"net swoosh, wood-tile squeak, lebron james, wind mill" - if any of these excites you, then you have some love for the sport.

I have always considered basketball my favourite sport. This is undeniably true, proof being, I have not given it up even though I know I will never be able to touch the ring, slam the ball, do a windmill, play competetively, stretch myself to 6' 7". I started playing it in 11th grade in a corporation public court in Chennai, used to play weekend nights if you can call that basketball. The only people on court were us and a bunch of drunkards loitering around. Once, they even broke an empty Haywards 5000 bottle right in front of us and we had to stop playing, we were not street fighters then either.

In any case, I have always considered completely following a season of a single sport, a collosal waste of time. This time, for the heck of it though, I plan to watch and follow all the good players and teams. NBA season 2006-07 is going to be lovely what with players like LeBron and Kobe, teams like Cavs and Lakers. Let us pick loyalties first, I have always been loyal to the Mavs as far back as 6-7 years ago. Then based on locality it shall be the Spurs. Finally based on Alma Mater support I have to go with the Cavs. Yes, I might be "Loyal to none" but in this case I have three commitments and intend to stick with them until I don't.

Would you rather have a crocodile attack you or an alligator? If you had any of the basic instincts of survival you would pick the alligator. The answer of course depends heavily on punctuation and I'm sure Steve would've had something ridiculously funny to say about this whole line of questioning.

Steve was a man or should I say is a man that has forever signified all that stands for living on the edge of adventure, nature and jolly fun. The croc man lived lived life king size, worked on a job that gave him great satisfaction (something most of us are trying to reach without really trying...) and went away from the world on the job, really cruel if you ask me. A person that did so much to get to know the animal planet, outdone by the very forces he tried to reach out to. This reminds me of a prose from childhood school textbook, the story of this middle aged man that prays to the snake god and in the end is bitten by the very snake he was trying to give milk to.

Which brings me to a question I have pondered on much, even before all this. Where is the line that sorts the "live like there's no tomorrow" from the "don't do anything crazy" region. I try to be the former, but am always left stopping short, guessworking the afore mentioned line I call the "Don't do anything I would'nt do" marker. Some things are easier to classify such as "taking a sharp controlled turn on a convertible at 60mph" falls before while "knee driving your car while holding a cellphone on your right and a trash bag on your left hand out of the window cuz you're too lazy to walk to the trash bin" falls way after the line. But some other things such as "Base jumping", "Throwing a stone at a beehive in proximity" or "Do something illegal like shoplifting", I find myself unable to classify.

Personally ofcourse, I don't really need to reason these out actively in my mind. I find that whenever I'm faced with a question the answer automatically pops into my head, the filter a combination of impending guilt, fear and a brain washed by parents and past experiences (both mine and others). Of course, the same question can yield different answers at different times, entering one more factor into the above equation: "time" which reflects my mood and confidence, easier surmised by "chemicals running around in my bloodstream". I can't ramble anymore, neither am I able to summarize what I was trying to say, so I will simply leave now.....and cut the bs :)

Sometimes I think that the whole world, the people, animals, and everything I interact with are here for one reason, namely, me. Its like this whole universe is some sort of artifical environment and I'm the only true definable entity, possibly the subject of a rigorous test, maybe even a mantle piece display created for them. Yes, I call them, simply "them", for want of a better word, since it is a black box. I have no clue as to their form, shape, size, attitude or even whether they use tissue paper or water spouts, which is why I have been restricted to calling them anything that comes to mind. I could go on, on my choice of their naming, but its irrelevant because there is no "them". Its merely a figment of my imagination. On the other hand, all of you could be a figment of them's imagination, if they have one, since there's absolutely no reason to assume they do. This reminds me of an episode of StarTrek:TNG where "Rene Descartes" uses the power of "Cogito Ergo Sum" to get out of the holo-deck and thwarts Captain Jean Luc Picard into almost surrendering his ship. However, Jean Luc devises a plan and captures Rene's mind in a holo cube where he is happy with his love. All's well that ends well, I never did understand that episode completely, but the parallel is that Rene could be living inside a whole universe identical to the one outside the holo-cube and never know the difference. To go further on this point would intrude on solid material for a separate discussion and so is best left aside. Another good graphical description of the same idea is the last few minutes of MIB, I found it truly amazing, the concept was the same as I'd imagined but the graphical ideas were crazy lovely, especially the "them" playing marbles part. The question ultimately though, is, do I care? Do you care if you're part of this made-up world? If there's "them" watching the mantle piece, shaking things up once in a while. Do you care about all the money that goes into the big bang theory exploration and other projects like SETI when the reason simply is that "them's" neighbour's kids came over and tipped the mantle display? It’s a subjective question and personally, I would rather take the blue pill and taste the life I know, was born into (borrowing the last piece from the non-Sci-fi Matrix movie, I classify it under really good masala). So the conclusion being, I like you all the way you are, don’t feel the need to change anything, if you're artificial please stay that way, for changing it would be unnatural. Like I say in the header, beauty is always skin deep, once you ……...