, if you cant do the job, step aside, someone else can , because there are deliverables when you dont do it the whole team looks bad.

People today are quick to criticize, lament about enforcement of rules and bitch about officials, but when you ask them to help or advise... all TIN KOSONG. These guys come nad  help hockey coz they are PASSIONATE about it and if you dont know the meaning GOOGLE it

If I were to pick on a few times, I would have lost it and gone on a rage
1. Bukit Jalil - KL vs Selangor National U21 when an idiot (unfortunately is a member of an affiliate of Selangor was urging KL to score more goals against us, yeah we lost 5-1). Imagine my rage, imagine the feeling of the boys who are playing?

2. SHL2013 Semis - when another idiot instigates and works up the crowd just coz he doesnt like the opposing team and its coach. Hockey does not people who are there to run down the game.

Hopefully tomorow when the league ends, its a mile stone for all of us, I am the last guy who wants to be infront of the camera but if you get a chance to shake hand with the guys who works behind the scenes and thank them. You be surprised how much that can mean to a person.

For me, I am smiling, why? Via a VERY VERY suppportive No 1, 2013 has been an awesome ride Winning the National U16 Indoor 3 times in a row was great, Winning the Razak Cup 2013 was a sense of accomplishment and duty to take us back to where we belong, winning the National U21 was flipping awesome because the President believed in long term development and I had to fight detractors along the way.


My goals for 2014
- Get the turf up
- Stay in Division 1 Razak Cup
- Win SUKMA Silver
- Reach the Finals U16 - Indoor
- Get a Big sponsor for SHA

Hey we cant keep on winning - no turf... yet!!!

We did it..... now lets focus on whats next

 Behind every success or milestone as I like to call it,  there are difficult paths, obstacles and sometimes walls you have to face and overcome it. There also detractors, backstabbers and people who move against you just to spite you.... and foils your plans.

I remember how a certain ex-selangor official urging KL to score more, left me in rage but I just smile.

I remember when a Selangor born player left to go play for another state because they offered him better money

I remember when we lost one to KL 5-1 watching the team dish out a poor performance  and we kept on saying its just one game, 3 points, you can still do it

I remember when we said the last time we won this... these boys weren't born at all

The time spent planning this, going to the ground executing it, finding the funding and coping with a State Goverment being oblivious  to the maintenance and infrastructure of sporting facilities in Selangor, there were many a times, I wish I could drop to my knees or punch the wall in frustration.

The late nights, the brain storming, working with the management team and coaches does take its toll on you but  the results were justified. 

No amount of money can justify the time spent, the passion and heart that went into achieving this goal. 

We proved despite a turf with the right people we can achieve something.

Guess what WE DID IT!!!!!

Now lets focus on the next target

The grey lines... sometimes I want to be a Will McAvoy (Newsroom)

I organize events time to time, with one such event is coming up, I can never comprehend why people ask for extension after extension so much so it drags our timelines. A lot of effort is taking by people on the ground to send notices, repeated sms and phonecall almost begging and even threatening to throw them out. Then again you cant throw everyone one out, so you cajole, urge and get teams who are interested in the first place to move their flipping ass.

I have been running the league and tournaments from scratch since 2009 and a few other events both state and national before this. Granted we may not be organizing the world richest tournament. Year on year we have completed on schedule, and paid prize money and allowances on time and on schedule. So when you give so much to the teams and a officials why is it they can even reciprocate 25% of what you do.

If you tell me rules are rules, I agree, but we work hand in hand with the teams on this. I dun sit on a high chair and dictate instead we reach out to team to get them to move their ass. So one would ask why bother organizing if teams are not co-operative...  again its a "...Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation

You need rules and guidelines,  in if everyone wanted to go do their one thing then you only get one result. Chaos!!! So what if a marque team decided to take a lackadaisical attitude and submit documents late? For example in Hockey - TNB National League what if TNB failed to submit their documents Would you throw them out? Would you beg them to join? How would you draw a line of your title sponsors team not fielding a team coz some bumbling idiot decided to take it with the mentality "aiyaaa they still have to accept my application what!!!" (#$$%^#@$@ is mt retort)

Again its a "...Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation

There is a reason why we set deadlines why we have rules NOT because we want to feel powerful or high and mighty it because we want to grow the league the best way we can. And looking at it we are merely replicating and tailoring rules set at the National level down to a state level. 

So it pisses me off 

- when rules call for photos of players which you can take easily on a  smart phone and you bitch about it. (We are not taking your photo for matching making its for player Id and press releases when necessary)

It pisses me of when jersey numbers are supposed to be between 1 and 32 and you send in 67 and 88 (hello! welcome to basketball??)

If pisses me off when your players home colors jersey numbers are different to your away color jersey numbers and you bitch about it. ( its not bingo night!@!!)

Guys must be having their period!!!

At our end - All this thing we do, rules we set, the promotion we do it if for the Teams. Its to create awareness, raise the profile , hopefully attract the sponsors and bring in more teams year on year heading to the future. For a state without a pitch to play on and running a league year on year - you try and do that

  I want to be a Will McAvoy

Team pays a small entry fee that probably 5% of the operation cost, organizers work hard to bring in sponsors and if anyone telling you that running a state league, you make big bucks if either delusional or a dum dum. There are enough noise makers out there who cant tie their shoe laces together let along work as hard as my ORGANIZING TEAM does.

To quote a line from the movie Jerry Maguire -
I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like to be ME out here for YOU. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, ok? Help me... help you. Help me, help you.

dont call it a comeback

Many a time I asked my self how long will i continue to blog... the past one year much has happen good things and bad things and painful things but more often then not death of loved ones or people I know .... this prompted me to write.

I am Vadai and I been blogging since 2005

Death ... mortality ... life goes on

Death has a funny way of creeping up on you personally, I mean its out it happens every day every hour but it doesn't really hit till someone close to you or someone you know is taken away. Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher said - Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

As you read that number and to the end of this line, about another 10 have died
That’s about 1.8 people per second! 
= 108 People per minute
= 6,461 People per hour
= 155,060 People per day
= 56,597,034 per year

This week it visited 2 people who are related to me, both which I had more then just a cordial relationship with and would meet, visit and bump into each other as I grew up. Despite being elderly there was always that jovial nature that they shared with the younger me  with as much banter and closeness would allow.  When within 4 days when these two people passed on, I was shaken.

Initially it was the sadness I could not attend the funeral, the last goodbye but as the layers slipped away it, I found there were so many indirect factors, frustration of not achieving a target in hockey, letting something slipped away further compounded the situation when news of the death reached it the end I realized it was more about mortality.  There is some truth to the old saying, “There are only two things you can count on in life: death and taxes.” Everyone experiences death. Death and dying are an inevitable part of human life. but when it happen to someone close to you, you begin to question your self.

To be frank, I am not afraid, I try to give it all I can in my life for me and people around me. I try to leave an impact today then worrying about it tomorrow, sometimes dont see it that way, I dont blame them. I have learned growing up of giving 101% leaving it all on the table.

...Be it with friends, hockey, music, socializing, football and anything I put my heart and soul into, I have learn to give it all, for there may not be an opportunity tomorrow. These deaths has not changed my outlook in life, I dont feel the need to push the panic button,  but it reinforces what I believe and I want to continue to do what I am doing now without fear or favor. It dont matter if the people around me understand me or dont share my passion,  for in the end when I lay down... here lies Darthvadai Singam